By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

          HAVANA -- President Fidel Castro demanded on Sunday that the
          United States return a boy who was rescued at sea to his father in
          Cuba within 72 hours, warning that the Cuban people were losing
          patience and would soon begin mass demonstrations.

          "There will be millions of people in the streets demanding the boy's
          freedom," Castro said, according to state radio and television. "It is
          difficult to hold back the population with the state of irritation" generated
          by the case of 5-year-old Elian González.

          Castro accused the American government of kidnapping Elian, who was
          found clinging to an inner tube floating off the coast of Florida. The
          Cuban leader promised a "battle for world opinion" to bring the child
          home.

          In an unusual move on Sunday, the Cuban government stationed several
          dozen soldiers outside the United States Interests Section in Havana --
          the American government's Cuban mission. The reason for the move was
          not clear; generally there are only about four soldiers outside the mission.
          Telephone calls requesting comment from the mission were referred to
          Washington.

          James P. Rubin, the State Department spokesman, said last week that
          Cuba had asked the American mission for the child's return on Nov. 27.
          But the case was referred to the Florida state courts because they take
          precedence in custody disputes, he said.

          Greeting the Cuban delegation at the airport upon its return from the
          World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle, Castro blamed the
          American government for the boating accident, which killed Elian's
          mother and 9 or 10 others, depending on various reports.

          The overloaded powerboat they had been traveling in sank during the
          90-mile crossing to Florida. The boy was found Nov. 25 just off Fort
          Lauderdale. The United States Coast Guard described the incident as a
          case of illegal alien smuggling.

          "The United States is the only one responsible for the tragedies produced
          by illegal departures," Castro said.

          Elian's father, Juan Miguel González, 31, said his former wife took his
          son out of Cuba without his knowledge. Castro said the child's
          stepfather, who also died in the accident, had organized the smuggling
          operation.

          Elian's father and four grandparents have asked the Cuban Foreign
          Ministry for help in getting the boy back. The American government has
          released the boy to a great-aunt and great-uncle in Miami.

          American officials said a Florida state court should decide whether Elian
          should be raised in the United States or returned to his father and
          grandparents in Cuba. But Cuban authorities rejected this, saying they
          did not trust the "corrupt judges" in a state where anti-Castro exiles hold
          political influence.

          Castro said he was infuriated by the way his enemies in Miami had
          embraced the custody case as their own, and he criticized television
          images of the child surrounded by toys and wearing a T-shirt of the
          Cuban-American National Foundation -- his politically influential
          nemesis.

          American legal experts said two conflicting principles may have to be
          resolved: the child's custody, which in most cases is granted to the
          surviving biological parent, and his immigration status. The Cuban
          Readjustment Act of 1966 grants any Cuban who reaches American soil
          the right to stay.

          The conflict comes just a week before American-Cuban migration talks
          in Havana. Under previous agreements now in effect, the American
          government was to stop accepting Cubans picked up at sea. In turn,
          Cuba promised to prevent illegal departures, after the 1994 summer
          exodus of tens of thousands of Florida-bound rafters.

          Cuba has complained that the United States has not done enough to stop
          the growing wave of immigrant smuggling. The two countries have no
          diplomatic relations, and the United States maintains a nearly
          four-decades-old trade embargo against Cuba aimed at toppling Castro.