MIAMI (CNN) -- The Miami relatives of Elian Gonzalez are having a privacy fence installed around their home to shield the 6-year-old from the public eye.

Family spokesman Armando Gutierrez said the 6-foot wooden fence is necessary because the child "needs some space." Family members will pay for the fence themselves and are hoping it will keep the media, curiosity-seekers and tour buses from gathering outside their home.

Gutierrez said Elian spent the weekend at a relative's home in Central Florida, after a particularly stressful week.

The boy has been the centerpiece of a custody battle between his father in Cuba and his relatives in Miami since November. Elian was one of three people to survive when a boat carrying his mother and several others sank as they tried to reach the Florida coast. Elian was found clinging to an inner tube in the Atlantic Ocean.

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RELATED SITES:

U.S. State Department
U.S. Department of Justice
Cubaweb
Cuban American National Foundation
U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service

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