Friday, December 23, 2011

The problem with letting 3 months go by...

...is that the passage of time, even a quarter of another year, doesn't necessarily mean there will be new results to post; it doesn't mean that "more of the same" will no longer apply to what I write here.  It's been a long time since my last post, in part because I was tired, both physically and mentally, from dedicating so much emotion and sacrificing time with my kids; in part, because I was not seeing the results I was hoping for, and it was easier to refocus my energy elsewhere than to continue worrying about my brother's safety and future; and also in part, because NOTHING, really, has happened.

Still, I would like to elaborate a bit on the "nothing" that has happened, and add a bit of follow-up detail to my last, long-ago blog post, because in reality, although I do get tired, I continue to think of my brother and Sage everyday, and this blog will never die completely.  Sage will always be my nephew, and one day, he'll know it, and this will still be here.

So, onto the story, as emailed to me in my brother's words.  Be patient though...as I read through the nonsense it invoked a steady stream of theme music running through my head (think of the music that plays at clown shows...like when they're pulling a never-ending string of colorful hankerchiefs out of a hat or something...you know, "doot doot dadadada doot doot dada..." or if that doesn't do it for ya, try this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjedLeVGcfE&feature=related ).  I'm not trying to make light of the situation, I just still can't believe how ridiculous it all can get.

- The judge in Salamanca who is directly handling the Hague case for Sage's return requested to be removed from handling it the day before the hearing to close the case on Sept 23.  He did this the day before the case closed even though he currently had the case in his court for nearly one year and the original Hague case (where a mistrial was declared) also started in his court almost three years prior.

- The judge's request for being removed from the case is immediately sent to the appeals court and assigned to an appeals judge, we filed a motion opposing the judge being removed from the case because it would cause additional delays and he was the only judge who had personally attended all the evidentiary hearings and had directly interacted with all parties to the trial.

- Rather than make a decision on the judge's request to be removed the appeals court Judge declared that the request to be removed from the case was not properly submitted and sent it back to the Salamanca judge because the Secretary of Foreign Relations office (designated as the Mexican Central Authority for the Hague Convention) was not personally notified by the judge that he'd like to be removed and thus, they hadn't been given a chance to offer an opinion on his request and the appeals court couldn't possibly make a decision on the request without knowing what the Secretary of Foreign Relations thought about the whole thing.

- The Salamanca judge then ordered that the Mexican Central Authority be notified and resubmitted his request.

- Now the appeals court judge, that is supposed to be deciding if the Salamanca judge can be removed from handling the case, seems to be requesting that they also be removed from handling the decision as to whether or not the Salamanca judge can be removed from handling the decision as to whether or not my son should be sent home.

In  parallel to the above mess, I also have other, indirect appeals and complaints with a bunch of other federal courts and agencies.  To make a long story short though, they are also plagued with the same type of time wasting nonsense, if not worse nonsense, than that displayed above.  In particular there's been a perverse game of "Hot Potato" going on for the last year.  Every case in Mexico has a court docket, or file, associated with it.  During international cases Mexican courts and agencies are required to always keep a certified copy of the court docket so that they can use it in the event that they have to send the original copy to another court for some reason.  Instead of doing this Mexican courts keep sending BOTH the original file AND the certified copy around to each other, in some cases without even attempting to make up a reason for why (I'm not kidding) and then say they are "blocked" from being able to make any progress on the case because they don't have the original files.  Of course, even though they say they are blocked because such and such court has the files, they never send a request to that court asking for them to be returned, they wait until we go over there and request it and then look for an excuse to send the files out again as soon as they arrive.


And so, this is all the news we have from Mexico for now, after all these months.  On the homefront, however, I suppose I should report for all of you who don't already know, my brother is back in North Carolina--at least for the time being.  The pressure of trying to work remotely in a different country was threatening his only means of livelihood, and he was forced to return.  Unfortunately, we haven't been able to see him yet up here as he is attempting to catch up on bills left unpaid while out of the country, as well as continuing to pay his lawyer in Mexico a significant amount of money each month.  Since he'll be spending Christmas alone this year, please take the time to wish him a merry one if you can!

Thanks everyone, and happy holidays to you all as well :)
Sonia