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Elian's Miami relatives choose defiance

April 13, 2000
Web posted at: 10:14 AM EDT (1414 GMT)

By Tony Karon

(TIME.com) -- The Elian Gonzalez standoff looks set to end in a showdown after all.

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After a couple of days in which the Miami relatives and their backers appeared resigned to the inevitability of the boy's being reunited with his father, Lazaro Gonzalez hoisted the flag of defiance after meeting with Janet Reno Wednesday, declaring that "they will have to take this child from me by force." And that appears to be exactly what government officials plan to do, following Reno's order to the Miami relatives to deliver the boy to Miami's Opa-locka Airport by 2 p.m. EDT Thursday after failing to persuade them to fly with the boy to Washington, D.C. That Lazaro and his backers were circling the wagons was evident from the fact that they left the home of Sister Jeanne O'Laughlin, to which they had retreated from the pressure cooker atmosphere of the protests around their own house, immediately after Reno's visit. But Reno remained firm, saying she would enforce the law.

The breakdown in talks seemed to suggest that the Miami relatives, and their political backers, have opted for a defiant last stand, since government negotiators had made clear from the outset of the current negotiations that while the transfer process was up for discussion, the decision to reunite Elian with his father was non-negotiable. But while the Miami camp may have hoped that the threat of confrontation would restrain the Clinton administration from seizing the boy by court order, they may have left the government no choice. And although the protesters outside Lazaro Gonzalez's house are fond of invoking the specter of Waco, this is a rather different scenario. Reno has looked all parties in the eye and told them what to expect, and the Miami family has long maintained that they will comply with the law.

In a political sense, the decision to remain defiant to the end may be less reminiscent of Waco, from the Cuban exile community's point of view, than of another famous Texas locale -- the Alamo.

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