CUBA has given assurances that it will proceed to a brief but intensive search for information and evidence in order to obtain a fully accurate picture of the events alleged by a U.S. mother. If they are found to be true she will soon be able to return to her country with her two children, kidnapped and brought to Cuba by their father, who was arrested in Havana’s Hemmingway Marina. In an official note, announced on Wednesday night, June 25, the government affirmed that it will never allow Cuban territory to be utilized as a refuge for the kidnapping of children.

Complete text of the official note:

Yesterday, June 24, a U.S. mother sent President Fidel Castro a message via a friend of his. She explained that after divorcing U.S. citizen Anwar Wissa in the spring of 2001, the parents were awarded joint custody of their two children, 10 year-old Henry and eight-year-old Victoria, born in 1993 and 1995, respectively, and that their physical custody, as is the norm, was legally assigned to her.

According to the message from Cornelia Streeter, the children’s mother, on August 23, 2001 Anwar Wissa kidnapped Henry and Victoria, hired a plane and took them to Egypt.

As a consequence of that act, on August 27 a Massachusetts State Court gave the mother sole legal custody of her children.

On August 30 of that same year, Wissa was formally accused by the DA’s Office of violating the law of Massachusetts regarding parental kidnapping and illegal flight.

That autumn Wissa demanded payment of over one million U.S. dollars from Streeter in return for handing over the children.

Between the winter of 2001 and the spring of 2002, Wissa obtained Egyptian passports for himself and the two children.

In April 2002, a U.S. federal court charged Wissa with extortion and international kidnapping.

In the spring of 2002, Wissa applied to an Egyptian court for custody of his two children.

In December 2002, the Egyptian court denied Wissa’s petition, awarding legal custody of Henry and Victoria to their mother.

Between January and May 2003, she traveled to Egypt to receive her children following the court’s decision. But Wissa had removed Henry and Victoria from Egypt in December 2002, first taking them to Spain and subsequently to Cuba, the mother affirmed in her message.

Finally Ms. Streeter stated that Wissa and the two children were on board a small yacht docked at a pier in the Hemingway Marina tourism center. She expressed deep concern for the lives of her children, fearing that they could be endangered by Wissa’s intransigent and irrational attitude and begged Cuba to protect the children and do everything within its power to return them to her safe and sound.

Her message was accompanied by ample documentation on the legal procedures, a summary of her personal biography and various photos of the children.

If what she alleged was fact, then it would appear to be a case of Elián in reverse, involving two innocent U.S. children.

Straight away, during that night and the early hours of the morning, investigations were effected to ascertain any information pertaining to Anwar Wissa have been in Cuban files.

Wissa had entered the country on seven occasions as a tourist: twice aboard a yacht and five times by air. The first of these was on May 20, 2001, three months before removing the children from their mother and taking them to Egypt. It was confirmed that he indeed was in our country and that the yacht was moored at a jetty in the Marina Hemmingway complex.

Instructions were given as to what action to take, ensuring above all that any risk or trauma to the children be avoided. At 9.30 this morning, Wissa was arrested without force and without the children noticing. They were moved to an appropriate place along with the Cuban sailor contracted by Wissa, who fully cooperated with the authorities and who has the children’s full trust.

Through the friend, the mother was requested to travel immediately to Cuba to be reunited with and take care of her children.

Following a brief but intensive search for details and evidence, it was shown that the facts put forward were precise. In line with these facts, Ms. Streeter is to return to the United States with her children as soon as possible. Wissa is to appear before the Cuban courts for the crimes committed and for attempting to utilize our country; not in fact entering as a tourist, but with the aim of protecting himself from the consequences of his reprehensible conduct.

Wissa has been treated with all due respect and will have every opportunity to guarantee his legal defense rights.

Cuba will always remember that when five-year-old Elián González was kidnapped by relatives who had no custody rights over him, more than 80% of U.S. citizens supported his return to Cuba where his father and close family were resident. For this, we owe the U.S. people our gratitude and respect.

Cuban territory will never be used a safe haven to carry out a child kidnapping even if the perpetrator, as in this tragic case, is the child’s own father, which constitutes a veritable human drama involving so many factors and engendering so many passions.