Time for father-son reunion, Reno says

Janet Reno says Elian will be reunited with his dad next week and calls on the Miami relatives to cooperate in the transfer.

By BILL ADAIR

© St. Petersburg Times, published April 8, 2000

WASHINGTON -- Declaring "the law is very clear," Attorney General Janet Reno said the government next week will take steps to reunite Elian Gonzalez with his father.

"It is time for this little boy, who has been through so much, to be with his father," Reno said.

She said two psychiatrists and a psychologist have advised the Justice Department to arrange the reunion as soon as possible. She asked Elian's Miami relatives to meet with those experts Monday so the government can arrange the least disruptive way to transfer the 6-year-old Cuban boy. Reno didn't give a timetable for the father-son reunion but indicated it would take place next week.

Reno met with the boy's father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, Friday morning and said she came away convinced that he loves his child.

"Mr. Gonzalez and I do not share the same political beliefs," she said. "But it is not our place to punish a father for his political beliefs or where he wants to raise his child."

In other developments Friday:

Cuban exiles in Miami called off plans to block traffic to protest federal action in the case, saying they were satisfied that Reno's announcement gave them more time.

Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas, who last week virtually endorsed violent protests, appealed for peace. "I know that tensions are running high, but we must remain calm," he said. "The entire world is looking upon our community."

Florida Sens. Connie Mack and Bob Graham sought a meeting between Gonzalez and the Miami relatives who have resisted efforts to reunite the boy and his father.

In a letter to Gregory Craig, Gonzalez's Washington attorney, Mack and Graham said the families should "come together and resolve this case in a manner that will ensure that the best interests of Elian are truly considered by those persons most important in his life."

The senators said they had been asked to arrange the meeting by the Miami relatives. The letter said the Miami relatives would like to meet with Gonzalez, his wife and baby, "without an entourage, without Cuban military or diplomatic representatives."

The family agreed to host the meeting at their Miami home, but said it could also be held at a "neutral location" in South Florida or Washington.

Mack, a Republican, said: "We think it's time to remove the lawyers and the bureaucrats from the scene and let the two families meet to see what they can resolve."

Craig, who became famous for serving as one of President Clinton's defense attorneys in the Senate impeachment trial, did not respond to the senators' letter Friday night.

The lawyers for Elian's U.S. relatives are running out of options but refuse to back down.

They argued Friday that U.S. immigration officials lacked legal authority to force the relatives to relinquish custody. Instead, they said a ruling in January by a Florida family court prevented the boy from being removed from the Miami jurisdiction.

The lawyers were also drawing up papers to present to an appeals court next month in Atlanta, where they will seek to overturn a federal judge's ruling in March that backed the father.

Elian's Miami relatives say they have always been willing to return the boy to his father, but only when the court process has been concluded. Arguing that Elian is better off in Miami with his distant relatives than back in Cuba under the spell of communism, they say the boy does not want to go back home and is frightened by some of his father's aggressive comments in the media.

Delfin Gonzalez, one of Elian's great uncles, flew to Washington Friday with plans to try to meet the father. It was not clear if that meeting occurred.

Reno said Friday that the boy has "had more than what the law would ordinarily give him as his day in court" and that he should now be returned to his father. She said she disagreed with Graham, the Senate Democrat who has complained that the Justice Department has not considered the boy's best interest.

The attorney general was firm in her commitment that the boy would be given to Gonzalez very soon. "The issue is not whether it's going to be done; it's how it's going to be done in a manner that causes the least disruption as possible to Elian."

However, she raised the possibility that there still could be an agreement with Gonzalez that he would be given custody but remain in the United States until the final court appeals were completed. However, Gonzalez must agree to that, she said.

Reno and other Justice Department officials met with Gonzalez for about an hour Friday morning, a meeting Craig described as emotional. No Cuban officials attended, which provided Gonzalez a perfect opportunity to ask for asylum in the United States.

He didn't.

According to Reno, Gonzalez said that many people expected he would want to stay in the United States but that his feelings "are exactly the opposite."

Speaking in Spanish to reporters after the meeting, a grim-faced Gonzalez said he was satisfied.

"I am going to have my child soon."

- Staff writer David Adams contributed to this report.

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