tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-49853790012853536382024-03-18T21:30:46.100-07:00Susana Luarca - EnglishSusana's bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13459297880017298342noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4985379001285353638.post-86412803692202359972010-10-14T22:21:00.000-07:002010-10-14T22:21:17.091-07:00The Response of the US Department of State<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-X020VuiCOEA8NmcY8hIU1DgoLC3JC9WI25LHiZUsE8gq_A-8kjKvi2xRxNCcxcl9LlkDHbZuzXWJsL_0J7gXMW9GjnyVMFo1Sr7ckGS2dsdkmuHkVSr2jZLQYqfICk3kTGUWf4BM1kE/s1600/letter+DOS+adoption+issues.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" height="284" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-X020VuiCOEA8NmcY8hIU1DgoLC3JC9WI25LHiZUsE8gq_A-8kjKvi2xRxNCcxcl9LlkDHbZuzXWJsL_0J7gXMW9GjnyVMFo1Sr7ckGS2dsdkmuHkVSr2jZLQYqfICk3kTGUWf4BM1kE/s400/letter+DOS+adoption+issues.jpg" width="400" /></a><br />
<div style="clear: both;"><a href="http://picasa.google.com/blogger/" target="ext"><img align="middle" alt="Posted by Picasa" border="0" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/pbp.gif" style="-moz-background-clip: initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: initial; -moz-background-origin: initial; background: 0% 50%; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /></a></div>Susana's bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13459297880017298342noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4985379001285353638.post-22834608949998956362010-10-08T23:51:00.000-07:002010-10-08T23:52:37.614-07:00THE US WITHDRAWAL OF THE GUATEMALAN ADOPTION PILOT PROGRAMThe recent announcement that the U.S. will not participate in the Guatemalan Pilot Program is just another nail in the coffin of Intercountry Adoption. The incredible HYPOCRISY that governs this decision is - while not surprising - still totally infuriating. The U.S. DOS promoted the passage of the current adoption law in Guatemala, despite vigorous opposition by adoption advocates with knowledge of Guatemalan politics and realities. Prior to the U.S. intervention in promoting this law, the law was - in various incarnations - voted down over a period of 6 years. It was promoted intensely by UNICEF. The Hague Treaty was passed "illegally" in Guatemala in 2003 and its passage was OVERTURNED by the Constitutional Court in Guatemala in Sept.2003. In 2006, the State Department announced that "they" were considering Guatemala to still be party to the Hague, despite earlier acknowledgements that Guatemala's Constitutional Court had ruled that Guatemala's constitution did not allow them to participate in a Treaty when they had not participated in the Conventions leading to the Treaty (as Guatemala had not been party to the Conventions leading to the Hague Treaty). Once the Department of State convinced the Guatemalan Congress, in a series of "smoke and mirrors" arguments to reinstate the Hague Treaty, they also convinced them to pass the adoption law, which eliminated the Notarial Law. All new adoptions from Guatemala ceased on Dec.31, 2007. Though the new law has a "grandfather clause" covering all adoptions initiated under the Notarial process before December 31, 2007, the Guatemalan authorities have not honored the Grandfather clause in many ways, with thousands of adoptions in process being delayed over the last 3 years, and still hundreds are being obstructed, many without legal basis. The U.S. Department of State has been noticeably inactive in its lack of advocacy for these adoptions initiated by U.S. citizens prior to the law changing.<br />
<br />
In my opinion, the Hague Treaty governing intercountry adoption has been a tool used by first world governments to limit or eliminate adoptions of children from developing countries. There seems to be a collusion between the governments, Unicef, and the officials at the Hague to promote the Treaty as being in the best interests of children, while nothing is done to actually assure for the alternative care of those children who are not being adopted, nor are adoptions in any serious numbers being promoted.<br />
<br />
In Guatemala, an alternative law was presented to the Congress in 2007, which would have regulated the adoption services in accordance with the mandates of the Hague Treaty, while developing a public-private partnership and still maintaining the social services; but this law was not acceptable. Now, in Guatemala, there is minimal public support for children, and private support - which in the past has accounted for 90% of support for children - is dwindling each day, as much of it was dependent on adoptions. <br />
<br />
The first world governments, like the U.S., who have insisted on the Hague Treaty in these countries, have an obligation to help the impoverished governments, like Guatemala, develop acceptable and child centric systems. When the Department of State was trying to get U.S. adoption organizations to support the Hague Treaty, they committed to helping developing countries comply with the Treaty. What happened to those promises? More important, what is actually happening to the children who cannot be adopted?<br />
<br />
<br />
<strong>Hannah Wallace</strong>, <br />
<strong>Focus On Adoption</strong>Susana's bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13459297880017298342noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4985379001285353638.post-18948977469883874362010-09-03T14:58:00.000-07:002010-09-04T01:13:03.846-07:00Letter to the Office of Children's Issues regarding their post about Asociacion Primavera Guatemala, September 3, 2010<br />
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE<br />
Bureau of Consular Affairs<br />
Office of Children Issues.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,<br />
<br />
On August 27, 2010, you posted on your website at <a href="http://adoption.state.gov/news/guatemala.html">http://adoption.state.gov/news/guatemala.html</a> an update about the situation of the orphanages in Guatemala, whose children were taken away by the authorities. Of all the orphanages, names are mentioned only with regard to Asociación Primavera. Since my name is mentioned there and the accusations stated in your communication against both attorney Alma Beatriz Valle de Mejia and myself, are falsely stated, I want to express my concern about the spreading of false information by the US State Department. The presumption of innocence is a constitutionally protected right, in your country as well as in mine, and that has been totally ignored in this statement.<br />
<br />
A year ago, seventeen children, who were very well cared for at Asociación Primavera, were illegally removed from the only home they had known, by employees of the PGN, the Ministerio Publico and the Consejo Nacional de Adopciones. They had no court order and no legal grounds to remove the children, and when they could not obtain a proper authorization, they took the children anyway. A full account of the kidnapping of these seventeen children is recorded at the website of Asociación Defensores de la Adopción (ADA) at <a href="http://www.adaguatemala.org/English/news/">http://www.adaguatemala.org/English/news/</a> The process to challenge the illegal removal of the children is currently pending before the Supreme Court of Guatemala. It has been an uphill battle this past year, and the casualties have been the children whose contact with their adoptive families was abruptly severed by the abuse of power of people who seem to have no interest in the welfare of the children.<br />
<br />
The post mentioned above stated that the judge of Escuintla, who approved many of the abandonments from hogar Primavera, was recently stripped of his immunity, which implies that the abandonments he ruled on could be challenged. This piece of misinformation may bring undue anguish to the waiting families. The fact that the Supreme Court authorized that the judge of Escuintla may stand trial, does not mean that the abandonments he ruled on are illegal, much less that the adoptions of those children are also illegal. Some of those abandonments were upheld by the Court of Appeals of the Childhood and Adolescence and even one of them by the Supreme Court itself<br />
<br />
On December 16, 2009, the Ministerio Publico obtained a warrant for my arrest, accusing me of “traffic of people, use of forged documents and illegal association.” None of those accusations have the slightest foundation, nor has any evidence been produced to give credence to these claims. The only reason I was linked to the process, is because the judge, as she candidly confessed at the hearing, “has not a clue about the Law of Minors” and could not understand the arguments that we presented to her. In the case in question, there was not even an adoption, because the birthmother regained custody of her child that she willingly placed for adoption in the first place. Furthermore, this same birth mother had previously filed a petition to the court to dismiss this case based on the voluntary relinquishment of her daughter, because she reasoned that nobody should be blamed for her decision and much less those who provided loving shelter and care to her daughter. Even though it is true that I was allowed to post bail and was given house arrest, you must clarify that “house arrest”, does not mean the same thing in Guatemala as it does in the United States. Here the person on house arrest can travel freely all over the country, needing judicial authorization only to cross the international borders. Yet this distinction is left out of your report, implying that things are much worse than they are.<br />
<br />
The email states that I was arrested “on charges of irregular adoptions”, which is incorrect. The charges were of “traffic of people”, which must be known by those who wrote that email, involves exploitation, through forced sexual acts or forced labor. The subject is explained in the report about the Traffic of People, issued by the Department of State of the United States of America in June 2010. In the part pertaining to Guatemala, it clearly says: “The government maintained a small prosecutorial unit to investigate and prosecute human trafficking cases; approximately 60 percent of this unit’s investigations focused on illegal adoptions, which do not fall within the international definition of human trafficking.” (emphasis added).<br />
<br />
There is a difference between “<em>irregular adoptions</em>”, as it was stated in article 194 of the Criminal Code, before it was modified by the law passed in April, 2009, and “<em>illegal adoptions</em>” as it is named in the US DOS report. “<strong>Traffic of people for irregular adoption</strong>” as it was stated in Article 194 of the Criminal Code, means to adopt a child and instead of treating him/her as a son or daughter, the adoptive parents enslave such child. It is obvious that there is a great difference between the crime of “<em>exploitation, including forced prostitution, sexual exploitation, begging, forced labor or services, marriage for servitude, irregular adoption and slavery or any other kind of slavery”, and the crime of “to illegally process an adoption.”</em> Yet, the Ministerio Publico wants everybody, and especially the judges, to believe that both are the same. This is the same technique, created by Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi Minister of Propaganda, which employs simply repeating the same lie enough times until it is perceived as the truth. Certainly the US wants no part in that kind of manipulation.<br />
<br />
The State Department states in its report about Human Traffic in Guatemala:<br />
“<em>Credible reports from international organizations, NGOs, and several government officials indicated that corrupt public officials continued to impede anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts and facilitated trafficking activity by accepting or extorting bribes, falsifying identity documents, leaking in formation about impending police raids to suspected traffickers, and ignoring trafficking activity in commercial sex sites</em>.” How can the people of our investigative bodies ignore these real human traffickers, and instead focus their efforts on discrediting the people who work to give homes to abandoned children? And they use as their excuse this misuse of the wording of the law. Surely this will go down as a shameful page in the history books of Guatemala and for its complicity, the United States as well.<br />
<br />
It is absolutely unconscionable to simply quote “the press” as a source of information to make the statement that attorney Alma Beatriz Valle Flores de Mejia and I formed a “network engaged in illegal adoptions in 158 cases of irregular adoptions in 2008 as part of her involvement with Asociación Primavera.” Not only was that information never published in any newspaper, but it is not true. None of the adoptions of the children at Asociación Primavera is illegal, as the US Embassy can attest, because they had the opportunity to review all the necessary documents when they were presented in order to obtain the US visas for the adopted children. There are only two criminal cases regarding Asociación Primavera children. In one of them, Alma Beatriz Valle Flores de MejIa is not named as a defendant; and in the other, I have not been linked to the process yet, as I still have to be summoned to a hearing to give my deposition, and again, both cases lack any legal or factual grounds.<br />
<br />
I am appalled by the way the communication posted in the Internet to the waiting families portrays us, when the people who wrote it must know, or at least should know that an adoption is a legal process, duly overseen by the courts and by the PGN, and that those of us who work to make the adoptions possible do not deserve to be treated as criminals. All of our work has been done ethically, professionally and certainly legally and we are entitled to our constitutional rights of due process and presumption of innocence to be respected by the Department of State of the United States and to be treated by the US people with respect.<br />
<br />
For many years I have been an advocate of adoption, as a way to give a family to those children who do not have one. I never thought that such a noble cause could be criminalized as has happened here in Guatemala and that the children could be sent to a prison, where their right to a family is daily ignored, even though they have families in the United States who are waiting for them. It would be an act of human kindness on the part of both governments, to stop using the children as hostages and allow them to join their forever families. To prolong the separation of the children is causing unnecessary grief to all parties involved, but especially to the children.<br />
<br />
A brief research would prove the veracity of my statements. After you do so, I would appreciate a correction of the above mentioned statements. I thank you in advance for doing what is fair.<br />
<br />
Best regards,<br />
<br />
<br />
Susana Luarca, Attorney at Law, Guatemala City.Susana's bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13459297880017298342noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4985379001285353638.post-75904495091167065502009-12-19T03:01:00.000-08:002009-12-19T12:42:16.944-08:00The partnerships of UNICEF<meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CLICDA%7E1.SUS%5CCONFIG%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C03%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="country-region"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="place"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="PersonName"></o:smarttagtype><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:hyphenationzone>21</w:HyphenationZone> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]><object classid="clsid:38481807-CA0E-42D2-BF39-B33AF135CC4D" id="ieooui"></object> <style> st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } </style> <![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:612.0pt 792.0pt; margin:70.85pt 3.0cm 70.85pt 3.0cm; mso-header-margin:36.0pt; mso-footer-margin:36.0pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Tabla normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-US">To understand what is happening with international adoptions world wide, it is necessary to take a closer look at the activities of<span style=""> </span>UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund) who sponsors the wars against adoptions, funding<span style=""> </span>activities to decrease the population in the Third World Countries, with any means they can. <span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-US">http://www.lifesitenews.com/waronfamily/unicef/unicef.pdf<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-US">To maintain its image of a venerable institution who works for the children, UNICEF<span style=""> </span>needs to voice its negative and false anti adoption propaganda<span style=""> </span>through other entities.<span style=""> </span>Casa Alianza, <span style=""> </span>an <span style=""> </span>organization funded by Covenant House,<span style=""> </span>a Catholic entity based in New York,<span style=""> </span>was used in the 90’s<span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span>to spread negative<span style=""> </span>information about adoptions,<span style=""> </span>which benefitted UNICEF, until its director <span style=""> </span>Bruce Harris was caught by the Honduras police paying for sex to a male teen, who had been serviced (as Casa Alianza refers <span style=""> </span>to <span style=""> </span>the help they supposedly give to the children of the street) and who is sick with AIDS. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-US">In 2000,<span style=""> </span>UNICEF had no qualms in making up <span style=""> </span>an <span style=""> </span>entity<span style=""> </span>called ILPEC <span style=""> </span>to <span style=""> </span>publish an <span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span>study <span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span>about Guatemalan adoptions that has been quoted since then <span style=""> </span>as the only truth, when it is evident that the study passes opinions as facts and that it <span style=""> </span>misrepresents the Guatemalan adoption legal process.<span style=""> </span>Based on that so called report, UNICEF demanded the Guatemalan government to shut down adoptions as it has happened in many other countries in <st1:place st="on">Latin America</st1:place>. <span style=""> </span>To further their agenda,<span style=""> </span>UNICEF<span style=""> </span>and the policy makers of the First World Countries, designed a treaty that under the appearance of <span style=""> </span>unifying the<span style=""> </span>adoption laws of<span style=""> </span>the countries<span style=""> </span>to make adoptions<span style=""> </span>more transparent, effectively<span style=""> </span>closed them down, either at the country of<span style=""> </span>origin of the children being adopted or<span style=""> </span>at the country<span style=""> </span>of destiny of the adopted children.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-US"><span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-US"><span style=""> </span>In March 5, 2003 <st1:place st="on"><st1:country-region st="on">Guatemala</st1:country-region></st1:place> shut down all adoptions, both domestic and international. the<span style=""> </span>Procuraduria General de <st1:personname productid="la Nacion" st="on">la Nacion</st1:personname>,<span style=""> </span>- equivalent of the State Attorney – an entity that must give its approval before each adoption case could be authorized by the presiding authority (either a judge or a notary), without a warning<span style=""> </span>and without a law to authorize it,<span style=""> </span>simply started piling up all the adoption files started<span style=""> </span>after that date refusing to issue that by law that entity was<span style=""> </span>obligated to issue. <span style=""> </span>Six months passed, that were pure agony for those adoptive parents whose children where caught<span style=""> </span>in the illegal enforcement of<span style=""> </span>a treaty commonly known as The Hague Convention for Intercountry Adoptions. That came to an end when the<span style=""> </span>Constitutional Court of <st1:country-region st="on">Guatemala</st1:country-region><span style=""> </span>ruled unconstitutional the law issued by Congress, approving the accession of <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Guatemala</st1:place></st1:country-region> to such convention.<span style=""> </span>According to the highest court in constitutional matters, the president of <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Guatemala</st1:place></st1:country-region> is allowed to ratify<span style=""> </span>treaties, but it is not among the powers of the president, clearly stated in the Constitution to accede to a treaty. The difference between ratification and accession is the participation of the country in a previous stage known as celebration, that <span style=""> </span>it is the step when the delegates of the countries get together to<span style=""> </span>discuss and agree on the terms of the treaty and sign it,<span style=""> </span>before going back to their countries to request authorization to ratify it. <span style=""> </span>In the accession, the country does not participate in celebration, but becomes a party to the convention after it has entered into full force. <span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-US">In 2007, four years later and after a very <span style=""> </span>powerful and very costly anti adoption campaign, the Constitutional Court issued <span style=""> </span>an opinion of<span style=""> </span>refusing to comply with the ruling of that very same court,<span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span>giving free hand to the president to keep Guatemala bound by the already ruled unconstitutional accession to The <span style=""> </span>Hague Convention <span style=""> </span>and to the Congress,<span style=""> </span>whose members were on their way out, <span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span>the freedom to pass an Adoptions Law that centralized in an State entity the power to do and authorize <span style=""> </span>adoptions.<span style=""> </span>The congressmen were brought <span style=""> </span>from their hometowns, where they already <span style=""> </span>had retreated to enjoy their <span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span>end of the year vacation, <span style=""> </span>for an extraordinary session at Congress, <span style=""> </span>to vote on <span style=""> </span>the Adoptions Law, where the US Consul sat at the diplomatic balcony,<span style=""> </span>with a list of the members of<span style=""> </span>Congress, taking notes of<span style=""> </span>how each of them <span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span>voted. Previously and as stated by some of the congressmen, the US Consul called each of the <span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span>congressmen to friendly advise them to approve the Adoptions Law because failing to do so would<span style=""> </span>mean the loss of their visa to visit the United States of America. <span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-US">The Adoptions Law <span style=""> </span>included a grandfather provision that allowed the cases that were started before the<span style=""> </span>new law became effective, on December 31, 2007, to be finalized according to the laws effective at the time of its initiation, provided the adoptions were registered at the Consejo Nacional de Adopciones (CNA). <span style=""> </span>On January 14, 2008,<span style=""> </span>the current administration took charge and the new authorities fired two of the three members of the <span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span>CNA<span style=""> </span>which hindered the registration of the cases, because the new members could not take <span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span>charge as the fired ones would not relinquish their positions. One of the members appointed by the new administration is Elizabeth Hernandez de Larios, who was also the director of the PGN’s Central Authority for Adoptions<span style=""> </span>during a good part of the six months period <span style=""> </span>when adoptions were paralyzed in 2003, so it was not a surprise <span style=""> </span>that thus far, with the exception of a few cases, <span style=""> </span>intercountry<span style=""> </span>adoptions have not been authorized.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-US">Regardless of my personal belief that<span style=""> </span>the human being needs a family<span style=""> </span>since he is born until he dies, the Convention for the Rights of the Child, a human rights treaty celebrated and ratified by Guatemala and therefore, above any other law except for the Constitution, states that the children need to be with<span style=""> </span>a family for their normal and harmonious development. <span style=""> </span>However,<span style=""> </span>there are people who think that abandoned <span style=""> </span>children must remain as pupils of the State until they grow up. The problem with that is that <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Guatemala</st1:place></st1:country-region> does not provide for its children<span style=""> </span>hen they are again abandoned by their so called father, where they become easy prey of the organized crime. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-US">The campaign against adoptions sponsored <span style=""> </span>by UNICEF after <span style=""> </span>the sex <span style=""> </span>scandal of <span style=""> </span>Bruce Harris discredited such entity, was entrusted to Fundacion Sobrevivientes, <span style=""> </span>an <span style=""> </span>entity <span style=""> </span>leaded by Norma Cruz, a secretary<span style=""> </span>and former guerrilla member, who formed it after she <span style=""> </span>discovered that her husband had been sexually abusing her daughter for over five years,<span style=""> </span>to help victims of domestic violence.<span style=""> </span>Even though the entity has nothing to do with adoptions, <span style=""> </span>Norma Cruz has been very vocal against adoptions,<span style=""> </span>embracing the cause of <span style=""> </span>the women who claim that their daughters where stolen to be adopted,<span style=""> </span>starting a campaign called Empty Cradles, that was used to put pressure on the Guatemalan Congress to pass the current adoptions law. <span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> Susana's bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13459297880017298342noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4985379001285353638.post-73342624875805404452009-12-19T01:21:00.000-08:002009-12-19T01:21:24.714-08:00International Adoption: Unicef's and Other Critics’ War Against International Adoption<a href="http://www.articlesbase.com/parenting-articles/international-adoption-unicefs-and-other-critics-war-against-international-adoption-719309.html">International Adoption: Unicef's and Other Critics’ War Against International Adoption</a>Susana's bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13459297880017298342noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4985379001285353638.post-70847595712052964622009-10-16T02:44:00.000-07:002009-10-16T03:12:05.232-07:00THE SITUATION OF THE GRANDFATHERED ADOPTIONS<meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CLICDA%7E1.SUS%5CCONFIG%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C02%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="country-region"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="place"></o:smarttagtype><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:hyphenationzone>21</w:HyphenationZone> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]><object classid="clsid:38481807-CA0E-42D2-BF39-B33AF135CC4D" id="ieooui"></object> <style> st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } </style> <![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:612.0pt 792.0pt; margin:70.85pt 3.0cm 70.85pt 3.0cm; mso-header-margin:36.0pt; mso-footer-margin:36.0pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Tabla normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""><span style=""> </span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-US"><span style=""> </span>All adoption cases started before December 31, 2007 and registered at the National Council of Adoptions (CAN) before February 13, 2008, are allowed to be processed and finalized according to the notarial system. <span style=""> </span>Unfortunately, the CNA does not want to step aside of the grandfathered cases, to try to justify the small number of adoptions they have finalized in almost two years of<span style=""> </span>its existence.<span style=""> </span>First, they<span style=""> </span>set up the “verification court” with the collaboration of the PGN and of the DA, to interview all<span style=""> </span>the birthmothers and legal guardians of the children being adopted under the old laws. Clearly, neither the DA nor the CNA have anything to do with those adoptions, because they are neither crimes to investigate nor adoptions under the new law, but that did not stop either of them to keep using grandfathered adoptions to justify that they are not doing what they are meant to do.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
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<br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-US">In <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Guatemala</st1:place></st1:country-region>, prostitution is legal, but it is not legal to operate brothels and much less, to exploit underage girls in those places. The Unit Against Traffic of People, <span style=""> </span>of the District Attorney, supposedly works <span style=""> </span>to protect people from any kind of exploitation and especially of the sexual kind,<span style=""> </span>but instead of doing so, it devotes the best part of their efforts to try to find felonies in adoption processes, even if they already were approved by the PGN. <span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span>Meanwhile,<span style=""> </span>brothels are still open and girls are being shipped from all over the world to cater all their clients,<span style=""> </span>but especially from other countries in<span style=""> </span>Central America, where many girls are lured with offers of<span style=""> </span>legal employment, just to find out when they get to <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Guatemala</st1:place></st1:country-region> that they are forced into prostitution. But as it happens with drugs, the people who have interests in this kind of illegal activity are very powerful and it is very dangerous to go against them. It is safer to accuse lawyers and especially female lawyers, <span style=""> </span>knowing that we are not<span style=""> </span>going to shoot at them if they come after us. <span style=""> </span>The DA has many adoption files, where they are trying to build<span style=""> </span>cases against the lawyers who handled them. The DA agents spend countless hours investigating how many times the lawyers have traveled abroad,<span style=""> </span>digging out personal and<span style=""> </span>financial information about them and<span style=""> </span>a lot of<span style=""> </span>irrelevant data that has no bearing with the case.<span style=""> </span>The consent of the birth mother<span style=""> </span>is not taken into account, pictures and videos<span style=""> </span>and even DNA results of tests done<span style=""> </span>at the relinquishment of the children, offered by the lawyers to help with the investigation<span style=""> </span>are rejected,<span style=""> </span>because that <span style=""> </span>can prove that everything is legal and what would they do to build the cases then.
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<br /><span style="" lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-US">The CNA offices take two floors of a new building located on Avenida Reforma,<span style=""> </span>across the street from the American Embassy.<span style=""> </span>Their offices are crawling with employees and there are stacks of official looking papers everywhere on sight.<span style=""> </span>For an entity that has been working for less than two years and who did as little as 54 adoptions last year an even less this year and who has not even issued the regulations <span style=""> </span>required by the Adoptions Law, the manpower and the paperwork displayed do not match its results. <span style=""> </span>The president of the CNA claims that the lack of funds is detrimental for their work. They seem to forget that they can charge for their services<span style=""> </span>when they do <span style=""> </span>adoptions to foreigners, but of course, that would mean to actually have to work and why bother when their survival is guaranteed by those who do not want adoptions of Guatemalan children.
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<br /><span style="" lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-US">The recently appointed Attorney General<span style=""> </span>was welcomed to his new post by the letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, sent by 52<span style=""> </span>US lawmakers,<span style=""> </span>urging the US DOS to <span style=""> </span>expedite Guatemalan adoptions. <span style=""> </span>His response was to appoint an Adoptions Unit formed by three PGN lawyers and three CNA lawyers to review the “irregular adoptions” as they are commonly called by the Prensa Libre. To appoint CNA lawyers to review the grandfathered adoption processes is a big mistake, because not only those adoptions do not fall under the scope of their activities, but the CNA lawyers <span style=""> </span>are programmed <span style=""> </span>to oppose adoptions in <span style=""> </span>general and notarial adoptions in particular. <span style=""> </span>The Attorney General appointed other two PGN lawyers to help to <span style=""> </span>review the cases. They should start by asking the DA to return those files where no felonies have been committed, to approve them right away and let those children move on with their lives. <span style=""> </span>The PGN is quoted as having trouble in “recovering all the adoption files”, which only shows that they have no clue as to what are they supposed to do with the files. The PGN has three days to give an opinion and it should not send the file to the Unit of Childhood, because the first thing they do is to appoint an investigator who does not do much and the file <span style=""> </span>ends up at the DA.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal">
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<br /><span style="" lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-US"><span style=""> </span>The CNA<span style=""> </span>is urging the families whose adoptions are stalled to communicate their situation to the PGN and to the CNA. <span style=""> </span>Since they have no power over notarial <span style=""> </span>processes,<span style=""> </span>it is useless to do so. It is better to complain directly to the Attorney General about your case and let him know the number and date of entry of your case and all the related information. His name is Guillermo Antonio Porras Ovalle and you can address him at www.pgn.gob.gt/oficina_virtual_del_procurador.htmlt
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<br /><span style="" lang="EN-US"><span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-US">The voices of<span style=""> </span>the adoptive parents still in process need to be heard. When somebody proposed a hunger strike in front of the PGN, many people opposed.<span style=""> </span>When a praying vigil was proposed later,<span style=""> </span>nobody<span style=""> </span>wanted to do it. <span style=""> </span>The demonstration at the Guatemalan Embassy was attended by very few families but it <span style=""> </span>was noted <span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span>by the Washington Post.<span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span>It would be wonderful if all the families would make a collective effort to call the attention of the media to the situation of their adoptions that are being delayed simply because they<span style=""> </span>are the reason of being of the jobs of<span style=""> </span>many bureaucrats, who know that as soon as those adoptions are approved by the PGN, their jobs would be in jeopardy, so it is better for them to keep them in the system <span style=""> </span>for as long as it is possible.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal">
<br /><span style="" lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-US">The lawmakers who signed the letter to Secretary of State Clinton need to know that their letter did not make a difference. They need to be told that the authorities in Gautemala are still opposing adoptions and that the children being adopted <span style=""> </span>as well as their US adoptive families are still waiting for the release of their files. <span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> Susana's bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13459297880017298342noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4985379001285353638.post-7625441323033498782009-10-11T01:27:00.000-07:002009-10-12T16:46:37.909-07:00THE STORY OF KAREN ABIGAIL - 2nd. part<meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CLICDA%7E1.SUS%5CCONFIG%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><link rel="Edit-Time-Data" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CLICDA%7E1.SUS%5CCONFIG%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_editdata.mso"><!--[if !mso]> <style> v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} .shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);} </style> <![endif]--><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="State"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="country-region"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="City"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="place"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="metricconverter"></o:smarttagtype><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:hyphenationzone>21</w:HyphenationZone> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]><object classid="clsid:38481807-CA0E-42D2-BF39-B33AF135CC4D" id="ieooui"></object> <style> st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } </style> <![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} p {mso-margin-top-alt:auto; margin-right:0cm; mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto; margin-left:0cm; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:595.3pt 841.9pt; margin:70.85pt 3.0cm 70.85pt 3.0cm; mso-header-margin:35.4pt; mso-footer-margin:35.4pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Tabla normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style=""><u><span style="" lang="ES-MX">The Aftermath <o:p></o:p></span></u></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><u><span style="" lang="ES-MX"><o:p><span style="text-decoration: none;"></span></o:p></span></u><o:p>
<br /></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-US">We thought that the story of Karen Abigail finished for us when the three year old girl was picked up at the orphanage by her adoptive parents, who took her with them to their home in <st1:state st="on">Missouri</st1:state>, <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">USA</st1:place></st1:country-region>, on December 9, 2008.<span style=""> </span>We learned later that the story was far from being over. Some months after Karen Abigail had left Primavera, in March, <st1:metricconverter productid="2009, a" st="on">2009, a</st1:metricconverter> judge and a group of policemen went to the orphanage, <span style=""> </span>which is located in zone ten of <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Guatemala City</st1:place></st1:city>, just a block away from the buildings that house the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and of Education, with a habeas corpus order to find Karen Abigail.
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<br />The habeas corpus petition was filed by Loyda, a woman who claims that in the registration forms of the grandfathered adoptions at the National Council of Adoptions, she recognized the picture of Karen Abigail as her daughter who was stolen from her in November, 2006. Those forms had been there since February, 2008 and Loyda had reviewed them several times, and for a good part of the previous year, she was convinced that she had found her daughter in the picture of another girl, named Dulce Maria. <span style=""> </span>Loyda was acting under the legal direction of<span style=""> </span>one of the lawyers who work for Fundacion Sobrevivientes, whose director, Norma Cruz has been very outspoken against adoptions, although the scope of her entity is domestic violence. <span style=""> </span>
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<br />When the judge with the warrant for the raid of the orphanage showed up at Primavera, I was called by Enriqueta, the director of the orphanage, who asked me to talk to the judge, because she was not at the orphanage and she could not come right away. My office is very close to the orphanage and I help the children who become abandonment cases, so I quickly went to the Primavera orphanage and explained to the judge that Karen Abigail already left with her parents, about four months before. The judge looked everywhere, calling Karen Abigail by a name that I had not heard before: Anyeli Liseth. <span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span><s><span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span></s><span style=""> </span>When he was convinced that Karen Abigail was not at the orphanage, he left. Again, we thought that it was the end of it, since it would have been useless to continue looking for a child who was already adopted and <span style=""> </span>no longer in <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Guatemala</st1:place></st1:country-region>.
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<br />At the beginning of April, 2009, while I was spending some time with my family, away from our home in <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Guatemala City</st1:place></st1:city>, I got a phone call from Francisca, one of the caregivers of the orphanage, to tell me that the orphanage was being raided by the District Attorney and the Police, who were looking for Karen Abigail. As soon as I hung up, I got another call from someone at my office, to let me know that it was being raided too, and then another call from my house keeper, that armed men wanted to get in, and that they had a raid warrant. A little bit later, I got a similar call from the director of the orphanage located in Palin, a small city in the highway to the Pacific Coast, where the children who had been abandoned by their parents awaited a ruling from the Court of Minors, either declaring them adoptable, or sending them back to their birth families if, in fact, the child was reclaimed by them.
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<br />That simultaneous raid of four places, took no less than one hundred men, four hours and at least twenty vehicles, not to mention the time that it must have taken to organize it. The result was easily expected: Karen Abigail was not found. Because as the DA already knew, she had left Guatemala with her adoptive parents, on December 9, 2008, to live in Missouri, the place of residence of her new family. In general terms, the raid was done in a polite manner, except for the fact that the DA brought to the raid a computer technician who checked all the computers at my office, crashing the hard disk of all of them, except for the one that was impounded. They also took everything related with another girl also named Karen Abigail, but who has nothing to do with the girl they were looking for. As well, they planted evidence that was not found at Primavera, but that was photographed as if it was found at the orphanage. That is to say, the pictures of the girl that Loyda had been showing everywhere claiming that it was her missing daughter and the cedula (ID document) of Loyda, the alleged mother of Karen Abigail. At my office, we are still looking for files and documents that were not among the documents the DA listed as impounded but that were at my office before the raid and after the raid are nowhere to be found.
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<br />Over the phone, I talked to the agent in charge of the raids, named Oscar Rivas, offering him any assistance I could provide. A lawyer who has his office a couple of blocks away from the orphanage was called by a mutual friend, to go to the raid and to talk to the agent Rivas. At the time, the DA people who were raiding the orphanage in Palin wanted to remove the nine children who were there, arguing that Primavera did not have the right to have an orphanage in that city. The lawyer showed agent Rivas the by-laws of the association where it says that it is, in fact, allowed to establish homes for children anywhere in <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Guatemala</st1:place></st1:country-region> and the court orders that authorized the orphanage to shelter the children at the Primavera orphanage in Palin. The DA people had to desist and left the children at the orphanage, but leaked to the press the false news that the children had been removed from the orphanage because it was an illegal crib house, which is entirely not true.
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<br />A few days later, Enriqueta, the director of Primavera and I, went to the abandonment hearing of a little girl at the Escuintla Court of Minors, and when the hearing was over, the DA agent Oscar Rivas approached me, asking me about Karen Abigail. I requested her abandonment file to one of the court clerks and right there, agent Rivas and I examined the file, page by page, and he could see that the process was totally <span style=""> </span>according to the law. <span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span><u><o:p></o:p></u></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-US">When the DA agent Rivas talked to me about the investigation of a girl named Anyeli Liseth, whose mother, Loyda, was one of the mothers supported by Fundacion Sobrevivientes, I said to him: "You have to do a DNA test to be sure that Karen Abigail is the same child as Anyeli Liseth and even if the DNA proves that they are the same girl, you have to check all the facts regarding the kidnapping. If the parents did not file a Police complaint the very same day, it must be because there was no kidnapping." Rivas said that they could not do a DNA of Loyda, "Because Sobrevivientes does not want to". As I started reading the documents of the trial, I became convinced that there was no kidnapping and that Anyeli's parents relinquished her or at least pretended to relinquish her, and in order to get her back, if they would want to do so, they filed the complaint at the Police station, the day after they claimed that Anyeli disappeared. Loyda has given two other versions of how her child disappeared, different from the version that the father of Anyeli gave to the Police. The Police investigator in charge of the disappearance of Anyeli Liseth died of asphyxia by immersion in April, 2007 and the original file with the picture of Anyeli brought by her father disappeared. It was replaced with copies brought by the DA who also provided a picture of the girl, who looks a lot older than the toddler who was Anyeli at that time. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><b style=""><u><span style="" lang="EN-US">The Criminal Process<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-US">The Ministerio Publico (District Attorney) has <span style=""> </span>brought <span style=""> </span>different charges <span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span>(traffic of persons for irregular adoption, conspiracy,<span style=""> </span>use of false documents) <span style=""> </span>against <span style=""> </span>the judge who ruled the abandonment of Karen Abigail, the PGN lawyers who acted in the abandonment process and in the adoption process, the lawyers who acted in the first adoption and<span style=""> </span>the notary of the second adoption and <span style=""> </span>the director of Association Primavera.<span style=""> </span>Until August, <span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span>the MP brought charges against Marvin Josúe Bran Galindo, for traffic of persons.<span style=""> </span>He was linked to the process and allowed to post<span style=""> </span>bail for less than ten thousand dollars.<span style=""> </span>Petitions to grant the same privilege to Enriqueta, the director of Primavera have been rejected. <span style=""> </span>
<br />
<br />Because the DA would not ask for it, the defense of <span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span>the director of Primavera, requested the court to do the DNA test of Loyda. The results proved that she was the mother of the girl who was DNA tested as "Karen Abigail" and who turned out to be her daughter Anyeli Liseth. The analysis of the DNA results of Felicita, Anyeli and Loyda proved that Felicita and Anyeli are paternal aunt and niece, and Anyeli and Loyda are daughter and mother. It was done by PTC Laboratories in Columbia, MO.
<br />
<br />Since we do not have all the pieces of the puzzle, we do not know why it is that Loyda is claiming Anyeli to be her daughter, the girl we knew as Karen Abigail, when we know that Anyeli and Karen are two different girls. We say that they are not the same, because we know what Karen looks like and she is not the girl in the picture taken at the DNA test. Also, the Primavera caregivers agreed that the girl in that picture is not Karen and since she tested positive as Loyda's daughter, she must be Anyeli Liseth. Therefore, there never has been a DNA of Karen Abigail, who is the girl living in <st1:state st="on"><st1:place st="on">Missouri</st1:place></st1:state>. It would help to settle this matter if we could get her DNA tested, to prove that she is a different girl than Anyeli Liseth and that she is not Loyda's daughter. Unfortunately, when her parents were approached by the Guatemalan Consulate, they said that they would talk to their lawyer and stopped accepting calls. They hired a lawyer who does not want to collaborate, for reasons that I cannot understand, since it is in the best interest of the family who hired her, to clear things up, in order to be assured that nobody is going to show at their doorstep, demanding that the girl be returned to <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Guatemala</st1:place></st1:country-region>. One may think that it is very unlikely, but the possibility would always be present if they do not establish once and for all that Karen Abigail is not Anyeli Liseth.
<br />
<br />This is not the first time that Loyda identified another girl as her daughter, but in this case she is using the pictures of a girl that looks a lot like Karen Abigail, to claim her as her lost daughter. Loyda justifies her inability at identifying Karen Abigail at the PGN interviews, by saying that the PGN employees asked her to leave the premises because her two boys were dirtying the floor, which is extremely hard to believe, since the parade of children being adopted was exclusively for the benefit of the mothers of missing children. She identified other girls as her daughter, whose adoptions were stopped. One of them is a girl named Dulce Maria, who was identified by Loyda as her daughter and who was removed from the orphanage where she was being cared for, despite the positive DNA of that girl and her birth mother. <span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-US">
<br />There are many unsolved mysteries here: Since both girls look so different, why is Loyda claiming Karen Abigail as her daughter? Is she being compensated to pose as the grieving mother of Karen Abigail? Does she know where her daughter, Anyeli Liseth, actually is? From the DNA picture, Anyeli's parents must know who the woman is who went with Anyeli to that DNA test and why is it that they are not filing charges against her? Why is it that the District Attorney’s office will not even consider changing their position against the people who did the second adoption, since we had nothing to do with Anyeli Liseth, only with Karen Abigail? Why is it that the DA is treating the facilitator as a protected witness, when he admitted that he paid for Karen Abigail and he was the one who did the first attempted adoption? He’s who took the woman and the girl to the DNA test instead of Karen Abigail and her birth mother and yet he is cleared off the case after the DNA results turned out negative. Why? Doesn’t he have culpability here? <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-US">
<br />The whole case seems to be <span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span>fabricated to implicate innocent people in several crimes. Meanwhile, the director of Primavera and the PGN lawyer who gave his favorable opinion to the abandonment ruling, are still in jail after more than four months! The seventeen children who were at the Primavera orphanage were abducted and taken to three different orphanages after the PGN decided that they were at risk, "because the director is in jail" How absurd, considering the five nannies who care for them during the day and the four who care for them in the night shift. So their adoptions are being investigated and their waiting families are wondering if they will ever become the parents of those children that they already love as their own. All these problems could be solved -- if only the family of Karen would allow her to be DNA tested. It is a pity that they are ill-advised and hurting so many people by refusing to do so. They have nothing to lose and a lot to gain. Wouldn’t it be nice to be sure that your daughter is not involved in this?
<br />
<br />We have asked the DA to investigate further into the possibility that Karen and Anyeli are actually two different girls. We showed him the pictures of the two very different looking girls and begged him to ask Loyda who is the woman with her daughter in the DNA picture, and to DNA test Felicita. Felicita was located by the DA, and she claims that she had nothing to do with Karen Abigail, or with Anyeli Liseth, because her identity was stolen to record her birth and to go to the DNA. Thus far the DA has investigated the people they want to accuse of several crimes in connections with this case, ignoring finding the truth with many possible leads. We can only assume it’s because they do not want to exonerate us.
<br />
<br />As an adoptive parent myself, I cringe at the possibility that someone would put the adoption of either of my children in jeopardy. But if I knew that the lives of so many good people are upside down because I refuse to let my child be DNA tested, especially knowing beforehand that there is nothing to lose and a lot to gain, I would not hesitate one second to take my child to the lab and have her tested right away. It’s the right thing to do. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-US">
<br />We have been informed by the court that the DA wants Enriqueta to stand trial. Even though, in criminal cases, <span style=""> </span>when there are doubts, like in this case tha there are doubts <span style=""> </span>about the identity of <span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span>Karen Abigail, it must be interpreted in favor of the accused. Not to mention the fact that all she did was comply with the court's ruling to place Karen Abigail for adoption. She broke no law, but she would have if she had disobeyed the order to place Karen Abigail up for adoption. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-US">
<br />Thus far, both the DA and the judge have not<span style=""> </span>changed their position<span style=""> </span>despite the <span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span>evidence presented by the defense of Enriqueta, namely, the picture of the girl taken at the DNA that does not match the face of the girl we know as Karen Abigail, the analysis done by PTC Laboratories that proves the kinship of Felicita to Anyeli, and the affidavit with the deposition under oath of the Primavera caregivers stating that the picture of the girl at the DNA is not of Karen Abigail.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-US">As adoptive parents of a child of unknown origin, the MO couple must be responsible for the consequences of adopting a child in that situation and allow their daughter to be DNA tested. PTC Laboratories is located in MO, not far away from the place where they live, but the specimens can be collected at a nearby lab. The results would be matched with those of the girl first tested, and since the MO couple has a copy of those results, they would be the first to know if there is a match. If there is a match, that does not affect the current situation, since the authorities here are acting as if Karen and Anyeli were the same girl. But if the DNA results prove that Karen is not Anyeli, that would <u>greatly</u> help the people who took care of <span style=""> </span>Karen Abigail and those who made her adoption possible. But most important, it would be the right thing to do.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /><span style="" lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-US">Because the judge did not agree with the petitions filed by the MP to issue a warrant for the <span style=""> </span>arrest <span style=""> </span>of<span style=""> </span>the notary of the adoption of Karen Abigail<span style=""> </span>and for my own arrest,<span style=""> </span>the Sobrevivientes<span style=""> </span>lawyers<span style=""> </span>requested the CICIG (a United Nations entity to oversee the processes for organized crime) <span style=""> </span>to eliminate her of the list of candidates to be elected magistrates of the court of appeals by Congress. The judge did not like it and declared herself enemy of Sobrevivientes. <span style=""> </span>We still do not know if the hearings scheduled on <span style=""> </span>Monday, October 12<sup>th</sup>., <span style=""> </span>to decide if Enriqueta goes to trial<span style=""> </span>and our arraignment,<span style=""> </span>on Tuesday, October 13<sup>th</sup>., will take place.
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<br /><span style="" lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <img src="file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/LICDA%7E1.SUS/CONFIG%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot-14.jpg" alt="" /><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: -81pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-US"><span style=""> </span><!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shapetype id="_x0000_t75" coordsize="21600,21600" spt="75" preferrelative="t" path="m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe" filled="f" stroked="f"> <v:stroke joinstyle="miter"> <v:formulas> <v:f eqn="if lineDrawn pixelLineWidth 0"> <v:f eqn="sum @0 1 0"> <v:f eqn="sum 0 0 @1"> <v:f eqn="prod @2 1 2"> <v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelWidth"> <v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelHeight"> <v:f eqn="sum @0 0 1"> <v:f eqn="prod @6 1 2"> <v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelWidth"> <v:f eqn="sum @8 21600 0"> <v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelHeight"> <v:f eqn="sum @10 21600 0"> </v:formulas> <v:path extrusionok="f" gradientshapeok="t" connecttype="rect"> <o:lock ext="edit" aspectratio="t"> </v:shapetype><v:shape id="_x0000_i1026" type="#_x0000_t75" style="'width:594.75pt;"> <v:imagedata src="file:///C:\DOCUME~1\LICDA~1.SUS\CONFIG~1\Temp\msohtml1\01\clip_image001.png" title="LabCorp - Karen Abigail"> </v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><img style="width: 793px; height: 1099px;" src="file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/LICDA%7E1.SUS/CONFIG%7E1/Temp/msohtml1/01/clip_image002.jpg" shapes="_x0000_i1026" /><!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="background: rgb(238, 238, 238) none repeat scroll 0% 0%; margin-left: -81pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 45pt; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial;"><span style=""> </span></span><span style="font-family:Arial;"><!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shape id="_x0000_i1025" type="#_x0000_t75" style="'width:594.75pt;height:825pt'"> <v:imagedata src="file:///C:\DOCUME~1\LICDA~1.SUS\CONFIG~1\Temp\msohtml1\01\clip_image001.png" title="LabCorp - Karen Abigail"> </v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><img src="file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/LICDA%7E1.SUS/CONFIG%7E1/Temp/msohtml1/01/clip_image002.jpg" shapes="_x0000_i1025" width="793" height="1100" /><!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:78%;">.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style=""><u><span style="" lang="ES-MX"><o:p><span style="text-decoration: none;"> </span></o:p></span></u></b></p> Susana's bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13459297880017298342noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4985379001285353638.post-9773090546030555942009-10-10T04:14:00.000-07:002009-10-10T04:19:14.611-07:00THE STORY OF KAREN ABIGAIL<meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CLICDA%7E1.SUS%5CCONFIG%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="State"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="country-region"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="City"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="place"></o:smarttagtype><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:hyphenationzone>21</w:HyphenationZone> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]><object classid="clsid:38481807-CA0E-42D2-BF39-B33AF135CC4D" id="ieooui"></object> <style> st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } </style> <![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:612.0pt 792.0pt; margin:70.85pt 3.0cm 70.85pt 3.0cm; mso-header-margin:36.0pt; mso-footer-margin:36.0pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Tabla normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--><span style="color: rgb(51, 153, 102);" lang="ES-MX"><o:p></o:p></span><span style="color: rgb(51, 153, 102);" lang="ES-MX"><o:p></o:p></span> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: rgb(51, 153, 102);" lang="ES-MX"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b style=""><span style="" lang="EN-US"> <o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style=""><u><span style="" lang="EN-US">The Relinquishment<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style=""><u><span style="" lang="EN-US"><o:p><span style="text-decoration: none;"> </span></o:p></span></u></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-US"><span style=""> </span>Karen Abigail was a two year old <span style=""> </span>girl who was brought <span style=""> </span>on January 2, 2007, by her mother, a woman named Felicita Antonia,<span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span>to Marvin Josue<span style=""> </span>Bran Galindo, <span style=""> </span>an adoption <span style=""> </span>facilitator in Mixco,<span style=""> </span>a town very close to <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Guatemala City</st1:place></st1:city>. This facilitator <span style=""> </span>worked<span style=""> </span>with a Celebrate Children Inc., a<span style=""> </span><st1:state st="on"><st1:place st="on">Florida</st1:place></st1:state> based adoption agency, in <span style=""> </span>finding homes for children who needed them. The agency director, Susan Hedberg, <span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span>referred Karen Abigail <span style=""> </span>to a<span style=""> </span><st1:state st="on"><st1:place st="on">Missouri</st1:place></st1:state> family, <span style=""> </span>and her adoption as a relinquishment was started. <span style=""> </span>I have no personal knowledge of either <span style=""> </span>Marvin Josue <span style=""> </span>Bran Galindo <span style=""> </span>or Ms. <span style=""> </span>Hedberg and did<span style=""> </span>not know<span style=""> </span>the lawyers <span style=""> </span>who attempted the adoption of Karen Abigail.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-US">The adoption process was initiated, submitted to Family Court<span style=""> </span>and<span style=""> </span>the social worker appointed by the Family Court interviewed<span style=""> </span>the foster mother, the birthmother and the girl being adopted.<span style=""> </span>The file did not go to the PGN because of<span style=""> </span>the lack of the US <span style=""> </span>Embassy pre approval.<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-US">After many delays and excuses, and seven months after Karen Abigail was referred to the <st1:state st="on"><st1:place st="on">Missouri</st1:place></st1:state> couple, the DNA test was performed until July 9<sup>th</sup>, 2007,<span style=""> </span>and the results were negative. The consequence was that the<span style=""> </span>adoption<span style=""> </span>could not be finalized because<span style=""> </span>the<span style=""> </span>positive DNA is a requirement of the <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">US</st1:place></st1:country-region> embassy to prove that the mother who relinquish the child is actually the birthmother of that child.<span style=""> </span>The PGN, at the request of the adoption attorneys, started requiring the preapproval of the embassy before giving its approval to the adoption process. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-US">After the DNA test failed, the <span style=""> </span>adoptive parents were<span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span>told <span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span>that the real mother of<span style=""> </span>Karen Abigail<span style=""> </span>was the sister of the woman who <span style=""> </span>went with her <span style=""> </span>at the<span style=""> </span>DNA test,<span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span>and that she was going to be persuaded <span style=""> </span>to come forward and to do her <span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span>daughter’s<span style=""> </span>adoption.<span style=""> </span>This never happened and the offer of another referral was never an option for the devastated adoptive parents, who sought a <st1:state st="on"><st1:place st="on">Missouri</st1:place></st1:state> lawyer for advice.<span style=""> </span>This lawyer <span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span>told them to talk to me, to ask me to help them to solve in a legal and ethical way, the situation of abandonment of Karen Abigail.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-US">The<span style=""> </span>adoptive mother also told us that they had been trying to adopt Karen Abigail since the end of <span style=""> </span>November, 2006, when they approached the US adoption agency that was helping them to adopt a boy from Guatemala, after looking at the picture of Karen Abigail on their website and she was told that she and her husband could adopt her, on December 2006. They met Karen Abigail in January 2007, when they came to <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Guatemala</st1:place></st1:country-region> to visit the boy they were then adopting. After referring Karen to the MO couple, for seven <span style=""> </span>months, the Guatemalan facilitator did not do the DNA test, arguing that the midwife's ID was missing, until July 9th, 2007 when the DNA specimens were swabbed <span style=""> </span>at the lab in the Multimedica building in zone 15, and then were analyzed by LabCorp in <st1:state st="on"><st1:place st="on">North Carolina</st1:place></st1:state>. The DNA test results were negative, but it was obvious that there was a close kinship between the girl tested and the woman pretending to be her mother. Normally, only ten genetic markers are analyzed, but in this case LabCorp analyzed twenty, and only two genetic markers out of the twenty were different between the woman and the girl. This strongly suggests that an aunt of the girl was impersonating the girl's mother and it is<span style=""> </span>highly probable that the aunt could have been helping<span style=""> </span>the biological mother if she had some problem that prevented her from doing the adoption herself, as happens when the mother is married and the child is not the husband's or when the birthmother is underage and she does not want her parents to find out that she had a child.<span style=""> </span>There was nothing to indicate that we were dealing with a case of a stolen child.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-US">According to the former adoption <span style=""> </span>procedure,<span style=""> </span>when the DNA done to the <span style=""> </span>birth mother and child got negative results, the adoption could not proceed any further and the child was either a) returned to the woman who appeared as birthmother or b) the child was presented to the Court of Minors, to be sent to an orphanage, where his chances of being adopted were very slim, or c) it could be, if he child was really lucky, that such child was entrusted to an orphanage that would undertake the uphill battle of getting him a declaration of abandonment. Of course, this only happens after the possibility of finding the real mother of the child is exhausted and only if no relatives claim the child, in which case, the judge would not hesitate to give the child to the birth family.
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<br /><span style="" lang="EN-US"><span style=""></span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style=""><u><span style="" lang="EN-US">The Abandonment Process<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-US">The<span style=""> </span>Law <span style=""> </span>of<span style=""> </span>Integral Protection of the Childhood and Adolescence states that when the rights of a child are at risk or are being violated,<span style=""> </span>the case must be brought before a judge who has to preside <span style=""> </span>over an oral process to decide the way<span style=""> </span>to restore those<span style=""> </span>rights<span style=""> </span>if the investigation done by the PGN shows that they have been violated or are threatened. <span style=""> </span>The Civil Code<span style=""> </span>states that <span style=""> </span>the director of<span style=""> </span>the orphanages have legal custody of the children under its care since the moment they are admitted at the orphanage and there is no need for a judge to appoint them as legal guardians.<span style=""> </span>Based on those legal provisions, <span style=""> </span>the orphanages have the right to represent the children<span style=""> </span>in matters before the<span style=""> </span>courts.<span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span>I <span style=""> </span>help<span style=""> </span>Association Primavera with the cases that have to be processed before the Courts of Childhood and adolescence to seek protective measures for the children whose rights have been violated, to help those children to solve their legal situation. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style=""><span style="" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style=""><span style="" lang="EN-US">Under the advice of their<span style=""> </span><st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">US</st1:place></st1:country-region> lawyer,<span style=""> </span>the adoptive parents of Karen Abigail <span style=""> </span>requested the Celebrate Children International<span style=""> </span>director, to instruct Marvin Bran to<span style=""> </span>order Veronica,<span style=""> </span>the foster mother<span style=""> </span>to present<span style=""> </span>Karen Abigail to<span style=""> </span>the orphanage of Primavera to start her abandonment process, which she did<span style=""> </span>on September<span style=""> </span>12<sup>th</sup>. 2007.<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style=""><span style="" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-US"><span style=""> </span>The abandonment process started on <span style=""> </span>September 18, 2007, with a petition filed by the director of Primavera under my legal direction, to the Judge of Minors of Escuintla, requesting him <span style=""> </span>to investigate the situation of the girl named Karen Abigail, because her DNA<span style=""> </span>test had negative results and her birthmother could not be located. <span style=""> </span>The petition to the court was to locate her birth mother or<span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span>her <span style=""> </span>birth family and if that could not <span style=""> </span>be possible, to<span style=""> </span>restore her rights by ordering her adoption <span style=""> </span>and it <span style=""> </span>included all the pertinent documents: <span style=""> </span>a copy of the DNA negative results, <span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span>the birth certificate of Karen Abigail, copies of the <span style=""> </span>ID documents<span style=""> </span>(cedulas) <span style=""> </span>of <span style=""> </span>Felicita and Veronica and copies of the notarial acts where Karen Abigail was placed first with Veronica as foster mother while her adoption was processed and then, by Veronica to Primavera.
<br />
<br /><span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-US">The court ordered <span style=""> </span>Primavera to publish ads in two newspapers <span style=""> </span>with the picture of Karen Abigail, which were published in Siglo Veintiuno and Al<span style=""> </span>Día on<span style=""> </span>October 5<sup>th</sup>., 2007 stating that the two year old girl was abandoned and summoning her mother<span style=""> </span>to come forward at the Court<span style=""> </span>of Escuintla.<span style=""> </span>The court also ordered the PGN to conduct an investigation to search for the birthmother of Karen Abigail or for a relative who could and would raise her. A hearing that I could not attend, <span style=""> </span>was held on November 6<sup>th</sup>, 2007. It was attended by Enriqueta, who is the Primavera director, <span style=""> </span>Karen Abigail and <span style=""> </span>a PGN Lawyer acting as deputy delegate of the PGN in Escuintla At that hearing, the PGN <span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span>lawyer asked the judge to postpone the final ruling, due to <span style=""> </span>the <span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span>lack of <span style=""> </span>a report from the Missing Persons Division of the National Civil Police, and therefore,<span style=""> </span>another hearing was set for December 5<sup>th</sup>., 2007, when the<span style=""> </span>PGN delegate<span style=""> </span>submitted a written request<span style=""> </span>to the court stating that since all the investigation was done and <span style=""> </span>the report of the Missing Persons Unit <span style=""> </span>was<span style=""> </span>already in the file, <span style=""> </span>to rule on the matter, declaring<span style=""> </span>the violation of<span style=""> </span>rights of Karen Abigail and to order to restore them through <span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span>adoption.<span style=""> </span>Accordingly, the court<span style=""> </span>ruled the violation of rights of <span style=""> </span>Karen Abigail to respect, dignity, personal integrity, adequate level of life and to a family, revoking the order of temporary shelter<span style=""> </span>and granting the order<span style=""> </span>to <span style=""> </span>shelter permanently the child at <span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span>Association Primavera until this entity <span style=""> </span>could include <span style=""> </span>Karen Abigail in an adoption program, ordering it to record <span style=""> </span>its<span style=""> </span>legal custody <span style=""> </span>of Karen Abigail <span style=""> </span>in the birth record of Karen Abigail in the<span style=""> </span>Civil Registry of the Port of Iztapa, Escuintla, where her birth was already<span style=""> </span>recorded. <span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-US"><span style=""> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /><span style="" lang="EN-US"><span style=""></span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b style=""><u><span style="" lang="EN-US">The Adoption<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-US">The <span style=""> </span>notarial adoption of Karen Abigail was <span style=""> </span>started on December 13, 2007 and it was registered at the National Council of Adoptions on February 10, 2008, as a requirement to continue processing the adoption<span style=""> </span>according to the old laws.<span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span>On April 3<sup>rd</sup>. 2008, the <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">US</st1:place></st1:country-region> embassy gave its pre approval for the visa of Karen Abigail. <span style=""> </span>On February 29<sup>th</sup>, 2008, the process was filed in court and the social worker of <span style=""> </span>the Family Court <span style=""> </span>who was appointed to the case, <span style=""> </span>did the home study recommending the adoption of Karen Abigail by the MO couple, on May 5<sup>th</sup>. 2008. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-US">The director of Primavera ratified her <span style=""> </span>consent for the adoption of Karen Abigail by the MO couple <span style=""> </span>on May 8<sup>th</sup>. 2008, <span style=""> </span>and on May 29<sup>th</sup>, 2008, the file was submitted at the PGN.<span style=""> </span>The director of Primavera took Karen Abigail to the verification interview with <span style=""> </span>representatives of the PGN and the CNA on July 29<sup>th</sup>, 2008,<span style=""> </span>where the mothers who were looking for their missing children kept a close watch of all the children being brought to the interviews, in case their missing child was among them.<span style=""> </span>Nobody claimed Karen Abigail.<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-US">The PGN gave a favorable opinion on July 28<sup>th</sup>., 2008, but was released until September 2008.<span style=""> </span>The final deed was signed by the attorney who represented the adoptive prent and by the<span style=""> </span>director of Association Primavera and authorized by the notary who presided over the process, on September 2<sup>nd</sup>., 2008. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-US"><span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-US">The recording of the adoption was slow because the National Registry of Persons (RENAP) was not fully organized yet and it took two months to record Karen Abigail's adoption and obtain a birth certificate with the names of the adoptive parents on it (needed in order to obtain her passport). After the final deed was signed, the adoptive mother fostered Karen Abigail in Antigua, took her to get the passport and waited with Karen until she and her husband could travel to Missouri on December 9th., 2008.
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<br /><!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span></p> <span style=";font-family:";font-size:12;" lang="EN-US">Her adoptive parents visited Karen several times during her derailed adoption and during her abandonment process and then again during her adoption process. Karen was fostered by her adoptive mother during the last month (November 2008) of her adoption process. It was her adoptive mother who took Karen to get her passport and to her final medical check-up. So there is no possibility whatsoever that either Karen or her records were switched sometime during all that time. The DA has been saying that the passport picture does not match the adoption picture, but that is not true. What looks different is the way her mother did her hair, that makes her look older, but the face is the same, without <span style=""> </span>a doubt.
<br />
<br />(To be continued...)
<br /></span>Susana's bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13459297880017298342noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4985379001285353638.post-16992791985084274572009-10-01T23:26:00.000-07:002009-10-02T11:49:18.755-07:00There is no plan B for the Guatemalan Children.<meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CLICDA%7E1.SUS%5CCONFIG%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="country-region"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="City"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="place"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="PersonName"></o:smarttagtype><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:hyphenationzone>21</w:HyphenationZone> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]><object classid="clsid:38481807-CA0E-42D2-BF39-B33AF135CC4D" id="ieooui"></object> <style> st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } </style> <![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:595.3pt 841.9pt; margin:70.85pt 3.0cm 70.85pt 3.0cm; mso-header-margin:35.4pt; mso-footer-margin:35.4pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Tabla normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="ES-MX"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="ES-MX"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-US">October 2, 2009<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-US">This is an edited version of a speech <span style=""> </span>that I delivered at the Focus On Adoption <span style=""> </span>conference in <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Guatemala City</st1:place></st1:city>, on February 21, 2007, few months before the Adoptions Law was passed by Congress, under the pressure of UNICEF and the US DOS.<span style=""> </span>The attendants were mostly adoption agents from the <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">US</st1:place></st1:country-region> and Guatemalan adoption professionals. <span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-US"><span style=""> </span>“Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for being here. Thank you for having me here. <span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-US">When I learned that I was one of the speakers for this conference, I was at a loss about what could I tell you that you do not already know. I thought about giving you statistics about the high level of poverty, of illiteracy, of malnutrition, of child labor and of children who die of curable diseases, for lack of medical attention. But then I thought that you would forget those numbers right away and just keep the idea that <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Guatemala</st1:place></st1:country-region> is a very poor country, with all the problems that this brings. But that is not the whole story. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on"><span style="" lang="EN-US">Guatemala</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="" lang="EN-US"> is a country full of contrasts, and like the sides of a coin, they exist back to back. Let me give you some examples: <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-US">-<span style=""> </span>With one of the highest rates of illiteracy in the world, <st1:place st="on"><st1:country-region st="on">Guatemala</st1:country-region></st1:place> has a writer. Miguel Angel Asturias, who was awarded the Literature Nobel Prize; <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-US">-<span style=""> </span>With 36 years of civil war, we have a Guatemalan who was awarded a Peace Nobel Prize. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-US">-<span style=""> </span>Half of the children of <st1:place st="on"><st1:country-region st="on">Guatemala</st1:country-region></st1:place> suffer chronic malnourishment, which is a moderate form of starvation. However, almost fifty years ago, the Guatemalan Dr. Ricardo Bressani, invented what is known as “Incaparina”, and it is advertised as <i style="">“a vegetable mix that is delicious as well as highly nutritional. Incaparina is so rich in Vitamins and Minerals that many international food and aid agencies use it to treat protein/calorie malnutrition in infants, children and adults alike</i>.”<span style=""> </span>At very low cost, Incaparina is part of the diet of many people, <span style=""> </span>not only in <st1:country-region st="on">Guatemala</st1:country-region>, <span style=""> </span>but in many other countries, but unfortunately, it is <span style=""> </span>in <st1:place st="on"><st1:country-region st="on">Guatemala</st1:country-region></st1:place> <span style=""> </span>where those who really need it, cannot afford it and the government has no budget for its cost free distribution to improve the diet of the malnourished children.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-US">-<span style=""> </span>The poverty of <st1:place st="on"><st1:country-region st="on">Guatemala</st1:country-region></st1:place> is unseen for most of us. When you come to our country, you find a city with many good restaurants, hotels American style, many cars that cause frustrating traffic jams and modern buildings and shopping centers, full of shoppers. But if you go to the country side, you will see what real poverty is. Words cannot begin to describe the living conditions of more than half of the population of this country, who face every day the challenge of surviving without the most basic resources to satisfy their needs. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-US">-<span style=""> </span> Of the half a million children that are born each year, 32 of each thousand will die as infants and 43 of each thousand children will die before their fifth birthday of pneumonia, diarrhea and other curable diseases. Those numbers do not attract the media attention that four thousand adoptions a year do.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-US">-<span style=""> </span> The public hospitals are a total disaster. With no funds to work and very low salaries, the doctors of the public health system went on a strike that lasted a good part of last year, until a ruling of the Supreme Court ordered them to go back to work. The lack of medications, of equipment, of sanitary conditions, make the stay at one of those hospitals a health hazard. On the other hand, all the private hospitals in <st1:city st="on">Guatemala City</st1:city> are being remodeled or new ones are being built, with modern and expensive equipment, to attract the patients who travel to the <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">United States</st1:place></st1:country-region> to take care of surgical procedures, from the removal of a mole, to an organ transplant. Doctors who went to specialize in the <st1:country-region st="on">United States</st1:country-region> are coming back, to work in <st1:place st="on"><st1:country-region st="on">Guatemala</st1:country-region></st1:place>, but only to those who can afford their fees.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-US">- While the adults find difficult to get a job, almost a million children work in <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Guatemala</st1:place></st1:country-region> to support themselves and help to support their families. Two thirds of them live in poverty and one third in extreme poverty.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-US">- <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Guatemala</st1:place></st1:country-region> is a member to many international conventions that protect intellectual property rights. Accordingly, a couple of weeks ago the District Attorney for Felonies Against Intellectual Property, with the help of several policemen and the army, confiscated illegally burnt cds and movies, sold in the main street of downtown. The result was over a million disks confiscated and five people under arrest. The following days, the editorials of the newspapers were slamming the authorities for “abusing their power” and “preventing those poor people from making a decent living” said the Commissioner against Corruption. “Why beat them when they are already down?” claimed a former minister of Foreign Affairs. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-US">The contrasts are endless. Some of them are – at least to me – impossible to understand. The Guatemalan authorities are very worried about the deportations of illegal immigrants that the United States authorities are doing of thousands of Guatemalans who, braking the Immigration and Labor laws of the United States, try to make a living in that country. But the children who are legally adopted and given the American citizenship, are perceived by the Guatemalan authorities as “a problem” and as “something that should be stopped”. Both, the immigrants and the adopted children<span style=""> </span>have the right to a better life, and both deserve the protection of the authorities. But the people who smuggle the illegal aliens <span style=""> </span>into the <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">United States</st1:place></st1:country-region> are not perceived as badly as the adoption attorneys. We are regarded as “a mafia” and accused of “renting bellies to produce babies for adoptions”. The adoptive families are accused of “using the children for organ harvesting” or<span style=""> </span>“for sex slaves” without any evidence to support those allegations. Last year there was an attempt by the District Attorney to regard all adoptions as “sale of children” and to consider as a felony any activity related to placing<span style=""> </span>a child with an<span style=""> </span>adoptive family. We had to remind him that only Congress can make laws and that adoption is protected by the Constitution, so it cannot be considered as a felony. He had to back off, but for a few days, we were facing the possibility of an arrest. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-US"><span style=""> </span>The <st1:country-region st="on">United States</st1:country-region> is the country where most of the Guatemalan children are adopted, and to do so we have been fulfilling every requirement that the <st1:country-region st="on">US</st1:country-region> embassy in <st1:place st="on"><st1:country-region st="on">Guatemala</st1:country-region></st1:place> deems necessary. Over the years the process to apply for the visa of an adopted child has became increasingly complicated and requires several documents from both countries and a DNA test. Despite the complexity of the process, the number of adoptions from <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Guatemala</st1:place></st1:country-region> is higher every year, at the same time that the adoptions from other Latin American countries are less and less. We were informed by the American Consul that the United States wants <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Guatemala</st1:place></st1:country-region> to implement the Hague Convention or they will close the door to our children. The United States expect to ratify the Hague Convention sometime this year and become bound by the convention three months later, so it is reasonable to expect that it will happen towards the end of 2007, beginning of 2008. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-US"><span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-US">In September last year, Joint Council for International Children’s Services (JCICS) sent a delegation formed by Tom DiFilipo, Director of International Relations – later appointed President and CEO- , Hannah Wallace and Chris Huber. At a dinner that I hosted at my home, we met with all the parties interested in adoptions to find the way to adapt the legislation of <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Guatemala</st1:place></st1:country-region> to the Hague Convention: Asociacion Defensores de <st1:personname productid="la Adopcion" st="on">la Adopcion</st1:personname>, Instituto de Derecho de Familia, Congressmen, lawyers and hogar directors. The Joint Council delegation also met<span style=""> </span>with officers of the Guatemalan government and of the <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">US</st1:place></st1:country-region> embassy and with the staff of Wendy de Berger. Even though everybody has a different idea of how the changes must be done, we all have agreed that they are necessary if we want adoptions to the <st1:country-region st="on">US</st1:country-region> to remain an option for the children of <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Guatemala</st1:place></st1:country-region>. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-US">The way the Hague Convention is implemented, is up to each country. We were told that the Department of State will not tell us how to do it. We trust that our Congress will do it in a manner consistent with our Constitution and our laws, and taking into consideration the social and economical situation of our country. We do not want one of those laws that in paper look good but when they are applied to real situations, they simply do not work. We believe that the congressmen will be able to find the way to take the good of the Hague Convention and satisfy its requirements without making the children wait more than what they do now.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-US"><span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-US"><span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span>I am sure that you, as adoption agencies, are asked very often: WILL ADOPTIONS FROM GUATEMALA CONTINUE? The answer is YES. The Congress of Guatemala is aware that a government that cannot provide for its most vulnerable people, the abandoned children, should not get in their way to a better life with a permanent loving family. The people in the <st1:country-region st="on">United States</st1:country-region> who would want to adopt a child from <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Guatemala</st1:place></st1:country-region>, but are afraid to start a process, should know that we are here and we will not let the nightmare of 2003 to happen again. We won then and we will make it again, if we need to do so. Unless the social and economic conditions of <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Guatemala</st1:place></st1:country-region> drastically improve, the only way out for many children is adoption. We ask you to keep open your Guatemalan adoption programs and to trust that we will be able to use the legal recourses at our disposal, if the process of adoption is derailed by illegal measures. We are aware that you may open programs in other countries, that in 2004 there were one hundred and forty three million orphaned and abandoned children in 93 developing countries, and that those figures increase every year, and that adopting from <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Guatemala</st1:place></st1:country-region> is not for the faint of heart. But the children of Guatemala who need a family, if they are not adopted, they will either die or be exploited or abused by whoever takes charge of them. The government does not have orphanages or the social welfare structure to provide for them. Adoptions must continue, because there is no plan B for the children of <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Guatemala</st1:place></st1:country-region>.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="ES-MX">Thank you.<span style=""> " </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="ES-MX"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="ES-MX"><o:p>In my next posts I will elaborate about the current situation of the children who still don't have a plan B.
<br /></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-US"> Best regards,<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-US">Susana Luarca<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-US"><span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-US"><span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> Susana's bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13459297880017298342noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4985379001285353638.post-36535958340244561332009-10-01T03:34:00.000-07:002009-10-01T03:37:29.684-07:00History of Adoptions in Guatemala<div style="text-align: justify;"><meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CLICDA%7E1.SUS%5CCONFIG%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="country-region"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="place"></o:smarttagtype><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:hyphenationzone>21</w:HyphenationZone> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]><object classid="clsid:38481807-CA0E-42D2-BF39-B33AF135CC4D" id="ieooui"></object> <style> st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } </style> <![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:595.3pt 841.9pt; margin:70.85pt 3.0cm 70.85pt 3.0cm; mso-header-margin:35.4pt; mso-footer-margin:35.4pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Tabla normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="ES-MX"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-US">As most lawyers <span style=""> </span>in Guatemala, I did not have anything to do with adoptions, until <span style=""> </span>my life was touched by adoption, many years ago, <span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span>when<span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span>I was required by a couple of US friends to help them with the adoption of<span style=""> </span>a little girl who is now married and has a baby of her own. <span style=""> </span>Until an Adoptions Law changed the legal process in December 31<sup>st</sup>., 2007, <span style=""> </span>the adoption process in <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Guatemala</st1:place></st1:country-region> was handled<span style=""> </span>privately, with the oversight <span style=""> </span>of a <span style=""> </span>Family Court and of <span style=""> </span>the State Attorney. Both had to approve the adoption, before it could be authorized. <span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span>During the time that it took to<span style=""> </span>get <span style=""> </span>the proper authorizations and to <span style=""> </span>comply with the migration requirements if the adoptive parents resided abroad, the children <span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span>lived at private orphanages or with foster mothers, which proved to be a good way to care for the children until their parents could take them home.
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<br /><span style="" lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-US"><span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-US">During many years, those who do not want children from Less Developed Countries to be adopted by families of the <st1:place st="on">First World</st1:place> countries,<span style=""> </span>fought very hard to close down adoptions worlwide, under the pretense of <span style=""> </span>“protecting the children”. <span style=""> </span>Since the unwanted children are invisible to most governments in <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Guatemala</st1:place></st1:country-region>,<span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span>the only ones who fought to keep adoptions open, <span style=""> </span>were the lawyers, who were accused by the<span style=""> </span>properly rewarded media,<span style=""> </span>of <span style=""> </span>unduly <span style=""> </span>profiting with the lives of the children being adopted. <span style=""> </span>Although Guatemala is in the second tier<span style=""> </span>and in the watch list of the countries who do not properly attack traffic of people for<span style=""> </span>slavery and sexual exploitation,<span style=""> </span>that does not attract the media attention as much as the<span style=""> </span>fact that in a country where everything is an uphill battle, we managed to do more adoptions t o the United States than most other countries, simply because the State intervention in Guatemala was limited to approve the cases and the bureaucrats did not handled the processes.<span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span>After an aggressive campaign that included threats to the congressmen to cancel their US visas if they did not approve an Adoptions Law designed to make <span style=""> </span>adoptions impossible and with the collaboration of a Constitutional Court<span style=""> </span>whose magistrates rule as they are told, <span style=""> </span>at the end of 2007, the Adoptions Law <span style=""> </span>was approved by Congress and The Hague Convention was resurrected by the Constitutional Court, after being ruled unconstitutional <span style=""> </span>in 2003. <o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-US"><span style=""> </span>The Hague Convention for international adoptions, as it is commonly referred, <span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span>is a treaty sponsored by The Hague Conference of<span style=""> </span>International Private Law,<span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span>that in the surface appears to be a legal frame to adapt<span style=""> </span>the adoptions laws of the countries who are members to that convention,<span style=""> </span>to a set of rules that<span style=""> </span>are meant to protect the children. <span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span>What it actually does is to close down adoptions on both ends. <span style=""> </span>For many years, the number of children who were adopted from <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Guatemala</st1:place></st1:country-region> was reasonable, according to the US Department of State standards, thanks to the discredit that the adoption attorneys got for devoting themselves to “such activity”. <span style=""> </span>The police <span style=""> </span>raids of the foster homes and the constant harassment of the police and the media exposure, <span style=""> </span>discouraged those who were faint of heart. Gradually, as other countries closed down,<span style=""> </span>thanks to the Hague Convention gaining new territories,<span style=""> </span>Guatemalan was<span style=""> </span>chosen by more adoptive parents<span style=""> </span>because it allowed the adoption of healthy<span style=""> </span>babies,<span style=""> </span>through a <span style=""> </span>legal process that allowed the parents to take their child home within six to eight months,<span style=""> </span>while the children <span style=""> </span>could be visited by their adoptive parents and kept with them at their hotels or even fostered in Antigua, a beautiful colonial city not far from Guatemala City. After staying at out of the way little hotels for many years, the adopting parents started staying at the best hotels, where they did no effort to hide the love and joy that they felt for their Guatemalan children. <span style=""> </span>The lobbies of the hotels started to look crowded with strollers,<span style=""> </span>foster mothers delivering<span style=""> </span>or picking up children, <span style=""> </span>and lawyers<span style=""> </span>talking with the parents and poring over legal documents. It was also due to the harassment of the police, who always looking for a way to extort money from<span style=""> </span>the<span style=""> </span>adopting parents,<span style=""> </span>stalked them near the hotels, waiting for them to take a stroll with their babies, to show up asking for papers (as an adoptive father said: “papers with pictures of US presidents”). That forced them to stay inside of the hotels and since the smaller hotels usually do not have restaurants and swimming pool, the largest<span style=""> </span>and better equipped <span style=""> </span>hotels were chosen for their stay.
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<br /><span style="" lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-US">For<span style=""> </span>those who believe that adoption is a silent migration, the increase in the number of <span style=""> </span>adoptions <span style=""> </span>became a way to circumvent the rigorous laws that prevent the undesirables to migrate to the <st1:country-region st="on">United States</st1:country-region> and <st1:place st="on">Western Europe</st1:place>. The children were being brought into their countries, <span style=""> </span>not<span style=""> </span>by the back door, to be raised devoid of any legal protection, but through the front door,<span style=""> </span>with the responsibility of their governments to watch over them, or to risk <span style=""> </span>the bad publicity that <span style=""> </span>could bring that an adoptive parent did not take good care of their foreign <span style=""> </span>adopted child.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal">
<br /><span style="" lang="EN-US"><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-US">UNICEF was created after the Second <span style=""> </span>World War, as the greatest effort from mankind to help the children in the countries ravaged<span style=""> </span>by the war. It grew until it became one of the largest entities of the<span style=""> </span>United Nations Organization.<span style=""> </span>Because it has a very respectable face, it is difficult to believe that UNICEF is being used to stop adoptions worldwide, in a dirty war that does nothing to help the needy children of the Third World countries, but does everything to stop any effort to give them a permanent <span style=""> </span>loving home in another country. The Hague Convention was conceived in the dark womb of UNICEF and<span style=""> </span>it has been very successful thus far to close down almost all the adoption agencies in the <st1:country-region st="on">United States</st1:country-region> and of a decline of 97% of adoptions in <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Guatemala</st1:place></st1:country-region>. <span style=""> </span>November is when UNICEF does its greatest<span style=""> </span>collection campaign.<span style=""> </span>If your care a little for the children in Guatemala, who no longer are being adopted because of their bottomless back of dirty tricks, do not donate to UNICEF. Give it to any other charity, that even if that charity is self serving, at least it will not be used to exterminate children whose only sin was to be born in the wrong country.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-US"><span style=""> </span><st1:place st="on"><st1:country-region st="on">Guatemala</st1:country-region></st1:place>, October 1<sup>st</sup>., Day of the Child ,<span style=""> </span>2009.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-US"><span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"> </div><p style="text-align: justify;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="" lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> Susana's bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13459297880017298342noreply@blogger.com0