WASHINGTON -- A government plan to reunite Elian Gonzalez with his father at a Miami-area airport Thursday is on hold while officials wait to see whether the boy's Florida relatives and his father can arrange an exchange of their own, a government official said.
Elian was being taken Wednesday by great-uncle Lazaro Gonzalez to the Miami Beach house of Sister Jeanne O'Laughlin. Family spokesman Armando Gutierrez said the nun's house would be a quieter setting for Elian.Lazaro Gonzalez has proposed her house as a neutral site for a meeting between the Miami relatives and Elian's father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez.
O'Laughlin, the president of Barry University, had initially said she had no opinion about whether Elian should be returned to his father in Cuba, but after playing host to his grandmothers in January, she said she believed he should remain in the United States.
On Tuesday night, a Cuban exile group had told a Capitol Hill news conference that Elian's Miami relatives would bring the 6-year-old shipwreck survivor to Washington for a meeting with his father at noon Wednesday.
But shortly before midnight, Lazaro Gonzalez, who has been caring for Elian since he was rescued off the Florida coast in November, declared that the meeting was off because the boy did not want to go. A crowd outside his Miami home erupted with cheers.
Elian was "extremely afraid" about the proposed meeting in Washington, family lawyer Roger Bernstein said on NBC's "Today." He said it would be helpful if any meeting between Elian and his father were delayed until Marisleysis Gonzalez, a Miami cousin who has become close to the boy, could accompany him. She has been ill.
Some Cuban-Americans in Miami, bitter enemies of the Castro government, have threatened to form a human chain around the home of Lazaro Gonzalez if federal officials try to take Elian away. Miami Mayor Joe Carollo said Tuesday there would be no violence.
Police used chains to safeguard the barricades in front of the great-uncle's home. Resting on the fence in front of the house is a large sign -- "Castro, this is how I want to see you" -- with a drawing of Fidel Castro's face atop a coffin.
A spokeswoman for the Immigration and Naturalization Service, Maria Cardona, confirmed that efforts were being made to arrange a meeting of the Miami relatives with Juan Miguel Gonzalez.
"While no meeting is yet officially confirmed, we continue to focus on trying to get all of Elian's family to communicate and are trying to resolve this promptly and cooperatively," she said.
With the situation in flux, Attorney General Janet Reno postponed a trip to Miami she had planned for Wednesday.
A government official said a Justice Department letter to Elian's Miami relatives had been drafted and proposed that they transfer Elian at Opa Locka airport, near Miami, on Thursday. Sending that letter is on hold, pending developments in Washington today, the official said.
Jorge Mas Santos, chairman of the Cuban American National Foundation, told reporters Tuesday night that Lazaro Gonzalez would bring the boy to Washington for the long-awaited reunion.
Mas said the meeting would be closed to all nonfamily members, but that Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder and Sen. Robert Torricelli, D-N.J., would be just outside. He said the meeting would occur at noon at a place yet to be decided.
"After 41/2 months, the private meeting that this family has so yearned for with Juan Miguel Gonzalez tomorrow will be a reality," Mas said. He said the family and the Justice Department had both agreed to the details.
"It's going to be at a neutral site, and there's basically going to be a resolution of the situation," Jose Cardenas, Washington director the Cuban exile group, told The Associated Press.
Torricelli did not attend the news conference, and his spokesman, Richard McGrath, would confirm only that the senator was involved in the negotiations to bring the boy to Washington.
It was not clear to whom Elian would be transferred Thursday under the government plan, but it would be either to his father if he goes to Opa Locka, or to another of Elian's great-uncles, Manolo Gonzalez. The great-uncle would then fly with the boy to another location to meet the father.
If there is no meeting of the family in Washington today, the government then would go ahead and send the letter.
Juan Miguel Gonzalez has told supporters that he would not meet with the Miami family until he has custody of Elian.
A government source noted that when the plan was announced Tuesday evening, there was no mention of transferring Elian to his father. The source was unable to say whether this was because no transfer was planned or because the Miami relatives and their allies did not want to announce a transfer agreement until after they left Miami.
On the Net:
Immigration and Naturalization Service: www.ins.usdoj.gov
Miami relatives: libertyforelian.org