Brazil Sold Sean for an Economic Deal, Says American Boy’s Grandmother

In an interview with the G1 website, this Wednesday, Silvana Bianchi, grandmother of Sean Goldman, the 9-year-old American boy who was abducted to Brazil by his mother when he was 4, said she will have the worst Christmas of her life. "They are separating two siblings," she said, referring to her granddaughter, Chiara, who is 1 year and 3 months old.

One of her disappointments, Bianchi says, is that the Brazilian Justice didn't allow the boy to express his wish and decide by himself if he wanted to stay with the Brazilian family or go with the father to the United States.

For her, they transformed her grandson into an "object of a political and economic agreement." She mentioned the news she read at the BBC Brazil reporting that the U.S. Senate has approved unanimously an extension of the tariff exemption program that benefits exports of Brazil and 131 other countries. The vote had been postponed and only came after the Brazilian Supreme Court ordered the delivery of Sean to his father.

Bianchi stated that she was "shocked, sad, disappointed and embarrassed" at the decision taken by Gilmar Mendes, Brazil's Chief Justice, who ruled against an injunction she had won to keep the boy in Brazil till he could be heard by the courts.

On Tuesday, Sean's grandmother released an open letter to Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Her lawyer, Sergio Tostes, announced this Wednesday they don't want to file any more appeals in the case.

"I did not expect my grandson would be exchanged in an economic agreement. We do not currently intend to do anything related to what happened. My country, Sean's country, since he is a native Brazilian, sold a child," she said. "He is being expelled of the country."

"He was denied the right to speak. We are a democracy, but breathing the gag rule. His testimony would be essential," she added.

Bianchi also complained that she didn't get any answer from the president to her open letter: "I'm disappointed, very angry. It is my grandson. He deserved more respect, an explanation," she concluded.

Federal judge Paul Espí­rito Santo, from Rio's Second Region's Federal Regional Court (TRF) has ruled that the Brazilian family of Sean has until 9 am on Thursday, Christmas Eve, to deliver the child to the father. The measure was determined this Wednesday afternoon after Tostes announced his clients would no longer fight in court for custody of the child.

Espí­rito Santo  has determined that the boy should be taken to the US Consulate in Rio.