Morning Raid Lands Elian And Father Together

Father and son met at Andrews Air Force Base near Washington, the secured base used for the president's travels.<br>About 5 a.m., more than 20 agents in several white vans arrived at the home of the

Saturday, April 22nd 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

Father and son met at Andrews Air Force Base near Washington, the secured base used for the president's travels.
About 5 a.m., more than 20 agents in several white vans arrived at the home of the Miami relatives who had been caring for Elian since his rescue. They used rams on the home's chain-link fence and front door to get inside. The boy was being hidden in a bedroom closet by his great-aunt and Donato Dalrymple, one of the fishermen who rescued him on Thanksgiving Day.
Click here to see a photo gallery of Elian's forced removal from the home.

In the bedroom, an agent in green riot gear and goggles and holding an automatic rifle confronted Dalrymple clutching the frightened child, an image captured by an Associated Press photographer and broadcast around the world. Agents then took Elian out of Dalrymple's arms. A short time later, a woman and man brought Elian out of the home and put him in one of the vans, which sped off as pepper spray was fired to keep the distraught crowd back. Maria Elena Quesada, who was at the home, said Elian was screaming "Help me! Help me! Don't take me away!" in Spanish.

By 6 a.m., Elian was on a government plane headed for the Washington area. Juan Miguel Gonzalez was told about the raid as soon as Elian was safe, officials said. Attorney General Janet Reno said she "did until the final moments try to reach a voluntary solution," but over the months the dispute has gone on, "the Miami relatives kept moving the goalpost and raising the hurdles." She said the boy would stay in the United States pending further court action over the question of asylum, as the federal appeals court ruled -- a statement confirmed by Gonzalez's lawyer, Gregory Craig.

"Juan Gonzalez has made a commitment to remain in the United States during this appeal, and he will live up to thatcommitment," Craig said.

He praised Reno for going the "extra mile" to achieve the reunion. At the news conference with Reno, Doris Meissner, commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, said the Spanish-speaking, female agent who took the boy from the Miami home had a soothing message -- worked out in advance: "This may seem very scary. It will soon be better." The boy was told he would be taken to "papa," the word he used for his father.

Elian was given a physical by a government doctor before he got on the plane, a government official said earlier, speaking on condition of anonymity. On the plane were the female immigration agent, a psychiatrist, a flight surgeon and the immigration agent who commanded the operation. Elian was described as subdued and calm on the plane. He was given a play kit including toys, Play-Doh, an airplane, a map and a watch, the official said.

In Havana today, Cubans wept in happiness. In an official statement read over state radio stations, the government urged Cubans to "maintain calm and avoid public displays" over the event But in Miami, under a brilliant, clear sky, crowds began to gather in Little Havana as the city slowly awoke to the realization that Elian was gone.

By midmorning, drivers on one highway demonstrated with a slowdown. Police closed off 35 blocks around the home after dawn as people at a street intersection burned debris and yelled at a line of officers in riot gear.

"We have our office in full mobilization," said Lt. Bill Schwartz, a police spokesman. "They're getting ready to form two field forces to take their positions if necessary."

The siege appeared to catch the family completely off guard. After daylight, the boy's cousin Marisleysis Gonzalez came out of the house and shouted to the crowd in words sprinkled with patriotic references to freedom and the land of opportunity. She said the agents broke down the door yelling, "`Give us the (expletive) boy. We'll shoot. We'll shoot. We'll shoot,"' as she begged them not to take him or let him see the guns.

"How can this boy be OK when he had a gun to his head?" she said. "I thought this was a country of freedom."

But Reno said, "the Miami relatives rejected our efforts, leaving us no other option but the enforcement action." She also said the gun was not pointed directly at the boy. Ms. Gonzalez and Kendall Coffey, an attorney for the Miami relatives, said they were in the middle of negotiations and had been put on hold by the mediator when the agents arrived.

"We're angry and disgusted," Coffey said.

It was a swift step in the international custody dispute over the little boy rescued off the Florida coast nearly five months ago. His Miami relatives have sought to retain the temporary custody they were granted in November, while the U.S. government has sought to reunite the boy with his father.

"Assassins!" came the cry from a crowd of about 100protesters, some of whom climbed over barricades trying to stop the agents. The agents, wearing INS shirts, were armed with automatic weapons. Ramon Saul Sanchez, leader of the anti-Castro Democracy Movement, was bleeding from one ear after the raid. He said he was knocked out by an agent using a rifle as a club.

"They were animals," said Jess Garcia, a bystander. "They gassed women and children to take a defenseless child out of here. We were assaulted with no provocation" Miami police executives, including the chief, had some notice of the raid but officers at the scene had only a moment's notice, said Schwartz, the department spokesman. The raid came amid reports of progress in talks to immediately transfer custody of the boy to his father.

Reno was at her office early this morning engaged in a long-distance negotiation that began Friday afternoon. All of that ended in failure early today. Carlos Gonzalez said he and several others tried to form a human chain in front of the door but were forced back at gunpoint.

Inside, Dalrymple held Elian in his arms as the agents arrived. He said agents told him "give me the boy or I'll shoot you." "They took this kid like a hostage in the nighttime," he said.

The government and Juan Miguel Gonzalez insisted that any deal contain an immediate transfer of custody of Elian to him, but the Miami relatives defied Reno's order switching custody. The relatives have cared for Elian since he was found clinging to an inner tube in the Atlantic after a boat carrying his mother and other Cubans capsized, killing her and 10 others.

They and the hundreds of Cubans who gathered for days outside their home don't want the boy returned to a Cuba ruled by Fidel Castro. The deal that was under discussion called for Juan Miguel Gonzalez and Elian, Lazaro and Marisleysis to move to one of two foundation-owned conference centers near Washington, with formal custody being transferred immediately to the father, a Justice Department official said. The two sides couldn't agree on the custody issue or how long they might live together pending the end of the court battle.

The Miami relatives lost a U.S. District Court battle to get apolitical asylum hearing for Elian. An appeals court has ordered Elian to stay in this country until it hears that case, but did not bar Reno from switching custody.