GUATEMALA
Foreign Adoptions Are
Back – Along with the Doubts
By Danilo Valladares
GUATEMALA (IPS) - The reopening of
international adoptions in Guatemala in
June might not only mean the chance of a
better life for many children, but may
also spell a return to corruption, fraud
and the theft of babies, human rights
groups warn.
A number of organisations expressed
concern after the National Adoption
Council, the central adoption authority
established in 2008, announced in March
that a pilot programme for the
resumption of adoptions abroad would go
into effect in June, under stricter
oversight.
According to the Council, the situation
was studied by experts from the United
Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the
Hague Conference on Private
International Law, which approved the
Hague Convention on Protection of
Children and Cooperation in Respect of
Intercountry Adoption in 1993.
Nevertheless, human rights groups are
worried.
"We are against the reopening of
international adoptions now because the
same structure of organised crime that
generated a major international market
to which the country exported between
5,000 and 6,000 children a year is still
in place," the head of the Survivors
Foundation, Norma Cruz, told IPS.
In 2008, the National Adoption Council
suspended foreign adoptions, which were
mainly to couples in the United States,
to shut down a thriving business that
profited lawyers, judges and doctors.
Until the suspension of foreign
adoptions, Guatemala was the fourth
country in the world in terms of the
number of children placed in adoption,
after Russia, China and South Korea,
according to UNICEF. But in proportion
to the population, it was the global
leader.
Adoptions were suspended in compliance
with the new adoption law in effect
since 2007, which created the National
Adoption Council and banned "undue
benefits, material or otherwise, to
accrue to the persons, institutions and
authorities involved in the adoption
process."
It also put a priority on placing
children with Guatemalan families and
established that "the poverty or extreme
poverty of parents is not sufficient
reason to put a child up for adoption."
According to United Nations figures,
half of the population of this Central
American country of 13 million people is
living in poverty, and 17 percent in
extreme poverty.
Activists say that behind the booming
adoption market in Guatemala was a
"mafia" of lawyers, notaries public, "jaladoras"
or baby brokers who entice poor young
women into placing their children in
adoption, so-called "casas de engorde"
or "fattening houses" where the
expectant mothers’ pregnancy and
birth-related expenses were covered,
officials in civil registers,
pediatricians, adoption homes and foster
families.
In order to generate confidence in the
new adoption process, "the state should
give signs that it is prepared to
dismantle the child trafficking
networks…which remain intact," Cruz
said.
The activist cited the case of Alma
Valle, a lawyer who was released on bail
on Apr. 23, after she was deported from
the United States and arrested in
Guatemala for her alleged participation
in arranging illegal adoptions.
Valle "was released after paying 150,000
quetzals (18,000 dollars) in bail. In
just one quarter of 2008 she negotiated
the adoption of 150 children. But since
she is the wife of an army colonel and
has links to the governing party, she
was set free," Cruz complained.
The National Adoption Council reports
that 214 children, including disabled
children and youngsters over the age of
seven, are currently available for
adoption.
Since November, couples from Austria,
Denmark, France, Israel, Italy, Norway,
Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the
United States have expressed an interest
in adopting Guatemalan children.
The executive director of the Social
Movement for the Rights of Children and
Adolescents, Felipe García, told IPS the
country should not "race" to reopen
foreign adoptions, but should first
offer a decent life to the children here
in Guatemala.
He said a priority has not yet been put
on domestic adoptions. Nor have the
cases of more than 27,000 children
removed from the country under
"irregular" circumstances before 2008
been resolved.
The numerous mothers who are demanding
the return of children who were stolen
from them should be given compensation,
García added.
"The Guatemalan state should show a
willingness to come up with the
necessary mechanisms for children to
stay in Guatemala and not have to be
adopted by foreigners," he said.
García also said the state was still
"under the thumb" of organised crime
groups dedicated to illegal adoptions.
Before the new law went into effect, the
illegal foreign adoptions of 4,000 to
5,000 Guatemalan children a year
generated some 200 million dollars in
annual earnings.
Adoptions, which generally took only a
year, cost the prospective families
between 25,000 and 50,000 dollars,
according to human rights groups.
Byron Alvarado, executive secretary of
the National Commission on Children and
Adolescents, which includes
representatives of both the government
and civil society, said the National
Adoption Council should be better
established before adoptions are
reopened, because "it has only been
functioning for two years."
"Guatemalans don't even know yet what
the role of the Adoption Council is," he
told IPS.
In his view, international adoption
should be a last resort.
But Nidia Aguilar, director of Defence
of the Rights of the Child in the Office
of the Human Rights Ombudsman, told IPS
that foreign adoptions should be
reopened because there are hundreds of
youngsters in children's homes who are
waiting for a family of their own.
She said there are much bigger hurdles
now to prevent illegal adoptions, and
that if any do happen, the cases should
be reported to the authorities. |
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