[Marxism] NYT: 8 Years After Elián, a Cuban Custody Battle

["Walter Lippmann" <walterlx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

This mother is obviously mentally troubled, and doesn't seem fit to raise
children. But she's not so out of it that she cannot express a clear and
simple preference for her daughter being raised in her home country by her
father. The state of Florida is conducting a legal kidnapping in the case
and has done so, thus far, with both impunity and the active collaboration
of the federal government. It will be interesting to see if the family court
judge completes the process by giving her court's blessing to all of this. 

One word about the foster parents, rightist-Cuban Americans who seem never
to get asked to express their political opinions about the island by any of
the commentators in this case. If you or I were TWO YEARS OLD, the age when
this child was detained and taken from her mother after her mother's attempt
to commit suicide, you or I would certainly be grateful to the adults who
fed you, closed you, gave you a hug, read you a bed-time story and otherwise
took care of you. It's no surprise that the child has bonded to some degree,
perhaps to a considerable degree, to these foster parents. But the whole
purpose of the foster care system is SUPPOSED to be first of all, to support
the goal of family reunification, and only after that is proven to be not
appropriate due to parental abuse or incapacity, finding another more plan
more suited to the child's needs and situation. 

But the idea that the child's father, a Cuban farmer, should have performed
a miracle of psychiatric prediction, and should, or even worse, COULD have
predicted that this mom would have fallen apart once she came to a foreign
country with a different principal language and culture is an absurdity.
It's more than an absurdity. It's a frame-up. And, of course, if there were
even the remotest suspicion that the father of this girl was abusive, he
would never have been permitted to have unsupervised visits with her.
=========================================================================

THE NEW YORK TIMES
September 2, 2007
8 Years After Elián, a Cuban Custody Battle
By TERRY AGUAYO

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/02/us/02adopt.html 

MIAMI, Sept. 1 ? Almost eight years after the custody battle over Elián
González took center stage here, a similar situation involving another Cuban
child is playing out in a local courtroom.

The dispute this time involves a 4-year-old girl who came to the United
States from Cuba in 2005 with her mother and her 13-year-old half-brother.
At issue is whether the girl?s father, a Cuban farmer who arrived in Miami
in June with his wife and 7-year-old daughter to fight for his younger
daughter?s custody, is fit to raise her.

The father, Rafael Izquierdo, allowed the girl?s mother to take her to the
United States, but several months after her arrival, the mother attempted
suicide and the state Department of Children and Families took custody of
the two children.

The children, who have different fathers, were placed in foster care, and
since April 2006 the girl has been in the care of Joe Cubas, a wealthy real
estate developer and former sports agent, and his wife. The boy, whose
father had surrendered parental rights, was formally adopted by the Cubases,
who also want to adopt the girl. Mr. Cubas, who is well known in the
Cuban-American community here for helping star baseball players defect to
the United States in the 1990s, has the support of the Department of
Children and Families in his effort.

?The child is ecstatic living where she is,? said Alan Mishael, a lawyer for
Mr. Cubas.

Lawyers for the Department of Children and Families argue that Mr.
Izquierdo, 32, is not a fit father because he acted irresponsibly by
allowing his daughter to emigrate to the United States with her mother,
Elena Pérez, whom they say he knew to be mentally unstable. His lawyers
reject that claim.

?We want to keep the focus on whether or not a dad has the right to have his
child,? said Ira Kurzban, one of the father?s lawyers. ?D.C.F. has not
proven any neglect by our client Rafael.?

Ms. Pérez, who has said she wants her daughter to return to Cuba with her
father, has repeatedly given conflicting testimony and created chaos in
court, driving Judge Jeri B. Cohen of Circuit Court in Miami-Dade County to
take a recess to seek legal guidance.

On Friday, the fifth day of the trial, Ms. Pérez told the judge that family
photos she had testified to have sent to Mr. Izquierdo in Cuba were never
sent. She said she gave the photos to one of Mr. Izquierdo?s lawyers who
kept them to later show them as evidence in court. On Thursday, Ms. Pérez
admitted lying to the judge, saying that letters from the girl?s father she
had previously testified to having received were actually fabricated by one
of the father?s lawyers.

?I have tried to twist some things around to favor the father,? she said.

But Judge Cohen said she was ?very concerned? about her allegations.

Mr. Kurzban adamantly denied anyone in his team had fabricated the letters,
saying Ms. Pérez, 35, has ?a serious mental problem.?

The girl?s case evokes that of Elián González, who was 5 years old when he
was found floating on an inner tube off Florida after the boat in which he
and his mother tried to reach American soil capsized in 1999. His mother
drowned, and Elián was placed in the care of his Miami relatives, stirring a
custody fight between the relatives and the boy?s Cuban father who, like Mr.
Izquierdo, traveled to the United States to claim custody.

At the time, thousands of Cuban-Americans held daily protests outside the
Little Havana home where Elián lived, and tens of thousands took to the
streets in protest when the boy was reunited with his father in Cuba. This
time, though, the Cuban-American community does not appear to be as
emotionally involved in the outcome.

Ramón Saul Sánchez, leader of the Democracy Movement, an anti-Castro group,
said he believed this case should be decided by the judge.

?In Elián?s case, the mother wanted to bring him here and died in the
process,? said Mr. Sánchez, who led many of the protests surrounding that
case. ?In this case, both parents want her in Cuba.?

Bernard Perlmutter, a family law professor at the University of Miami who
has followed both cases, said there were some differences between them.

?This matter is appropriately being adjudicated in a family court,? Mr.
Perlmutter said of the girl?s case. ?We don?t have all of the immigration
issues that were so complicated and controversial in the Elián case.?

Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company


________________________________________________
YOU MUST clip all extraneous text before replying to a message.
Send list submissions to: Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism