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Peace at any cost is a prelude to war!
Reno Decides To Remove Elian From Miami Kin
Father Francisco Santana, right, greets Elian Gonzalez Thursday while the
boy plays in an electric car at his great-uncle's house in Miami. (Reuters)
Attorney General Janet Reno met with Elian Gonzalez' father today but would
not give a commitment on a particular course of action or timetable for
reuniting him with his 6-year-old son Elian, whom Miami relatives refuse to
relinquish.
By Karen DeYoung
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, April 21, 2000; Page A01
Attorney General Janet Reno has decided to remove Elian Gonzalez from the
home of his Miami great-uncle and has instructed federal law enforcement
officials to determine the optimum moment to do so based on variables ranging
from Miami traffic to the weather forecast, officials said yesterday.
Once she is told the time is right on the ground, Reno will decide. Officials
said Reno's primary concern is the safety of Elian and of the government
agents involved, and that they expected to move by the middle of next week.
Reno's decision was bolstered--some said pushed--by President Clinton, who
for the first time took a firm public position on the controversy yesterday.
"He should be reunited with his son," Clinton said of Elian's father, Juan
Miguel Gonzalez. "That is the law."
Clinton's remarks came after an emotional public appeal by Gonzalez for
American citizens to "please help me" by calling, writing letters or "doing
whatever you can" to press for Elian's return. "My son is only a 6-year-old
child," Gonzalez told reporters camped outside the Bethesda home of a Cuban
diplomat where he has been staying since arriving from Havana two weeks ago.
"He's a son like every other son or child in America. No different. Anyone
who has feelings, who knows the love of parent for a child, please help me.
Don't let people put politics first." Gonzalez said "it hurts me a lot to see
what they're doing" to Elian in Miami.
Clinton's remarks came in a planned question-and-answer opportunity in the
Rose Garden as he welcomed Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat for Middle East
peace discussions. Choosing his words carefully, he said that Wednesday's
appeals court order preventing Elian from leaving for Cuba until court
challenges are resolved had removed "any conceivable argument" from Miami to
delay the reunion. He said that it should happen "in as prompt and orderly a
way as possible."
Asked about the appeals court suggestion that Elian may have rights
independent from his father's wishes, Clinton said such a conclusion would be
"a dramatic departure from the law." Even if that became an issue during the
appeals hearing next month, he said, the court had said nothing to prevent
Elian from being with his father "while all this legal process plays out."
Clinton has kept the controversy at arm's length since it began nearly five
months ago, saying that decisions were up to Reno and the courts. But as Reno
has set and let pass a series of deadlines for the child to be relinquished
by the Miami relatives and courts have ruled, White House officials privately
have complained that the government has seemed cowed by the potential ire of
the Cuban American community.
Aides said Clinton and Reno spent 45 minutes discussing the Elian case
Wednesday night as they flew back on Air Force One from ceremonies
commemorating the fifth anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing.
Yesterday morning, Reno met with Immigration and Naturalization Service
Commissioner Doris M. Meissner and senior legal and law enforcement officials
from the department. Among the options discussed was delaying enforcement
action until after the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals deals with the
question before it--whether the INS must consider a political asylum request
for Elian. A federal district court last month rejected the Miami relatives'
challenge to an INS ruling that only Elian's father could make such a request.
The appeals court has scheduled a preliminary hearing on the matter for May
11, but could take weeks after that to reach a decision.
Reno rejected that option and instructed law enforcement officials, including
U.S. marshals and INS agents, to prepare to activate long-standing plans to
remove Elian from the home of his Miami great-uncle, Lazaro Gonzalez, and to
inform her when the time is right do it. Although they are depending on local
police to deal with potential violence from demonstrators, federal officials
have long been monitoring the crowd gathered around the Gonzalez home in
Little Havana.
Juan Miguel Gonzalez was said to be encouraged by yesterday's developments,
particularly Clinton's statement, but he was scheduled to meet with his
attorney, Gregory B. Craig, today for what sources described as an "options
meeting." Among those options, the sources said, was "more self-help,"
including the possibility of launching court action on his own to press for
Elian's return if the government continues to delay.
In a letter after Wednesday's appeals court decision was announced, Craig
reminded Reno that Lazaro Gonzalez already had defied an INS order to turn
Elian over to the INS on April 13. Saying that Lazaro Gonzalez had "resisted
all efforts to accomplish a peaceful transfer of Elian's custody to his
father," Craig told Reno "there is no reason to expect any cooperation from
that quarter, and no more time should be wasted in any such effort."
For their part, the Miami relatives continued to ask to meet with the father
"with no preconditions," and for an independent psychological evaluation to
examine allegations that the father is abusive and that Elian is afraid to
return to him and to Cuba.
"With the allegations that the boy has made, have been made with respect to
the father's temperament and past behavior . . . this is the opportunity to
evaluate the boy professionally," Jose Garcia-Pedrosa, an attorney for the
relatives, said yesterday on NBC's "Today" show.
Craig, appearing on the same show, said: "There's no evidence whatsoever that
this father abused that child in any way, shape or form. . . . For them to be
raising these allegations at this late date is just simply outrageous."
In terms of a family meeting, he said, the relatives "still claim that they
will not give custody to the father, that that's something for them to
decide. If there was a commitment by them that the very first thing they
would do would be to hand Elian Gonzalez to his father, then anything is
possible."
Meanwhile, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jesse Helms (R-N.C.)
yesterday told Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright that he hopes she
will "respond vigorously" to an alleged assault on demonstrators by Cuban
diplomats outside their government's mission here last Friday night. If the
Cuban government refuses to cooperate, Helms wrote Albright, she should
consider "expelling those personnel suspected in the attack."
D.C. police and the Secret Service have said they are investigating the
allegations.
Staff writer John F. Harris contributed to this report.
© 2000 The Washington Post Company
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