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Change Your Life! |
Court denies Miami relatives' bid for visits with Elian |
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News
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April 29, 2000
ATLANTA, APR 28 (UNB/AP) - A U.S. federal appeals court denied a request by Elian Gonzalez's Miami relatives to visit him and declined to appoint a guardian for the boy other than his father.
But in its decision Thursday, the court still kept the relatives' appeal alive. It put off a decision on the father's request that he be substituted for Elian's great-uncle as the boy's representative in the case. Such a move would allow the father to drop the appeal. |
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The court told the father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, that he could intervene - but the judges also said they would not consider whether to remove the great-uncle from the case until May 11, when arguments in the relatives' appeal are scheduled to be heard.
Elian's great-uncle Lazaro Gonzalez cared for the boy for five months, from his rescue at sea in November until federal agents returned him to his father Saturday. Elian survived a shipwreck that killed his mother and other Cubans headed for the United States.
Lazaro Gonzalez is appealing the U.S. government's order that the 6-year-old boy be returned to his Cuban father.
The great-uncle claims the boy should get an asylum hearing; the U.S. Justice Department contends that only Elian's father can speak for him on immigration matters such as asylum.
Elian has been ordered to stay in the United States until the appeal is over. He is staying with his father, stepmother and half brother at a rural retreat in Maryland.
On Tuesday, the Miami relatives asked that they, their attorneys and their doctors be given "regular and reasonable access" to Elian until the court rules on their appeal, or that the court name an outside guardian to look after him during that time.
The 11th Circuit denied those requests, instead saying it accepted the U.S. government's offer to supply two reports a month about Elian from a psychiatrist and a social worker.
The court also continued its order barring the boy from any site in the United States that has diplomatic immunity - a move designed to keep him from the custody of Cuban diplomats.
Earlier Thursday, U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno said the armed agents who seized Elian had to have a "show of force, not a use of force, to show we were in control." And the psychiatrist who examined Elian for the U.S. government said it's likely he didn't suffer lasting harm from the raid.
Reno said the pre-dawn hours of Saturday were "the most appropriate time with the least crowd" for immigration agents to conduct the raid. "This appeared to be the safest time possible to effect the transfer," she said.
Justice Department officials also said the case, including the raid, cost more than dlrs 578,000 from Thanksgiving Day, when Elian was found at sea, through Monday. The preliminary estimate does not include the costs of the family's stay at Andrews Air Force Base from Saturday through Tuesday.
A group of nine Cubans left Havana on Thursday to see Elian in Maryland: four schoolmates from his hometown of Cardenas, four of their parents and Elian's doctor. President Fidel Castro saw them off and then criticized U.S. officials for not allowing a larger group to come. Vans carrying the group arrived Thursday night.
Castro said that if the family has to wait a month or more for a court ruling allowing Elian to return, "it would be better if he were with people that he knew."
In Washington, about 350 people marched in front of the White House chanting "Freedom for Elian, Human Rights for Elian." Groups arrived by bus or in their own cars from New Jersey, Florida, and the Washington area, many carrying Cuban and American flags and signs to protest the government's handling of the case.
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