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Elian's Miami relatives choose defiance

April 13, 2000
Web posted at: 4:14 PM EDT (2014 GMT)

By Tony Karon

(TIME.com) -- The Elian Gonzalez standoff appears to have been forced to a potentially ugly showdown because both sides have found it politically impossible to alter their positions. After a couple of days in which the Miami relatives and their backers had 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. Thursday after failing to persuade them to fly with the boy to Washington, D.C.

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The most important exile group, the Cuban American National Foundation, appeared Tuesday to have brokered a face-saving deal in which Elian would be reunited with his father at a meeting with Lazaro Gonzalez, but that deal was quickly abandoned later the same day. "Earlier this week it looked as though the foundation might be trying to cut its p.r. losses by moving to have Lazaro and Elian's father, Juan Miguel, at least meet in Washington before handing over the boy," says TIME Miami bureau chief Tim Padgett. "But that quickly fell through when the foundation realized that it would suffer an even worse p.r. disaster in its own constituency if it was seen to be handing the boy over. The result is that the feds will probably have to come in and take Elian away either today or tomorrow."

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 leadership's point of view, than of another famous Texas locale -- the Alamo.

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