Herald Staff Report

 Juan Miguel Gonzalez doesn't work anymore, doesn't live at home anymore, and
 now has regular access to the highest levels of Cuban government.

 When American reporters want to interview him, they have to go through the
 Communist Party first. It's a turbulent time for Gonzalez, a national park
 employee who has been thrust into one of the most high-profile custody battles in
 history.

 The question in Cuba: Where is he? Gonzalez's freshly painted blue and brown
 Cardenas home appears locked up, and days often go by when he's not seen on
 TV, heard on the radio or quoted in the papers.

 ``Knock harder,'' a neighbor said to a reporter tapping on his front door. ``He's
 inside.''

 But the truth is, Gonzalez and his parents have not slept in their own beds for
 weeks. Since Gonzalez's son, Elian, was plucked from the sea Thanksgiving
 Day, the divorced father of two has become a most reluctant media celebrity.

 Reporters knocked at his door and rang his telephone so frequently that
 government officials whisked him away -- whereabouts unknown. Public
 appearances and media access are now arranged by the Foreign Ministry,
 president of the National Assembly or the Communist Party's press office.

 ``He's at a safe house in Matanzas undergoing psychiatric treatment. He's very
 upset and they are trying to calm him,'' said Mariana Ramirez Correa, the ABC
 News Havana bureau manager who was the first to interview Gonzalez. ``I don't
 know where he is and can't talk to him. If we want to talk to him, we call [National
 Assembly President] Ricardo Alarcon or the party and ask for permission. They
 say yes or no.''

 ABC, she said, has yet to hear back.

 MANIPULATION?

 In Miami, critics charge that Gonzalez is being manipulated by the Castro regime
 -- told what to say and when to say it. Some say that government's control of his
 whereabouts is further proof that Gonzalez is a puppet.

 Gonzalez has been adamant: no one controls him, no one tells him to demand
 his son back. Journalists here stress that Gonzalez's position has not wavered
 since the controversy's early days, when government officials were not camped at
 his side.

 ``I'd like for those who are saying that I am pressured by the government, stress
 that at no time have I been pressured by anybody,'' he said last week. ``Every
 time I have been interviewed by INS and the press, I have been alone. My family
 in Miami, on the contrary, are always accompanied by lawyers. The pressured
 ones are them.''

 Some observers say government intervention was inevitable.

 ``The press was constantly going to his house, knocking at the door. They did not
 leave him alone,'' ABC's Ramirez said. ``I think he's a very honest boy from a very
 modest family. He was being harassed. His family is really suffering.''

 REQUESTED HELP

 She notes that it was Gonzalez himself who wrote a letter to the Foreign Ministry
 asking for help waging a battle against the Miami relatives who refuse to turn
 Elian over.

 ``We used to just go to his house. As the story got bigger and hotter, he became
 overwhelmed,'' said CNN Havana correspondent Lucia Newman. ``He's not a
 person who is used to this. He's a person from a small town -- you can tell he's
 uncomfortable talking. He's not a man who has taken courses in speech-writing.''

 Gonzalez now makes sporadic public appearances but grants few media
 interviews. Last Friday, the government organized a press conference at
 Gonzalez's home, where deliveries of bread were made to handle the crowd.

 When the INS announced last Tuesday that Elian should be returned to Cuba,
 Gonzalez could not be found for days.
 ``He was in Havana,'' Newman said. ``He was sick and tired of talking. I wouldn't
 say he is under government control. I'd say certainly that he's under advisement.
 Certainly if that was me, I'd say, `Get me out of here!' ''
 While Gonzalez has been flanked by top party members, he handled his
 interviews with INS alone. He has no lawyer or designated spokesman -- unlike
 his Miami relatives, who had both within days of Elian's rescue.

 ``There's no single individual that can handle this all on his own,'' Newman said.
 ``The government is doing what it thinks is best, and he's going along. He's
 adamant that he's not being pushed around. I have no reason to doubt that he
 means it. Should we doubt that he wants his son back just because the Cuban
 government is involved?''
 

                     Copyright 2000 Miami Herald