By Fern Shen

                  Monday, April 10, 2000; Page C13

                  Elian Gonzalez's father came to the United States last week to get his son.
                  It was the latest episode in the four-month saga of the Cuban boy. What
                  would normally have been a private family matter has become an
                  international tug of war over the 6-year-old. Relatives in Florida want Elian
                  to stay in America. His father, who is now in Washington, wants to take
                  him home to Cuba.

                  How did Elian become the world's most famous 6-year-old?

                  The short answer is: a shipwreck. The Cuban government does not allow
                  people to leave without permission. Elian, his mother and 11 other Cubans
                  had been trying to leave Cardenas, Cuba and reach Florida by boat. Their
                  boat sank on Nov. 22. Elian's mother and most of the others died. Two
                  days later, on Thanksgiving Day, fishermen found Elian floating alone in an
                  inner tube.

                  What has happened since he was rescued?

                  Elian has been living in Miami, Florida, in the care of his great-uncle and
                  cousins, who fled Cuba thirty years ago. Meanwhile, adults and officials
                  are fighting over where he should live. His father, who was divorced from
                  Elian's mother and lives in Cuba, wants his son to come back and be with
                  him. His great-uncle and other Miami relatives, whom Elian hardly knew
                  before, want him to stay with them.

                  Why are others arguing about Elian?

                  Elian's story means a lot to some Cuban Americans, who left the island in
                  the 1950s and 1960s. Many fled after the 1959 revolution, when the
                  current leader, Fidel Castro, took over. These people dislike Castro's
                  Communist government and say Elian's mother meant him to live in the
                  United States, where there is more political freedom and economic
                  opportunity.

                  But Elian's father, the Cuban government and the U.S. government say
                  Elian should go back with his father, that it's more important for a child to
                  be with his parent than to be in a country with any particular style of
                  government. Under U.S. immigration law and international law, they say,
                  Elian should be sent back.

                  What are the latest developments?

                  This week, the United States government will tell Elian's Miami relatives
                  when he must be returned to his father. The relatives are scheduled to meet
                  today with people working with the U.S. government to talk about the best
                  and least painful way for Elian to move from his relatives to his father.

                  U.S. government officials said that Elian's father, who has been staying for
                  the past few days with a Cuban official in Bethesda, has said he will remain
                  in the United States with his son until the relatives make one last argument
                  before a judge later this spring.

                  What does Elian want?

                  We really don't know. Elian told a reporter that he does not want to return
                  to Cuba with his father. But people wonder if he was coached by someone
                  to say that. Some adults say that the small boy, who has been through so
                  much, may not be able to make up his own mind right now.

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