Cuban Boy Begins School as U.S. Negotiates His Return

A 6-year-old Cuban boy at the center of an international custody battle started school in Miami on Tuesday, nearly six weeks after he was rescued at sea, as U.S. officials made contingency plans to send him back to Cuba.

Wearing a white shirt and carrying a backpack, Elian Gonzalez attended the private Lincoln-Marti School in Miami’s Little Havana, his first formal schooling in the United States.

“He’s very happy. He was very much looking forward to starting school here,” said Spencer Eig, an attorney representing Elian’s Miami relatives.

Elian has been at the heart of a politically charged tug of war between Havana and the Cuban exile community in Miami since he was rescued from the Atlantic Ocean on Nov. 25 while floating on an inner tube.

He was aboard a small boat that sank while smuggling illegal immigrants from Cuba to Florida. His mother, who was divorced from his father, died in the accident along with 10 others.

His father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, wants him back in Cuba. Relatives in the United States say the boy should not be returned to the Communist-ruled island.

In Washington, a U.S. official said the United States is making contingency plans to send the boy back to Cuba, including asking Havana to allow his father to come to Miami to collect him.

“They said: ‘We’ll think about it,’ ” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

State Department spokesman James P. Rubin said he expects a decision from the Immigration and Naturalization Service soon. “We would welcome an application for a nonimmigrant visa from Elian’s father at any time in this process, and we have informed the Cuban government of that.”

Cuban exile leaders have seized upon Elian as a mascot for the opposition movement against Cuban President Fidel Castro. The boy has been showered with toys, treated to a trip to a theme park and paid visits by U.S. politicians.

In Cuba, Elian’s family could not be reached for comment Tuesday, and neighbors said they were not at their home in the provincial city of Cardenas.

Juan Miguel Gonzalez has said several times he would not travel to Florida because it is the legal and moral responsibility of U.S. authorities to send the boy home rather than make the man argue his case or fetch Elian from the U.S.

Castro has publicly reiterated that position on the father’s behalf, even alleging that Gonzalez had been offered $2 million to travel to Miami at the start of the dispute.

The Rev. Joan Brown Campbell, a leader of the U.S. National Council of Churches who is in Cuba to try to promote Elian’s return, said her contact with family members and U.S. and Cuban officials had not indicated a trip by the boy’s father or any sort of deal might be in the offing.

Lawyers representing Elian’s Miami relatives said Juan Miguel Gonzalez would have to bring other relatives from Cuba to ensure his ability to articulate his true desires for the boy’s future to U.S. authorities without fear of reprisal.

“If the father comes without the rest of the family, it’s like leaving hostages,” attorney Roger Bernstein said. “He will not be able to speak freely.”