Justice of the Province of Entre Ríos decided to turn down the extraordinary federal appeal lodged
by Mr. Fornerón.
17. The petitioners allege that the delay that existed in the proceedings for legal guardianship was
a determining factor to the detriment of Leonardo Aníbal Javier Fornerón, and his paternal rights,
because he lost the first years of Milagros’ life and this led to her building up emotional ties with
the guardians instead of building them up with her biological family.
18. The petitioners state that although the finding of the court of first instance allowed for the
possibility of visiting rights for Leonardo Aníbal Javier Fornerón, he brought proceedings to
establish visiting rights on November 15, 2001, under which it took until February 14, 2003, for a
hearing to take place between the parties, Mr. Fornerón and the guardians, supposedly to enable
him and Milagros to begin a process of getting to know each other, but only one meeting took
place without the child being present, and the second was cancelled by telephone. Because of
that, on November 25, 2003, Mr. Fornerón made a further request for the visiting rights to be
implemented. They allege that from the beginning, proceedings were delayed, for reasons not
attributable to Leonardo Aníbal Javier Fornerón, due to jurisdictional competence issues. They
state that finally, on April 8, 2005, a new meeting was arranged for April 29, 2005, when the
guardians were to appear with Milagros. Once again, the couple omitted to bring the child. The
petitioners allege that the refusal by the judge to issue a resolution concerning visiting rights
unjustifiably prevented Mr. Fornerón from getting to know his daughter Milagros and so infringed
his right to a family. The petitioners consider that an unjustifiable delay occurred in the
proceedings and that the judge bore a responsibility for not sanctioning the guardians in any way
when they ceased to attend the meetings that were indicated in order to allow Leonardo Aníbal
Javier Fornerón and his daughter to get to know each other.
19. In a communication received on December 28, 2005, the petitioners stated that on October
21, 2005 the first meeting took place between Leonardo Aníbal Javier Fornerón and his daughter
Milagros, in the presence of a psychologist appointed by the judge. The meeting lasted 45
minutes. They add that on November 18, 2005, Mr. Fornerón applied once more to the court to
request a decision on visiting rights. They state that the judge had recently instructed that the
guardians be informed of the request, all of which they considered caused further delays in
implementing the resolution and hindered the periodic meetings between Milagros and her
biological father. They allege that the delays experienced in the proceedings dealing with visiting
rights have infringed Leonardo Aníbal Javier Fornerón’s paternal rights and Milagros’ rights as a
daughter, because they have been deprived of the right of living together, and the child is now six
years old.
20. Furthermore, the petitioners claim that Leonardo Aníbal Javier Fornerón learned on March 10,
2005, of the existence of the proceedings for full adoption brought by the guardians of Milagros
when he was served with a summons to appear before the case judge on April 9, 2005. They state
that Mr. Fornerón appeared and stated his opposition to the granting of the adoption. By a
communication received on April 12, 2006, the petitioners reported that a judgment had been
handed down in those proceedings in February 2006 by which simple adoption of Milagros was
awarded to the custodian couple, and her surname was ordered to be changed to that of the
guardians.
B.
State
21. In its communications, the State explains that there are four legal files relating to the
situation of the minor Milagros.
22. Regarding the case entitled “Investigating Officer requests prior measures. Possible crime of
suppression of legal status”, the State claims that on January 31, 2001, the instructing judge was
of the opinion that there had been nothing criminal in the behavior of Diana Elizabeth Enríquez in
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