Boy, Entourage, Apparently Bored, Expected at NW Estate

                  By Sylvia Moreno and Karen DeYoung
                  Washington Post Staff Writers

                  Elian Gonzalez, his father and a Cuban entourage of about a dozen
                  relatives and friends are expected to leave the bucolic Eastern Shore of
                  Maryland and move into the heart of the District, possibly by the end of
                  this week.

                  The 6-year-old shipwreck survivor and subject of a highly publicized court
                  battle over whether he should live in Miami with distant relatives or return
                  to Cuba with his father, Juan Miguel, is moving to the Rosedale estate in
                  the Cleveland Park section of Northwest Washington.

                  At its request, the entourage is expected to move to the estate owned by
                  Youth For Understanding International Exchange in spite of preferences by
                  the State Department and the U.S. Marshals Service that it remain on the
                  more isolated Eastern Shore.

                  "If they decide they're going, the marshals are going with them," one
                  government official said.

                  Ensconced at Carmichael Farm on the edge of the Wye River Conference
                  Center since April 25, the Gonzalezes and their entourage have been under
                  the protection of the marshals. In addition to providing security, the
                  marshals are charged with monitoring their movements to make sure they
                  don't violate a federal court order forbidding Elian to leave the country,
                  according to an Immigration and Naturalization Service official.

                  The boy is forbidden to go to any place beyond the jurisdiction of the
                  court--such as a Cuban diplomatic mission--until his case is resolved,
                  which could take several weeks. He also is under an INS departure
                  control order that forbids him to leave the United States until the INS gives
                  permission, regardless of the court case.

                  Nonetheless, that doesn't mean the marshals can tell the Gonzalez family
                  and the other Cubans where to go or what to do, said Marshals Service
                  spokesman Drew Wade.

                  "They are not in custody," Wade said. "They are free to move about."

                  So, apparently bored because of the lack of movies, stores, restaurants
                  and other diversions and frustrated by the difficulty of reaching the family's
                  attorney, Gregory B. Craig, the entourage is moving.

                  Located on the Rosedale estate in one of Washington's toniest--and most
                  congested--neighborhoods, Youth For Understanding officials have
                  opened the organization's property to the Cubans.

                  "We hope that by providing the Gonzalez family with shelter and hospitality
                  in Washington's most historic residence, we can demonstrate to the family
                  and to the citizens of Cuba that the American people bear them no ill will
                  and we seek friendship and understanding between our two countries,"
                  officials of the group said in a statement.

                  Just north of Washington National Cathedral, the international student
                  exchange group's rolling 6.5-acre property contains a yellow clapboard
                  farmhouse that dates to the Revolutionary War era and three brick
                  buildings once used as dormitories for the cathedral's girls school.

                  The original Rosedale estate extended from what is now Newark Street
                  NW north to the Montgomery County line and was considered a suburb
                  and summer getaway from the Federal City.

                  The property was sold to the National Cathedral Foundation in the 1950s.
                  The three modern buildings on the property were used as girls dorms until
                  the late 1960s. Youth For Understanding purchased the property in 1978.

                  It is inside the two-story farmhouse, with its portico and 18th-century
                  Federal-style columns, that Elian and his father, his stepmother, Nersy, and
                  infant half brother, Hianny, his kindergarten teacher, his 10-year-old cousin
                  and four of his first-grade classmates and their parents will live while
                  awaiting a federal appeals court decision regarding Elian's right to apply for
                  political asylum in the United States.

                  The classmates and their parents originally were given visas to join Elian
                  and his family for two weeks, shortly after federal agents removed Elian
                  from the home of his Miami relatives April 22. The visas were extended for
                  two more weeks and are due to expire June 1. The INS has indicated that
                  if there is no court decision by then, it would likely extend the visas again if
                  asked.

                  Use of the farmhouse was requested by Craig, who lives in the
                  neighborhood. He first approached Youth For Understanding President
                  Sally Grooms Cowal in mid-April when it became clear that Juan Miguel
                  Gonzalez, his wife and infant son would be coming to the Washington area.
                  Craig asked Youth For Understanding for the use of its grounds for the
                  taping of a "60 Minutes" interview with Gonzalez that aired April 16.
                  During that interview, Craig asked about the possibility of using the
                  farmhouse and grounds for an extended stay for the Gonzalezes and their
                  entourage, said organization spokesman Len Doran.

                  Then, at the end of last week, Craig approached the INS expressing the
                  family's interest in moving to the Youth For Understanding site, according
                  to government officials. Craig would not confirm reports that the
                  Gonzalezes are moving.

                  The six-member executive committee of the exchange group's 18-member
                  board of trustees unanimously approved the use of the property as a
                  temporary home for the Cubans.

                  "They had weighed the risks, but they also saw how they could play a
                  substantive role in resolving this situation that all of America wants to see
                  resolved," said Cowal, who polled the committee in a conference call.