Homeward Bound?

By Tim Padgett/Miami

Among all the images of six-year-old Elian Gonzalez that we've seen since he was rescued from the Atlantic last Thanksgiving, the most poignant is his handwriting. Lawyers for Elian's Miami relatives--who refuse to send him back to his father in communist Cuba--had the boy himself sign court papers seeking U.S. asylum. Elian, they said, is capable of deciding where he wants to live. But the first-grader's crude letters betray his tender mind, like the Power Rangers in his toy box. Last week Miami Federal Judge K. Michael Moore dismissed the relatives' case and agreed with Attorney General Janet Reno that only the Cuban father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, can speak for a child that young. "Each passing day," Moore wrote, "is another day lost" between Juan Miguel and Elian.

Since the night Elian's mother drowned while escaping Cuba, leaving him to float on an inner tube for two days, his saga has been as bizarre and unending as a novel of magic realism. The Miami lawyers are appealing Moore's ruling, and myriad other delay tactics await. Meanwhile, Cuban dictator Fidel Castro apparently still won't let Juan Miguel, 31, go to Miami to get Elian. Bottom line: this ugly international custody battle has a few more skirmishes to go before one side can claim victory.

The true foes in this fight--Castro and Miami's Cuban-exile lobby, the Cuban-American National Foundation (CANF)--both want their new missile crisis to last and revive the waning influence they enjoyed during the cold war. "They need this fight the way you and I need oxygen," says Dr. Raul de Velasco, head of the moderate Miami-based Cuban Committee for Democracy. Attorney General Reno insists that keeping Elian here will set a precedent that could in turn make U.S. children legally vulnerable abroad. But at the same time, Al Gore needs Florida votes. As a result, although Reno has demanded that the Miami family stop stalling, the Clinton Administration has little stomach for enforcing its decision to return Elian to Cuba, especially given the protest violence that might erupt in Miami.

High-powered Washington attorney Gregory Craig, who defended Bill Clinton in his impeachment trial, has entered the fray as Juan Miguel's lawyer--raising hopes for a quicker end to the case. But Craig, who told TIME he took the job in part because he too has a six-year-old boy, says not even he knows yet when the father will come for Elian.

At stake for CANF is nothing less than its role as Miami's Tammany Hall--and as arbiter of Washington's Cuba policy. Its authoritarian control has weakened in recent years, as has public support for the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba. Last fall, CANF leaders were desperate to counter Castro's planned visit to the World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle, and were saved when Elian washed up as their poster boy. Millionaire chairman Jorge Mas denies the lobby is using Elian: "Our mission is to ensure that this boy gets his due process of law." But he adds, "We want to provoke Castro as long as we can, to make the world see the hopeless reality of repression in Cuba."

Few dispute that reality. Still, if Castro controls Juan Miguel, many are worried that the Foundation is manipulating Lazaro Gonzalez, 49, the semi-employed great-uncle who has custody of Elian in Miami. Close relatives in Miami say his many publicity stunts with the boy are out of character. And while relatives say they admire the mothering that Lazaro's daughter Marisleysis, 21, has given Elian, they complain, in the words of one of them, that "she doesn't make him a glass of chocolate milk without telling him that his grandmothers can't buy that for him in Cuba."

Elian's plight has also given Castro, 73, life support. Last fall, el comandante's relevance was dwindling: even as he played host to a summit of Latin American and Iberian leaders, the spotlight fell instead on foreign capitalists and pro-democracy dissidents. Elian's "kidnapping" changed all that. As a result, Cuban politicos privately declare that even if Elian never returns, "We've won."

Still, ordinary Cubans say they're tired of being herded into Havana's streets for "Free Elian!" rallies; and many Americans feel CANF's zealotry has worsened Miami's dysfunctional image. In the end, the drama may reveal how fed up both societies are with the Dr. Strangelove hysteria of U.S.-Cuba relations. But for now, each passing day is one of political gain for Fidel and the Foundation.

--With reporting by Dolly Mascarenas/Havana

With reporting by Dolly Mascarenas/Havana