The Clinton administration willingness to defy Miami's Cuban-American community in the case of Elian Gonzales was widely seen as a sign that the community had lost its political muscle. But the decision to stop recounting votes in Miami-Dade suggests that it's the Cuban Americans who are getting the last word. PNS correspondent Peter Dale Scott is author of Deep Politics and the Death of JFK and co-author of Cocaine Politics. Scott's website is http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~pdscott.

The Clinton administration's hard-nosed action in returning six-year-old Elian Gonzales to his family in Cuba was widely interpreted as a sign that Miami's Cuban American community was losing its political clout.

But in fact bitterness over that action may have cost Al Gore the presidency -- even though he broke with the administration over the decision to let Elian return home.

The Miami-Dade refusal to recount votes can certainly be seen as one more blow in the fight over Elian that supposedly ended last spring.

Miami Mayor Alex Penelas led the Cuban American revolt against the Justice Department last spring. Elections supervisor David Leahy of the Miami-Dade Canvassing Board, who voted to stop the recount, works for Mr. Penelas.

The Canvassing Board's two other members, Lawrence King and Myriam Lehr, who joined in the vote, are both elected county judges who must be sensitive to the opinions of their Cuban American electorate.

Both judges relied on Armando Gutierrez, a political consultant. Gutierrez, who was hired to run Judge King's campaign, became notorious as the pro bono spokesman for the Miami family of Elian Gonzales. (As a result, King's father -- federal judge James L. King -- recused himself from hearing the Elian Gonzales case.)

Gore campaign officials claim Penelas had promised, in a telephone call, to issue a statement calling for the recount to resume. Instead Mr. Penelas' statement said only that he could not affect the board's decisions.

Key Democrats now suggest the mayor double-crossed them. In the wake of rumors and accusations about the recount decision, the mayor released his phone records to show that he has recently made frequent calls to both key Democrats and key Republicans in Washington.

Before the Elian fiasco, Penelas had been proposed as a leading Democratic challenger for Florida governor, even as a possible running mate for Gore. Now one of the mayor's associates has said that Penelas is thinking seriously of running for Congress as a Republican.

Penelas has denied influencing the Canvassing Board as well as published reports that he is about to become a Republican. But his actions suggest he is unwilling to distance himself from militant Cuban organizers.

The crowds that menaced the Canvassing Board and roughed up a Democratic official had been summoned by Radio Mambi, one of Miami's most stridently anti-communist Cuban radio stations. Radio Mambi played a similar role mustering the crowds who attempted to prevent Elian Gonzales from being reunited with his father.

Two prominent figures in the tumultuous crowd calling for a stop to the counting were Republican members of Congress, Lincoln Diaz-Balart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. Both also supported last spring's boisterous protests over Elian.

Beyond the moves of individuals with respect to Elian and the recount is the culture of intrigue and violence that marks one segment of Miami's Cuban community. This can be traced back to the days when so many Cuban exile leaders in Florida (including Diaz-Balart's father) were involved in anti-Castro terrorist activities for the CIA.

Until his death in 1997, a main funder of such violence was CIA veteran Jorge Mas Canosa, founder and head of the politically influential Cuban American National Foundation, which runs Radio Mambi.

Before CANF, Mas Canosa had been involved in a terrorist plot to blow up a Cuban ship in the Mexican port of Veracruz. In 1985 Mas Canosa helped his ally in that plot, Luis Posada, escape from a Venezuelan prison, and relocate in El Salvador as part of a Contra supply operation directed by Oliver North and then Vice-President George Bush. (Seven years later, at a $1,000-a-plate fund-raising dinner, President Bush said, "I salute Jorge Mas.")

Since then Posada has been indicted or detained a number of times for a series of bombings and attacks on Castro's life, which he once said were financed by CANF officials. He was detained again on November 19 of this year in Panama, allegedly for plotting to kill Castro during a visit there.

When Elian Gonzales was returned to Cuba, The Los Angeles Times wrote that those who fought "the crusade to keep Elian in Miami have lost big, both politically and financially. Now, the road has been swept clear for other, more moderate groups to speak for Cuban exiles."

Others predicted, however, that the real loser would be Al Gore. They thought Gore's break with the Administration on the issue would not influence Republican Cuban voters, but could well diminish his popularity with the mainstream.