UPDATE - MAY 2017:After 7 long years, Tony Quintana finally has his daughters back...!(see bottom for latest post with update)
http://www.lexaustralis.com/BrunswickCitizenMay252017Page%2012.pdfGeneral Description of Abduction Case for Victoria and Virginia QuintanaVictoria and Virginia Quintana are the daughters of Maria Victoria Camuyrano and Antonio Quintana, who married December 1st, 2004 and held matrimonial co-habitation in Loudoun County, Virginia USA. Although the couple met, and always resided before and after the marriage in Loudoun County, Virginia, Antonio is a native of San Juan, Puerto Rico and Maria Victoria of Buenos Aires, Argentina.
It was very common for the couple to spend the Christmas vacation season in Argentina or Puerto Rico, unless Antonio was deployed outside the United States, which occurred frequently due to Antonio’s career as an Aerospace Sales Executive for Civil and Military goods in representation of a large Defense Contractor. It was also common for the family to travel at times to Southeast Asia, Europe and other parts of the world, but they always maintained their permanent residence in Loudoun County, Virginia irrespective of the length of any foreign or domestic travel.
Antonio Quintana and Maria Victoria Camuyrano were blessed with the birth of their daughters Victoria on November 6th, 2006 and Virginia on April 29th, 2008, while living in Loudoun County, Virginia, their habitual residence.
On November 5th, 2009; as part of the usual Christmas vacation season, Maria Victoria Camuyrano, Virginia Quintana, and Victoria Quintana left on a flight from Washington Dulles International Airport in Sterling, Virginia to Buenos Aires, Argentina, arriving November 6th, 2009. Antonio Quintana joined them in Buenos Aires on December 22nd and spent the Christmas Holiday season with his wife and daughters in Buenos Aires and Bariloche, Argentina. On January 13th, 2010; due to work commitments, Antonio Quintana returned to the matrimonial household in Ashburn, Virginia and Maria Victoria Camuyrano and their two daughters remained behind after Maria Victoria Camuyrano made the argument that January is a vacation month in Argentina and they wanted to spend the balance of the month in the seaside resort of Mar del Plata, which they did alongside Rosario Ippolito (grandmother of the children). During previous visits to Argentina in the Christmas vacation season, this was a common occurrence, so it was not a cause for concern or suspicion for Antonio to agree to this arrangement. In some previous years Antonio himself joined the family in Mar del Plata, but never the entire month of January as work commitments would never permit such an extended leave. It’s worthy to mention that in Argentina January is the primary Summer vacation month and most people including government employees are off. This provided for the grandmother to have more time to spend with the kids and made for a strong argument as to why this arrangement was almost routine; given the rest of the year the kids resided many thousands of miles away and made for difficult visits otherwise.
Once the Mar del Plata vacation concluded on Feb. 1, 2010; and as the months went by, Maria Victoria Camuyrano placed one excuse after the next as to why she did not want to return from Argentina. This was very uncommon. On previous occurrences, once the vacation month of January concluded, Camuyrano and the kids where normally back to the matrimonial household in Virginia by the second week of February. Utilizing excuses from: 'I lost the passports' to 'my grandma is too ill', Maria Victoria Camuyrano provided dozens of excuses to delay the return. Finally, Maria Victoria Camuyrano agreed to return, but only if Antonio Quintana traveled down to pick them up and help them return, which he agreed to do once a long weekend arrived so that it had minimal impact on his work engagements. On July 1st, 2010 when the flight to Argentina was to take Antonio Quintana to Buenos Aires to pick up his wife and two daughters and return with them July 5th, 2010 back to Virginia; Maria Victoria Camuyrano revealed over the phone just a few hours before the flight was to leave, that she had no intention of returning to the U.S with the children. In addition to the shock of hearing this revelation, Maria Victoria Camuyrano further informed Antonio Quintana telephonically that she had a restraining order against him and upon arrival in Argentina, if he dared come down, he would be arrested if he attempted to approach his wife and/or daughters. She went further to say that a divorce case was pending in Argentina, a place the couple never held matrimonial co-habitation. But given Camuyrano's mother’s influence as an employee of the courts in Argentina, this proved to be the only requirement used time and again to bypass legal protocols as trivial as jurisdiction. Normally a magistrate or court official would look into this type of abuse claim and not let litigation be started if it is completely unfounded, as it was in this case. However it turns out that in Argentina so long as you have a friend inside the courts, many regulations do not apply to you, and regulations meant to control abuses by precisely this type of people are rendered null and void in the Argentina courts.
Additionally Maria Victoria Camuyrano filed a case for spousal abuse and another accusing Antonio Quintana of molesting the oldest of his daughters, Victoria Quintana (both claims later determined by the courts in Argentina to be completely without merit). The shock to Antonio Quintana was clearly overwhelming. After so many months of eagerly looking forward to seeing his daughters and only hours away from getting on the plane to go down to see them, it felt like the world had collapsed right before his eyes. That is why she deceptively delayed her return -- she was setting a trap where she would claim to have “relocated along with the husband” to Argentina, thus attempting to justify Argentina as the jurisdiction where she would do battle.
Antonio Quintana immediately dialed his longtime friend and lawyer, Michael Sifers, Esq. in Reston, Virginia, who in no uncertain terms told him not to get on that plane. Until legal counsel could understand what she had filed, and until legal counsel had the ability to file in the Virginia courts the relevant paperwork, 'stay put' was the advice given. Therefore Antonio Quintana did not travel that day to Argentina and hence has not seen his two daughters since January 13th, 2010, and has not talked to them since June 2010.
Mary E. Harkins, Esq. on July 26th, 2010 filed a petition of divorce on behalf of Antonio Quintana in the Virginia courts on grounds of abandonment by his wife, and requested permanent physical and legal custody of the children. Judge Burke McCahill, Circuit Judge of Loudoun County, Virginia, granted both petitions, and later a family court Judge The Hon. Pamela Brooks made custody to Antonio permanent and ordered Maria Victoria Camuyrano return the children immediately, a mandate she has been served with in Argentina and has chosen to ignore for years. Hence Judge Brooks signed two CAPIAS for the arrest of Maria Victoria Camuyrano for failure to comply with the orders of the Loudoun County, Virginia Courts. The arrest warrants for Maria Victoria Camuyrano are one for each of the children (Victoria and Virginia). John Whitbeck from Whitbeck, Cisneros, and McElroy PC. in Leesburg, Virginia; Jeremy D. Morley, Esq. and Mark Vincent Pagano, Esq. (
http://www.international-divorce.com) from The Law Office of Jeremy D. Morley in New York also act as co-counsel for Antonio Quintana.
The case in Argentina for restitution of the children is progressing through the courts and Fabiana Marcela Quaini, Esq. is lead counsel for Antonio Quintana in that and all matters Maria Victoria Camuyrano has filed in Argentina. Other lawyers retained in Argentina to assist with the case load include Criminal Attorney Juan Carlos Echazú, Lic. Roberto Fabian Muńiz, Lic. Paul Jason Faust Weber, Esq., the very capable and energetic attorneys Devora Pannucio Perato, and Hernan Alcover, both who have now published on this case in a book on international restitution.
Unfortunately the Argentina courts have disregarded The Hague Convention (to which Argentina and approximately 80 other countries are signatories) and its mandates, which call for the children to be returned to the place of their habitual residence (the US) within six weeks of the commencement of the court proceedings in Argentina so custody can be adjudicated there. To date, over five years have gone by since the initial filings without much progress and complaints have been filed in numerous venues or with organizations including the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the Bring Sean Home Foundation, the Argentinean Consejo de la Magistratura (to raise the various Judges’ inactivity in both the 7th and 81st districts), and the United States House of Representatives through the 10th Congressional District of Virginia's Congresswoman, The Hon. Barbara Comstock, amongst others. No doubt remains that Maria Victoria Camuyrano is a selfish, and less than truthful individual willing to lie and break the law to whatever extremes she deems necessary to get away with kidnapping Antonio Quintana’s children.
God willing these children will once again be next to their loving father who will move mountains to protect them and bring them back home.
