By Andrew Cawthorne
HAVANA, Jan 25 (Reuters) - Smarting at a failed attempt by the Cuban grandmothers of Elian Gonzalez to see the six-year- old boy in Miami, Havana on Tuesday praised the women as heroines and lambasted his U.S. relatives as ``evil cowards.''
``The mafia demonstrated once again its miserable and cowardly nature,'' said a statement from Cuba's ruling Communist Party, detailing the grandmothers' fruitless trip Monday to Miami in the latest twist to the two-month custody battle.
The statement, titled ``The heroic behaviour of Elian's grandmothers,'' blamed his U.S. guardians and Cuban-American politicians in Florida for preventing the two women from holding a quiet, private meeting with Elian in Miami.
Instead of following a plan drawn up by U.S. immigration authorities for the grandmothers to meet Elian at a religious centre, they organised a lavish party at their house with anti- Castro politicians present and media outside, Havana said.
``The place where the boy is being held kidnapped was a shameful spectacle ... It was a publicity banquet,'' said the statement, naming various anti-Castro activists present.
The grandmothers spent more than four hours at a Miami airport, speaking by cellular phone with immigration officials, their family in Cuba, and the relatives in Miami, before deciding to return to Washington.
Maternal grandmother Raquel Rodriguez and paternal grandmother Mariela Quintana have been in the United States since Friday on a trip intended to gain support for returning the boy to his father in Cuba.
Elian was rescued at sea off Florida exactly two months ago in a harrowing capsize in which his mother and 10 other Cubans drowned. He survived two days and nights clinging to an inner- tube in shark-infested waters, hungry and dehydrated.
The grandmothers, who were seeking meetings Tuesday with U.S. politicians in Washington, have stated their intention of taking him back to Cuba.
While they may still see the boy, their ultimate goal looks unlikely in the short-term given legal and political obstacles still in the way of an earlier U.S. immigration ruling that Elian belongs with his father.
Elian's relatives have challenged that Jan. 5 decision in court, and are seeking custody of the boy on grounds that it would be prejudicial to send him back to communist-run Cuba.
Further complicating the tug-of-war over Elian, U.S. Congress lawmakers began introducing legislation this week to grant him American citizenship or residency.
The awarding of citizenship to Elian, Tuesday's communique said, would be ``an honour which neither the innocent boy nor his selfless and humble family have requested, and which nobody has the legal or moral right to impose by force.''
Havana's statement denounced ``the evil great-uncle'' Lazaro Gonzalez, at whose house Elian is staying in Miami's Little Havana district. At one point Monday, ``the repugnant subject'' insulted one grandmother and reduced her to tears during a phone call, the statement said.
11:09 01-25-00
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