Government seeks to take final steps in reuniting Elian with father

MIAMI -- Government-appointed psychiatrists met Elian Gonzalez's Miami relatives today in the first of what Attorney General Janet Reno called the final steps necessary to reunite the boy with his father.

The Miami family had made clear it was unhappy the psychiatrists would not evaluate the 6-year-old boy during a meeting at Jackson Memorial Hospital. They had considered skipping the 1:30 p.m. meeting, but later indicated they would attend.

By 4 p.m., however, the two psychiatrists, one psychologist and officials from the Immigration and Naturalization Service were still waiting. INS spokeswoman Maria Cardona said the family of Lazaro Gonzalez, Elian's great-uncle, requested the meeting be moved to Miami's Mercy Hospital so his ailing daughter, Marisleysis, could attend and because he did not want to leave her side.

The agency agreed to the request, she said, and the meeting began shortly after 5 p.m.

Late this afternoon, the family filed their brief in their appeal of a federal judge's ruling that affirmed the INS decision to send Elian back to Cuba. They filed the brief a few minutes before the deadline.

Meanwhile, a state court where the Miami relatives turned for a last-ditch attempt at keeping Elian made it clear the relatives' pleas had little legal merit. Circuit Judge Jennifer D. Bailey did not issue a ruling but ordered the Miami relatives to file a brief by Tuesday morning showing why she should hear the case.

In a tone bordering on admonishment, she questioned their approach to the case, citing their failure even to prove they delivered a copy of their lawsuit against Juan Miguel Gonzalez to him. She also said they have shown no evidence the child would be harmed if returned to his father, and -- in a question punctuated by underlines -- wondered how any ruling she issued could overrule the INS decision.

Many protesters outside Lazaro Gonzalez's home in Little Havana said they realized the boy's time in Miami could be coming to an end. They prayed for divine intervention, hoped for a last-minute reprieve and promised to keep the faith.

"It's going to get hot. Each hour that passes, the situation becomes more difficult. And it changes by the minute," said retiree Miguel Concheso, 54, a Miami Cuban who was one of about a dozen people demonstrating at the house this morning. Crowds typically grow as the day progresses.

Demonstrators at the house have promised to form a human chain to prevent the government from taking Elian. Ramon Saul Sanchez, president of the Cuban-exile Democracy Movement, said he was "planning to exercise whatever influence we have" over demonstrators to assure nonviolence.

"We have been consistently telling the people that we must struggle for Elian to have his day in court," Sanchez said. "But that we must also understand that we have a duty to this community. We have fought the battle, and what Elian is going to remember is that these people here did not betray him."

Miami Mayor Joe Carollo said today he planned to go to Washington to ask Reno for a 30-day transition period to minimize trauma to Elian. "I'm going to ask her to be fair and make sure this process is done gradually, away from the arms and the strong hands of the Castro security apparatus," Carollo said.

In Washington, Justice spokeswoman Carole Florman said Reno had agreed to meet at her office Tuesday with Carollo and Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas, who said earlier that his police would not help remove Elian from Lazaro Gonzalez's home.

Reno appointed the two psychiatrists and psychologist to meet with the family and devise a smooth way to transfer Elian to his father. The experts met briefly Sunday in Washington with the father, who came from Havana on Thursday.

Lazaro Gonzalez wanted the meeting moved to Miami's Mercy Hospital because he considered it important that Marisleysis Gonzalez, who has become a mother figure to Elian since the boy was found at sea in November, attend. The government had suggested that the discussion go on without Marisleysis and offered her a separate meeting later.

Gutierrez said Marisleysis, who has been hospitalized several times in recent weeks for exhaustion, was in stable condition today at Mercy. He said she had left the hospital too early the last time she was there.

The Miami relatives criticized the government's plan to bring in psychiatrists without having them evaluate Elian directly. They said if such an examination was conducted it would conclude that Elian should not be reunited with his father.

"The public perception is the evaluation is for the best interest of the child," Dr. Carlos Gonzalez, one of the family's psychiatrists, told reporters outside the house Sunday night. "In actuality, it's a consultation for the INS on how to effect the transfer."

The Justice Department said today it was simply devising a way to keep Elian safe in a potentially volatile environment. "We would hope that we would be able to set up something so that Elian will not have to be carried through a throng of people in Miami," Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder said on CBS' "The Early Show."

Associated Press Writer Michael J. Sniffen contributed to this report from Washington.