Miami "Elián #2" case ongoing in Miami:

[Judi Lynn]

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

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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.''

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

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and, today's:

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}.

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.

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