WASHINGTON (AP) -- Elian Gonzalez and his family left their secluded retreat
                  in Maryland on Saturday to visit the home of prominent Democratic Party
                  benefactors in Washington's Georgetown neighborhood.

                  Elian, the 6-year-old Cuban castaway who has become the focus of a heated
                  battle over his future, has been staying with his father, stepmother and younger
                  half brother at the Wye River Plantation, about 55 miles east of Washington,
                  since April 25.

                  But Saturday night they went by police-escorted motorcade to the home of
                  Smith and Elizabeth Bagley, who have been active in Democratic fund-raising
                  efforts. Bagley is a foundation president and his wife is a former U.S.
                  ambassador to Portugal. They are frequently guests at official White House
                  dinners, most recently the White House Millennium Dinner last New Year's Eve.

                  After about four hours at the Bagley home, the Gonzalez family sped away in
                  their motorcade, apparently headed back to the Maryland retreat.

                  Gregory Craig, attorney for Elian's father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, declined to talk
                  about the gathering when contacted at home afterward. Craig, also a prominent
                  Democrat with close ties to the White House, had been at the Bagley residence
                  with his clients.

                  Elian was rescued off the Florida coast last Thanksgiving after a boat carrying
                  him and others sank. His mother drowned and he was placed in the custody of
                  relatives in Miami. Federal agents seized him from their home on April 22 after
                  they refused orders by the Justice Department to turn him over to his father.

                  Copyright 2000 The Associated Press.