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Kash Patel, FBI director, celebrated this Wednesday on his X account the rescue of a 10-year-old child who had been kidnapped and taken to Cuba, in an operation that experts on parental abduction described as unprecedented.
"The FBI and our partners , with the alleged kidnapper father intending to subject the minor to a gender transition," wrote Patel, who specifically praised the FBI offices in Salt Lake City and Richmond, as well as the critical intervention response teams.
The case originated in late March when Rose Inessa-Ethington, 42 years old, and her partner Blue Inessa-Ethington, 32, both from Cache County, Utah, took the minor under the pretext of a camping trip to Calgary, Canada.
In fact, they crossed the Canadian border on March 29 from the state of Washington, flew from Vancouver to Mexico City, traveled to Mérida and arrived in Havana on April first using U.S. passports and $10,000 in cash.
The biological mother, Lindsey Boden, alerted the authorities in Logan, Utah, between April 3 and April 5 for not having received her son back on the agreed custody exchange date.
In the home record of the accused, investigators found task lists with plans to empty bank accounts, learn Spanish, and obtain tourist visas, in addition to notes from a therapist in Washington D.C. related to gender-affirming healthcare for children and a payment request of $10,000 to that professional.
On April 13, a state court in Utah granted Boden exclusive custody of the minor and ordered their immediate return.
On Monday, a Boeing 757 from the U.S. Department of Justice landed at José Martí International Airport in Havana in a coordinated operation between the FBI and Cuban authorities to recover the minor and arrest the two accused individuals.
The operation was particularly noteworthy because Cuba is not a signatory to the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, which makes the cooperation of the island's authorities with the FBI in this case even more unusual.
"This is strange, highly unusual. I had never heard of something like this happening," said experts on parental abductions consulted by U.S. media regarding the dispatch of the government plane to Havana.
On Tuesday, the minor was handed over to his biological mother in Utah, as confirmed by Boden's attorney, Tess Davis.
That same day, Rose and Blue Inessa-Ethington appeared before a federal judge in Richmond, Virginia, and will be transferred to Utah to face federal charges of international kidnapping of minors.
Local authorities in Utah have also requested additional arrest warrants for interference with child custody, which could escalate the legal consequences for the couple.
"The objective in each case of parental kidnapping is to ensure the safety of the minor and their reunification with their family," stated Robert Bohls, special agent in charge of the FBI in Salt Lake City.
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