Child Psychologist's Reunification Plan for Elian Gonzalez Involves 60-Day Transition.

News Editors

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 6, 2000

With the father of Elian Gonzalez arriving in the United States today, Robert R. Butterworth, Ph.D, a child psychologist who has been calling for unification with Elian Gonzalez and his father says that it would be cruel psychologically to not have a 60-day transition period between both families.

Butterworth says his plan of reunification looks at Elian's well being as the prime goal. "I may be politically unsophisticated to think that the parties involved would follow a blueprint such as mine, but if the best interest of the child is their prime concern, this is their opportunity to prove it," he said.

Butterworth's Reunification Plan:

-- Lazaro Gonzalez, Elian's great uncle, makes a public statement that he will
allow Elian and his father to live together in Washington and move out of the
Little Havana section of Miami, diffusing the heightened emotional and
political climate surrounding this case.

-- Elian's father makes a commitment to create an arrangement in which Elian
spends part of every day of this 60-day period with his cousin, Marisleysis
Gonzalez. It is crucial that Elian is not forced to be torn away from his
cousin with whom he has formed a maternal bond after the death of his mother.

-- All parties agree to a news blackout so that the media attention on Elian is
diffused.

Butterworth has been following this case since its inception. His most recent interviews include CNBC's "Geraldo," MSNBC's "Hardball" and ongoing commentary on MSNBC NEWS from Miami and Los Angeles.