Dad's neighbors in Cuba say he should raise Coral Gables girl

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Miami Herald

Dad's neighbors in Cuba say he should raise Coral Gables girl
Posted on Fri, Sep. 07, 2007
By MIAMI HERALD STAFF
[e-mail]

CABAIGUAN, Cuba -- At the end of a tree-lined dirt road and around the corner from a playground with a small Ferris wheel sits a modest single-story home with whitewashed walls and a polished cement floor.

The house is where Rafael Izquierdo -- the man battling for custody of his 4-year-old daughter in a Miami courtroom -- lives with his wife, sister and mother. It's where he says he has readied a room for his daughter's return, and where the little girl may grow up if Florida child-welfare lawyers fail to persuade a judge that Izquierdo is an unfit parent.
(snip)

''If the mother can't handle the child and here's the father -- who is decent, honest and hard-working -- this is where the child belongs,'' said a neighbor who knows Izquierdo from working with him in the fields. ``If it wasn't for politics, the child would be back here in two minutes.''
(snip)

''He used to come by all the time and bring things,'' said a woman who lived near the one-room house that Pérez shared with her children before taking them to the United States. ``Nobody can say he wasn't a good father.''
(snip)

Despite the differences in the two custody cases, back in Cabaiguán, neighbors said the core lessons of the Elián saga also apply now.

''Politics should never get in the way of family,'' one neighbor said. ``Blood ties are sacred.''




Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking_news/story/229884.html

[Mika]

1. The child should live in the best country in the world..

.. where if one loses one's job you'll be outta health care, outta your home. The best country in the world, where if one has a family illness one can be bankrupted and out on the street. The best country in the world, where if one just happens to be gay one can be legally fired just for being so in a majority of the land. Yes the child should live in the best country in the world, where millions of children are homeless and sleep in the streets, but there's plenty of money for nuclear weapons and generational warring. The best country in the world, where the rich get much richer and the poor get much poorer.

Damn the dad. He's evil. He's Cuban, a farmer and fisherman, and wants to live in his own country with his own kids and family, where universal health care and universal education will ensure that all children are healthy and educated, and where there are NO homeless children.

The Florida DCF knows best - with its wonderful track record, under repug administrations.

:sarcasm:

[Judi Lynn]

5. I was wondering why the mother was so distraught, so desperate to get to Houston to find work,

when we've known that Cuban immigrants are offered ALL KINDS of benefits the moment they arrive in the States. I kept thinking, "Well, how can this be, since the U.S. taxpayers are supporting her with food stamps, Section 8 housing, welfare, etc.?"

That really had me puzzled, until I read a report on one of the day's proceedings at the trial that she has explained that she started getting really bad treatment from her co-workers in Miami when they learned she wished her daughter could go back to Cuba to live with her dad. You may remember she made a big deal of this rough behavior from co-workers during the early days of the trial, as if it devastated her.

Then, I suddenly read her GOVERNMENT SUPPORT had been cut out from under her. Well, well, well. How do you think that may have happened? Views unpopular with the rabid power elite in Miami? (We have heard from groups like Human Rights Watch that freedom of speech has been a hard item to acquire there, in light of the fact they DON'T ALLOW people to disagree openly with them on their views of Cuba.) We do know that over the years, people have been KILLED for their moderate views of Cuba, and for expressing wishes of dialogue with the island, and bombed for just making statements that the reactionary violence should end.

You may recall this business with Cuban "exile" Congressman David Rivera:

A Miami Republican who prodded President Bush to get tougher on Fidel Castro is one-upping the president: He's proposing to strip food stamps and health insurance from those who travel to the island.

Dubbed the "Travel and Commerce with Terrorist Nations Act," a bill proposed by State Rep. David Rivera, R-Miami, would punish those who travel -- even legally -- to Cuba by cutting off access to Medicaid, food stamps and housing assistance for a year.

Rivera said the legislation is aimed at stopping recent arrivals who come to the United States, apply for benefits and then travel back to visit Cuba.
(snip)

http://barkbarkwoofwoof.blogspot.com/2004_08_01_barkbarkwoofwoof_archive.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So now you see they have learned they can attempt to get control of this spigot gushing U.S. taxpayers' money out to their fellow Cuban immigrants, can use it politically to get them to conform to the "group thought." I think it's more than possible that this is what happened to Mrs. Perez, which got her into such dire straights she fled from Miami to go to Houston to try to find work, couldn't find work there, then called the police to tell them to come get her kids, she couldn't support them any longer, and at least made the appearance of a suicide attempt to make people believe she was serious about it.

[pnwmom]

8. Nothing she says can be relied upon, as she's changed her testimony

numerous times and admitted in court that she has lied and "twisted" the facts to help the father in his case.

[Judi Lynn]

9. I'm discussing her financial support from the U.S. government, something which can be checked up on,

no matter WHAT the hell the mother says.

I'm discussing something a little more solid than the mother's changing story. It concerns the conditions which drove her to Houston, since she no longer receives the money the U.S. government gives to ALL OTHER CUBAN IMMIGRANTS.

This is not up for debate.

If she does NOT have the money the government gave her, there's a reason for that. If she HAD the money, she wouldn't have been destitute, and she would also have had a place to stay, since that is ALSO one of the benefits given under the Cuban Adjustment Act.

[pnwmom]

11. So you know for a fact exactly what her financial situation has been?

Where have you read that, other than in her testimony?

[Judi Lynn]

12. If it were not a provable fact, it would have already been revealed in court. Simple. n/t

[pnwmom]

13. I thought the court case was ongoing. n/t

[Judi Lynn]

14. What have I said to indicate I am unaware of this? n/t

[pnwmom]

15. self-delete

[Spangle]

22. If they can afford to travel, then

they don't need food stamps, etc.

I"m just saying.....

[pnwmom]

16. I don't care what country she lives in

if she could live with the brother she's loved all her life, and with the family she has bonded to since her father allowed her to come to the U.S. and her mother gave her up.

[pnwmom]

2. I guess her blood ties to her brother -- the only ever-present love in her life --

don't count for much.

[Mika]

3. Then the DCF shouldn't have allowed the adoption of the brother to go through.

But, the DCF owned the boy at that time and could do what they wanted to, no matter how politically expedient it appears to be. They set up this scenerio, as if these children were objects to be separated and sold to the highest bidders (the Cubas family, in this case).

No matter how politcally unfortunate it might be in Miami, parental rights are paramount, by natural law and by treaty.

If the Cubas family feels so badly about the separation, then they might consider moving to Cuba to keep these kids close together and each with their parents.


-

[pnwmom]

6. I think the well being of the child should be paramount,

in this case and in all other cases where an older child, who has bonded to a new family, is involved. Unfortunately, instead we prefer to treat children as possessions of their biological parents -- mere chattel.

[LisaL]

18. Rightly or wrongly, biological parents have rights.

In other similar cases, biological parents got custody. It shouldn't be different just because this guy is from Cuba.

[Mika]

19. Its the Fla DCF and the Cubas family treating the kids as chattel.

Kids and loving parents deserve to be together, and that has been agreed upon by treaty.

-

[tammywammy]

20. I think biological parental rights triumph

Unless they can prove that he's an unfit parent, the daughter should go to him. Regardless of the fact that her half-brother is staying in Florida.

[Mika]

23. The biological father is being treated like chattel. The DCF just requisitioned his child..

.. and is 'selling' her to the highest bidder, without his permission - as if he's worthless trash not to be considered as worthy (because he's Cuban and wants to live in Cuba w/his family, and in S florida that taints one as being unworthy trash). Because the repug run S Fla DCF knows best?

You talk of the child being treated like chattel, I agree. Morally, by natural law, by legal treaty, the child belongs with her loving direct family who wants to care for her, not with whom the politically motivated S Fla DCF decides.



-

[LisaL]

17. Oh come on.

She has biological ties with her father too. If the father is not an un-fit parent, and he didn't give up custody, why shouldn't the father raise her?

[Mika]

4. She is a Cuban girl (was born there) - NOT a Coral Gables girl!

Typical Miami Herald gusano propaganda! :mad:



-

[pnwmom]

7. She and her mother and brother all participated in

the immigration lottery and secured VISAs to become permanent residents. They are as much residents of the U.S. as any other permanent resident.

[Judi Lynn]

10. The MOTHER won the lottery. n/t

[Mika]

21. As if winning the lottery negates one's birth place. She is a Cuban girl, not a Coral Gables girl.

The Miami Herald is chock-full of gusano propaganda. If they don't comply with the RW exile stance then they will be subjected to an ugly boycott, as they have been in the past.

http://cuban-exile.com/doc_051-075/doc0063.html

His battle with The Miami Herald was so designed. When Mas fired the opening shot against the media flagship of the powerful Knight-Ridder corporate giant, it didn't come, as it appeared, from a fit of pique or spontaneous outrage. The outcome proved that.

Some Miamians – not all of them Mas supporters -- think the Herald got what it deserved. In the past, it has gotten obsequious in catering to its Cuban exile readers, a posture pressured by its declining readership. In fact, it's ironic that when publisher David Lawrence Jr. first arrived on the job, he early devoted an entire Sunday op-ed column to Jorge Mas. In handling the piece, Lawrence was so deferential to Mas the New Times weekly dubbed him "Doormat Dave." (Lawrence quoted Mas: "I am a man who easily falls in love with an ideal. I am an idealist. When I see an injustice being done, I am the first volunteer to step forward." Added Lawrence: "This is the Jorge Mas Canosa he believes too few of us know.")

What ostensibly led Mas to begin la battala de Herald was the newspaper's editorial opposing a congressional bill tightening the embargo on Cuba. That bill was floated by Mas himself and now, outrageously enough, here was Mas' hometown newspaper trying to sink it. It was a direct challenge to Mas' reputation in Washington.

Mas' initial barrage came over the Spanish-language radio stations which have long been his soapboxes. He denounced both The Miami Herald and its Spanish-language edition, El Nuevo Herald, as "tools of the Fidel Castro regime" and urged its two senior Cuban American executives to resign. "El Nuevo Herald manipulates information just like Granma ," he fumed. The Herald, he said, conducted a "continuous and systematic campaign against Cuban Americans, their institutions, values, ethics and ideals."

Publisher David Lawrence and Herald President Roberto Suarez (one of the executives Mas had asked to resign) issued a measured joint statement in reply calling the allegations "sad and painful and unfair."

From there, the firing and counter-firing escalated. Lawrence, congenitally the Mr. Rogers of newspaper publishers, kept toughening up, but he was no match for Mas. The Herald devoted a huge number of type inches to the battle, many of them to attacks on the newspaper written by Mas himself. The Herald was desperately trying to establish a civil "dialogue." It was a very gentlemanly way to fight and Mas took advantage of it. He wrote cool, biting but diplomatic essays detailing his viewpoint, then headed for the Cuban exile radio stations to shove it hot and heavy up Lawrence's rear end. The clearest indication of who was winning the battle came when Lawrence, after filling a half-page column with what he thought was a tough, firm stance, topped it with a banner headline: 'PLEASE MR. MAS, BE FAIR.' It had the sad sound of a big newspaper whining.

It got ugly from there. The Cuban American National Foundation sent letters to Herald advertisers to "raise awareness" of the "bias and half-truths that have appeared" in the newspaper. The Herald's sidewalk vending boxes were defaced and smeared with excrement. Lawrence received bomb and death threats. Mas publicly deplored such threats and said they had probably been made by Castro's agents seeking to discredit Cuban exiles. The backs of city buses bloomed with large display ads reading, on the routes through Latin neighborhoods, "YO NO CREO EN EL HERALD," and on other routes, "I DON'T BELIEVE THE MIAMI HERALD." For the first time in its 50-year history, the Inter American Press Association sent a team, at the Herald's urging, to investigate a press problem in the United States. (It found Mas' pro-Castro charges against the Herald "ludicrous.")

[Judi Lynn]

27. Oh, my God! This article is stupendous. I've never seen it before, but know

the author, Gaeton Fonzi, is an outstanding writer.

Please allow me to add the ending to that filthy attack on David Lawrence by the nasty little Cuban "exile" reactionary tumor, Jorge Mas Canosa, friend of U.S. Presidents, and self-appointed boss of the entire country, and imagined (by Mas) future President of the coming U.S. Republic of Cuba:

Mas set Lawrence up good. On his way into the crowded ballroom Mas stopped and announced to reporters that the Cuban American National Foundation was calling off its campaign against The Miami Herald and its sister Spanish-language paper El Nuevo Herald. "For the good of the community," he said. So everyone thought that the major event, following a few brief fund-raising spiels for the Easter Seal Society, would come off as planned, with both Mas and Lawrence saying nice things about each other, gentlemanly refraining from declarations of victory, shaking hands and living happily ever after. An Easter Seals coup for community unity.

Mas was first. Later he would say he misunderstood the format. He said he thought it was to be a mutual "roast," a humorous, verbal jabbing exhibition just for the entertainment of the crowd. Jab, hell, Mas started with kidney punches. He said Lawrence didn't realize what a major feud he was starting when he picked on the Cuban American community "Let's face it, Dave," he taunted, "you never expected it." He implied that Lawrence was a wimp, not enough of a man to put up a tough fight. He ridiculed the publisher's attempts during the dispute to deal directly with Miami's Cuban community. "And there you were, Dave, on Cuban television trying to speak Spanish and looking like a scared deer caught in a truck's headlights." He also noted that Lawrence's Spanish was so atrocious he might as well have used sign language.

This was a peace meet? Lawrence appeared numb but turned his gentlemanly cheek. When his turn came, he acted as if he hadn't been sitting there when Mas was pummeling him. He spoke only about how the Easter Seal Society had once helped his son, now a lawyer, to overcome a childhood disability. Then, when he was finished, Mas rose again and, magnanimous now, declared Lawrence a worthy adversary whom he personally respected. Lawrence appeared dazed as Mas walked over, shook his hand for the cameras and formally announced the end of the Cuban American National Foundation's battle with The Herald. Then, like a light slap of his glove and simply as a final reminder of who still called the shots, Mas added, "For the time being." And as he raised his arms in victory before turning to leave, the cavernous ballroom seemed to fill with the misty echoes of a far away chant that came floating across the waters of the Florida straits....
"HoooorrrrHey!"
(snip/)

It would truly make a gusano gag, Mika!



Thanks so much for adding this information.

[Midlodemocrat]

24. Keeping this girl away from her biological parents will result

in another Kimberly Mays tragedy. Let her go home.

[Mika]

25. Interesting. Link here

As usual.. Florida.

A completely different type of case. That was a switched-at-birth case involving a 14 year old in a custody case.

===

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[Judi Lynn]

26. Cuban dad questioned about sex life

Cuban dad questioned about sex life
Posted on Mon, Sep. 10, 2007
Cuban dad questioned about sex life
Posted on Mon, Sep. 10, 2007Digg del.icio.us AIM reprint print email
BY CAROL MARBIN MILLER
[e-mail]



JOHN VANBEEKUM / MIAMI HERALD STAFF
Rafael Izquierdo answers questions from Florida Department Children & Families attorney Jason Dimitris during the juvenile dependency hearing.

On the third day of his testimony, Rafael Izquierdo got grilled Monday on his sex life.

On the witness stand for more than 20 hours over three days, Izquierdo was asked Monday to name all the women with whom he had ever been ''intimate.'' A malanga and pig farmer from Cabaiguan in Central Cuba, Izquierdo is in a downtown Miami courtroom seeking custody of his 5-year-old daughter.

Opposing him is the Florida Department of Children & Families and the Guardian-ad-Litem Program in Miami. Attorneys for the agencies say Izquierdo is unfit to raise the girl because, among other things, he allowed her to emigrate to the United States with a mother he knew was emotionally unstable.
(snip)

During questioning by Shelby Tsai, an attorney with the law firm Hogan & Hartson who is representing the guardian program, Izquierdo was peppered with queries about the women with whom he married or had been intimate with in Cuba.

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/459/story/232981.html