January 26, 2000
Web posted at: 10:17 p.m. EST (0317 GMT)

In this story: Both families toured house beforehand Reunion was late getting under way Custody battle waged on Capitol Hill RELATED STORIES, SITES

MIAMI (CNN) -- After days of negotiations and several delays, 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez met for two hours with his Cuban grandmothers at the home of a Roman Catholic nun in Miami.

Afterward, Elian and his Miami relatives returned Wednesday night to the Little Havana home of his great-uncle, where the boy's cousin spoke to the media about the meeting and about the youngster's reaction.

VIDEO CNN's John Zarrella reports on the reunion -- and the obstacles that threatened to keep it from happening. (January 26) Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K     AUDIO Listen to the churchwomen describe the meeting between Elian and his grandmothers 110K/12 sec. AIFF or WAV sound 237K/24 sec. AIFF or WAV sound     MESSAGE BOARD US/Cuba relations

"He just stood there and waited for them to come and hug him," Marisleysis Gonzalez said, adding that the child hasn't said much about his reunion with his grandmothers other than it was OK.

"All I know is that everything was fine in there, and they behaved very good with him. All they talked about was an album of photos that they had brought," Elian's 21-year-old cousin said.

She also said the grandmothers did not want to speak to her or her family. But Gonzalez was grateful for the "love and attention" given to them by the Dominican nuns who acted as host to the families.

Elian has been staying with the Miami relatives since he was found floating in the waters off Florida. His mother and 10 other Cubans died en route to the United States. The grandmothers want to return Elian to his father in Cuba. The Miami relatives want him to remain in the United States.

As Elian was being driven back to the home of his Miami relatives, an interview with him was broadcast over Spanish-language Radio Mambi. "Tomorrow they're going to make me an American citizen," Elian said in the interview.

Both families toured house beforehand

"It was very touch and go for a long time," said Sister Jeanne O'Laughlin, at whose gated Miami Beach home the reunion took place.

The Dominican nun, who is president of Barry College in Miami, said she gave both families a tour of the house to show them that it was safe and secure with "no trap doors" where the boy could be spirited away.

"There were no accusations or promises or trying to define the future. There were only moments of tearful weeping for what might have been and what was not to be," O'Laughlin said of the adult members of the families fighting over custody of the young shipwreck survivor.

Another member of the religious order who spent time with the grandmothers said Elian played with some of the toys, the stuffed animals, colored a little and looked at the photographs of his father, half-brother and schoolmates. The grandmothers read the messages on the backs of the pictures.

"There was no badgering of him. The grandmothers were very sensitive to that child," said O'Laughlin, adding that they held themselves together while saying good-bye -- but broke into tears after Elian left.

When reporters asked O'Laughlin, now that she had met both family factions, if she thought Elian should stay in the United States or go back to Cuba, the nun said she would probably answer that question Thursday.

There was some concern among the Miami relatives after one of the grandmothers was found to have a cellular phone in her possession -- a violation of the rules set up for the meeting.

The phone was discovered when it rang and was then confiscated.

But a senior Cuban government official told CNN the boy was talking to his father when the phone was taken away. The official also said the Cuban government has protested "in the strongest possible terms" to the U.S. government about what it called an abrupt end to the father-son conversation.

Reunion was late getting under way

It was not entirely clear why the grandmothers did not get off the plane at Opa-Laka Airport until nearly an hour after the meeting was scheduled to begin.

"The conditions have not been met" guaranteeing there would be "no interference" at the reunion from Lazaro Gonzalez, Elian's great-uncle who has temporary legal custody of the boy, or other family members who oppose his return to Cuba, said Luis Fernandez, a spokesman for the Cuban Interests Section in Washington.

Another possible reason: five members of the anti-Castro Cuban American National Foundation were invited to a home next door to O'Laughlin, a CANF member told CNN.

O'Laughlin found out and asked that they leave the premises because they were "endangering the meeting between Elian and his grandmothers," the CANF member said.

A top official with the INS called the National Council of Churches, sponsor of the grandmothers' visit, and the Cuban Interests Section and "in no uncertain terms told them there are no security concerns and that it would be in everybody's best interests to make this meeting happen," a source told CNN.

O'Laughlin said 'we must all weep for the days of anguish and suffering that that child has had to endure'

Custody battle waged on Capitol Hill

After the meeting, the grandmothers reboarded a plane and returned to Washington to lobby Congress members against granting citizenship to Elian.

The INS has ruled that the boy should be returned to his father in Cuba. Elian's Florida relatives have challenged the order in federal court.

Justice Department lawyers planned to file an overnight response to a petition from the Miami family in federal court to grant Elian political asylum.

The government's case answering a challenge to the INS decision that Elian should be returned to his father in Cuba will be publicly released at 10 a.m. Thursday, officials said.

House Majority Whip Tom DeLay said Wednesday he would support something less than full citizenship for Elian as long as the measure takes the boy's case away from the INS and places the matter in family court in Florida.

While DeLay is co-sponsoring a bill to confer citizenship, he indicated he's willing to accept an alternative bill introduced by New Jersey Democrat Rep. Bob Menendez. That measure would make Elian a "permanent resident" and also strip INS jurisdiction.

DeLay made the comments as he met with a group from Miami late Wednesday that included one of Elian's cousins, Georgina Cid; the fisherman who rescued Elian at sea, Donato Darlymple; and the two people besides Elian who survived the late November boat wreck off the Florida coast, Arianne Horta and her boyfriend, Nivaldo Fernandez.

The group held a news conference and denied allegations that Elian's stepfather had been a violent man who abused Elian's mother and pressured her to come to the United States.

"Elizabeth cried to me for help and said, 'Please, Nivaldo, don't permit anything to happen to my son,' " said Fernandez through an interpreter. " 'The only thing I ask you is to please make sure that he reaches American soil.' "

Horta, who left her own young daughter back in Cuba, pleaded for public support.

"I ask all the mothers in the world to respect the memory of that mother and to work with us in trying to keep Elian here after all the troubles they went through. Respect her memory, and respect her wishes and the last wish before she died," said Horta.

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