U.S. Officials Ask Judge to Return Elian to Cuba

The Justice Department asked a federal judge Thursday to clear the way for Elian Gonzalez’s return to Cuba, offering the court a vivid portrait of the 6-year-old boy’s life there and of his close relationship with his father.

In a debate that has been charged with political and legal overtones, federal attorneys offered new personal details about Elian as part of more than 400 pages of documentation filed in federal court in Miami.

“Elian lost his mother nine weeks ago and, to compound his tragedy, since then he has yet to see his father,” Justice Department lawyers wrote in asking a judge to throw out a lawsuit brought by the boy’s Miami relatives, who want to keep him in the United States, away from Fidel Castro’s regime.

The most emotional details in the government’s arguments came from Elian’s father, 32-year-old Juan Miguel Gonzalez, who in December was interviewed twice by a U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service officer in Cuba.

Gonzalez said that he and Elian’s mother were divorced in 1991 but wanted a child so badly that they later got back together before splitting permanently.

“When Elian was born [in 1993], he was a miracle to us,” Gonzalez said. The couple decided to name him by combining their names--the first three letters of her first name, Elizabet, and the last two letters of his, Juan.

“He is my first son. Wherever I went, he went with me,” Gonzalez said. “I taught him how to swim, do karate. He has a parrot here, dogs, a bicycle and all kinds of toys. As a matter of fact, I haven’t been to the barber because he isn’t here since we always went together.”

Although U.S. government officials believe that international law clearly holds the father’s wishes to be sacrosanct, the debate over that issue continued to burn on several fronts Thursday. One surprise turn came in Miami.

Sister Jeanne O’Laughlin, president of Barry University, a small Roman Catholic institution there, said that before setting up Wednesday’s high-profile meeting between Elian and his grandmothers, she believed the boy should be reunited with his father.

But Thursday, O’Laughlin said: “A meeting that should have been a joyful celebration was tinged with fear and lack of trust.” As a result of that fear--which the nun suggested has its origins in Cuba’s totalitarian regime--she concluded that “at this time the best environment for Elian is in the United States.”

The 70-year-old Dominican sister was also stunned by an attack on her in Thursday’s edition of Granma, the state-run Cuban daily newspaper, which accused her of lying about what happened at Wednesday’s meeting. Although O’Laughlin is a veteran Miami activist, especially in immigration matters, she seemed taken aback by the passions generated by both sides in the controversy over Elian.

She said she knows that her revised views are contrary to those of her old friend, Atty. Gen. Janet Reno, and that she hopes to discuss her change of heart with Reno during a visit today to the capital.

Elian’s future is now in the courts, where competing immigration and custody claims are working their way through federal and Florida courts. The case may not be resolved until March or later, officials said, while Elian continues to live in Florida with his great-uncle.

The Justice Department, in asking a federal judge to throw out the Miami relatives’ claim, noted the urgency of deciding the issue.

“Elian faces an uncertain future resulting from a conflict among family members, in particular his father in Cuba and [his great-uncle] Lazaro Gonzalez in Miami, Florida,” attorneys wrote.

“Elian has become the focus of international news media attention, making it difficult, if not impossible, for Elian to live a normal life,” the government said.

Elian had a normal and loving life in Cuba, the government asserted. Interviews, school reports and medical records showed that his father played an active and supportive role in Elian’s education, health and well-being, paying more in child support than required by law, the government’s filing said.

Although Elian’s mother had legal custody, the boy spent much of his time with Gonzalez.

“He would eat here and sleep here and spent most of his time here. He even slept with me and my present wife in the same bed while visiting because he’s very close to me,” Gonzalez said.

U.S. officials were impressed.

“The honesty, concern and truthfulness on the part of [Elian’s father] was palpable as well as his caring and wanting his son to be returned to Cuba,” Silma L. Dimmel, an INS officer in Cuba, said in an affidavit.

Gonzalez dismissed suggestions that the Castro regime has forced him to demand Elian’s return.

“People say that I am being coerced by the Cuban government. However, you can see that [his Florida relatives] are the ones being coerced by the Cuban community in Miami.”

Reno said Thursday that she too believes Gonzalez is speaking freely, without political coercion.

Some of the boy’s Miami relatives lobbied members of Congress on Thursday to let Elian remain in the United States while, a few floors away, the boy’s grandmothers tearfully pleaded with lawmakers for his return.

As members of Congress returned to the Capitol for President Clinton’s State of the Union address, some Republicans voiced reservations about efforts to make Elian a U.S. citizen.

“My basic instincts are to unite parents with their children,” said Rep. James C. Greenwood (R-Pa.). “Everyone knows it’s a million times better to live here than in Cuba, but the family bond trumps political considerations.”

Several GOP strategists said the proposal appears to be losing steam and might not even come to a vote in Congress.

Gonzalez, a cashier at a Cuban tourist agency, told INS interviewers that he feels betrayed by his relatives in Miami, according to the government documents.

The Miami relatives, he complained, have paraded Elian before hordes of media cameras and had the “insensitivity” to take him to Disney World and “put him on a boat ride when he had already suffered such an ordeal.” He was referring to the boy’s boat trip from Cuba that ended in his rescue and the deaths by drowning of his mother and 10 others when their small vessel capsized.

Worse yet, the father said, his uncle and other relatives in Miami “went to the extreme of wrapping Elian in the American flag when they know that this is not his flag. He is Cuban. . . . It’s abusive what they are doing to Elian.”

Gonzalez said his Miami relatives had offered him “all kinds of money” to let the boy stay in the U.S., but he angrily refused.

“I’m very grateful that he received immediate medical assistance” after being discovered floating in an inner tube off the Florida coast on Nov. 25, Gonzalez said. “But he should be returned to me and my family. I am not allowing him to stay in the United States.”

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Times staff writers Janet Hook and Art Pine in Washington and Mike Clary in Miami contributed to this story.