Elian’s meeting with father called off

The six-year-old tore up a picture of his father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, in a newspaper, the witness told CNN. After that incident, Lazaro Gonzalez decided that the time was not right for the meeting with Juan Miguel and that he and Elian would not travel to Washington, CNN said. The report is the latest twist in the custody battle since Elian was rescued at sea in November. On Wednesday, Jorge Mas, chairman of the Cuban American National Foundation told a press conference in Washington that Elian’s Miami relatives would meet with Juan Miguel Gonzalez privately "at a neutral location" in the US capital.

The meeting would have brought together Elian, Lazaro Gonzalez and his brother Delfin with Elian’s father, wife and infant boy, who flew in from Cuba last week. Two of Juan Miguel’s cousins would also have attended. Family spokesman Armando Gutierrez said in Miami that Marisleysis, Elian’s 21-year-old cousin who has become his "surrogate mother," would stay in Miami where she is being treated in hospital for exhaustion.

Gutierrez also told the crowd outside the family’s Little Havana home that the encounter might take place in one of the embassies in the US capital – although not at the Cuban mission, where Juan Miguel and his family are staying. The deal, which was reportedly brokered by the anti-Castro Cuban American National Foundation, was worked out between the Justice Department, the Miami family and Gregory Craig, Juan Miguel’s lawyer, Mas said. The get-together would have come one day before the family is slated to surrender Elian to his father at Opa-locka Coast Guard station outside Miami, media reported here citing Justice Department officials.

The US relatives had lobbied intensively for the reunion, arguing that it was the only way for Juan Miguel to be seen to speak freely, free from any pressure from Cuban officials. In a related development, Attorney General Janet Reno cancelled tentative plans to travel to South Florida on Wednesday, where she was to meet with the family and possibly Cuban American community leaders. It was unclear how the last minute cancellation of the Washington meeting would affect Reno’s plans.