By Brian Blomquist, Niles Lathem, Maria Malave, Maria Alvarez, Malcolm Balfour And Tracy Connor. The New York Post, April 13, 2000
Elian Gonzalez's defiant great-uncle said last night the feds will have to reclaim the tug-of-war kid "by force" - even as Attorney General Janet Reno ordered the family to hand over the boy today.
"I will not turn this boy over," Lazaro Gonzalez vowed just two hours after meeting with Reno at the Miami Beach home of Sister Jeanne O'Laughlin, a Catholic nun.
"The government will have to come to this home and get him by force, and I want the world to witness this great injustice that the government is about to commit."
Moments later, Reno announced she had ordered the family to be at Miami's Opa-locka Airport at 2 p.m. today to drop off Elian or accompany him to a "neutral site" in Washington for a reunion with his father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez.
"If they don't, we will then enforce the order ... It would be respectful, firm, fair and prompt," she said, without elaborating, outside the U.S. attorney's office in downtown Miami.
A swirl of contradictions and uncertainties surrounded the fast-breaking developments.
The Miami family's lawyer, Manny Diaz, said he would seek a federal injunction to block the hand-over, but also told reporters that if family members were given a "legal mandate" they would "obey the law."
But at the very same press conference outside O'Laughlin's house, an angry Lazaro made it clear he has no intention of voluntarily relinquishing the 6-year-old.
"We will not turn this child over - not in Opa-locka, not in any ‘locka,'" he fumed.
A short time later, the family left the nun's house with Elian and drove to their own home in Little Havana, where they were met by a crowd of some 500 supporters.
Reno made the extraordinary trip from Washington to her hometown of Miami hoping her personal involvement would break the five-month impasse over Elian - who was rescued from a raft wreck that killed his mother and 10 others fleeing Cuba.
She asked the family to bring Elian to Washington with her today for a reunion with his father. The Miami camp countered with a demand that Juan Miguel come to them.
With protesters waving flags and hurling insults outside the nun's gated residence, Reno left with a promise she would hear from the family lawyers by this morning.
O'Laughlin - who broke her neutral stance on the case to side with the Miami relatives earlier this year - expressed confidence the two sides would work it out.
"I sincerely believe that with all the concern and prayers in this community, there will be a meaningful, non-violent solution, no matter what final decisions are made," she said.
Juan Miguel - anxiously awaiting his son's return at the home of a Cuban diplomat in Bethesda, Md. - was fast losing patience with the stop-and-start negotiations and last-minute demands.
"He is going to simply ask now that the attorney general issue [an] order and that the boy be immediately returned to him," the Rev. Joan Brown Campbell said after a meeting with the dad in the afternoon.
Reno - facing the prospect of having to send marshals into the house to pick up Elian - held out hope for a resolution even as the negotiations lapsed into disarray.
"An agreement among the family is the best solution," she said. "An agreement is still possible, but it remains elusive."
New York Post®, nypostonline.com, nypost.com and newyorkpost.com are registered trademarks of NYP Holdings, Inc. Copyright 2000 NYP Holdings, Inc. All rights reserved. |