AP Exclusive: Cuba says it will give US Florida couple who allegedly kidnapped children

[Judi Lynn]

AP Exclusive: Cuba says it will give US Florida couple who allegedly kidnapped children
By Associated Press,
Updated: Tuesday, April 9, 3:58 PM

HAVANA — Cuba says it will turn over to the United States a Florida couple who allegedly kidnapped their own children from the mother’s parents and fled by boat to Havana.

Foreign Ministry official Johana Tablada told The Associated Press in a written statement Tuesday that Cuba had informed U.S. authorities of the country’s decision to turn over Joshua Michael Hakken, his wife Sharyn and their two young boys. She did not say when the handover would occur.

The Hakkens were spotted alongside their boat, Salty, docked at Havana’s Hemingway Marina. Joshua Michael Hakken told reporters to stay away but the family appeared to be interacting normally with each other.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/ap-exclusive-cuba-says-it-will-give-us-florida-couple-who-allegedly-kidnapped-children/2013/04/09/2f3014b8-a158-11e2-bd52-614156372695_story.html

[MADem]

1. Goose-Gander. Rule of law. After all, we respected custodial rights re: Elian Gonzales.

It would be unseemly of them to not return the favor. If a US court ruled that those children belonged with Gramps and Gram, then those parents were kidnappers.

[Mika]

2. No "we" didn't. Only after a prolonged fight.

After fuck up after fuck up by Reno and INS's Doris Meisner.

Maybe you forgot, AG Reno had to send in squads to rescue the kids from the kidnappers that INS turned the kid over to - a direct violation of the Hague Convention on Child Custody - which is routinely followed regarding Cuban children brought to the US w/o proper custody proceedings (which lawfully reside in the country of domicile of the legal custodians).

Cuba has always been up front and lawful regarding custody cases. The USA ... not so much.

[MADem]

3. Yes, "we" did. "We" in this case, was Janet Reno. She represented WE, the people.

The "prolonged fight" wasn't coming from the US government--it was coming from private citizens who didn't want to give the kid back to his dad.

RENO took the kid from the people who wanted to use him as a political football and returned him to his father. She tried negotiating with the relatives but they were assholes. The action of taking the child by force was a "last resort" scenario, and she managed it without shooting anyone.

She, acting for We, The People, upheld the 11th Circuit Court's ruling. She didn't "fuck up." She did the right thing.

His father thinks well of Reno. I'll go with his opinion, I think.

It's not out of line to place a child with relatives while sorting out a custody issue--and the relatives, even though they were being jerks, were related to the FATHER, not the mother. As I remember, no one knew Elian had a father in Cuba when he was found in the tube--they believed his "parents" had died at sea. It was several days later before we knew he had a father in Cuba, and some tried to suggest that he wasn't really the father. It soon became clear, though, that he did have a father and the mother was travelling with a boyfriend when she died.

Reno acted promptly to return the child to his father's custody, even though they had to "wait it out" for awhile in the USA while the case wended its way through the court process. It's not like they refused to hand the kid over.

Again, rule of law. It was a little bulky and clunky, but it worked.


Let's review:

González's mother drowned in November 1999 while attempting to leave Cuba with her son and her boyfriend to get to the United States.[1][2] The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) initially placed González with paternal relatives in Miami, who sought to keep him in the United States against his father's demands that González be returned to Cuba. A federal district court's ruling that only González's father, and not his extended relatives, could petition for asylum on the boy's behalf was upheld by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. After the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case, federal agents seized González from his relatives and returned him to Cuba in June 2000.

....

Four hours after he was taken from the house in Miami, Elián and his father were reunited at Andrews Air Force Base.[23] The next day, the White House released a photograph showing a smiling Elián reunited with his father, which the Miami relatives disputed by claiming that it was a fake Elián in the photograph....After Elián was returned to his father's custody, he remained in the U.S. while the Miami relatives exhausted their legal options. A three-judge federal panel had ruled that he could not go back to Cuba until he was granted an asylum hearing, but the case turned on the right of the relatives to request that hearing on behalf of the boy.[29] On June 1, 2000, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Elián was too young to file for asylum; only his father could speak for him, and the relatives lacked legal standing.[30] On June 28, 2000, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the decision.[31] Later the same day, Elián González and his family returned home to Cuba.[32][24]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eli%C3%A1n_Gonz%C3%A1lez_affair#Eli.C3.A1n_returned_to_father.27s_custody

Here's a timeline: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/elian/etc/eliancron.html

April 3
2000 The U.S. State Department approves visas for Juan Miguel Gonzalez and other close relatives to come to the U.S.

April 6
2000 Juan Miguel Gonzalez arrives in the U.S.

April 7
2000 After meeting with Juan Miguel Gonzalez, Attorney General Janet Reno announces that U.S. officials will move to transfer Elian to his father.

April 12
2000 Reno meets with Elian's relatives in Miami about the process for transferring the boy to his father, but there's no agreement from the relatives. Over the next several days negotiations continue between the family, Reno and representatives on both sides.

April 19
2000 The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals grants a request by Elian's Miami relatives to block his return to Cuba.

April 22
2000 In a pre-dawn raid, armed U.S. federal agents seize Elian Gonzalez from the home of his Miami relatives. Elian is reunited with his father a few hours later. But it will take two months before Eilan and his father would go back to Cuba--two months of court procedures and demonstrations and counter-demonstrations in Miami.

June 1
2000 A federal appeals court upholds the U.S. government's authority to deny Elian a political asylum hearing.

June 28
2000 Elian Gonzales and his father, stepmother and half brother arrive in Cuba to a jubilant reception. Their return comes just hours after the U.S. Supreme Court rejects a last-ditch effort by the Miami relatives to keep him in the U.S.

[Mika]

4. I'm not going to rehash this, except that...

The ER doctor spoke w/Elian's dad within an hour of his being admitted. All the usual arrangements would be made. The INS's Dorris Meisner gave custody of the child to the drunken uncle - which was w/o out any custody competency hearing nor w/o appointing a child advocate. All in direct violation of the Convention, and INS regulations.

Gov't agencies fucked up. Reno fucked up. There was NO jurisdiction. Ms Reno didn't have to allow the family to keep the child. The only thing keeping the child in the US was dan Burton's congressional subpoena of Elian in the last few weeks. Until then, Ms Reno had the full authority and duty to retrieve the kidnapped child forthwith, but she didn't.

The Wiki timeline is so full of loaded political disinfo it's rather useless.

The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) initially placed González with paternal relatives in Miami, who sought to keep him in the United States against his father's demands that González be returned to Cuba.

The law of the Hague Convention demands it. The father's "demands" are inconsequential to the Convention on Child Custody. The INS illegally placed the child w/the relatives - who didn't qualify as custodians due to criminal records and living space regulations. The "demands" that the father made were demands that the US follow the law.

[MADem]

5. The Timeline I provided (with dates) is from PBS Frontline. And it is correct.

There's no father in the picture until DAYS later, AFTER the kid was placed with paternal relatives.

And there's nothing "loaded" about the statement from WIKI you have highlighted. The relatives did seek that, and the father did demand his kid back--and the relatives lost, IN COURT, and the father won.

I can't understand why Castro made all those pleasant "truce" comments and Elian's father said such nice things about Reno if they felt they were treated poorly. The blame for the delay in returning the child belongs with the Miami family, egged on by the exile community, that wanted to use the child as a propaganda tool. Reno had to step in and actually 'override' a local family court that found for the relatives.

It's unfair to suggest that the USG didn't do what they needed to do to get that child back to his parent, and the Supremes, for once, were smart in not taking the case.

[Judi Lynn]

7. Seeing your post brought back so many memories! At least two of the 3 great uncles had records

for drunk driving, and remember Lazaro's nephews, Marisleysis' (and Elian's, of course) cousins? Here's a tiny memory refresher:

Last week, a Miami newspaper reported that Jose Cid, 32, had been arrested at least five times since 1986 on felony charges, including robbery with force, grand theft and burglary. His twin, Luis Cid, who also has an impressive rap sheet, was most recently arrested on Sept. 7 for assault and robbery of a tourist in Little Havana.

http://articles.latimes.com/2000/jan/30/opinion/op-59408

Freakish, isn't it? And the "legal" work involved in this 3-ring circus. What a nightmare.

I remember Republican Senator Bob Smith from New Hampshire waddling around getting in the road with his special Easter basket to give to Elian after he commandeered a jet to fly Lazaro & Co. to the Air Force Base outside Washington, D.C. so they could demand to see Elian, immediately after the INS lawfully retrieved Elian and get him away from the people who had been holding him illegally. When they demanded to see the kid, the Air Force officials refused their request, and Senator Bob was left holding his basket.

[center]

Republican Senator Bob Smith[/center]
Another fond memory from that time:

COUSINS: ELIAN'S DOPED, PIX ARE FAKE
William Neuman in Washington, Niles Lathem at Andrews AFB in Maryland, Douglas Montero in Miami and Tracy Connor in New York.
Last Updated:
Posted: 12:00 AM, April 24, 2000


The Miami family of Elian Gonzalez came to Washington with a bagful of fury and conspiracy theories - including allegations the boy is being drugged and that photos of him were doctored.

A day after the 6-year-old was seized and reunited with his father, the relatives hopscotched across the nation's capital - shopping, attending Easter services and meeting with political supporters.

Tears streaming down her face, 21-year-old cousin Marisleysis Gonzalez told a morning press conference she did not believe Elian was happy with his dad, even after seeing pictures of them smiling.

"That is not Elian," she said flatly, explaining that she gave the boy a short haircut three days ago and that the photos from Saturday showed him with longer hair.

Her father and Elian's great-uncle, Lazaro Gonzalez, was equally convinced, saying: "Our fears are clear. This photo is not real."

More:
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/item_CjSxfXLT18uRIBTqarAlwK

[Mika]

8. Of course, Janet Reno did ALL that she could.

And it was done on the up and up.

And done very quickly so as to not traumatize the child.

The real icing on the cake was the day Dan Burton issued the US congress' first ever subpoena of a 6 year old the family and entourage of CANF lawyers emerged from the house with Elian on the shoulders of mass murderer Orlando Bosch.

Never mind all that. Janet Reno got right on it, and followed the law.

I remember reading Billy Burnet's (and your) posts from the scene as it was going on on the CNN message boards. The whole case was a mockery of justice. Glad to see that Cuba doesn't pull that kind of crap.

[Judi Lynn]

9. Oh, yes, indeed! The USG gave them almost the rest of their lives to hand that kid over,

while crowds milled around with upside down US flags, effigies of Fidel Castro, rude signs regarding Bill Clinton and Janet Reno. She coddled them far longer than they had any right to expect, while they made references to the known killers in the houses directly surrounding them, keeping watch for USG agents coming to legally retrieve that child, being held there illegally.

It was reading the communications with Billy Burnett, the Canadian woman, Cassandra, so many Miami residents, normal Cuban, and lunatic fringe mad dog "exile," which laid it all out, opened it up, in ways never available in corporate media reading.

It took very little time to start seeing who was telling the truth, and those who were there to prevent the truth from being heard. Their characters were worlds apart, barely even the same species. Anyone visiting a board for the first time discussing Latin America and the Caribbean will be meeting the same conditions. It won't take long, but it will require the reader starts doing his/her own research. Once that kicks in, the truth becomes the only thing which matters, and the truth has been well hidden by our own gov't's management of public perception via corporate media.

Maybe the "exiles" decided it would be fine if Orlando Bosch carry out Elian, since Bosch had started out in Cuba as a pediatrician, that is, before he and Posada Carriles and the C-4 specialists slaughtered children on the Cubana airliner as it left Barbados. Who wouldn't want him carrying a small child?

That Miami drunken great uncle and his wackadoodle family, including the Cid felon cousins should thank their lucky stars Bill Clinton and Janet Reno nearly never moved at all to prevent more mayhem in finally following the law and taking that child legally, which should have been done IMMEDIATELY. The wishes of the father were established early in the game, long, long ago.

The Miami crowd was hoping and praying Juan Miguel Gonzalez would come personally to Miami to retrieve him, himself, and walk into a shooting gallery, with the house surrounded by, as Marisleysis boasted, many armed "exiles" holed up, watching night and day for any provocation to light the place up. They even publicly called him out, challenging his manhood for not having come there already to get his son.

Thank goodness the gov't persuaded him to let them do the retrieval and avoid not only the invevitable conflagration, but also an astonishingly ugly political spectacle. The CANF would STILL be celebrating if they had been able to pull that one off.

[Mika]

10. If Cuba detained, and allowed endless baseless court appeals keeping the child in Cuba...

... would it be reciprocation. The unseemly behavior was by the US AG and the INS, and that was before US exile congresscritters jumped on board with the kidnappers of Elian, who got all the assistance and coddling they needed for their dastardly act by AG Reno and INS Dorris Meisner.
Even Al Gore stated that US courts had to settle it (supporting completely bypassing international laws).

As it stands, Cuba takes the high road, again.

I'm stunned to read your post.

[MADem]

11. Why would they even want to do that? These kids have no relatives in Cuba.

No Cubans are challenging their custody in Cuban court. Their non-custodial parents are cretinous known criminals who are wanted in USA.

Why would the Cuban government--which is cash poor and having dire balance-of-trade/supply problems--want to take on the burden of feeding and housing two children with absolutely no connection to their island, when they're struggling to provide fo their own people and relying on VZ for a big chunk of their economy's input?

The "On the Lam" parents were just stopping in Cuba for beer and gas, and maybe to try and formulate a plan. If they thought they could "hang out with Fidel," they were quickly disabused of that notion.

The FBI has arrested them. They aren't the Parents of the Year.

Cuba didn't "take the high road." They asked USA to please come and pick up their dangerous and crazy trash. The FBI arrived, with handcuffs, and did just that. Bonus for the Cubans? They've now got an abandoned boat and all the contents! I don't think anyone will be claiming that baby any time soon.

The Cubans didn't want to be in the middle of a potentially dangerous situation where kidnappers with drug issues and an anarchist bent, listed as armed and dangerous, who had snatched two kids out of their beds in their PJs and tied up their grandparents, might go nuts and do harm to the little ones. I can't say as I blame them.



http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/04/10/17686622-couple-accused-of-abducting-kids-returned-to-florida-placed-under-arrest?lite

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/04/09/17670436-couple-who-allegedly-abducted-children-return-from-cuba?lite

[Judi Lynn]

6. Cuba says it will send back Florida couple who allegedly kidnapped children

Cuba says it will send back Florida couple who allegedly kidnapped children
By Associated Press, Published: April 9

HAVANA — Cuba on Tuesday said it will hand over to the United States a Florida couple who allegedly kidnapped their two young sons from the mother’s parents and fled by boat to Havana.
U.S. diplomats in Havana said in a statement early Wednesday that the two children had left Cuba and “are safely on their way home.” The statement did not mention whether the parents had left for the U.S.

~snip~
Tabladadid not say when the handover would occur, but reporters saw Sharyn Hakken leaving the dock of Havana’s Hemingway Marina in the back seat of a Cuban government vehicle and workers later said that all four Hakkens had been taken away.

An AP reporter spotted the family earlier Tuesday beside their boat at the marina. A man who resembled photographs of Joshua Michael Hakken yelled out “Stop! Stay back!” as the reporter approached, but there was no outward sign of tension or distress between the family members.

Tablada said the Foreign Ministry had informed U.S. diplomats on the island “of the Cuban government’s willingness to turn over ... U.S. citizens Joshua Michael Hakken, his wife Sharyn Patricia and their two minor sons.” She said Cuba tipped the State Department off to the Hakkens’ presence on Sunday and that from that moment “diplomatic contact has been exchanged and a professional and constant communication has been maintained.”

More:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/ap-exclusive-cuba-says-it-will-give-us-florida-couple-who-allegedly-kidnapped-children/2013/04/09/a75f971c-a17e-11e2-bd52-614156372695_story.html