By Sylvia Moreno and Steve Vogel
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday , April 25, 2000 ; A08

The Miami relatives of Elian Gonzalez started their day here yesterday determined to speak to anyone who could get them to
the boy. But in the end, they stood up a plethora of police brass, media and curious onlookers at Andrews Air Force Base
awaiting the latest installment in the family drama.

With Prince George's Police Chief John S. Farrell in attendance, along with his top deputies, SWAT team members, a
motorcycle brigade and the bicycle patrol--along with the military police guarding the entrance to the base, where the
6-year-old Cuban boy has been reunited with his father--a police spokesman finally announced in the late afternoon the only
significant news of the day in the case:

"The Miami family, they are tired," said Royce D. Holloway, spokesman for Prince George's police. "They went back to the
hotel, and they're resting."

But even the slightest hint that Marisleysis Gonzalez and her father, Lazaro, who housed and cared for Elian in Miami for five
months, and other relatives were thinking about leaving their Georgetown hotel for the air base sent officials scrambling. Family
members had been turned away twice when they tried to visit Andrews over the weekend.

"It's a question of public safety," Holloway said.

Not to mention cost. The custody battle over the Cuban shipwreck survivor has moved north out of Miami, where local
officials estimated the price of keeping order near the Gonzalez family home at $1 million a day. Here, the costs have not been
calculated exactly. But officials agree it is sizable, affects various jurisdictions and ultimately will be paid by taxpayers.

Montgomery County bore the costs of keeping order outside the Bethesda home of the Cuban Interests Section chief, where
Juan Miguel Gonzalez, Elian's father, stayed for two weeks with his family.

Extra local, federal and Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority officers have been pulled into demonstration duty outside
the Cuban Interests Section in Northwest Washington, the Justice Department, Reagan National Airport, the house in Bethesda
and now Andrews.

The cost of bringing Elian from Miami to the reunion with his father is being borne by the Immigration and Naturalization
Service, Justice officials said.

"We don't have any hard figures right now," INS spokeswoman Maria Cardona said of the costs.

The INS will reimburse the U.S. Marshal's service for the costs of the raid and the flight aboard a Marshal's service jet to
Andrews, as well as the cost of providing security to Elian's father and his family.

The INS also is paying for the reunited Gonzalez family's stay at a distinguished visitors unit at Andrews. The cost is $36 a
night, the same as military and civilian guests pay, a base spokesman said.

The family's presence at Andrews has mainly affected the gate, where additional Air Force security police have been posted to
check the identifications of everyone entering the facility.

At least some of the fees for Gregory B. Craig, the attorney for Juan Miguel Gonzalez, are being paid by the General Board of
Church and Society of the United Methodist Church, according to the National Council of Churches. The agency, based in
Washington, is raising the money through a humanitarian fund established by the board's executive committee, said the council,
which has supported the return of Elian to his father.

And the costs of flying the Miami relatives to Washington, housing them in hotels, ferrying them around in a rented minivan and
feeding them are being paid by the Cuban American National Foundation, a strongly anti-Fidel Castro group and one of the
most powerful ethnic lobbies in the United States. The foundation is based in Miami and has a Washington office, which is
escorting the Miami relatives.

"We came forward to help them because we have a presence here in Washington," said Jose Cardenas. "We're going to step
up to this family in their time of need."

Staff writers Hamil R. Harris, Raymond McCaffrey and Jamie Stockwell contributed to this report.

                                 © 2000 The Washington Post Company