ADA News (English)

The authorities of Guatemala -ill advised by UNICEF - see with growing concern the increasing number of children finding homes in the United States. During this year, the Guatemalan Congress was strongly urged by President Oscar Berger, to pass the proposal of adoptions law, known as “the Ortega Law”, which contains every possible constitutional violation one could think of. Aware of the flaws of such proposal, Congress resisted the executive pressure and told the authorities here and in the United States, that next year a new law will be passed that will follow the guidelines of the Hague Conventions, to allow adoptions to the United States to continue without any problems. That new law will also open the doors to other countries that are waiting the compliance of Guatemala to the Hague Convention, in order to allow their citizens to adopt children from our country. Among them are Canada, Australia, France and Spain..

The Guatemalan authorities are very concerned by the deportation from the United States, of thousands of illegal Guatemalans. The Minister of Foreign Relations and the Guatemalan ambassador in Washington met with the Secretary of State, Condoleeza Rice, to plead her to allow the Guatemalan illegal immigrants to remain in the US. Although the conversation went very well, the results did not change. Every week, more Guatemalans are sent back to our country, in some cases leaving behind their American children and for all of them, a good part of their lives. We fail to understand the position of the Guatemalan President, who begs to the US authorities to let the illegal immigrants to remain in the US, where they are breaking the laws of Labor and Immigration, and at the same time, trying to stop the adoption of Guatemalan children, who travel to the US with strict compliance to the laws of Guatemala and of the United States, with the support and the love of a permanent family, and who travel to the US for the same reason that the immigrants go there: to get a better life.

The US Department of State has stated: “The United States maintains ongoing high-level discussions with the government of Guatemala about the importance of ensuring a smooth transition to a Hague-consistent adoption process. We believe that any sudden halt to adoption processing would be problematic and hurt both the children and adoptive parents because children would be caught in the process with no system through which they could be placed internationally with a permanent family. However, prospective adoptive parents should be aware that changes in the adoption process could be instituted by Guatemala with little or no advance notice and the possibility exists that adoptions could be disrupted.”

We can assure you that the Guatemalan Congress is fully aware of the need of a smooth transition and has stated so. The same goes for the Guatemalan Attorney General, - who directs the PGN - who was quoted in a local newspaper as saying: “Adoptions will remain the same until the United States ratifies the Hague Convention”.

We have before us an enormous challenge: to make the Hague Convention actually work to defend the rights of the children to a family and to protect the rights of the birth parents and the adoptive parents, without losing the real goal, which is to give a family to the child that does not have one, instead of making it so hard that the need to protect the children’s rights becomes more important than the right of the children to a family. We are sure that we can do it. Guatemala is a poor country, where half of the children are malnourished and where the State refuses to take responsibility for the fate of the unwanted children. However, there is something that sets us apart from the rest of Third World countries: that in Guatemala we are aware that unless social conditions change, the only way out for many children is adoption, and that us, Association Defenders of Adoption (ADA) are not going to let that door to be closed. There is no plan B for the children of Guatemala.

International adoption is a complex process and as in any human endeavor, many things can happen. Although we seriously doubt that it could happen, if - as the DOS fears - “changes in the adoption process are instituted by Guatemalan authorities with little or no advance notice and adoptions are disrupted”, we are poised to file the necessary legal resources to restore the legal order, because our Constitution includes provisions that protect adoptions and the notarial process, so anything that restricts or limits them, would be unconstitutional. We have done it before successfully and will do it again, if it becomes necessary.

We are fully convinced that every child is entitled to be raised by a loving family and see as our duty to make that possible. If you are thinking of adopting from Guatemala, do not hesitate to do it. There is a child waiting for you in the Land of Eternal Spring.

Have a wonderful New Year!

Susana Luarca, Attorney at Law,
Association Defenders of Adoption
Guatemala City, December 2006