BY PAUL BRINKLEY-ROGERS, ANA ACLE AND MARIKA LYNCH

 Elian Gonzalez's grandmothers will return to Havana from New York today
 without so much as seeing the boy in Miami.

 Meanwhile, an aunt of the boyfriend of Elian's mother -- who organized the
 ill-fated voyage -- tearfully refuted one grandmother's remarks that he was
 abusive and forced the mother to come to the United States.

 ''Abuela, please stop telling lies,'' Milagros Garcia said Sunday, weeping. ''For
 the love he had for Elian's mother, he risked his life, returned to Cuba and
 exposed himself to being put in jail.''

 Raquel Rodriguez, mother of Elian's mother, said Friday in New York that her
 daughter -- Elisabeth Brotons -- made the trip to Florida only because her
 boyfriend -- Lazaro Rafael Munero -- forced her into it. ''He pushed her,''
 Rodriguez said of Munero. ''It was his fault.''

 On the 60th day of the Elian saga, the tug-of-war over the 6-year-old child
 continued at an impasse.

 The grandmothers remained in New York, firm in their determination not to
 come to Miami, while Elian's Miami family remained firm in its decision not to
 travel to New York. Supporters, lead by Democracy Movement leader Ramon
 Saul Sanchez, urged the grandmothers to travel to Miami to see Elian and
 promised they  wouldn't be met with protests.

 Instead, in a symbolic gesture, the Democracy movement handed out 1,000
 peach, yellow and purple carnations to the several hundred people gathered
 outside the Miami family home who then -- in unison -- tossed them along
 Northwest Second Street making a symbolic ''carpet of love.''

 ''Our gesture is that we welcome you,'' Sanchez said, referring to the
 grandmothers. ''There is no danger for you here. The only thing you might
 take from us here is a lot of love.''

 His words did not change minds, however. In New York, grandmothers
 Rodriguez and Mariela Quintana attended an interdenominational worship
 service in Manhattan's West Side Riverside Church. About 2,000 people
 showed solidarity with the grandmothers.

 The often-tearful grandmothers told their escorts from the U.S. National Council of
 Churches that they were so stressed, they would simply like to go home. They
 are expected to make a few TV appearances today, then fly back to the warmer
 climate.

 DIFFERENT HERE

 ''They simply do not understand why President Clinton doesn't issue an executive
 order telling federal marshals to go get the boy,'' said a church official who asked
 not to be named.

 ''In their country,'' the official said, ''an order from President [Fidel] Castro would be
 obeyed right away. But they can't understand why it doesn't happen that way in
 the most powerful country in the world.''

 As the grandmothers pondered the intricacies of democracy, Garcia -- the aunt of
 the boyfriend of Elian's mother -- defended her nephew, saying he had a loving
 relationship with Elisabeth Brotons.

 Garcia was responding to comments by Rodriguez, who claimed in New York on
 Friday that Munero forced Elian's mother to come to the United States.

 Originally, Munero came to the United States by sea in 1998. He stayed and
 worked for five months while living with Garcia and returned to Cuba by sea to
 bring Elian, his mother and family.

 In all, 11 adults drowned after the boat capsized -- four were Garcia's relatives.

 MOTHER BEDRIDDEN

 ''We are destroyed,'' Garcia said in her first public appearance. ''My mother who
 lives in Cuba is depressed and hasn't gotten out of bed for two months.''

 Garcia said Elian also was close to Munero.

 ''He was so close, he called him Dad,'' Garcia said, claiming she overheard
 telephone conversations between the two.

 Elian and his Miami family remained generally quiet Sunday.

 The boy, decked out in a Batman shirt and sandals, kicked around a soccer ball
 in the yard for a short time with a cousin as a swarm of reporters and bystanders
 hovered near the chain-link fence around the house. They shouted his name, and
 one visitor slipped the 6-year-old a piece of candy, which his great uncle Lazaro
 Gonzalez swiftly took away.

 At 3 p.m., a large group led by Vigilia Mambisa's Miguel Saavedra walked to
 Domino Park on Calle Ocho in a show of solidarity with the local cause of keeping
 the child in the United States.

 Also outside Elian's Miami home, a group of church leaders from various
 Protestant denominations said they had asked Joan Brown Campbell, the former
 churches council general secretary, to allow the grandmothers to visit the boy in
 Miami.

 OTHERS INVOLVED

 The group also included Donato Dalrymple and Ly Tong. Dalrymple is one of two
 men who rescued Elian off Fort Lauderdale on Thanksgiving Day. Tong is a South
 Vietnamese pilot who recently flew over Havana dropping anti-Castro leaflets.

 ''I was amazed and appalled at the grandmothers,'' Dalrymple said. ''I thought they
 would be a little more loving and less hostile.''

 Jorge Mas, leader of the Cuban American National Foundation, reiterated an
 invitation that the grandmothers visit the boy in Miami.

 The grandmothers regard these invitations as ''little more than a taunt,'' the church
 official said in New York. They say they have the power of attorney to speak for
 Elian's father -- Juan Miguel Gonzalez.

 Quintana, a secretary for Cuba's Ministry of Justice in her hometown of Cardenas,
 said she had come to the United States with papers issued by a Cuban court
 empowering her to represent her son, Elian's father.

 But Spencer Eig, one of the attorneys representing the Miami relatives, said the
 local Gonzalez family was disappointed that the grandmothers are ''not allowed''
 to visit Miami.

 LAWYER'S OPINION

 ''It appears that Castro aide Ricardo Alarcon and former congressman Bob Edgar
 are the ones running the show, and they have compelled the grandmothers, who
 naturally would want to spend their time with Elian, to spend it with Janet Reno
 instead,'' Eig said. ''That's sad.''

 This week, the U.S. Congress is expected to consider a private bill granting
 citizenship or permanent residency for the 6-year-old. From 1992 to 1997,
 Congress has granted citizenship to 30 foreign nationals.

 In a Sunday speech to listeners of Radio Progreso, a daily program by
 businessman Francisco Aruca whose company runs charters between Havana
 and New York City, Miami attorney Ira Kurzban decried the actions of the
 immigration service, the Justice Department and the White House. He blamed
 them for operating a ''sideshow'' that would give enough time to Elian's Miami
 relatives to have him naturalized by Congress.

 The three institutions colluded among themselves and with Elian's Miami relatives
 to drag out the dispute in the courts, ''saying -- with a wink and a nod -- that 'we're
 trying to do everything possible' on behalf of the boy,'' said Kurzban, who has
 represented clients from Cuba in the past.

 Presidential candidate and Texas Gov. George W. Bush told ABC's This Week
 that granting Elian citizenship ''would be a wonderful gesture.''

 ''I guess the boy could still go back to Cuba as a full citizen of the United States,''
 Bush said.

 Herald staff writers Carol Rosenberg, Renato Perez and Dominique Collins Berta
 contributed to this report.
 

                     Copyright 2000 Miami Herald