Elian’s Father Gets Visa; Travel to U.S. Uncertain

WASHINGTON —  U.S. diplomats in Havana issued visas Tuesday to Elian Gonzalez’s father and five others, but it remained unclear whether the group will travel any time soon to the United States to try to reclaim the 6-year-old boy from relatives in Florida.

Cuban officials said that Juan Miguel Gonzalez would not leave until he is assured that his son will be turned over to him, even as a court battle over the boy’s fate plays out. And Tuesday night, an official statement read on state television in Cuba said that the elder Gonzalez “remains firm” in insisting he either go alone to pick up Elian and bring him back immediately or that he head a 28-member delegation to stay with the boy in Washington while the case is adjudicated.

The Cuban government had requested visas for the 28-member contingent. But in a meeting at the State Department on Tuesday, Cuban diplomats were told of the U.S. decision to grant visas only to Elian’s father, stepmother, an infant half-brother, a cousin, Elian’s pediatrician and his kindergarten teacher.

After the meeting, Fernando Remirez, head of the Cuban Interests Section in Washington, told reporters that Juan Miguel Gonzalez’s trip depended on “the assurance of temporary custody” of his son. If that transfer of custody could be worked out, Remirez said, Juan Miguel Gonzalez and the five others granted visas would travel to Washington and stay at his home in suburban Maryland.

The statement on Cuban television cast further doubt on the elder Gonzalez’s travel plans.

Gregory Craig, a Washington lawyer who defended President Clinton during his impeachment trial and now represents Juan Miguel Gonzalez, reportedly was traveling to Havana to meet his client today.

While the diplomats talked Tuesday, talks in Florida between the U.S. government and lawyers for Elian’s Miami relatives ended without agreement on how a possible transfer of the boy would take place.

“As much as we’re enjoying our endless negotiations with U.S. officials, we are breaking them until Thursday,” attorney Spencer Eig said Tuesday afternoon. Eig went on to suggest that since Elian’s father is making plans to travel to this country, “that would be the best time for a hearing [in family court] when he can participate.”

But comments by the Cuban officials in Washington seemed to make clear that Juan Miguel Gonzalez would not be taking part in any family court hearings--or going to Miami.

“Definitely, he will stay in Washington,” said Luis Fernandez, a spokesman for the Cuban Interests Section. “Miami is not offering a safe space.”

International Tug of War

Elian’s Miami relatives have sheltered him since he was rescued from a Thanksgiving Day shipwreck. His mother and 10 other Cubans drowned when their boat sank during an attempt to reach the United States. Since then, the boy has become the focus of an international tug of war.

His Miami relatives have turned to the courts to fight a Clinton administration decision to send Elian home to his father in Cardenas, Cuba. They argue that the deprivations of life in Fidel Castro’s Communist nation override the rights of a father.

In late March, a federal judge affirmed the ruling by the Immigration and Naturalization Service that Elian belongs with his father. The Miami relatives have asked the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta to overturn the lower court ruling; opening arguments are set for the week of May 8.

Elian has been staying at the home of his great-uncle, Lazaro Gonzalez, in Miami’s Little Havana neighborhood. On Tuesday, the possibility that the boy might be returned to Cuba soon with his father caused tempers to grow short among many anti-Castro exiles there.

About 100 people, many waving flags and hoisting anti-Castro signs, spent the day behind police barricades outside the house, chanting for the boy to remain here and trading rumors about what was to happen next.

Ramon Orin, 33, a mental health counselor, spent his day off at the demonstration to show his support for the Miami relatives’ fight to keep custody of Elian. “In Cuba, he would just be part of the state, a trophy for Castro,” Orin said, adding that upon his return, Elian would “be given electroshock, tortured.”

Street Blocked by Police

The entire street in front of the Gonzalez home was blocked off by police. Some neighbors profited from the commotion, charging news media up to $250 a day for the right to park on the lawn.

At midafternoon, under a broiling sun and with rumors rampant that the INS was coming to snatch Elian, about 40 demonstrators broke through the thin police lines, went around a barricade and linked arms in front of the Gonzalez home.

Outnumbered police did not respond. “It does not serve the interests of anyone to go in and start arresting everyone,” said Miami police spokesman Delrish Moss. “But there will come a point when that’s what we have to do.”

After a few minutes of chanting “Elian no se va”--Elian is not leaving--the protesters returned to their places behind the barricades.

Miami Mayor Joe Carollo later appeared to urge calm. “Miamians are peaceful,” he said. “Miamians are not violent. Miamians abide by the law.”

Meanwhile, Marisleysis Gonzalez, the 21-year-old daughter of Lazaro and Elian’s chief caretaker for the last four months, remained hospitalized Tuesday night after she collapsed soon after a round of live, early morning network television interviews. She previously has been hospitalized briefly for exhaustion and stress since Elian’s arrival.

On Capitol Hill, a key lawmaker said Tuesday that the Senate might consider a nonbinding resolution urging the government to allow Elian to be examined by a panel of independent psychologists to help determine whether the boy should stay in the United States or return to Cuba.

As he floated that idea, Sen. Connie Mack (R-Fla.) also denounced what he called the Justice Department’s “heavy-handed tactics” in negotiating with the boy’s Miami relatives. “The stress on that family is unbelievable,” Mack said.

Mack is one of a small, bipartisan group of senators that has sponsored a bill to grant Elian, his father and several other family members permanent U.S. residency. The fate of that bill, which is meant to move the custody case to Florida family court, remains in doubt despite Vice President Al Gore’s surprise decision last week to break with the Clinton administration and endorse it.

So far, the Senate Republican leadership has not scheduled a debate on the legislation. And Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) said Tuesday that Gore’s endorsement had apparently not changed many minds among other Democratic lawmakers who support the decision to return Elian to his father.

Schrader reported from Washington and Clary from Miami. Times staff writer Nick Anderson in Washington contributed to this story.