Puello speaks out! via multiple blog comments from the DR ... defending his Jewish roots... and more on Silsby too (see below)

From somewhere in his hiding place in the Dominican Republic, it seems, the man known as Jorge Anibal Torres Puello, aka Jorge Torres Orellana, aka a 'lawyer' for the still-detained Baptist missionary Laura Silsby and Charisse Coulter ... has spoken out, arguing in defense of his Jewish identity.

A series of seven remarkable posts from Yoram Torres - the Jewish name Puello adopted that he favors -- were sent as comments to The Daily Bastardette blog. They provide a vivid and somewhat incomprehensible personal defense of Torres' identify as a Jew -- something the The Daily Bastardette blogger had questioned.

Here's a little intro by The Daily Bastardette....

'This evening I received a series of posts to The Daily Bastardette from "Yoram" purporting to be Jorge Torres Puello. I have verified that the posts came from OneMax, an ISP in the Dominican Republic, which one of our commenters determined earlier was connected to Torres Puello. My Site Meter also indicates the posts came from DR and the time matches perfectly with the posting times. Since these posts were intended to be comments, I will post them as comments, but am also posting them here in separate blogs--one for each post. I am releasing them in the order they were sent (1-7 top to bottom.)'

Like Silsby, Torres has God on his mind. He's not responding to anything related to his active arrest warrant for trafficking in El Salvador, or his links to Silsby prior to January 12. He's clearly offended, deeply, that his identity as a reclaimed Jew is being questioned.

The posts left no doubt in The Daily Bastardette's (or my) mind that they were from Torres, who also provided links to his own detention and court trials in Canada and the US.

So much for the escape to Panama (something he told AP yesterday). As I wrote yesterday, only his mother knows for sure. And she's not telling.

Can this story get stranger?

Never say never.

Meanwhile, in Haiti...the Silsby drama continues....

Haitian Judge Bernard Saint-Vil, who is overseeing the Silsby case, says he's going to travel to the DR to check out the orphanage where Silsby planned to put the Haitian 'orphans' she picked up in Haiti. (Note: By now, no one should be surprised if it's been spruced up a little by the Dominicans who rented it to her.)

A Miami Herald blog confirms that a Dominican Catholic official was helping Silsby - and that this individual continues to support her orphanage plans. Silsby's lawyer also said Silsby was in Haiti in December 2009 - giving Christmas toys to children.

For now, Silsby and her lawyers are sticking to the story that she never met Puello before her arrest in Haiti. Puello's done that too, in his telephone comments to reporters in recent days (Of course, he also told reporters he had left the DR, was innocent of all charges, etc....so maybe one should take his comments with a grain of salt. )

Here's a clip from that Miami Herald story that was filed but not published in their print edition:

Silsby and Coulter had hoped that Samvil (Saint-Vil) would follow the same logic and free them Thursday afternoon.

Instead Samvil (Saint-Vil) decided during the hearing that releasing the women was out of the question until three things happened:

* Silsby and Coulter convince Samvil (Saint-Vil) that they had been in Haiti prior to the Jan. 12 earthquake, so that he can be satisfied they didn't arrive post-quake with kidnapping in mind.
* Silsby and Coulter prove to Samvil (Saint-Vil)what business they had in Haiti...if they were in the country prior to the earthquake.
* Samvil (Saint-Vil) travels to Domincan Republic so that he can personally see that the Domincan orphanage Silsby's group claimed they were delivering the Haitian children to really does exist.

Silsby was all smiles as she and Coulter were whisked from the courthouse and returned to jail. "No, not today," she answered a reporter who'd asked if she thought Samvil (Saint-Vil) might have pity and free the pair Thursday evening.

Aviol Fleurant, the missionaries' attorney, praised the judge, but express frustration that Samvil (Saint-Vil) felt the need to travel to the Dominican Republic to see the orphanage at the root of this drama.

Such a trip could take days to plan and longer to be carried out, Fleurant said, adding that "We have proof - here! - documents from the Dominican government authorizing the acceptance of the children into this orphanage. And the pastor - Pastor Jose Orlando Hidalgo - of the church that administrates the orphanage has offered to come here and meet with the judge and tell him!"

Fleurant dismissed questions about the nature of his primary client Silsby's relationship with Jorge Puello, a Domincan resident and child sex-trafficking suspect, who portrayed himself to be an attorney representing Silsby's group.

"There is no connection," Fleurant bristled. "The truth is Laura Silsby did not even meet Jorge Puello until after she was arrested."

But rather than deny reports that Hidalgo's Domincan orphanage might just be an empty building housing no children and is located in a neighborhood well-known for child sex-trafficking, Fleurant simply suggested such a neighborhood should have an orphanage.

"If you can put an orphanage in such an area, that is not a bad thing. There is where they need it most, no," he asked, refusing to dispute the orphanage's location.


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So now we need to ask: Jose Hidalgo...Pastor or Realtor(or both)?


Silsby's lawyer says he's the man who gave her the okay. But earlier press and blog reports identify Jose Hidalgo as an independent real estate agent in Sosua who helped broker the lease of a 45 room hotel for Silbsy from top Dominican Catholic officials.

Read the original Listin Diario story that identifies Hidaldo as an indepenent real estate agent who helped Silsby rent a former hotel for her orphanage project.

Is he a pastor-realtor, then?

Other intriguing questions....:

Has Hidalgo had dealings with the man who calls himself Yoram, and claimed to be president of the Sephardic Orthodox community of the Dominican Republic (a claim dismissed by DR Jewish authorities)

(Note: In Miami, Puello/Orellana registered a Sephardic corporation that may have served to cover illegal activities in the prostitution business. See earlier Haiti Vox blogs on Puello and the Miami connection....)

And finally: why does Silsby's lawyers feel that her having a letter from a Dominican 'pastor' (or maybe the Catholic bishop who leased her the hotel) has any critical bearing on the issue at hand: Silsby's decision to transport Haitian children across the border without any authorization by Haitian officials - knowing as she did that there were rules outlawing her actions -- and after she was warned by the Dominican consul in Haiti that her actions would constitute trafficking?

Readers of this blog may recall that before picking up the 33 children, Silsby was turned away by at least three other groups who refused to turn children over to her . I was recently told of a case in which an adoptive US parent (a mother) became very alarmed when Silsby, who had learned that the parent's two children were waiting to be picked up by the adoptive mother at an orphanage in Haiti, ignored repeated pleas to NOT ATTEMPT to pick up the children. Instead, they learned that Silsby, who was already in Haiti, had showed up anyway and posed as a 'friend' of the adoptive parent and asked for the children. Luckily, the orphanage had been warned by the adoptive parents (a couple) not to turn her children over to anyone who might arrive asking for them. Silby's aggressive attempt to intervene and pick up the children, after being told not to do that several times, frightened the adoptive parent.

As I posted earlier on this blog, many people gave Laura Silsby the message that her grabbing children was wrong - but she willfully -- and agressively -- ignored them. 'Her intentions speak for themselves' -- so said the adoptive parent who was completely alarmed when she learned Silsby had been arrested on a possible charge of child kidnapping.


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Also, just as a reminder, the Dominican Consul also warned Silsby that her actions would be regarded by HIM - the Dominican authority in Haiti - as trafficking.

Here's a little clip from a prior news story with his comments:

The Dominican consul in Haiti, Carlos Castillo, told the AP on Thursday that the day the Americans departed for the border, Silsby visited him and said he had a document from Dominican migration officials authorizing her to extract the children from Haiti.

Castillo said he warned Silsby that if she lacked adoption papers signed by the appropriate Haitian officials her mission would be considered child trafficking. "We were very specific," he said.