By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

          MIAMI -- A pediatrician who is advising the federal government
          on the Elian Gonzalez case says the boy is being psychologically
          abused by his Miami relatives and should be removed from their home
          immediately.

          "Elian Gonzalez is now in a state of imminent danger to his physical and
          emotional well-being in a home that I consider to be psychologically
          abusive," Dr. Irwin Redlener wrote to Attorney General Janet Reno and
          Doris Meissner, the commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization
          Service.

          The INS released the letter Monday.

          "The child needs to be rescued," Redlener, professor of pediatrics at the
          Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City, said today on
          NBC's "Today" show.

          Redlener, who assembled the panel of mental health experts that met last
          week with Elian's great-uncle Lazaro Gonzalez, said he was particularly
          disturbed by the videotape the relatives made of the boy that was
          released last week, which Redlener likened to a hostage video. He also
          said the family was making unfounded allegations against the boy's Cuban
          father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez.

          The family reiterated its argument that government experts can't form any
          valid opinions since none of them have talked to Elian.

          "I don't know how one can reach decisions and express them in language
          as strong as this without seeing the boy," Jose Garcia-Pedrosa, an
          attorney for the Florida relatives, told ABC's "Good Morning America."

          "'Radical hysteria' is the way he describes this environment,"
          Garcia-Pedrosa said. "He hasn't been there. He hasn't spoken with
          anybody who lives there."

          Mental health experts working with the Miami relatives have said the boy
          will suffer psychologically if he is sent back to communist-controlled
          Cuba with his father. The Miami relatives have cared for him since
          November, when he was found clinging to an inner tube off the Florida
          coast. His mother and 10 other people fleeing Cuba drowned when their
          boat sank.

          The Justice Department has pushed for Elian's return to his father, who
          has been in the Washington area since April 6 hoping for a reunion.

          As the heat and another vigil began today at the Little Havana home
          where the 6-year-old boy is living, a dozen protesters practiced forming
          a human chain and did pushups and situps.

          Bienvenido Comas, who has spent many days on the street, denied that
          he and others were preparing to charge the barricades. "No, we're
          dancing the ballerina," he said, and then pretended to dance.

          Monday passed without any ruling from the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of
          Appeals in Atlanta.

          The Miami relatives are asking for the court to order an asylum hearing
          for the boy, while the government wants the court to lift a temporary
          order that bars Elian's removal from the United States and to order
          Lazaro Gonzalez to release the boy. Such a ruling could allow the
          government to take immediate action.

          Late Monday, Miami Mayor Joe Carollo said he planned to fly to
          Washington today and meet with government officials about the custody
          dispute. He refused to elaborate.

          Ramon Saul Sanchez, the leader of the exile community's Democracy
          Movement, said the family is still interested in meeting with Elian's father
          at a neutral site, without attorneys and government officials -- and without
          Elian.

          "I believe the family would be willing to do that," he said early today, not
          ruling out an out-of-state site.

          The INS last week revoked Lazaro Gonzalez's custody over the boy
          after the family defied an INS order to make Elian available for a trip to
          Washington.

          In a sharply worded statement released Monday, the Miami relatives said
          the INS has no authority to order Gonzalez to turn over Elian.

          "It is especially ironic for the INS to insist it has jurisdiction to dictate the
          actions of Lazaro Gonzalez when the INS has severed its relationship
          with Lazaro concerning the status of Elian," the family said.

          The exchange came on the 39th anniversary of the Bay of Pigs fiasco in
          which CIA-trained exiles failed in their attempt to invade Cuba. Some
          bitterly recalled the disastrous attempt on April 17, 1961, blaming
          President Kennedy for failing to adequately back them up. Two hundred
          rebels were killed, and nearly 1,200 captured by Cuban leader Fidel
          Castro.

          The criticism was extended to the Clinton administration for its push to
          return Elian to his father.

          "That was the first betrayal. John F. Kennedy betrayed the Cubans, now
          Clinton is betraying us. This is the second Bay of Pigs of the Cuban
          people," said Enrique Leon, 65, a retired physician from Bethesda, Md.

          Cuban exiles had looked toward the anniversary with apprehension,
          fearing a Justice Department attempt to take the boy from Lazaro
          Gonzalez.