Great-Uncle Says Boy 'in Shock,' Needs to Return to Cuba

                  By Karen DeYoung
                  Washington Post Staff Writer

                  Manuel Gonzalez, the great-uncle of Elian Gonzalez in Miami who has
                  advocated returning the 6-year-old to Cuba, said yesterday that the boy
                  has been profoundly changed by his experiences over the last three months
                  and is "in shock."

                  In his first extensive public statement on the case, in testimony before the
                  Senate Judiciary Committee, Gonzalez said that the boy needs
                  psychological therapy and that it should be provided by "the family that
                  brought him up, that nurtured him, that really understands him."

                  Gonzalez is estranged from Elian's two other great-uncles in Miami, Lazaro
                  and Delfin Gonzalez, who have refused to comply with an Immigration and
                  Naturalization Service order to return the child, one of three survivors of a
                  November shipwreck in which his mother drowned. Lazaro Gonzalez, with
                  whom Elian has been living since his rescue, has filed a federal lawsuit
                  against the INS order, and a hearing is scheduled in Miami next week.

                  The divisions in the Gonzalez family were echoed yesterday in the Senate,
                  where Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) protested that the hearing violated
                  committee rules against interference in matters under judicial and
                  administrative procedures. He also said it was convened so hastily that it
                  prevented the appearance of a full complement of witnesses who support
                  Elian's return to Cuba.

                  It is "regrettable," Leahy said, that Congress is "using domestic political
                  institutions to undermine lawful judicial authority for partisan gain."

                  The hearing was called at the request of Sen. Connie Mack (R-Fla.), who
                  has introduced legislation to make Elian a U.S. citizen, and was placed on
                  the schedule late Tuesday. The committee chairman, Sen. Orrin G. Hatch
                  (R-Utah), pledged to hold another hearing if that is what Leahy wants.
                  Hatch has strongly supported overturning the INS order.

                  Those testifying in support of keeping Elian here included Alina Fernandez,
                  the illegitimate daughter of Cuban President Fidel Castro who fled Cuba in
                  1993, and Lazaro Gonzalez's 21-year-old daughter, Marisleysis. Although
                  the boy's father, Juan Manuel Gonzalez, has said repeatedly he wants Elian
                  returned to Cuba, Marisleysis Gonzalez said she has inferred, through
                  telephone comments she said the father made to her, that he really wants
                  Elian to stay in the United States and was being pressured by the Castro
                  government to say otherwise.

                  In addition, she testified, "I really asked this little boy what he wants. . . .
                  He said, 'My mother brought me here, and I want to stay here.' He asked
                  me to promise him I would never leave his side, and would always protect
                  him."

                  Great-uncle Manuel Gonzalez said he left Cuba with his wife and two
                  young sons in the 1980s hoping to improve his children's future. But his
                  oldest son died of cancer at age 14, he told the committee. "That is why I
                  struggle . . . with reasoned minds like yours to help return this child to his
                  father.

                  "This is not a whim. Every son needs his father's character, his tenacity,
                  regardless of where he is."

                  Unlike his brothers in Miami, Manuel Gonzalez said he has traveled to
                  Cuba every year since Elian was born to visit him and other family
                  members there, and is close to the boy. Despite insistence by other family
                  members that Elian is happy, he said he has found the boy unresponsive
                  and acting abnormally.

                  "He doesn't know where he is," Gonzalez said.

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