BY JAY WEAVER, FRANK DAVIES AND FRANCES ROBLES

 The process of transferring custody of Elian Gonzalez from his Miami relatives to his father
 will begin today, federal authorities said Thursday, hours after Juan Miguel Gonzalez's
 strong pledge on his arrival in the United States to return to Cuba soon with his son.

 Juan Miguel Gonzalez met this morning with Attorney General Janet Reno and emerged from
 the meeting saying he was sure he would be reunited with his son.

 Attorneys for Elian's Miami relatives reacted with bitterness as talks broke down Thursday and it
 became clear that the government was about to begin enforcing its 3-month-old decision that the
 6-year-old boy must be returned to his father.

 ``Elian has not had his day in court,'' Jose Garcia-Pedrosa, one of the family attorneys,
 angrily told reporters. ``This is a very, very sad day in the history of American jurisprudence.''

 Elian's father, in remarks both combative and conciliatory, said he was eagerly awaiting a
 reunion with the boy.

 ``For exactly 137 days I have been unjustly and cruelly separated from my son,'' Juan Miguel
 Gonzalez said as he squinted in the sunlight of a 40-degree dawn at Dulles International Airport,
 his wife Nersy and infant son Hianny by his side  ``We are Elian's true family and we love him very
 much.''

 More than 300 supporters of the Miami family held carnations and prayed outside the family's
 Little Havana house Thursday might to show their concern. Exile leader Ramon Saul Sanchez
 urged a civil disobedience campaign to start at 4 p.m. today at Miami International Airport. Two
 psychologists who have examined the boy told the crowd that he would suffer psychological
 harm if he is removed from their care. The relatives' attorneys said they will ask the state
 court for a full evidentiary hearing.

 But Elian could be back in his father's custody by the end of next week. The Immigration
 and Naturalization Service said late Thursday that a letter officially giving the boy back to
 his dad could go out as soon as today. A second letter urging that he be turned over at a
 neutral location will be sent by the middle of next week.

 Juan Miguel, accompanied by his wife, his infant son and his lawyer, met with Attorney
 General Janet Reno this morning.

 In brief remarks after the meeting, he said he was hopeful that his son would soon
 be returned to him.

 "I'm sure that I'm going to have my boy with me,'' he said.

 He also thanked the men who rescued Elian from the sea last Thanksgiving.

 Gonzalez's attorney, Gregory Craig, said Juan Miguel had requested the Justice
 Department's help and in turn was given assurances that Elian would be turned
 over to him.

 "I think it was a very successful meeting," Craig said.

 Gonzalez's 7 a.m. arrival Thursday at the airport outside Washington brought a
 sense of climax to the dramatic tale. Since the moment little Elian was pulled
 from the sea, his custody has been the focus of an intense struggle between
 Cubans on both sides of the Florida Straits.

 Speaking through an interpreter, Juan Miguel Gonzalez expressed his ``deepest
 gratitude'' to the American people but also sharply criticized U.S. politicians,
 lawyers, journalists and the Cuban community in Miami for ``harassing'' his son.

 ``To witness his mother's disappearance and to miraculously survive the sinking of
 his boat was already enough suffering for a boy barely 5 years old. Add to this the
 turnover, in temporary custody, to some distant relatives who never saw him
 before,'' he added.

 TEAM OF SUPPORT

 Gonzalez, a 31-year-old Cuban tourist worker, was accompanied by Cuban
 diplomats; his lawyer, Craig; local police and federal agents; and two U.S. church
 leaders who have supported him: Joan Brown Campbell, former general secretary
 of the National Council of Churches, and the Rev. Thom White Wolf Fassett,
 general secretary of the Board of Church and Society for the United Methodist
 Church.

 As Gonzalez spoke, six demonstrators nearby shouted, ``Welcome to the land of
 freedom,'' and other slogans. Gonzalez clearly heard them but did not
 acknowledge them.

 One of the demonstrators, Camila Ruiz, 27, a Cuban American from Santa Clara,
 Calif., said she wanted to ``welcome Juan Miguel so he knew exiles were not
 against him.

 ``We want him to be able to make a free choice about his future in a free country,
 but that will be hard when he's surrounded by Cuban state security,'' she added.

 The father spent Thursday at the Bethesda, Md., home of Fernando Remirez,
 Cuba's top diplomat in the United States. He met with supporters, including
 California Congresswoman Maxine Waters.

 Late Thursday, Juan Miguel Gonzalez told a Havana TV program that he has been
 received kindly by Americans in the Maryland neighborhood. ``I've walked out,
 chatted with them, served them coffee and I've been connecting and talking with
 them, and they're truly very concerned about all this,'' he said.

 President Fidel Castro said that he expects Juan Miguel Gonzalez and his family
 to be in the United States ``between 10 days and two months,'' although he
 believes that ``the American authorities are interested in solving the problem as
 soon as possible.''

 BROKEN TALKS

 Late in the day, talks over how and when the boy would be returned finally broke
 down between Gonzalez family lawyers and immigration officials who have been
 negotiating in Miami for six days.

 The government rejected every one of the family's demands, including allowing
 Elian to be interviewed by a panel of independent psychologists. The INS is
 putting together a panel of medical and psychological experts that will advise the
 agency on the most appropriate way to reunite the boy with his father.

 INS district director Robert Wallis said the family's attorneys refused the
 government's terms to turn over the boy voluntarily with ``as little conflict as
 possible.''

 ``Instead, the attorneys continued to revisit the issue of whether Elian should be
 reunited with his father as opposed to discussing how best to reunite the two,''
 Wallis said.

 With the father here, the Miami family now has few options. It can seek a court
 injunction of U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore's ruling that cleared the way for
 the boy to go back to Cuba, or try to return to state family court to seek custody.
 The federal government would would have to obey an injunction, but would not
 have to abide by any family court action.

 DAD'S DECISION

 The government has assured the family that it does not intend to whisk the child
 away from the home. But Wallis said that once the boy is reunited with his father,
 the agency could not stop them from returning to Cuba immediately. He
 expressed hope that they would remain for a federal appeal challenging the boy's
 return to Cuba.

 Miami family attorney Roger Bernstein said Elian's great-uncle Lazaro Gonzalez
 will obey the rule of law if the government comes to take the boy: ``If the INS
 chooses to rip Elian from his family, Lazaro Gonzalez is ready to comply pure
 and simple.''

 During a radio interview Thursday, Lazaro Gonzalez said he welcomes his
 nephew, but continued to insist that Juan Miguel come to his Little Havana home.

 ``It's correct that father is going to meet with the boy, but in his new home where
 the child lives here in Miami and where he's surrounded by his family that gave
 him the warmth that he's needed since he arrived to this country of freedom,''
 Lazaro Gonzalez said.

 Fears that the government planned to pry Elian away from his cousins agitated
 the protesters outside his Little Havana's house late Thursday afternoon.
 Chanting, ``Elian no se va!'' -- Elian is not leaving -- they broke through barricades
 surrounding the home, linked arms in a human chain, and insisted they wouldn't
 let the first-grader go. But they backed down shortly afterward.

 Late Thursday, however, Democracy Movement leader Sanchez urged the crowd
 of 300 to drive to the airport -- not to block traffic but to make their presence felt.

 ``We want to send a powerful message, an economic one, to the federal
 government that we want them to listen,'' he said.

 HAVANA TV

 Asked about the demonstrations on the Havana television show, Juan Miguel
 Gonzalez said, ``We're not mortified, because those people really don't want the
 best for my son.''

 At the rally outside the Little Havana home, psychologist Alina Lopez-Gottardi,
 who has been seeing Elian since December, said the boy has repeatedly
 expressed fear of his father.

 ``Elian has expressed that his father freely expresses his anger out of control and
 in an abusive manner in specific instances that have been given to the INS,'' she
 said. ``The INS has chosen to ignore this information.''

 INS spokeswoman Maria Cardona said the agency found Juan Miguel Gonzalez
 has a caring, loving relationship with his son. ``We believe this reunification in the
 long run will be what he needs in order to move forward with a normal life after the
 immense tragedy that he has endured,'' she said.

 Herald staff writers Ana Acle, Alfonso Chardy, Don Finefrock and Marika Lynch,
 staff translator Renato Perez, and Herald writer Mireidy Fernandez contributed to
 this report.

                     Copyright 2000 Miami Herald