It took five months for the custody battle over Elian Gonzalez to build to a tense standoff. It took federal agents less than three minutes to end it.

In a cleanly executed predawn raid that caught Elian's Miami relatives off guard, armed and helmeted U.S. Border Patrol officers pushed aside a handful of demonstrators to batter in the door of their Little Havana home. At gunpoint, they took the boy from the grip of his Thanksgiving Day rescuer, fisherman Donato Dalrymple.

"We're taking you to see your papa," a Spanish-speaking female agent, Betty Mills, told the terrified boy as she carried him out of the house to a government van.

Before most of Miami awoke Saturday to what had occurred, Elian had been reunited with his father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington, D.C.

Gonzalez, who asked U.S. officials for five minutes alone with his son, boarded the airplane that brought Elian from Homestead Air Reserve Base. He emerged carrying the boy, who held his father in a bear hug, arms and legs wrapped tightly around him, Immigration and Naturalization Service officials said.

The government said Elian, his father, stepmother and half-brother would spend "a couple of days" at base housing to allow them time together in private.

As stunning images from the raid were almost instantly and repeatedly broadcast on TV here and across the world, angry protesters began roaming Miami's Flagler Street corridor, upsetting trash bins in the street and setting tires and debris afire at scores of locations.

Riot-clad police showed little tolerance for the disruptions, gassing those who defied orders to clear out, and arresting more than 300 people by sunrise Sunday. Three officers were injured when a demonstrator attacked them with a bat.

By late afternoon, the protests had dwindled to sporadic outbursts. At an evening news conference, Miami Mayor Joe Carollo and Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas urged calm. Cuban exile leaders called for a general strike on Tuesday.

CLINTON'S SUPPORT

In Washington, President Clinton expressed firm support for U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno's decision to send the agents into the house.

"I believed that it was the right thing to do," the president told reporters outside the White House. "I hope that with time and support, Elian and his father will have the opportunity to be a strong family again."

In Cuba, President Fidel Castro vowed not to use Elian as "a trophy" and pledged "no celebrations, nothing" when he returns to Cuba.

The reunion, however, does not put an end to the Miami relatives' efforts to keep Elian in the United States. A federal appeals court in Atlanta has set a hearing for May 11 and ordered the boy to stay in the country until it rules on a pending appeal by the relatives.

The relatives want to force the government to give Elian an asylum hearing, but the chances of that occurring would seem in doubt with the child back in his father's custody.

Elian's relatives, looking shellshocked and exhausted hours after the 5:15 a.m. raid, boarded a midday flight to Washington, where they hoped to be allowed to see Elian. The family showed up at the military base gate at 6:45 p.m. in two vans. They were turned away. Elian's father said "no, for now,'' an INS official said.

HOUSE READY

However, the official said, an adjacent house at the base is ready if the father agrees to a visit from his relatives.

The attorney general ordered the boy's removal by force after all-night negotiations mediated by local civic leaders failed to resolve the central issue in the impasse -- how the Miami relatives would turn over Elian to his father, who two weeks ago flew to Washington from Cuba to await a promised reunification.

The raid was a scenario federal officials had for weeks gone to great lengths to avoid, a posture that brought Reno criticism for perceived inaction.

But it was the end that seemed more likely once Elian's great-uncle Lazaro Gonzalez defied a direct government order to surrender the boy.

Two indelible and sharply contrasting images will forever define the morning's dramatic and dizzying events:

An Associated Press photo of a helmeted Border Patrol officer leveling a submachine gun while a frightened-looking Elian and Dalrymple attempt to squeeze into a bedroom closet.

And -- about six hours later -- another photo of a smiling Elian in the arms of his father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez. The amateur photo was released by Gonzalez's attorney, Gregory Craig, who said Elian showed little sign of trauma and acted happy to see his dad and family.

An INS official said Mills, the agent who escorted Elian from Miami to Andrews, described Elian as "happily playing on the floor of the house with the toys that we provided."

PROTESTERS AT BASE

About 50 protesters were gathered at the gates of the base with Cuban and American flags. Only two supported the government's action.

The raid and the images from it now seem likely to be dissected and debated for months to come.

Many Americans sighed with relief that the long siege, which dominated the news for weeks, was finally over. Others, even some who supported the boy's reunification with his father, expressed shock at the government's show of force.

In Miami-Dade County, the raid prompted cries of outrage among Cuban Americans, the relatives and supporters, who called the use of force excessive.

As soon as demonstrators outside the relatives' house realized that Elian had been carried away they began throwing rocks, bottles and debris at the retreating government caravan. Federal agents tear-gassed them. Some huddled together sobbing, while others shouted insults at police, Reno and Clinton.

Throughout the morning, Elian's cousin, Marisleysis Gonzalez, who regarded herself as the boy's surrogate mother, wept through interview after interview, denouncing government officials as "dogs" in a hoarse voice.

MEDIATORS' EFFORT

The relatives and a group of mediators who tried to forge a last-minute compromise for a peaceful hand-over, including University of Miami President Edward T. Foote II, said they felt betrayed by Reno. They said they believed they were close to an agreement, with prominent Miami lawyer Aaron Podhurst on the phone with Reno when the raid occurred.

"As those conversations were ongoing, the raid took place,'' said Rene Murai, a lawyer and member of the Mesa Redonda group, two of whose members were acting as mediators in the negotiations. "Our members were operating in good faith and all of a sudden the raid took place in the midst of these negotiations."

Reno, however, was unequivocal: The relatives kept "moving the goal posts" each time an agreement seemed near, and she and her advisors reluctantly concluded around 4 a.m. that further negotiation would be fruitless.

"This has been a very emotional case for everyone involved," Reno said. "The most important thing is that Elian is safe and that no one was seriously hurt.''

It was expected that Juan Miguel Gonzalez, his wife and 6-month-old baby would move out of the home of a Cuban diplomat where they have been living since arriving in Washington. One possible location is the Wye Plantation in Maryland.

"Let us give him and his father the space, the calm, the moral support they need to reconnect and reaffirm their bond between father and son," Reno said.

INITIAL PROMISE

Federal officials had initially promised no surprise assaults on the Little Havana family if they had to pick up Elian.

But Reno said the covert operation, and the use of heavy arms in the raid, became necessary given Lazaro Gonzalez's defiant attitude, and intelligence reports of weapons in the Miami relatives' house and in nearby homes.

On Thursday night, Marisleysis, according to a Justice Department official, told a member of the agency's Community Relations Service: "You think we just have cameras in the house? If people try to come in, they could be hurt."

Though relatives and supporters of the family complained that agents were rough and used abusive language, Reno cited the fact that no one was hurt as evidence the raid was appropriately carried out.

She indicated that the agent photographed confronting Dalrymple in the closet with Elian had his gun "pointed to the side" and his "finger was not on the trigger."

Experts who analyzed the photo confirmed Reno's description, and said the rifle's safety was engaged, meaning the weapon could not have been fired.

Herald staff writers Sandra Marquez Garcia and Carol Rosenberg, Herald writers Jasmine Kripalani, Mireidy Fernandez and Diana Marrero, and Herald wire services contributed to this report.