Published Friday, April 14, 2000, in the Miami Herald. Elian's Saga
Relatives keep Elian in Miami
By Andres Viglucci And Jay Weaver . aviglucci@herald.com
The prospects for a reunion between Elian Gonzalez and his father, which seemed imminent just a day before, dimmed Thursday as Attorney General Janet Reno returned to Washington with the boy still firmly in the custody of his Miami relatives and hundreds of supporters massed outside the
relatives' Little Havana house.
Lazaro Gonzalez, Elian's great-uncle, ignored a 2 p.m. government deadline to turn over Elian, but the federal government took no action and there were no indications that the government would move to remove the boy from his great-uncle's home today.
But Gonzalez's efforts did suffer a major blow when a Miami-Dade family court judge dismissed his effort to claim custody of Elian -- a case that had been the linchpin of the Miami relatives' legal and political strategy to keep the boy in the United States.
Supporters of Elian remaining in the United States have persistently demanded that the federal government allow a full hearing in family court on where Elian should live. But Circuit Judge Jennifer Bailey, in a 22-page decision, ruled that the Miami relatives have no case because the boy's case
is fundamentally an immigration question. Bailey also said Lazaro Gonzalez ``is too remotely related to the child'' to seek custody.
She said she would entertain no appeal, and lifted a temporary order barring Elian's removal from the county.
Later in the day, a federal appeals court judge granted the family a respite, temporarily ordering that Elian not be taken out of the United States. However, the order was granted only to allow a three-judge panel enough time to consider the family's request for a longer stay.
The stay was widely misinterpreted by news media and the Miami relatives' supporters as requiring that Elian remain in Miami. In fact, the order does not prevent Reno from returning Elian to the custody of his father, who is in Washington, D.C., awaiting a promised reunification.
The order by U.S. Circuit Judge James L. Edmondson makes no mention of Miami: ``Plaintiff Elian Gonzalez is enjoined from leaving the United States; any and all persons acting for, on behalf of or in concert with plaintiff Elian Gonzalez are enjoined from aiding or assisting the removal of
plaintiff from the United States, and all officers and agents of the United States . . . are enjoined to take such lawful action and reasonable precautions and actions as are necessary to prevent the removal of plaintiff from the United States.''
HEARING REQUEST
Edmondson made clear he was concerned only with the possibility that Elian might leave the country and was not passing judgment on the likelihood that the family would prevail in a pending federal court appeal. The family has asked the appeals court in Atlanta to order the government to grant
Elian an asylum hearing.
Federal officials said Friday's appellate order would delay enforcement of Reno's decision by three or four days. The government must respond by 9:30 a.m. today to the family's request for a longer stay. If granted, the order would keep Elian in the country until the appellate court rules in the
appeal.
Throughout the day Thursday, the boy's relatives, their attorneys and supporters issued a near-constant stream of defiant messages, some of them mocking Reno and daring her to take action.
Though many in Miami seemed to anticipate that government agents would sweep in to whisk Elian out of the home, Reno said Thursday it was never her intention to do so. She said she would explore all peaceful options before resorting to force.
President Clinton, weighing in publicly on the case for the first time in recent weeks, backed Reno's approach. ``This case is about the rule of law,'' Clinton said in Washington. ``It is our responsibility to uphold the law.''
BLUNT REACTION
Gregory Craig, the attorney for Elian's father, issued his own blunt assessment of the Miami relatives' defiance.
``Today, Lazaro Gonzalez defied the nation's chief law enforcement officers and publicly and belligerently refused to turn Elian over to his father,'' he said. ``Today, Lazaro broke the law.''
Roger Bernstein, an attorney for Gonzalez, defended his client's position, saying he did not want to assist in returning Elian to the Communist regime of Cuban President Fidel Castro.
``Lazaro is not breaking the law. Lazaro has stated consistently that he will not disobey the law, that he will stand back and allow the government to do their job, but he will not participate in the harming of the child and betraying his trust,'' Bernstein said.
In Havana, National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcon praised Reno's performance in the impasse, describing her as ``generous and flexible, because she has moved heaven and earth to convince the clan [the Miami Gonzalezes] to return the boy to his father in the best possible manner.
``Nevertheless, they've been saying yes and doing nothing. It's a mockery,'' he added.
A day after she flew to Miami hoping to persuade the Miami relatives to turn over Elian to his father, Reno returned empty-handed to Washington, still pledging to carry out her order, but not specifying how.
ORDER CHALLENGED
After a fruitless two-hour meeting Wednesday night with the Gonzalez family at the home of Sister Jeanne O'Laughlin, Barry University's president, Reno issued a legally binding order to the relatives instructing them to turn over Elian at Opa-locka Airport. But Lazaro Gonzalez swiftly announced
he would not obey the order, challenging Reno to send federal agents to his house.
``They will have to take this boy by force,'' he vowed.
As the 2 p.m. deadline came and went, Reno promised that no agents would go to the house immediately. She apparently continued to hold out hope for a negotiated agreement, citing a proposal for a face-to-face meeting between Elian's great-uncle and father that Lazaro Gonzalez rejected. She
suggested the meeting could take place at a private retreat.
``If they can work things out amongst themselves, the government would step aside,'' Reno said. ``But if at the end of the day they could not reach agreement, the relatives would abide by the rule of law. We stand by this offer, and Juan Miguel Gonzalez has agreed to participate. Unfortunately,
Lazaro Gonzalez and his family have refused to participate.''
Reno said the government would now act in a ``reasonable, measured way,'' but she would not discuss what options she is considering.
'LAST RESORT'
But high-level federal law enforcement officials have put together a plan for forcibly removing Elian from his relatives' home. Under the plan, a large number of agents would secure a perimeter around the house while a casually dressed group of mostly female officers would pick up Elian. The
officials insist, however, that the plan remains a ``last resort'' to be used if other peaceful options fail.
Gonzalez's vehemence, combined with defiant words by his attorneys, seemed to spur demonstrators outside his house to a high level of emotion. They began assembling early in the day, and their numbers grew throughout the day as the 2 p.m. deadline approached.
To shouts of ``War! War!'' some vowed to die to prevent Elian from being removed from the house. Police erected barricades to keep the demonstrators away from the entrance to the house, where a gaggle of politicians and celebrities such as singer Gloria Estefan and actor Andy Garcia came to
express support.
The mood of those in the crowd lightened noticeably when they learned that Reno had promised not to take action Thursday to take the boy away from his Miami family. As the day wore on, the crowd thinned, but more than 500 people were still outside the house at 9 p.m.
Herald staff writers Ajowa Nzinga Ifateyo, David Kidwell, Marika Lynch, Sandra Marquez Garcia, Sara Olkon and Eunice Ponce, Herald writers Mireidy Fernandez and Daniel Grech, Herald translator Renato Perez, and Herald wire services contributed to this report.
State judge dismisses Miami family's suit seeking custody
By Jay Weaver. jweaver@herald
A state judge delivered a devastating punch to Elian Gonzalez's relatives in Miami by tossing out their lawsuit on Thursday that sought temporary custody of the boy so he could remain here while they pursued political asylum for him.
Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Jennifer Bailey said Elian's great-uncle Lazaro Gonzalez had no right to seek custody in family court because he is too distant a relative under state law, and that the federal government's decision to reunite the child with his father superseded her authority to allow
an emergency hearing on his custody request.
``Elian Gonzalez's physical presence in this country is at the discretion of the federal government,'' Bailey wrote in her 22-page ruling. ``The state court cannot, by deciding with whom his custody should lie, subvert the decision to return him to his father and his home in Cuba.''
Bailey also lifted an emergency protective order -- granted in a controversial decision on Jan. 10 by Circuit Judge Rosa Rodriguez -- that required Elian to stay in Miami-Dade County with his relatives until the hearing on his temporary custody. Lazaro Gonzalez sued the boy's father, Juan Miguel
Gonzalez, for custody of the 6-year-old in early January after Elian lost his mother on a boat journey from Cuba in late November.
The great-uncle turned first to family court for temporary custody of the child, before heading to federal court to challenge the Immigration and Naturalization Service's decision that denied Elian's asylum application. After the Miami relatives lost their immigration dispute in federal court
last month, they appealed it and then rushed back to family court on Saturday to revive their custody petition.
This desperate dash was not lost on Bailey. The judge said: ``Only after that loss . . . and only since the father has arrived in the United States to seek implementation of the federal decision, has [Lazaro Gonzalez] returned to state court to aggressively seek a hearing in an effort to
continue to keep the child in Miami.''
LEGAL ARGUMENT
The crux of the Miami relatives' legal argument was this: Elian's father is an unfit parent because he wants to raise his child under the abusive communist regime of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. They feared that if the government transferred the boy to his father, now staying in a Washington,
D.C., suburb, they would leave for Cuba immediately.
But Bailey, recognizing Attorney General Janet Reno's broad powers in immigration disputes, said: ``The basis for the custody claim is that the child should not live in Cuba, with his father, and is better off here. The [family] court's ability to reach that decision is derailed by the federal
government decision that he must return to Cuba, his homeland, and be with his father.''
Indeed, Bailey, echoing the stand of U.S. officials, said Lazaro Gonzalez ``fails to understand the fundamental nature of his case -- it is an immigration case, not a family case.''
The Gonzalez family's attorney, Laura Fabar, said the ruling was a blow to the relatives.
``It's very disappointing because the child has been left without a legal custodian to provide for his basic necessities, such as medical care,'' Fabar said. ``As long as he is in the country, there will always be the necessity for an adult to take care of the basic needs of this minor.''
The federal government has one adult in mind for that important role: Elian's father, a 31-year-old cashier at a government tourist park, who is married and has an infant son.
LOVING FATHER
The INS found that Juan Miguel Gonzalez had a loving, caring relationship with his son, and Bailey acknowledged that in her opinion.
Under Florida law, custody can be taken away from a child's sole surviving parent only if the parent is proven unfit by ``clear and convincing evidence.'' The child's best interests are considered when the dispute is between two parents -- not between a parent and a nonparent.
Bailey went out of her way to stress the societal importance of stopping Lazaro Gonzalez's petition in its tracks.
``This case has inflamed the passions of our community to the point that references to potential riots have been made by our leaders,'' Bailey wrote.
``There is no purpose in prolonging the anxiety of this family and other people who feel so strongly about this case when the law is so clear and when the inevitable result would be ever more crushingly disappointing.
``Holding a hearing would only have raised false hopes that somehow this court could legally act and keep Elian Gonzalez here." to agree on Elian's fate.
A court decree transfering custody to the father to cement the government's legal position.
Pleas to community leaders for help in persuading the family and maintaining the peace.
``The important thing here is that there is still dialogue,'' one federal source said. ``We're still talking and there are still plenty of options left to explore. That's good news.''
``The last thing Janet Reno wants to see on the front page of every paper in the country is a picture of a crying little boy being carried from that home by a federal agent,'' said one high-level FBI source. ``On the other hand, she cannot allow herself to be perceived as a toothless tiger. She
is in a very, very difficult position.''
Keep negotiating, experts advise Reno
BY JOSEPH TANFANI
jtanfani@herald.com
In seeking an answer to the Elian Gonzalez impasse, veterans of volatile crisis negotiations say their best advice for Janet Reno is to take a deep breath, back off from the brink -- and keep talking.
Even as the situation seemed hopelessly frozen on Thursday, with Elian's Miami relatives insisting they will never turn over the boy, several experts say the government shouldn't give up on a settlement. There may yet be a better solution than federal agents going through an angry crowd in
Little Havana to grab Elian, they say.
``The government is going to have to show infinite patience,'' said Clinton Van Zandt, a retired FBI agent who once served as the bureau's chief hostage negotiator and now owns a Virginia consulting firm. ``We've got a line in the sand. That doesn't mean we have to cross the line. This really
calls for reason.''
Van Zandt, a veteran of the Waco standoff and the prison riots of Cuban detainees, said he would try bringing in a respected leader like Auxiliary Bishop Agustin Roman as mediator.
During a critical juncture in one prison standoff, Roman came to say Mass and suggested that the detainees throw down their weapons, defusing the crisis. ``There were Cubans en masse throwing knives and spears over the top,'' Van Zandt said.
Roman said Thursday that the church should only get involved as mediator if the family asks for help. That hasn't happened.
RIGHT APPROACH
Seasoned hostage negotiators say Reno seems to be taking the right approach: patience and offers to keep talking, backed by a firm insistence that the Miami relatives ultimately must follow the law.
``You don't get discouraged. You're always thinking: Is there some angle, or some person we can use that potentially could have influence?'' said Robert J. Louden, a retired New York detective who supervised the New York Police Department's hostage negotiation unit. He now heads the criminal
justice center at New York's John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
``You don't have a script,'' he said. ``As time goes by, people's resolve changes, people's thoughts change.''
The first tactic of negotiating is to move the argument away from an all-or-nothing debate. So far, there seems to be no possible middle ground for Elian Gonzalez -- he either stays in Miami or returns to Cuba.
Still, compromise might not be a lost cause, experts say.
William Monning, a conflict resolution expert at the Monterey Institute of International Studies, suggested an arrangement where Elian could return to Cuba but spend summers in Miami -- ``Something so when he leaves, it's not the end forever.'' Or there could be some agreement that the boy could
become a U.S. citizen and return when he becomes an adult.
``You could break down some of the absolute nature of the distance between Cuba and Miami, for this family,'' Monning said, noting that might be impossible given the hostility between the two governments.
``Part of what the Miami family needs is to save face as having stood up for what's right for Elian,'' Monning said. ``That's what the government needs to be able to offer them.''
`NO MAGIC TIME'
How long should the government wait before sending marshals to take Elian?
``There's no magic time,'' Louden said. ``If you think there's a glimmer of hope that the individual inside would listen to your reasoning, you keep going.''
If there's no deal, experts say, the government must start with the lowest possible show of force -- unarmed agents walking up to the house and asking for the child.
That's just what marshals have in mind, as a last resort.
``Very up front and businesslike. You knock on the door, almost like Joe Friday, say: `You knew we were coming, and here we are,' '' Louden said. ```We would like you to help us do this.'''
Louden and Van Zandt said it would be disastrous to stage a surprise operation to grab the boy at night. Federal authorities have promised not to do so.
``The last thing we need are American law enforcers going in like jackbooted Nazis or Castro's storm troops,'' Van Zandt said. ``Whatever is done has to stand the light of day.''
Herald staff writers David Kidwell and D. Aileen Dodd and researcher Elisabeth Donovan contributed to this report.
Throng outside house swells to thousands
BY SANDRA MARQUEZ GARCIA, ANDREA ELLIOTT AND MARTIN MERZER
mmerzer@herald.com
If Attorney General Janet Reno hoped to cool passions and quench tensions swirling around Elian Gonzalez, her strategy backfired Thursday. If anything, Reno's actions appeared to toss the custody battle back to its most volatile and emotionally wrenching phase.
The crowd of protesters outside the boy's Little Havana refuge mushroomed from a few dozen in recent days into thousands Thursday. Spanish-language radio commentators continually primed the pump. Singer Gloria Estefan, actor Andy Garcia and many other Cuban American celebrities arrived to lend
their support.
``Why are they pressuring this family to betray the trust of a child and not pressuring the father, who is in this country, to come here?'' Estefan asked in an impassioned speech that questioned the federal government's position in the case and brought cheers from those who had gathered near the
family's home.
Estefan urged peace, but also called for continued demonstrations.
``We want no violence,'' she said. ``We are a peaceful community. We're asking all Cuban-Americans to continue protesting as they have done so far, in a respectful manner, and not be carried away into violence or civil disobedience.''
VOICE CHOKED
Garcia's voice choked and he nearly lost his composure as he told demonstrators that Elian should be allowed ``to enjoy the freedom we all enjoy.''
``He won't have any freedom in Cuba,'' the actor said.
At one point, the crowd grew silent and then sang along as jazz trumpeter Arturo Sandoval pulled out a trumpet and played the American and Cuban national anthems.
The events showed just how badly Reno's mediation effort had failed to calm tensions surrounding the struggle over the boy.
``By setting the strict deadline for the custody transfer, Reno launched the Cuban community into crisis mode,'' said Angel Valdes, 44, a social worker from northwest Miami-Dade, who brought his wife and two daughters to the demonstration. ``She tried to appease us, but we feel really burned.''
The morning dawned with about 100 demonstrators present. But throughout the day, the crowd thickened, energized by people who had not previously participated in the protest -- well-dressed bankers clutching cell phones, uniformed dental hygienists, suburban mothers pushing baby strollers.
And celebrities, lots of Cuban American celebrities, including musician Albita, singer Willy Chirino and Sandoval.
``Normally, celebrities try to show that politics are one thing and art is another,'' Albita said. ``In this case, the liberty of a boy is at stake.''
SING-A-LONG
Chirino, the popular Cuban exile singer, held hands with the crowd during a sing-a-long.
``The celebrity status helps to get our reality known throughout the world,'' he said. ``Elian, like anybody else, deserves to be heard in a court of law.''
By midday, thousands of others flocked to Northwest Second Street to exercise their rights of assembly and free speech, mark a pivotal phase of the crisis and attempt to block -- or at least complicate -- the expected arrival of federal agents.
Police officers chained barricades together and deployed throughout the area as some demonstrators gathered in nearby intersections and on a street behind the house -- possible access points for federal authorities.
In some cases, companies closed their doors and suggested that employees reconvene near the white, single-story house that has been Elian's home for nearly five months.
Fifty workers from a Target department store in Hialeah said they were given paid leave for the day.
``We all got together and decided to come,'' said Agustin Rodriguez, 47.
Most demonstrators remained peaceful, in word and deed. Some uttered inflammatory remarks or carried provocative signs.
CALM URGED
Throughout the day, Elian's great-uncle, Lazaro Gonzalez, and local political leaders urged the crowd to remain peaceful.
Speaking live to a worldwide audience watching on CNN, Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas also shared the Cuban-American perspective:
``What you see here in the faces of these people . . . is over 41 years of persecution, over 41 years of having our loved ones losing their lives searching for freedom. These are real family emotions, not just a drama for the world to see. This is real. This is real pain.''
Hours later -- after it became clear the government would not take immediate action to reunite Elian with his father -- protesters claimed victory, at least for now.
But they remained unimpressed with the efforts of the attorney general.
Said Elizabeth Betancourt, 18: ``She didn't calm things down.''
Herald staff writers Tyler Bridges and Ivette Yee, Herald writer Eunice Ponce, and staff translator Renato Perez contributed to this report.
In a show of solidarity, VIPs flock to visit boy
BY ANA ACLE
aaccle@herald.com
The cream of Cuban Miami crowded into the Gonzalez family dining room -- priests, politicians, a famous actor, exile leaders -- all squeezed between two old leather barber chairs, a sagging love seat, a shrine of Elian news clippings, and a menagerie of new stuffed-toy animals, as an image of
Elian flickered on a large-screen television.
Elian stood among the adults, watching himself on TV and smiling proudly. He stood barefoot, looking like Tom Sawyer, his too-long blue jeans hanging over small feet whose bottoms were blackened by the sand below the swing set in the backyard.
They had tuned in a rebroadcast of a wobbly home video supplied to Univision on Thursday in which Elian, sitting in bed, wearing a gold chain, sent a finger-pointing message to his father: ``Papa, did you see that old woman who went to the home of that little nun? She wants to take me to Cuba. I
tell him -- I tell you all -- I don't want to go to Cuba. . . .''
The living room erupted in defiant acclaim.
The Gonzalez home hardly looked like the Alamo it had become -- a small, poor immigrant family hunkered down in defiance of the United States government. It was a kind of merry carnival, where almost everyone who is anyone in Cuban Miami was present and accounted for.
Family members shed anxious tears all morning, but after Attorney General Janet Reno announced on TV at noon that federal marshals would not storm the house, tensions evaporated; the TV channel changed to a daytime soap; hot, home-cooked chicken and rice came out of the kitchen; and
hand-wringing switched to high-fiving.
Then, when a federal appeals court issued a temporary order barring Elian from leaving the United States, the Gonzalez house exploded in happy pandemonium. The Rev. Manuel Salabarria high-fived Elian's great-uncle Lazaro and cried, ``I love you!''
Who was there? Who in Cuban Miami wasn't there to pay homage, to show solidarity, to bear-hug and God-bless in the little dining room with a family that had never registered so much as a blip on their radar screens until four tumultuous months ago?
VISITING STAR
Gloria Estefan's afternoon appearance seemed to momentarily eclipse even the crisis itself. People packed the dining room for a glimpse of her, and Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas and Miami Mayor Joe Carollo huddled intently with her, coaching her on what to say outside.
Estefan told the mayors, ``I just want to know why the government is not compelling the father to come and meet his son.''
Leave the legal stuff to the lawyers, they urged her. Just talk from your heart like you're doing here. She nodded in agreement. Fifty people accompanied her as she went to face the press.
Actor and native son Andy Garcia had arrived earlier with his wife, Marivi. After speaking to the press, he came in to the house and sat quietly, self-consciously, in the dining room. He had only one request: The movie star wanted his picture taken with Elian.
CELEBRITY SUMMONS
Elian, summoned from the yard, made his entrance like a kamikaze pilot. He stood respectfully as he was introduced to the Garcias. Then, as he posed for the photo, Marisleysis teased the fidgeting boy, ``Smile, don't look like a dummy.''
Most of the day, Elian darted between the yard and Marisleysis' lap. The two wore red T-shirts and blue jeans. She occupied the love seat, looking pale, but in good spirits after her release Wednesday from Mercy Hospital, where she was treated for nervous exhaustion. She kept an arm around the
boy's shoulders. He pestered her relentlessly, playfully poking her ear with his finger.
The dining room was too small for everyone. The table bore orchids sent to Marisleysis in the hospital and a statue of the Christ Child in a red velvet shawl. In one corner of the room was a beauty parlor, with two leather barber chairs, a large hair dryer, and a cupboard of potions and lotions.
Next to it was an Elian shrine -- heaps of photos and news clippings, some framed, some just cut out -- and a stuffed toy dolphin and a crucifix. Beside the shrine were piles of new teddy bears and Winnie the Poohs, and a Batman poster.
Most of the VIP visitors drifted to the backyard patio: Penelas; Carollo; Hialeah Mayor Raul Martinez; Telemundo talk-show queen Cristina Saralegui; Cuban American National Foundation members Ninoska Perez-Castellon, Pepe Hernandez and Mario Miranda; Brothers to the Rescue leader Jose Balsulto;
Elian's fisherman-rescuer Donato Dalrymple; family pastor Father Francisco Santana. Most of them talked into cell phones.
RENO'S WORDS
They rushed inside every time something big happened on TV. When Reno gave her noon press conference, they listened nervously, silently. Lazaro occasionally lifted his eyebrows and shrugged his shoulders, perhaps not fully understanding what she was saying in English. Marisleysis, more defiant,
gave a small Bronx cheer when Reno referred to her by name.
Only one Gonzalez was conspicuous by her absence: Angela, Lazaro's wife, the rock of the Gonzalez family.
Rocks of the family do not speak. They simply do what has to be done. As the cream of Cuban Miami partied in the dining room, she kept the hot coffee and chicken and rice coming, rarely leaving the only quiet sanctuary in the Gonzalez house that day -- her kitchen.
Protesters rally around Elian's house
By Herald staff
mbaro@herald.com
Hundreds of demonstrators showed up at the Little Havana home of Elian Gonzalez's relatives this morning, vowing to help the family defy the federal government's order to turn the boy over to his father.
Ozzy Rodriguez, 24, said he has been at the Gonzalez home every day for months.
``I don't want that kid to go back,'' Rodriguez said. ''He deserves to be in freedom.''
By 9:20 a.m., the crowd of protesters had grown to about 200. They chanted, waved Cuban flags and waved signs in support of keeping Elian with his Miami relatives.
One sign read: ``Reno blunders: Ruby Ridge ... Waco, TX ... Miami ???''
Betty Hijazi, a Coral Gables astrologer, said she was disappointed with what she considered to be a low turnout.
``If we were 15,000 people they couldn't take us out of here, but with this small crowd all they need is a few officers because we are not violent people,'' she said.
On Tuesday night, about 15,000 people showed up at a prayer vigil near the Gonzalez family home.
``This is the moment,'' Hijazi said. ``We didn't need 15,000 people the day of the prayer vigil. This is the day that we will find out if they are going to kick us, if we are going to be violent.''
Although protesters were held back by barricades, Rodriguez showed it was easy enough to break through using a lighter and a piece of wood to break the plastic handcuffs holding a barricade to a fence. Police later reinforced the barricades with chains.
``Today is going to be hectic. It's going to be a wild day,'' Rodriguez said.
Protesters also showed solidarity in supporting Javier Hernandez, a Mexican-American from San Antonio, Texas, who came to work at the Dade County Youth Fair and became embroiled in the cause to keep Elian in Miami.
Hernandez tried to cut through barricades early today and was arrested by Miami police.
Vivian Trigo, 41, a former West Miami commissioner, led the effort to try and raise $750 to help Hernandez post bail.
``He did nothing. He just hasn't slept for a few days,'' she said. ``Basically he has been helping out our community. He has really felt our pain.''
Trigo used a bullhorn to reach the fund-raising goal and by 9 a..m. they'd raised the money, causing the crowd to erupt into loud cheers.
Early this morning, the crowd had a scare when a news helicopter was mistaken for a National Guard helicopter there to take the boy. Protesters ran to the back of the house to try and surround the house.
``We don't know where the helicopter is coming from,''said Monica Rodriguez, of Miami Beach.
A flyer from a ``family with 40 years in exile'' was also circulated amongst the protesters. The flyer asked for a ``peaceful and civilized'' protest and called for the exile community to boycott trips to Cuba for six months.
On higher alert: City, county bolster police presence
BY KAREN BRANCH
kbranch@herald.com
For all city of Miami officers, days off were canceled and plainclothes detectives went on uniformed patrol.
Police from Opa-locka to Little Havana shifted into higher alert Thursday morning, anticipating the potentially risky fallout from a 2 p.m. deadline to hand over Elian Gonzalez to federal agents.
For all city of Miami officers, it meant days off were canceled.
Plainclothes Miami detectives went on uniformed patrol.
For Miami officers at the station serving the environs of the Gonzalez family home and for Miami-Dade County officers dispatched to Opa-locka Airport -- site of the custody transfer that never took place -- it meant 12-hour ``Alpha-Bravo shifts.
But even before the shift ended, the county scaled back its troops.
``We're back to regular routine operations, said Miami-Dade Police spokesman Juan DelCastillo said Thursday afternoon, after U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno told the world she would not send in federal agents to pick up the boy that day.
``Opa-locka's back to normal. We're not holding a perimeter. We canceled it at 3 o'clock to fit the developments.''
But Miami Police continued to divert traffic from streets two blocks away from the Gonzalez family home. They did not stop the foot traffic. Hundreds of demonstrators parked as far as a mile away to walk past the squad-car barricades -- many staffed by Miami-Dade County Public School officers.
Chief Pete Cuccaro said he deployed 26 school officers to help block traffic access on Northwest 22nd Avenue and Flagler Street:
``When we take over those different posts, it's like a force multiplier to free up Miami P.D. to do the kind of things they do for crowd control.
Miami Police spokesman Delrish Ross said Thursday evening the 1,157-officer department could still face a ``no-days-off order. Also in place -- for now -- were 12-hour shifts for the South station that serves the Gonzalez family neighborhood.
``They're evaluating day by day to make that determination, Moss said.
Officer Angel Calzadilla, a Miami Police spokesman assigned to the area in front of the Gonzalez home, noted that Thursday's precautions are just the beginning of the stepped-up police presence.
In the event federal agents arrive at the house to remove Elian, Calzadilla said the situation could warrant a full ``Alpha-Bravo alert, during which all 1,157 city officers would begin working 12-hours shifts with no days off.
``It all depends on the demonstrators,'' Calzadilla said. ``I personally think it's going to be more of a funeral-like atmosphere, like a somber state, rather than dangerous. But if it's violent we'll go into Alpha-Bravo, we've mobilize field forces.
Field forces are teams of officers who arrive on a scene, four to a squad car, to help clear a street. Miami-Dade officers employed field forces Thursday morning outside Opa-locka Airport.
Mayors call for peaceful reaction
Leaders take high profile
BY TYLER BRIDGES AND DON FINEFROCK
tbridges@herald.com
On a tense day when the Cuban exile community feared that federal authorities would try to snatch Elian Gonzalez from his Little Havana home, Miami Mayor Joe Carollo and Miami-Dade County Mayor Alex Penelas made repeated appeals for calm in meetings with exiles, in interviews and directly to the
protesters outside the boy's house.
Both mayors support the efforts of Elian's Miami relatives to keep the boy in the United States. And both have said they don't want their police departments to help federal agents take the boy from his relatives' home. But their emphasis Thursday was on keeping the peace.
``Any incidents will hurt Elian and hurt the United States. The only person who will benefit is Fidel Castro,'' Carollo told several hundred activists gathered behind a police barricade near the relatives' home.
Penelas made a similar appeal immediately afterward, using the same bullhorn as Carollo to be heard above the boisterous crowd.
``It's a tense time, perhaps the most tense time here in 20 to 25 years,'' Penelas said. ``If there's any disorder, the only winner is Fidel Castro. So please keep calm.''
Up until that point, the protesters had been uneasy, chanting ``Elian no se va'' (Elian is not going) with an almost menacing tone.
But the crowd broke into cheers after the two mayors delivered the news that U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno had promised that federal marshals would not try to get Elian Thursday.
Afterward, the mood, which had been getting increasingly tense outside the home, relaxed considerably.
Under both the county and the city of Miami charters, the mayor has few direct responsibilities beyond appointing the county or the city manager. Neither mayor even has direct say over his police department. That authority belongs to the county and city managers.
But each mayor, by virtue of his elected position, has the bully pulpit, and each man used it to the fullest extent possible Thursday.
The mayors earlier in the day also met together with leaders of the Cuban exile groups to urge them to keep their followers peaceful.
``They've made it clear that they want order,'' said Juan Perez-Franco, president of the Bay of Pigs Veterans Association, Brigade 2506, who attended the meeting on Coral Way.
Carollo began his day with a 7 a.m. interview on the Today show, and by 10:15 a.m. had done about 25 interviews with various local and national print, TV and radio reporters.
In practically every interview, he chastised Reno for not getting representatives of Elian's father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, to agree to a plan he had discussed with Reno in which Juan Miguel and his uncle Lazaro Gonzalez would move into separate houses in a federal compound somewhere to ease
transition of Elian back to his father.
Carollo said that failure to adopt the plan meant that the Cuban government was dictating the terms of Elian's hand-over.
Penelas did fewer interviews Thursday but also showed Miami's best side at every opportunity.
``People are demonstrating their emotions and they are doing it appropriately,'' he said, praising the protesters for keeping calm.
Herald Staff Writer Sandra Marquez Garcia contributed to this report.
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