The American lawyer for Elian Gonzalez’s father left Havana alone last night – after failing to convince Cuban authorities he should escort his client to the United States immediately.
Attorney Gregory Craig spent much of the day huddled with father Juan Miguel Gonzalez at Cuban President Fidel Castro’s villa before flying home.
His abortive mission to bring Gonzalez back to Washington left plans for a reunion between the father and his 6-year-old son up in the air once again.
State Department spokesman James Rubin said the Cuban government insists the father will come to the United States only if one of two conditions are met:
“Either he picks up his son and leaves immediately or he comes to the United States for an extended visit with the 27 other individuals who have requested a visa.”
The State Department has approved visas for the father and five others and said it will review the other requests case by case.
Meanwhile, the feds still don’t have an agreement in place with Elian’s Miami relatives on how the 6-year-old should be turned over to his father.
Immigration and Naturalization Service general counsel Bo Cooper said yesterday that being with his father “would best serve the boy’s interest.”
Asked whether force would be used to remove the boy from the Miami relatives, Cooper said: Elian made a brief public appearance yesterday – waving to protesters outside the Miami home where he’s been living since surviving the November raft wreck that killed his mother.
Then uncle Lazaro Gonzalez whisked Elian away to visit his cousin, Marisleysis, who was recuperating at a relative’s house after fainting during an interview Tuesday.
About 75 demonstrators remained massed behind barricades outside the Gonzalez home.
A cry of outrage went up when a spokesman for the family came out with a copy of a Washington Times story in which a Cuban official was quoted as saying Elian “is a possession of the Cuban government.”
Luis Fernandez, spokesman for the Cuban Interests Section in Washington, later said his quote was inaccurate and “manipulated.”
But the demonstrators reacted angrily.
“That’s terrible. [Elian] belongs to God and this earth. This should not be about politics. This is not about any country,” said Rita Oliva, 32, a Cuban-born college student wearing a T-shirt bearing a picture of Elian.
Negotiations between the feds and the Miami relatives are set to resume today. The family is insisting a panel of psychologists decide whether the boy should return to Cuba – a scenario the government has rejected.