In “Bring Sean Home,” I wrote on the desperate fight by an American father, David Goldman, to bring his son home—Sean Goldman, an 8-year old boy who is being held in Brazil in violation of all international norms and human decency, after his mother took him to Brazil in 2004. She later died in Brazil
NBC’s Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent Andrea Mitchell has been right on top of this story all along.
In “Bring Sean Home, Now a Matter of State,” I wrote on the March 4, 2009, NBC Today Show interview, when US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told Andrea Mitchell that she was raising the Sean Goldman matter at the highest levels of the Brazilian government and also with several members of the U.S. Congress, and that she would keep pressing to reunite David Goldman with his son.
On March 14, 2009, President Obama had a face-to-face meeting at the White House, with Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
According to the AP, Obama privately raised the custody case of David Goldman.
That’s all we have heard officially, up to now.
Today, there are reports that a federal court in Brazil has ruled that David Goldman should get custody of his 8-year-old son.
Andrea Mitchell has also just announced the court ruling and that Sean’s father, David Goldman, is in Brazil to try to bring his son back home.
The key word is “try,” because, although the court ruling is clear, and Sean is supposed to be turned over to U.S. authorities at the U.S. Consulate tomorrow at 2 PM, there are reports that the powerful Brazilian family, who has been holding Sean Goldman for so long, may appeal the ruling.
We’ll find out tomorrow, if the rule of law will be upheld in Brazil, or whether, once more, a powerful, influential family will be able to ignore that law.
And, thank you, Andrea Mitchell for never giving up.
Photo: Courtesy BringSeanHome.Org
The author is a retired U.S. Air Force officer and a writer.