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Why adopting in Guatemala is getting harder
Second only to China for Americans seeking children, Guatemala is tightening its rules.
from the September 12, 2007 edition
Page 2 of 3
A child in half the time
Many adoptive parents choose Guatemala because of its relative ease: the process has averaged six months (but is now stretching to nine months, the US Embassy here says), half the time of what it takes in other countries, experts say. That is because there is no central state authority that oversees the process. Instead, it is run by private lawyers or notaries who work with brokers, foster mothers, and adoptive parents. The average adoption here costs $27,000, according to the US State Department.
But that could soon change. In March, the US State Department said it was concerned that all parties involved were not being protected, including mothers being financially induced to relinquish custody of their children. In August, the US Embassy in Guatemala mandated a second DNA test to finalize the adoption and further safeguard the process.
That has already made it a longer wait, say parents and adoption agencies, but bigger changes are to come when the Hague Convention, ratified by Guatemala on May 21, goes into effect. It calls for a state authority – not a network of notaries – to oversee international adoptions.
Some in Guatemala, including the attorney general's office, are pushing for a law to complement the process. The law would mandate that adoptions be decided by a judge and would prohibit any kind of economic incentive, says Mr. Gordillo. "Now we only have control after the paperwork arrives, but we don't know what the will of the mother was, or if her will was violated," he says.
Some say the program's reputation has been undermined by a few corrupt players. Laura Beauvais-Godwin, director of Carolina Hope Christian Adoption Agency in Greenville, S.C., says she is not against more controls if they are carried out expeditiously, but that the media has overstated the problem – to the detriment of Guatemalan children. "It's not fair to close the whole country program because a few people are doing it incorrectly," she says. "It's such a poor, poor country ... [and] a lot of this needs to be addressed."
The Guatemalan lawyers feel particularly under attack. "The adoption system is safe, efficient, and relatively rapid," says an adoption lawyer who did not want his name published because he says his profession is unfairly judged in the media. "I believe it's the best adoption program in the world."
Others claim that, while many adoptive parents and their US agencies are working in good faith, the industry is so riddled with corruption that legitimacy cannot be guaranteed. Norma Cruz runs a women's rights organization called "Survivors" and last year began helping a handful of mothers who reported their children were kidnapped.
This June, her organization, working with local authorities, helped find a newborn boy who had been taken from his mother and grandmother by two armed gunmen who had stormed the tortilla shop where they worked. The baby was found a month later in a foster home with falsified papers and a new name, Ms. Cruz says. "It is so easy that a child is stolen, and then they have new parents."
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