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CICIG Requests Public Explanation From Senator Landrieu Regarding Illegal Adoption Comments in Guatemala

Submitted by Kerry on Fri, 2011-04-29 18:00.

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CICIG REQUESTS PUBLIC EXPLANATION FROM SENATOR LANDRIEU (LOUISIANA STATE, U.S.A.) CONCERNING COMMENTS MADE ON REPORT OF ILLEGAL ADOPTIONS IN GUATEMALA.

April 209, 2011/ The Guatemala Times

 During her visit to Guatemala, the Senator met with various authorities responsible for child protection and manifested her disagreement with the CICIG´s report on criminal structures involved in illegal adoptions.

Guatemala, 27 April 2011. The Guatemalan media edition of Prensa Libre, dated 26 April 2011 (pages 4 and 5), published a story about the visit of U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu which reads:  “Landrieu said she does not share all of CICIG´s findings presented in a report in late 2010, detailing abnormalities in the adoption processes which are still in transition between the previous and the current law."

The International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala publicly requests Senator Landrieu to provide evidence to the Guatemalan society on which she bases her comments to disqualify the content of the “Report on actors involved in the process of illegal adoptions in Guatemala." She was also invited to explain to the Guatemalan society her position concerning the numerous adoptions of children illegally taken away from their biological parents.

CICIG informs the public opinion that the report is a result of the work of a team of professional experts who analyzed for 18 months over 3,342 notarial notices from the records of the Attorney General's Office (PGN) related to adoption processes: 1,412 issued by the PGN and the National Council on Adoptions (CNA); 879 requests and protection measure processes from the Youth and Children Courts; and 153 declarations of adoptability issued by the Courts of Children and Adolescents. Furthermore, more than 50 criminal investigations conducted by the Public Ministry (MP) were analyzed in relation to the crime of trafficking in persons for illegal adoption.

From the analysis of the data gathered, it was found that over 60% of the processes for adoption contained abnormalities such as theft and illegal purchase/sale of children, threats and deception to biological mothers, and forgery of documents to carry out "adoption processes” both before and after the entry into force of the Adoption Law (31 December 2007).  In many cases there are multiple and clear indications that the illegal procedures were promoted by transnational organized crime who acted along with the participation or acquiescence of state officials. Currently, the Public Ministry investigates more than 325 adoption processes which present serious irregularities.

In its report, the CICIG is able to determine the modus operandi of transnational organized crime networks involved in trafficking of children through illegal adoptions. Since that report, the CICIG was also able to determine that an international adoption in Guatemala, rather than representing a way of procuring a family to an unprotected child, often has become a mechanism for delivering children to those who request and pay, turning such institution into a lucrative form of human trafficking which is an offense under the Penal Code in Guatemala.

Among the many findings stated in the CICIG report, it is established that only 10% of Guatemalan children who were placed for adoption between 2007 and 2010 were in an orphaned or abandoned situation.

Moreover, specific cases were identified in which the representatives and/or facilitators of international adoption agencies in Guatemala were aware of the illicit origin of the children placed for adoption and yet continued illegal processes through altered DNA tests, deception and threats to biological mothers, and the use of forged documents.

CICIG supports that the international adoptions are an option of life for those children who need it. However, given that the pending processes have serious irregularities, CICIG supports the position of PGN, CNA and MP – competent institutions on the issue - and in particular promotes that each adoption process approved individually, as a minimum, should establish the following:  (1) lawful origin of the child; (2) ratification of the biological mother´s consent; (3) determination of paternity through DNA testing; and (4) veracity of the identity of the child and the mother.

CICIG reiterates its firm commitment to continue supporting the Guatemalan institutions, including the Attorney General's Office, the National Council on Adoptions and the Public Ministry, in its fight to eradicate illegal adoptions and to combat impunity.

http://www.cicig.org/

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By a show of hands...or responses

Submitted by Kerry on Fri, 2011-04-29 18:21.

let's re-read what is being said:

From the analysis of the data gathered, it was found that over 60% of the processes for adoption contained abnormalities such as theft and illegal purchase/sale of children, threats and deception to biological mothers, and forgery of documents to carry out "adoption processes” both before and after the entry into force of the Adoption Law (31 December 2007).  In many cases there are multiple and clear indications that the illegal procedures were promoted by transnational organized crime who acted along with the participation or acquiescence of state officials. Currently, the Public Ministry investigates more than 325 adoption processes which present serious irregularities.

In its report, the CICIG is able to determine the modus operandi of transnational organized crime networks involved in trafficking of children through illegal adoptions. Since that report, the CICIG was also able to determine that an international adoption in Guatemala, rather than representing a way of procuring a family to an unprotected child, often has become a mechanism for delivering children to those who request and pay, turning such institution into a lucrative form of human trafficking which is an offense under the Penal Code in Guatemala.

Among the many findings stated in the CICIG report, it is established that only 10% of Guatemalan children who were placed for adoption between 2007 and 2010 were in an orphaned or abandoned situation.

Question(s):  Who here thinks Guatemala is the only USA Adoption friendly sending-source gathering such data?  Who here thinks there are a few countries making (or did make) a killing, simply by participating in an American Adoption Plan?  If we were to put these gathered facts together, and say 50% of what is being revealed is true, will demanding/desperate American PAP's begin to see their role in all of this... or will more facts and overwhelming evidence be required to open the deaf ears and blind eyes?

I for one have been introduced to a few American Adopters who have learned about the corrupt ways a foreign adoption-plan is made possible in Adoptionland.  Each PAP was devastated, and gravely disappointed... heartbroken, really... and yet they chose to do the right thing.  They said no to the adoption-plan. In some cases, the "chosen child" was allowed to stay in the country of origin.  In other cases, the child was returned to the country that allowed an illegal adoption to take place.  And still, in other cases, the foreign child was placed elsewhere in the USA...given to people not fit to collect pets, let alone foreign children.

Rather than getting support and back-up, those moral-minded Adopt-a-wanna-bes got blasted, banned, then vilified (by other AP's) for sharing what they suspected, and knew.... and shared.

Why is that?

WHY are critics blasted soooooooooo much by American Adopters and their fellow pro-adoption advocates?

Anyone care to share the rationale behind the narrow-minded self-serving arguments made by pro-life-adopters?

Because didn't you know,

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 2011-04-29 22:19.

Because didn't you know, adoption is always good. Saying unkind things about adoption is bad.

I know some of the whistle blowers from the last several years and learned a few lessons along the way. Some of those people received hate mail. Some had to unlist their phone numbers. Most were shunned by the larger adoptive community. I have refused to go on record with media recently because speaking out shouldn't mean putting my family at risk of negative fallout.

The same goes for adoptees who have spoken out (esp the international adoptees). Treated as somehow ungrateful. People have asked them why they don't go back to to their countries of birth since they obviously don't like it in America. No wonder you don't hear from many of these people anymore.

Thankfully there are new survivors, who are pissed off and deciding to take the reigns and push for change.

*big sigh*

Here's hoping PPL will be around for years to come. It's going to be a fantastic resource for aging adoptees trying to make sense of their life stories.

Threats

Submitted by Kerry on Fri, 2011-04-29 22:32.

I know some of the whistle blowers from the last several years and learned a few lessons along the way. Some of those people received hate mail. Some had to unlist their phone numbers. Most were shunned by the larger adoptive community. I have refused to go on record with media recently because speaking out shouldn't mean putting my family at risk of negative fallout.

Ditto.

Finding safe places/people.... not easy, is it?

<fading into black>

Wake up call....

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 2011-05-01 13:46.

For many years now I have seen APs been subjected to flaming from the pro-Adoption fraternity, claiming that such evidence does not exist.
I was silent while I saw them vilified on forums. I was silent when I would read the news. I was silent far too long. We can no longer avoid it.
For other APs who still are silent, well, here's your wake up call! Read this: http://findingfernanda.com/?p=418

Good freakin grief

Submitted by Kerry on Sun, 2011-05-01 14:15.

<shaking head>

Imagine being a parent, like John Walsh, (before he became famous), and you're looking for your kidnapped/abducted child.... and as you sit for hours in front of the computer, and do an Internet search, you find yourself scouring YouTube and Facebook pages.

In this clip, Olga begins by stating her full name, and says that her daughter was taken in 2006. She says she believes that her daughter is now known as “Cindy Colwell Thomas”, and that it’s not fair that “we” (meaning herself and the other Guatemalan mothers still searching for missing children) continue suffering. The photo she’s holding is from the public Facebook page of adoptive mother Elizabeth Thomas-Colwell, showing Thomas-Colwell holding the little girl Olga believes to be her own.

[From:  Finding Fernanda ]

Meanwhile, you have to worry about the crazies who may see a photo of the child, and decide, "Hmmmm.... she looks NICE... I think I'm going to contact them, and see if I can 'help'".  [Insert favorite pedophile fantasy here.]  In fact, in many child-trafficking cases, this is how children get spirited away from "desperate" parents, in the first-place:

Under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, human trafficking is defined as the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person to perform labor or a commercial sex act through force, fraud, or coercion. Any commercial sex act performed by a person under age 18 is considered human trafficking, regardless of whether force, fraud, or coercion is involved.

[From:  MOST SUSPECTED INCIDENTS OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING INVOLVED ALLEGATIONS OF PROSTITUTION OF AN ADULT OR CHILD , April 28, 2011]

This is where things can get really sick.... because who can be trusted with this child?  The nice kind stranger,(with bogus credentials), who says for a small fee, he/she can bring the child home, again?

If this were an American mother wanting her child back, how would this story be seen in the news?

Crazy, and so freakin sad, isn't it?

BTW, kudos to the Amoms who speak-up and against this stuff.... thank you for seeing the adoption industry as it needs to be seen.

Pound Pup Legacy