Dominican actress Indhira Mejía recovered her son, four-year old Ricardo Baio on Friday. The mother received him when he arrived at 2:30 pm by Iberia by way of Spain. He had been abducted by his father on 22 July 1999. The father had been spending the summer vacation with his son in La Romana when he abducted the child and left the country on board the ferry to San Juan, Puerto Rico and from there to Italy. Ricardo’s mother protested the case, and fought her case in the press and through official channels. She said she was most grateful to Dominican vice consul in Italy, Eduardo Flores, who followed through in Italy with legal procedures begun in Santo Domingo. The father alleged there were not conditions in the DR to educate his son properly. Mejía urged other mothers in her same condition to come forth and fight their cases. Mejía met her husband when she volunteered on a project he worked on in the DR. She later married him and moved to Italy where she lived with him for three years until she decided to divorce him. She said in Italy there are many Dominican women who will endure suffering because their Italian husbands have threatened to keep their children if they leave or file a divorce. After the success of Mejía, it is probable that more women will follow suit.
