Another Elian? Custody fight gears up

MIAMI - A Cuban father allowed his young daughter to emigrate legally to the United States with her mother to find a better life. But months later, the mother has become incapable of caring for the girl and the father wants to take the child home.

It would seem a simple case, especially since the mother agrees her daughter should return to Cuba.

Yet on the eve of the trial, a judge has warned that it could "inflame the community," where the battle over Elian Gonzalez nearly eight years ago divided the city and became an international incident.

Testimony is to begin Monday over whether 32-year-old Cuban farmer Rafael Izquierdo can regain custody of his 4-year-old daughter — whose name is being kept secret — or whether she should remain with a wealthy Cuban-American and his wife who want to adopt her.

Until now, unlike Elian's case, this custody battle has moved quietly through family court.

But on Thursday, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Jerri B. Cohen reluctantly lifted a gag order at the request of the girl's foster father, Joe Cubas, 46, a former sports agent who has represented the New York Mets' Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez and several other ballplayers who defected from Cuba. Cubas said he asked that it be lifted because he said he was getting many questions about the case.

The judge warned that allowing the parties to speak to the media "could have the possibility to inflame the community."

"It's going to explode," Cohen said. "I know that as sure as I sit here. I can't prevent that."

Still, civic leaders, many of whom fought hard to keep Elian from returning to Cuba, say they don't believe this case will spark similar reactions. The facts are different and neither the U.S. government nor the Cuban-exile community, burned by its negative portrayal during the Elian case, have a desire to repeat the past.

Elian, then 5, was found floating at sea on an inner tube on Thanksgiving Day 1999, after his mother drowned with others attempting to defect to the U.S. The boy's Miami relatives and many Cuban exiles insisted that Elian remain in this country, but immigration officials ruled in favor of his father, who wanted him returned to Cuba. A standoff ended only when armed federal agents raided the Little Havana home of Elian's uncle to seize the boy and send him to Cuba.

In the current case, both parents are in Miami and have agreed to participate in the U.S. legal system — and both say the girl should go with her father.

"The reaction in the community has been incredibly mature up to this point, and I'm sure it will remain this way," said Carlos Saladrigas, head of the Cuba Study Group, a nonpartisan group of business and civic leaders formed after the Elian case to promote democracy in Cuba through moderate channels.

The case began in 2004 when the girl's mother, Elena Perez, won the visa lottery to come to the U.S. with her son and daughter, each of whom has a different father. Both fathers agreed to let their children go with her.

But after Perez was hospitalized in December 2005 following a suicide attempt, the children were put in foster care and ended up with the Cubas family. Perez agreed to let them adopt her son, now 13, but not her daughter.

Izquierdo said he wants to take his daughter back to his family home in the central Cuban village of Cabaiguan, where he and his wife have a 7-year-old daughter.

Perez agrees. "Now that she's not going to her mother, she should go to her father," she said of her daughter. "Those are the two best people in the world to be at the side of a child."

An independent guardian appointed for the girl favors leaving her girl with Cubas. Several top attorneys for the Florida Department of Children & Families also appear to favor Cubas.

Cubas said the girl, who calls him "Papi," shouldn't be separated from her brother and doesn't want to go back to Cuba.

"I don't believe this is a matter of where their better life could be provided," he said. "It is our belief, as is the wishes of the children, that they remain together and that's why we're here."

Cubas drew critics in the late 1990s who said he helped top Cuba ball players leave the island. In 2005, his sports agent certification was suspended following accusations by one defector that Cubas took his immigration documents and refused to return them. He has denied the allegations.

Perez and Saladrigas said the community's fear in both the Elian case and this one was that the fathers had been pressured to bring their children back by the Castro government.

"The concern is whether they are speaking from their heart or being coerced, and there is no clear answer to that. You will never know," Saladrigas said. "If it wouldn't be for that it would be a no-brainer."

Excuse me, I must’ve passed over where it stated where the father is (but some of it is confusing, to say the least). However, my opinion has not changed with the heart of the situation. No father who cares for the welfare of his child would take them back to a totalitarian regime, period. If he is making the decision without coercion (and no one can claim there is no coercion here if he has another child still in Cuba, his family would be at risk regardless), he has to be incredibly selfish and stupid. You always put your child’s needs ahead of your own, especially in a situation like this.

I have posted this FR in prior years. My husband escaped out of Castro's Cuba in the beginning. He is an only child and lived with his Mom and Dad and it was really getting hairy in Havana. One night a cousin of my husband came to their house and told them there was a plane getting ready to take off to America with one seat left. His cousin urged him to take it. My husband did not want to leave his mother and father and could not make up his mind. Finally, his father said "Go - at least you will be in a free country". So my husband left on the plane that night. I still get chills when he tells me that when the plane reached the point of no return, where if they ran into trouble of any sort they would go to America rather than back to Cuba, the folks on the plane erupted into cheers. He never saw his parents again.

When the plane finally arrived in Miami and my husband saw the American Flag flying he got very emotional. He eventually settled in and taught me about America in a way I never saw my country before. He admires and loves America and the American people. He eventually became an antiques and collectibles dealer and specializes in American items. He went to school to learn perfect English and lose his Spanish accent. And he is a registered Conservative. We live in small village in Upstate New York and during the Elian controversay folks here asked him if he thought Elian should be sent back to Cuba and he said "Hell, no, Elian is in a free country and should stay here".

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