MIAMI, Jan 7 (Reuters) - Miami police braced for more protests on Friday after irate Cuban exiles blocked intersections and hobbled traffic in a wave of demonstrations over a U.S. decision to send a 6-year-old boy back to communist Cuba.
Exile groups called on south Floridians to participate in ``Elian Gonzalez School Zone Day'' Friday by driving at 15 mph (24 km) -- school zone speed -- to show support for their fight to keep the boy in the United States.
The noisy but largely peaceful demonstrations erupted a day after the U.S. Immigration and Naturalisation Service ruled that Elian, who survived a refugee boat sinking and drifted for two days alone on an inner tube in the Atlantic Ocean, should be sent back to Cuba to be with his father.
More than 100 people were arrested on Thursday on misdemeanor charges during a day of protests that rolled through the streets of Miami from the entrance to its busy seaport to downtown intersections to the streets of Little Havana.
Helmeted riot police with truncheons and shotguns confronted the protesters at the Port of Miami after they blockaded the entrance and exit roads, backing up traffic.
Among those arrested were two prominent Cuban exile leaders, Jose Basulto of Brothers to the Rescue and Ramon Saul Sanchez of the Democracy Movement.
Two protesters were hit by a car when they tried to block its path and other demonstrators scuffled with police. But the protests failed to shut down the city as some exile leaders had vowed to do.
The demonstrations marked the latest stage in a politically charged six-week struggle between Havana and its staunch foes in Miami over Elian, a rhetorical war that created new tensions between Washington and Cuban President Fidel Castro.
Elian was rescued from the Atlantic by fishermen on Nov. 25, U.S. Thanksgiving Day, after a smugglers' boat bringing illegal migrants to Florida capsized. His mother was one of 11 people who died in the accident.
His father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, a tourism worker who was divorced from the mother, had appealed for Elian to be sent home to him. Castro's government said the boy was kidnapped and staged massive rallies in Cuba urging his return.
But the child's Miami relatives argued he should grow up in freedom in the United States and vowed to pursue legal action to win guardianship of the boy.
Local politicians pleaded with protesters for peaceful demonstrations and urged them not to tie up traffic -- a type of protest that has infuriated Miamians in the past.
Police said exile groups planned a rally at a federal government building downtown. Officials said they were prepared to arrest drivers who attempted to block traffic.
10:16 01-07-00
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