Elian moves again, awaits Cuban friends, teacher
By Christopher Thorne, Associated Press, 4/26/00
QUEENSTOWN, Md. -- He still can't go home, so little pieces of Elian Gonzalez's life in Cuba are being brought to him in America as his family, the courts and the Senate consider the fate of the 6-year-old boy.
In the latest stop on his five-month odyssey, the young boat wreck survivor was moved to a secluded and wooded Maryland retreat with lots of room to play. There, he awaits visits by his former kindergarten teacher and a 10-year-old cousin, perhaps as early as today.
"There's an understanding that he's going to be here for quite some time," said State Department spokesman James Rubin -- also announcing visas would be expedited for four of Elian's playmates to come from Cuba.
"A young 6-year-old ... needs to have someone to play with."
Rubin said that at the request of Elian's father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, four friends of Elian will be allowed visas to visit him for about two weeks. Each will be accompanied by one adult family member.
Visas for the former teacher and a cousin who Elian is said to be very close to had been approved nearly a month ago but not used.
The Rev. Joan Brown Campbell, a supporter of the family, said the visits are important to create "a sense of normalcy for him about the life he has lead and will lead."
"It's probably as close as we can do, given the fact that normal for him would be to be back in his own town, in his own home, own bed, own school, own neighborhood," she said in a telephone interview.
U.S. marshals on Tuesday moved Elian, his father, stepmother and half brother from housing at Andrews Air Force Base, outside Washington, where they had stayed since Saturday. They moved about 70 miles east of Washington to a house on the 1,100-acre Aspen Institute's Wye River estate known as the site of seminars, Mideast peace talks and retreats.
Meantime, Attorney General Janet Reno met with a group of senators at the Capitol to defend her decision to send armed agents to seize the boy early Saturday from the home of Miami relatives who've been trying for five months to permanently keep the boy in the United States.
Also, the Miami relatives, who came to Washington hours after the boy was seized, made their fourth unsuccessful attempt in as many days to visit Elian.
Doris Meissner, commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, said today that a private psychiatrist who interviewed Elian and his father Tuesday at Reno's request "found the family functioning very well as a family."
"She said Elian was very playful, very active; he does a lot of watching and mimicking his father; he helps his father change the baby's diaper," Meissner said on NBC's "Today."
As for the Miami relatives' attempts to meet with Elian and his father, Meissner said, the doctor believes that issue is something "that the adults need to sort out among themselves."
"She said something I found very touching -- that the father is not hostile to the Miami relatives, he is very hurt. They have said very cruel things over recent weeks and the adults need to sort that out before the child is involved."
To test whether the boy had been traumatized by the military-style raid on the Miami house, the psychiatrist gave him toy soldiers to play with. "She said Elian played readily with the soldiers. ... He didn't seem in any way to be bothered by it," Meissner said.
In a closed-door meeting lasting about 1 hour and 45 minutes, Reno told 13 senators that the possibility that there were firearms in the house of Elian's Florida relatives was a key consideration for the raid, participants said.
"Many of the questions were not adequately answered," said Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., who had arranged the session.
Lott announced hearings into the raid next week by the Senate Judiciary Committee -- and suggested that Elian's father would be among those sought for testimony.
"This use of force was totally unnecessary," said Sen. Connie Mack, R-Fla., after the meeting.
Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota, one of only three senators invited by Lott to the session who supported the administration's handling of the case, told reporters afterward, "They chose to show force so they wouldn't have to use force." He said, however, that he would not oppose hearings.
With the drama moved a thousand miles to the north, Cuban-Americans in Miami upset over Elian's seizure called a general strike. Workers stayed home, students skipped school and businesses closed, bringing honking cars and Cuban flags to the streets of Little Havana.
Attorneys for the Miami family filed a motion Tuesday in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, asking that a guardian be appointed who could check on Elian's well-being and make sure he stays in the country -- at least until his asylum hearing.
The court directed attorneys for Juan Miguel Gonzalez to file a response by this afternoon, stating any reasons why this shouldn't happen.
Armando Gutierrez, a spokesman for the Miami relatives, said they hoped this could clear the way for the family's attorneys -- and even the family -- to see Elian.
"That's the whole thing; they would love to see the little boy," Gutierrez said. "We're concerned about how Elian is doing."
Elian Gonzalez, held by Donato Dalrymple, is taken by U.S. federal agents from his Miami relatives in a pre-dawn raid Saturday.
