By Alex Veiga, .c The Associated Press
MIAM, 28 (AP) - Relatives of 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez offered his father $2 million, a house and a car to stop fighting for the boy's return to Cuba and join them in America, according to prosecutors.
The government made the allegations Thursday in response to a federal lawsuit filed by Elian's Miami relatives seeking to block his return to Cuba.
U.S. District Judge William M. Hoeveler dealt the federal government a setback when he allowed the relatives to file their response to the allegations by Feb. 24.
The government, which is seeking Elian's prompt return to his father in Cuba, had asked for a hearing by next Friday, but the judge's ruling means Elian likely will remain here until hearings during the week of March 6.
Elian's cousin, Marisleysis Gonzalez, denied the accusations leveled by the government.
``We would never buy anybody because we are the type of family that believes money can't buy people,'' Ms. Gonzalez said.
The charge was the latest in increasingly pointed accusations between Elian's father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, and the Miami relatives who have sheltered the boy since he was rescued Nov. 25 while clinging to an inner tube off the Florida coast. His mother and 10 others died in the attempt to flee
Cuba.
Government attorneys also argued that federal courts have no right to intervene in the international dispute over the boy, and that his Miami relatives have no legal standing in the case. The attorneys want a judge to dismiss the lawsuit seeking an asylum hearing for the boy.
According to court documents, Lazaro Gonzalez, a great-uncle who has temporary custody of Elian, told immigration officials that he spoke to Elian's father by telephone two or three days before the boy was found.
He said Elian's father asked him to protect Elian ``by whatever means available'' but eventually changed his mind and asked for Elian to come back.
The father was interviewed by Immigration and Naturalization Service officials in Havana on Dec. 13 and Dec. 31 as the case began to fan the emotions of both Cubans and Cuban immigrants in the United States.
In the interviews, the boy's father said his relatives in Miami offered him the incentives if he would join his son in the United States. He also said a church had offered $4 million to Elian so he would be set for life, but did not specify which church made the offer.
Silma Dimmel, the INS interviewer, said Elian's father ``did not appear at all nervous or intimidated,'' and ``based on his demeanor, I had no reason to believe he was being coerced.''
Elian's father checked ``No'' on a questionnaire asking him whether he wanted the boy to stay in the United States, whether he was being coerced and whether he had ever requested a visa to travel to the United States.
According to the court papers, INS officials asked these questions in written form in case the room was bugged.
In his account, Elian's father said his ex-wife, Elisabeth Brotons, took the boy out of Cuba without telling him. After the boy turned up in the United States, ``at all times I asked that Elian be returned to me,'' his father said.
Elian's father also complained that the relatives in Miami had interfered with his attempts to speak with his son on the phone.
``When we call and Elian starts saying, `Grandma I want to be with you' or `Daddy I want to go with you,' they immediately make him cry, or give him a candy or start tapping on the lines saying that the lines are getting bad and hang up the phone,'' he said.
The government also contended that a decision to not return Elian to Cuba would undermine efforts to get other countries to return abducted American children.
In the court papers, Mary A. Ryan, assistant secretary of state for consular affairs at the State Department, said that fathers who abduct their children to Islamic countries often argue that the social environment in the United States is immoral or unsuitable for children. Failing to return
Elian to Cuba could make those arguments more acceptable to foreign authorities, she said.
AP-NY-01-28-00 0839EST
Copyright 2000 The Associated Press |