Honduras Cracks Down On Baby-Selling Trade

Newsday

Police rescued three babies during a raid on clandestine nurseries where newborns are purchased for sale to wealthy foreigners, a police spokesman said yesterday.

Police said they arrested a woman, Maria del Carmen Zepeda, in one of the so-called "fattening homes" where the babies, ranging in age from 2 to 7 months, were heldin preparation for illegal adoptions by foreign,

mostly U.S., couples.

Authorities, who were not identified, were searching for a lawyer believed to be handling the sale of the babies, who fetch up to $30,000 each. Liberal Party Deputy Rosario Godoy has drawn attention in recent months to the thriving trade in black-market adoptions in Honduras. Godoy says there are as many as 30 rings involved in the lucrative traffic of newborns kidnaped or purchased from impoverished mothers.

The Honduras legislature recently passed a law mandating prison sentences of up to six years for lawyers, mothers and others convicted of taking part in the illegal baby trade.