Homestead man vows custody fight

BY LUISA YANEZ

 Blocked from bringing his 5-year-old son back from Cuba, a Homestead man
 returned from the island Thursday night, vowing to launch an international custody
 battle for the boy similar to the one fought over Elián González.

 Jon Colombini said his attorney will prepare to appeal to Cuba's Supreme Court
 for custody of Jonathon, a former kindergarten student at Plantation Key School
 in Tavernier.

 In January, Colombini and his attorney plan to return to the island to file their
 case.

 ``We believe that international law, U.S. law and Cuban law are on the side of Mr.
 Colombini,'' said attorney Michael Berry, of Clearwater, who specializes in
 international custody cases.

 During his four-day visit to the island, Colombini, 31, said he pressed his case
 before ``attentive and polite'' high-ranking Cuban officials during meetings in
 Havana. For the most part, the officials just acted as observers during his visit.

 U.S. COURT ORDER

 Berry said he will ask the island government to honor a Dec. 12 court order,
 issued by a Monroe County judge, granting Colombini temporary custody of
 Jonathon. The judge ruled that Colombini's wife, Arletis Blanco, violated the
 conditions of their 1998 divorce because they had been granted joint custody.

 But the case is complicated by the fact that Cuba and the United States have no
 diplomatic relations and do not share an extradition treaty covering such cases.

 ``There is no road map,'' Berry said. ``This case calls for spontaneous activity as
 things evolve.''

 Cuba's Supreme Court is not an independent body as it is in the United States,
 said Jaime Suchlicki, director of the Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American
 Studies at the University of Miami.

 ``It doesn't work the same way there,'' Suchlicki said. ``Those judges are
 appointed by the Communist Party secretary, and they will rule the way [Cuban
 President Fidel] Castro tells them.''

 Attempts to reach a spokesman with the Cuba Interests Section in Washington
 on Thursday were unsuccessful.

 In the Elián case, attorneys in the United States took their months-long custody
 battle as far as the U.S. Supreme Court, which refused to hear the case.

 Once launched, the battle over Miami-born Jonathon will pit his U.S.-born father, a
 kitchen manager, and Blanco, his Cuban-born ex-wife. She is a former office
 manager who fled while under suspicion of embezzling money from her employer,
 McKenzie Petroleum in the Florida Keys.

 Blanco has told Granma, the Cuban Communist Party newspaper, that she left
 because she had been threatened by her former boss. She said he had diverted
 the embezzled money to Cuban exile groups. She also said she prefers to raise
 her family in Cuba.

 TAPED CONFESSION

 However, she left behind three cassette tapes with her family in which she
 confessed to stealing $150,000. Monroe County sheriff's detectives are
 investigating.

 Blanco, who fled with her boyfriend, Agustin Lemus, their toddler daughter and
 Lemus' cousin, took Jonathon without his father's consent. She says she wants
 to stay on the island.

 But Colombini said he believes an American life is best for the child. ``I want him
 in the United States,'' he said.

 By visiting the island, the father had hoped to avert a legal battle, but he said his
 ex-wife refused to let him see Jonathon away from the house. Colombini said he
 saw his son after school, traveling 90 minutes every day.

 The Associated Press contributed to this report.