Elian Doc: No Miami Vistors Yet
By Michael J. Sniffen
Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, April 26, 2000; 12:42 p.m. EDT
WASHINGTON –– A child psychiatrist who interviewed Elian Gonzalez for the
government recommended that his Miami relatives reconcile their differences
with his father before they are allowed to visit the 6-year-old Cuban boy, a
Justice Department spokeswoman said today.
Dr. Paulina F. Kernberg, of Cornell University Medical College, advised
Immigration Commissioner Doris Meissner that "Elian needs more private time
with his family and she believes that before the Miami relatives see Elian
they need to work out their differences with Juan Miguel," Justice
spokeswoman Carole Florman said.
Kernberg spent 2˝ hours Tuesday with the Gonzalez family at their new retreat
on Wye River Plantation on Maryland's Eastern Shore. She spent some time
alone with Elian, some alone with the father and some with the entire family
including his stepmother and 6-month-old half brother, Florman said.
"The doctor reported that Elian needs to feel there is no tension between his
family and his Miami relatives before any sort of extended family meeting,"
Florman said.
Kernberg was one of three doctors consulting for the government who
interviewed the father and Elian's great-uncle Lazaro Gonzalez, who had been
caring for him, before Saturday's raid. They recommended that the boy be
quickly reunited with his father.
A Justice official, requesting anonymity, said Kernberg told Meissner that
Lazaro Gonzalez's 21-year-old daughter, Marisleysis, "is clearly not ready to
see Elian, because she is too emotional and too angry to be a positive
influence for him." Kernberg has not interviewed Marisleysis, but the young
woman has conducted several televised news conferences describing her anger
over the raid that took Elian from her home in Miami.
Meantime, little pieces of Elian life in Cuba are being brought to him in
America as his family, the courts and the Senate consider the case.
In the latest stop on his five-month odyssey, the young boat wreck survivor
was moved to the secluded and wooded Maryland retreat Tuesday with lots of
room to play. There, he awaits visits by his former kindergarten teacher and
a 10-year-old cousin, who left Cuba today en route to the United States.
State Department spokesman James Rubin said visas would be expedited for four
of Elian's playmates to come from Cuba. "A young 6-year-old ... needs to have
someone to play with," he said.
Kernberg reported that Elian "is doing very well, is playful and interactive
and displays a sense of belonging to a close family unit," Florman said
today.
"The doctor found that he teases his father and helps to take care of his
brother and plays what she called 'the proud big brother' role," Florman
said. "He calls his stepmother 'Momma' and they look and interact very much
like a close-knit family."
Kernberg gave Elian toys to play with, including green toy soldiers with guns
to see if he had any negative reaction to memories of the raid in which he
was taken by heavily armed Border Patrol agents from the Miami home, Florman
said.
"The doctor said he played with them regularly like a normal 6-year-old boy
and at the end picked them up with his other toys and put them in his toy
box," Florman said.
"He drew a picture of Juan Miguel as a strong, sturdy man standing on top of
a mountain – a sign he looks up to his father as a protector," Florman said
Kernberg reported.
The doctor found that the boy tires easily, and she concluded he needs
private time "away from the spotlight in natural surroundings" to rest
emotionally, Florman said.
Meantime, one of the eight Border Patrol agents who entered Lazaro's house
Saturday morning as part of the "high-risk team" to retrieve Elian told
Immigration and Naturalization Service officials he "had never encountered
this much resistance," INS spokeswoman Maria Cardona said today.
"The agents said the crowd around the house was extremely aggressive and
hostile," Cardona reported. "The female agent, Betty Mills, was pushed to the
ground on the way in."
As the agents approached the door, several people formed a human chain and
had to be pushed aside. The agents identified themselves and asked for
cooperation, "but they did not get it despite the family's promise to just
open the door peacefully if we came to get Elian," Cardona said.
"There was a couch pushed against the door, so the agents had to breach the
door to get inside. Inside all the while, family members and supporters were
screaming at the agents."
Cardona said the agent pictured holding up an automatic weapon as he
encountered a terrified Elian in the arms of supporter Donato Dalrymple had
the safety lock turned on. "He made a specific decision to keep the safety
lock on because he feared he would encounter a physical struggle and didn't
want the gun to go off accidentally," Cardona said.
There has been no indication that Juan Miguel Gonzalez wants to see the Miami
relatives, who made repeated unsuccessful efforts to see Elian when he was at
Andrews Air Force Base. Security officers at Wye would bar them from entering
without permission, said Drew Wade, a spokesman for the U.S. Marshal's
Service.
Doris Meissner, commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service,
said today on NBC's "Today" that Kernberg told her "something I found very
touching – that the father is not hostile to the Miami relatives, he is very
hurt. They have said very cruel things over recent weeks and the adults need
to sort that out before the child is involved."
Attorney General Janet Reno failed to quiet Republican criticism of the raid
during a meeting Tuesday with a bipartisan group of senators. Congressional
hearings are scheduled to begin next week.
With the drama moved a thousand miles to the north, Cuban-Americans in Miami
upset over Elian's seizure called a general strike. Workers stayed home,
students skipped school and businesses closed, bringing honking cars and
Cuban flags to the streets of Little Havana. Several baseball major league
baseball players honored the strike.
Attorneys for the Miami family filed a motion Tuesday in the 11th Circuit
Court of Appeals, asking that a guardian be appointed to check on Elian's
well-being. The court directed attorneys for Juan Miguel Gonzalez to file a
response by this afternoon, stating any reasons why this shouldn't happen.
–––
EDITOR'S NOTE – Associated Press writers Pauline Jelinek and Christopher
Thorne in Queenstown, Md., contributed to this report.
© Copyright 2000 The Associated Press
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