Elian Gonzalez Case: Fight Moves Back to Washington After Emotional Meeting Between Cuban Boy and his Grandmothers
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: The story of Elian Gonzalez continues to brew. The fight over the future of that boy moves to Washington today. American relatives of the Cuban boy left their house in Miami this morning. They are scheduled to take off shortly from Miami on their way to the nation's capital. This comes after what is described as an emotional meeting between Elian and his Cuban grandmothers in Miami last night. CNN's Tony Clark has that story.</s>TONY CLARK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Elian Gonzalez raised his arms in a victory sign after returning to his great uncle's home from the reunion with his grandmothers. His U.S. relatives felt it was a victory as well.</s>MARISLEYSIS GONZALEZ, ELIAN'S COUSIN: I have more feelings that I had before, and now I feel that, he's more to this side than to that side.</s>CLARK: The two competing sides in this international custody battle came separately to the home of Barry University President Sister Jeanne O'Laughlin, with demonstrators outside, and each side feeling fear and distrust. Yet that fear seemed to disappear when the grandmothers saw their grandson.</s>SISTER LEONOR ESNARD: When Elian saw his grandmothers, they were elated, they picked him up, and they just hugged him, and they were like shaking a little bit. And he was at ease, although he did not speak much at that point. But they were thrilled and they just kept hugging him and kissing him and saying: We're so glad to see you!</s>CLARK: The long-awaited reunion almost didn't happen. Some members of the Cuban American National Foundation were next door to the reunion site at the invitation of the neighbor. The grandmothers wouldn't leave the airport to come to the reunion until the foundation members left the neighbor's house.</s>GEORGE FOWLER, CUBAN AMERICAN NATL. FDN.: The message to your viewers is that, you know, that Fidel Castro is controlling this situation as far as the grandmothers is concerned, and is telling them what to do, and this is proof of exactly that.</s>CLARK: And once the reunion was underway, there was another problem. A cell phone was taken away from one of the grandmothers, ground rules for the meeting prohibited them. The Cuban government filed a protest with the State Department over the incident. The reunion broke up after about two hours, the Immigration Service called it a victory for everyone involved.</s>CLARK: But the reunion, though, did not solve this dispute, in fact it may have firmed up both sides' resolve to try and win it. Today, both sides are in Washington lobbying Congress over bills designed to either make Elian either a U.S. citizen or give him U.S. residency. And here at the federal court in Miami, the Immigration Service is expected to file its response to the relatives' claim that he should not be sent back to Cuba. Tony Clark, CNN, in Miami -- Leon.</s>HARRIS: All right, thank you, Tony.