They are accused of attacking protesters at 2000 rally in D.C.

  By TERE FIGUERAS

  More than two years after Elián González was returned to Cuba, five former employees of the Cuban Interests Section in Washington, D.C., were accused in federal charges that they conspired to threaten and assault protesters rallying in support of the boy's Miami relatives in April 2000.

  The five are no longer in the United States -- and would have been immune from prosecution in this country because of diplomatic immunity.

  The then-first secretary of consular affairs, Armando Collazo, who dropped his wallet during the scuffle, was one of the five men named in the complaint.

  The charges, announced Monday by the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, are a welcome development for victims of the fracas who say they were beaten and shoved by a crowd of men who stormed through the gates of the diplomatic mission.

  Brigida Benitez, a Washington attorney who grew up in Miami, said the criminal complaint against the men will bar them from receiving visas to reenter the United
  States.

  ''I think it's great news. It shows that there is law and order in this country,'' said Benitez, who was one of the protesters.

  ''They came out, rolled up their sleeves and yelled obscenities,'' she said. ``They started kicking and punching and took away our flagpoles.''

  Benitez said she was grabbed and pushed into a busy street during the melee.

  A few of the protesters were taken to the hospital for treatment, but there were no serious injuries.

  The melee took place April 14, 2000, as the demonstrators were calling for democracy on the island and also were demanding that Elián, then 6, stay in Miami and not be returned to his father in Cuba.

  The boat-wreck survivor was seized by federal agents during a predawn raid a few days later. He was returned to Cuba in late June.

  The Cuban diplomatic mission did not return a call for comment Monday night.

  U.S. Attorney Roscoe C. Howard Jr. said in a statement that more than a dozen employees of the Cuban mission ``allegedly pushed and shoved many of the
  demonstrators.''

  The ''demonstrators were kicked and punched, and a few were struck with the very signs and placards they were holding during the protest,'' the statement said.

  At the time, the spokesman for the Cuban mission, Luis Fernandez, accused the demonstrators of engaging in provocative actions.

  Fernandez said the protesters insulted women and children at the mission and also passed objects through the fence.

  This report was supplemented with material from The Associated Press.