Adoption fraud leaves Guatemala babies in legal limbo

( Reuters ) Fiona Ortiz; 08-27-1998

GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - "Pablito, Pablito," Elivia Ramirez whispered through tears of joy as she reclaimed her 1-year-old son, who was taken from her at birth by a lawyer who insisted she had knowingly given up the child for adoption.

Shortly after she gave birth on Aug. 13, 1997, Ramirez, 30, went to authorities to complain that she was manipulated into signing adoption papers. "Maybe I was bad off, my nerves were shot because of all my problems, I was very confused," the soft-spoken Mayan Indian woman told Reuters.

After she complained, Pablo, affectionately called Pablito (Little Paul), was taken from his adoptive parents, a Spanish couple, and spent a year in orphanages and foster care while his fate was debated in the courts.

Ramirez finally won custody this month in a court ruling that devastated the Spaniards, according to their lawyer, who says Ramirez changed her mind about the adoption only after she found out she would not make any money out of giving up Pablo.

Guatemala's weak adoption law, combined with huge adoption fees foreigners pay, has created a market in which some lawyers will go to any length to meet the demand for babies and in which some mothers have tried to sell their infants.

"Adoptive parents are willing to pay any amount of money and they are creating a market for unscrupulous people," Jim Mayrides, director of Unicef in Guatemala, said.

When officials open investigations of suspicious adoption cases, everyone loses. The babies end up in legal limbo -- foster care or state orphanages -- for long periods of time. And adoptive parents who paid thousands of dollars are left with empty pockets, an empty nest and broken hearts.

In 1997 Guatemala was the No. 4 source for adoptions to the United States, behind Russia, China and South Korea. Other Central American countries have stricter laws so Guatemala, where adoption is a simple process that does not go before a court, is the most popular place for adoptions in the region.

The government says 20-30 lawyers handled 2,304 foreign adoptions in 1997, with 1,388 babies going to the United States, 231 to France, 138 to Canada, 62 to Italy and 55 to England. Experts estimate adoption is a $25 million-a-year business in Guatemala. Many lawyers charge $12,000 to $18,000 per adoption, a huge sum of money in this developing nation.

The easy process and the money involved leave adoptions open to many kinds of fraud. Bad practices range from unethical to illegal and include stolen babies with falsified birth certificates, purchased babies, babies procured by threat or misrepresentation, babies obtained by lawyers who take advantage of the ignorance and poverty of mothers and babies gotten through unethical financial arrangements with mothers.

"Lawyers have baby-searchers working on commission. They are hawks preying on poor, illiterate mothers," Hector Dionicio, a lawyer with non-profit children's advocate group Casa Alianza, told Reuters.

Yolanda Lam, a social worker who investigates suspicious adoptions for the Attorney General's Minors Department, said there is so much money involved that some mothers give up their babies for adoption and then pretend to repent in order to play off the lawyers and adoptive parents for more money.

"When it is a business and the child is merchandise, the good of the adoption is lost," Lam said. And even legal adoptions can be bad when babies are kept in filthy "baby farms," she said.

"In one search we found eight children, from two months to 15 months old, on dirty mattresses, sick and with diaper rash, full of flies ... even though the lawyer was getting a lot of money from parents in the U.S."

Despite all the suspected fraud, Guatemalan prosecutors have yet to indict any adoption lawyers and repeated attempts to pass a stricter law have failed. Lam said intense opposition from powerful lawyers who make money from adoptions has blocked legislation, but Guatemalan and U.S. adoption agencies argue that firmer laws may not be in the interest of the children.

"In countries where they have gone over to government control over referral of children, children languish much longer in orphanages or foster care," said Ann Berkley of Heritage Adoptions Services in Oregon, an agency that handles 10 to 20 Guatemalan adoptions a year.

"That is the risk that must be run if the baby is going to be protected," said Nineth Montenegro, a congresswoman who has drafted a bill to make adoptions a public, court process. Berkley said she fights fraud by making sure she works with ethical lawyers and by checking on the care babies get while the adoption is negotiated. "People need to know there's an upside to this," she said, estimating that two-thirds of the U.S. adoptions from Guatemala are very ethical.

U.S. officials urge adoptive parents to make sure they are dealing with reputable agencies. The State Department recently updated its Web page on Guatemalan adoptions to read "child-trafficking is a serious problem in Guatemala."

"There is fraud. We're concerned about it. We're very alert to it. We do a long, in-depth interview with every mother," embassy sources told Reuters. After the interview, if embassy officials suspect fraud they ask for a DNA test.

In 1997 they asked for 37 such tests. Of the 29 mothers who came back to do the test, three turned out to be imposters, presumably paid by lawyers to accompany stolen babies.

Javier Villatoro, the lawyer for the Spaniards who thought Pablo was going to be their son, insisted there was no fraud. He said it was the first adoption he had handled and he charged only $2,000. He also said Ramirez wanted to have an abortion and he merely persuaded her that adoption was a better option.

Ramirez, who is fully literate, admitted she knew she was signing adoption papers but said she felt obligated because she had received monetary support from Villatoro and the Spanish couple. The custody she finally won is provisional for a trial period while a social worker makes regular visits to make sure that Pablo is getting the proper

care.

Ramirez still cannot believe Pablo is with her, "I'm still really scared that they could take him away again," she said. "I have suffered so much through all this."