The good, the bad, and the ugly....

...this update has a bit of all three.  I know it's been a few days since my last post, and unfortunately that may often be the case, as there are frequently long periods of no activity in Hague cases.  My brother has been fighting this battle for over three years, and there have been several occasions where there was no new information for months...just seemingly endless waiting.  Ironically, it is often during these periods of no news to report that my brother is running himself ragged, physically and emotionally, trying to cover all possible bases and to stay one step ahead of what's happening.  He said it best in an email to me earlier today..."I'm behind on everything, including sleep, bills, work, and emails to basically everyone..." 

Much of this post will be quotes from my brother's own description of what is happening, but I want to put some of it in perspective by providing a quick summary of his situation.  Carlos lives in a city about 1 1/2--2 hours away from both the court and the city where Sage is residing with his mother's family.  He is driving an old vehicle back and forth on Mexican highways that aren't all that well maintained or necessarily safe.  He is only now becoming somewhat familiar with his surroundings and how to get around.  He is frequently having to appear in court, either for all day hearings or for brief submissions of evidence, and the visits he has been awarded with Sage do not necessarily coincide with these appearances.  All of this means that each time he drives the 1 1/2 hours to see his son for what is supposed to be only an hour anyway, and then his mother doesn't show up, he ends up waiting around to see if they'll show late, then longer to collect evidence of the missed visit, and then drive all the way back.  While this is frustrating at best, it also serves to benefit him in court by proving without a doubt that Ana's true intention is and always has been to completely eliminate Carlos from Sage's life.  The good in these disturbing recent events is ultimately the potential fallout for Ana's case, and the benefit to Carlos'; the bad is the missed work, the long drives, and the disappointment when he doesn't get to see his son; and the ugly here seems to be a constant--a mother's cruel vendetta against her own son's loving father, and the abuse towards her child inherent in her actions.
Carlos will be back in court on Friday to discuss the visitation issues; until then, here are some of his recent emails:

1.) "I think she has gotten the family court judge pretty angry and embarrassed by her behavior.  During their questioning of me I went out of my way to say she was making a mockery of this court and making them look like fools with her constant, ridiculous and obvious lying, going on to point out how my son had said, in front of the judge, that his last names were "Rayon Garcia Gonzales" but under questioning she denied teaching him that.

This judge also knows that I'm a fierce advocate for my son and that I know the relevant Mexican laws that apply to my case better than most Mexican attorneys and the relevant international laws, and their interpretation in Mexico, better than any one involved with this case.  He also knows that I have testified before members of US Congress and have contacts in Congress, the US State Dept, US Embassy and Mexican Secretary of Foreign Relations.  He knows I already litigated this case through all levels of appeals once and has no reason to doubt I'll do it again.  He's also personally seen me with my son and that my son enjoyed being with me.

I thought I had court yesterday but I didn't.  The court hearing to review visitation is on Friday.  Yesterday I had an appointment to ratify a criminal complaint against the prosecutor involved in my case as "my son's representative."  I had visitation scheduled with my son again yesterday during his swimming lesson and for an hour afterward.  She appeared for the lesson and left immediately after and I didn't get any time to see Sage.

The judge warned her after she skipped last Wed. visit that he could change custody if she did not comply with the visitation schedule.  Since then she skipped the Sunday visit completely and left in the middle of the Monday one before the real visit could start."

2.)  "We submitted another complaint to the court with the evidence that we were there for the Sunday visit and she didn't bring Sage.  In the complaint we requested that the judge follow through with his warning and order a change of provisional custody to me here.  We also requested that the judge order that electronic tracking bracelets be placed on me and my son and that the judge hold my passport to prevent me from leaving the country with Sage or, should the judge decide not to change custody at this time, that he order that my wife and son have electronic bracelets placed on them to prevent further abductions by my wife.

We also requested that Sage not be allowed to leave the city of Salamanca without the express permission of the court.  I think this will be extremely inconvenient for her since we believe she has been lying about living there in the first place (one of just so many massive and ridiculous lies.)

She has Sage enrolled in a school in Celaya, which is about 45 minutes away, and claims she drives there from Salamanca every day where she lives with her parents and siblings.  We believe she lives in Celaya with her boyfriend.  Since she claims to live in Salamanca anyway, is a flight risk, there are schools there that are as good or better than in Celaya, and the highways in Mexico are dangerous we also requested that, since school is currently on vacation, she have Sage transferred to a school in Salamanca immediately.

I have been avoiding mentioning it on the forums but the cat is pretty much out of the bag here anyway.  Besides the local prosecutor "representing the child," we also filed a criminal complaint against my wife, her father and a witness who testified for her in the first trial.  I plan to add three other witnesses who testified for her in this trial and will file a separate complaint against the psychologists who provided "expert testimony" which was completely one-sided, biased, unprofessional and criminally negligent (and as such will have no probatory value in court, but they should be held accountable anyway,) and the social worker who did the "home visit" to study the living situation of Sage even though she went to the wrong house and city!  Hopefully the circus of idiots who have illegally lined up to help my wife continue to illegally retain my son will be held accountable for doing so.

I have another visit scheduled for Wed and Thursday before the Friday hearing.

She never shows up for Thursday visits and says she took Sage out of the Soccer practices where the visit was supposed to take place so I haven't even tried to attend those for a few weeks.

Wednesday is supposed to be just me and Sage visiting for two hours and, besides Sunday, is the best visit I have.  I'm expecting to drive two hours, sit there by myself for two hours, spend an hour preparing the new evidence and formal request for its admission before turning them in to the courts secretary, and then another two hours driving back.

My lawyers were with me for yesterdays visit too.  Before she left once Sage's class ended we tried to pay for Sage's swimming lessons for July and she came out and said to the secretary not to accept any money from us or give any information to "strange" people for "security reasons with all the kidnappings that are happening" -- all of which I have on video for the judge on Friday.

I believe at this point the judge is ready to rule against her with extreme prejudice, but he can't issue a decision until other witnesses from Celaya are allowed to give testimony in a court in that city as requested by the prosecutor with the hopes that it would cause delays and, we would not find out which court and would not be able to attend in person and cross-examine the witnesses testimony (by virtue of our previous cross-examinations all of her new witnesses have done her more harm than good... we did find out which court though and will be there for the testimony.)

I have fantastic attorneys here and we are doing everything we can at this point.  I wish things would move faster but, in the meantime, we have made enormous progress over the past few months.  Not long ago my wife felt secure enough in the success of her abduction that she tried to erase any knowledge or memories of me from my son's life.  Now she is being called out on everything by me and my lawyers and is facing a Hague trial that couldn't possibly be going any worse for her and serious criminal charges against her and many of those who have tried to help her.

Even more to the point, my son is always excited and happy to see me and seems to understand that his mom is lying about me.  He's a very bright young boy and seems to like to think for himself (a quality I hoped he would inherit since I knew he had a mother who would try to manipulate him.)  My wife claimed in court that my son asked her if it was true that she had taken him away from me and fled the country.  She implied that I must have told Sage that.  I never told Sage anything of the sort, but I suspect that someone else in her family may have.  I worked very hard in the beginning to make sure the people in her family knew my side of the story before they helped her in anyway.  Now three years later they have seen how she tried to erase me from Sage's life and how I have never given up.  It would not surprise me at all if there were some of them who are not willing to help her lie to him about his father.

Although my wife is the one who needs to prove that Sage would face a "grave risk of physical or psychological harm" if he were returned to the US, I know all to well how nationalistic and sexist biases can cloud people's judgement.  As such, I was very quick to point out, on several occasions during their questioning of me, that my wife's actions and my son's continued illegal retention in Mexico were, themselves, exposing my son to a grave risk of psychological harm and violating a wide array of my son's rights.  When this trial ends, not only will she have failed to prove that my son faces a "grave risk" if he is sent home, but I will have proven that he, in fact, faces a "grave risk" if he is not sent home.

The case goes so very badly for her at this point that I could probably sue for custody here and win with little trouble (although getting permission to return to the US with him might not be so easy.)  It is precisely because of this that I fear she will now try to flee and hide with Sage".

If you've gotten this far...as always, thank you so much for your support :)
--Sonia