By Karen DeYoung
Washington Post Staff Writer
 

HAVANA, Cuba, June 28 –– Seven months after he was rescued from the Atlantic Ocean by passing fishermen, Elian Gonzalez returned home tonight to Cuba. In
his wake, the 6-year-old boy left a stunned and angry Cuban American community in Miami and a relationship between this Communist-ruled island and its massive
neighbor to the north that seemed to be shifting in a new direction for the first time in decades.

Elian arrived here from Washington in a private plane hours after the Supreme Court rejected a final appeal from Miami relatives seeking to keep him in the United
States. Hundreds of schoolchildren, bused to Jose Marti International Airport from the elementary school in his home town of Cardenas, broke into wild applause as
Elian was lifted from the plane by his father just before 8 p.m. They waved Cuban flags, loudly sang the Cuban national anthem and chanted, "Elian! Elian!"

Waiting relatives rushed to embrace Elian, his father, stepmother and baby half-brother, all wiping tears from their eyes. The schoolchildren sang as a band played
the Cuban national anthem. Passed from the arms of grandparent to grandparent, Elian smiled faintly and seemed somewhat stunned.

Within minutes, the family climbed into a waiting van. Sitting on his father's lap, Elian waved wanly as they were driven away to a government guest house in Havana.
An official statement said they would stay there for "a short while" until returning to Cardenas. President Fidel Castro, who has presided over massive rallies
demanding Elian's return to Cuba, did not attend the arrival, which officials said they intended to keep low-key.

The Supreme Court, in a sparse 26-word order issued at midday, ended a long legal battle that put the U.S. and Cuban governments on one side and, on the other,
the Miami relatives who took care of the boy and fought furiously to prevent his return to what they contended would be a life of deprivation and duress under
Castro.

Elian, his father, Juan Miguel, the rest of his family, an entourage of Cuban classmates, a cousin and a teacher left their temporary home at a Cleveland Park estate
owned by the Youth for Understanding International Exchange less than three hours after the Supreme Court order, heading for Washington Dulles International
Airport and the three-hour flight to Havana.

Juan Miguel Gonzalez gave YFU President Sally Grooms Cowal two Cuban flags, one large and one small, and a bottle of aged Cuban rum. "I am leaving you with
two Cuban flags, one big one and a little one, as a token and the first step in the direction of a human and beautiful relationship between our countries," Gonzalez
wrote in Spanish in large rounded script in the visitor's book inside the 18th-century farmhouse where the entourage had lived for the past 34 days. "Many thanks for
your kindness."

"I would like to thank the North American people for the support they have given us and the U.S. government," he said before departing from Dulles. "I think that
this has allowed me to meet the very beautiful and intelligent people in this country, and I hope that in the future this same friendship and this same impression that I
have of the U.S. people, that the same thing can become true between both our countries, Cuba and the U.S."

In Miami, spokesmen, friends and attorneys of Elian's Miami relatives deplored the Supreme Court's refusal to take up the appeal and expressed dismay at the boy's
future under Castro's Communist government. But Elian's great-uncle, Lazaro Gonzalez, and other members of the Miami family that cared for the boy until federal
agents forcibly removed him in April, had no immediate comment.

"How many more women and children must die before the world hears the cries of the Cuban people?" asked Armando Gutierrez, a family spokesman, referring to
the death at sea of Elian's mother, Elizabet, at the end of a tragic attempt to flee Cuba for Florida.

His anguish reflected one side of the deeply emotional debate over Elian's fate that raged in the United States, where the public imagination was captured by a little
boy with an engaging smile and an uncertain future that was fought out in the courts and in a propaganda battle between Havana and the Cuban American
community.

President Clinton, asked at a Washington news conference about Elian's departure, said he wishes the struggle "had unfolded in a less dramatic, less traumatic way
for all concerned."

"But I think," Clinton added, "that the most important thing is that his father was adjudged by people who made an honest effort to determine that he was a good
father, a loving father, committed to the son's welfare. And we upheld here what I think is a quite important principle, as well as what is clearly the law of the United
States."

"I have replayed this in my mind many times," the president said. "I don't know that we had many different options than we perceived, given how the thing
developed, but I think the fundamental principle is the right one, and I am glad we did."

Cuban state television interrupted its regular programming within minutes of the court's announcement in Washington. Calling on Cubans to remain "dignified, serene
and disciplined," the government said there would be no public reception for the child whose "kidnapping" has dominated life here since November.

Instead, the government said in a statement broadcast throughout the day, Cuba would keep its word and make Elian's reception here a private, family affair. His
grandparents were brought to Havana several days ago to await his arrival, and reporters were told the boy would make no public appearance. In his home town,
Cardenas, dozens of buses appeared at his elementary school, loaded up and headed for Havana.

The government statement complimented Clinton for realizing "the kidnapping of the child was absolutely illegal and damaging to his country's interests." But it
warned that the "struggle is far from over, and the fight for Elian is but the first step" in Cuba's battle against U.S. policies--particularly the economic embargo--that it
charges encourage illegal immigration of the kind that led to the death of Elian's mother and his arrival in the United States.

It told Cubans to respond with "a calm attitude in these emotional moments" and to avoid any action that "those filled with hatred" could use against Cuba in the U.S.
electoral campaign. After Elian's arrival, the government advised citizens to "celebrate in their homes and neighborhoods."

As Castro has repeatedly reminded Cubans in recent weeks, U.S. public opinion polls indicated that as many as 70 percent of Americans agreed that Elian should
be returned to his father. Increasing numbers, now a majority in most polls, also question the usefulness of the 41-year-old U.S. embargo of Cuba.

Over the past several months, members of Congress, backed by the powerful farm lobby and U.S. businesses, have gained increasing strength in their efforts to
loosen the embargo. This week, the Republican leadership was pushed, largely by GOP members, to a compromise in which food and medical goods can be sold to
Cuba.

Clinton, at his news conference, said he will sign the compromise into law if it reaches his desk in the form of legislation, but he emphasized that he is not ready to
make any broader changes in the embargo.

Although Cuban American members of Congress and their supporters claimed victory in the narrow scope of the agreement, which prevents the use of U.S.
government or commercial credits to finance trade and strengthens restrictions on travel by Americans to the island, anti-sanctions activists said they consider it the
first step toward ultimate normalization of relations.

For its part, the Cuban government has denounced the agreement, noting that it actually fortifies the embargo in many ways. "There will be no truce in the struggle
against the Helms-Burton and Torricelli laws [U.S. legislation that strengthened the embargo in 1992 and 1996], the dozens of [congressional] amendments to
strangle our country, the criminal blockade, the economic war, the incessant policy of subversion and destabilization against the revolution," Castro said at a rally
Saturday. "We have pledged ourselves, and we will succeed."

For the Gonzalezes, a once close family divided only by the 90 miles between Florida and Havana, there may be no way to mend the breach. For the Cuban
American community, which backed Elian's Miami relatives with emotional, political and financial support through their long and ultimately unsuccessful legal struggle,
the future is uncertain.

Cuban American leaders said they had expected the Supreme Court rejection but hope to use the struggle over Elian to renew their focus on the larger question of
U.S. relations with Cuba.

"There is a lot of frustration and a lot of sadness," said Ramon Saul Sanchez, who led many of the massive street demonstrations in Miami last winter and spring. "But
the fight for Elian continues. We must fight for the rest of the children in Cuba . . . [and] give people a sense of objective, give them something to refocus on . . . to
put aside this battle and continue the war."

American politicians opposed to Elian's return were bitter. "What Clinton has done, in effect, is to throw a 6-year-old boy over the Berlin Wall," said Rep. Lincoln
Diaz-Balart, a Florida Republican who represents Miami.

Vice President Gore, who broke with the administration and earned widespread criticism within his own party for calling for the case to be decided in a Florida state
court, said yesterday that that still would have been his preference. But, he said, "I think this decision is entitled to respect and the law should be followed."

Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) acknowledged that the case had "damaged--incorrectly so--the nature of Cuban Americans in Miami. It breaks my heart to see the
national press depict people who have been lovers of freedom the way that this has all played out."

Staff writers Sylvia Moreno and Jennifer Lenhart in Washington contributed to this report.