Elian’s Father Asks Court to Dismiss Uncle’s Appeal

Elian Gonzalez’s father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, accused his uncle Lazaro of using “this nation’s legal system in an attempt to destroy [his] family . . . [and] to rob Elian of a childhood at his home.” He asked a federal appeals court panel to dismiss Lazaro Gonzalez’s attempt to overturn government and court rulings that support the father’s parental rights.

In a brief filed Monday by his attorney with the appellate court now considering the issue, the father argued that if Lazaro Gonzalez succeeded in his efforts to force government consideration of political asylum for the 6-year-old boy, the process “could take as long as two years to resolve, perhaps even six years . . . [having] the effect of forcing Juan Miguel to choose between his country and his son.”

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta has set May 11 for oral arguments in the case. The two main protagonists--Lazaro Gonzalez and the Justice Department--will each be allotted 15 minutes to speak. Gregory B. Craig, the father’s attorney who last week won the court’s permission to intervene in the case, asked Monday to speak for five minutes.

Attorneys for Lazaro Gonzalez also filed a brief in the case Monday in response to the government’s contention that the Immigration and Naturalization Service had followed the law and its own regulations in declining to consider the asylum application.

“The notion that an agency can, without preexisting criteria, opt to avoid its mandatory duty to duly consider an individual’s entitlement by prejudging the merits in a cursory fashion in advance of the required adjudication profoundly offends any principle of fairness or due process,” the brief said.

The brief also repeated Lazaro Gonzalez’s request that a court guardian be appointed to represent Elian’s interests, something that the court declined to do in response to an emergency appeal by Lazaro Gonzalez last week, which also asked that Elian’s Miami relatives, lawyers and doctors be given access to him.

In a speech to hundreds of thousands of Cubans gathered for a May Day rally in Havana’s Revolution Square, Fidel Castro said Monday that he was not yet convinced that the appeals court would rule in the father’s favor.

At the end of his speech, Castro, 73, was handed a cell phone. “It’s Juan Miguel,” he shouted to the cheering crowd. “He says ‘Congratulations. Many thanks.’ ”

The brief filed by Craig went through arguments already made by the Justice Department and the INS: that the father was speaking of his own free will in saying he wanted Elian returned to him in Cuba, and that there is no basis for declaring a conflict between the wishes of father and son.