BY ALFONSO CHARDY, ANA ACLE AND ANDRES VIGLUCCI

 After months of pledging to abide by court decisions in the Elian Gonzalez case,
 supporters of the boy's Miami relatives are increasingly suggesting they are
 prepared to defy the government if it moves to return the boy to Cuba.

 Amid angry rhetoric, much of it aimed at U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno,
 demonstrators revived talk Monday about creating a human chain around the
 family's Little Havana house to prevent the boy's removal. While some exile
 leaders promised demonstrations would be peaceful, pronouncements in a
 press release by the Cuban American National Foundation and callers and
 commentators on Spanish-language radio raised the specter of violence by
 accusing Reno of trying to provoke ''another Waco.''

 For the first time, lawyers for the boy's Miami relatives hinted that their clients
 may not be ready to turn Elian over to immigration authorities for his return to
 Cuba if they lose their appeal of a federal court order upholding Reno's authority
 to send Elian home.

 STILL HOLDING ON

 Linda Osberg-Braun, a member of the family's legal team, said the relatives
 are not ready to consider surrendering Elian. ''The family is not psychologically
 prepared to lose the appeal,'' she said.

 The ratcheting-up of exile emotion comes as the government, armed with the
 authority of last week's federal court decision, tightened the legal vise on the
 relatives.

 The anxiety of a day of legal brinkmanship was briefly eased when the appeals
 court Monday evening granted the family's lawyers more time than the
 government wanted for the appeal. But the government quickly quashed the
 widely shared assumption that it would back off its threat to revoke Elian's parole
 Thursday.

 A TOUGH STAND

 All day Monday, demonstrators vowed to stand in the way of federal officials
 seeking to remove Elian from his relatives' Little Havana home.

 Plans were already afoot for a ''human cross'' demonstration organized by a group
 of six Catholic priests and six Protestant pastors at 9 p.m. Wednesday at
 Southwest Eighth Street and 22nd Avenue. Organizers described it as a prayer
 vigil.

 Rising tensions were evident. A Miami-Dade County police officer stood guard in
 his patrol car outside Reno's family home in southwest Miami-Dade. Some police
 officers reported that they had been told to keep their riot gear in their cars,
 although neither the county's nor Miami's police department was on formal alert.
 Elian didn't go to school, and his relatives spoke of home-schooling him -- a
 response, they said, to a passing mention in a weekend speech by Cuban
 President Fidel Castro that some on the island had suggested sending
 commandos to take the boy.

 MAYOR'S NO COMMENT

 Through a spokesman, County Mayor Alex Penelas declined to comment on the
 rising rhetorical temperature.

 ''I'm not sure he's heard the language,'' mayoral spokesman Juan Mendieta said.
 ''All we have to say is that our police officers are monitoring the developments.''

 Outside the Gonzalez home, about 100 people gathered behind police barricades
 erected to keep demonstrators away from the modest house.

 Police had to detonate a briefcase left near a palm tree in the impromptu press
 area in front of the Gonzalez home. It turned out to be a briefcase left behind by
 K.A. Paul, a religious leader who participated in an earlier news conference
 outside the house. The contents, including about $4,000 in cash, were
 undamaged.

 PROMINENT WORDS

 Key exile leaders shuttled in and out of the house, issuing harsh condemnations
 of Reno and immigration authorities.

 Jorge Mas Santos, the Foundation leader, said Reno's insistence on a shortened
 appeals process was a provocation to the exile community. In a press release,
 the influential lobbying group assailed the government for ''strong-arm tactics'' and
 charged that ''Ms. Reno's conduct appears to suggest she seeks only to provoke
 another Waco'' -- a reference to the FBI 1993 standoff at religious cult leader
 David Koresh's compound in which 80 people died in a controversial fire.

 ''If the appeals process is allowed, including a possible appeal to the Supreme
 Court, and this family is not forced to turn over the boy, then I believe the
 community will respect the decision,'' Mas said.

 But the relatives' attorneys were equivocal, saying only that they would ''comply
 with the law'' but suggesting they would try other unspecified legal tactics even if
 they lose in the federal courts.

 None of the attorneys would say specifically how they would raise other legal
 issues beyond the Supreme Court, the ultimate arbiter of legal precedent in the
 land.

 Herald staff writers Marika Lynch and Karl Ross contributed to this report.

                     Copyright 2000 Miami Herald