MIAMI -- On the eve of his daughter's birthday, the father of a 4-year-old girl in a custody dispute continued his testimony Friday as attorneys for the Department of Children & Families tried to establish the case as one that is politically driven by the Cuban government.

"How many times did you see those attorneys in Cuba?" Jason Dimitris, the lead attorney representing the DCF, asked Rafael Izquierdo on the stand.

Dimitris continually drilled Izquierdo, wanting to know how many times he had met with his attorneys on the communist island. It was a line of questioning intended to establish the custody case as politically driven and that Izquierdo was sent to the United States by the Cuban government.

"How many days did Ira Kurzban spend in Cuba?" Dimitris asked Izquierdo about his attorney.

Dimitris was trying to prove Izquierdo's attorneys have political ties to the Cuban government, providing them with easy access to the island in order to question witnesses and collect evidence. Attorneys for the DCF argued that they haven't been allowed the same privileges.

DCF attorneys also attempted to portray Izquierdo as being unfit to raise his child by focusing on the relationship between him and his daughter's mother, Elena Perez.

Izquierdo testified that he broke up with her in the middle of her pregnancy.

"Had Elena ever spent a single night at your parents' home where you live?" Dimitris asked Izquierdo, who replied, "No."

Izquierdo wants to bring his daughter back to Cuba, while her foster parents want to keep her in Miami.

The case began in 2004 when Perez won the visa lottery to come to the U.S. with her son and daughter, each of whom has a different father. Both fathers agreed to allow their children to go, but Perez was hospitalized after a suicide attempt in December 2005.

The children were put in foster care and ended up with Joe Cubas, 46, and his wife. Perez agreed to allow them to adopt her son, now 13, but not her daughter with Izquierdo, 32.

Throughout Friday morning's proceedings, there was almost no mention of the girl at the center of the case. She celebrates her fifth birthday Saturday.