Child Experts Meet With Elian’s Miami Family

MIAMI —  Three government-appointed mental health experts met here Monday with the great-uncle of Elian Gonzalez to discuss the best way to transfer the 6-year-old Cuban boy to the custody of his father, waiting in Washington.

Neither Lazaro Gonzalez nor the two psychiatrists and a psychologist named by U.S. Atty. Gen. Janet Reno to advise on the transfer commented after the meeting, which lasted a little more than an hour.

Earlier, lawyers for the boy’s Miami relatives prepared last-ditch legal efforts in both state and federal courts to delay the transfer. As night fell, police estimated that at least 15,000 people gathered in the streets of Little Havana to pray and sing, not far from the home of Lazaro Gonzalez. Beneath waving Cuban flags and amid many signs critical of federal policy, religious leaders urged the crowd to pray that Elian be permitted to stay in the United States.

Police closed about 30 city blocks and said protesters were friendly and expressed themselves peacefully.

In Washington, meanwhile, U.S. officials were expected to notify Lazaro Gonzalez today by letter where the transfer of custody of Elian to his father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, would take place. Gonzalez, 31, arrived in the U.S. from Cuba on Thursday with his wife, Nersy, and their infant son after being guaranteed by Reno and immigration officials that he would regain custody of his son soon. Gonzalez is staying at the Bethesda, Md., home of Cuba’s chief diplomat in the U.S.

The hand-over is not expected to take place in Miami, where Cuban exiles have elevated Elian to an icon of their 40-year opposition to the regime of Fidel Castro.

The meeting between Lazaro Gonzalez and the three experts began more than three hours after its scheduled start because the Cuban child’s temporary custodian refused to leave the bedside of his hospitalized daughter.

Eventually, the three experts, who had flown in Monday from Washington, were driven across town from the hospital where the meeting was to take place to another hospital where Marisleysis Gonzalez, 21, is being treated for stress and exhaustion.

“This is another instance of the government bending over backwards . . . for Elian’s well-being,” said Maria Cardona, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service.

22 Visa Requests Are Under Review

The three experts were to report on their discussions to INS commissioner Doris Meissner.

It was unclear if Marisleysis Gonzalez, Elian’s chief caretaker since he was pulled from the sea four months ago after the drowning deaths of his mother and 10 others, took part in the meeting at Mercy Hospital in Miami’s Coconut Grove section.

State Department spokesman James P. Rubin indicated Monday that some 22 other Cubans, including up to a dozen of Elian’s former classmates from Cardenas, could soon be granted permission to travel to the U.S. Their visa requests “remain under review,” said Rubin, “but we do want to do whatever we can to be helpful in this matter.”

In diplomatic parlance, that word “helpful” may signal the government’s willingness to allow other Cubans to join Juan Miguel Gonzalez after he is reunited with Elian in exchange for the father’s promise to remain in the U.S. pending the Miami relatives’ appeal of a federal court refusal to grant Elian an asylum hearing.

How, Not Whether, to Transfer Custody

The meeting between Lazaro Gonzalez and the three experts in child psychology was designed to lead to an agreement on the least-traumatic way in which Elian could be separated from his Miami relatives and given to his father. According to Reno, there was to be no discussion of whether to transfer custody, only how to do it.

And Elian was not to be interviewed by the three experts, although it was believed that the boy may have been at Mercy Hospital to visit Marisleysis, his second cousin, when the meeting took place.

Marisleysis Gonzalez entered the hospital Saturday. She has reportedly been hospitalized at least six times since Elian came in November to live with her and her parents in their two-bedroom home. She has often broken into tears when speaking about her desire that Elian stay in the U.S., where most of his Miami relatives believe his life would be better than if he were returned to communist Cuba.

Meanwhile, Roger Bernstein, one of the Miami relatives’ attorneys, said in an interview that they took two legal actions Monday to try to stop the federal government from moving ahead with any transfer of the boy this week.

Lawyers formally filed their appeal in federal court, hoping to retain custody of Elian. A May 11 hearing is scheduled in that case.

They also filed a request with the president to grant a departure-control order. Bernstein said the law grants the president the authority to issue such an order preventing any undocumented resident’s removal from the United States when the president believes it would serve the interests of this country for the person to remain here.

“The reason we are requesting that is because we have been given no assurances by the INS that if there is a transfer of custody that Juan Miguel won’t simply take Elian back to Cuba and render his appeal moot,” Bernstein said.

On another legal front, a state court judge expressed skepticism over another effort by the Miami relatives to transfer the issue of custody to family court. Circuit Court Judge Jennifer D. Bailey gave attorneys for the Miami family until this morning to file a brief spelling out why she should grant an emergency hearing in the case.

But in her order, Bailey sounded doubtful that the Miami relatives have a case. She said the family thus far had shown no evidence that Elian would be harmed if he were returned to his father. She also cited the failure of the plaintiffs to prove they had delivered a copy of their lawsuit to Juan Miguel Gonzalez.

In January another family court judge, Rosa Rodriguez, ordered an evidentiary hearing on a similar lawsuit. But Reno overruled that order, saying no state court could supersede the orders of the federal government.

The Miami relatives then went to federal court, filing a suit on Jan. 19 asking that Elian be granted an asylum hearing. U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore dismissed that lawsuit on March 21. His decision is under appeal.

Reno and other U.S. officials continue to express hope that the transfer would be done peacefully. Exile leaders in Miami in recent days have taken pains to back away from any threats to block Elian’s departure from Miami. Said Miami Mayor Joe Carollo: “Whatever the outcome, Miamians will behave nonviolently.”

On Monday night in Vandalia, Ohio, Vice President Al Gore came up with a new suggestion for resolving the dispute: Let the Gonzalez family work it out among themselves.

“At this point, with the tensions as high as they are, and both sides trying to figure out a way to come to a resolution of it, I think that, you know, we need to encourage the talks between the family members themselves. That’s the ideal solution,” he said.

Gore broke with Clinton administration policy last month when he said the boy’s father should be allowed to come to the United States and the family granted permanent-residency status, freeing them from any pressure they may be feeling in Cuba. Then, he said, a decision should be made by a family court, rather than the federal court to which the case was referred by the administration.

Clary reported from Miami, Serrano from Washington. Also contributing were staff writers Norman Kempster in Washington and James Gerstenzang in Ohio.