By John Rice, .c The Associated Press
HAVANA, 28 (AP) - Tens of thousands of Cubans - joined by visiting U.S. college baseball players - marched by torchlight through the streets of Havana early today to commemorate an independence hero and demand the return of 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez.
A dramatic sea of flickering lights flooded down the broad steps of the University of Havana at midnight as a predominantly student crowd marched several blocks to a monument for Jose Marti. The crowd occasionally broke into chants of ``Fidel! Fidel!'' for Cuban President Fidel Castro.
``We continue in open, frontal combat for our (Elian), kidnapped in the claws of the mafia of Miami,'' said speaker Julio Martinez, a senior official of the Union of Communist Youth, to a tightly packed crowd waving Cuban flags.
``Return Elian to the fatherland! Socialism or death! Fatherland or death! We will triumph!'' he shouted.
The march was held to mark the 147th anniversary of the birth of Marti, a poet and leader of Cuba's struggle for independence from Spain.
The government has staged events almost nightly for two months to demand the return of Elian, who was rescued Nov. 25 while clinging to an innertube off the coast of Florida after a shipwreck that killed his mother and 10 other people.
Elian's great-uncle in the United States, backed by the anti-Castro Cuban American National Foundation, is fighting in the courts to keep the child from being returned to his father in Cuba.
Marching near the front ranks of the midnight parade were baseball players from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minn., who on Wednesday played a game against the University of Havana and are visiting educational and cultural sites.
``We decided as a team we would participate in this, just as a sign of friendship,'' said Jake Mauer, 21, of St. Paul.
The visit to an island off-limits to most Americans seemed to have impressed the players, who said they had been received warmly by Cubans.
``I thought they were a lot of repressed people and didn't care for Fidel, but it's totally the opposite,'' said Joseph Larson, 21, of Minneapolis.
The university's president, Rev. Dennis Dease, said he hoped that the game and other educational exchanges with the University of Havana ``will make a small contribution to normalizing relations between our two countries.''
As for Elian, ``I hope that that little boy comes home here. This is where he belongs,'' Dease said.
Earlier, Cuban officials and Elian's father Juan Miguel Gonzalez expressed anger at the treatment Elian's grandmothers received in a meeting with the boy in Miami on Wednesday.
``I felt very indignant,'' Gonzalez told reporters in Havana. ``They just ruined everything.''
Gonzalez complained because the grandmothers' cellular phones were confiscated, he had been unable to speak with his son during the meeting. During all previous conversations with the boy since Elian was rescued, members of the family fighting Gonzalez for custody have been present.
Ricardo Alarcon, president of the National Assembly and Fidel Castro's top man for Cuba-U.S. relations, complained that anti-communist protests held near the meeting place intruded on the meeting and said the Miami relatives and their backers were given special privileges.
Alarcon accused the Miami relatives of breaking an agreement not to make contact with the grandmothers during the meeting. Not only did Elian's second cousin turn the boy over to the grandmothers, she also listened at the door and recounted what happened later, Alarcon said.
He also complained that the meeting, which was supposed to last two to three hours, was prematurely cut short by organizers.
``It was like some people visiting a person in jail,'' Alarcon charged.
AP-NY-01-28-00 0311EST
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