The custody battle over six-year-old Elian Gonzalez is turning into a major embarrassment for the Clinton administration, with Vice-President Al Gore's surprise intervention contradicting official Washington policy and the spread of demonstrations to a number of cities.
The stakes have also being heightened with President Fidel Castro's proposal for Elian's father to travel to the US with a 30-strong delegation to prepare the boy for his "reinsertion" back into Cuban society after five months of living with his Cuban exile relatives in Miami.
The boy's father, Mr Juan Gonzalez, yesterday rejected a Senate proposal for a Bill giving him and his immediate family "permanent residence" in the US while family courts decided on the custody question. This is the proposal that Mr Gore now says he supports, although it is at variance with the position of President Clinton and the Attorney General, Ms Janet Reno, that Elian should be handed over to his father without going through a custody battle in a family court in Florida where the Cuban community has strong influence.
Mr Gore is seen by political observers as trying to safeguard his position in the presidential election in which Florida's 43 electoral college votes could be crucial in a tight contest against Governor George Bush. The White House spokesman said yesterday Mr Clinton "understands" that the Vice-President may have to take stands at variance with those of the President during his election campaign. But there is said to be considerable resentment behind the scenes in the administration that Mr Gore is playing politics with an already tense situation.
Negotiations between Elian's Miami relatives and the Immigration and Naturalisation Service (INS) have been suspended until Monday. The INS has also extended until Tuesday morning its deadline for ending Elian's parole status allowing him to live with his granduncle, Mr Lazaro Gonzalez.
The INS is demanding that the relatives guarantee to hand over Elian to his father if a federal appeal court decides this should happen when it hears the case in May. A lower court has already ruled that the boy belongs to his father and the appeals court is expected to confirm this. The INS also wants Elian to be handed over to his father if he comes to the US while waiting for the final court decision.
Elian has been living with his granduncle since he was rescued from the seas off Florida last November after clinging to an inflated tube for 48 hours. Dr Castro has now announced that his proposal for the father of Elian and a delegation, including school friends, teachers, relatives, and medical and legal advisers, to go to the US and take custody of the boy while waiting for the appeals court to rule is "non-negotiable." While the US government is ready to grant the father and some relatives visas to come to the US, it is not certain that it would agree to such a large delegation, which may have Cuban security officials to prevent a possible defection by Mr Gonzalez
Demonstrations against the return of Elian to Cuba have now spread from Miami to some other cities, including New York and Washington, where protesters paraded outside the White House. In Miami, members of the Cuban community are constantly on watch outside the house where Elian is living and practise how to prevent him being seized by federal officials
Miami police have enforced a court order removing a young boy from his mother and giving him to his Jordanian father in a child custody battle closely watched because of similarities to the Gonzalez case.