Janet Reno, the first woman US attorney-general, began her tenure in the spotlight over the siege of the Branch-Davidian cult at Waco in Texas.

Now, as she nears the end of her period in office, the case of Elian Gonzalez has thrown her into the headlines again.

She has been quoted as saying that she remembers every day of her life the disaster at Waco, when more than 80 people died as federal agents stormed the cult's headquarters.

"I made the decision. I'm accountable. The buck stops with me," she said at the time, silencing some of her critics with her characteristic bluntness.

Sacred bond

The bitter battle for custody over Elian, the six-year-old shipwreck survivor, is also one in which she has become intensely involved.









She has personally held meetings with Elian and his Miami relatives - who want to keep the boy in the United States - and with Elian's father, who has come from Cuba to take him home. She also met Elian's grandmothers when they came to plead for his return to Cuba in January. Ms Reno has never wavered from the position that Elian belongs with his father, citing the "sacred bond" that exists between father and son. The Elian case is also close to her heart because the drama is taking place in Miami, where she grew up and served as a prosecutor. "It is a community I was born in, raised in. It is a community I love. And when it's hurting, it hurts me," she said. As in the Waco instance, however, her handling of the case has been questioned, following her continued failure to get the family to hand over the child. "I am prepared to enforce the law. But I want to be clear, if we are compelled to enforce our order we intend to do so in a reasonable, measured way," she said at a Miami news conference. Role models Janet Reno's path from her childhood home on the edge of the Everglades in Florida to the highest law enforcement office in the US demonstrated her drive and determination.





