Bad, bad and more bad

Here is the latest from ADA Association Denfenders of Adoption www.adaguatemala.org. The woman who writes for them, Susana Luarca, is Guatemalan lawyer who Thank God understands the good of international adoptions. She is a great advocate and calls it like it is. Below you will find my notation in pink.

May 9, 2008
This morning, the PGN (Their version of Attorney General's Office who reviews and signs off on every adoption case) was a circus. With news people crawling the place everywhere and lawyers bringing birthmothers and children, lots of policemen, bodyguards and attendants to guide the visitors to the places where the interrogatories were going to be taken.

A big room at the PGN building was furnished to conduct several interviews at once. The lawyers demanded to be allowed at the interviews (They tried to interview birth moms alone) and to exclude the media (The media was there to film and photograph the event. Many birthmoms conceal their pregnancy becuase they can't care for the children and it is very taboo to put them up for adoption) from them. Despite the fact that the PGN invited the media to the show, they had to tell them to leave, as they were filming the birthmothers and their children. The interviews were conducted by people of the National Council of Adoptions, who definitely have nothing to do there, since the registered cases are not under the scope of the CNA. (The CNA is the newly formed "office" to deal with what they consider to be the adoption problem. The adoption problem, in their eyes is that Guatemala children are beign adopted outside of the country. Guatemala Guatemalan adoption is rare because there is somewhat of a "class system" Anyone with the financial means and desire to adopt... which would be someone of Spanish descent... would only accept a "white" child. Most of the children up for adoption are indigenous - Mayan.

In most cases the questions were just a few and what it took longer was that the clerks who were typing in the computers the written acts of the interview, did not know how to do it and had to repeat them several times. Twenty five birthmothers were interviewed today and ALL of them confirmed their willingness to the adoption. The CNA people were very frustrated. (I guess they were defeated because they didn't browbeat the birthmom into reclaiming her child) They commented that it was a waste of time, because the mothers should be interviewed in closed quarters, and by the psychologist. We can easily imagine what would follow next.

In the afternoon, attorney Jorge Armando Carrillo and I participated in a radio program about the suspension of adoptions. The PGN was invited and accepted, but did not send anyone. There was also a young woman of the Fundacion Sobrevivientes, who brought a woman who claims that her child was stolen by a woman who went to her house while she was at work, and asked the grandmother of the child to allow her to take the child to the mother of the child because she wanted to show her to a friend. The grandmother did not think twice in giving the child to a total stranger and since September las year, they have not seen the child. When I asked her what made her think that her daughter was placed for adoption, se said that the woman who took her child works on adoptions. Then I asked her if she had filed a complaint and when she said yes, I asked her why is that she was trying to stop all adoptions, instead of making the District Attorney and the police to do their job and find the child. She had no answer for that. The program went really well, and its conductor confirmed that the PGN invited the media to the birthmothers interviews.

The PGN continues to accept new adoption files, but refuses to give them back, even when they were duly approved by Barrios. The abuse of power of the PGN officers is incredible. Even if the interviews held today were not as awful as we expected, the fact is that the people of the CAN has nothing to do with adoptions being done according to the old laws and the PGN is consenting to the violation of the law and even giving the CNA a place in its building to do it.

Neither the CNA nor the PGN have the last word. There are legal measures that will be taken. An amparo is being prepared to demand that the PGN reassumes its legal obligation to review the files and give them back to the notaries. We hope that the courts will see the danger that any new administration re writes the laws of the country or gives in to the pressure of anybody who chooses to oppose adoptions.

Keep calling your congressmen and senators. (Anyone interested... I could give you a "form letter" you could email or snailmail or better yet... both!) This could become a long time situation unless we do what we can to restore the order. The PGN and the CNA are breaking the laws and abusing their power and we have to stop that, because the worst enemy of an abandoned child is the time. The children being adopted should not be involved in the shows of the current administration to malign Gordillo. There are enough reasons to fire him, and adoptions should not be used as a mean to justify his destitution, because it involves human lives.