By ROGER FRANKLIN
Herald Correspondent
NEW YORK - Another day, another blown deadline, another chance for all the factions fighting for a piece of Elian Gonzalez to strut and preen before the cameras.
That was the grand panorama yesterday as the battle for the tragic 6-year-old Cuban refugee entered yet another of the "final" climaxes that have characterised the case since he arrived on an inner tube off the coast of Miami in November.
Outside his home in Miami's Little Havana, the hard core of 500 or so supporters who never leave swelled rapidly to more than 10,000 after his great-uncle, Lazaro Gonzalez, ignored a 2 pm local time deadline to hand the child over to US federal marshals. Celebrities such as actor Andy Garcia and the Miami Sound Machine's Gloria Estefan took turns before the microphone to denounce the Clinton Administration in general and Attorney-General Janet Reno in particular.
In Washington, on the other side of a stage so broad that it now spans the entire country, President Bill Clinton's former impeachment defender, Greg Craig, strode to another microphone and demanded that Reno send in an armed posse to "rescue" the boy. And back in Florida, amid the blare of rabid editorialists filling the airwaves with threats, insults and pledges of bloody retribution on Miami's Spanish-language radio stations, Lazaro Gonzalez' last, slim legal hope was dashed by one court - and then just as quickly revived by another.
Barely an hour after the deadline a federal appeals court issued a temporary stay that keeps Elian in the US until the court reviews the emergency petition filed by Lazaro Gonzalez.
The Government said it expected the order would delay any showdown for "three or four days."
After more than four months at the centre of the storm, the one sure thing about Elian Gonzalez is that the actions of those who want him shipped home are at variance with their previous norms.
Begin with Reno, who first opined that the matter should be settled by Florida's family courts. That point of view lasted only until she was summoned to the White House, where Clinton apparently ordered that jurisdiction be awarded to the federal Immigration Service. In their off-the-record briefings, Reno's aides explained that this was necessary because Florida's state judges are elected, and that none would be brave enough to defy the wishes of the state's Cuban-American voters.
The trouble with that is Reno's past history as an ardent advocate of settling custody disputes in family courts, where she has always lent great credence to the testimony of psychologists and psychiatrists. It was certainly that way when, in an earlier incarnation as Miami's chief prosecutor, she sent one of the city's most decorated policeman to prison for 60 years on charges that he was a Satanist who had engaged in the ritual sexual abuse of toddlers and young children.
The officer, Grant Snowden, denied it, as did his family, his fellow officers and even two of the alleged victims, who recanted their testimony before being placed in the witness stand. But Reno ignored all of that, continued listening to her pet shrinks and sent Snowden away regardless. Snowden was released last year when an appeals court ruled his original conviction was "absurd and ridiculous."
In Elian's case, however, Reno has made no attempt whatsoever to have psychologists interview the boy himself. Instead, she has quoted the letter of the law and, when questioned about her inconsistencies, quoted it again.
Next, consider Craig, a consummate Washington insider and the lawyer who foiled Republican attempts to drive Clinton from office for his lies about the White House affair with Monica Lewinsky. Craig is high maintenance, even by Washington standards.
His talents are normally available only to Washington's most influential politicians and the Fortune 500 companies who seek the lawmakers' favour and approval.
Yet when asked how Juan Miguel Gonzalez, a bellboy who earns $US20 ($40) a month in Cuba, can afford his silver tongue, Craig has said only that a charity controlled by the Methodist Church is picking up the tab.
Except it is not. According to the Methodists, they are merely administering a trust for a benefactor whose identity they claim not to know. Given Craig's close ties to the White House, speculation is rife that the money is being put up by one of the President's well-heeled supporters.
Clinton certainly has an interest in keeping Fidel Castro happy. Not only has the Cuban dictator threatened to open his prisons and lunatic asylums and send the inmates to Florida in another massive flotilla, as he did in the Mariel boat lift of 1981, he would certainly put Clinton's earlier efforts to normalise relations with the Communist country in the deep freeze. Just weeks before Elian arrived, Clinton quietly allowed US airlines to fly directly to Havana - the first such flights since the revolution and a sure indication that concerted efforts were under wayt to melt the residual frost of the Cold War.
"Clinton would like to do for Cuba what Nixon did to China - bring it back into the community of nations," said the president's former aide, Dick Morris. "But with this little boy making a mess of his plans, that's another part of his presidential legacy that may never come to fruition."
Nor does the family that has nurtured and cared for Elian escape the taint of hypocrisy.
After the deadline to hand over the child had come and gone, Lazaro Gonzalez instead released a home video of Elian sitting cross-legged on his bed and imploring his father to stay in the United States.
A coached performance? The family says no, but the child's polished poise says otherwise.
In Washington, Craig said the video was clear evidence of child abuse and once again demanded that Reno prepare to send in a SWAT team.
As the crowds fill the streets around Elian's home and the Spanish radio stations refer to Reno as "a childless woman with the face and soul of a brick," Elian remains in the prison built by those who claim to love him most.
Another day in Little Havana
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