A New Twist in Continuing Elian Saga

A great-uncle of Elian Gonzalez’s who favors returning the boy to his father in Cuba has asked a federal court to grant him temporary custody of the 6-year-old.

Manuel Gonzalez should be appointed the Cuban child’s temporary guardian to comply with the wishes of the child’s father in Cuba, attorney Jeffery M. Leving said.

“Manuel is the one who has been designated by Juan Miguel Gonzalez. It’s in the best interests of Elian,” Leving said Monday, three days after filing a motion for custody in U.S. District Court.

Juan Miguel Gonzalez is the father of Elian, who survived a smuggler’s boat trip from Cardenas, Cuba, to Miami on which his mother and 10 others drowned. Since Elian was found Nov. 25, clinging to an inner tube at sea, he has been in the temporary custody of his great-uncle Lazaro Gonzalez, who has challenged the ruling by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service that Elian be returned to his father.

Juan Miguel Gonzalez had asked INS officials to move Elian from Lazaro’s home to that of Manuel. On Friday that request was denied in a letter that said “transferring Elian temporarily to a new and unfamiliar environment would not be advisable for the child after already experiencing the trauma of leaving his home in Cuba and losing his mother.”

“Instead, INS will continue to focus its efforts on returning Elian to his father.”

In yet another strange twist to an already convoluted case, Manuel Gonzalez, 59, was rushed to a Miami hospital Monday afternoon soon after meeting with his younger brother Lazaro for the first time in more than two months. Manuel had gone to Lazaro’s house, about eight blocks away, presumably to discuss his decision to pursue custody of Elian.

After returning to his house, Manuel spoke briefly to reporters gathered outside. “I think it would be best for the boy if he were with his father,” he said in Spanish.

Then, complaining that he didn’t feel well, Manuel went inside. Minutes later an ambulance arrived and a crew of paramedics carried Gonzalez, a bus mechanic for the Miami school system, out of the house on a stretcher. His wife, Emilia America, weeping and clearly distraught, accompanied him to the hospital.

Treated at Cedars Medical Center, Gonzalez was later released. “He is better, thanks to God,” said his daughter Solangel. “He is just tense.”

The federal judge who today was to hold a hearing on Lazaro Gonzalez’s challenge of the INS decision has also been hospitalized. William M. Hoeveler, 77, suffered symptoms of a stroke late Sunday, according to his doctors. “He’s improving. He’s a strong man,” physician James Stewart told reporters Monday.

U.S. District Chief Judge Edward Davis is now scheduled to preside over today’s hearing, although it is uncertain whether he will hear arguments from attorneys or simply reassign the case to another judge.

Among the court’s first tasks is to determine if Lazaro Gonzalez has standing to seek asylum in the U.S. on behalf of Elian. The INS, with the backing of U.S. Atty. Gen. Janet Reno, has insisted that only Juan Miguel Gonzalez can speak for the boy.

In the meantime, Leving, a Chicago lawyer who heads a group called Dad’s Rights, said he volunteered to represent Manuel Gonzalez because most south Florida lawyers would be ostracized if they took the case. “His views are so unpopular,” said Leving, noting that many Cuban exiles consider life in Communist Cuba so oppressive that Elian should remain here despite his father’s wishes.

Leving also produced a letter from Julio Maria Sanguinetti, the president of Uruguay, in response to the lawyer’s request that the South American leader make use of his good relations with Cuban President Fidel Castro to mediate the international custody battle. “Precisely because of the humanitarian aspects of this situation, I wish to express my best disposition to contribute within my possibilities to the solution of the complex matter,” Sanguinetti wrote.

In another twist, the Dominican nun who last month hosted a meeting in Miami Beach between Elian and his two grandmothers has backed away from a report that one of the women told her privately that she wanted to defect. On Sunday, the Miami Herald published an interview with Sister Jeanne O’Laughlin in which she said Raquel Rodriguez, Elian’s maternal grandmother, told her in Spanish that she wanted to stay in the U.S.

The Herald also reported that O’Laughlin, 70, was told by Rodriguez that Juan Miguel Gonzalez had been abusive to her daughter, Elian’s mother.

On Sunday, however, a spokeswoman for O’Laughlin said the report was wrong and that the nun had not spoken directly to Rodriguez about defecting or any alleged abuse.

Herald Executive Editor Martin Baron said in Monday’s edition that the paper stood by its story.

In Havana, thousands of people turned out Monday for a demonstration calling for Elian’s return and protesting the U.S. expulsion of a Cuban diplomat stationed in Washington. The expulsion came in the wake of the arrest last week of a ranking INS officer in Miami who was charged with spying for Cuba.

Elian, meanwhile, spent part of Monday at the home of some cousins, playing with them and a dog.