Editorial: Three-ring circus enveloping Miami

Friday, April 14, 2000 | 9:51 a.m.

Attorney General Janet Reno has shown incredible patience in the Elian Gonzalez matter, even meeting with the boy's Miami relatives on Wednesday night. So how does Elian's great-uncle, who currently has custody of the 6-year-old, respond? "We will not turn this child over," Lazaro Gonzalez declared. "They will have to take this child from me by force."

To add to the circus-like atmosphere in Miami, movie actor Andy Garcia and singer Gloria Estefan, who are Cuban-Americans, appeared Thursday outside the Gonzalez's home, lending their support to the Miami relatives. Meanwhile, Elian's father waits in Washington to be reunited with his son. No one has accused Juan Miguel Gonzalez of being an unfit father. Indeed, there is every indication he dearly loves his son. It's time not only for the Miami relatives to stop jerking around the legal system, but it also is time for them to return Elian to his father, where he rightly belongs.

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