By Sue Anne Pressley and Catharine Skipp. Washington Post Staff Writers. The Washington Post, Thursday, April 6, 2000; 12:06 PM
MIAMI, April 6 – Outside the Little Havana home of Elian Gonzalez's Miami relatives today, a cousin said that the boy's father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, had talked of someday fleeing Cuba for the United States.
Alfredo Gonzalez said that Juan Miguel, who arrived in Washington this morning to retrieve the boy, is "being manipulated" and is under great pressure and scrutiny from the Castro government.
"Like everyone else, they want to leave, and on various occasions, he said so," said Alfredo Gonzalez, who left the communist country a year ago and spoke to his cousin shortly before his departure. "That is why I'm telling you today that this is not what he truly wants."
Alfredo Gonzalez spoke to the crowd of international reporters and about 50 protesters at mid-morning as attorneys for the Miami family met for a fifth day with INS officials on how and when to relinquish the child.
Because rumors were rampant that Elian was no longer here at the home of his great-uncle Lazaro Gonzalez, family spokesman Armando Gutierrez told reporters the boy would be out to play. Sure enough, Elian emerged from the house, and began playing on the swingset in the backyard.
Alfredo Gonzalez said the boy did not have much reaction to news that his father had arrived in the United States.
"He didn't say anything. He just kept playing."
Asked if the family was prepared to turn over Elian, Alfredo said, "We have faith in God that this can be handled in a family way, that when the father comes here, he will listen to what the boy wants. The boy wants the father to come here and see how he is living, and that he sits down and
talks with us."
But Juan Miguel Gonzalez has said repeatedly that he does not want to come to Miami because of safety concerns. The meeting between the lawyers for the Miami family and INS officials was directed at hammering out details of the boy's transfer to his father, although the Miami relatives still
seem intent on pushing their demands.
"They're continuing to try to work it out. We still want the psychologists," said Gutierrez about the family's demand that Elian be evaluated by an independent psychological team.
Karen Kraushaar, a spokeswoman for the INS in Miami, said at a morning news conference that INS officials are "optimistic. This is a state-by-step process. Everybody obviously is trying to do the right things, and trying to do what is best for the child . . . We welcome the development of
the father's arrival in the United States."
She would not go into details about the nature of today's talks, calling this "a very sensitive case."
As the morning lengthened, the crowd of protesters grew. One of them brought a big box of flowers, and handed out daisies and carnations to each person. But so far, the crowd was orderly and quiet, waiting again for the next development.
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