By Sue Anne Pressley and Karen DeYoung
                  Washington Post Staff Writers
                  Saturday, January 8, 2000; Page A01

                  MIAMI, Jan. 7—The fight to keep 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez in the
                  United States shifted to Congress today when a House committee
                  subpoenaed the boy, potentially thwarting his return to Cuba next Friday.

                  The subpoena for the boy to testify Feb. 10 before the House Committee
                  on Government Reform and Oversight could take precedence over the
                  Immigration and Naturalization Service's order that he must return next
                  week to his Cuban father.

                  The news was met with cries of jubilation at the Little Havana home of
                  Elian's great-uncle, Lazaro Gonzalez. As a large crowd cheered, Elian,
                  held high in his relatives' arms, waved a copy of the subpoena and made a
                  "V" sign for victory.

                  "We are very, very happy," said Elian's cousin Marisleysis Gonzalez. "This
                  is what we have been hoping for."

                  Members of Miami's Cuban American community, who had been
                  protesting the INS decision for the past two days, took to the streets again
                  in Little Havana tonight, this time cheering and pumping their arms in
                  celebration.

                  In Washington, the Justice Department said it would have no comment
                  tonight on the subpoena, which an official said the department had not yet
                  seen. The official said department leaders expected to remain silent over
                  the weekend while they took stock of where today's fast-moving events
                  left the case.

                  Earlier today, Lazaro Gonzalez sought temporary custody of the child in
                  Miami-Dade Circuit Court. Attorneys for the boy's relatives here maintain
                  that the emergency request for custody would clear the way for Lazaro
                  Gonzalez to file a new political asylum application for Elian.

                  "Elian has repeatedly stated to his father that he does not want to be
                  returned to Cuba," the petition said. "Forced return to Cuba would submit
                  him to abuse and neglect, and the Castro regime has taken control of
                  Elian's father."

                  Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.), chairman of the government reform committee,
                  an outspoken critic of Cuban President Fidel Castro and an author, with
                  Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), of a 1996 measure that strengthened the U.S.
                  trade embargo against Cuba, subpoenaed Elian to testify in February so
                  that he will remain in the country while the courts can consider his case. "I
                  want to make sure that Elian's rights are protected," Burton said in a
                  statement.

                  "What right does that man have?" the boy's father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez,
                  said during a news conference in his hometown of Cardenas, Cuba, where
                  tens of thousands of people rallied tonight in support of Elian's return. "I am
                  the father of Elian, and immigration has said that I am the only one who can
                  speak for him. Why should it be delayed? Who is he? He is no one. I am
                  the father."

                  Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.) had pushed for a subpoena as a way of
                  buying time, until Congress convenes on Jan. 24 and can consider a
                  proposal by Helms to grant the child immediate U.S. citizenship.

                  "Whether a subpoena is going to force him to stay is a question," a
                  spokeswoman for Diaz-Balart told Reuters tonight, indicating that Elian
                  may be allowed to leave the country despite the subpoena.

                  At least one legal expert said the great-uncle's petition for temporary
                  custody had little chance of succeeding, except as a possible delaying
                  tactic.

                  "I don't think they have any standing whatsoever," said lawyer David Levy,
                  president of the Children's Rights Council, a nonprofit children's advocacy
                  group in Washington.

                  Judge Rosa Rodriguez was expected to rule early next week on the
                  custody petition.

                  Since Elian was found Thanksgiving Day after two days at sea following a
                  shipwreck in which his mother and nine others perished as they attempted
                  to flee Cuba's communist government, the boy has been the focus of an
                  international struggle over whether he should stay in the United States or
                  be returned to his Cuban father.

                  INS spokesman Russ Bergeron said agency officials had not seen the
                  custody petition. But he said that the state court filing does not affect his
                  agency's ruling, because it was only on who had a right to speak for Elian
                  on immigration matters.

                  Attorney General Janet Reno met tonight with two local Miami officials,
                  along with a representative of the militant Cuban American National
                  Foundation, and an attorney for Elian's Miami relatives.

                  An administration official said that Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas
                  requested the meeting this afternoon, in calls to the White House and
                  Deputy Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., to discuss his concerns about
                  "civil unrest in the city." Penelas then asked, the official said, if he could
                  bring the others with him.

                  The official said Reno's agreement to the meeting reflected her personal
                  style and follow-through on a pledge Thursday to remain open to any new
                  information in the Gonzalez case.

                  In a statement issued after the meeting, Reno said only that she had
                  "listened to their concerns" and would "respond as quickly as possible."
                  Reno said she was considering the issues they raised as well as those
                  raised in a letter the attorneys sent her asking her to reverse the INS
                  decision.

                  An official said her public reticence was due both to the conversation with
                  the Miami delegation and to news of the subpoena, which came as the
                  meeting was being held.

                  In addition to Penelas, the Miami delegation included City of Miami Mayor
                  Joe Carollo, foundation representative Alberto M. Hernandez and attorney
                  Roger Bernstein.

                  Before Burton issued the subpoena, protest organizers had promised that
                  their efforts would continue. Ramon Saul Sanchez, leader of the
                  Democracy Movement, who was arrested on misdemeanor charges in
                  Thursday's protest, called for South Florida's 800,000-member Cuban
                  American community to convene on Miami International Airport on
                  Monday "to slow it down and even bring it to a halt." But after the
                  subpoena was served, they said they would reconsider that action on
                  Saturday.

                  After a day of vehement protests Thursday, in which human chains
                  blocked intersections, more than 100 people were arrested and police
                  used tear gas to disperse crowds at midnight, the city fell relatively calm
                  today, Miami and Miami-Dade police spokesmen said. Only a few
                  protesters showed up at a noontime rally downtown, and the throngs in the
                  streets and traffic slowdowns were greatly reduced.

                  As the day began, President Clinton stood by his decision not to get
                  involved in the case, saying as he prepared to leave for the Israeli-Syrian
                  peace talks in West Virginia that opponents of the INS decision should
                  seek legal relief rather than breaking the law as many protesters had done.

                  "This is a volatile and difficult case," Clinton said. "We need to keep this
                  out of the political process as much as possible and within the established
                  legal channels."

                  In Cardenas tonight, Elian's father, his four grandparents and his
                  great-grandmother wept when supporters sang of Elian's mother, lost at
                  sea. Elian's classmates, teacher, principal and pediatrician offered
                  recollections of the little boy who loves things that fly as two kites sailed
                  over the seaside plaza.

                  Pressley reported from Miami, DeYoung from Washington. Special
                  correspondent Catharine Skipp in Miami contributed to this report.

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