Lawyer Departs for Havana After Assurances About Custody

                  By Karen DeYoung and Sue Anne Pressley
                  Washington Post Staff Writers
 
                  The attorney representing 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez's Cuban father flew to
                  Havana last night, saying he hoped to return to Washington with the father
                  and his family before the end of this week.

                  Lawyer Gregory B. Craig departed after receiving what he said were
                  assurances from the Justice Department yesterday morning that it would
                  take steps to transfer Elian's custody from relatives in Miami to his father
                  once he arrives in the United States. Visas for the father, his wife and infant
                  son, a young cousin of Elian and two others were issued yesterday by the
                  U.S. Interests Section in Havana.

                  Still pending were 22 other visas the Cuban government requested for
                  schoolmates of Elian, a team of child psychologists and a senior Cuban
                  official. It was not clear whether Havana would continue to insist on them
                  as a condition for the father's departure.

                  The arrival of the father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, would radically change the
                  dynamic of the now four-month-old international custody dispute. Although
                  government officials would continue talks with the Miami relatives who
                  have refused to relinquish the boy, in hopes of gaining their cooperation,
                  officials said yesterday that once the father arrives they would set in motion
                  the process of transferring custody.

                  That process, which could take at least a week, would start with
                  notification that Elian's care under "temporary parole" had been changed
                  from that of his Miami great-uncle, Lazaro Gonzalez, to his father. Later,
                  Lazaro Gonzalez would be given written instructions as to when and where
                  the transfer would take place. If an agreement for a cooperative transfer
                  had not been reached by that point, the government could go to court to
                  compel cooperation.

                  Government officials said they were pleased with the prospect of Juan
                  Miguel Gonzalez's arrival, believing it would jump-start stalled negotiations
                  in Miami between lawyers representing the relatives and the Justice
                  Department and the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

                  A fourth day of talks ended yesterday with agreement still far from sight.
                  They were scheduled to resume Thursday morning.

                  Lawyers for the Miami relatives told Justice negotiators that Lazaro
                  Gonzalez and his daughter, Marisleysis, who was admitted to a Miami
                  hospital yesterday morning complaining of dizziness and nausea, were
                  exhausted and unable to continue without a day's rest.

                  But they were unlikely to find much rest at their Little Havana home, where
                  a growing number of Cuban American supporters, and an army of
                  international reporters, surrounded the house in anticipation that the long
                  controversy was moving toward a climax.

                  During the afternoon, an estimated 80 protesters broke past police
                  barricades when rumors began flying that the boy's seizure by federal
                  officials was imminent. Miami city police--whose mayor has said they will
                  not participate in any federal effort to extricate him--stood calmly and
                  watched as the demonstrators linked arms and began chanting "Freedom
                  for Elian! Freedom for Elian!"

                  Yesterday's talks faltered--and at several points nearly came to a complete
                  halt--over two conditions that attorneys for the relatives said were
                  necessary before they would agree to any transfer of custody.

                  In a new demand, they said the government must obtain a commitment
                  from Juan Miguel Gonzalez that he would not leave the country with Elian
                  while they are appealing last month's federal court decision upholding the
                  government's right to remove the boy from Lazaro Gonzalez's care and
                  return him to his father. Arguments in the case are scheduled for May 11.

                  Rep. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) made a similar demand in a letter
                  yesterday to Attorney General Janet Reno, saying that if Elian were to go
                  to Cuba before the appeals ruling is made, and it were decided in the
                  Miami relatives' favor, Cuban President Fidel "Castro will never allow the
                  boy to come back to the United States." Menendez asked Reno to "pursue
                  a binding agreement with Juan Gonzalez" requiring him to stay in this
                  country.

                  Government officials said that attorneys for the relatives had been assured
                  they would make their "best efforts" to ensure Gonzalez and son stayed in
                  this country while the appeal is pending, and noted that the father had said
                  publicly on several occasions that he would do so.

                  The second sticking point was the ongoing insistence by the relatives that
                  an independent team of child psychologists be named to evaluate whether
                  returning to Cuba with his father was in Elian's best interests.

                  The government has agreed to an independent team of experts, but only to
                  advise it on the least traumatic way of transferring Elian to his father's care,
                  not whether the transfer will take place.

                  Another issue still in dispute is whether the father would come to Miami to
                  pick up his son. Craig said that Juan Miguel Gonzalez had no interest in
                  traveling to Florida, but would await his son in Washington.

                  Although Castro said last week that the Gonzalez entourage would stay
                  with Cuban diplomats in the Washington area--and Montgomery County
                  tactical police officers were surveying one such home in Bethesda
                  yesterday--sources said yesterday that other local venues were being
                  considered.

                  In a tearful interview yesterday with NBC's "Today" show, Marisleysis
                  Gonzalez seemed conflicted about the issue, at one point saying she would
                  take Elian by the hand herself to Washington if necessary. At another
                  point, however, she said the father "should be a man about it" and "come
                  to the house where your son has lived for four months and has had what
                  you haven't been able to give him--love and shelter."

                  "Nobody's going to do anything to him" in Miami, she said. "We all know
                  that in the United States, they will put security for that."

                  Standing in front of the Gonzalez family home in Miami yesterday, Ramon
                  Saul Sanchez, leader of the Democracy Movement, a Cuban exile group,
                  exhorted the crowd through a bullhorn: "Will we be allowing anyone to get
                  in the way of a family reunion? Will we use violence in any way?"

                  "No! No!" the crowd responded.

                  Sanchez led the group in prayer, then said, "We are merely making sure
                  that Elian is not removed before the process is over."

                  DeYoung reported from Washington, Pressley from Miami. Staff writer
                  April Witt in Washington and special correspondent Catharine Skipp in
                  Miami contributed to this report.