As the custody battle over six-year-old Elian Gonzalez intensified, his father in Cuba has applied for a visa to come to the US and take him from his Cuban exile relatives in Miami. His father, Mr Juan Gonzalez, has been encouraged by President Fidel Castro to travel to the US with a large delegation, including school friends of Elian and medical advisers.
Vice-President Al Gore yesterday disagreed with President Clinton, who has supported sending Elian back to Cuba. Mr Gore, who is seeking votes in Florida, said he now favoured Elian and his family being given permanent residence in the US. The case has now become a hot political issue in the presidential campaign.
The relatives, who have been sheltering the boy since he was rescued from the sea off Florida last November, have refused to sign an undertaking to hand him over if an appeal court rules that he should go back to Cuba. The boy's mother and 10 others fleeing Cuba were drowned when their boat sank but he clung to a tube for 48 hours before being rescued.
The negotiations between the relatives and the Immigration and Naturalisation Service (INS) continued into a second day in Miami yesterday.
The INS postponed until 9 a.m. today local time the lifting of Elian's parole which allows him to stay with his granduncle, Mr Lazaro Gonzalez, and other relatives in the strongly Cuban exile quarter of Miami called "Little Havana".
The INS is insisting that Elian's granduncle sign an undertaking to respect an appeal court's decision when it rules on the case, probably in May. Otherwise, the INS will end the parole and Elian could then be taken into custody and returned to his father either in the US or in Cuba.
A lower court has ruled that the INS and the Attorney General, Ms Janet Reno, have the right to send Elian back to Cuba to be reunited with his father. The appeals court is expected to confirm this ruling.
The case is arousing strong feelings among the Cuban exile community in Miami, which is threatening to prevent any attempt by federal officials to "snatch" Elian from his relatives. The local mayors in the Miami area have publicly declared that they will not allow their police forces to co-operate in any handover and said they would blame Ms Reno for any disorder which would ensue. This defiance of the federal authorities is arousing concern in Washington, where Ms Reno said yesterday that "this is a nation where we expect our laws to be enforced, where we expect law enforcement agencies to co-operate together".