Cuba to Let U.S. Father Visit 5-Year-Old

The Cuban government will allow the father of a 5-year-old boy taken to Cuba by his mother to fly to the island in the hopes of bringing back his son.

The State Department is working on special preparations to obtain travel documents for Jon K. Colombini and his lawyer. Colombini, 31, said Friday that he and attorney Michael Berry were told they can visit the boy, Jonathon, and meet with Colombini’s ex-wife, Arletis Blanco.

“I want to discuss with her what we’re going to do about Jonathon and try to work something out,” Colombini said. “I don’t know exactly when we’ll fly to Cuba; it could be next week, probably before Christmas.”

The case has drawn parallels to that of Elian Gonzalez, whose mother drowned in a shipwreck trying to leave Cuba last year. Miami relatives lost a custody fight to raise Elian in the United States, and his father took him home to Cuba in June.

Blanco embarked on a 21-foot fishing boat from the Florida Keys to Cuba on Nov. 12 with Jonathon; her boyfriend, Agustin Lemus, 37; and their 18-month-old daughter, Jessica.

Blanco, 29, is living in Pinar del Rio, Cuba, with the boy and says she wants them to begin a new life on the island. Colombini and his current wife share custody, and Colombini said he wants to raise the boy in the United States.

Officials at the Cuban Interests Section in Washington confirmed they authorized the trip.

“We have said from the start of this case we’d assist in this case, and we are making it possible for the parents to meet face to face and talk,” said interests section spokesman Luis Fernandez. “Now the United States government has to give them permission.”

The U.S. embargo against Cuba bars those born in the United States from visiting or spending money there.

Thus, Berry needs a “special license given by the Department of Treasury to be allowed to do business in Cuba, and the father must also get permission, probably under a humanitarian provision,” a spokeswoman at the Office of Consular Affairs said.

Berry and the U.S. attorney’s office, which is handling the custody matter, didn’t immediately comment, the Miami Herald reported Saturday.