Elian's Father Asks Court for Sole Authority

Juan Miguel Gonzalez, the father of the six-year-old Cuban shipwreck survivor, filed a petition Wednesday for the sole authority to speak for his son Elian.

Filing the emergency petition to "assert his rights as a father, "Gonzalez is asking the court to reject a bid by Elian's great-uncle, Lazaro Gonzalez, to have his lawyers and doctors see the boy and speak for him before the court.

The boy and the father who now stay in the Wye Plantation, Maryland, are waiting for a court hearing on whether Elian should stay in the U.S. or return to Cuba.

Elian, who was rescued after his mother were drowned in the Atlantic on November 25 last year in an effort to flee to the United States, was reunited with his father last week after the federal agents snatched the boy from his relatives in Miami. The Miami relatives, who filed a political asylum for the boy, insist the boy should stay in the U.S. while the father wants the boy to stay with him and return to Cuba.



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