ADA News (English)

Question: I am paper ready and waiting for a referral. Is it still safe to adopt from Guatemala?

Answer: Yes. Guatemala has a legal system that protects adoptions by nationals and foreigners. The process remains the same, according the Civil Code and the Law of Notarial Process of Voluntary Matters which has been in place since 1977. The government of Guatemala cannot change the process of adoptions, because only Congress can change the current system, within the limits set by the Guatemalan Constitution.

Q. Is it legal that a single lawyer represents the interests of all the parties involved in a process of adoption?

A. Yes, it is legal. A process of adoption, like a marriage, is a voluntary matter, where all the parties involved have a common goal and the same interest: to give the child a family. For that reason, there is no conflict of interest that would require a different lawyer for each party, as it happens in a divorce. More complicated matters, like the probation of wills, are successfully handled by notaries, even though the interests of all heirs could not be the same. On the other hand, the staff of the lawyer performs different duties that supply the social services to the birth mothers and children that the State of Guatemala does not provide, fulfills the requirements of the US government that include staying the whole night in line at the sidewalk of the embassy building, in order to get a number to submit documents the next morning.

Q. Why is that the role of the notaries in the adoption process is questioned?

A. Because there are many misconceptions, due to the fact that there is no equivalent of the notaries in the legal systems of other countries. The Guatemalan Schools of Law give their graduates two professional titles: lawyer and notary, and the academic decree of Licenciado. The lawyer represents clients, en both litigious or non litigious matters. The Notary presides over non litigious matters and also authorizes acts and deeds. In an adoption process, the notary presides the process, with the same obligations and legal responsibilities of a public officer and the lawyer represents the foreign parents. If the adoptive parents would choose to live in Guatemala during the adoptions process, the lawyer would not be needed. If a notary commits any wrongdoing performing his notarial duties, the time of the sentence is increased in one third, as it happens with public officers, and without the benefit of pre trial process that protects judges and public officers of groundless accusations.

Q. Does the government of Guatemala exercise any oversight of the adoption process?

A. Yes, it does. The notary who presides the process of adoption has to present the adoption file to the Judiciary, that appoints a Social Worker of a Family Court, to review the social and economic conditions of the birth mother and of the adoptive parents, after an interview with the birth mother and a careful examination of the child that is being adopted. Without her favorable opinion, the adoption cannot proceed. Then, the notary submits the file to the review of the Executive, through the office of the State Attorney, namely, the Procuraduria General de la Nación, of PGN. This entity reviews the adoption file and has to give an opinion stating if the adoption should be authorized. If the PGN objects anything, the notary has to correct what the PGN requires to be corrected. Until the PGN is satisfied, it issues an approval of the adoption. It is until then, that the notary can authorize the final deed of adoption, signed by the birth mother and the adoptive parents or whoever is acting on their behalf. Any authorization of the adoption by the notary without the approval of the PGN is null and void and the Civil Registry would not record the adoption.

Q. Why is that the children being adopted are cared for by unregulated foster care providers?

A. The foster care system for children being adopted in Guatemala was born by the total lack of public services of child care and the need of those children to be taken care of by foster mothers. To take care of children in their homes, enable women to work at their homes and to care for their own children, that otherwise would have to be left unsupervised. Other countries have eliminated the orphanage system because it is considered detrimental to the development of the children. Following that tendency, Guatemala eliminated orphanages but does not fund the foster care system, as it is done in those other countries. For that reason, only those children whose adoptive parents pay for the expenses of the foster care, are being kept privately. Private funded orphanages support more than twenty thousand children off the streets. They do it with donations and the income provided by adoptions. The government does not regulate the foster care because that would establish the obligation to pay for those services, something that the Guatemalan government is not willing to do. Adoption professionals supervise the services of the foster mothers, and in general terms, the foster care system of Guatemala is way much better than the foster care provided in developed countries, according to people who were raised by foster parents in those countries.

Q. Is Guatemala compliant with The Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoptions?

A. Guatemala became a party to the Hague Convention in November, 2002 and it became effective since March 1st., 2003. For a six month period, not a single adoption was processed by the PGN, appointed Central Authority by the President of Guatemala. The order was restored when the Constitutional Court upheld the challenges filed by the lawyers who handle adoptions. During that time, not a single governmental office or international aid organization provided any of the services that the lawyers and adoption professionals were no longer providing. Children died as a result of this badly implemented convention that has successfully closed down adoptions in the rest of Central and South America. The Guatemalan Congress could implement the Hague Convention in a way that does not violate the constitution, allowing the private adoption system to continue, with as many checks and filters as necessary, to allow children to find permanent loving homes that their families of origin cannot provide.

Q. Is the United States preventing Guatemalan children to be adopted by US Citizens?

A. No, it is not. What the United States is very interested in doing, is to verify that the child that goes to the DNA test is the same that travels home with his adoptive parents, to eliminate the possibility of any tampering with the evidence. ADA and the adoption professionals of Guatemala, strongly urge the US government to require a second DNA of the child, that should match the first DNA result, and to scrutinize as much as possible each case, not only from the Guatemalan side, but also from the US side to ensure that the interests of all the parties involved are duly protected.

Q. How can I find a trustworthy and reliable US adoption agency that works with ethical adoptions professionals in Guatemala?

A. Research extensively. For many years, adoptions facilitators working out of the US have handled adoptions in Guatemala, causing a lot of grief to the adopting parents. Their reputations precedes them, so it is not difficult to stay away from those unethical facilitators. The wish to parent a child must not cloud the judgment of those who want to adopt in any country of the world. Cutting corners and resorting to illegal means is not justified, even if it is to save a child, because it stigmatizes all adopted children.

Q. If a child has been identified and my power of attorney is already recorded in Guatemala, does that mean that my adoption process will be finalized despite the enforcement of the Manual of Good Practices?

A. No. According to the Manual of Good Practices, all adoptions will be suspended by the PGN, all children will have to get a declaration of abandonment - that may take several years - even if their biological mothers are relinquishing them, and the Secretary of Social Welfare of the Presidency will find national families for them. The already started adoption processes will not be finalized.

Q. If the Manual of Good Practices is enforced, who will take care of the children?
A. Nobody. The children will be left stranded, deprived of the private foster care that will no longer be available and without state orphanages to admit them, their situation will be dreadful.

Q. Is it true that children are being produced for adoption purposes?

A. Only those who do not know how painful and difficult giving birth can be, may give credit to those rumors. Instead of admitting that Guatemalan women are admirable, because instead of aborting, they choose an adoption plan for their children, the anti adoption groups belittle their courage, accusing them of producing the children just to give them away. On the other hand, they accuse the lawyers of coercing the mothers to give their children away. Those unfounded allegations do harm the children who were given the opportunity of a better life, by the remarkable sacrifice of their birth mothers, and that is what the children will know when they grow up.

Q. Is it true that adopted children from Guatemala are found to have undisclosed serious special needs due to inadequate foster care of fraudulent information?

A. That is not so. The adoptive parents are given the opportunity of visiting their referrals and to take the children to as many doctors as they want, before completing the adoption. That does not happen in other countries, were the parents are given children that they never saw before. Furthermore, parents receive medical updates, pictures and pertinent information about the children from their Guatemalan adoption professionals and before getting the visa to the US, a doctor appointed by the embassy gives a final checkup to the child. Undisclosed conditions are inherent to the human condition, and there is no way to foresee some of them, but screen tests, visits and behavior of the child help to inform the parents of the health situation of the child being adopted.

Q. Would an abrupt change in the adoption process hurt the Guatemalan children?

A. Yes, it would hurt the children if the current system if adoptions is stopped abruptly. UNICEF and other international aid agencies have clearly expressed that the situation of the children is a problem of the local government, that their role is only to put pressure on the government to pass laws that comply with the international conventions that Guatemala is a party to, in order to please the international community. To support children is not part of their plans.

Q. What would happen if the PGN starts enforcing the Manual of Good Practices?

A. The ADA is poised to file criminal charges and all the legal resources against those who do it. The Manual usurps the legislative powers of Congress and cannot be tolerated. The absence of the President of Congress at the presentation of the Manual is very eloquent and at the same time, the presence of the US Ambassador can only be construed as part of his diplomatic duties, but cannot be interpreted as a support of an illegal measure to deprive the children of the current services, and the US adoptive families of the children that they already consider as their own.

Q. Why is that UNICEF opposes intercountry adoptions?

A. UNICEF, once the world’s greatest effort of humankind to help the needy children, has become a heartless and dangerous monstrous organization who tries to limit the population growth, resorting to means that do not exclude bribing corrupt government officers, sterilizing women without their consent and promoting abortion and no breeding sex. There is ample information in the report of Families Without Borders at http://www.familieswithoutborders.com and in the publication Guilty As Charged at http://www.lifesite.net/waronfamily/unicef/unicef.pdf

Q. Is there anything I can do to help keeping adoptions open in Guatemala?

A. Yes, there is a lot you can do. Talk to your local authorities about the dire conditions of the Guatemalan children and tell them about the threat that hovers above them, trying to steal away their only hope for a future. Educate yourself about the hidden agenda of UNICEF and the other lords or poverty, who have made of the international aid a very lucrative and multimillion dollar business, without helping those children they claim to protect and work with us to set the record straight.