BY JUAN O. TAMAYO AND JAY WEAVER
A U.S. immigration officer has met for a second time with Cuban
rafter Elian
Gonzalez's father in the Havana home of a ``neutral'' foreign
diplomat to determine
whether the father really wants his 6-year-old son returned to
Cuba, officials said
Monday.
The meeting New Year's Eve drew objection from lawyers for Elian's
relatives in
Miami, who said they should have been told in advance of the
meeting and given
the opportunity to participate. They said they learned of the
meeting in a
voice-mail message left by an INS official on New Year's Day.
Even if the second meeting was held in a ``safe house,'' the boy's
father, Juan
Miguel Gonzalez, 31, has no freedom to speak what's really on
his mind, the
attorneys said.
``The problem is, he has to leave the house,'' said Spencer Eig,
the lead
immigration attorney for the Miami relatives. ``Once he leaves
the house, he's
under duress.
``Juan Miguel Gonzalez is like a man with a gun to his head in
Cuba,'' Eig added.
``He cannot speak from his heart.''
(The Washington Post is reporting today that U.S. officials have
asked the Cuban
government to help arrange for Gonzalez to travel to Miami to
pick up Elian.
(The Post says U.S. authorities hope Gonzalez's appearance will
limit a legal and
emotional backlash from Florida's Cuban-American community, according
to a
U.S. official. It adds that under preliminary plans discussed
in weekend
consultations involving the INS, the State Department and the
Justice
Department, Gonzalez would be issued an emergency U.S. visa,
flown to Miami
and brought to the home of Miami relatives where Elian is staying,
perhaps
accompanied by a Roman Catholic priest. According to the Post's
sources, Cuba
has said it would take the request ``under advisement.'')
In Miami Monday, Elian prepared to enroll in the Lincoln-Marti
Elementary School
in Little Havana, and received his state required immunizations.
``Each day he is here we count as a victory,'' said Armando Gutierrez,
a
spokesman for Elian's relatives in Miami. ``There's a fear that
[immigration
officials] could send him back at any time.''
The meeting between Elian's father and an Immigration and Naturalization
Service
official was held in ``a neutral setting'' on New Year's Eve
to give Gonzalez the
chance to express himself freely, without fear of Cuban government
pressures, a
knowledgeable U.S. official said.
The official denied a report that the government of the host diplomat
had assured
the U.S. diplomatic mission in Havana the house was free of Cuban
electronic
eavesdropping devices, guaranteeing a measure of privacy for
the meeting with
Gonzalez.
``The site was chosen as a relaxed setting in which we could talk
to the father
about whether he really wants the kid back or in Miami, and there
may be an
assumption that the house was not bugged, but there were no guarantees,''
the
official said.
SINCERITY TEST
Gonzalez was asked questions designed to test the sincerity of
his request for
Elian's return, but was not asked directly whether Cuban government
officials had
pressured him into any statements.
INS spokeswoman Maria Cardona said the second meeting at ``the
private
residence of an international diplomat was designed to obtain
``additional
information from Gonzalez, a national park employee who had first
met with U.S.
officials in his Cardenas home before Christmas.
Cardona said she had no information of the use of a bug-free house
or the probing
for Gonzalez's sincerity.
Since Elian was rescued by fishermen from an inner tube on Thanksgiving
day
after his mother and 10 others lost their lives in a smuggling
boat trip, Gonzalez
has insisted that as the surviving biological parent he has sole
right to his son.
But the boy's great-uncle Lazaro Gonzalez and many others in
Miami's Cuban
exile community say the father is under the sway of President
Fidel Castro's
propaganda machinery.
Castro has turned Elian's return into a national campaign, charging
that he was
``kidnapped by his mother and taken ``hostage by the U.S. government.
Elian awaits a critical INS inspection hearing on Jan. 21, when
officials will
determine whether he can be allowed into the United States beyond
his current
temporary status.
Monday, Eig released the text of a letter to Attorney General
Janet Reno and INS
Commissioner Doris Meissner pleading that the boy be allowed
to stay in Miami.
In its letter to Reno, the boy's legal team urged INS to extend
his parole into the
United States indefinitely -- knowing that would enable Elian
to apply for
permanent residency under the Cuban Adjustment Act.
HEARING SOUGHT
His five attorneys also lobbied Reno to hold Elian's asylum hearing
soon after his
inspection.
``This country must ensure that Elian is not forcibly returned
to a country where
his freedom will be threatened,'' the letter read.
Meanwhile, the National Council of Churches, comprised of Protestant
and
Orthodox denominations, met with Elian's father in his Cardenas
home to put
pressure on U.S. officials to release him.
The Rev. Joan Campbell and the Rev. Oscar Bolioli told him over
lunch that they
are trying to work with the Cuban Council of Churches toward
that goal.
``The whole point is to keep him from being used as a back-and-forth
chip for
competing political claims,'' said Roy Lloyd, a spokesman for
the National Council
of Churches.
Cambpell and Bolioli also plan to meet with the president of Cuban
National
Assembly, Ricardo Alarcon, to talk about the boy's release before
they return to
the United States on Thursday.
Copyright 2000 Miami Herald