SPECIAL PROSECUTORIAL UNIT TO COMBAT TRAFFICKING

UNCLAS GUATEMALA 002194

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR G/TIP AND CA/OCS/CI

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KOCI CASC CVIS KCRM PHUM PGOV SMIG SNAR GT
SUBJECT: SPECIAL PROSECUTORIAL UNIT TO COMBAT TRAFFICKING
IN PERSONS



1. The Public Ministry announced November 1 that it will
create a special unit in the Prosecutor's Office Against
Organized Crime to investigate and prosecute trafficking in
persons (TIP),including illegal adoptions. The new anti-TIP
unit will investigate organized crime groups allegedly
involved in illicit commercialization of adoptions, as well
as sexual and commercial exploitation of minors. TIP cases
are currently handled by the Prosecutor's Office for Women,
Unit of Child and Adolescent Victims.


2. Alexander Colop, Chief of the Unit of Child and Adolescent
Victims, indicated that the new anti-TIP unit will be
operational as soon as replacements are found for the
prosecutors who have been assigned to the new unit. The unit
will be staffed by two prosecutors and four assistant
prosecutors who, according to the Chief of the Prosecutor's
Office Against Organized Crime, were carefully vetted.


3. According to Colop, who will head the new anti-TIP unit,
investigations will begin this month with an investigation
into the origin of minors at Casa Quivira in Antigua where
two lawyers have been accused of being involved in processing
irregular adoptions. They will also investigate two cases of
child abduction in Guatemala City. The unit hopes to
identify other cases of child abduction with the aim of
dismantling the networks involved in these cases.


4. In 2006, the National Civil Police reportedly received
more than 40 complaints of babies abducted from hospitals.
The cases revealed the existence of networks of nurses,
social workers, and other hospital workers involved in baby
abductions. The cases also suggested the modality of the
crime: hospital social workers falsely informing parents
that their newborn babies had died shortly after birth and
presenting them with corpses of other babies as proof of
death or simply refusing to allow them to see their "dead"
babies. The Public Ministry is currently investigating three
social workers and other hospital workers suspected of
stealing babies from a Guatemala City hospital for illegal
adoptions. If charged and convicted for the crime of TIP,
the workers could receive prison sentences of up to 15 years,
instead of up to 3 years for the lesser crime of child
abduction.
Derham