As reported yesterday, on Tuesday, Brazil Supreme Court Chief Justice Gilmar Mendes ruled that Sean Goldman must be returned to his father and delivered to him by the boy’s Brazilian relatives.
Yesterday, a Brazilian regional court judge ordered that Sean Goldman must be handed over to his biological father, David Goldman, today at the U.S. Consulate in Rio de Janeiro at 9 a.m. Rio time.
After first threatening to appeal the ruling, the Brazilian family holding Sean Goldman announced that there would be no more appeals, no more delays, and that they were making preparations for a “peaceful handover” of Sean to his American father.
While the Brazilian family claimed that the handover would be peaceful and dignified, and could have taken Sean Goldman quietly into the U.S. Consulate, the handover was anything but peaceful and dignified.
In a final show of defiance and contempt for both the Brazilian courts and the The Hague Convention and in complete disregard for 9-year-old Sean Goldman’s welfare, the Brazilian stepfather paraded Sean through the streets in Rio on the way to the consulate, to, according to his lawyers, “send a message to the world.”
The news media have called the spectacle “chaotic” and a “mob scene.” I call it shameful.
However, father and son are finally reunited on this Christmas Eve, and final reports from New Jersey Congressman Chris Smith have father and son doing well and readjusting to each other after five long years of separation.
Hopefully, wthin a few hours, Sean and his father should be on an airplane on the way to New Jersey to spend that long-awaited Christmas together.
UPDATE:
At 12:15 p.m. Central Time, NBC reporter Jeff Rossen reported live from 40,000 feet, aboard an NBC News charter flight, four hours into the flight out of Rio, bringing David Goldman and his son back home to the United States of America.
According to Rossen, father and son are getting along very well, playing some games. Although ecstatic about having his son back, Goldman expressed anger at the mob scene that took place when Sean’s stepfather and lawyer turned into a spectacle and media frenzy what was supposed to be a dignified and peaceful handover, by parading young Sean into the U.S. consulate.
The U.S. Consulate had offered a discrete, private venue for the Brazilian family to bring the son into the consulate—an offer obviously rejected by the family.
UPDATE II:
The New York Times has just published a letter, dated Dec. 24, written by David Goldman and read to the media:
Please accept my most sincere and humblest gratitude for getting the truth to Brazilian and American citizens alike and for your help to make our reunion possible.
I am grateful for the so many truly amazing and wonderful people who have put forth an extraordinary and tremendous effort to reunite our family with our beautiful Sean.
Please know that my love and the rest of Sean’s family’s love for him knows no boundaries and we will go to the ends of the Earth to protect him and shower him with every ounce of love that we have.
It is now time for our new beginning, the rebirth of our family at such a special time of the year. I hope the momentum keeps growing and the attention does not fade because there are more fathers and mothers and children to reunite.
God bless you all,
David
Classy!
UPDATE III:
CBS/AP have just reported that David Goldman and his 9-year-old son, Sean, have landed in Orlando, Fl., after a nine-hour flight from Rio de Janeiro.
In contrast to the spectacle in Rio, father and son were driven away headed to an unknown destination, without speaking to reporters at the airport. However, NBC broadcast an interview with the father and footage from the flight.
The CBS/AP report provides additional details about the “handover” of Sean Goldman at the U.S. consulate, the reunion with his father, the flight to the United States, and possible traumatic effects on the young boy.
The author is a retired U.S. Air Force officer and a writer.