From Herald Staff and Wire Reports

 President Fidel Castro was the featured speaker Saturday evening at a rally in
 Jagüey Grande, 120 miles southeast of Havana, where about 40,000 Cubans
 demanded the return of Elian Gonzalez to the island.

 Castro arrived accompanied by several of Elian's relatives, including Juan
 Gonzalez, the boy's paternal grandfather; Mariela Quintana, paternal
 grandmother; and Raquel Rodriguez, maternal grandmother.

 ``We still have a long road to travel, but we are eternally grateful for your support,''
 the grandfather told the crowd.

 The grandmothers also thanked the demonstrators, ``President Clinton, Mrs.
 [Janet] Reno'' and the American people, ``who have helped us so much in this
 struggle.''

 Early in the day, jubilation mixed with nervousness spread through Cuba after
 news of Elian's extraction from the home of his Miami relatives. Government radio
 asked Cubans to stay calm and abstain from staging street demonstrations.

 ``This is the happiest day in my life,'' the grandfather said in a radio interview from
 Cardenas, the family's hometown. ``My son [Juan Miguel] phoned me from
 Washington about 5:30 a.m. and gave me the news.

 ``Imagine, we were extremely happy. The neighbors found out and everyone came
 over to our house,'' the grandfather said.

 Raquel Rodriguez, Elian's maternal grandmother, told Cuban television that her
 daughter, Elisabeth Brotons, ``now can rest in peace.''

 Brotons, Elian's mother, and 10 other people drowned in November while trying to
 cross the Straits of Florida.

 ``I know that's what my daughter would have liked -- for Elian to be with his father
 and his entire true family,'' Rodriguez said from Cardenas.

 Cubans were awakened by the radio at 6:45 a.m. local time with an
 announcement from the government that told about ``Elian's rescue.''

 The broadcast said the operation lasted between three and five minutes and that
 the agents ``barely met with resistance'' from the people in Lazaro Gonzalez's
 house.

 ``The boy's return to his father was a favorable turn toward a just, honorable and
 correct solution of the problem,'' the radio said.

 In a second broadcast, the government asked ``our heroic, disciplined and
 intelligent people'' to abstain from ``carrying out public demonstrations'' and said
 Elian ``is all right, on the plane, and playing with one of the people who
 accompany him.''

 Cubans' ``attitude should be serene, discreet and dignified. Any other form of
 conduct could weigh negatively on the future evolution of the situation,'' the
 government message said. ``Let us not forget that the judicial process that was
 decreed is still pending.''

 However, the message added, ``the need to fight for Elian is not over yet.''

 The news came too late for Cuban newspapers to publish reports about the
 extraction, but the Internet edition of Granma, the Communist Party daily,
 featured a large photograph of the boy being taken out of the house in the arms of
 a woman and surrounded by Border Patrol and Immigration Service agents.

 In a later edition, Granma replaced that photo with a picture of Elian in his father's
 arms, accompanied by his stepmother Nersy and half-brother Hianny. The image
 was provided to American news outlets by Greg Craig, Juan Miguel Gonzalez's
 attorney.

 The widely disseminated Associated Press photograph of a Border Patrol agent
 pointing a sub-machine gun at Elian and Donato Dalrymple, one of the fishermen
 who rescued Elian at sea, was not shown by Cuban TV.

 Herald staff translator Renato Perez contributed to this report.