By The Associated Press

          WASHINGTON (AP) -- Cuba's government is orchestrating
          anti-American demonstrations demanding the return of 6-year-old Elian
          Gonzalez largely to protect U.S. property and diplomats in Havana, a top
          Cuban official says.

          Ricardo Alarcon, president of the Cuban National Assembly, said
          Sunday that anger over Elian's continued presence in the United States is
          so real and widespread among Cubans as to pose a potential danger to
          American interests.

          The Immigration and Naturalization Service has ruled the boy, rescued at
          sea by the Coast Guard after his mother drowned Nov. 25 trying to
          reach the United States, must be returned to his father in communist
          Cuba. But last week, Attorney General Janet Reno lifted the INS'
          deadline to give Elian's relatives in Miami a chance to fight a federal court
          battle to keep the boy with them.

          Cuban-American and other members of Congress have demanded at
          least that remedy. Some have suggested congressional action to give
          Elian permanent residency or even American citizenship to keep him in
          the United States.

          ``We are behind the protests because everybody in Cuba is protesting,
          from the government to the last citizen,'' Alarcon said on ``Fox News
          Sunday.''

          Because of that, he said, the government's only options are either to let
          protesters vent their anger ``completely spontaneously'' -- potentially
          targeting American interests -- or ``to channel them in a way to permit
          you to ensure the safety of the U.S. diplomats'' and other Americans.

          Alarcon, President Fidel Castro's top adviser on U.S. matters, derided
          the suggestion of a special congressional grant of citizenship to the boy.
          ``Congress is supposed to be a serious institution and not an instrument
          to permit what amounts to a kidnapping of a small boy,'' he said.

          The citizenship idea is ``absolutely nonsense,'' Alarcon added on NBC's
          ``Meet The Press.''

          Elian's father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, said last week he feels like
          ``breaking the neck'' of politicians fighting the boy's return and has no
          intention of coming to Miami to pick up his son. ``Miami Cubans would
          just entangle me in their political games,'' he said.

          But Sunday, U.S. politicians repeatedly demanded that he come.

          ``Let the father come to the United States, bring his family here, both
          grandmothers, make his case in court and then have it decided right
          there,'' Reform Party presidential candidate Pat Buchanan said on ABC's
          ``This Week.''

          Texas George W. Bush, a Republican presidential hopeful, said he hopes
          the elder Gonzalez ``would be allowed to come ... inhale that great
          breath of freedom, to see how is son is being accepted here, take some
          time for himself and make the decision (about Elian's future) here on U.S.
          soil.''

          Speaking from Havana, Alarcon said Gonzalez is free to go whenever he
          can be assured of getting his son without being entangled in legal or
          political problems.

          But Alarcon added, ``We have gotten the advice of many lawyers,
          including U.S. officials, that he should not go to that country.'' Among
          other perils, he said, Gonzalez could face would be the threat of a
          congressional subpoena.

          Sen. John McCain of Arizona, another GOP presidential contender,
          joined those pushing citizenship for Elian.

          ``We've done that to so many others who have been able to escape,'' he
          told NBC. ``Look, the only people that have been returned to Cuba
          have been criminals. I don't think that Elian falls into that category.''

          Alarcon denounced the citizenship effort. ``You cannot impose
          citizenship upon anybody,'' he said. ``And this individual, this 6-year-old
          boy, has not requested anything, and he cannot, legally speaking. ... This
          is going too far, really.''

                     Copyright 2000 The New York Times Company