As the legal battle over the fate of Elian Gonzalez intensifies, the Attorney General, Ms Janet Reno, insisted that "a show of force" was necessary to take the boy from his Miami relatives.
Ms Reno said that people outside the home where Elian was staying "tried to throw ropes around the agents as they came up to the house". One agent, Ms Betty Mills, was grabbed as she carried Elian to a waiting van. "She, I am told, almost went down," Ms Reno said at her weekly press briefing.
She said that the relatives gave officials no choice as they kept moving "the goalpost" in the negotiations for a peaceful transfer of Elian to his father, Juan Miguel.
Elian has now been joined by a number of his classmates from Cuba and their parents. They have travelled to the secluded Wye River plantation in eastern Maryland where Elian, his father, step-mother and step-brother have been living since they left Andrews Airforce Base on Tuesday.
Cuba wants to send doctors and more friends to help Elian prepare for his return. President Fidel Castro has said it is essential to begin immediately the boy's "rehabilitation" process.
"The essential thing is to save the boy both mentally and physically," he told reporters.
President Castro has irritated the US by saying that if his agents had raided a house to seize Elian they would have gone unarmed. But he did not criticise the US operation. He also said it was a mistake to allow photographs of the raid as it could have been foreseen that they could be used in "a war of images".
In Washington, a State Department official called Dr Castro's actions "deplorable" and said that the US would continue in its efforts to isolate Cuba. Assistant Secretary of State Mr Peter Romero accused Dr Castro of trying to create a "diplomatic-political clash" with the US. "He manipulated this for complete domestic purposes," the official said.
Meanwhile, a government-appointed psychiatrist who examined Elian this week said that he and his father "appear to enjoy a rich, varied relationship" but that a visit by their Miami relatives "would not be advisable in their current angry state".
Referring to Elian's Miami cousin, Marisleysis, who looked after him and has been demanding to see him, Dr Paulina Kernberg has said in an affidavit to the appeals court hearing the asylum petition case that the cousin "may be an idealised love - rather than a maternal - figure".
"His feelings for Marisleysis are similar to the romantic feelings of a schoolboy for his teacher or a wished-for girlfriend."
A lawyer for Elian's father has now asked the appeals court to rule that the father is the sole voice for his son and not the Miami relatives who are appealing against a lower court decision that Elian cannot seek political asylum.
If the court decides that only the father can speak for Elian, this would mean that the asylum petition would be dropped and that Elian and his father could return to Cuba. The appeals court will hear oral evidence on May 11th, but could take weeks to hand down a decision.
The cost to the US government of Elian's stay in the country since he was rescued from the sea last November 25th now totals $578,000. This covers legal costs, mediators and counselling as well as the expenses of federal agents involved in the raid on the Miami house.