BY ANA ACLE

 A group of Cuban exile pediatricians on Tuesday denounced comments by psychiatrists
 and other mental health experts giving medical opinions on Elian Gonzalez without having
 examined the boy.

 ''There have been health care professionals from other areas traveling to South Florida,
 sometimes not even coming, and speaking to the media expressing their medical opinions
 without having obtained a medical history, performed a physical examination or other
 proper psychological evaluations of Elian,'' said Dr. Jose Carro, president of the Cuban
 Pediatric Society in Exile.

 The group was responding to a letter from Dr. Irwin Redlener, a New York pediatrician
 who is advising the government.

 Redlener called the home of Elian's Miami relatives ''psychologically abusive.''

 Redlener, who is president of The Children's Hospital at Montefiore in New York
 City, urged the government to immediately remove Elian from the relatives' household.

 At a press conference in front of the relatives' house, Carro said, ''I would ask any
 of you if you would allow yourself or one of your children to be treated or disposed
 of in any way by anyone other than someone that you have appointed and who has
 personally evaluated the circumstances surrounding whatever is going on.''

 One of the exile group's doctors, not present at the press conference, has been
 diagnosing Elian since he arrived, Carro said, without specifying the doctor's name
 or his findings.

 Carro said many of the 10 doctors standing next to him at the podium had personally
 seen Elian but had not diagnosed him as physicians.

 Group member Dr. Erik Juan dismissed Redlener's opinion and suggested that a
 team of doctors should evaluate Elian.

 TUGBOAT MEMORIES

 Jorge Garcia's 17 relatives were aboard the tugboat 13 de Marzo on July 13,
 1994, trying to escape Cuba when three Cuban government boats repeatedly
 rammed into them seven miles from the coast. The tugboat sank. Only three of
 his relatives survived.

 Garcia spoke out Tuesday in favor of keeping Elian Gonzalez in the United
 States.

 ''Any good father would not want his son to grow up in a country like [Cuba],'' he
 said.

 Garcia urged Elian's father Juan Miguel Gonzalez to ''break the chains of fear that
 tie him.

 ''For reasons of loyalty and good standing to the [Communist] Party, and having a
 good job in tourism, the [Cuban government] has blackmailed him,'' Garcia said.
 ''They told him the same thing they told me in 1994: 'We have for you a home in
 the suburb of Siboney because the family needs to be at peace and tranquillity.' ''

 He urged Gonzalez to refuse those offers, saying he did so even though he lost
 his 20-year-old son, his 10-year-old grandson and six nephews. ''This pain I carry
 has become my torch to continue the fight for justice,'' Garcia said.

 HUNGER STRIKE

 Milagros Cruz Cano, a blind woman with epilepsy who is on a hunger strike, has
 moved from 17th Avenue and Flagler Street to the area where the demonstrators
 keep vigil outside Elian's house.

 Tuesday was the 29th day of the strike, which she says she will continue until the
 Castro regime allows her daughter to leave Cuba to join her in the United States.

 Cruz said her daughter turned 9 on Tuesday.

 ''I am stating my case in front of the world's media so that Fidel can return my
 daughter to me because this is truly a kidnapping,'' Cruz said.

                     Copyright 2000 Miami Herald