MIAMI (CNN) -- After days of negotiations and several delays, 6-year-old
                  Elian Gonzalez met for two hours Wednesday night with his Cuban
                  grandmothers at the home of a Roman Catholic nun in Miami.

                  Shortly before the meeting began, the boy's Miami relatives voiced concern
                  about what might be said during the reunion.

                  "I just hope that when they meet that my cousin can be present because this
                  thing is being manipulated by the (Cuban) government again -- they're doing
                  things their own little way," said Georgina Cid, a second cousin of Elian, who
                  is in Washington to lobby Congress to grant U.S. citizenship to the boy.

                  Cid said a letter printed in Havana newspapers -- said to be a message from
                  Elian's father to the grandmothers -- barred her family from being with Elian
                  when he met his grandmothers.

                  "Marisleysis, my cousin, has been with Elian since he got here. He is seeing
                  her as a surrogate mother," said Cid. "And when we broke the news that the
                  grandmothers were coming, he was very scared, and what he answered to
                  Marisleysis is 'if they're coming, I hope they're not coming to get me because
                  I'm not going to go.' "

                  Elian's mother -- who had divorced the boy's father -- was one of 11
                  Cubans who drowned in the attempt to reach the United States. The boy
                  was found floating in the waters off Florida.

                  Environment 'of unity and love'

                  The afternoon meeting in Florida began later than planned at the gated
                  Miami Beach home of a Dominican nun, Jeanne O'Laughlin, president of
                  Barry College in Miami.

                  Elian, accompanied by his great-uncle, cousin and their lawyer, arrived first.
                  The grandmothers arrived in Florida by plane, traveled by helicopter close to
                  the university and were then driven to the site.

                  The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, which arranged the
                  meeting, described the setting as a "neutral" location.

                  The INS had said it had the authority to order Miami relatives to agree to
                  the meeting under the arrangement by which Elian has been allowed to stay
                  in the United States pending further immigration proceedings.

                  It was not entirely clear why the grandmothers did not get off the plane at
                  Opa-Laka Airport until nearly an hour after the meeting was scheduled to
                  begin.

                  "The conditions have not been met" guaranteeing there would be "no
                  interference" at the reunion from Lazaro Gonzalez, Elian's great-uncle who
                  has temporary legal custody of the boy, or other family members who
                  oppose his return to Cuba, said Luis Fernandez, a spokesman for the Cuban
                  Interests Section in Washington.

                  Another possible reason: five members of the anti-Castro Cuban American
                  National Foundation were invited to a home next door to O'Laughlin, a
                  CANF member told CNN.

                  O'Laughlin found out and asked that they leave the premises because they
                  were "endangering the meeting between Elian and his grandmothers," the
                  CANF member said.

                  A top official with the INS called the National Council of Churches, sponsor
                  of the grandmothers' visit, and the Cuban Interests Section and "in no
                  uncertain terms told them there are no security concerns and that it would be
                  in everybody's best interests to make this meeting happen," a source told
                  CNN.

                  An attempt to arrange a reunion on Monday failed when Elian's U.S.
                  relatives insisted the grandmothers come to the Miami home where the boy
                  is staying, an offer rejected for security reasons.

                  "I want that child to be in an environment, not of fear and fragment, but of
                  unity and love," O'Laughlin told CNN on Wednesday.

                  "I hope that somehow he will experience the fact that many people love him
                  ... so he can come to grips with an ending that will hurt one (side of the
                  family) or the other," she said.

                 Custody battle waged on Capitol Hill

                  The INS said it reassured the U.S. relatives that Wednesday's reunion
                  would be just a visit and would not result in Elian's being taken back to
                  Cuba.

                  The INS has ruled that the boy should be returned to his father in Cuba.
                  Elian's Florida relatives have challenged the order in federal court.

                  A contingent supporting those relatives pressed their case in Washington on
                  Wednesday.

                  The group consisted of one of Elian's cousins, Georgina Cid; the fisherman
                  who rescued Elian at sea, Donato Darlymple; and the two people besides
                  Elian who survived the late November boat wreck off the Florida coast,
                  Arianne Horta and her boyfriend, Nivaldo Fernandez.

                  The group denied allegations that Elian's stepfather had been a violent man
                  who abused Elian's mother and pressured her to come to the United States.

                  "Elizabeth cried to me for help and said, 'Please, Nivaldo, don't permit
                  anything to happen to my son,' " said Fernandez through an interpreter. "
                  'The only thing I ask you is to please make sure that he reaches American
                  soil.' "

                  Horta, who left her own young daughter back in Cuba, pleaded for public
                  support.

                  "I ask all the mothers in the world to respect the memory of that mother and
                  to work with us in trying to keep Elian here after all the troubles they went
                  through. Respect her memory, and respect her wishes and the last wish
                  before she died," said Horta.

                  After the Florida meeting, the grandmothers plan to return to Washington to
                  continue lobbying against congressional proposals to give the boy U.S.
                  residency or citizenship.

                  'I'm dying to see him, to hug him'

                  The grandmothers will see Elian privately with O'Laughlin present, while the boy's
                  Florida relatives are in a house nearby.

                  While Wednesday's visit seemed unlikely to settle an international custody fight
                  and the two women knew they wouldn't be able to take the boy back to Cuba,
                  they still were excited about the seeing the boy they helped raise.

                  "I'm dying to see him, to hug him, to be with him even for a short while,"
                  Mariela Quintana, Elian's paternal grandmother said Tuesday in Washington.

                  His maternal grandmother, Raquel Rodriguez, said: "I don't know if when we
                  see him tomorrow I'll be able to say anything, if I'll cry or if I'll laugh. I really
                  don't know yet. When I have him in front of me, that's when I'll know."

                  Miami Bureau Chief John Zarrella, National Correspondent Tony Clark and The Associated
                                    Press contributed to this report.