Miami prepares for Elian showdown
By Mildrade Cherfils, Associated Press, 01//00
MIAMI -- A tense, anticipating crowd of Little Havana supporters braced today for Elian Gonzalez's departure and promised to stick it out until the end -- even if, for some, that means breaking the law.
"I'm going to protect this boy with my life. I don't care what the consequences," demonstrator Arturo Cobo said this morning.
For days, protesters have camped outside the home of Elian Gonzalez's great-uncle Lazaro, promising to defy the government that demands his handover. Now that a showdown could be imminent, those at the house say they are ready. By midmorning today, the crowd had grown to about 500 people. Some shouted, in Spanish, "War! War! War!"
Julio Ramos, 52, who has been in Miami for 20 years, has been holding vigil at the house every night for weeks. This morning, he carried a 3-foot-by-5-foot Cuban flag on a pole and wore a T-shirt saying "No Castro, No Problem."
"We are telling the U.S. government that if we must give our lives here, we are going to do it so Elian will not leave in the way they have planned," Ramos said. "It's a disgrace."
But he, like so many in recent days, promised to stay peaceful.
The government has ordered the Miami family to take Elian to a Miami-area airport this afternoon so he could fly to Washington to be returned to his father. But Elian's great-uncle Lazaro Gonzalez insisted he would not give the child up.
Family spokesman Armando Gutierrez renewed a pledge of nonviolence, though. "The family has asked and they'll ask the community to be peaceful," Gutierrez told Miami's WSVN-TV this morning.
While Attorney General Janet Reno did not elaborate on what would happen if the family fails to comply with the order, government sources have said the Justice Department was prepared to send U.S. marshals and immigration agents into the house to take the boy.
After Lazaro Gonzalez's assertion of defiance, the crowd outside his home -- which had thinned Wednesday while the relatives were in Miami Beach meeting with Reno -- swelled from 50 to about 200.
Juan Antunaz, 56, who has been in Miami 39 years, was standing about 50 yards from the house but said he would try to get onto the lawn as a protest. Two fences and a police line were in his path. "I'll allow myself to be arrested," he said.
Shortly after 5 a.m., one demonstrator, a stocky older man, rushed the barricade and tried to push it over, shouting, "Let's go -- let's go for the kid." Fellow protesters pulled him back. "C'mon," he shouted at them. "Didn't you say we were going in?"
Five police officers stood in front of the barricade while two others led him off by the arm and arrested him, saying he was inciting the crowd. And they may have had a point.
"We practiced a lot of times, and we had this barricade down in a minute," Hector Rodriguez said early today. He was among a group that rushed past police last week and formed a human chain around the house after a rumor spread that federal marshals were on their way.
Rafael Nodal spent the night at the house and planned to skip work today.
"You've heard the expression of ordinary people doing extraordinary things? That is a case of this person, Lazaro Gonzalez, and his family," he said. "It takes tremendous courage for someone to do that."
He added: "I've never seen our people so united."
Miami has the largest Cuban exile population in the nation, and both of its mayors -- Joe Carollo, the city's mayor, and Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas -- are of Cuban descent. And unlike immigrant groups in many major cities, Cubans here are, politically, extremely powerful.
Still, most demonstrators conceded that the group would not succeed in stopping marshals if they do come for the boy.
"I'm realistic, and I believe something bad is going to happen," said Bernardo Garcia. "We will probably lose the battle."
Cobo, 59, said he took part in the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961. When it failed, he recalled, he put a gun to his head and nearly pulled the trigger. Today, he said he was once again willing to die -- for Elian.
"The only difference is I don't have any guns this time. I don't have any grenades," he said. "I only have my heart."
Elian Gonzalez waves to well wishers, accompanied by his cousin Marisleysis, as they arrive at their home in Little Havana yesterday. (AP Photo)
