Cuban Custody Case Details Revealed In Courtroom

[Judi Lynn]

Source: CBS/Miami Herald

Aug 11, 2007 2:47 pm US/Eastern

Cuban Custody Case Details Revealed In Courtroom
(CBS4) MIAMI Details of the state's case against a father seeking to take his daughter back to Cuba emerged for the first time Friday in a Miami courtroom, where the fate of the 4-year-old in the middle of an international custody dispute will be decided.

The girl came to Miami with her pre-teen half brother in 2005 after their mother won the right to emigrate. By that December, the children had been sheltered by the Department of Children & Families when the mother tried to commit suicide

The children have been living with foster parents, a wealthy Cuban-American family in Coral Gables, for more than a year. The foster parents are fighting to maintain custody of a little girl they say has become a part of their family.

In a petition filed in Miami's juvenile court, the Florida Department of Children and Families argued that the girl's biological father, a farmer in Cuba, failed to protect her by not devising a ''safety plan'' to protect the little girl in the United States if her mother became incapacitated or ill.



Read more: http://cbs4.com/topstories/local_story_223142123.html

[Crunchy Frog]

1. More Cuban Americans feeling that they're entitled

to kidnap a child who isn't theirs.

Ever since watching the Elian Gonzales case unfold, I've developed a complete and utter loathing for those people. :puke:

I hope that poor father is able to get his daughter back. :(

[Mika]

3. The media have been complicit with the kidnapping by keeping it low profile.

For example, the media is not revealing the name of the family who is attempting this abduction, despite it being public record. They are only mentioned as "a very prominent Cuban exile family" who has requested the media not release their name, because they don't want crowds and midnight rallies in front of their house, as happened in the Elain saga. Rallies and publicity would work against their goal of stealing the Cuban dad's child. Overwhelming popular opinion across America (and in Miami) is for parental rights.

[Crunchy Frog]

8. I can still remember all the things the media didn't cover during the Elian business.

I remember the images of Cubans burning American flags in the streets of Miami, only shown on TV a couple of times and then stopped, no doubt because it would have made these people look bad to the RWers who were coddling them. I remember the "fisherman" that the media couldn't be bothered with telling us that he wasn't actually a fisherman, was not actually the one who rescued Elian, and had an extrememly sordid history with the marriage and statutory rape of a minor, and had a five year old nephew who had been abused to death while he looked the other way. (I was obsessed enough by this case at the time that I managed to pick through all the news reports to get at the real facts as they eventually unfolded.)

I can remember all the "shocked" exressions on the faces of the newscasters the day after Elian was rescued. I can remember all the detailed discussions of the drugs he had supposedly been sedated with, and the accounts of how the pictures taken of him with his father had been faked. I remember the nutso cousin giving her hysterical account of the siezure of Elian with completely obvious lies going unchallenged by the media (like asking her, if they had kicked in the door, why was it still on the hinges).

I had avoided the news media for some time prior to the Elian saga; I just wasn't interested in following the latest celebrety trial, and the continuing adventures of Bill Clinton's penis. I remember at the time being absolutely, jaw droppingly, dumbfounded at the degree to which the "news" media had deteriorated.

[lynnertic]

32. So who are they?

"For example, the media is not revealing the name of the family who is attempting this abduction, despite it being public record."

[Mika]

2. His not sending money FROM Cuba indicates he abandonded the child, says Fl DCF

Its Florida. The rules are different here.

=====

-DCF lays out case against Cuban father-
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/florida/story/199881.html

DCF attorneys say in the petition that the father essentially abandoned his daughter by not sending her money, birthday cards, presents or letters after she left the island. Under Florida law, a father may be declared unfit if he abandons his child.

The DCF petition also says the little girl would be harmed if forced to leave her older brother, now 12, who protected and cared for her when their mother was neglectful. A lawyer for the girl's foster parents, who have adopted her brother, is asking Circuit Judge Jeri B. Cohen to allow the sibling to participate in the court case.

DCF lawyers have said the biological father, a malanga and plantain farmer from Cabaiguan in central Cuba, should be stripped of custody because he failed to take responsibility for his child.

''The department did not create the situation with this child,'' said Jason Dimitris, DCF's chief of staff and the state's chief litigator in the case. ``The father created the situation, and the department had to respond.''

FATHER'S LAWYER

In court Friday, Ira Kurzban, a prominent immigration attorney who represents the birth father, described the course of the case as ``Alice in Wonderland.''

Kurzban dismissed the state's claim that his client should have financially supported his daughter as unrealistic: ''I have never heard of a case where a person sends money from Cuba to Florida,'' he said.

Felix Masud-Piloto, a Cuba scholar who is director of DePaul University's Center for Latino Research in Chicago, told The Miami Herald that it would be nearly impossible for the father to have sent money.

''No one sends money from Cuba to Miami. That's insane,'' he said ``And you have a hell of a problem trying to get money from here to Cuba. Any money transaction involving Cuba is problematic.''

Kurzban took his biggest shot at the state's claim that the father would cause ''permanent psychological damage'' by separating his daughter from her half-brother. He said the allegation that the girl's right to be with her half-brother trumps her father's right to raise her is unprecedented.

''Now they have added a totally new theory of dependency,'' Kurzban told the judge.

''I've wondered about that,'' replied Cohen, who in an earlier hearing called the state's case ``light''.

EXPERT OPINIONS

Some experts in child-welfare law say they, too, fear the state's case against the birth father could blaze new legal ground if accepted.

Paul DeMuro, the former commissioner for Children & Youth in Pennsylvania, and a 35-year child-welfare administrator and consultant, said the claim the state is making on behalf of the girl's brother is extraordinary: ``I've never heard of anything like that.''

Richard Gelles, dean of the University of Pennsylvania's School of Social Work and a 40-year veteran of child welfare who has written 25 books and consulted for Florida child-welfare administrators, told The Miami Herald in a phone interview that the state's position does not square with long-standing state and federal child-welfare law. He predicted the judge would be reversed on appeal if she decides in favor of the state.

''They are trumping up a perfectly absurd mechanism to trample on rights,'' he said. ``It's a deliberate attempt to ignore what would normally be parental rights.''

====


Interesting, because the fact that Elain had a sibling in Cuba didn't seem to deter the FL DCF from making a case against returning Elian to his real family in Cuba.

F-ing hypocrites.

[tammywammy]

4. Isn't it very difficult to send money

either to or from Cuba? Did they ever try and contact the father about support?

I need to learn more on this, but overall I feel that the child should be returned to her father. I guess the boy was the mother's child, not the fathers, hence why he wouldn't be going back as well.

[Mika]

6. It is very difficult. Made so by the US of A.

Since most jobs in Cuba are state jobs, one might be in danger of being investigated or charged with trading with the enemy or of being an agent of the Cuba government if one accepted money from someone in Cuba.

All transactions between Americans and US residents with anyone in Cuba is under the purview of the Dept of Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets and Control. There are strict limits and regulations that are designed to make it extremely difficult.

[tammywammy]

7. That's what I thought

So how the hell is he supposed to even send money to support his child. Obviously he cares for her, otherwise he wouldn't be trying to get her back now.

Unless they can prove he's an unfit parent, parents right trump those of a foster family.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

21. Remittances to or from Cuba are subject to seizure

unless almost unintelligible rules are followed to the letter.

[Crunchy Frog]

5. It looks like in Florida

half brothers, great uncles, and second cousins all take precedence over natural parents. If I ever have a kid, I will be damned sure never to travel to Florida with it.

If Florida wants to have laws that are so much at variance with the rest of the country, then couldn't they just secede and form their own country?

[Mika]

9. The custodial couple aren't even relatives. But yet, in Miami, they have a case.

In Miami EVERYTHING that has ANYTHING to do with Cuba is all about winning some fantasized victory against Castro, I'm affraid. Kids are readily used as pawns in the (minority of Cuban-American) wingnut exiles fight against Castro. It started with Operation Pedro Pan in 1960.

[Critters2]

26. Yep. They hate Castro more than they love kids.

How sad is that?

[MisterP]

28. where's THAT pic from?!

[treestar]

13. At any rate, it sounds best for the child that she stay here

And that is what matters, not what the parents "deserve."

And we have no duty to enforce any Cuban laws.

[tammywammy]

18. Why would it be better for the child to stay here

With people she's not even related to versus her father?

[Critters2]

27. American laws also give more rights to blood relatives

A girl belongs with her family--not some rich kidnappers.

[Mika]

31. So, French people can abduct US children because "it sounds best for the child"?

After all, the social stats (health care, ed, mental health, etc) in France are far superior to those in the USA.

Such an idea isn't the law, and we have a duty to enforce our laws.

The Hague Convention on Child Abduction (to which the US and Cuba are signatories) states that custodial jurisdiction resides in the home country of the child and parents. The mother has abandoned her custodial duties (given up her children) so now the father becomes the legal custodial parent of this baby. He resides in Cuba and the joint custody agreement between the parents was made in Cuba. Jurisdiction is in Cuba. The Florida DCF in Miami has no legal footing in this case.. but.. its going on in Miami (where some bizarre rulings were made by Miami family court judge Rosa Rodriguez, who had campaign dealings, loans, and such with some of the key players in the Elian case. So bizarre that she was suspended and fined for her actions). The jurisdiction residing in Cuba according to the law was the ruling that the 11th Circuit court made in the Elian case, & the supreme court refused to overturn.

You are right.. ".. we have no duty to enforce any Cuban laws."

But we do have a duty to enforce our own.

[Judi Lynn]

33. Oh, god, that's a familiar name. Pathetic. I thought I remembered she was connected to Armando

Gutierrez, and took a quick look to make sure:

Family spokesman worked for judge who ruled in Elian's favor
By ALEX VEIGA
Associated Press

MIAMI -- 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.''

Elian was rescued from an inner tube off the coast of Florida on Thanksgiving Day, after a shipwreck that killed his mother, stepfather and others fleeing Cuba.

Gutierrez said he hasn't spoken with the judge in 18 months and that he has worked as a consultant on numerous campaigns. He said his work for the judge did not influence her ruling.

''This is absurd that anyone could influence anyone in this case,'' Gutierrez said. ''I'm not a part of this lawsuit ... I'm not getting paid. I'm a community activist trying to help out like millions of community activists in the United States.''

Rodriguez, in statement released Tuesday, said she was not required to recuse herself from the case.

''According to the canons of judicial ethics ... a judge has no ethical obligation to disclose participation by attorneys or participants in a past judicial election campaign,'' she said. ''A judge is not required to disqualify herself due to an attorney's participation in a judicial campaign when the campaign takes place during the previous year and is not ongoing.''
(snip)

http://www.polkonline.com/stories/011100/sta_cuban-boy.shtml

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
These people showed themselves to be the most childish, deceitful, obnoxious people I have ever seen in my life during this side-show. What a circus.

[Judi Lynn]

15. Yes, Elián most certainly DID have a sibling in Cuba. He also had close

cousins, and all four grandparents who had always been a close part of his daily life, as well as schoolmates, and neighbors, and a father who had taken him to school daily, even though he split custody with the mother.

He had also been very well acquainted with his father Juan Miguel's new wife long before he was taken by his mother and her boyfriend.



Elián and his pregnant step-mother,
Nelcy, before his trip to Little Havana.
Everyone he knew, with the exception of his mother, was right back in his hometown, where his father had always had a special room for him in his own small house from the very beginning.

These people in Miami, as you indicate, didn't see ANYTHING worthwhile about all of Elián's people, and, at that time, claimed that the special "bonding" he had gone through with Marisleysis had made her the actual "mother" of the little boy, and it would be inhuman to separate him from that unhinged looneytoon.

[Bacchus39]

22. his mother died enroute trying to leave

don't leave that part out of the picture. nevertheless, it was right to return him to his father.

[Mika]

35. She took the child w/o the dad's consent - against their joint custody agreement.

She died going along on an overloaded small boat on a smuggling op. Her boyfriend ran the operation (@ $5000 per person, and he had made several trips on other larger boats in the past). Despite making lots of money.. NO life-vests, not even for the kids. An unreliable motor. Going across the Gulf Stream that can get rough at a moment's notice.

Reason enough for charging her with reckless child endangerment if she had not drowned due to her recklessness.

Her recklessly endangering a 6 year old's life like this is reprehensible. Surely you are not defending her actions. Are you?

[Bacchus39]

37. lots of people desperate to leave Cuba

she wasn't the first.

[China_cat]

10. One thing missing from all this discussion.

The mother. Yes, she tried to commit suicide...but where is she now? What is she doing? What is HER take on the husband trying to take the daughter back? Unless the state has severed her parental rights, and there's no mention of that happening, her rights also have to be considered.

That's a rather big missing link there.

[tammywammy]

11. Maybe she's been declared

unfit and mentally unstable :shrug:

I'd be interested to know as well what happened to her. It says she treid to commit suicide, not that she did.

[Judi Lynn]

16. Here's an old article, around 23 days old. It's very low key, but clear on the mother:

Posted 23d ago

MIAMI (AP) — A judge will allow the public to view an international custody dispute over a 4-year-old Cuban girl, a case reminiscent of the fight over Elian Gonzalez.
Hearings had been held in secret for more than a year in the legal fight between the child's Cuban father and a family in Florida that wants to adopt her. On Wednesday, Judge Jeri B. Cohen obeyed an appeals court order for open hearings but ordered a gag order for all participants outside the courtroom.

The child entered the U.S. legally in March 2005 with her mother and a sibling. The girl was removed from her mother's care by the Florida Department of Children & Families about a year later, after an investigation into charges that the woman's severe mental illness made her an unfit parent.
(snip)

http://www.usatoday.com/news/topstories/2007-07-19-1165137188_x.htm

[China_cat]

17. Ok, they removed the child from her custody

but so far, they have NOT severed her parental rights and I'm sure they would say so if they had or if she had voluntarily signed them away.

It also doesn't say that the boy had been taken from his mother. Which raises the question of, if she was unfit to parent the girl, why was she fit to parent the boy?

The fact that these things are just ignored really makes it feel like a case of a rich family that wanted a pretty little girl and had the clout to make it happen. It could be different, of course but that's what it feels like to me.

[Judi Lynn]

19. Almost everything needed to understand the case is being withheld! They are so determined this won't

go the way Elián's ordeal went that very little is actually being published so far.

The fact there is so little available for public understanding of the circumstances almost would make one think they don't have the case they wish they did!

The Miami Herald is completely subservient to the Cuban right-wing reactionary "exiles" there, now, after being shown what life is like when they DON'T please them many years ago, with bomb threats to the point the publisher, David Lawrence and his wife both started having people check their cars every day before using them, and the newspaper vending machines all over town were liberally smeared with feces.

The "learning phase" for the Miami Herald is discussed in this article, for example:

TRYING TO SET
THE AGENDA IN MIAMI
http://backissues.cjrarchives.org/year/92/3/miami.asp

As long as they control the media in town, not too much is going to get out of there they don't like! Human Rights Watch has called attention to Miami as a place where the 1st Amendment right has been severely compromised.

[treestar]

12. So they let him into the U.S.?

How can he maintain the suit without coming to the U.S.?

And once a Cuban lands, they get a green card.

Can't have that. He'll steal on of our jobs! :sarcasm:

[peacetalksforall]

14. I am pro-law and lawyers. I can't respect all of them - but I do most of them.

This case is certainly fancy and contrived considering the defendant is a farmer who has only lived in one country - a non-litigious country where you don't normally have lawyers at hand to protect you from angles people dream up in another country.

"In a petition filed in Miami's juvenile court, the Florida Department of Children and Families argued that the girl's biological father, a farmer in Cuba, failed to protect her by not devising a ''safety plan'' to protect the little girl in the United States if her mother became incapacitated or ill."

Sounds like pretty fancy lawyering.

PNAC should hire that lawyer to help with their upcoming lawsuits involving torture.

[ngant17]

29. Cuba has its own 'safety plan' for its children that began in 1959

and it's not based on the individual as it is here in the USA. The safety plans for Cuban children are a function of the government.

The fact that the Cuban father is trying to bring the child back to Cuba is in itself evidence of his own intent to insure a safety plan for the child. There is no logical need to provide long-term protection for the girl in Florida when the girl will be cared for in Cuba. Repeat, there is no way or need for the Cuban farmer to devise a safety plan in Florida, this is an essentially-orphaned Cuban girl until she is returned to safety back in Cuba.

Case in point: the average infant mortality rate in Cuba is lower than what we have in the US. The Republic of Cuba allocates considerable resources to insure that Cuban children have adequate nourishment during their early years of development. Free medical care, free 'insurance', free education, free kindergarden and nurseries, such safety plans have not existed in Florida. Why should a Cuban farmer want to go to the expense of supporting a child in another country when these same expenses are already being subsidized in Cuba? It doesn't make economic sense. The trip back to Cuba would be far cheaper in the long run. Think of all the medical expenses alone that the Cuban farmer would save by not subsidizing US corporate health care here, which BTW would be substandard compared to Cuba anyway. The infant mortality record speaks for itself.

Twisted logic, indeed! This case needs to be addressed outside the jurisdiction of the incompetent personnel in Fla. DCF. I'll bet the DCF has never even traveled to Cuba to interview the father in the first place.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

20. I bet a kid from Alabama would be better off with me in California

Hey Honey, lets go snatch a kid from their family this weekend, their better off with us in Santa Ana!

[LiberalFighter]

23. Why should Florida DCF be given credibility considering the incompetence in the last 8 years?

[LiberalFighter]

24. The custody issue was decided in Cuba and jurisdiction remains in Cuba

Florida courts do not have jurisdiction to decide custody.

[Judi Lynn]

25. Apparently, courts under pressure from right-wing Cubans are given the right to make decisions

which override decisions made anywhere in the entire world! It's a sentiment which has been given free reign there since the 1960's, as illustrated in this reference:

I had but one extended conversation with Jorge Mas Canosa, in the summer of 1994, shortly after the Cuban exile leader seemed to reveal a shocking contempt for native-born Americans in an article in the Spanish newspaper El Pais.

The reporter had asked if the Americans would ''take over'' Cuba after Fidel Castro's fall. Mas Canosa reportedly replied, ''That's bull----. They haven't even been able to take over Miami. If we kicked them out of here, how could they possibly take over our own country?''
(snip)

http://www.fiu.edu/~fcf/caricature112497.html

Same man considered himself not only the highest power in Miami, but the future President of Cuba. He was close to Reagan, Bush, and Clinton. What a pity death took him from us.

[Judi Lynn]

30. No doubt I should have posted a "sarcasm" smilie at the end of the comment that

Jorge Mas Canosa's passing is an unbearable hardship on the world.

He surely ran a tight ship in Miami, riding herd on his Cuban "exiles," stifling all forms of dissent from anyone who dreamed of suggesting a moderate position toward Cuba. People were bombed and shot. Offices, homes, cars of political enemies bombed into oblivion bringing the FBI to determine Miami had become the "Terror Capital of the United States," and the HRW to report that Miami was also a town with an alarming absence of free speech. Very third-worldish.....

A radio journalist, Emilio Milián, who dared to tell his Miami listeners he disapproved of the violence in the Cuban "exile" community was surprised to discover, when he left the station and got into his car, that someone had thoughtfully added a bomb just for him.



Emilio Milián.

An "incomplete" look at the political climate in Miami, up until the time of Elián Gonzalez, only a year or so after the death of Jorge Mas Canosa, the nasty, pushy little "exile" godfather:

The following list of violent incidents I compiled from a variety of databases and news sources (a few come from personal experience). It is incomplete, especially in Miami's trademark category of bomb threats. Nor does it include dozens of acts of violence and murder committed by Cuban exiles in other U.S. cities and at least sixteen foreign countries. But completeness isn't the point. The point is to face the truth, no matter how difficult that may be. If Miami's Cuban exiles confront this shameful past -- and resolutely disavow it -- they will go a long way toward easing their neighbors' anxiety about a peaceful future.



1968 From MacArthur Causeway, pediatrician Orlando Bosch fires bazooka at a Polish freighter. (City of Miami later declares "Orlando Bosch Day." Federal agents will jail him in 1988.)

1972 Julio Iglesias, performing at a local nightclub, says he wouldn't mind "singing in front of Cubans." Audience erupts in anger. Singer requires police escort. Most radio stations drop Iglesias from playlists. One that doesn't, Radio Alegre, receives bomb threats.

1974 Exile leader José Elias de la Torriente murdered in his Coral Gables home after failing to carry out a planned invasion of Cuba.

1974 Bomb blast guts the office of Spanish-language magazine Replica.

1974 Several small Cuban businesses, citing threats, stop selling Replica.

1974 Three bombs explode near a Spanish-language radio station.

1974 Hector Diaz Limonta and Arturo Rodriguez Vives murdered in internecine exile power struggles.

1975 Luciano Nieves murdered after advocating peaceful coexistence with Cuba.

1975 Another bomb damages Replica's office.

1976 Rolando Masferrer and Ramon Donestevez murdered in internecine exile power struggles.

1976 Car bomb blows off legs of WQBA-AM news director Emilio Milian after he publicly condemns exile violence.

1977 Juan José Peruyero murdered in internecine exile power struggles.

1979 Cuban film Memories of Underdevelopment interrupted by gunfire and physical violence instigated by two exile groups.

1979 Bomb discovered at Padron Cigars, whose owner helped negotiate release of 3600 Cuban political prisoners.

1979 Bomb explodes at Padron Cigars.

1980 Another bomb explodes at Padron Cigars.

1980 Powerful anti-personnel bomb discovered at American Airways Charter, which arranges flights to Cuba.

1981 Bomb explodes at Mexican Consulate on Brickell Avenue in protest of relations with Cuba.

1981 Replica's office again damaged by a bomb.

1982 Two outlets of Hispania Interamericana, which ships medicine to Cuba, attacked by gunfire.

1982 Bomb explodes at Venezuelan Consulate in downtown Miami in protest of relations with Cuba.

1982 Bomb discovered at Nicaraguan Consulate.

1982 Miami Mayor Maurice Ferre defends $10,000 grant to exile commando group Alpha 66 by noting that the organization "has never been accused of terrorist activities inside the United States."

1983 Another bomb discovered at Replica.

1983 Another bomb explodes at Padron Cigars.

1983 Bomb explodes at Paradise International, which arranges travel to Cuba.

1983 Bomb explodes at Little Havana office of Continental National Bank, one of whose executives, Bernardo Benes, helped negotiate release of 3600 Cuban political prisoners.

1983 Miami City Commissioner Demetrio Perez seeks to honor exile terrorist Juan Felipe de la Cruz, accidentally killed while assembling a bomb. (Perez is now a member of the Miami-Dade County Public School Board and owner of the Lincoln-Martí private school where Elian Gonzalez is enrolled.)

1983 Gunfire shatters windows of three Little Havana businesses linked to Cuba.

1986 South Florida Peace Coalition members physically attacked in downtown Miami while demonstrating against Nicaraguan contra war.

1987 Bomb explodes at Cuba Envios, which ships packages to Cuba.

1987 Bomb explodes at Almacen El Español, which ships packages to Cuba.

1987 Bomb explodes at Cubanacan, which ships packages to Cuba.

1987 Car belonging to Bay of Pigs veteran is firebombed.

1987 Bomb explodes at Machi Viajes a Cuba, which arranges travel to Cuba.

1987 Bomb explodes outside Va Cuba, which ships packages to Cuba.

1988 Bomb explodes at Miami Cuba, which ships medical supplies to Cuba.

1988 Bomb threat against Iberia Airlines in protest of Spain's relations with Cuba.

1988 Bomb explodes outside Cuban Museum of Art and Culture after auction of paintings by Cuban artists.

1988 Bomb explodes outside home of Maria Cristina Herrera, organizer of a conference on U.S.-Cuba relations.

1988 Bomb threat against WQBA-AM after commentator denounces Herrera bombing.

1988 Bomb threat at local office of Immigration and Naturalization Service in protest of terrorist Orlando Bosch being jailed.

1988 Bomb explodes near home of Griselda Hidalgo, advocate of unrestricted travel to Cuba.

1988 Bomb damages Bele Cuba Express, which ships packages to Cuba.

1989 Another bomb discovered at Almacen El Español, which ships packages to Cuba.

1989 Two bombs explode at Marazul Charters, which arranges travel to Cuba.

1990 Another, more powerful, bomb explodes outside the Cuban Museum of Art and Culture.

1991 Using crowbars and hammers, exile crowd rips out and urinates on Calle Ocho "Walk of Fame" star of Mexican actress Veronica Castro, who had visited Cuba.

1992 Union Radio employee beaten and station vandalized by exiles looking for Francisco Aruca, who advocates an end to U.S. embargo.

1992 Cuban American National Foundation mounts campaign against the Miami Herald, whose executives then receive death threats and whose newsracks are defaced and smeared with feces.

1992 Americas Watch releases report stating that hard-line Miami exiles have created an environment in which "moderation can be a dangerous position."

1993 Inflamed by Radio Mambí commentator Armando Perez-Roura, Cuban exiles physically assault demonstrators lawfully protesting against U.S. embargo. Two police officers injured, sixteen arrests made. Miami City Commissioner Miriam Alonso then seeks to silence anti-embargo demonstrators: "We have to look at the legalities of whether the City of Miami can prevent them from expressing themselves."

1994 Human Rights Watch/Americas Group issues report stating that Miami exiles do not tolerate dissident opinions, that Spanish-language radio promotes aggression, and that local government leaders refuse to denounce acts of intimidation.

1994 Two firebombs explode at Replica magazine's office.

1994 Bomb threat to law office of Magda Montiel Davis following her videotaped exchange with Fidel Castro.

1996 Music promoter receives threatening calls, cancels local appearance of Cuba's La Orquesta Aragon.

1996 Patrons attending concert by Cuban jazz pianist Gonzalo Rubalcaba physically assaulted by 200 exile protesters. Transportation for exiles arranged by Dade County Commissioner Javier Souto.

1996 Firebomb explodes at Little Havana's Centro Vasco restaurant preceding concert by Cuban singer Rosita Fornes.

1996 Firebomb explodes at Marazul Charters, which arranges travel to Cuba.

1996 Arson committed at Tu Familia Shipping, which ships packages to Cuba.

1997 Bomb threats, death threats received by radio station WRTO-FM following its short-lived decision to include in its playlist songs by Cuban musicians.

1998 Bomb threat empties concert hall at MIDEM music conference during performance by 91-year-old Cuban musician Compay Segundo.

1998 Bomb threat received by Amnesia nightclub in Miami Beach preceding performance by Cuban musician Orlando "Maraca" Valle.

1998 Firebomb explodes at Amnesia nightclub preceding performance by Cuban singer Manolín.

1999 Violent protest at Miami Arena performance of Cuban band Los Van Van leaves one person injured, eleven arrested.

1999 Bomb threat received by Seville Hotel in Miami Beach preceding performance by Cuban singer Rosita Fornes. Hotel cancels concert.

January 26, 2000 Outside Miami Beach home of Sister Jeanne O'Laughlin, protester displays sign reading, "Stop the deaths at sea. Repeal the Cuban Adjustment Act," then is physically assaulted by nearby exile crowd before police come to rescue.

April 11, 2000 Outside home of Elian Gonzalez's Miami relatives, radio talk show host Scot Piasant of Portland, Oregon, displays T-shirt reading, "Send the boy home" and "A father's rights," then is physically assaulted by nearby exile crowd before police come to rescue.
(snip/)

http://www.walterlippmann.com/docs135.html

[roody]

34. Scary!!! eom

[Cameron27]

36. I don't understand the legality of this.

Why did the Florida courts defer the custody hearings of Anna Nicole's daughter to the Bahamas and then allow them for a child who has a biological father living in Cuba?

[Scurrilous]

38. Visits ordered in Cuban custody case

<snip>

"Signaling she may have no choice but to return a 4-year-old girl to Cuba, a Miami judge ordered Monday that her birth father be permitted overnight visits with the girl -- despite the concerns of therapists and the girl's foster parents, who claim a sleepover over the weekend ''terrified'' her.

Miguel Firpi, the little girl's court-appointed psychologist, testified Monday morning that the girl cried herself to sleep Saturday night during an overnight visit with her birth father, who came to Miami from Cuba two months ago to fight for custody.

"The child told me she cried a lot. She told me she does not want to go back," Firpi told Circuit Judge Jeri B. Cohen. "She's anxious and concerned."

Though Cohen expressed dismay that the long custody battle is traumatizing the girl, she told lawyers for the state Department of Children & Families and the Guardian-ad-Litem Program that the birth father has "fundamental rights" to raise the little girl unless he is proven to be an unfit parent.

And that, Cohen added, is a very tall order considering the state's case against him is "anything but a slam dunk."

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking_news/story/201824.html

[Mika]

39. Thanks for the update.

The custody battle is against Castro, so, to the hard rightwingnut exiles, traumatizing a child is worth the victory against him.