After a frustrated trip to the US to see her grandson Sean Goldman, Brazilian Silvana Bianchi decided to appeal to the American justice. The lawyers of the Brazilian family of the 9-year-old boy who was turned over to his American father on Christmas Eve last year and taken to the United States after a bitter custody battle, say they will act soon.
They intend the request the assistance of a Brazilian governmental agency called the Central Authority for Federal Affairs (“Autoridade Central para Assuntos Federais” – Acaf) in filing a lawsuit in a US court so the boy’s Brazilian relatives can visit him there.
According to the Brazilian grandparents, since the boy returned to the US they have been unable to see him. They went so far as to file a petition in a US court, but it was not granted.
“At this time we are trying a second route, that is, we will go through Brazilian authorities to get to the US authorities, basing our request on clauses in the Hague Convention [on Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction],” explained Carlos Nicodemos, one of the family’s lawyers.
Silvana Bianchi, the boy’s grandmother, says she has not spoken to Sean since March 2. “Before that I did speak to him a few times [by phone] but always under restrictions.
For example, I had to speak in English and could not mention certain subjects. I could not tell him about his stepsister and how much she misses him,” declared Ms Bianchi.
This week, on April 20, Ms Bianchi was in Brazilian capital Brasília where she visited senator Cristovam Buarque (from the Workers Party of the Federal District) who is the chairman of the Senate Human Rights Committee.
She gave the senator a report on some of the irregular aspects of Sean’s departure from Brazil, such as the fact that he did not have a Brazilian passport.
Buarque told reporters that in his opinion Brazil had an obligation to ensure that the Brazilian grandparents could visit their grandson in the United States.
