Jun. 3, 2001: El Nuevo Herald Digital, Foro de Discusión, Cuba. Jun. 3, 2001: Newsgroups soc.culture.canada, soc.culture.caribbean, soc.culture.china, soc.culture.cuba, soc.culture.hongkong, soc.culture.taiwan, soc.culture.ukrainian, soc.culture.usa

SAN JOSÉ DE COSTA RICA, Jun. 3, 2001 (CubDest) - "The case of the 11 year

old girl, Sandra Becerra Jova, whom the regime of La Habana does not allow

to leave Cuba to reunite with her parents, residents of Brazil, literally

constitutes kidnapping of a minor", denounced the exiled Cuban jurist Dr.

Claudio Benedí Beruff, director of the "Junta Patriótica Cubana" (Patriotic

Cuban Assembly), in a public statement made to the participating chancellors

of the XXXI General Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS),

which is being held in this capitol.

The little girl, Sandra, is the daughter of Cuban engineers, Vicente Becerra

and Zaida Jova, both of whom are 38 years old, and are completing their

postgraduate studies in the University of Campinas, 100 km. from the City of

São Paulo. The married couple decided to stay permanently in Brazil after

the birth of a new son, Daniel, who is now 3 years old, which automatically

gave the entire family residency status in Brazil. Sandra's parents decided

to go public with the case of their daughter being held after 4 years of

unsuccessful and humiliating dealings with the Castro regime. This case has

been given coverage on well known means of media in Brazil and was taken to

the Brazilian chancellor last April, a dispatch was sent to formally inform

the Cuban chancellor in the hopes of officially interceding so that Sandra

could be reunited with her parents and brother. The negative response from

La Habana is increasing the annoyance in Brazil. Last week, the Municipal

Assembly of Campinas asked the Brazilian chancellor to firmly renew his

reclamation to "shorten the suffering of the family and to achieve the

liberation of Sandra", in accordance with her parents' wishes. It has now

come to light that there are several other married Cuban couples in the

universities, studying in Brazil, that are going through a similar

situation, but until now they have kept silent out of fear of reprisals

against their children that remain in Cuba.

In a declaration made to the Brazilian press the engineer, Zaida Jova,

mother of Sandra, stated that the same regime from La Habana that organized

the massive mobilization of people to reclaim the return of the boy, Elián

González, to Cuba, in the name of "family reunification", is the one that

"cruelly maintains me separated from daughter for the past four years".

In San José de Costa Rica, Dr. Claudio Benedí has also requested that the

Interamerican Commission of Human Rights take a stand on this issue, to

denounce before the world this injustice, which is simply another example of

the "instituted violation of human rights" enforced by Cuban communism over

the defenseless population.

Contact: Dr. Claudio Benedí Beruff Tel.: 1-703-5780160 Washington (DC)

E-mail: inter-american@newsservice.siii.net