The Straits Times, April 13, 2000
The reunion plan between Elian and his father has hit a setback after the boy's guardian says Elian refused to meet his father in Washington
WASHINGTON -- Elian Gonzalez ripped off the picture of his father when he saw it in the newspaper and refused to meet him, setting back plans to transfer custody of the six-year-old shipwreck survivor to his dad.
Mr Lazaro Gonzalez, the great-uncle who has been caring for Elian since he was rescued, emerged from his house in Miami at midnight and told the crowd outside that the meeting was off.
He said Elian did not want to go to Washington, so no one from the Miami family would go. The crowd erupted with cheers.
"Elian does not want to meet his father. He ripped off the picture of his father he saw in the newspaper," said a supporter.
But in the latest twist in the saga, a Cuban exile group held a Capitol Hill news conference late on Tuesday night and announced that Elian's Miami relatives would bring the boy to Washington for a meeting with his father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, later yesterday.
A spokesman for the Immigration and Naturalisation Service, Ms Maria Cardona, said efforts had been under way late Tuesday and early yesterday to arrange a meeting between the father and Elian's Miami relatives.
"While no meeting is yet officially confirmed, we continue to focus on trying to get all of Elian's family to communicate and are trying to resolve this promptly and cooperatively," she said.
A Justice Department official said the talks continued into the early hours yesterday.
Mr Jorge Mas Santos, chairman of the Cuban American National Foundation, told reporters on Tuesday night that Mr Lazaro Gonzalez would bring the boy to Washington for the long-awaited reunion.
Mr Santos said the meeting would be closed to all non-family members except Deputy Attorney-General Eric Holder and Senator Robert Torricelli, a New Jersey Democrat.
He said the meeting would occur at a place yet to be decided.
"After four and a half months, the private meeting that this family has so yearned for with Juan Miguel Gonzalez tomorrow will be a reality," Mr Santos said.
He said the family and the Justice Department had both agreed to the details.
"It's going to be at a neutral site, and there's basically going to be a resolution of the situation," said Mr Jose Cardenas, Washington director for the Cuban exile group.
The boy's mother, who was divorced from his father, drowned along with 10 others on a disastrous voyage from Cuba.
Elian was rapidly caught up in a bitter international custody battle pitting the Miami relatives who took him into their home against his father who wanted him back in Cuba -- firing up long standing enmity between President Fidel Castro and anti-communist exiles in Miami. -- AP, Reuters
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