WASHINGTON (AP) -- After two months in America and three court rulings in his favor, Juan Miguel Gonzalez again asked Miami relatives to stop the legal dueling that has kept his 6-year-old son Elian from going home to Cuba. There was little indication the family would oblige. So it remained unclear how much more time Elian would have to spend in the United States.
In Cuba, a half-million women filled Havana's main coastal highway Friday to protest the delay after President Fidel Castro called them out in the largest mobilization of his six-month campaign to bring the boy home. Castro also made an appearance. "Bring back Elian!" the mothers and grandmothers shouted, waving small Cuban flags and marching in step with a uniformed military band. "Down with the lies!"
A court order requiring Elian to stay in the United States still is in effect and could last up to three weeks more -- unless some court extends it to hear new appeals from the Miami relatives or shortens it by quickly rejecting any new appeals.
Speaking Thursday just hours after a three-judge federal appeals court panel in Atlanta sided with him in the lengthy custody battle, Gonzalez said, "A child simply should be with his parents, always with his parents. "As the father, I should be speaking on behalf of my son," he said through an interpreter.
His lawyer, Gregory Craig, said that after Thursday's ruling, there was "no longer any doubt" that Gonzalez would eventually win the case in which the relatives are seeking asylum for Elian. "It is now time to end this chapter of Elian's life and let this family go in peace," he told reporters while standing with Gonzalez in front of his Washington law office.
Craig noted that Miami relatives who took Elian into their home after he was rescued from the Atlantic Ocean have said they are concerned about Elian and that they love him. "Their love and their concern are best expressed today by calling a halt to this legal battle," he said.
Craig said Friday that Gonzalez would allow the Miami relatives to see Elian "under certain circumstances." "The way they should go about trying to see Elian is just approach the father. They have even yet to approach the father," Craig said on NBC's "Today."
Family lawyer Spencer Eig, also on NBC, said, "I'd be very happy to discuss it with Mr. Craig right now." But, he added, "The demand that the family drop its appeal -- that the family not do what it thinks is right to protect Elian's future as a precondition for a visit -- well, that's just inhumane."
Another attorney for the relatives, Kendall Coffey, said they hadn't decided their next move. He asked Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, who handles emergency matters for Florida in the Supreme Court, "to assure that Elian will remain in the United States" until the full Supreme Court can consider a formal appeal he said he would file within 10 days. Later Thursday, he asked Kennedy to disregard the emergency request while the family considered its options.
Marisleysis Gonzalez, Elian's cousin who cared for him during his Miami stay, said she still believes Elian won't be returned to Cuba. "I hope the laws of this country favor him and give him the opportunity to seek asylum," she said. She also hopes the courts will order Elian's father to allow her and her family to visit the boy.
About 100 protesters in Miami expressed anguish over the court ruling, gathering Thursday outside the small home in Miami's Little Havana section where Elian stayed with his relatives. "The Constitution is dead," said Roxana Rodriguez, a secretary. "There is no justice. Democracy and freedom have been thrown to the trash."
In its ruling, the three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the Immigration and Naturalization Service's decision that only a parent can act for a 6-year-old child in immigration matters was reasonable. The court gave the Miami relatives 14 days to appeal.
President Clinton and Attorney General Janet Reno welcomed the ruling. Reno said that if Miami relatives don't appeal during that time, the earliest Elian could leave the United States would be seven days later -- or 21 days in all. And Clinton, speaking in Berlin, said he supported the Justice Department's position that the father was the person "best suited" to speak for Elian.
On Capitol Hill, several members of Congress restated their stand on the drawn-out international custody case, begun after Elian survived a November shipwreck that killed his mother and 10 others attempting to come to the United States. "It can never be in a child's best interests to live under communist tyranny," said Rep. Tom DeLay, a Texas Republican who is the House majority whip. "And I hope that the appeals process will ultimately result in providing Elian Gonzalez with a life of liberty." "I am deeply disappointed in the court's decision," said Florida Republican Sen. Connie Mack, adding that denying Elian an asylum hearing "leaves a black mark on our democracy."
The father arrived in the states with Elian's stepmother and half brother on April 6 in hopes of taking Elian home. Miami relatives refused to relinquish the boy, so federal agents seized him April 22 and reunited him with his dad in the Washington area.
