Word: reno
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...police won't help enforce the law if the time comes to deliver Elian to his dad. Miami-Dade, which is 40% Cuban, suddenly looked like a rogue republic in the Everglades. And Al Gore--plainly campaigning for Cuban-American votes--broke with Clinton and Attorney General Janet Reno by siding with the exiles who want to keep Elian in the U.S. Says University of Miami sociologist Max Castro: "Try as it may, the U.S. can't escape the jihad of Cuban politics...
That task looked doubly difficult after Miami-Dade County Mayor Alex Penelas, a Cuban American, made his vow not to help federal officials enforce any order to return Elian. Penelas then all but tossed a match into the city's powder keg by declaring he would hold Clinton and Reno "responsible for anything that may occur." But Penelas--a Democrat who dreams of a Cabinet post if Gore wins next fall--felt affirmed a day later when Gore backed congressional bills to give Elian, his father and other Cuban family members instant U.S. residency, and argued for moving the case...
That has been Reno's line since she ruled three months ago that only Elian's father could legally speak for a child so young. (Juan Miguel, a Communist Party member and tourism employee, was divorced from Elisabeth but was granted joint custody of Elian and has been closely involved in his upbringing.) After a federal judge backed her two weeks ago, Reno started talking tough to the exiles, hoping to stop their bid to return to state family court--where elected judges have shown in this case that they can be manipulated by Miami's political leadership. Reno demanded...
...even as Reno held that sanction over Lazaro, the exiles held one over her: the threat of ugly unrest, which Reno, who was once the top state prosecutor in Miami, wants to avoid at all costs. "She doesn't want to end her career with another Waco," says a Justice official. Responding to Mayor Penelas' pandering, Reno shot back that "the people I know in the Cuban community believe in the rule of law." But late last week she yet again extended the deadline for Lazaro to sign a deal, and negotiations were set to resume this week...
...While the issue may have some hope of catching steam at the federal level, it doesn't seem likely to take its place alongside school vouchers and trigger locks as major campaign issues. Both Janet Reno and Madeleine Albright have mentioned it as a growing crisis in recent weeks, but neither looks poised to make it one of their top issues. The Times story quotes one anonymous government official who seemed to sum up the feds' attitude toward the issue: "We have hundreds and hundreds of government analysts looking at drugs, arms, economic issues, but hardly anyone on this...