BY TERE FIGUERAS NEGRETE AND CAROL MARBIN MILLER

Cuban Americans welcomed this week's Solomonic resolution to what has been a protracted and acrimonious custody fight over a 5-year-old girl, a marked departure from the high passions that dominated the Elián González saga seven years ago.

A sign that hard lessons were learned from the painful Elián affair: The buzz on Miami's Cuban radio on Thursday centered on Venezuela's upcoming election and fears that the Hugo Chávez regime will turn into a dictatorship in Fidel Castro's image.

Few callers mentioned the international custody case involving Cuban birth father Rafael Izquierdo and foster parents Joe and Maria Cubas, who sought to raise the girl.

''It's almost like two different worlds,'' said Jose Cancela, a Cuban-American businessmen and expert on Hispanic media and marketing.

''There was a lot of fatigue in the community after Elián,'' Cancela said. ``I don't think anyone was ready to ratchet this up. And I think the way it was resolved showed that we are a civil community.''

Under the settlement, which must be approved by Circuit Judge Jeri B. Cohen, Izquierdo will retain sole custody of his daughter but must remain in the United States until at least 2010. The two sides await a hearing next week to finalize the deal in court.

The case -- which has cost upwards of $250,000 so far -- often became a courtroom spectacle, but even the most conservative radio commentators have taken an arms-length approach.

That's in stark contrast to the case of Elián, whose Miami relatives vowed to keep him from returning to the island with his father -- a standoff that ended when federal agents forcibly removed the child.

HAVANA KEPT SILENT

There were other significant differences -- not least of which was the way political players on both sides of the Florida Straits reacted to the case.

Havana has been noticeably silent in the girl's case -- a marked departure from the Cuban government-led marches in Havana during the Elián dispute.

Fidel Castro's public comments pledging to have the boy returned to Cuba served as a flash-point for many exiles.

''Fidel Castro spoke up, and that was a major factor,'' said Florida International University sociology professor Lisandro Perez.

``There is this notion of Elián as a trophy, both here and in Cuba. It wasn't about a boy, it was about winning a political battle.''

This time around, Cuba's communist party-controlled media has not mentioned the girl -- even though Joe Cubas, a former sports agent, long ago earned the ire of the Castro regime for helping prized Cuban baseball players start major league careers.

During Elián, ''the Cuban community was intentionally manipulated, by political forces that emanated both from Havana and Washington,'' said Hector Lombana, past president of the Cuban American Bar Association.

Ninoska Pérez Castellón, spokeswoman for the Cuban Liberty Council and host of a show on Radio Mambí, championed the cause of Elián's Miami relatives. But she rarely brought up the case of the 5-year-old girl.

That neither the ailing Castro nor his brother, Raúl, who's now in charge of the government, spoke up about the case is telling, Pérez Castellón said.

''At this moment, with Castro's illness, maybe this is not the time for [the Cuban government] to wage one of those battles,'' she said.

Pérez Castellón was heartened because the deal ensures the girl can visit with her brother at the Cubas household every other weekend.

''The sad part would have been if there had been no agreement,'' she said.

''People were calm because they knew this kid had her day in court,'' she said. ``It's totally different than Elián.''

CHILD PROTECTED

The state's child welfare agency, the Cubases and Cohen sought to keep the girl's custody dispute private. The judge had imposed a gag order barring participants from discussing the case publicly, although she lifted it in August.

Attorney Frank Angones Jr., the first Cuban-born president of The Florida Bar, said many Cuban Americans took comfort that the little girl's fate would be determined by a judge.

''I believe people are more accepting when matters go before an impartial magistrate than not,'' said Angones, who was among 14,000 unaccompanied children who fled Cuba in the early 1960s in Operation Pedro Pan.

That both the Izquierdo and Cubas camps kept the child out of the media glare was noteworthy. ''Nobody played to the cameras,'' Angones said.

The Cubases, of Coral Gables, insisted the girl's privacy be protected.

They would not allow the girl to be photographed at their home, and save for a handful of media interviews -- including a sit down with Pérez Castellón -- Joe Cubas kept a low-profile.

''Obviously, we were trying not to make this another Elián case,'' he said.

Magda Montiel Davis -- one of Izquierdo's attorneys and no stranger to the passions of the Cuba debate -- agreed that tensions in South Florida did not rise to the level of prior controversies.

Davis drew the ire of Cuban Americans in 1994 when she was filmed embracing Fidel Castro in Cuba, kissing him on the cheek and calling him ''maestro'' or teacher.

As the little girl's case progressed, the tape of Davis kissing Castro was replayed on Spanish-language television, reopening old wounds.

''It wasn't pretty,'' Davis said, adding, ``It wasn't as vitriolic. It certainly was not as intense.''

IMAGE CONSCIOUS

In an FIU study following the Elián ordeal, an overwhelming majority of South Florida Cubans polled -- 82 percent -- said the case had hurt the community's image.

Cancela, who was in Europe when he heard the girl's case was resolved, said exiles have been sensitive to how they are perceived post-Elián.

``Elián was an anomaly. . . . People got caught up on an emotional level.''

''This shows the maturity of the Cuban exile community to be able to move forward, with restraint and respect for the law,'' he said.

"That was something that during Elián, the public in general was led to believe we did not have.''