BY ANDRES OPPENHEIMER

 BUENOS AIRES -- The legal battle over 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez is making big
 headlines in Latin America, with most press commentaries supporting the boy's
 return to his father, and frequent assertions that the case has isolated Cuban
 exiles from the U.S. political mainstream.

 In Argentina, newspapers generally play the custody battle over the Cuban boy on
 Page 2 or 3, with periodic front-page headlines when there are new developments.

 ``It's an important news item, which people are talking about,'' says German
 Sopeña, assistant managing editor of the influential daily La Nacion. ``The general
 comment on the street is, `Poor boy, he's a hostage of a political struggle, and
 nobody cares about him.' ''

 CONSEQUENCES

 Beyond the human drama, press coverage tends to muse about the story's likely
 political consequences. Most newspapers say the case has driven a wedge
 between Miami's Cuban exile leadership and Washington politicians, and that the
 incident has seriously undermined the exiles' standing before U.S. public opinion.

 A lengthy April 9 commentary in La Nacion, a newspaper that is generally critical
 of Cuba's one-party system, stated that ``divided and defeated in the legal battle
 over Elian, the Cuban diaspora finds itself today more isolated than Castro's own
 regime.'' It added, ``Washington no longer feels threatened by the exiles' power.''

 Many newspapers and magazines speculate that the Elian case will mark the
 demise of Miami's Cuban exile leadership. Similar comments can be heard on
 television news programs and in radio talk shows.

 EXILES' `SETBACKS'

 This week's edition of Argentina's weekly news magazine Noticias carries a story
 on the case under the headline ``The doom of Anti-Castroism.'' It says Cuban
 exile hard-liners have suffered ``numerous setbacks'' over the Elian story, and that
 growing numbers of young Cuban exiles are beginning to rebel against the
 established exile political leadership.

 Another Argentine political magazine, 3 Puntos, says in this week's edition that
 ``Miami's Cuban diaspora seems defeated.''

 Elsewhere in Latin America, views of the Elian case are not too different. Stories
 about human rights abuses in Cuba, or explaining the Cuban exiles' reasons for
 leaving the island, are few and far between.

 In Mexico, the influential daily Reforma carried a story Tuesday saying the Elian
 case has resulted in a significant erosion of support for the U.S. embargo on
 Cuba among average Americans.

 `SERIOUSLY DAMAGED'

 ``The Cuban-American community could come out seriously damaged by its
 refusal to return [Elian] to his father,'' the story by Reforma's Washington
 correspondents says. ``Growing numbers of people in the polls are supporting
 that the child be united with his father . . . and there is growing resentment within
 the citizenship over what they now see as ultra-radical members of Miami's
 Cuban exile community.''

 Colombia's leading newsmagazine, Semana, said Cuban exile politicians'
 criticism of the Clinton administration's decision to send the boy back to Cuba
 ``underscores the fact that South Florida has turned into a hotbed of intolerance
 and rejection of [U.S.] federal laws.''

 Asked to what extent Colombian media favor Elian's return to Cuba, the daily El
 Espectador's well-known columnist Maria Jimena Duzan said, ``I would say 100
 percent. The issue of whether he should return is not the subject of a debate:
 pretty much everybody agrees that he should.''

 ``People are getting tired with the story,'' Duzan said. ``Most are wondering why
 the resolution of the case is taking so long.''