By Terry Spencer
Associated Press Writer
Saturday , April 22, 2000

MIAMI –– Police in riot gear fired tear gas into a crowd of protesters that swarmed the streets of Little Havana today, halting
traffic and setting bonfires in the roads after the government's pre-dawn seizure of Elian Gonzalez.

"Clinton, coward, Miami is on fire!" protesters chanted after setting fire to a pile of tires, rubbage and plastic trash cans at an
intersection about five blocks from the house where Elian was taken by government agents.

Police retreated for a short time after protesters poured into the street. The officers quickly returned wearing gas masks and
firing several cannisters of tear gas into the streets.

"This is terrible," said Cristina Valdes, 67, who was among dozens of people banging on a parked van to vent their anger. "I'm
ashamed to be an American. Clinton is a coward, coward, coward."

Firetrucks streamed into the intersection to put out the flames as 100 police officers with plastic shields formed a line crossing
the street. Several protesters covered their faces with T-shirts to try to avoid the gas.

"We are the owners of the streets in Miami until Elian comes home," said protester Santiago Portal, 68.

Miami police said the unrest appeared to be contained within Little Havana, a working-class neighborhood that stretches for
about a mile west of downtown Miami.

There were no immediate reports of serious injuries or major damage. Authorities had no firm numbers on arrests but at least a
dozen protesters were seen being taken into custory.

One who jumped through the window of a service station was chased down by eight police officers. They smashed his head
into the ground, handcuffed him and took him away.

Crowds of protesters started growing and spreading in the hours after agents stormed the home of Elian's great-uncle at 5 a.m.

Some threw rocks and shouted in anger. Others waved signs and flags – Cuban and upside-down American ones. One man
stalked through the crowd with a baby doll pinned to a cross, fake blood streaming from its hands.

The protesters denounced the government for snatching the 6-year-old from his relatives' house the day before Easter.

"This is like crucifying the Messiah all over again. This is a slap in the face to the Cuban-American community and the Christian
community," said Ralph Anrrich, a social worker helping the family at the house, where more than 500 people had massed by
midmorning.

One demonstrator, Duvyl Celebron, held up an Associated Press photograph showing a helmeted federal agent armed with an
automatic rifle confronting a man holding Elian in Lazaro Gonzalez's bedroom.

"Look at this photograph! Look at it well!" demonstrator Ofelia Munoz yelled at police.

Some protesters marched onto Route 836, a main highway, slowing traffic. Others threw rocks, one smashing the rear window
of a police car. Still others stood around in small groups and talked quietly.

Within hours of the pre-dawn raid, police in riot gear faced off with the crowd. They blocked off 35 square blocks of the
neighborhood around the house, even barring residents from their homes.

The government appeared to catch the family completely off guard. Vans screeched to a halt outside the modest stucco house
just after 5 a.m., and agents battered down the door and poured inside.

A crowd of supporters waited outside, anxious to find out what was happening.

Within minutes, Elian, wearing a white T-shirt and shorts, was carried outside in a white blanket by a female agent, lifted gently
into a van and driven away by a man in a mask. He seemed bewildered.

As the reality of Elian's removal began to set in, the restless crowd milled about. While some wept, others screamed. One man
flailed his arms and ranted.

"No liberty, no justice for all," one sign said. In another, Fidel Castro holds two dalmatians by the collar; their faces are those of
President Clinton and Attorney General Janet Reno.

Joel Beltran said he was standing next to the front door of the house when four agents grabbed him, threw him to the ground
and told him to get away or "we will shoot."

Beatriz Hernandez, 55, said agents pointed a gun at the head of one of the women in the group Mothers Against Repression
and told her not to move.

"I feel like I'm back in Cuba in 1960. That's the way I feel right now," Hernandez said. "I've been here 40 years. I never, never
thought anything like this would happen."

                                    © 2000 The Associated Press