By Rick Bragg. The New York Times. April 7
MIAMI, April 6 -- After weeks of angry shouts, name-calling and vows that little Elián González will be taken from his relatives' house only over their dead bodies, demonstrators outside the home in Little Havana adopted a fresh tactic here today.
They waved flowers.
As news filtered through the crowd of more than 100 demonstrators that Elián's father, Juan Miguel González, had landed in Washington to take custody of his child, leaders of a four-month-long demonstration outside the house began handing out pink carnations and yellow lilies.
"These flowers represent the love for Elián and for his father," said Jorge Chavez, 25, a Dade County schoolteacher who had the day off for spring break.
"He's a victim," Mr. Chavez said of Elián's father, whom Mr. Chavez believes is just a pawn of the Fidel Castro government in Cuba. "It's not his fault."
Demonstrators, many of them wearing "George W. Bush for President" pins, said the boy's father was welcome here, echoing the family's entreaty that he go to their home to eat a meal and speak with them as family, without the otherwise ever-present lawyers.
A few days ago, family members were accusing Mr. González of verbally abusing his son and lying to him, saying that he had told Elián on the telephone that his mother, Elizabet Brotons, who drowned in a failed crossing with Elián from Cuba in November, was still alive and on
the island.
But today, Adam Rassi, a 29-year-old grocery employee who has slept outside the home of Elián's great-uncle, Lázaro González, for several nights, said he welcomed Elián's father.
"No one is going to hurt him," said Mr. Rassi, who is one of about 20 watchers who carry radios and stand ready to call others to the site.
Outside the home, one demonstrator told reporters that while she might spit at Juan Miguel González, she would not hurt him.
Meanwhile, talks between the boy's Miami relatives and immigration officials broke down again, as lawyers wrangled over how to remove the boy.
Family members here had wanted Juan Miguel González to promise that he and Elián would stay in the United States until a decision on the case was rendered in the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, but lawyers for the family here angrily warned late this afternoon
that there was nothing to prevent Mr. González from leaving for Cuba with Elián once the boy was in his actual custody.
Jose Garcia-Pedrosa, a lawyer for Elián's Miami family, said the government would not discuss anything with the family except ways of removing him from the house.
Family members have appealed a federal judge's ruling that upheld Attorney General Janet Reno's decision to send the boy back. The appellate court hearing is scheduled for May 11 in Atlanta.
But the government has failed to get a written agreement from the family to hand the boy over peacefully, something government lawyers wanted from the relatives here in return for their promise to keep Elián in the United States until after the appeal.
Government officials can now take the boy at any time, although an Immigration and Naturalization Service official said that might not happen for a few days, if that soon.
Government officials have said they do not want to have federal officers go in and take the boy by force. For months, there had seemed no other way, as demonstrators vowed to block any effort to remove him.
But, as newspaper editorial pages across the country blasted Miami-Dade County elected officials for saying they would side with Cuban exiles here over the rule of law and that any blood shed would be on the hands of President Bill Clinton and Ms. Reno, demonstrators who had talked about
sacrificing their lives in chaos in the streets were instead tossing flowers.
They held hands and prayed.
"I am ashamed, really," said Angel Cruz, a farmer in Cuba who came to the United States five years ago.
"Enough is enough, already," Mr. Cruz said of the previous harsh language directed at the father by demonstrators. Elián's father cannot speak the truth, Mr. Cruz said, because of the repressive government in Cuba.
Ramon Saul Sanchez, of the Movimiento Democracia exile group and the most visible demonstration leader, again promised that demonstrators would remain nonviolent, but he has warned that civil disobedience will follow any move on the house by federal officials.
Many demonstrators said they could feel the situation coming to a close soon.
"I get a little more nervous every day," Mr. Rassi said. "Anything can happen."
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