2023-11-23 11:49:00
If nothing is done, this will be the third Christmas that she will spend without her daughter, a twelve-year-old child whom the judge ruled, in September 2021, should be placed in an institution.
This will be the third Christmas in a row without her daughter Violette, unless she can persuade youth services that her mother is desperately doing everything possible to get her back.
There is one month left for that. So, by inviting us to her home, Marquesa wanted to show how she has been doing everything for months to welcome Violette (not her real name) the day she will be allowed to leave the institution where she has been growing up for a good two years, while there was never any question of abuse.
Marquesa shows drawings. Around a heart, Violette wrote “You’re magical, I love you, mom”.
Violette has just turned 12. ©DRFamily courts are overwhelmed: “It takes years to decide on custody of a child or division of assets”
Uncomfortable father-in-law
The story is special. Fleeing a father-in-law, according to her, morbidly fascinated by the Dutroux affair, and on the other hand very attracted by Latin America, Marquesa, holder of a degree in business management, decided, in 2019, to join acquaintances in Mexico. Violette, then 8 years old, accompanied him. In Mexico, the Brussels resident joined Juan, a Mexican from Puerto Escondido (south of the country) where his family is known. Juan’s brother is in politics. A cousin, the singer Thalia, is an international Latin pop star.
In short, everything was going well. The Brussels resident was living a dream. Except that in Brussels, youth institutions were worried. Flashers came on. What assurances did we have that little Violette was growing up in good conditions?
Marquesa replied that Mexico has quality ‘youth services’ to which Belgians, if they wished, might turn.
Still, in September 2021, during a visit to Brussels, the young woman saw herself separated from her daughter. According to Marquesa, the authorities proceeded “unceremoniously”. “They deprived me of my liberty while I was pregnant with my second child,” explains the young woman. “They threatened to send me to prison if I did not give them access to my daughter.”
Marquesa claims to have been kept “for several days” in the dark regarding where her daughter was placed. She would only be able to see her once more, for the first time, following nine months. She is currently only authorized to meet her every two weeks, for one hour, under surveillance.
Fear of leaking
“I understood that the Belgian justice system mainly fears that I will return to Mexico with my daughter.”
In the early days of the separation, Marquesa made the Puerto Escondido-Brussels route twice every month, each time with a stopover in Mexico, Cancun, Havana or Madrid. Exhausting journeys. It took thirty-six hours, and the same for the return trip. With, carried around in the Maxi Cosi, the little brother who had just been born.
The fear of fleeing to Mexico, Marquesa tells us he promises the Belgian youth support services that they must not, or no longer, have it. Marquesa gave up, she said, the luxury villa in Puerto Escondido and her partner’s villa on the Pacific Ocean.
Marquesa settled just a stone’s throw from the courthouse, in the Louise district, and for her, it’s permanent. She rents a beautiful apartment of 200 m2. A room awaits Violette’s return. Everything is ready. His mother installed a four-poster bed, a piano, a dressing room and a dressing table. A princess bedroom.
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The apartment, located in a former mansion, was visited by the protection service delegate. “The delegate stayed two hours. She was captivated, truly enchanted,” assures Marquesa. “When she was leaving, she promised to mention in her report that there was no cause for concern.”
For eighteen months that she has been living in Brussels and with Violette’s little brother, Marquesa has been developing business projects in the wellness sector. She wants to prove the roots, to show that her life is indeed in Brussels, that her daughter can leave the institution, that there would no longer be a risk of fleeing to Mexico.
The right to express oneself
“Violette, who just turned 12, now has a legal right to speak,” Marquesa continues, “and it would be good to listen to her, I think.” “At each meeting, Violette tells me that she wants to go out with me. Let’s put ourselves in her place. She sees her friends going home for the weekend and doesn’t understand that despite her mother’s efforts , youth assistance only allows a short visit every 15 days and does not resolve the situation so that she can also return to her family. She places a lot of hope in the delegate and the manager of the center . The institution has the right to ask for the placement to be lifted. Violette begs to be let out and asks for emergency help. We are awaiting a decision from the judge. Will we be reunited at Christmas, finally, for the first time since three years ?”
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