HAVANA -- Cubans have welcomed back Elian Gonzalez's grandmothers
as heroines, even though the 6-year-old boy remains in the United States.
Mariela Quintana and Raquel Rodriquez were greeted with cheers and
banners on Sunday, as they stepped off a private plane from Washington.
Among the welcoming party was Juan Miguel Gonzalez, Elian's father, who
greeted both women with hugs and kisses. Cuban President Fidel Castro did
not attend the airport welcome ceremony.
"We found Elian very sad," Quintana said.
"We weren't able to bring him home. But we must keep fighting
"Welcome home, noble and worthy grandmothers," said one banner.
Security officials quickly ushered the grandmothers into an airport building.
A short time later the two women climbed aboard an open- topped black
Mercedes and joined a motorcade that took them past the U.S. Interests
Mission.
The motorcade route was lined with thousands of cheering Cubans
responding to a government call to turn out in appreciation of the
grandmothers.
"They were able to reunite the Cuban and American people in supporting
the
idea that the boy be returned," said one Cuban supporter.
The motorcade ended at a celebration honoring the grandmothers at
Havana's Convention Palace.
"It is very sad," Rodriguez told the audience of some 1,700, including
Castro.
"The people of the United States are supporting the return of Elian,"
Quintana said.
Elian has been the focus of an international custody fight since he was
rescued November 25 off the Florida coast, one of three survivors
of a shipwreck that killed his mother and 10 other people on their way
to the United States from Cuba.
He has been staying with anti-Castro relatives in Miami who are fighting
a
U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service order that he be returned to
his father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, in Cuba.
Last Wednesday, Elian's grandmothers met with him for about two hours
in Miami. During their stay, they met with about 50 members of Congress
in Washington to lobby against legislation that would give the boy U.S.
citizenship.
More protests over Elian
More than 100,000 people demonstrated in the central Cuban city of
Cienfuegos on Saturday.
Cuban President Fidel Castro has vowed to carry on protests in Cuba for
10 years if need be.
"We have never in the past put on such a display of people and public unity,
and I don't believe we will tire of it," Castro said late on Friday. "We
have
the resources to go on for 10 years."
In Miami, more than 150 protesters marched on Saturday -- also demanding
the boy be sent back to Cuba. The march was organized by the Antonio
Maceo Brigade, a pro-Castro group. Protesters marched in front of the
headquarters of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, shouting
"Send Elian Home," as a small plane towing a banner with the same message
passed overhead.
A slightly larger group aboard boats off Miami urged that Elian be allowed
to stay in the U.S. Elian was given a giant card of support signed by students
from a local school.
Also on Saturday, U.S. Rep. Dan Burton, R-Indiana, said Elian had told
him
he did not want to return to his native country.
"He's a very intelligent young man, and I was able to ask him without any
coaching a couple of questions," said Burton, who met the boy in Miami
for
30 minutes.
"The first question I asked him is how did he like living here, and he
said he
liked it very much, as he was blowing bubbles," Burton said.
"And then I said, 'Would you like to go back to Cuba?' And he was very
firm in saying 'No.'"
Judge moves up lawsuit
After the INS ruled Elian had to go back to Cuba, his Miami relatives took
their cause to a state judge in Florida. The judge granted temporary custody
to Elian's paternal great- uncle, Lazaro Gonzalez, with whom Elian is staying
in Miami. But the U.S. government argued that the state court had no
authority over Elian's situation.
The family filed suit in federal court seeking to have the INS ruling dismissed,
and supporters began pressing members of Congress to make Elian a U.S.
citizen -- which would remove his case from INS jurisdiction .
U.S. District Judge William Hoeveler had scheduled arguments over whether
to dismiss the lawsuit for March 6. But on Friday, he moved up the hearing
to February 22 after reports that he had set the later date to give the
boy's
family more time to lobby for citizenship for Elian.
"I am concerned only with the legal matters," Hoeveler said. "I have no
interest in bills going through in one way or the other."
Castro says Elian's mom forced to make trip
Castro, speaking to a conference of economists on Friday, alleged that
Elian's mother, Elisabeth Brotons, was intimidated by her boyfriend into
leaving for the United States.
Brotons' boyfriend, Lazaro Rafael Munero, apparently organized the trip.
He also died in the shipwreck.
Many who want Elian to remain in the United States say Brotons was trying
to bring him to freedom.
"The mother was practically kidnapped along with the boy" to make the trip,
Castro said. "The mother was taken in conditions of intimidation."
Castro called Munero a "ruffian" on whom Cuban police had amassed "100
pages of reports."
According to sources quoted by the Miami Herald, Munero -- who
reportedly drove a taxi in the Cuban city of Cardenas -- had fled to Florida
in June 1998 and returned to Cuba later that year, only to be jailed for
several months.
Castro called Brotons "an excellent girl" who had suffered seven
miscarriages before delivering Elian.
"One who is born among eight pregnancies: How desired that child must be,"
Castro said. Brotons had separated from Elian's father several years ago.
Havana Bureau Chief Lucia Newman , Correspondent Tony Clark , The Associated
Press
and Reuters contributed to this report.