From Herald Wire Services

 HAVANA -- President Fidel Castro on Thursday sent nine more people to join Elian Gonzalez and his father in the United States, but complained that U.S. officials were hindering the group and Cuban diplomats trying to visit Elian.

 Cuban officials say they want to create a little bit of Elian's hometown, Cardenas, at Maryland's Wye River conference center where the boy is staying while a court considers efforts by his Miami relatives to seek political asylum for him against his father's wishes.

 Castro went to Havana's Jose Marti International Airport to bid farewell to Elian's physician, four of his schoolmates and four of their parents. If the family had to wait a month or more for a court ruling allowing Elian to return, ``it would be better if he were with people that he knew,'' Castro said.

 But he complained about the U.S. refusal to grant visas to all 31 people Cuba had proposed to help the 6-year-old shipwreck survivor recover from trauma, catch up with schoolwork and renew relations with his friends.

 ``There have been nothing but obstacles and difficulties of all kinds,'' Castro said.

 Castro complained that the United States had limited the Cubans to 15-day visas so that children who visit Elian would have to be rotated, preventing a stable environment.

 ``They are crazy things, absurd, ridiculous, which cannot contribute anything to helping the boy,'' Castro said.

 The group flew to Washington and planned to go the secluded site where Elian is staying with his father, stepmother and baby brother, as well as a teacher and cousin who arrived Wednesday.

 In a program broadcast Thursday night, Cuban state television charged that U.S. officials had given Cuban diplomats permission for only brief visits to Wye.

 It also complained that on arrival, U.S. Customs confiscated medicines for Elian from Dr. Caridad Ponce de Leon, his physician, and warned that she could not practice medicine in Maryland unless a licensed U.S. physician is present.

 The confiscated medicines were listed as amikacin sulfate, used for treatment of bacterial and staph infections; aminophyllinem, a bronchodilator for treatment of asthma, bronchitis and emphysema; cefazoline, for treatment of respiratory, urinary, skin and other infections; and meprobamate, better known by the trade name Miltown, for treatment of anxiety.

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