MSNBC
January 24, 2000
 
 
Elian’s grandmas head to Miami
 
 
               MSNBC STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
 
                         NEW YORK, Jan. 24 —  The grandmothers of Elian
                         Gonzalez changed their minds about going to
                         Miami and flew there Monday to meet with their
                         grandson before they return to Cuba. A family
                         spokesman in Miami welcomed their visit, but it
                         appeared the two sides had not agreed on where
                         the meeting would be held.
                                 “The doors are open and we will make the visit as
                         a family visit, like we have stated in the past, and we hope
                         that they come,” said family spokesman Armando Gutierrez.
                                A letter to the INS from an attorney for the Miami
                         relatives invited Elian’s maternal grandmother, Raquel
                         Rodriguez, and paternal grandmother, Mariela Quintana, to
                         the home of Lazaro Gonzalez for dinner Monday night at 6
                         p.m. ET. Gonzalez is Quintana’s brother and Elian’s
                         great-uncle.
                                The letter said the meeting would let the grandmothers
                         “see and feel for themselves how well Elian is doing and
                         how much he wishes to remain in the United States.”
                                The boy has been at the center of a custody battle
                         since he was found on Thanksgiving day clinging to an inner
                         tube off the Florida coast. His mother, her boyfriend and
                         nine others perished after the boat they left Cuba in
                         capsized.
                                The letter said it was “most important that the visit take
                         place at the Gonzalez’s home in Miami, because the
                         grandmothers really should see where Elian sleeps, what he
                         eats, who he plays with and how much love and caring he
                         receives in the home.”
                                 The grandmothers said on the “Today” show Monday
                         that they had asked Attorney General Janet Reno to arrange
                         a meeting.
                                In Washington, Justice Department spokesman Carole
                         Florman acknowledged that Reno and Justice and INS
                         lawyers had been working quietly behind the scenes to help
                         negotiate a meeting.
                                However, there was “absolutely no agreement” yet,
                         Florman said in the early afternoon. “We are trying to
                         arrange a meeting at a neutral location,” she said.
                                “The grandmothers were not comfortable with a
                         meeting at Lazaro’s house. They want a private meeting
                         with the boy,” Florman said.
                                A spokesman for the grandmothers said they were “very
                         frightened” to go to Miami because of the demonstrations
                         there in favor of Elian remaining in the United States. But
                         with time running out to see him, the grandmothers decided
                         to take that chance, NBC News’ Andrea Mitchell reported.
                                They women flew to Miami on a Lear jet with several
                         members of the National Council of Churches, which is
                         sponsoring the grandmothers’ visit.
                                The grandmothers arrived in New York on Friday and
                         met with Reno in Washington on Saturday.
                         THE PUSH IN CONGRESS
                                Elian’s great-uncle in Miami has filed suit to stop the
                         INS, and lawmakers in Congress plan an attempt this week
                         to declare Elian a U.S. citizen. If such legislation becomes
                         law, the boy no longer would be under INS jurisdiction.
                                Senate Republican leader Trent Lott said Congress
                         would go ahead on Monday with the legislation, using
                         expedited procedures that could allow it to be passed by
                         the end of the week.
                                “All that bill would have the effect of doing is just to say
                         that he has citizenship and therefore how he is dealt with
                         would be a custody issue rather than an immigration issue,”
                         Lott told NBC’s “One on One.”
                                The legislation is being sponsored by two Florida
                         Republican lawmakers, Sen. Connie Mack and Rep. Bill
                         McCollum.
                         GRANDMOTHERS MAKE PLEAS
                                 Rodriguez asked members of Congress not to give the
                         boy U.S. citizenship and to let him return to Cuba.
                                “It will be more painful if he gets the citizenship,” she
                         said, speaking in Spanish through an interpreter. “I’m asking
                         the Congress and people of the United States that have
                         supported us to stop all this. Please, don’t make us suffer
                         any longer.”
                                Although they said they have not spoken to the boy in
                         five days, Quintana said the child told her over the
                         telephone that “he’s crazy to go back to Cuba.”
                                “He misses everything there. His school, his classmates,
                         everybody — his father’s love. To be able to hug and kiss
                         his father. He tells us every day,” she said.
                                Rodriguez denied that her daughter wanted to come to
                         the United States and have Elian live here. She said she was
                         pressured to get on the raft by her boyfriend, “a very violent
                         person.”

                                The Associated Press contributed to this report.