WorldView Elian Gonzalez's Grandmothers Meet With Attorney General Janet Reno Aired January 22, 2000 - 6:01 p.m. ET THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. ANDRIA HALL, CNN ANCHOR: The grandmothers of Elian Gonzalez say they are suffering over Washington's failure to return the boy to Cuba. The women met today with U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno. As CNN's Frank Buckley, reports, the grandmothers have Reno's support, but they still do not have their grandson. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The grandmothers of Elian Gonzalez bundled against the cold of New York and embarked upon a journey to Washington. Escorted by a delegation for the National Council of Churches, the grandmothers went to the Justice Department to meet with Attorney General Janet Reno and INS commissioner Doris Meissner. REV. BOB EDGAR, NATL. COUNCIL OF CHURCHES: The attorney general showed enormous compassion for these two courageous women and there was a long opportunity where they simply talked back and forth with each other. It was a very personal meeting. BUCKLEY: The grandmothers did not speak to reporters after their 45 minute meeting, but the letter they presented to Reno was released. It read in part: "For us the significance of returning Elian to his family will honor his mother's memory, return the family to normality, and more importantly, return Elian to the normality of life with father, brother, family and friends." The six-year-old's life now is on show to spectators who come to see the boy. He is staying with relatives in Miami, whom the grandmothers said, were not the proper caretakers of the boy. "We ask that you return Elian to his immediate family," they wrote, "and not to his distant family where there had not," they claim, "been a previous relationship." A family spokesman in Miami disagreed. ARMAND GUTIERREZ, FAMILY SPOKESMAN: I know Janet very well. She's a very nice lady, you know, she's compassionate. I know that she probably believes she's right in what she's doing, but, you know, the family here believes they're right in what they're doing. They believe that Elian's mother wanted him to come here. BUCKLEY: Congress may consider private bills this week to make the 6-year-old a citizen, something New York Congressman Jose Serrano says he'll fight. REP. JOSE SERRANO (D), NEW YORK: Are we capable of being so arrogant as to say to a father, because you live in Cuba you don't love your child, and we're going to keep him from you? I hope not. BUCKLEY (on camera): The grandmothers' hosts in the U.S. say the meeting with Attorney General Reno and INS Commissioner Meissner opened the dialogue on Elian Gonzalez, but both Reno and Meissner already agree the boy should be returned to Cuba and reunited with his father. Elian's caretakers in Miami are the ones that believe the boy should stay in the U.S., which sets the stage for a decision on the matter to come from the courts or Congress. Frank Buckley, CNN, New York. (END VIDEOTAPE) HALL: Elian's grandmothers say they will visit with their 6- year-old grandson tomorrow and hope to take him home to Cuba. Elian's relatives in Miami say they are not impressed with the grandmother's appeal, claiming the women are not speaking freely due to pressure from Fidel Castro's government. Joining us now live from our Havana bureau is the president of the Cuban National Assembly, Ricardo Alarcon. Sir, thank you for being with us. What of that? Are these women, these grandmother's speaking freely? RICARDO ALARCON, PRES., CUBAN NATIONAL ASSEMBLY: Obviously. And I wonder why a grandmother has to demonstrate that she loves her grandson. They miss him too much. They have said that time and again, and it's also the same case with the father. The one who is not free at all is the young boy. He's surrounded by politicians, he's surrounded by the Mafia, including some people, by the way, with long criminal records in Miami. HALL: So, you're correct, anyone can understand why a grandmother would be anxious to see their grandson under these conditions. Then answer for us, sir, why these grandmothers didn't go directly to Miami and why for that matter didn't the father come? ALARCON: Well, first of all, the father has been threatened with a subpoena, with a legal action in Miami, a completely illegal action, but anyhow it's going on. And the two ladies have expressed since the beginning that they were prepared to come -- to go there to retrieve their grandson. The problem is that going down there where these people, the kidnappers, the first kidnapping in the open continues, I think that this is to us too much for them. The grandmothers are not law enforcement agents. If you are law enforcement agent ha not gone there and has permitted for two months this kidnapping to continue, why on Earth to ask that for two poor ladies that are foreigners, after all, and do you imagine what would happen if they meet with their boy down there, and after that, the kidnapping continues? Are you suggesting that the little boy should be subjected again to the separation from his family? It's high time for the U.S. authorities to simply enforce their law and their decision. It's as simple as that. HALL: In many ways this dilemma is a family feud, and of course an international issue. Is there no hope that all sides will simply come together in the open, the families in Miami and of course the grandmothers as well as Cuba and the U.S. to discuss this matter like adults and resolve it? ALARCON: No, there is no family feud whatsoever. The father, the four grandparents are here and are demanding their little boy. There is a man that so wants in his life the little boy, and other people that never met him, and I repeat, some of them with long criminal records in Miami -- they are not the family. They do not have any right whatsoever. They are challenging your laws and regulations and committing the first kidnapping in the open, the first case of child abuse that is covered around the clock by all the international media. That's really preposterous. That has to be ended immediately. HALL: Sir, time is of the essence. On Monday, the U.S. Congress is going to convene and consider and perhaps vote Elian's citizenship here in America. If that occurs, what will be Cuba's response? ALARCON: Well, I would say right now that it would be an outrage not only for Cuba, not only for the little boy, but for U.S. Constitution. It will be the first time that citizenship is imposed upon somebody, and even a minor person. That is completely nonsense, and that would transform the U.S. Congress, if that were to happen, into participants in the kidnapping of a small boy. I hope that people there in the Senate and the House would have at least some sensitivity, enough not to permit the manipulation of the U.S. Congress in social matters. HALL: Ricardo Alarcon, we thank you for being with us on WORLDVIEW. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com