Cheers And Tears In Miami Over Elian

The crowd outside the Little Havana home of Elian Gonzalez erupted into cheers of "Justice!" on Tuesday after an Atlanta federal appeals court ruled the 6-year-old boy cannot be sent back to Cuba with his father for now.

Justice Department attorneys had wanted the court to order Elian's great-uncle Lazaro to surrender the boy and clear the way for a reunion with his Cuban father.

A small crowd of supporters of the Miami relatives, who have been backed in their cause to keep Elian "free" by many of the city's fiercely anti-communist Cuban exiles, reacted jubilantly to the news from Atlanta, waving flags and making "V" for victory signs outside the house in Little Havana.

CBS News Correspondent Lou Miliano reports there have been tears and cheers outside the home on Tuesday -- but nothing yet to preclude the boy from being removed. And that still concerns these protesters greatly.

That's because it was not clear if the ruling would stop the U.S. government from forcefully removing Elian from the Little Havana home to reunite him with his father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, who has been in Washington for the last two weeks waiting to take custody of his son.

As soon as the news came from Atlanta, the crowd broke into song, an English and Spanish version of Battle Hymn of the Republic. A couple of dozen women dressed in black joined hands in front of the house for a prayer circle.

"We're delighted," said a lawyer for the Miami relatives, Jose Garcia-Pedrosa. "Had the boy been taken out of the country and we had won the appeal, what would we have won? He would not have come back from Cuba. This preserves our right to appeal."

One excited demonstrator, Enrique Fernandez, said, "This is not about the father. Anyone who wants that child returned to his father deserves to have his liberty trampled on and thrown out the window,"

Elian's 21-year-old cousin Marislysis -- who has become the boy's surrogate mother -- danced with the boy in the yard and swung him around in circles by his arms after the decision.

For Miami Cubans, Elian has become a symbol of their struggle against Cuba's veteran leader, Fidel Castro, and to return him to the island would be to hand him over to their nemesis.

Castro, in turn, has made the cause of getting Elian back a patriotic crusade.