By Angus MacSwan
MIAMI, Jan 21 (Reuters) - The fate of Elian Gonzalez looked ever more uncertain on Friday as his grandmothers prepared to fly from Cuba to press for his return and relatives in Miami of the young shipwreck survivor vowed to keep him in the United States.
In a dramatic move in the tug-of-war over the motherless boy, the grandmothers were due to fly to New York later Friday, a U.S. religious leader said on Friday.
``Elian's grandmothers have agreed to accompany us to New York City to have an opportunity to speak to the American public particularly to ask that Elian Gonzalez come home,'' Bob Edgar of the National Council of Churches told reporters after meeting early on Friday with Elian's family in Cuba.
Earlier, the grandmothers had refused to come to the United States unless they could pick up Elian and take him home. The U.S. State Department issued them visas on Thursday.
Spencer Eig, a lawyer for relatives trying to keep Elian in Miami, said on Thursday night they had no intention of giving him up.
``That would be illegal. A court of law will now decide what happens to Elian,'' he told reporters on Thursday night.
In other developments, a legal challenge to a U.S. government ruling that Elian should go home to his father in Cuba was expected to advance on Friday. And in the background loomed moves by U.S. politicians to grant Elian U.S. citizenship when Congress reconvenes on Monday -- an action which
would prevent his return to Cuba by immigration officials.
The passionately fought battle over the boy has raged from the streets of Havana and Miami and even reached into the U.S. presidential campaign since Elian was rescued at sea in November.
His mother and 10 others drowned when a smugglers' boat taking them from Cuba to Florida capsized. His Miami relatives have spurned appeals from his father in Cuba to send him home, saying he should not return to grow up under communist rule.
Cuban exiles in Miami vehemently opposed to President Fidel Castro have adopted the boy as a symbol for their cause and the Miami relatives have paraded him before the media almost daily, claiming that he says he wants to stay in Miami.
Castro meanwhile has made Elian's return a national crusade, accusing the Miami relatives of kidnapping the boy, and has mobilised thousands of Cubans in demonstrations demanding his return.
After a meeting in Havana with a U.S. church mediator, Dr Joan Brown Campbell, one of the grandmothers, Raquel Rodriguez, said initially they would not be making the trip for the moment. They apparently feared that Elian's case was too heavily entangled in legal and political manoeuvres by his
Miami relatives and their Cuban exile backers.
But they changed their minds after what Edgar called 24 hours of ``delicate and emotional conversations'' with Elian's family.
The New York-based council, together with Cuba's Council of Churches, have been seeking to act as intermediaries to help promote a solution to the seven-week custody dispute. Campbell, NCC ex-general secretary, had flown into Havana on a privately-chartered plane on Thursday.
Elian's other grandmother, Mariela Quintana, had also earlier signalled her reluctance to make the trip.
She said she would go only ``when they tell me I can bring back my grandson.''
Elian's father Juan Miguel Gonzalez, who said on ABC television's Nightline show last week he would like to ``wring the necks'' of the Florida relatives, has refused to go to Miami, saying he could get trapped there.
In Miami, Marisleysis Gonzalez, the 22-year-old daughter of Elian's great uncle Lazaro, who has temporary custody of the boy, said she had told the boy his grandmothers were coming.
``He asked me if they were coming to take him away. I said, 'No, they're just coming to visit you.''
A lawsuit filed by the Miami relatives demanding a political asylum hearing for Elian is before a U.S. Federal Court. But the the judge, James Lawrence King, is expected to announce on Friday whether he should remove himself from the case.
King, a distinguished judge who two years ago ruled against the Cuban government in a lawsuit over the shootdown of two Cuban exile planes by Cuban jets, said he was too busy to reach a quick decision on the petition.
He also cited a possible conflict of interest because his son's campaign to an elected judge's post is being run by political consultant Armando Gutierrez, chief spokesman and strategist for the Miami relatives.
The Immigration and Naturalisation Service says only Elian's father can speak for the boy and his wishes should be respected. But it has agreed to await a ruling on the lawsuit rather than enforcing its decision.
President Bill Clinton has backed the INS. But Castro's government has strongly criticised Clinton and his administration for not acting quickly, thus allowing time for legal and political moves to keep Elian in the United States.
10:27 01-21-00
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