SONIA RUSELER, CNN ANCHOR: A last-ditch court appeal seeks to keep 6-year-old Cuban shipwreck survivor Elian Gonzalez in the United States. CNN's Susan Candiotti has the latest in the international custody dispute.</s>SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Florida relatives of Elian Gonzalez did respond to the Justice Department's noon deadline to speed up the appeals process or face the prospect of sending the boy home. It was not the response the Justice Department wanted to hear.</s>LINDA OSBERG-BRAUN, GONZALEZ FAMILY ATTORNEY: We have to choose between Elian Gonzalez's very valuable appellate rights and a winning brief versus picking Elian up and taking him away to Cuba, which we all know will obliterate his appellate rights and the United States doesn't have the power to ever get him back.</s>CANDIOTTI: The Justice Department's immediate reaction: the family has not complied. Beyond the disagreement over an expedited appeal, U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno failed to get a promise she wanted from the boy's great uncle, turn over Elian if you lose on appeal and fail to get a stay preventing the boy's return. Meantime, in Cuba, President Fidel Castro publicly criticized Elian's Florida relatives over their failure to give the boy up. In Castro's words: "They are capable of killing the boy before returning him safe and sound to his country." (on camera): Late Monday, the Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta added a new twist by setting its own expedited appeals schedule to begin filing briefs April 10th. The Justice Department must now decide whether to accept that schedule or carry out its threat to revoke Elian's parole Thursday. Susan Candiotti, CNN, Miami.
Lawyers For Elian Gonzalez's Miami Relatives and Justice Department Can't Agree on Speedy Appeals Process