NewsMax.com
Wires. Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2000
HOMESTEAD, Fla. (UPI) – The father of a 5-year-old boy and his attorney
were in Cuba Monday seeking to bring the youngster back to the United States.
The case resembles that of Elian Gonzalez – in reverse.
Jonathon Colombini was taken to Cuba early last month by his mother, who is
under investigation in the embezzlement of $150,000 from a former employer,
McKenzie Petroleum in Key Largo, Fla. Jon Colombini, the boy's father, said he
was not notified when the mother, Arletis Blanco, 29, fled to Cuba with the
child.
The couple, who were divorced in 1998, were awarded joint custody.
Jon Colombini, 31, and attorney Michael Berry of Clearwater, Fla., traveled
to Pinar Del Rio, a town in western Cuba, to talk to Blanco in an effort to
persuade her to allow their son to return to the United States.
Blanco, who was born in Cuba, fled to the island on a boat with her son; her
boyfriend, Augustin Lemus, 37; and their infant daughter. They have been living
with Lemus' relatives in Pinar del Rio.
Blanco has told Cuban authorities she wants to remain in Cuba.
Elian Gonzalez, 7, was the little boy who arrived in south Florida on
Thanksgiving Day 1999 after his mother perished at sea when the pair attempted
to flee Cuba for the United States. The Justice Department and Immigration and
Naturalization Service seized Elian at gunpoint and returned him to impoverished
communist Cuba to live with his father, after months of legal conflict with his
Miami relatives, who wanted to keep custody of him.
Curiously, the liberal church groups and other leftist organizations that
agitated for Elian's return to dictator Fidel Castro's Cuba have been quiet
about this "reverse Elian" case.
Copyright 2000 by United Press International. All rights reserved. | 