The pre-dawn raid that led to Elian Gonzalez being reunited with his father earned the Clinton administration rare praise from Cuban leader Fidel Castro but condemnation from Republicans.
While in Miami hundreds of Cuban-Americans angered by the raid lit fires in the streets and clashed with riot police Saturday, across the Florida Straits in Cuba tens of thousands applauded the action.
The reunion between Elian and his father constitutes a truce in four decades of rocky Cuba-US relations, Fidel Castro said, joining Elian's grandparents and hundreds of thousands of Cubans celebrating the six-year-old's return to his father.
"Today is a truce, perhaps the only one in 40 years -- one day," Castro told a crowd of about 400,000 people amassed yesterday at a historic sugar refinery.
Castro praised the consistency shown by US Attorney General Janet Reno and INS officials in their determination to reunite father and son "even though they were scared" about the repercussions of their actions.
Castro downplayed the shock that Elian suffered during the early morning raid by armed government agents who spirited him away from the home of his Miami relatives. "That boy cried for three minutes for something that probably saved his life," he said.
And he expressed delight with two photographs taken after Elian was reunited with his father outside Washington, saying that images of the smiling boy represented "no better gift for us."
But jubilation in Cuba to Saturday's pre-dawn raid was not shared by many in the US.
Some 260 protesters were in custody in Miami early yesterday, following a night of intense demonstrations.
At least 400 riot-ready Miami police wearing body armor and wielding batons tangled with demonstrators who set fire to tires and garbage.
As protests continued on the streets, in the corridors of power Republican lawmakers and Cuban-Americans attacked President Clinton's decision to allow the raid.
Even Vice President Al Gore distanced himself from the decision. "As I have said, I believe this issue should have been handled through family court and with the family coming together," Gore said in a statement just hours after the operation.
Republican leaders lost little time denouncing the pre-dawn raid, which lasted three minutes and in which there were no reported injuries.
"When I awoke in my hometown with my family today -- Easter weekend -- and learned of the tactics that had been used to seize Elian Gonzalez, my first thought was that this could only happen in Castro's Cuba," Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott said in a statement.
Senator Connie Mack of Florida called the operation "outrageous and horrifying" and said it had no place in "a free democracy which respects human rights and the rule of law."
White House officials rejected the criticism as political posturing by Republicans.
"Those who are trying to play politics with this, those who are trying to gain a political advantage -- it's just very disappointing," said White House spokesman Joe Lockhart on CNN television. "It's beyond the pale. It's extreme, it's divisive," Lockhart said early yesterday.
While the political situation played itself out the personal heartache continued for Elian's Miami relatives.
Yesterday they were turned away from a secluded air force base where the child was reunited with his father.
The relatives had arrived in Washington only hours after the child was forcibly removed from their Miami home and taken to Andrews Air Force Base near here to join his Cuban father.
The boy's great-uncle Lazaro Gonzalez, who has been taking care of him in his Miami home for the past few months, and another great uncle, Delfin, were turned away by security personnel as they sought to enter the air base.
Elian was earlier reunited with his father at the base in suburban Washington following the pre-dawn raid in Miami.
Greg Craig, an attorney for the father, said the Miami relatives would have to wait for "a couple of days" before any meeting with the father and child could take place.
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