Tuesday, October 12, 2010

US pulls out of Guatemala´s Adoption Pilot Program

The following is a translation of an article published last week in Prensa Libre:

The US government pull out its request to be part of the pilot program of Guatemalan adoptions since it considers there are not enough safeguards to protect from the fraud and corruption that prevailed until 2008 will not continue.

The US diplomacy expects that this decision will allow the government of Guatemala to focus on the 280 open cases out of 3,032 that remained pending after 2007 when the Guatemalan Congress approved the new adoption law.

The new law reformed a system that was until then controlled by corrupt lawyers who in many cases utilized fraud  and identity theft to adoptions of babies obtained through  payment of theft.

'We have no comments, the members of the counsel are meeting to define their  position' said Rudy Zapeta spokesperson about the decision announced by the US and published in the Department´s of State webpage.

The Department of State announced that the decision responds to the concern that the adoptions of the pilot program won´t abby to the regulations of the Hague Convention for International Adoption. Also the government of Guatemala has not given details as to how  the process will be conducted under the new law.

The US said they will reconsider rejoining once there is trust that the system meets the requirements set forth  by the Hague.

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