A Boy, His Mom, a Trip Over the Florida Straits

MIAMI —  The 5-year-old boy was bundled into a small boat by his Cuban mother and whisked away on a desperate crossing of the Florida Straits without permission of the child’s father. Now the father is waging an international custody battle to get the child back.

The Elian Gonzalez saga?

No, the Jonathon Colombini story.

One Thanksgiving after Elian was rescued at sea in an inner tube and became the focus of an impassioned, politically charged drama watched around the world, the FBI and the U.S. State Department have begun an investigation into what seems like a case of Elian in reverse.

Jon K. Colombini, 31, a restaurant kitchen manager, said Thursday that his ex-wife, Arletis Blanco, took their son to Cuba two weeks ago in a boat borrowed from her brother. With Blanco was her boyfriend, Agustin Lemus, 37, and their 18-month-old daughter, Jessica. Blanco and Lemus were born on the island.

“My ex-wife decided she needed to get away, apparently,” Colombini said. “She had some things going on.”

Indeed, Monroe County Sheriff’s Department officials said Blanco, 28, is wanted for questioning in the embezzlement of $150,000 from her employer. In audiotapes Blanco left for her parents and her brother, who live in Tavernier, a small town in the Florida Keys, she confessed to taking the money from McKenzie Petroleum, where she worked as an office manager.

Blanco also is being sought on a warrant for interfering with child custody, according to sheriff’s department spokeswoman Becky Herrin.

A report Thursday in Cuba’s Communist Party newspaper Granma confirmed that Jonathon and his mother arrived Nov. 12 in Cuba. They are staying with relatives, the official government newspaper said, while Lemus and his cousin, Yuriel Leon Lemus, 21, were being detained “awaiting the results of an investigation underway.”

It was unclear whether Yuriel Lemus was on the boat from the Florida Keys.

Some Parallels in the 2 Cases

Blanco’s mother, Juana, told deputies that she last saw her daughter Nov. 10 and that “after a short conversation she got the feeling that [her daughter] was saying goodbye.”

Blanco’s brother, Rodolfo, said his sister asked to borrow his 21-foot fishing boat to take her family on a weekend outing, deputies reported. The boat was not returned.

Colombini, working Thanksgiving Day at Gusto’s Grill and Bar in Florida City, said he has joint custody of his son, who was born in the U.S., and he wants him returned.

The parallels between the case of Elian and Jonathon are striking. Both boys were 5 when they made the 90-mile crossing of the Gulf Stream, carried in the arms of mothers with new boyfriends and dreams of a fresh start.

Left at home were two 31-year-old fathers who said they were given no warning that their sons were leaving.

Elian’s mother, Elisabeth Brotons, perished at sea, along with her boyfriend and nine others.

Colombini said his ex-wife and son made the trip safely, although he had not heard directly from either. But he said he had confirmed they are in Cuba with relatives. And he is worried. “I’m doing my best, staying strong for him,” said Colombini, who--just like Elian’s father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez--is remarried and has an infant son with his second wife.

No Extradition Treaty With Cuba

The U.S. has no extradition treaty with Cuba. But a State Department spokesman said in a briefing Tuesday that U.S. officials in Havana have been asked to look into the case.

Cuban authorities hope the case “can be resolved as rapidly as possible in agreement with the pertinent legal regulations, with absolute impartiality in the spirit of justice,” Granma reported Thursday.

Thus far the Colombini case has caused little stir among exiles in Miami or the Florida Keys. “He’s with his mother, who does have legal custody, so it’s a little different,” Herrin said. “But there is no predicting what something like this will do in news media or the community.”

Elsewhere in Cuba, Elian Gonzalez has remained out of the public eye since his father returned with him to the island in late June. Guards posted at Elian’s home and school in Cardenas reportedly keep the news media at bay, and Cuban President Fidel Castro no longer routinely invokes Elian’s name when railing against the tyranny of U.S. imperialism.

In Miami, meanwhile, Elian is still mourned, and the April 22 raid on the Little Havana home of his Miami relatives often is mentioned by anti-Castro exiles.

Several dozen people showed up Thursday in front of Elian’s former home for a prayer service and to hang pictures of the boy on the fence in front of the house, which is now owned by his great-uncle Delfin Gonzalez, who wants to turn the property into an office for immigration causes that will serve as a shrine to Elian.

Anger about the actions of the Clinton administration in supporting Elian’s repatriation to Cuba helped to consolidate the Cuban American support for Republican George W. Bush in the Nov. 7 election.

A mass and boat parade in remembrance of Elian are scheduled Saturday at La Ermita de la Caridad, a Cuban shrine on Miami’s Biscayne Bay.

Times researcher Anna M. Virtue contributed to this story.