First trip to Miami since Elian raid

 BY JAY WEAVER

 U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno is coming to town Thursday to celebrate the
 state's first 150 women lawyers at a ceremony in Bal Harbour.

 And what a gathering it will be at the Sheraton beachfront resort.

 On land and sea, protesters and supporters are planning to jeer and hail Reno.
 She is making her first South Florida appearance since the federal government
 seized Elian Gonzalez from his great-uncle's Miami home so he could be reunited
 with his Cuban father.

 Her visit as the dinner's keynote speaker has transformed an otherwise innocuous
 event -- sponsored by the Florida Bar Association and the Florida Association of
 Women Lawyers -- into a political firestorm.

 The Cuban American Bar Association has formally withdrawn from the ceremony,
 claiming Reno violated the Constitution when she authorized the government's
 pre-dawn raid to grab the 6-year-old last month.

 And on Monday, Miami Beach lawyer Rosa M. Armesto asked the state Supreme
 Court to stop the Florida Bar from holding the 50th anniversary event because the
 group is engaging in ``political'' activity. On Tuesday, the state's high court tossed
 out her emergency request.

 ``By honoring Reno as the keynote speaker, the Florida Bar is fanning the flames
 of ethnic tension in the Miami community,'' Armesto's petition said. ``The
 Cuban-American community is planning a protest demonstration to picket the
 event.''

 To Miami attorney Edith Osman, president of the Florida Bar, the attacks are
 unfair because the legal organization extended its invitation to Reno in November
 -- the very month that Elian was rescued from an inner tube off the Florida coast.
 Some 700 people have purchased tickets for the dinner.

 ``If we took a position in the Elian Gonzalez case, that would be wrong of the
 Bar,'' Osman said. ``But we never take political positions. This is not a political
 event.''

 That's not the way Ramon Saul Sanchez, a Cuban exile leader, sees it.

 The head of the Miami-based Democracy Movement, which pushes for human
 rights in Cuba, said the Reno-ordered raid scarred the community forever. He
 plans to organize a flotilla of boats, including the group's Democracia and Human
 Rights vessels, for a symbolic protest at sea facing the hotel.

 ``The attorney general has violated Elian's rights by not allowing him to have a
 voice,'' Sanchez said, referring to the government's denial of the boy's political
 asylum request. ``He's fearful of returning to a place [Cuba] that will be
 detrimental to him.''
 SEVERAL PROTESTS

 Sanchez, who was a constant fixture outside the home of Elian's great-uncle until
 the day of the raid, said that other groups are planning to protest in front of the
 Sheraton Bal Harbour Resort. Among them: former political prisoners and
 Mothers Against Repression.

 They will be competing for limited sidewalk space outside the hotel with
 supporters of Reno, including black activist groups and longtime Miami residents
 who will be carrying American flags.

 ``We have a great deal of respect for her,'' said P.J. Donaldson, who has
 participated in several rallies for Reno in recent weeks. ``We can't stand the
 thought of disrespecting her. We're going to be there to tell her, `We love you in
 Miami.'

 ``But I think this is going to be a touchy situation,'' she added. ``I pray that this
 will go peacefully.''

 The Department of Justice would not comment on Reno's visit. She last visited
 her hometown on April 12-13, when she made a personal plea to Elian's
 great-uncle Lazaro Gonzalez to hand over the child peacefully to federal
 authorities. He defied the government's order, saying they would have to take the
 boy ``by force.''

 Gun-wielding agents for the Immigration and Naturalization Service did just that in
 the wee hours of April 22.

 Three days later, the Cuban American Bar Association wrote a letter to Osman
 decrying the Florida Bar's invitation to Reno to speak at its event on Thursday.

 ``CABA feels that this raid was contrary to the democratic traditions of our great
 nation,'' the group's board of directors said in a statement.

 ``We respect the attorney general's right to speak at the event,'' the board
 continued. ``However, CABA is seriously concerned about the sensitivity of the
 entire community to the attorney general's actions.''
 QUESTIONS RAISED

 The group's president, Miami attorney Oscar Marrero, said that some leading
 constitutional scholars questioned the legality of the search warrant obtained by
 the government for the raid because it allegedly violated the great-uncle's right to
 privacy.

 But Marrero also said: ``We understand there are differences of opinion about the
 constitutionality of the raid.''

 He declined to answer questions about whether the group's boycott of the Florida
 Bar's event was simply an expression of its opposition to the raid itself, which
 resulted in Elian's being reunited with his father. An appeals court in Atlanta will
 soon decide whether the federal government should give the child an asylum
 hearing or whether he should be allowed to return with his father to Cuba.

 Miami attorney Jose Garcia-Pedrosa, a founding member of CABA, blasted the
 Florida Bar for inviting Reno, stressing that the attorney general accepted the
 invitation in January, when the Immigration and Naturalization Service decided to
 send Elian back to Cuba.

 ``It's wrong in every respect,'' said Garcia-Pedrosa, who has represented Elian's
 great-uncle throughout the boy's legal saga. ``It's insensitive to this community.''

 The Bar's Osman laments the conflict, but considers it an honor to have Reno at
 the event celebrating Florida's pioneering women in the law. Thirteen of the 150
 legal pioneers are still alive, and some will be coming to the gala dinner.

 ``These women are profiles in courage,'' Osman said.