Cuban dad breaks down in custody case (American trial)

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Miami Herald

Cuban dad breaks down in custody case
Posted on Tue, Sep. 11, 2007

BY CAROL MARBIN MILLER
[e-mail]



JON VANBEEKUM / MIAMI HERALD STAFF
Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Jeri B. Cohen cautions Rafael Izquierdo as he testifies during the juvenile dependency hearing on his custody bid for his daughter Tuesday.

Rafael Izquierdo, the Cuban farmer at the center of an international custody dispute over a 5-year-old girl, left the witness stand Tuesday morning after about 25 hours of testimony -- but not before rendering a tearful plea to take his daughter home.

Under an emotional interrogation by Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Jeri B. Cohen, who is presiding over the trial, the Cuban father broke down in tears, wiping his face with a blue handkerchief and hanging his head in his hands.

The drama began when Cohen accused the father of offering testimony she found untruthful. She said the father's ''lies'' were not enough to strip him of custody of his daughter, but his testimony did bother her.

''Sir, I have to tell you, I've found a lot of your testimony evasive and dishonest. I've watched you, and I've heard you,'' Cohen said. ``It doesn't mean you are a bad guy. It doesn't mean I don't believe other parts of your testimony. It doesn't mean you don't love {your daughter}.



Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/459/story/233564.html

---

On edit, adding photos, due to my belief this man should have NEVER been put through this ordeal, and it would NEVER have happened had it not been for the fact our right-wing politicians have turned over our national Cuban policy to the very people Cubans overthrew in their hard fought revolution.

[Judi Lynn]

1. Cuban dad questioned about sex life (yesterday in court)

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

[redqueen]

2. I don't get it...

Why fight so hard to keep the girl from her dad?

This is shameful.

[pnwmom]

4. The girl has never lived with her father, who allowed her to

emigrate to the United States with the mother -- even though the girl's older brother had told him and other relatives that the mother was abusive.

Since the mother gave up custody, the girl has bonded with another family, who has already adopted her older brother. Her biological father is a virtual stranger to her, whom (until the custody fight began) she hadn't even had a visit with since she was a toddler.

Both the biological parents have been caught in numerous lies to the court, and the mother has also admitted to "twisting" her testimony in order to help the father.

The situation is vastly more complicated than some people here would have you think.

[redqueen]

7. I tend to lean more towards the views expressed in post #3. n/t

[Pithlet]

22. So do I.

If there is no evidence a parent is abusive or unfit, then they shouldn't be barred from their children. It isn't right. It's his daughter. There's no evidence he's unfit and he's never surrendered his parental rights. He gets custody. End of story. That's how it should be.

[midlife_mo_Jo]

12. Thank you.

This case is much more complicated than appears.

I was in favor of Elian returning home to his father because I think parental rights are borderless.

At the same time, this situation is a bit more complicated, and it just might be in the best interest of the little girl to stay with her brother in this new family.

As a mom to bio and adopted children, I hate that some people act like biology is all that matters. This biological father does not have a relationship with this child, and it doesn't seem that he ever really wanted one.

This is just a big publicity stunt for BOTH countries, and I hope the little girl's best interest prevails. If she is forced to go back to Cuba, an entire family here - including her biological brother - will be traumatized.

[Judi Lynn]

15. The Miami Herald sent a reporter into Cuba who interviewed neighbors

who lived next to the mother.

They told the reporter the father used to go to the house even though he was no longer married to the mother, and he repeatedly took food supplies to them on a regular basis.

The reporter indicates the father's neighbors, as well, hope he will be able to raise his daughter.

The Miami Herald reporter undoubtedly would have loved to bring back stories which would have appealed to the Miami extremists, considering all the damage they did to the original Miami Herald publisher, David Lawrence, prior to his fleeing Miami altogether, after a #### storm, bomb threats, and an organized movement which destroyed the paper vending machines, smearing them with feces went on all over town. All that because the Miami "exile" leader, Jorge Mas Canosa was angry that the Herald DARED to print something he didn't approve.

[MisterP]

76. can I have a link to that Herald piece you mentioned? I've only started following this story n/t

[Judi Lynn]

79. Here it is: Dad's neighbors in Cuba say he should raise Coral Gables girl

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.''
(snip/...)

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

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=2982636

On edit:

I just remembered: the child's mother has made reference to the father's bringing food to them, like fish, and things I don't remember, during the early part of her testimony days ago. It would be a lot harder for me to find any specific part of her testimony, as she was on the stand for five days. It all appeared in the Miami Herald in one way or another, and has been covered by local tv stations, and papers in other South Florida towns.

[pnwmom]

86. "Nobody can say he wasn't a good father" ??

And yet, someone has certainly implied that.

http://www.nbc6.net/news/14085816/detail.html

Courthouse observers said the state has found no smoking guns to declare the girl's father, Rafael Izquierdo, unfit because the Cuban government has not allowed them into the country.

"You did have an advantage," Judge Jerri Cohen said. "If you wanted to go in tomorrow and take some more testimony into Cuba, you could probably get a visa. They're not able to."

However, if state lawyers were allowed in, they may hear from the woman who raised the girl for the first year of her life.

In an exclusive NBC 6 and Telemundo 51 telephone interview, Ester Melendres said:
"He said he did not have time, that he was dedicated to fishing and to raising pigs, and that he didn't have time to take care of Elizabeth."

SNIP

[Mika]

95. I see you're peddling the same red herring on this thread.

Virulently anti Castro Telemundo 51 interviews aren't testimony.

One can listen to this "interview" here --> http://www.nbc6.net/download/2007/0910/14085156.mp3

The judge said the DCF "probably" couldn't get a visa from Cuba. Hmmmm.. The Fla DCF has never even sought testimony from anyone in Cuba. Yet another red herring put forth in a hypothetical by the judge (who faces election from an predominantly exile population in Miami), that the Miami media hungrily smeared around as truth.

The Cuban gov hasn't interfered in anyone's ability to travel to or from Cuba for any involved party in this case. (And they didn't interfere with any party in the Elian case either.) But the US gov has. The US state dept refused to grant the dad a travel visa so he could visit his child sooner, then when the custody issue came up the state dept refused again. Only at the pleading of the DCF would the US gov grant this farmer a travel visa to enter the USA legally.

More propaganda and Miami media lies. People outside of Miami, and unaware of the extent of the media pandering to the hard line exile diaspora, have no idea as to the level of lying and propaganda they will stoop to keep some semblance of ratings, and to avoid a boycott.

This whole hearing, and the reporting of it, is whacked. But, its in Miami, so, its all about some delusional "victory" against Fidel.

--

Also from the link you posted..

Izquierdo described how he went to the U.S. interest section in Havana where he attempted to have his daughter returned to him. However, he said, he never asked for a passport.

Why would Mr Izquierdo ask for a passport from the US Interest Section? He is Cuban. The US doesn't issue passports to foreigners.

But still, the Miami media peddles this crap.


-

[pnwmom]

98. The point is as relevant in this thread as it was in the other.

And you can cast aspersions on the caregiver or the media all you want, but you can do nothing to prove that the woman's statement was misreported, or that she was lying.

It is interesting how disturbing it is for some people here when people attempt to discuss the complexities of this case.

[Mika]

99. What is interesting that you fail to take Miami's politics into account

Your approach seems to be coming from a vacuum of background knowledge of Miami's politics and media which is filled with complexities and nuances that takes quite a while to understand - especially for non residents of S Florida.

While I might be sympathetic to your main point in this case (the emotional bond of the siblings), you seem to be missing my point. I am saying that the reporting on this case is framed within the background of Miami's exile politics. The same goes with my doubts about the judge. Both the media and the judge are subject to ratings/votes from the community. The same goes for the Fla DCF. They are not operating in a vacuum. They cannot afford to. The distortions and pandering are to gain ratings and secure jobs. One must be hard line anti Castro in order to gain and market share or votes in Miami. For the DCF, funding is dependent on this also, lest a Marco Rubio or some other hard line legislator (many of whom built their political careers on hard line anti Castro politics) might seek to cut DCF funding because they weren't anti Castro enough with their case presentation. Tainting this dad follows the same pattern as the Elian case, where Juan Miguel Gonzales was smeared with many of the same allegations, none of which proved true. There was also a political equation in the family court hearings in that case. The family court in both of these cases don't even consider jurisdiction - that isn't within their purview - and if the father doesn't participate in this hearing he won't have any standing in order to appeal. The 11th circuit court ruled on this aspect in the Elian case. No matter how "just" the decision might seem to one, jurisdiction still resides in Cuba. In both cases the legal biological father has the authority, responsibility, and right to make the decisions of their minor child. No matter how painful it might seem, a Miami family court has no right to unilaterally strip parents of their rights in international custody cases. A precedent setting ruling against parental rights has major implications in innumerable international custody cases that might result in countless loving parents losing their right to assert their parental rights. There is a bigger picture with many complexities that simply have to be considered - unless one is operating in a vacuum.

[Judi Lynn]

107. Mika, the judge admitted the political dimension of this case! Today's article from the Herald:

(Very timely! Saw this article just a few hours after seeing your excellent post.)

Judge again tosses key evidence in Cuba child-custody case
For the second time in an international custody dispute spanning the Florida Straits, a Miami judge dismissed key elements of the state's case.
Posted on Thu, Sep. 13, 2007

~snip~
And, for the first time, the judge acknowledged the politics that overshadow the case.

''The United States is reluctant to repatriate a child to a communist country,'' Cohen said, adding that she believes state workers might have acted differently had her father lived anywhere but Cuba. ``We don't need to mince words here.''

She also suggested the state was being ''disingenuous'' by claiming DCF was not trying to strip Izquierdo of his right to raise the little girl. DCF has said it doesn't want to terminate Izquierdo's parental rights but simply to have the foster family maintain guardianship over her.

The judge said that given the state of relations between the United States and Cuba, the father was unlikely to see his daughter again if he returns to Cuba without her.

''Just because you are asking for a permanent guardianship and not a {termination of parental rights} doesn't mean, in fact and in theory, that it is not equivalent to a termination,'' Cohen said. ``You're wrong if you think I don't know that.''

Cohen said in nearly 10 years of presiding over child-welfare cases she had never seen DCF attorneys request that a parent forever lose his or her right to raise a child unless the parent had failed, again and again, to meet the requirements of a courtordered parenting plan.
(snip/...)

http://www.miamiherald.com/457/story/235741.html

(Is there any way they could get a sane person to write their headlines at the Herald? My God! Talk about (((((spinning))))) a headline, to get the jump on the reader! God forbid he might come to a conclusion other than the one the Herald wants for their hardline readership's comfort.)

[Bacchus39]

110. the jurisdiction is in fact in a Florida court right now.

the judge will decide who gets custody of the child. the father or the foster parents.

How could Cuba have any jurisdiction on custody matters when 1) one of the claimants is a US citizen 2) the foster parents currently have custody (and Cuba has absolutely no jurisdiction over them 3) the father is in the US 4) the child is in the US???

a family court does have rights to unilaterally strip parents of their custody rights. that is one of the things family courts do, duh!!

[Mika]

114. Virtually all of the same circumstances of the Elian case.

As you should know, the family court doesn't rule on international jurisdiction, because it isn't within the family court's purview.

That issue will be determined by an appeal to a higher court (if the Fla family court rules in favor of the DCF's case, which doesn't appear likely at this time).

In the Elian case the family court ruled in favor of the custodial family's claim. The 11th circuit overturned the decision of the Miami judge and ruled exactly the opposite of what you are claiming.

Jurisdiction of the adoption/custody of Cuban child who's legal parent lives in Cuba, resides in Cuba. That's what superior courts have ruled, duh.



-

[lumberjack_jeff]

132. What is interesting to me is how many "complexities" arise...

when the person seeking custody of their child is male.

[lumberjack_jeff]

131. There's that famous family court presumption of innocence.

Judge Jerri is pretty convinced that surely there's someone out there who would say bad stuff about Rafael, if only the state lawyers weren't so severely constrained. After all, $160k isn't much to spend to assure that a dad can't get custody of his child.

[Judi Lynn]

5. Doesn't matter who the kid is, or the parent, as long as anyone is Cuban,

the Cuban extremists in Miami (or in New Jersey, etc.) are going after him/her tooth and claw. They demand to win EVERY situation involving a Cuban national.

They even have stood in line outside concerts with Cuban bands, like Los Van Van, and hurled D-Cell batteries, rocks, bottles, eggs, and sacks of excrement at people trying to get into the auditoriums. They call in bomb threats to buildings where Cuban musicians are going to appear, just to keep them from performing.

The Latin Grammy tv program producer had to move the program to Los Angeles the year the WTC was attacked, when the Miami crowd refused to accept a court order not to crowd around the entrance to the auditorium where Cuban musicians were expected to arrive, and they could psysically attack them.

The Human Rights Commission said Miami has a problem with the First Amendment, as people who voice an opinion different from theirs will be persecuted. The HRC didn't mention they have even been bombed for their opinions.

Bad, BAD problem.

[Judi Lynn]

6. The mother has told the court, and told people in Miami LONG ago, that she wants the child

to live with her father in Cuba.

The mother indicates she wants to go home to Cuba, herself.

[pnwmom]

8. The mother gave up custody of the girl,

and has also admitted to numerous lies before the Court.

[Judi Lynn]

9. The father has not relinquished custody, as you know. n/t

[pnwmom]

10. Obviously. That's why the case is in Court.

That doesn't mean he deserves custody or that the best interests of the child will be served by taking her away from the family she loves. But the father has a strong legal case -- since children are regarded as possessions by the legal system -- and I won't be surprised if he wins.

And I will view it as a tragedy from the child's point of view.

[midlife_mo_Jo]

14. So he hasn't signed a piece of paper

He also hasn't played a parental role to this child, either. If he was from this country, I certainly wouldn't give him custody! The child was brought here by her mother, and the father never tried to get her back. Too bad.

I sincerely hope this little girl gets to stay with her brother.

[Mika]

102. Good thing that you aren't a family court judge.

Basing such a decision on false assumptions, untruths, innuendo, and unproved accusations seems hardly judicious.

Although basing your decision so might qualify you for a judge position in Miami.


Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Rosa I. Rodriguez



Family spokesman worked for judge who ruled in Elian's favor

A spokesman for the relatives of Elian Gonzalez was paid $10,000 as a paid political consultant for the judge who awarded temporary custody of the 6-year-old boy to a great-uncle in defiance of an immigration ruling that the boy be returned to his father in Cuba.

Armando Gutierrez, who runs a public relations firm, said Tuesday that he was paid $10,000 by Miami-Dade County Circuit Judge Rosa Rodriguez during her 1998 election campaign.

Rodriguez ruled Monday that Elian's Miami relatives had shown that the boy would face ''imminent and irreparable harm'' if he were returned to Cuba, including the ''loss of due process rights and harm to his physical and mental health and emotional well-being.''

Unless one lives in Miami and follows the trail of corruption to the hard line Cuban exile diaspora, one can have no idea of the level of it.


-

[Judi Lynn]

103. People in any other town would never be this brazen about their dirty politics!

Miami has been a madhouse for years, unfortunately!

Judge Rosa I. Rodriguez really hit the nail on the head, didn't she, when she pointed out the "imminent and irreparable harm" which would befall the little guy if he should be taken from the warm, nurturing environment in Miami?



How could he bear to leave this?





He must miss Miami so much!

[Bacchus39]

17. did the father even have custody?

in the US?

[pnwmom]

21. The father signed papers allowing the mother and her two children

to emigrate to the U.S.

I'm not sure what you mean by custody -- he's never had physical custody, but as the biological father he has never given up whatever legal custody that gives him.

He deserted the mother during her pregnancy, although now he claims that he feels "married" to her -- and also married to the woman he's living with as well as a third woman. He visited the girl at her mother's home while she was a baby and toddler in Cuba, but never brought the girl to his own home. Since the girl moved to Florida he's had virtually no contact with her until this case began.

[Bacchus39]

26. well now, thank you. Its good to hear more than one side of the story

so he wasn't even married to the mother I see. interesting indeed.

[pnwmom]

29. If you go to google "news" and type in "Izquierdo"

you can read about the case in much more detail.

I react to this case the same way I do every time an older child is faced with being taken away from a family she has bonded with -- it will be a tragedy no matter how it works out. I wish the psychological well-being of the child could be paramount, but it rarely is.

But many people here are determined to see this as a political issue, nothing more. They really don't care about the details, because to them the biological father owns the child -- it's that simple.

[midlife_mo_Jo]

33. Exactly!

I have strong feelings about parental rights; I believe they transcend borders.

I also believe a parent/child relationship is based on a lot more than some visits in the mother's home. Why not take the child to his home? Did he actually CLAIM this child as his own, allow this child to have a relationship with the rest of his family, or was she just part of the package that came with "visiting" her mother?

Sure, he seems charming, enough. The little girl's brother said he was nice. Unfortunately, he seems to have been traumatized by his mother's abuse.

[pnwmom]

40. That older brother has been the only constant in the little girl's life.

Losing him, if she is awarded to the father, will probably be the biggest tragedy.

[midlife_mo_Jo]

43. Some of my kids are adopted

Including a pair of siblings.

When I tell you that staying together was the ONLY thing that mattered to them, I kid you not. Getting parents and a family was a purely secondary issue that made it possible. In fact, their strong bond made it difficult to bond with them for quite a while.

I sincerely, sincerely hope these kids can stay together.

[pnwmom]

47. I completely understand.

Kids in normal families fight. When my friends complain about that, I tell them that's a good sign -- at least the kids feel secure!

But kids raised in chaotic situations often hold onto each other for dear life.

[midlife_mo_Jo]

50. Totally get that!

My kids didn't start fighting until they were with us for around four years - and after lots of therapy. Now, we say the therapy is working - they fight, sometimes! haha

Sadly, I don' think anyone could say these little Cuban children's lives have been less chaotic than these two kids of mine.

I also imagine a lot of guilt on the brother's part if his little sister is forced to go back to Cuba. He will feel responsible, as if he didn't do enough. It's a very sad situation.

Frankly, I think if this had been a run of the mill custody case, the best interest of the child would have already prevailed. After the Elian fiasco, I think the judge will be afraid to rule in favor of keeping this little girl here.

[pnwmom]

60. I don't know. I've seen too many of these cases

where children have been ripped away from good, healthy homes like yours to be put back with the biological parents -- because DNA seems to trump everything else.

[midlife_mo_Jo]

67. Thanks.

And you're right. I guess I should have said that if the judge is inclined to rule that it's in the best interest of the child to stay with her brother, there's going to be a lot of pressure to rule otherwise.

[Mika]

39. Then your concern should be whith the Fla DCF.

If the primary concern is claimed to be separation of the children, then why did the DCF allow just the brother to be separated by allowing his adoption.

Why was the politically controversial Joe Cubas family chosen by the DCF? It is the S Fla DCF, along with the Cubas family, that have made this a political case.

[pnwmom]

41. I'm not aware that when they allowed the adoption of the brother

that they knew that the girl's father was going to dispute her custody. Do you have a link for that?

[Mika]

58. It is the DCF's responsibility to discover whether or not the dad's position on adoption.

Then, the US state dept refused the dad a visitation visa. The DCF even requested that he be given one. He contested the adoption. The DCF is fighting him for the child to be adopted by the high profile anti Castro Joe Cubas family.

[pnwmom]

61. So I guess the answer is no, you don't have a link?

[Mika]

68. I don't have a link to something that was never discovered at that time.

But it has been discovered now - the dad seeks custody of his child - would have done so (come to Miami) earlier if the US state dept would have granted him a travel visa.


-

[pnwmom]

72. But the problem is that in the meantime

the child -- who never lived with the father or even visited him in his own home -- has bonded with the foster parents.

It doesn't matter who decided that -- that is the child's reality.

[Billy Burnett]

100. Please post a link of expert testimony that the child has bonded with the Cubas family.

Simply because DCF and the Cubas family says so doesn't make it so. I do understand that the Cubas family have provided stability for the child but as far as the familial bond with them I haven't heard or read any testimony to that effect.

Thanks.


On edit: I read in another post of yours that the Cubas family was qualified as a foster family by the DCF.

Do you know when they applied to the DCF to be foster family?

Coincidently these kids were the first and only kids they have taken in.

[Mika]

105. The Cubas family is the SECOND CUSTODIAL FAMILY for these kids.

The posters here mewling on about the kids having bonded with the Cubas family don't seem to know that the Cubas' are the second custodial family to these kids. So much for getting the straight story from them.

Joe Cubas admits he got into custodial care just for these kids, not out of some humanitarian effort for any kids the DCF needed custodial family for, but for these kids only.

This places even more into question, just why did the DCF decide to take the kids out of the first custodial home and move them to a second (that just happens to be the politically motivated powerbroker Joe Cubas & family).

These admissions and some other contradictions by Joe Cubas can be heard in this interview..

http://a1135.g.akamai.net/f/1135/18227/1h/cchannel.download.akamai.com/18227/podcast/MIAMI-FL/WINZ-AM/8-29-joe%20cubas.mp3



-

[Billy Burnett]

109. Thanks Mika. It is becoming clearer now.

Thanks for posting that Jim DeFede audio link. I find it interesting that with all of the reporting done on this case that news articles never mention the not so small detail of the Cubas family being the second custodial family.

Of interest is that the first custodial family were friends of the Cubas' family and that's how Joe Cubas came into contact with this case. The Cubas family hadn't applied to be a custodial family for the DCF until they decided that they wanted these particular children. Only after they met these kids had they applied for and been approved as a custodial family by the DCF.

I think that you do ask an important question regarding the transfer of these kids from the original custodial family and disrupting the children's stability, which is one of the main claimed concerns by the DCF, to such a high profile political person as Joe Cubas.



:hi:

[midlife_mo_Jo]

111. That's not uncommon in foster care circles

A number of people don't get licensed for foster care until they decide they want to adopt. Within adoption circles, this is quite common knowledge.

[Mika]

44. The US state dept wouldn't grant him a visa to visit.

They even delayed for months his visa to come to the US after the DCF requested the state dept to grant him one.

Then the DCF claims that he showed little interest because he didn't come sooner.

So, he had contacts with his daughter while she was in Cuba, but the US gov prevented him from doing so after the mother moved to the US. Now he is to blame for the US state dept's denial of his visitation visa.

The US state dept has made this case political, along with the Fla DCF, but now some here accuse those in support of natural & legal parental rights of turning this case into a political football?

:crazy:

[Judi Lynn]

106. That's priceless, Mika. He threw out a term which set off an alarm from several years ago.

Does anything come to mind when you hear the expression, "Parentified sibling?" Hmmmmm. Where have we heard anyone talking about a relative to a disputed custody child and some alleged bond with an older person which is ..... almost SACRED! Whoooooooo: "PaRENtified SIBling!" Whoooooooo!



"PaRENtified SIBling! Whoooooooooooo!"
Does it have any connection, one wonders, to the a claim made about the sainted SECOND COUSIN of Elián Gonzalez, Marisleysis Gonzalez, proudly and reverently announced by the CANF'ers crowding around the house of Lázaro Gonzalez, while they attempted to say it would emotionally CRIPPLE the kid if someone dared to take him away from his new mother, his 2nd cousin, Marisleysis? After all, he had known her a few months, and his own mother had drowned at sea, and he had B-O-N-D-E-D with her! Oh, please.

It was hilarious, and repetitive when they hauled out an "exile" child psychologist who backed up every preposterous thing they had been saying from the first.


What a strange, strange place. It could use a good airing out by now. It's starting to close in on them. They're repeating themselves and don't even know it.

[midlife_mo_Jo]

113. Bull!

A cousin doesn't compare to a sibling who has been the only stablizing force in a child's life.

[Judi Lynn]

11. It should not be covered up that although the U.S. Government ALWAYS

extends benefits of food stamps, Section 8 housing, medical treatment, welfare, etc., etc. to Cubans arriving in this country, once they make it here without being caught first, as it's part of the political design to attract Cubans to come here, and these benefits are NEVER offered to anyone else from any other country, even when their lives are threatened, as in Haiti, and during the Contra wars, yet suddenly, from out of nowhere, they pulled the carpet out from under this woman when she started telling her co-workers in Miami that she would like her daughter to live back in Cuba with her father.

She had been left by her new husband, virtually at the airport, and found herself destitute, with NO access to any help from the U.S. government. She has said she didn't tell her relatives back in Cuba because they would never have believed her if she had tried to explain it.

No money, no home (she still has no money, no home), no prospects. She did the honorable, protective thing in calling the police and telling them she could no longer take care of them, before she made a symbolic gesture in slitting her wrists, and going to the hospital.

This is NOT the way a woman who simply choses to distance herself from her child would act. She was stranded, had nowhere to go, and asked the state to help her.

There are NO PAPERS she signed to turn over custody to ANY AGENCY. Period. She didn't do that. She needed someone to help her daughter.

Her ex-husband is the one who should have the care of his own daughter, just as the mother, herself, hopes and wishes.

[pnwmom]

18. Where is your evidence, other than her extremely unreliable testimony,

that her benefits were pulled when she started to speak about her daughter going to live with the father?

[Judi Lynn]

24. The evidence would be that she receives NO MONEY FROM THE GOVERNMENT.

It's not debatable.

Those records are accessible by anyone from the court system who looks for them.

You tried this before. It doesn't hold up.

[pnwmom]

31. If it isn't debatable, then show me. Where can I look this up?

Where is the link?

And where can I find out about the "usual" benefits that Cuban immigrants receive, and how long they are supposed to last?

[erpowers]

57. What I thought

That is what I thought concerning the woman and custody of her child. I have seen a number of people write in this post that the woman willingly gave up custody of her child; however, I had heard that after she cut her wrist the child was taken away from her by county or state officials. I thought it was the state that allowed the older son to be adopted, not the woman.

[Mika]

19. The mother never signed an adoption agreement.

The Fla DCF has taken ownership of the child, and is in the process of selling the child to the most politicaly expedient bidder. They have no right to treat a child as chattel. Especially when both biological parents want the child to live with her biological father in Cuba.

Just who the F does the Fl DCF think it is?

Disgusting to think that there are actually people who support the stealing of a person's child for political purposes.

[pnwmom]

23. The papers, if they existed, have been lost.

No one really knows if she signed an agreement or not. Her testimony is completely unreliable.

[Mika]

36. The Fla DCF have a record of lies also.

The DCF testimony is completely unreliable.

How on earth could they lose such a high profile document? If they cannot produce it, then it doesn't exist.

What I want to know is how did they pick Joe Cubas as the foster family, and then adoptive parent?

Political reek, as usual for Miami anti Castro politics.

[pnwmom]

42. I don't know who he is. Is there something about him

that would disqualify him as a foster parent?

[Bacchus39]

46. he is a wealthy Cuban-American

isn't that cause enough for disqualification?

[pnwmom]

49. Yeah, right.

We ought to be able to prosecute him for something.

:sarcasm:

[Mika]

52. The question was - why did the DCF pick him.

If you want to go off on a Cubaphobic tangent with the other DU Cubaphobes, then go ahead. But, one should educate oneself in S florida politics re: Cuba before engaging in such uninformed speculation.

-

[pnwmom]

59. Because they were licensed foster parents.

You haven't shown me that the DCF knew there was going to be a custody dispute when the girl was sent to live with them.

[Mika]

63. If they didn't know at that time, they know now.

Which makes it a legitimate question.. why are they continuing persecuting him?

One word = politics.

Its always about seeking some delusional "victory" over Fidel in S Florida. If it means stealing kids, then, so be it.


The battle against Castro using children started in 1960 with Operation Pedro Pan.

[pnwmom]

66. What you call "persecuting" him, I call

trying to protect the well-being of the child. In other words: doing their job.

[Mika]

69. Their job is to enforce the law.

Unfortunately, in Miami the law is mixed-in with Cubaphobic politics (so its not really law, its a facade).

Question him over his sexual history (as if that is a disqualifying factor in his being a competent parent) is persecution.





-

[pnwmom]

70. Their job is to protect children. The police are there to enforce the law. n/t

[Mika]

51. If you don't know who he is, then you have no idea of Miami politics.

Why would the Fla DCF pick Joe Cubas for this case, of all cases?

One word = politics.

{bold mine}

http://apse.dallasnews.com/contest/2000/writing/all.investigative.third1.html

Cubas fashions himself part Jerry Maguire, part Oliver North, a kind of agent/spy as well-versed in US foreign policy as he is the split-fingered fastball. Two years ago, George magazine named Cubas as one of the "20 most fascinating men in politics," a list that included President Clinton and United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan. Cubas denies speculation that he intends to run for office in South Florida, but he was among the many prominent Miamians who paid visits to Elian Gonzalez. Cubas dropped off a toy car for the 6-year-old boy.

Cubas's exploits have made him a household name not only in Miami but also in Cuba.

"Everyone in Cuba knows who Joe Cubas is," said pitcher Adrian Hernandez, who defected over New Year's but is not one of the agent's clients. In Havana, Pedro Cabrera, director of press and propaganda for the Cuban Sports Ministry, flatly described Cubas as"an enemy of the Cuban revolution. I wouldn't even describe him as a businessman; he's a flesh peddler of sports. " Cubas criticized newcomers to the defection business "who don't give a damn about the Cuban people."

"There's no question in my mind that people are getting involved now exclusively for the money, to make a quick buck," he said. "It's become a market."

The tricky Arrojo case

As successful as Cubas has become, he has engendered almost as much enmity inside American baseball as he has inside Cuba, in large part because of what some people perceive as underhanded business practices.

Out of the 21 defectors aided by Cubas, just a handful are still with him. Livan Hernandez dropped him in 1996, alleging that Cubas had tried to charge him a 25-percent commission, about 20 percent above the industry norm. Cubas has long denied the charge. He is currently fighting a federal lawsuit filed by a Cape Cod realtor, Tom Cronin, who alleged that Cubas reneged on a contract to pay him one-third of all commissions derived from the defection of El Duque Hernandez.

The case of pitcher Rolando Arrojo shows how the market created by Cubas can dissolve into a free-for-all.

Arrojo was perhaps the top pitcher in Cuba when he decided to defect before the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. He was 6 feet 4 inches, around 200 pounds, and threw more than 90 miles per hour.

The only catch was that he refused to defect unless his wife and two children could join him in the United States, according to Rene Guim, Cubas's former publicist, and Ramon Batista, who assisted the agent in several defections, including Arrojo's.

To satisfy that condition, Cubas and the pitcher's cousin, Miami auto mechanic Frank Triana, set out to find a smuggler to pick up Arrojo's family in Cuba by boat and deliver them to Miami, according to Guim and Batista. Arrojo, they said, would defect only after the smuggler had notified Cubas that the group had safely left Cuba.

Under US law, immigrant smuggling, and the conspiracy to smuggle immigrants into the country, are federal felonies. However, the practice is widespread in South Florida, where many Cubans have sought smugglers to reunite them with their relatives. The crime carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison per immigrant and/or a substantial fine but is rarely prosecuted except in cases of large smuggling rings.

As Cubas awaited the ship-to-shore call, Arrojo was on a pre-Olympic tour of the United States with the Cuban national team, according to Batista. The call finally came around 2 a.m., during a stop in Albany, Ga.

"We were sleeping in our clothes waiting for the call," recalled Batista. "Joe got it on his cellular. They told him, 'They're on their way.' "

Cubas, Batista, and Ignacio Fong, the agent's cousin, raced to the motel where the Cuban national team was staying. To avoid being detected, they parked beside a funeral home.

Batista then knocked on Arrojo's door. The pitcher, obviously terrified, hesitated, then dashed to Cubas's car, fleeing his team and, ultimately, his country.

Last month, Triana and his wife, Loida, settled a lawsuit charging that Cubas had underpaid Triana for his role in the defection. Triana could not be reached for comment. His lawyer, Philip J. Kantor, said Triana had signed an agreement with Cubas not to discuss the case.

Cubas confirmed that he had settled with Triana and said he also could not discuss the case. But he denied that the two had conspired to smuggle Arrojo's family out of Cuba. He added that most defectors are concerned about leaving their families behind.

"Every single player who has defected has an enormous amount of fear about what may happen to loved ones left behind," he said. "Fear is the one factor that holds them back."

Arrojo has been questioned by federal investigators, according to sources close to the pitcher. Joe Mellia, a spokesman for the US Border Patrol in Miami, said investigators from the agency's anti-smuggling unit are conducting an "open investigation into alien smuggling" involving Arrojo, whose mother, brother, and three other relatives arrived in Miami by boat in 1998, two years after the pitcher's defection. Mellia declined to comment further because the investigation is pending.

In an interview, Arrojo denied that his wife and children were smuggled out of Cuba.

"They left in a boat, on a raft, the same way that everyone else has left," Arrojo said. "They're rafters." He then cut off the interview.

The day after Arrojo's defection, Cubas staged a press conference at Victor's Cafe, a famous Cuban restaurant in Miami's Little Havana. Reporters were told that the pitcher's family was still in Cuba. The pitcher went so far as to maintain his deep anguish over leaving them behind.

"He was standing there crying," recalled Guim, who said he organized the press conference. "And his whole family was back at the house waiting for him."

Arrojo could have applied for immediate asylum under the Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966, which considers any Cuban who sets foot in the United States a political refugee. Instead, with the player's contract in mind, Cubas sent Arrojo on a 12-month odyssey that took the pitcher first to the Dominican Republic, then, after he could not obtain his residency there, to Costa Rica.

To enter Costa Rica, Batista said, Cubas provided Arrojo and three other players with papers showing that they were Puerto Rican, not Cuban, which would have required them to present additional documentation. He said the group entered Costa Rica by posing as Puerto Rican fishermen on their way to a fishing tournament.

When it finally came time to negotiate Arrojo's contract, it was clear that Cubas had not underestimated demand. Dozens of scouts representing 19 major league clubs descended on a tiny stadium in San Jose, the capital, to see Arrojo work out.

But Guim and Batista said the agent already had cut a secret $7 million deal with the Devil Rays.

"Everybody in his inner circle knew he had already cut a deal with Tampa Bay," said Guim. "The tryout was just a three-ring circus to make it look like a bidding war." Months before the Costa Rica tryout, Batista said Cubas met privately with Tampa Bay Devil Rays owner Vincent J. Naimoli and general manager Chuck LaMar inside an American Airlines lounge at the Santo Domingo airport. After the meeting, Batista said he drove Cubas and Arrojo back to their hotel. "Joe was explaining to Arrojo that he had a verbal agreement with Tampa Bay for $7 million," said Batista.

Within a few days, Batista said, Cubas asked him to pick up a fax at the administrative offices of the Plaza Naco hotel in Santo Domingo. "It was the agreement between Tampa Bay and himself and Rolando Arrojo," said Batista. He said he did not retain a copy of the agreement.

LaMar vigorously denied that the club had already cut a deal with Cubas. LaMar said the negotiations began only after he had traveled to Costa Rica to watch Arrojo pitch. "Why in the heck would I have gotten on the plane if we already had this deal cut?" said LaMar. "There's no way."

As an expansion club that had not played its first game, the Devil Rays, unlike other teams, could not offer Arrojo a major league contract, which would have placed him immediately on the 40-man roster. LaMar said the club tried to compensate by sweetening the offer financially and negotiated with Cubas until the last minute.

"We signed Rolando Arrojo within the rules of Major League Baseball," LaMar said. "And we were happy to have signed him. It was a big moment in our young life as a major league organization. He is still the finest pitcher there has ever been in this organization, our first All-Star."

Guim said that Cubas also told him on at least two occasions that an under-the-table payment worth several hundred thousand dollars was part of the deal.

"My first recollection of it was when Rollie was still in the Dominican Republic," said Guim. "He told me, 'The deal is already done. I'm going to do it with the Devil Rays because I'm getting money under the table.'

"It just kind of blew me away. Here's this guy, he's trying to project himself as being the savior of the Cuban players, and what an honor it is to help these guys reach their freedom, and all of a sudden he's talking about kickbacks. And I'm not talking about a couple of suits. I'm talking about big bucks."

Guim said Cubas repeated the claim on another occasion while the two were discussing business in front of the agent's house.

"He boasted about it, that he was going to make more money on this because of all the money under the table," said Guim.

Guim left Cubas in the fall of 1998, claiming the agent owed him hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid salary and expenses. Batista, who nearly came to blows with the agent at the Pan Am games last year, left Cubas approximately the same time, also charging that Cubas owed him hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Cubas described the allegations as"lowlife, lowdown comments done with the exclusive purpose to create defamatory remarks, the exclusive purpose to destroy people."

He vehemently denied he had taken a bribe from Tampa Bay and said his only compensation was"the standard agent's fee of 5 percent strictly from Arrojo's contract."

Cubas called Batista"a lowlife who has continuously turned on anyone who ever helped him."

He said he was surprised by the comments from Guim, his former publicist, whom he described "as a good human being and a great dad, who I always considered a good, true friend."

"But I'm glad he has taken that position, because it puts him and his company in a position of defamation, because that's a slanderous remark," said Cubas. "I think coming from a man as educated as Rene Guim, to take a cheap shot like that, it's slanderous, and ultimately as an adult he will have to pay the consequences."

LaMar also vehemently denied making any payments to Cubas.

Neither Guim nor Batista said he had ever seen evidence that Cubas received money from Tampa Bay.

However, Gordon Blakeley, the vice president of international scouting for the Yankees, said in an interview that Cubas approached him with a similar proposition while representing El Duque Hernandez in 1998, shortly after the pitcher's defection.

Blakeley, one of the top scouts in baseball, was eager to sign Hernandez, whom he had coveted for years while following the Cuban team on the international circuit. He followed Cubas all over Florida and the two were moving in an on agreement.

"He said, 'What do you think about paying me $500,000 to get this deal done?' " Blakeley recalled. "I said, 'We're not going to do that!' He said, 'Well, I could pay you 50 under the table, and nobody would ever know.'

"I mean, do you think I'm going to whore myself to him? For 50 grand? For $5 million I might. Shoot, if I'm going to rob a bank, I'm going to take a big wad. But, seriously, I've worked 21 years in this game. I've never taken a dime from anybody."

Asked if he had ever solicited money from the Yankees or any other major league club, Cubas replied: "Absolutely not."

[pnwmom]

64. No, and I don't care about the politics. Not a bit.

The child's emotional well-being should be the primary consideration, but of course it isn't, because under the legal system children are the possessions of their parents.

In my view, every time an older child is taken away from a family s/he has bonded with, in order to suit the selfish needs of the biological parents, it is a tragedy. And in this case the girl will also be losing her older brother, which will make it even a greater trauma for her.

I don't care that she is Cuban, or a U.S. permanent resident -- she is a child, whose well-being should be paramount. But it won't be, not under our legal system or any other country's that I know of.

[Judi Lynn]

48. What I've seen is creepy. Here's something from a Miami Herald cache:

Joe Cubas, the foster father, gained notoriety as a sports agent
Posted on Sun, Aug. 26, 2007

~snip~
Along the way, however, Cubas was beset by allegations from players and former partners that he ripped them off and coldly abandoned defectors whose professional prospects didn't pan out. The claims have been publicly aired for years. Cubas has denied them. Some of the most damaging allegations, including claims that Cubas solicited kickbacks from teams, appear in a 2001 book, The Duke of Havana, that quotes numerous former associates of the agents extensively and by name. Several contend that Cubas hired smugglers to get star Rolando Arrojo's family out of Cuba because the player would not otherwise agree to defect. The book says Cubas described the alleged scheme in a proposal for an unpublished memoir and boasted of it to friends.

Authors Steve Fainaru and Ray Sanchez say Cubas' career as an agent was characterized by ''double dealing and fiscal sleight of hand'' and ``blind greed.''

Cubas has not acknowledged any of the claims, which are unproved, nor has he ever been charged with anything. He prevailed in one federal lawsuit by a former associate who claimed that the agent bilked him out of his share of the commission for signing defector Orlando ''El Duque'' Hernandez -- one of Cubas' most famous clients -- with the Yankees.

But Cubas has apparently not worked as a sports agent since the major-league players association suspended his license in 2005; he says he's working in real estate now. According to published reports, Cubas was suspended after a 25-year-old defector who had signed a $2.8 million contract, Alay Soler, claimed that Cubas confiscated his immigration documents and refused to return them. Soler said Cubas was demanding a 15-percent commission, triple the standard -- an allegation made by other Cubas clients in the past, including former Florida Marlin Liván Hernández, El Duque's half-brother, whom the agent spirited out of a Mexican hotel in 1995.
(snip)

http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cache:uCmtO6wnHM0J:www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/cuba/story/215475.html+Joe+Cubas+notoriety&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I posted this earlier, and the Miami Herald already pulled it out of circulation. I remembered seeing it and got it back.

It must have been serious enough, considering whatever he did got him thrown out of the business! You can expect the Herald to help him whitewash it, for sure.

[Maat]

3. Retired social worker here.

This is baloney. How would I expect a pig farmer to understand modern mental health diagnoses and behavior, diagnostic procedures and their implications therein. What I'm saying is that the allegation (yes, that's what we call them - Dependency Court is technically a civil court) that he was non-protective (that's the bottom line) by allowing his daughter to travel to the United States with a mentally ill mother is VERY WEAK.

If there are no allegations that he abused, neglected, or abandoned his daughter (the mother having at least an equal right to custody, per the facts), then the child goes home with him!

Stop pushing YOUR cultural values on Izquierdo, Your Honor.

[kskiska]

13. Are any of these people U.S. citizens?

Why should a U.S. court decide whether these children should be taken from them? Both parents are going back to Cuba.

[Bacchus39]

16. because the child is in the US and the foster father is requesting custody

once custody is granted then whoever has it can take the child where they please.

[Mika]

27. That's not what the 11th circuit court (and the supreme court) though in the Elian case.

But then, the Cubaphobes of S Florida never let silly things like the law or international agreements get in the way. They'll put children through a meat grinder for any kind of delusional "victory" over Castro.



-

[Bacchus39]

28. what international agreement?

n/t

[Judi Lynn]

32. It would stand to reason he's referring to the (Jesse)Helms-Burton, and the related legislation

which has been called illegal in international law by other countries, and rammed through our own Congress by the Miami right-wing fascists regardless, demanding other companies in other countries back away from doing business in Cuba, and the conditions which prohibit their business, going into things like selling medical equipment if even one component was made or registered in the U.S., which has kept countless life-saving machines like dialysis machines, cancer treatment equipment, etc. from being sold to Cuba.

Canada, in reaction, passed a law which forbids their own citizens to comply with the Helms-Burton.

[Bacchus39]

34. no it does not stand to reason that this is about Helms-Burton

rather, I believe he or she is referring, erroneously, to the international treaty on child abduction which states that if one parent abducts a child and takes the child to another country, the country of origin has jurisdiction over custody matters. however, since this was NOT an abduction, the father gave permission for the mother to take him to the US, the treaty does not apply. or perhaps he/she would like to clarify

[Mika]

53. The Hague Convention on International Child Custody.

The mother supposedly relinquished custody.

That leaves the father as the sole legal parent. The child was born in Cuba. The only legal parent resides in Cuba. The jurisdiction resides in Cuba according to the treaty.

[Bacchus39]

77. wrong!! the Hague Convention applies to abduction. this was not an abduction

the case is being tried in a State court right now if you need even more proof on jurisdiction.

[pnwmom]

85. It's an interesting argument they're trying to make, isn't it?

The Court that all the parties have agreed to hear the case is in the midst of doing just that -- and we're all discussing it here -- and yet that Court has no jurisdiction.

:shrug:

[Mika]

101. Interesting denials also.

The biological father wants to care for his child, as does the biological mother.

The DCF has presented little evidence proving that he would be an unfit parent.

The US state dept denied the dad's visa to visit the child, and then when the adoption came up the state dept continued to deny him a travel visa to the US - until the DCF appealed for them to grant him one.

The Fla DCF has put the child up for adoption against the legal parents wishes. Plus, the Fla family court has no legal jurisdiction in this case (just as they didn't in the Elian case).

You don't think that this is an attempt at abduction?



-

[Bacchus39]

104. call his lawyer about your abduction theory

and how that "reasoning" triggers the international treaty.

[pnwmom]

30. There was a jurisdictional dispute in that case. There is no such dispute

in this case. All the parties have agreed to let this Court decide the matter.

[Mika]

55. The jurisdiction in the Elian case was not even considered in Miami family courts.

That is just the reason the 11th Circuit court ruled as it did in that case, the Miami family court ruling was overturned (and the judge was reprimanded for her political dealing with parties involved). The supreme court agreed. Jurisdiction resides in Cuba.

[pnwmom]

65. In this case all the parties have agreed to accept jurisdiction here. n/t

[Judi Lynn]

20. Both parents are Cuban nationals. Both parents want to return to Cuba.

The mother wants the father to retain custody of his own daughter.

[pnwmom]

25. The parents have agreed to have this decided by a U.S. Court.

That's why.

[Mika]

56. The dad has no choice as long as the DCF case continues.

He is here to get his daughter. Just because a polically motivated S Fla DCF has imposed itself, and the judge is too politically fearful to rule in favor of jurisdictional law doesn't make it a legitimate case.

That was the final ruling in the Elian case, agreed to by the supreme court.
That meant that all of the legal tussling done in Miami for political gain was rendered legally meaningless.

Just as it is in this case. It will get kicked up to the appeals court, where I suspect the same ruling will be made.


This is going on in Miami. Political careers are being forged in this fraudulent case, just as they were in the Elian case.



-

[pnwmom]

71. The father did have a choice. He could have objected to the case

being decided in this Court, but he agreed to it.

[ProudDad]

83. That's it!!

How the hell is a Cuban national going to object to a case ginned up by the anti-Castro Miami cuban mafia???

What is your problem with this father gaining custody of his child?

I SERIOUSLY doubt you know enough about the child or the father to make any determination as to the child's "needs" so why are you so interested in depriving him of his daughter?

Couldn't be an anti-Cuba thing, could it?

[pnwmom]

84. I couldn't care less about the Cuba/US aspects of this case.

I'm reacting to this case the same way I do every time a case arises where biological parents want to remove an older child from a home where s/he has closely bonded with new parents. All these cases are tragic, IMO.

And I'm not claiming to know what the best solution would be, except that it shouldn't be decided for political reasons, or on the basis of a biological parent's legal "ownership" of a child -- though I assume that is what it will come down to.

But to answer your question, the father agreed to let this Court decide the matter -- he didn't have to sign the document.

I think this case has never been the simple, cut-and-dried case many people here wish it to be -- at least, not if the child's emotional well-being is taken into account. The biological father is a virtual stranger to her. She has been with the foster parents since she was three, and they have already adopted her older brother -- the only constant in her life. She never lived with Izquierdo, the biological father, even when she lived in Cuba. (He left her mother while she was pregnant.) While she lived in Cuba, she never even visited him at his home, where he lives with another woman and their child. According to the woman who was the girl's then-caregiver, Izquierdo said he was too busy to spend time with his daughter. He did nothing when the brother told him about the girl's abuse, and he consented to the mother emigrating with the girl to the U.S. After the mother attempted suicide and gave up custody, Izquierdo waited 7 months to make arrangements to see the girl. And only when he learned that another couple loved and wanted her did he suddenly decide he wanted her, too.

What a father.

But I'm sure he'll win custody, because DNA appears to be everything. That, and politics.

[ProudDad]

87. What was his option?

"he didn't have to sign the document" <--- then what?

No Visa, no chance to get his daughter...

What was he supposed to do, sit in Cuba and pray that he'd get justice from the Satan of the North and out of the goodness of their cold-hard-miami-cuban hearts send her to him.?

"I think this case has never been the simple, cut-and-dried case many people here wish it to be -- at least, not if the child's emotional well-being is taken into account. The biological father is a virtual stranger to her. She has been with the foster parents since she was three, and they have already adopted her older brother -- the only constant in her life. She never lived with Izquierdo, the biological father, even when she lived in Cuba. (He left her mother while she was pregnant.) While she lived in Cuba, she never even visited him at his home, where he lives with another woman and their child. According to the woman who was the girl's then-caregiver, Izquierdo said he was too busy to spend time with his daughter. He did nothing when the brother told him about the girl's abuse, and he consented to the mother emigrating with the girl to the U.S. After the mother attempted suicide and gave up custody, Izquierdo waited 7 months to make arrangements to see the girl. And only when he learned that another couple loved and wanted her did he suddenly decide he wanted her, too."

IRRELEVANT -- He's Her Father, he's a decent person and he wants his daughter. He's done nothing to deserve this shit - other than being a Cuban citizen...

That's the way it works.

This is just one more lesson in how inappropriate and screwed up the criminal-injustice and court system is!

[pnwmom]

89. It's only "irrelevant" because in your mind DNA trumps everything.

But if the girl's well being was paramount, it would all be relevant.

[ProudDad]

91. Don't pull that sexist crap on me, please...

I'm was a single-parent FATHER...

If you wanna' pull this gender crap, I know what this man's going through better than you ever could...

As for the child, I truly, seriously, completely believe she'd be better off in Cuba with her father...

She'll have forgotten all about that "foster family" once she returns to Cuba. It's a MUCH better place for children anyway. Children are loved and nurtured and cherished there by the whole society much more than they are here.

She'd have MANY MORE educational opportunities in Cuba.

She wouldn't have to grow up and be part of the war machine of the Empire or be chewed up in the maw of the consuming machine.

She'd be MUCH better off in Cuba..

[pnwmom]

97. I think you're over-identifying with the father to the point

of forgetting that the child is a SEPARATE person with her own needs. She has bonded to the new family over the last two years and it will be a tremendous loss to her if she is forced to leave them -- and to leave the older brother who has been the only constant in her life. I know a woman who lost a parent at age 5 -- it's not something you forget. It leaves scars.

And you're also viewing the child through the prism of your political views, since you think that any child would be better off growing up in Cuba than here. I think that the country where she lives is the least important factor involved.

[FreakinDJ]

35. Easier to be like Mary Winkler - Shoot first Run off with children

I just couldn't imagine a woman ever being questioned about her infidelity in a custody case.

If the roles were reversed who many women would we have here at DU screaming the injustice of a Woman's ability to be a mother dependent on her Fidelity

Pure Bullshit

[Judi Lynn]

37. Have to step away, evening plans. Will check back. n/t

[Bacchus39]

38. thanks for bringing this to our attention

n/t

[David__77]

74. Oh come now, no need to that...

The sarcasm is non-productive.

[Bacchus39]

45. here is one of the "inconsistencies" the judge apparently noted

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation/AP/story/228328.html

MIAMI -- The Cuban father of a young girl at the center of an international custody dispute acknowledged Thursday that he did not write a key letter that has bolstered his efforts to get his daughter back from her American foster parents.

Perez, who gave up her children after a suicide attempt, says she wants the 4-year-old to live with Izquierdo, her ex-boyfriend. Perez initially provided the letter in question to the court as proof of Izquierdo's interest in the girl. But last week she testified that Izquierdo's lawyers hatched a plot to make it appear the two had exchanged more letters and photos than they had actually shared.

After Dimitris demonstrated that a writing sample given by Izquierdo did not match the handwriting in the letter, Izquierdo conceded that his sister had written the March 2006 letter by herself.

[David__77]

75. Do you think he should not be given custody?

Or are you undecided? Just curious. It's good that all sides are enumerating the various facts here. I tend to personally believe that surviving biological parents be given priority when they are foreign nationals, unless the child is old enough to truly express a contrary position.

[Bacchus39]

78. I don't particularly have a strong opinion on custody

although there have been some interesting issues raised regarding the father that I hadn't heard before. two wives, the father has lied to authorities. then you have the issue of separation from the brother. I don't see why being a foreign national should be given priority. however, I believe in general that biological parents should be given some deference. but certainly not if they are unfit. the child's interest has to be taken into account as well. this case is certainly different from Elian.

there seems to be some effort to cloud the debate with politics on this thread. Misapplication of an international treaty, erroneous claims of Cuban jurisdiction, discounting the foster father claims because he happens to be Cuban-American. The ones claiming that US-Cuba politics are involved are the same ones bringing their political views into the equation.

[pnwmom]

82. And it is interesting that the politics seem to be so crucial here,

because, according to the media reports, this has not become a big political issue in Florida itself. The immigrant community has not taken a strong position on the case, and all parties involved have agreed to let the US court decide the issue.

[erpowers]

54. Man Deserves His Kid

I agree with the OP. This man deserves his kid and never should have gone through this court case. He agreed to let his kid come to America with the mother. Now that the mother no longer has custody the father should have been given his kid back.

[pnwmom]

73. He "deserves" the child because he provided the DNA?

Not because he ever lived with her, or even invited her to visit in his own home (with his other "wife" and child), not because he tried to keep her near him in Cuba, not because he made a consistent effort to keep in touch with her in the U.S. (because he didn't, until the case started). . . but just because he impregnated her mother and then left her during her pregnancy?

[Mika]

80. No. He is responsible for the child now that the mother has (supposedly) given up custody.

Now that he wants to fulfill his responsibility, the DCF has taken claim of the child (without merit or standing, imo) and is putting the child up for adoption without the natural father's consent, and they're persecuting and attempting to demonize him while they're at it.

[pnwmom]

81. This little five year old has spent two years bonding with another family.

"Now he wants to fulfill his responsibility." Too bad for her sake that he didn't feel that way when she was a baby -- and her Cuban caregiver says that he was too busy to spend time with her. Too bad he didn't feel that way when the brother told him about the mother's abuse (and he did nothing.) Too bad he didn't feel that way when the mother asked him to sign the papers allowing the child to emigrate to the U.S.

He only wanted the child when he learned that another family loved her and wanted her. Suddenly she became important to him.

But hopefully, when he brings her back to Cuba, at least one of the women he thinks of as a wife will take an interest in her. Once he's got his property back, I see no evidence that HE will.

[ProudDad]

88. So what

"Now he wants to fulfill his responsibility."

Legally he has that right...Be doing it already if he wasn't a Cuban National...

Tough, isn't it...

She'll have forgotten all about that "foster family" once she returns to Cuba. It's a MUCH better place for children anyway. Children are loved and nurtured and cherished there much more than here. She'd have MANY MORE educational opportunities in Cuba.

She wouldn't have to grow up and be part of the war machine of the Empire or be chewed up in the maw of the consuming machine.

She'd be MUCH better off in Cuba...

[Name removed]

90. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[erpowers]

94. Yes

The man deserves his child because the S. Fla DCF should have given the child to the father when the mother had her rights taken away. In addition, if you are talking about a person having a right to decide where is child is raised because they spent time with the child then what about her mother. It seems that everyone is in agreement that the mother wants the child to live with the father if she does not live with her. Therefore, I think the father should get his child.

In addition, there are reports that when the child was in Cuba the father did a good job of taking care of the child. Since he is the father of the child, he is willing to take care of the child, the mother wants him to have the child, and there seems to be more proof that the father took care of the child than the opposite he should have his child.

[scarletwoman]

62. Thanks for bringing this up -- k & r -- your top photo pretty much says it all. Ugh.

This is an absurd situation -- I wonder if they read Kafka in Cuba -- and just ugly, ugly, ugly...
:cry:

sw

[Judi Lynn]

92. The Herald added a bit of new information to the same story, later in the day:

Girl's Cuban dad breaks down, pleads for custody
The Cuban father fighting for custody of his 5-year-old daughter pleaded with the judge to be allowed to take the girl back to Cuba with him.
Posted on Wed, Sep. 12, 2007
BY CAROL MARBIN MILLER
[e-mail]

~snip~
After Izquierdo completed his testimony, DCF lawyers called to the stand Berta Rodriguez, a children's therapist with Psych Solutions, a private company that began treating the girl in July 2006, about six months after she began living with the Cubas family.

Rodriguez, who met the girl about 15 times, mostly at her school, testified the girl was exhibiting signs she felt rejected and abandoned by her mother, who lost custody to DCF in December 2005 following a suicide attempt.

The girl's caregivers told Rodriguez she was suffering from nightmares, had trouble sleeping, was wetting her bed, was ''clingy'' and exhibited disruptive and defiant behaviors. The girl also had been exhibiting inappropriate behavior toward other children, such as biting them or pulling their hair. ''Overall, there were always these feelings of rejection, of abandonment, of being overwhelmed,'' Rodriguez said.

Under cross-examination by one of Izquierdo's lawyers, Steve Weinger, Rodriguez acknowledged that a psychological evaluation of the girl done before she went to live with the Cubas family showed the girl was already learning how to control her behavior with another family that cared for her before the Cubases.

And, Rodriguez said, she had found no indication that any of the girl's behaviors were attributable to the actions of her father.

''There is nothing in your notes to show that she was abused by her father Rafael, right?'' Weinger asked.

''Not specifically, no,'' Rodriguez said.

``And did you find any evidence that she was abandoned by her father?''

''No,'' Rodriguez said.

``And you had not found anything the father had done that caused harm to her, did you?''

''No,'' Rodriguez said.
(snip/...)

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/florida/story/234452.html

[Tyler Durden]

93. Caption:

"Talk to the hand, COMMIE."

If this many was ANYTHING other than a Cuban with the trial happening ANYWHERE other than good ol' MIAMI F.L.A., we wouldn't even be having this discussion.

And ANYONE who has looked into the CUBAS family wouldn't support them adopting a PUPPY.

[peacetalksforall]

96. Your paragraph nailed it - brilliant! You said it all - decades of it.

"On edit, adding photos, due to my belief

this man should have NEVER been put through this ordeal,

AND IT WOULD NEVER HAVE HAPPENED HAD IT NOT BEEN FOR THE FACT OUR RIGHT-WING POLITICIANS HAVE TURNED OVER OUR NATIONAL CUBAN POLICY TO THE VERY PEOPLE CUBANS OVERTHREW IN THEIR HARD FOUGHT REVOLUTION."

I separated it and capitalized it for emphasis - I hope you don't mind.

So succinct. So Accurate.

[Judi Lynn]

108. Some clearer language from the judge, for what it's worth:

Judge sides with Cuban father
The Associated Press
September 13, 2007

MIAMI - A judge on Wednesday dealt another blow to the state's case against a Cuban father seeking to regain custody of his young daughter -- dismissing several claims against the man.

But Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Jeri B. Cohen stopped short of throwing out the entire case. The Florida Department of Children and Families wants him declared an unfit father and the girl, now 5, to remain with her foster parents.

Cohen dismissed charges that Cuban farmer Rafael Izquierdo should have sent money from Cuba to the girl's mother in the U.S. She also dismissed allegations that he should have known that the mother beat the girl and her half-brother and that the mother would have a breakdown after coming to Florida.
(snip/)

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/state/orl-custody1307sep13,0,6947041.story

[tammywammy]

112. Thanks for staying on top of this story Judi Lynn n/t

[Judi Lynn]

115. Welcome! We'll be watching this one really closely until it's actual conclusion,

no matter how long that takes, and how many riots are pitched if it doesn't go the way the radicals want!

[Mika]

116. Remember how long it took for Elian to get home?

Same deal as this case. The concerned Miami family's claim was that they wanted to protect the child from trauma. Meanwhile, they kept dragging the case thru every venue they could shop it to, stalling and delaying every step of the way.

If reducing trauma is the concern, then they should let the natural parent raise his own child forthwith, instead of spending so much time and wasting so much money on unjustly demonizing the father.

The Fla DCF is a despicable organization (and Joe Cubas is a despicable person) for putting this child through all of this quasi-legal political posturing for so much time, when the DCF should have been arranging for the child's return to her legal family in Cuba as both parents desire as quickly as possible (in order to reduce trauma).

How many outrageous stories about the Fla DCF have we seen posted on DU over the last few years? WAY too many. Its an organization who's administration is populated with anti government unqualified and utterly destructive political operatives appointed by Jeb (just like his bro W has done in all branches of government also), and Charlie Christ has appointed exile pandering Bob Butterworth as the new DCF secretary, so I doubt its going to improve much.




-

[Judi Lynn]

118. We've definitely seen it all before! Since they are so wildly ready to dive right back in there,

at the drop of a hat, pick up the same war, using a different child, and different bewildered, anxious parents, throwing the same kind of crap at them, it's a signal they don't learn from experience, don't intend to learn, and are going to go with the hope the local judges can be beaten down, and intimidated by circumstances, knowing they have to run for election, and they stand to win if they can get belligerent enough.

It's no small matter that the Gonzalez ordeal had the community passing around the information that there were some very rough characters staying in the houses around the Gonzalez house, in order to be able to use force to repel any government attempt to rescue the child Elián in order to return him to his father, as per court orders.

That's why they had to "bust a move" and take the initiative by conducting the operation at night, when the traffic was lighter, and fewer people crowding around the house, ready to form their "human chain!" They were all determined their will was far, far more important than the U.S. law.

[Scurrilous]

117. Cuban dad's lawyers will call no witnesses

<snip>

"In a surprising decision that will help draw to a conclusion the controversial custody dispute over a 5-year-old Cuban girl, the attorneys for the girl's father told a judge Friday morning they will call no witnesses before resting their case.

Steven Weinger, one of three lawyers for Cuban farmer Rafael Izquierdo, said the state Department of Children & Families has failed to offer sufficient evidence to prove Izquierdo either neglected or abandoned his daughter.

Weinger's comments came two days after Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Jeri B. Cohen tossed out a significant piece of the state's case against Izquierdo: the contention that he failed to protect his daughter by allowing her to emigrate to the United States in March 2005 with a mother he knew was depressed and mentally unstable.

The most important argument remaining is DCF's claim that Izquierdo abandoned his daughter by allowing her to move to the United States permanently and by doing little to reclaim her after she came under the care of DCF."

http://www.miamiherald.com/459/story/237576.html

[Mika]

119. Miami Herald: Testimony ends in battle over girl, 5

Testimony ends in battle over girl, 5
http://www.miamiherald.com/457/story/238392.html

The unusual move by the attorneys for Rafael Izquierdo came after the judge said Friday that the state Department of Children & Families will have a hard time convincing her the father abandoned his daughter.

When the trial resumes Tuesday, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Jeri B. Cohen will hear closing arguments. She said she expects to render a decision by Friday.

That may not be the end of it: Even if the judge rules that Izquierdo is a fit parent, DCF attorneys said they will ask her to order that the girl remain permanently with the Coral Gables foster family that has raised her the past 18 months. They say the girl has bonded with her foster family and half-brother and will suffer permanent harm if separated.

-

On Wednesday, Cohen tossed out a significant piece of the state's case: its claim that Izquierdo failed to protect his daughter when he allowed her to emigrate to the United States in 2005 with a mother he knew was mentally unstable.

The most important argument remaining is DCF's claim that Izquierdo abandoned his daughter when he allowed her to move to the United States permanently and by doing little to reclaim her after she came under the care of DCF two years ago.

Friday, Izquierdo's attorney, Steven Weinger, said the state failed to present sufficient evidence to prove Izquierdo either neglected or abandoned his daughter, who was taken into DCF custody in December 2005 after the children's mother, Elena Pérez, slashed her wrists with a kitchen knife.

Much of the morning Friday was spent in a discussion of how much weight the judge will give to a series of almost 50 phone calls and 43 visits between Izquierdo and his daughter once the father arrived in Miami to fight for custody.

The father's attorneys said that the visits and calls show that he never intended to give up his right to raise the girl.

DAD'S VISITS

Weinger said that the father's legal team planned to present the log of visits and calls as evidence.

But attorneys for DCF and the Guardian ad Litem Program, which represents the girl's legal interests, said that they would then present videos of some of the visits to show that Izquierdo has failed to bond with his daughter.

Lead DCF attorney Jason Dimitris said the state also wanted to show that Izquierdo did not fight hard enough to reclaim his daughter in phone calls with officials and friends in Miami who were aware of her plight.

''We will show how passive the father was,'' Dimitris said.

``One would expect he would be taking better advantage of those calls.''

Weinger countered that, under Florida law, the zeal with which Izquierdo sought custody is irrelevant.

The father, Weinger told the judge, must have demonstrated ``a willful rejection of being a parent to that child. Your decision must be based on the standard of rejection of his child, not on how passive he was.''

''The fact is he showed up for 40-something visits with his daughter,'' Weinger said.

``The issue is not whether he is the most talkative man in world, or the best father you can imagine. The issue is whether he willfully rejected his child.''

Cohen said the state would have an ''extremely, extremely untenable and difficult'' time proving that Izquierdo abandoned the girl, given recent appeals court rulings.

''I've seen the tapes, and they don't lay out a case for abandonment,'' Cohen said.

===

The Cubas family and the Fla DCF claimed to want to reduce the trauma to this girl, so what do they intend to do? Drag the case out even longer with more quasi-legal politicking.

I reiterate everything I said in post 116.

[Judi Lynn]

120. They've decided they want to replay Elián all over again, and get the outcome they want this time!

They did all the early work without the pre-trial publicity that Elián got, trying to get everything set up to favor them, so the people who would normally would resent this action wouldn't even know about it until the trial.

As you pointed out, fixing it so the government wouldn't even let the father come to see the daughter in the first place was a very nasty piece of business, which certainly threw a wrench in the defense. Since the judge depends on the locals for her re-election, it would be an easy matter to appear to "buy" all the "exile" tricks so carefully arranged.

I hope she wil rise to the greater moral needs of this case. If not, I hope the pro bono attorneys will help the father construct the appeals. It would be filthy if the wrong guys won this one.

(How is it a Cuban "exile" like Joe Cubas can't even pronouce Mr. "EEEEssssshhhhhhhqierdo's" name? Jesus!)

[Judi Lynn]

121. You might appreciate seeing the sheer size of the force the state is using against the father:

Cuban girl's custody fight costs taxpayers
Posted on Sun, Sep. 16, 2007
BY CAROL MARBIN MILLER
[e-mail]

~snip~
''I can't remember a single dependency case that has consumed this magnitude of precious state funds,'' said Bernard Perlmutter, who heads the University of Miami Law School's Children & Youth Law Clinic and has devoted 20 years to child-welfare legal work in Miami.
(snip)

Child-welfare administrators and their contracted foster care agency alone have spent $90,000 fighting to keep the 5-year-old from her father, who is a pig and malanga farmer from Cabaiguán, in Central Cuba. They say he abandoned her and failed to protect her.

According to state records obtained by The Miami Herald, the state anticipates spending another $90,000 before the case is concluded, mostly for court reporting, translations and overnight mail.

Adding the salaries of DCF Chief of Staff Jason Dimitris, who is spearheading the court case, and other high-ranking DCF attorneys, costs of the case are considerably higher.

DCF records show Dimitris, who is considered ''dedicated'' to the case -- meaning more than half his time is devoted exclusively to the matter -- already has spent 1,100 hours preparing for and arguing the case. DCF attorney Stacey Blume has spent 1,800 hours on the case; attorney Rebecca Kapusta has logged 600 hours; and lawyer Kelly Swartz has devoted 215.

All three also were considered ''dedicated'' to the dispute, although Kapusta left the legal team after the first week of trial.

Based upon the attorneys' salaries, DCF has devoted close to $164,000 in legal hours fighting Izquierdo, records show. Another 16 lawyers -- including DCF chief Butterworth, one of his top deputies, George Sheldon, and his general counsel, John J. Copelan -- have spent time working on the case, said DCF spokesman Al Zimmerman.

Two other DCF employees have spent about 465 hours on the case, Zimmerman said, and the girl's private foster care caseworker, Maria Zamora, whose salary is ultimately paid by DCF, has spent much of the last three weeks in court.

Hogan & Hartson, a prominent Washington, D.C., firm with Miami offices, has deployed about a half-dozen attorneys to work pro bono on behalf of the Guardian ad Litem Program in Miami, which also has an attorney in court. The law firm has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars traveling to Cuba, videotaping depositions and providing satellite uplink to beam the interviews back to Miami, a source with knowledge of the case told The Miami Herald.
(snip/...)

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking_news/story/240151.html

[Mika]

122. People with their head in the sand don't think this is about politics.

Think of all of the other children that might have benefited with the proper use of these resources.

The Fla DCF administration is a den of crooks, liars, & thieves, imo.


-

[Tyler Durden]

123. I think more likely, they are busy (as is most of Miami) kissing Expat ASS.

I do hope that if one of the Democratic Candidates that has pledged to end the embargo is elected, THEY WILL DO IT.

All it takes is an executive order. Then MAYBE Florida can stop the unending ass kissing an gratuitous blow jobs performed on the Expat community.

[Judi Lynn]

124. That's the way it has been until 1996, when the Cuban lobby in Congress got their

powerful allies, Jesse Helms, and Dan Burton to sponsor a new law which made this process a whole lot harder. Now it takes an act of Congress as well as a Presidential signature, or a veto proof majority in Congress which has been controlled by the Cuban "exile" lobby concerning Cuba policy for years.

There's a description of what happened in the first paragraph, which I can't copy and paste, at this location:
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0032-3195%28199923%29114%3A3%3C387%3APTCITC%3E2.0.CO%3B2-F&size=LARGE&origin=JSTOR-enlargePage

Now, if we get the damned thing removed, FINALLY, it will take either a good majority in Congress AND an agreeable President, or a POWERFUL majority in Congress to get this done. Damned shame.

The numbers of people getting tired of the embargo are growing continuously, just as the numbers of people in Congress who supported the embargo are fading, since their stalwarts are being sidelined for one reason or another, like Jesse Helms, Tom DeLay, Senator Bob Smith, Dick Armey, etc.

Here's something to give people food for thought:

August 21, 2002

The Politics of the Cuba Embargo

Personal Loyalty in Congress
by Tom Crumpacker

An August 17 article by Mark Helm of Hearst Washington Bureau about our House Speaker Dick Armey's upcoming retirement casts some light on the way our Congress and Administration have been dealing with Cuba issues in recent years. By way of background recall:

(1) under House rules the House leadership--the Speaker and majority whip (Tom Delay, also from Texas)--determine when, where and how bills are voted on;

(2) bills have been introduced every year and have been pending for many years to repeal the Cuba embargo and Helms-Burton blockade--and have had very substantial, increasing support--but votes on the merits with full debate with one partial exception have never been allowed;

(3) the only other Cuba bills voted on have been on amendments to Administration budget requests for money to enforce the embargo and travel restrictions, which have to be voted on each year, and by substantial, increasing margins the travel enforcement money has been turned down in the Hou! se the last three summers and once in the Senate (where it comes up again soon, maybe next month);

(4) in November, 2000 a vote was finally forced on a bill which would allow medicine and nutritional food to be sold to Cuba, which passed in both chambers by large margins only to be gutted in conference by the addition of two provisions tacked on by Miami Congressman Diaz-Balart, apparently appointed to the conference committee by Armey and Delay, which prohibited normal use of credit in sales to Cuba and "codified" the unconstitutional travel restrictions (completely unrelated to the bill which had been voted on), which was then signed into law by Clinton in that form;

(5) regarding this maneuver Rep. Mark Sanford (R, SC) said his leadership had "behaved shamefully" and Sen. Max Baucus called the matter a "travesty of our democracy";

(6) this summer the House also voted for amendments to the budget requests to end the credit restrictions and the limits on amounts which could! be given to Cuban family members and against amending the budget by ending the embargo, 200-- 225.

This latter vote may not be an accurate measure of the full anti-embargo sentiment in the House because some members might have felt it was procedurally improper to do away with all the embargo laws on a budget request amendment, including the lengthy Toricelli (1992) and Helms-Burton (1996) provisions, without amending or repealing or addressing these laws directly.

In other words this vote appears to have been just another "show trial" by Congress to help present members keep their seats or a preliminary testing of the waters never intended to be legal. The Cuban people don't have lobbyists or numerous people or powerful organizations working for them in the US Congress. Our Constitution provides that foreign affairs are supposed to be in the domain of the executive branch representing the nation as a whole. The August 17 Helm article, titled "Armey's independence shows as time runs out," quotes Armey as follows:

"He predicted the 42 year old Cuba trade embargo won't last long because it's losing support in Congress. Armey said his own past support for the embargo was based on his loyalty to two (Miami) Cuban-American House members, Lincoln Diaz-Balart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. Armey also said that House members whose districts could benefit from trade and travel to Cuba should vote against the embargo."

In other words we are to believe that Armey's personal loyalty to two House members out of 425--rather than his own policy considerations or his loyalty to the Administration--has brought about two additional unnecessary years of virtual prohibition of food and medicine and continued travel restriction. The question I have of Mr. Armey is this: how many innocent Cubans have become sick or died in the last two years because of your loyalty to your two Miami friends?
(snip/...)

http://www.counterpunch.org/crumpacker0821.html

[Mika]

125. Judge blames all for Cuban girl's plight

Judge blames all for Cuban girl's plight
http://www.miamiherald.com/top_stories/story/243783.html

The judge in the contentious child custody battle that spans the Florida Straits interrupted closing arguments in the case Wednesday to lament that nearly everyone in the courtroom -- including herself -- shares blame in a ``tragic situation.''

Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Jeri B. Cohen said that responsibility for what has become a long, tense legal battle lies with several parties, including the father of the 5-year-old girl at the center of the dispute, who failed to act decisively when his child entered foster care in December 2005.

Cohen also blamed herself, for listening to a state child-welfare lawyer who insisted that father Rafael Izquierdo come to the United States from Cuba to fight for his daughter, instead of letting him plead his case on the telephone -- as the judge said she allows in cases virtually every week.

But Cohen reserved her harshest criticism for the Florida Department of Children & Families, saying the agency could offer no explanation for waiting months before notifying the father, a farmer from Cabaiguán in Central Cuba, that the state wanted to strip him forever of custody of his child.

''You blame, you blame and you blame,'' Cohen said, looking at DCF attorney Rebecca Kapusta. ``But the Department of Children & Families a lot of responsibility for the tragic situation we have here. You a lot of the responsibility because you let politics get in the way.''

-

For the second time in a week, Cohen also criticized the department for treating Izquierdo differently, because he lives in Cuba, than any of the other parents who show up in juvenile court seeking to reclaim a child in state care.

''If the father lived in Alabama, we would not have this situation, because you would have contacted him immediately,'' Cohen said to Kapusta. ``You would have handled it differently if the parent lived in Switzerland.''

An hour later, when Kapusta argued that the father's 40 or so visits with the girl since he arrived in May were meaningless because Cohen had ordered them, the judge exploded: ``This is what angers me about your department, and it's a pervasive problem: You're damned if you do, and damned if you don't.''

Cohen said she ordered the visits because Izquierdo said he wanted to spend time with his daughter.

-

As appeals courts have interpreted state law, a father must show ''a settled purpose'' to ''willfully reject'' his parental duties before abandonment can be proven, the judge said, adding that appellate judges have construed the law so leniently that the most uninvolved and uncaring parent can get his or her children back.

Under that precedent, said Izquierdo's lawyer, Ira Kurzban, the state has failed to prove Izquierdo is unfit.

''There is little doubt what the threshold is'' to be a fit parent, Kurzban said. ``He has far exceeded it. Is he a perfect parent? None of us are.''

In fact, Kurzban said, Izquierdo ought to be congratulated for leaving his family in Cuba, abandoning his job as a farmer and subjecting himself to weeks of grueling interrogation to regain the daughter he loves.

INSIGHT ON RULING

As the closing arguments neared an end Wednesday, Cohen offered some insights into how she may rule, most likely early next week.

Cohen questioned whether Izquierdo's failure to apply for a humanitarian visa earlier to fight for his daughter means he abandoned he girl. ''I don't believe you've made a case for abandonment,'' she told state lawyers. ``I think you've made a very good effort.''

Moments later, Cohen became frustrated with a DCF lawyer who argued Izquierdo forfeited his rights to the child by allowing her to travel to the United States with her mother.

Cuban parents often make the decision to let their children leave to begin new lives in America, Cohen said.

''Isn't that the policy of the United States, that you want children to come here and grow up here?'' she asked. ``Don't you, as a department, want children to be able to come here with their parents and grow up here? Then don't argue that to me.''

Toward the end of the day, she summed up her frustration: ``I hate this stuff. Hate it. Hate it. Hate it.''

No wonder she hates it. If she rules according to the law, hard line anti Castro Miamicubano politics will play a major part in her career. She faces election in Miami, where hard line anti Castro politics is THE core of politics here. Her 'giving this child back to Castro' (as most of Miami's RW Cuban talk radio stations portray it) isn't good for her political campaigns.

[Judi Lynn]

126. You're right, there. They will remember this event for years from now, won't they?

A community which BOMBS people, even people who, like they, came from Cuba, who maintain a personal view, rather than a groupthink view, a place in which the talk radio hosts actually give out names, addresses, phone numbers of citizens they accuse of being pro-Castro, a community which sent a storm of death threats to a former newspaper publisher, and covered the paper's vending machines with excrement all over the city, after it had published information they didn't like, a group which crowds around auditoriums where world-famous Cuban performers are scheduled, hurling D-cell batteries, rocks, bottles, eggs, and baggies filled with excrement at those attempting to enter, is a community which will move heaven and earth to ruin her, personally as soon as possible if she rules against their wishes, no matter HOW unjust, and cruel they are.

I am deeply surprised to read the comments you've posted by Judge Jerry B. Cohen. What she says is so correct. There is no reason in the world the father should have EVER been put through hell like this, when, in any other case, the entire situation would have been handled even by phone with the father, rather than the local government's insistance he take the chance on losing his life at the hands of an assassin in Miami by coming here to face this mob in order to keep his daughter in his life after her mother was no longer able to raise her.



Clearly the Judge has deep feelings about what has happened.
I hope so much that her courage, and determination to do what
is right for the family here will outweigh any personal interests.



The father's lawyer has had her memory refreshened concerning
how long, and how rabid is the group's memory toward someone
who has displeased them in her Cuba-related personal history.

There are so many people who are going to be so heart sick if the child's real family doesn't prevail in this circus. I hope the pro-bono attorneys for the father are prepared to go the distance with them if the judge succumbs to fear of threats to her safety and career, and crumbles on this.

The world needs a good moral example for a change!

[Mika]

127. What amazes me is her repetition of this canard..

Cohen questioned whether Izquierdo's failure to apply for a humanitarian visa earlier to fight for his daughter means he abandoned he girl.

Failure to apply for a visa to fight for his daughter?

How could he 'fight for his daughter' in the US if the Fla DCF never contacted him as they should (and do) in all other custodial cases? The State Dept denied him a travel visa to get his daughter when he discovered what bad shape the mother was in. Even when he was notified as to the case of his daughter's adoption coming up the State Dept continued to deny him a visa to come to the US. It was only after the DCF was forced to intervene did he get a visa (because the DCF requires parental approval for adoption, and when they didn't get it from him they started with the smear campaign against him - namely the abandonment straw man).

How dare the judge say that he didn't apply for a visa? How that went down is documented evidence in this case, but she still repeats the canard. :puke:




On edit: I guess that I should be more judicious in my comments about the judge's comments in this post. The story comes from the Miami Herald, and who knows if this is even close to an accurate accounting of the day's events. It all depends on the political/commercial ramifications with the Miami Herald (especially so right now, where the Herald is in the midst of a Bay of Pigs Memorial site/ land grab in Miami - so the pandering to the extremist Miamicubano crowd, and the Miami commission and mayor, Elian's Miami family lead lawyer in the Elian kidnapping - Mayor Manny Diaz, is at a very high level).

EVERYTHING in Miami boils down to who can hate Castro the most, and if stealing Cuban children and putting them through a meat grinder is what it takes to 'prove it' to the political extremists, then it will be done.


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[Judi Lynn]

128. If she EVEN resorts to that matter, which was clarified already, it makes it seem very possible

she is keeping open the idea of taking the easy way out, in the end, and doing the political thing, while using a bogus claim against the father, which has already been discredited.

That doesn't seem encouraging at all.

Hope to try to see it as a possible misdirection by the current Herald, which has been serving that faction ever since they ran off David Lawrence the earlier publisher, with a massive assault of death threats to the point he and his wife started having people check their cars for bombs every day before starting them, and an expensive, city wide smear campaign conducted even on the sides of city buses, and a filthy wave of covering newspaper vending machines with feces.

The Herald, in its current form, could not be more solicitous of their favor 24/7. Very ugly to see this happen to a well-known formerly respected newspaper.

[Judi Lynn]

129. Travesty of justice: The state of Florida against Rafael Izquierdo

September 20 - 26, 2007
Travesty of justice
The state of Florida against Rafael Izquierdo

By Max J. Castro
Read Spanish Version
[e-mail]

Florida’s Department of Children and Families (DCF) is better known for its lethargy than its fierceness. Yet, when it comes to fighting Rafael Izquierdo, a Cuban father who came to the United States to regain custody of his 5-year-old daughter, DCF is suddenly displaying a zeal and determination that the agency has lacked when performing such basic duties as keeping track of children under its own care. What explains this novel ferocity?

Unfortunately, what has been transpiring in a Miami court room in recent weeks is not evidence of a new and improved DCF but of something much more troubling, the spectacle of a state agency concocting a case against a parent on the basis of political and ideological considerations.

This is a strong assertion, but the nature of the arguments DCF lawyers have used to impugn the father’s fitness as a parent and their stated intention to keep fighting to keep the little girl in the custody of the Miami-based foster parents even if the judge rules Izquierdo is fit to have custody of his daughter, support it.

Indeed, lawyers for DCF have laid out such a far-fetched case that the presiding judge, Jeri B. Cohen, has at times been unable to contain her disbelief and dismay at the state’s arguments, most of which she dismissed in the course of shredding the state’s case.

Cohen’s statements in court make plain the unfair nature of DCF’s treatment of Izquierdo. According to a Miami Herald account, at one point in the trial, “Cohen said in nearly 10 years of presiding over child-welfare cases she had never seen DCF attorneys request that a parent forever lose his or her right to raise a child unless the parent had failed, again and again, to meet the requirements of a court-ordered parenting plan.” In fact, far from wanting to abandon his child, the record indicates Izquierdo conducted about 50 phone calls and made 43 visits with his daughter after arriving in Miami to fight for custody.

More:
http://progreso-weekly.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=153&Itemid=1

[Mika]

130. Cuban child custody cases piling up

Cuban child custody cases piling up
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/florida/story/245277.html
At a courthouse near you: yet another dust-up between Florida
child-welfare officials and a Cuban father seeking custody of his daughter.

By CAROL MARBIN MILLER
With her father's consent, a small child emigrates from Cuba to Miami with her mother. Some time later, the little girl's mom is gripped by mental illness and ends up in a psychiatric hospital.
The girl, now 5, is in the care of state child-welfare administrators. Her father, still in Cuba, wants her back.

Sound familiar?

Just as the battle for custody of Rafael Izquierdo's 5-year-old daughter enters what could be its final chapter in Miami, a strikingly similar case is attracting attention.

The new case is one of at least three involving children born in Cuba currently being handled by the Florida Department of Children & Families, which already has spent more than $250,000 in an effort to prevent Izquierdo from getting custody of his daughter.

How state child-welfare administrators are handling the cases has sparked some testy exchanges in the Izquierdo case.

On Wednesday, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Jeri B. Cohen accused the agency of allowing the nasty politics of Miami-Cuba relations to taint their handling of the custody dispute over which she is presiding.

And last week, one of Izquierdo's lawyers tried unsuccessfully to bring up in court the other cases involving Cuba.

Izquierdo, a farmer from the Central Cuba town of Cabaiguán, came to Miami in May in hopes of regaining custody of the little girl. The DCF wants her to remain with foster parents Joe and Maria Cubas.

The other Miami case began in late August. The 5-year-old girl's mother was involuntarily committed to a psychiatric hospital, according to DCF spokeswoman Erin Geraghty.

The girl's father lives in Havana and is seeking to regain custody. DCF investigators believe, however, that he has a drinking problem.

The department has not yet discussed the girl's plight with the dad, Geraghty said.

''We are in the initial process of contacting the father,'' she said.

The parents lived together in Havana, but separated when the girl was two, Geraghty said. The case has been assigned to Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Valerie Manno Schurr.

The girl is currently in the care of her mother's cousins. It is unclear whether they are seeking permanent custody.

Reached by telephone in Cuba, the father declined to comment on the case, saying he did not want his routine custody case to turn into a ``show used for political purposes.''

In the Izquierdo case last week, the judge held a closed-door discussion of the three Florida child-welfare cases involving Cuban children. Present were lawyers for Izquierdo, DCF, and the Guardian-ad-Litem Program in Miami.

Judge Cohen subsequently threatened to hold Steven Weinger, one of Izquierdo's lawyers, in contempt of court and jail him if he brought up those cases in an open court full of reporters.

Earlier that day, Weinger had sent an e-mail to DCF's chief of staff, Jason Dimitris, seeking details of the three cases. But the lawyer's request was shut down.

Following the closed-door discussion in her chambers, Cohen told reporters there was ''another case'' involving a Cuban child, and that Weinger had sent an e-mail with ``elements of truth, but also mistruths.''

Interesting that the Miami Herald can immediately contact the father in Havana in one of the cases discussed here, but the Fla DCF has yet to do so.

[Judi Lynn]

133. That's so damned odd. They should at least pretend to be doing the right thing here.

They put off contacting Mr. Izquierdo so long they really made things far, far harder for him. That was their intent, of course.

Slimey, crooked, political people. What a shame they're running our government.

Thanks for this article. It's a stunning revelation learning they have FOUR cases going on simultaenously, but they have spent around one quarter million trying to get this kid away from her dad to hand her over to a high-profile political "exile."