By Luisa Yanez. lyanez@herald.com. Published Saturday,
November 25, 2000, in the Miami Herald
A Homestead man whose ex-wife took his 5-year-old son to Cuba without his
permission will travel to Washington, D.C., to plead with Cuban officials that
his boy belongs with him in Florida.
At a news conference Friday night, Jon Colombini, 31, announced he and his
attorney will travel to the capital Monday to meet with officials at the Cuban
Interests Section. Colombini will also ask to be allowed to travel to the island
to see him. The boy was taken two weeks ago by mother Arletis Blanco, 29, of Key
Largo.
"I'm willing to do whatever it takes to get my son back, and yes, I'm
ready to go to Cuba,'' said the Ohio-born Colombini, who will make the trip with
his attorney, Michael Barry of Clearwater. Colombini said he has never visited
Cuba.
Colombini's announcement follows a pair of interviews by Blanco, in which
she says Cuba will be better for her family and weaves a tale of intrigue and
death threats.
FEARED FOR HER LIFE
Blanco told the Cuban communist newspaper Granma that she fled to Cuba with
her American-born son because she feared for her life after uncovering her boss'
scheme to finance a Cuban exile group in Miami.
That tale is one of three recent accounts she has given of her sudden
departure.
On Friday, she told the Associated Press she wants to live in Cuba, which
offers a better future for her children: "If you are a good parent, you are
a good parent in a rich country, in a poor country, in a communist country, in a
free country. Here, because of the tranquillity, they will have more freedom.''
The interviews were in stark contrast to the story on three cassette tapes
left behind with her relatives in the Florida Keys. That version said she had
embezzled $150,000 from her employer, McKenzie Petroleum in Key Largo.
Blanco took her son, Jonathon, with her, sparking an Elián-like
custody battle with her former husband in Homestead.
Colombini's request Friday makes his case even more reminiscent of the Elián
González saga. After months of legal wrangling, Elián's father,
Juan Miguel, finally traveled to the United States to fetch his son. Also like
Juan Miguel, Colombini said he spoke on the phone this week with the boy and
said the child thinks he's on vacation.
The case began Nov. 12, when Blanco, under suspicion of embezzling, climbed
aboard a boat headed to Cuba. With her was her boyfriend, Agustin Lemus, 37, and
the couple's 20-month-old daughter, Jessica, along with Jonathon. The divorced
couple had joint custody.
Last week, Colombini asked the U.S. government to help him get his son back.
The State Department and the FBI, along with the U.S. Interests Section in
Havana, are working with him.
But Jonathon "will not become Elián for the simple reason that I
am not dead,'' Blanco told the Associated Press. Elián's mother perished
during the sea journey a year ago this week.
Granma printed Blanco's allegations of uncovering a exile plot and verifies
that a third adult, Lemus' cousin Yuriel Leon Lemus, 21, described as a
construction worker from Miami, accompanied the couple to Cuba.
All three adults are Cuban-born. The children were born in Florida. Blanco
and her two children are staying in Pinar del Rio at the home of Lemus' family,
Cuban officials said. Lemus and his cousin are being detained for questioning.
Blanco would not allow journalists to see her son.
The usually tight-lipped Cuban government said it was releasing information
in response to articles in The Herald and El Nuevo Herald. Cuba hinted that it
would cooperate with the United States in its efforts to help Colombini get his
son back.
UNDER INVESTIGATION
Blanco, an office manager for a division of McKenzie Petroleum in Key Largo,
is under investigation by the Monroe Sheriff's Office.
She admitted embezzling the money in the tapes she left for her family, said
sheriff's spokeswoman Becky Herrin.
But Blanco told Granma she's innocent. She said she uncovered a scheme by
her boss, Juan Emilio Suarez, described as a member of Miami's oldest
paramilitary group, Alpha 66. She said Suarez had been selling gasoline to Ramón
Saúl Sánchez, head of the Democracy Movement, to fill up the boats
used in his flotillas to waters near Cuba.
Suarez was not reporting the sales, Blanco said, and instead diverted them
to finance other anti-Castro activities, such as gun running to Nicaragua. She
said she detected the thefts and decided to tape record a conversation where the
men talked about a sale of gas. She said Suarez caught her and that she later
received telephone calls threatening her life.
She decided to run, she told the newspaper.
"This is a ridiculous maneuver to manipulate public opinion against the
Democracy Movement,'' Sánchez said.Sánchez said he did not know
Juan Suarez.
At Alpha 66, members said they hadn't heard of Suarez.
Jessica McKenzie, finance manager for McKenzie Petroleum, said Suarez is the
prior owner of a company division.
Vivian Sequera of The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Copyright 2000 Miami Herald | 