ANDRES VIGLUCCI

 Hours after the government forcibly seized Elian Gonzalez, Aaron Podhurst and
 three of the community leaders who led a failed mediation effort held a two-hour
 phone conference call about the negotiations with U.S. Attorney General Janet
 Reno in the office of Miami Herald Publisher Alberto Ibargüen, court filings
 revealed Tuesday.

 Ibargüen said Tuesday that he listened in on the conversation on a speakerphone,
 but believed it to be off the record, meaning it could not be used by the newspaper
 or any of the participants. He told only Herald Executive Editor Martin Baron about
 his participation in the call, Ibargüen said, but instructed him not to tell others because
 he regarded Saturday's talk as private.

 But in their court filing attorneys for the Miami relatives used comments
 purportedly made by Reno during the conference call as evidence to support
 their request that a federal appellate judge issue an order that, if granted, could
 alter the complexion of the legal battle over Elian's fate.

 The revelation in court papers of Ibargüen's participation in the conversation
 raised eyebrows in the newsroom. At the time of the conversation, reporters
 were hurriedly compiling stories on the raid and the negotiations -- which have
 become an important focus of coverage as the mediators and Reno have given
 conflicting versions of how close they were to an agreement.

 Herald reporters were aware Saturday that Podhurst and University of Miami
 President Edward T. Foote II, another mediator, had been in Ibargüen's office,
 and interviewed them as they were leaving the building. But they did not know
 that the two men had just spoken to Reno.

 Baron, The Herald's top editor, said he learned of the conversation from Ibargüen
 late Saturday and that it formed the basis for his directions to news editors that
 Podhurst be interviewed in depth. Podhurst gave a more extensive interview
 Sunday to Herald staff writer Ronnie Greene that was the basis for a story on the
 negotiations published Monday.

 REPORTER UNAWARE

 That story mentioned that Podhurst had spoken with Reno for two hours after the
 raid, but Greene did not know that the conversation had taken place in The Herald
 building or that Ibargüen had participated.

 ''What I did was ask that we do certain kinds of stories so that we got at the
 issues raised in the meeting,'' Baron said. ''There are many instances where
 journalists learn things off the record and use that as basis for pursuing certain
 stories. This is unusual in that it involved the attorney general, but that's what
 happened here.

 ''Everything I learned in my discussion with Alberto made its way into the
 newspaper one way or another, other than the fact that he participated in this
 meeting, and the names of the other people at the meeting.''

 In an affidavit filed with the pleading, mediator Carlos Saladrigas says he asked
 Reno at one point whether ''she could guarantee that the child was alone with the
 family and outside the control of Cuban agents.'' Saladrigas said Reno responded,
 ''that she had no knowledge of who was with the child and had no authority to limit
 access to the child.''

 Ibargüen declined to comment on the quotes attributed to Reno, saying the
 conversation had been off the record. He did describe Saturday's conversation as
 ''emotional'' and ''extraordinarily frank.''

 'SURPRISED'

 ''My reaction is, I'm surprised'' the talk turned up in the court filings, he said.
 ''Perhaps I misunderstood it.''

 Ibargüen, who is a member of the civic group Mesa Redonda, along with two of
 the mediators, Saladrigas and Eagle Brands chairman Carlos de la Cruz, said he
 offered the use of his office to the group after attending a morning meeting during
 which the raid was discussed. The mediators wanted a place to begin setting
 down a chronology of the negotiations while their recollections were fresh, he
 said.

 When Podhurst checked his messages at The Herald, he learned Reno wanted to
 speak with him. He asked Ibargüen and the three other mediators whether they
 wanted to participate, and they agreed. Reno also consented.

 ''I participated almost exclusively as an observer,'' Ibargüen said. ''I don't think I
 said anything during the bulk of the conversation.'' Ibargüen said he saw no
 conflict between his role as publisher and his participation in the call. He noted he
 deliberately missed two Mesa Redonda meetings earlier in the week because
 they were discussing how to respond to the Elian case.

 ''If I had been one of the negotiators, it might have been a conflict. Had I
 participated in the earlier Mesa Redonda meetings, it might have been a conflict.
 But I didn't.''

 A Justice Department spokeswoman said the government was aware of the
 private conversation, but did not know whether it was off the record or not. Neither
 Saladrigas nor Podhurst could be reached late Tuesday.

                     Copyright 2000 Miami Herald