Judge orders three children taken from their mother and sent back to Mexico

A judge in Valencia on Tuesday took custody of a mother’s three young children and turned them over to their father, a Mexican national, after determining that the woman brought them to Spain illegally.

Isabel Monrós, of Alboraya, turned up in court with her children — a 13-year-old boy and 10-year-old twins, all three with dual nationalities — so that they could be submitted to a psychological examination, as the mother had requested. Monrós wanted the judge to determine that they were better off with her instead of their “abusive” father.

But the judge rejected her petition after hearing from the children and ordered that they be immediately turned over to their father, Jaime Cuevas. A regional High Court, as well as Spain’s solicitor general, had rejected the mother’s appeal, based on the Hague Convention.

Pandemonium broke out outside the courtroom, where family members, friends and supporters had gathered at the front doors in en effort to keep the children from being taking away. Police had to push back a group of people who tried to keep the father from leaving the courthouse with his kids. A shocked Monrós became hysterical, screaming at the father as he drove away with the three children; police had to calm her down.

“No one is satisfied in cases like these, but a court order has to be obeyed,” said a lawyer who represented Cuevas.

Monrós has maintained that she arrived in Valencia with her children in 2010 following her divorce in Mexico. She claimed that she left her husband because he was abusive to her and the children.

But according to the court, Monrós left Mexico before the conditions of her divorce — including child visitation rights — were finalized.

This was the second time that members of the public had tried to keep authorities from taking the children. On March 3, a crowd of about 300 prevented the Civil Guard from entering Monrós’s home.