ANDRES VIGLUCCI

 During the time he has been in Miami, Elian Gonzalez has spoken to his father in
 Cuba on the phone at least once a day, often more -- and most of their
 conversations have been recorded by the boy's caretakers.

 The family's advisors do not acknowledge the existence of the Elian tapes, but
 two of his Miami relatives have let the fact slip out on two occasions, once during
 an interview with U.S. government officials, and the second in an interview
 published this week in the New York Daily News.

 Family spokesman Armando Gutierrez would not confirm or deny on Tuesday that
 the conversations are recorded, and declined a request for an interview with the
 relatives.

 ``I cannot comment on that, and they're not going to talk, either,'' Gutierrez said.

 The subject of the tapes is a potentially sensitive one. Florida law forbids
 recording a phone conversation without the other party's explicit consent, even
 when the other party is outside the state. Violation is a third-degree felony,
 punishable by up to five years in prison.

 Linda Tripp, whose unauthorized recordings of her conversations with presidential
 paramour Monica Lewinsky led to President Clinton's impeachment, is facing trial
 on two felony counts in Maryland, which has a law similar to Florida's.

 FATHER TOLD

 A source who knows the Miami family said they record virtually every
 conversation, partly on the assumption that the Cuban government is taping them
 as well. The source was insistent that the relatives always advise the boy's father,
 Juan Miguel Gonzalez, that the calls are being recorded.

 ``They tell the father they are taping the calls,'' the source said.

 A spokesman for the Cuban government, which has accused the Miami relatives
 of kidnapping Elian, said he was not surprised to learn of the taping.

 ``It doesn't surprise me that this family would be capable of that, given everything
 else that they have done,'' said Luis Fernandez, spokesman for the Cuban
 Interests Section in Washington, D.C. He added that the boy's Miami caretakers
 have refused to allow Elian to speak with his father or grandparents for the past
 three days.

 The first public indication that calls were being recorded came with the release by
 the government last week of transcripts of interviews between Lazaro Gonzalez,
 Elian's great-uncle, and the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service.

 At one point, Lazaro Gonzalez tells the INS interviewer that he is convinced that
 Juan Miguel Gonzalez's public assertions that he wants Elian back in Cuba are
 the result of coercion by the Cuban government.

 Asked why he thinks so, according to a transcript of the interview, Lazaro
 Gonzalez says that Juan Miguel Gonzalez initially asked his Miami relatives to
 take care of the boy, and on one occasion told him that Elian had lost nothing in
 leaving Cuba.

 ``I have this recorded,'' the transcript quotes Lazaro Gonzalez as saying.

 SUNDAY STORY

 The second indication was buried deep in a report on Elian's daily routine that
 was published Sunday in the Daily News. It quotes Delfin Gonzalez, Lazaro's
 brother, as saying that all the calls between Elian and his father are taped.

 Delfin Gonzalez ``says the recordings may one day be released to prove that the
 boy wants to stay in Miami,'' the Daily News said.

 The Miami relatives, who are fighting to retain custody of Elian, have insisted that
 he consistently expresses a wish to stay in Miami, contradicting assertions by
 his father that the boy wants to return to Cuba.

 Child psychologists, however, warn that the boy's words can't be given too much
 weight because 6-year-olds are too easily swayed by adults.
 

                     Copyright 2000 Miami Herald