CCAI Releases Guatemala Report

Following on the heels of the independent, investigative CICIG report that stated “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”, CCAI released a 7-page report on their recent trip to Guatemala.

Page 4 states, “Meeting with Licenciada Claudia Paz y Paz Bailey, Fiscal General de la Nación (Attorney General), Ministerio Público (MP).

Senator Landrieu and Ambassador Jacobs received a briefing from the Attorney General on her efforts to prosecute individuals found guilty of crimes in relation to “illegal adoption.” The Senator stressed the United States’ support of prosecutions of these bad actors. The women agreed that it is important to move forward in the transition cases where children and  international families have waited for years for the finalization of their adoptions and there is no evidence of corruption or fraud, so that the children involved do not  languish unnecessarily in institutions.”

First they thumbed their noses at the independent, investigative CICIG’s report on corruption. Now, not only have they ignored CICIG’s challenge to show what part of their report is wrong, they publicly dismiss the CICIG evidence in their report as “no evidence of corruption or fraud.” There is a reason that independent commissions investigate, Senator Landrieu. Illegal adoption is just part of the picture. Kidnapping, coercion and trafficking prior to the adoption needs to be investigated.

Page 4 also states, “Dr. Paz y Paz Bailey asked for U.S. support in sharing information about the transition cases under investigation. She also stressed the need for additional investigators as the MP has only five working on these cases now (three of whom are funded by UNICEF).”

Now those suffering from EUBS  will cry out how UNICEF is blocking adoptions.
You need to . UNICEF is actually supplying 60% of the manpower to go through these files. It would be going even slower without them. Yes, UNICEF is probably catching irregularities. If you would rather have the irregularities be , then you really don’t care about ethics in adoption or these children’s pasts or families.

Additionally, page 4 states, “It was shared that one reason for delay in some cases is the absence of the birth mother. Senator Landrieu stated that after a good faith effort to find birth mothers for interviews, investigations should not be drawn out and should have a clear end so that the children can be placed with a family.”

Of course, Guatemala needs to have a process in place for abandonments. This shows that they currently do NOT have that in place. Furthermore, this lack of finding birthmothers supports the CICIG findings and completely contradicts the CCAI stance that there is no corruption or fraud. Seriously, Senator Landrieu and Ambassador Jacobs, how can you be so sure that there is no corruption or fraud if you have no idea who the birthmother is? 

Page 4 gets worse. “Porras presented the group with a list of 61 cases currently under review by the working group. He informed the delegation that five of the 61 cases being presented had been recommended and placed for adoption with a Guatemalan family. He stated that this is apossibility for any case that has had its notarial process suspended and is now before the CNA. Senator Landrieu and Ambassador Jacobs stressed that while domestic adoption is almost always the ideal for a child who cannot be returned to their biological family, in the case of these children, who have already developed bonds with families in the United States it is not.”
Let’s get real here. It is the APs that have some emotional bond here. Now they are trying to argue that these kids should remain in non-permanent care to wait for US families?By the way, many of the Romanian children in the pipeline also found domestic families. That would make sense, wouldn’t it? If child welfare infrastructure begins to take hold after closure and domestic adoption becomes possible, then it would follow that kids would actually be domestically adopted.

Page 5 states, “In the past three years  CNA has also completed 387 domestic adoptions, and has heard from 678 Guatemalan families interested in adopting Guatemalan children.  However, they are finding it difficult to place older children and sibling groups for domestic adoption.”

Yes, even Guatemala-based PAPs want young, healthy children. That shouldn’t shock anyone. Is CCAI going to argue now that the young and healthy should be only placed internationally?

Page 5: “She expressed disappointment that UNICEF determined not to fund the intercountry adoption pilot program, as she knows that intercountry adoption should be an option when Guatemalan families cannot be found for children, in keeping with international conventions.”The reason couldn’t possibly be that they READ THE CICIG REPORT and realize that the infrastructure has a long way to go and that domestic adoption is starting to take hold.  Why should this fall on UNICEF’s shoulders? USAID is helping to fund Vietnam’s child welfare system. Why doesn’t CCAI try to secure US funding for this?

Page 5 also says, “He explained that CICIG reviewed 3,342 adoption cases processed during the transition and found “illegal aspects” in 60% of them. He also noted that a handful of prosecution cases have resulted in convictions of  bad actors, and that in Guatemala, illegal adoption is prosecuted under trafficking in persons laws. He stated that under the old law, true orphans were not the children being adopted internationally.”

So where is the CCAI’s plan for correcting that one? They don’t comment or blame UNICEF on that one. The issue of true orphans not being adopted also falls on the shoulders of all of the adoption industry whom they were representing on this trip.

Page 6 says,” CICIG explained that ultimately the processing of these cases is a political decision by the Government of Guatemala, and that CICIG appreciates that if they make a firm decision against an intercountry adoption for a child’s case, that child will never have the opportunity to be with their existing perspective adoptive family.”

This is probably the most AP-centered statement of the whole report. The child should be the focus not the existing perspective adoptive family. Why are they framing this as an automatic loss for the child when 678 local families are interested in adopting? Why shouldn’t all resources be poured into screening and training these 678 local families to adopt these kids?

Finally, their conclusions are on page 7. Here are some of them:

(1) “Creation of a master list”

After all the CCAI moaning about Guatemala in this report, this is a US bureaucratic issue.

It was shared with the delegation by many that the working group is neither balanced nor efficient”

Oh please!  They didn’t like what the CICIG report said because it implicates the entire adoption industry whom they represent.

Putting aside the CCAI’s incessant use of quotes around illegal adoptions, we wholeheartedly agree that CICIG’s report should be a guide to stop unethical and illegal adoption processes. They forgot to mention that the US adoption industry played a very big role in that.

So let’s share that perspective again:

• 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
• 60% of adoption processes had irregularities and
• A large problem is that birthmothers can’t be found.

Yes, we will be sure to continue to keep those three things in mind!

http://www.ccainstitute.org/images/stories/ccai_20_20_vision_program_report_-_guatemala_2011.pdf
[Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute 20/20 Vision Guatemala Visit Report]

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