By David Johnston. The New York Times
WASHINGTON, April 27 -- Commanders of the raid that reunited Elián González with his father went into the home of his Miami relatives with automatic weapons early last Saturday because intelligence reports indicated that the house was being guarded by a shadowy network of men who
had permits to carry concealed weapons, a history of violent crime or a record of anti-Castro violence, one of the officers said today.
A senior immigration official in charge of intelligence gathering for the operation said it was the information suggesting the possibility of violence that led the authorities to plan a large military-style raid with about 140 agents, a few armed with automatic weapons.
"There was a structure and the potential of violent threats to prevent us from recovering Elián from the house and perhaps do serious harm to our personnel and maybe innocent people in the area," the official said. "That's really why we structured the enforcement plan to
be, by any objective standard, an overwhelming show of force to prevent the use of force."
The official said there were several reports of an unidentified person at the house who was observed with a firearm but no reports of weapons in the house. Attorney General Janet Reno has said there were reports of weapons inside the house.
There was no immediate comment on firearms tonight from a spokesman for the family, though the family has always insisted it had none in the house and none were confiscated in the raid.
The intelligence operation uncovered what the official said was a plan to thwart any effort to remove Elián from the González home forcibly by rushing him to the house directly behind the González's if the authorities tried to break in. That house was headquarters for the
Cuban-American security operation in the Little Havana neighborhood, the official said.
The intelligence operation relied largely on covert surveillance, overflights of helicopters and fixed wing aircraft, the official said, speaking on condition of not being named. The information was cross-checked with law enforcement and commercial databases to provide a profile of the loose
network of security personnel around the child in the days before the raid.
The official said agents detected several layers in what he described as a security cordon around the house of Lázaro González, where Elián was staying after he was rescued from the Atlantic on Nov. 25. The security operation extended to the streets surrounding the house,
where, the official said, supporters in lawn chairs took positions at strategic intersections and used walkie-talkies and cell phones to report law enforcement activity.
The official said the reports were transmitted to supporters of the Miami relatives at a house on the same block as the González home. The reports, he said, were relayed to local Spanish-speaking radio stations, which sometimes broadcast appeals to Cuban-Americans to crowd the streets
around the house.
The official said agents identified five people who seemed to operate as what he called "close quarters bodyguards" who were at the González house at varying times. Four of the five people, the official said, were identified, and all four had active permits to carry concealed
weapons.
Although the González family seemed to know and allow some members of the security force into their home, the official said, it was unclear whether the Miami relatives played a significant role in organizing or managing the network of Cuban-American supporters.
The official said the leaders of the security force occupied the house behind the González home. This was what he described as a base of operations for a larger group of 15 to 20 people who set up roving patrols on foot, bicycles and cars.
Among this group were nine people whom the official said had criminal records for violent crimes.
"These people had essentially taken it on their own to prevent the removal of Elián from the González home," the official said.
In addition, the official said, five members of the militant anti-Castro group Alpha 66 were seen on several occasions in the crowd of demonstrators. He said three of the five had taken credit for firing from a boat into a seaside hotel in Cuba in 1995.
Immigration officials said they coordinated their intelligence gathering with other federal agencies and with Miami police. But the officials said they did not coordinate the raid with the local authorities who, except for a few senior commanders, did not know how or when the operation was to
take place.
Although several Cuban citizens in the security operation were detained in the days before the assault, the official said, the intelligence collection effort did not result in arrests or searches for weapons. That was because the operation to take custody of the child was focused solely on that
goal, the official said, and was not viewed as broader law enforcement action.
The operation took place shortly after 5 a.m. on Saturday after negotiations that Ms. Reno had said stalled over the relatives' unwillingness to surrender the child unconditionally to the authorities after months of refusing to hand over the boy.
Lawyers for the relatives have complained that they were pleading for more time to negotiate a peaceful transfer at nearly the exact time that Ms. Reno sent the agents to the house and have bitterly criticized her for undertaking the assault without giving the talks more time.
Republicans in Congress are planning hearings to review the operation. Some lawmakers have sharply criticized Ms. Reno for sending in agents outfitted in military-style jump suits who carried automatic weapons in an operation that they said was likely to provoke violence and terrorize the boy.
Justice Department lawyers have not allowed the agents who planned and carried out the assault to be interviewed until today, in part because they were assembling an after-action report and reviewing each agent's account in anticipation of civil lawsuits and Congressional inquiries.
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