Elian Gonzalez Case: Focus Shifts to Reuniting Father, Son; Miami Religious Leaders Hold Prayer Vigil; Florida Family Awaits INS Letter
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: The focus this morning is on Elian Gonzalez, and that case is beginning to shift away from the battle to keep the boy from his father and toward plans for a reunion. Within the hour, the mayor of Miami caught a flight to Washington where he'll meet with Attorney General Janet Reno. One of the boy's Florida relatives will also meet with Ms. Reno. And today, she's expected to send a letter to the Miami family explaining when and where to surrender the boy. Also on the agenda, how to protect the boy's welfare. Three mental-health experts who talked with the boy's great-uncle yesterday will meet at the Justice Department to discuss their consultation. And in Miami, thousands of Cuban Americans joined a prayer vigil last night in the Little Havana neighborhood. Now for more on that first-time meeting between Attorney General Janet Reno and the Florida relative of Elian Gonzalez, we turn CNN's Bob Franken at the Justice Department this morning -- Bob.</s>BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's very clear, Carol, that with the sending of this letter, there is no question any more about whether this going is going to take place but when, how, why, that type of thing. The letter will go out from the Justice Department, we're told, sometime today to the family in Miami, telling them this is what you will do this week to effect the transfer of Elian Gonzalez to his father Juan Miguel Gonzalez. We don't where that's going to be yet, or, in fact, whether the child, after that occurs, will go back to Washington or to some other place. Also, of course, there are going to be that series of meetings you talked about. The team of psychiatrists and psychologists who met in Miami with the family yesterday will report on their findings up here to the attorney general. As you pointed out, the mayor of Miami, Joe Carollo and the mayor of Miami-Dade, Alex Penelas, are expected to be here for a meeting, along with relatives of the family down there. Carollo has left Miami, winging his way to Washington. He spoke on CNN last night about his request that he's going to make for a delay, a 30-day moratorium, for the Clinton administration and the family to try and come to some sort of accommodation about this.</s>MAYOR JOE CAROLLO, MIAMI, FLORIDA: If our president has been able to get together the prime minister of the state of Israel to meet with the president of Syria, with the head of the Palestine state, then it should be fairly easy with someone of her great talent to be able to put together the members of the Gonzalez family of Miami with their family member from Cuba, Juan Miguel, alone, without anybody else interfering or putting any pressure.</s>FRANKEN: Now, one of the remaining questions is just how long Juan Gonzalez will stay in the United States with his boy. There are some indications he may stick around for a while. The State Department is considering the remaining visa requests from the Cuban government for what amounts to an entourage of fellow classmates of Elian Gonzalez and even one of the top politicians in that country to come to the United States and perhaps be here for a while as they await the final resolution of this case. Bob Franken, CNN, live, the Justice Department.</s>LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you, Bob. Well, Cuban-Americans in Miami who may feel they're fighting an uphill battle, and they want Elian Gonzalez to stay, well, they haven't given up hope just yet. CNN's Martin Savidge reports this morning on their latest show of support.</s>MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Flags held high and voices raised. Thousands of people rallied at the heart of Miami's Little Havana community in support of the rafter boy, 6-year- old Elian Gonzalez. The prayer vigil, organized by local religious leaders, was held just blocks from the home where the young boy has been staying with relatives. Cuban and American flags cheered the breeze, flashlights aimed their beams into the night sky while the crowd held signs overhead. "Elian deserves freedom," read one, while another offered a more ominous statement. "We're ready for another Waco," it says. But most do not expect anything as dire as that if the boy is removed. Civil disobedience, maybe; violence, no</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... don't want a confrontation. We just like to help the family to get together and figure out this problem.</s>SAVIDGE: "Pray for Elian" is a common request. The religious connotations surrounding this story are felt strongly here. Many believe Elian was rescued from the ocean by divine intervention. Now they hope a similar rescue will keep him in the United States, a hope they say that has not faded.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hope is the last thing you lose, and we haven't lost it for 41 years. We are still here and we will be here tomorrow.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's still a lot of hope. If he survived for two days on the water, he's going to survive all this and he's going to stay. I'm sure of that. There's a lot of hope still.</s>SAVIDGE: The days that lie ahead may test that faith, but for now in Little Havana, they say they are still hanging onto hope, still praying for a miracle. Martin Savidge, CNN, Miami.</s>HARRIS: And now let's get the very latest on this case this morning. Susan's -- CNN's Susan Candiotti is outside the relatives' home in Miami's Little Havana section. We go to her now live. Susan, good morning.</s>SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Leon. It is quiet now after thousands showed up for that candlelight vigil just a few blocks from here, thousands showing their support for the Florida relatives of 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez, as the relatives here are now bracing themselves to get that letter from U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service telling them when and how the father is to be reunited with his son. The wheels now set in motion after Elian's great-uncle at first kept three mental-health professionals waiting, and then asked that they change the meeting's location to a hospital where Lazaro Gonzalez's daughter is being treated. The meeting lasted less than an hour. Apparently it didn't get very far either. Sources describe Gonzalez as not being interested in how to prepare the 6-year-old for a reunion with his father. One source called him "stubborn," unwilling to listen, unwilling to compromise on anything. But another source defended the uncle, as the source put it, "as strongly pitching a face-to-face meeting with Elian's father," telling psychologists, this was a "family-to-family matter," that Juan Miguel Gonzalez would have to come to this house in Miami to get his son. Now, last night, Lazaro Gonzalez played with the boy outside the house, perhaps a signal to Elian's father that Lazaro Gonzalez is digging in his heels, with no apparent intention of willingly turning over this boy to his father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez. Susan Candiotti, CNN, reporting live in Miami.</s>HARRIS: Thank you, Susan. Search CNN.com CNNSI.com CNNmoney.com The Web