A comment by Senate candidate Mel Martinez about the return of Elián González to Cuba produces an angry response.

BY MARC CAPUTO AND BETH REINHARD

Calling the federal agents who seized Elián González ''armed thugs,'' the campaign of Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mel Martinez chided Democratic opponent Betty Castor on Friday for campaigning with the U.S. attorney general who sent the shipwrecked boy back to Cuba four years ago.

The language provoked outrage from Castor's campaign and from the national union that represented the immigration officers who took Elián from his Miami relatives and returned him to his father at the behest of then-Attorney General Janet Reno.

''Those were law enforcement officers doing their jobs, risking their lives,'' Castor spokesman Dan McLaughlin said of the ''armed thugs'' comment. 'Regardless of anyone's politics, I think it is outrageous to think someone would call police officers working under those conditions `thugs.' ''

Castor said Friday that Martinez's comments sounded ``like a partisan political thing. I have a lot of support for Janet Reno and her work over the years.''

Reno, attending an event with Castor in Miami Friday, defended her decision in the Elián case, saying it had nothing to do with ``an election issue.''

While Martinez's comment may resonate with some Cuban-American voters, it could cost him support among moderate Democrats and Republicans.

Friday evening, Martinez spokeswoman Jennifer Coxe backed away from the ''armed thugs'' comment used in an e-mail to reporters, and called it a ``regretful term.''

``We have the utmost respect for the law enforcement community.''

The explanation did not satisfy Charles Showalter, president of the National Homeland Security Council for the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents 18,000 law enforcement workers.

'I'm very disturbed that anyone would call any federal law enforcement officers `thugs' '' he said.

Herald staff writer Daniel de Vise contributed to this report.