Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
09GUATEMALA824
2009-08-28 16:58:00
UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
Embassy Guatemala
Cable title:  

GUATEMALAN ADOPTION CONTROVERSY: POLITICS, HUNGER

Tags:  PGOV PREL CASC KOCI CVIS GT 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXYZ0006
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHGT #0824/01 2401658
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 281658Z AUG 09
FM AMEMBASSY GUATEMALA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 7990
INFO RUEHZA/WHA CENTRAL AMERICAN COLLECTIVE
UNCLAS GUATEMALA 000824 

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PREL CASC KOCI CVIS GT
SUBJECT: GUATEMALAN ADOPTION CONTROVERSY: POLITICS, HUNGER
STRIKES AND AMCIT CHILDREN

REF: GUATEMALA 262

UNCLAS GUATEMALA 000824

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PREL CASC KOCI CVIS GT
SUBJECT: GUATEMALAN ADOPTION CONTROVERSY: POLITICS, HUNGER
STRIKES AND AMCIT CHILDREN

REF: GUATEMALA 262


1. (SBU) SUMMARY: In a move that generated front-page
coverage in Guatemala, prominent human rights defender Norma
Cruz recently completed a 10-day hunger strike to demand that
three children adopted by U.S. couples be returned to
Guatemala. She is the recipient of the Secretary's Women of
Courage Award. Cruz, First Lady Sandra Torres and other
supporters claim the children were stolen from their birth
mothers. The three children are now AMCITs. Torres raised
the issue with Secretary Clinton at the Summit of the
Americas in April, and subsequently met with the Ambassador.
Cruz joined with the women who claim to be the children's
mothers and other supporters in the hunger strike to demand
that the adoptions be nullified and the children returned;the
Guatemalan judiciary subsequently accepted the case. END
SUMMARY.

--------------
The Background
--------------


2. (SBU) Prior to a new adoption law compliant with the Hague
Convention on International Adoption, which went into effect
on Dec. 31, 2007, Guatemala was one of the leading sources of
children for U.S. couples seeking to adopt. In FY 2007, over
4,000 Guatemalan children were adopted by AMCIT couples. In
Guatemala, lawyers or notaries served as intermediaries
between birth parents and adopting couples. Typically
notaries plus the agencies were paid around USD 50,000 for
their services. The Solicitor General's Office (PGN) was the
Guatemalan agency responsible for ensuring that children put
up for adoption had been willingly relinquished by their
birth parents. Guatemala did not require DNA testing to
ensure that the relinquishing parent was a child's actual
parent. In the 1990's the Embassy began requiring DNA
testing before going forward with an adoption case.


3. (U) Before 2008, the procedure for adopting a child in
Guatemala started with a notary serving as the point of
contact between an adopting couple and a woman who wanted to
relinquish her child. The notary would start the adoption
process at his office and request the competent family court
in Guatemala to perform a home study. At the same time, the
prospective adoptive parent(s) or their Guatemalan attorney

would go to USCIS for the adoption pre-approval. At this
stage, the USG was the one requiring the DNA test. With
USCIS pre-approval, the notary would go to the PGN in order
to submit the adoption file and obtain a favorable
resolution. Although the USG was the one requiring the DNA
test, PGN would then use the DNA results as part of their
review and favorable opinion. Once PGN issued a favorable
opinion, the notary would authorize the final adoption deed
in his "Protocolo." After the adoption was finalized, the
adopting parents would apply for and receive a new Guatemalan
birth certificate and passport in the baby's new name. At
this point, the final paperwork would go to USCIS for
approval. The child would be brought into the Consular
Section for the final adjudication of the I-600 (Petition to
Classify an Orphan as an Immediate Relative) by USCIS and the
issuance of an immigrant visa. In most cases the child would
then become an AMCIT upon admission into a U.S. Port of Entry
(POE). For an abandoned child, the notary would initiate the
adoption process at his office once the judicial resolution
of abandonment was issued. The case would then be referred
to PGN for an opinion once USCIS had issued its pre-approval
(following the procedures mentioned in the relinquishment
cases, minus the DNA test.)


4. (U) Although there were probably cases of some babies
Q4. (U) Although there were probably cases of some babies
being stolen and put up for adoption, most observers believe
these cases were a small minority, and that the majority of
the birth mothers involved willingly relinquished their
children, in many cases, for a fee. We have heard that these
women were paid USD 500 to 1,000 and had all their living and
medical expenses paid for during their pregnancy.

--------------
The Controversy
--------------


5. (SBU) It was against this backdrop, in 2006 and 2007, that
three AMCIT couples begin the process of adopting the three
Guatemalan children in question. These children are:
-Kimberli Azucena Jimenez, born Nov.8, 2006, issued a visa
December 2007 under the name Kimberli Azucena Ocheltree.
-Cindy Garcia, born Aug.10, 2006, issued a visa December 2006
under the name Cindy Colwell Thomas.
-Karen Abigail Lopez Garcia, born Jan.14, 2005, issued a visa
December 2008 under the name Karen Abigail Monahan. (This
child originally started as a relinquishment case, failed the

DNA test, and then later went through the Guatemalan legal
system as an abandonment case.)


6. (U) The new adoption law implemented in December 2007
resulted in the creation of the National Council on Adoptions
(CNA). The new agency, in coordination with the PGN,
initiated a mandatory review of all in-process adoption cases
still allowed to move forward under the notarial system. PGN
began conducting interviews with all birth mothers. During
this process a group of women who had filed reports of stolen
children were allowed access to adoption records. Three
women claimed to have identified their stolen children based
on photos from these records. It is unclear if the records
were provided by the Attorney General's Office (MP) or PGN.


7. (SBU) The three women identified the following children as
having been stolen:
-the Ocheltree baby allegedly is Heidy Sarahi Batz Par,
kidnapped Apr.4, 2006.
-the Thomas baby allegedly is Arlene Escarleth Lopez Lopez,
kidnapped Sep. 27, 2006.
-the Monahan baby allegedly is Anyeli Liseth Hernandez
Rodriquez, kidnapped Nov.3, 2006.
(Note: We do not know the birth dates of the stolen children.
End Note)


8. (SBU) Sources within CNA have told Emboffs that they have
significant doubts that these women have actually identified
their stolen children. Moreover, the timeline raises
questions about the validity of their claims:
-the Batz Par baby would have been born early in 2006,
sometime prior to her kidnapping in April. The Ocheltree
baby was born in November 2006 and issued a visa 13 months
later, in December 2007. For this to have been the stolen
baby the adjudicating Conoff would have had to fail to notice
that a child being presented as 13 month old was actually
closer to two years old.
-the Lopez Lopez baby was kidnapped Sep.27, 2006. According
to Conoffs here, it took a minimum of four to five months,
and often much longer, to process an adoption once a child
had been identified. So in order to have finalized the
proceedings by December 2006, the Thomas family would have
had to start the adoption process immediately after the birth
of the child in August. It would not have been possible to
have finalized an adoption that only began after the child's
kidnapping on September 27. It is possible, however, that
the notary began the process with another baby and then
switched them after the kidnapping, although this seems
unlikely.
-the Hernandez Rodriquez baby was kidnapped in November 2006.
The Monahan baby's parents began adoption proceedings eight
months prior to the kidnapping, in March of 2006. It is
troubling that in this case the DNA failed to match the woman
who claimed to be the child's birth mother and the adoption
eventually went forward as an abandonment, but this does not
link this child to the woman now claiming to be the baby's
birth mother.


9. (SBU) On April 27, the Ambassador, Conoff, ARSO-I and
USCIS' Field Office Director-Guatemala and District Director
met with Guatemala's First Lady to discuss these cases.
During the meeting, Torres stated that she felt a moral
obligation to help the women who claim to have had their
children stolen. She also said she had requested that the
Guatemalan Attorney General's office begin the process of
having the adoptions annulled. The Ambassador replied that
the Embassy would provide any assistance to the investigation
allowed by law, but that this issue was now being handled by
DOJ.


10. (SBU) Cruz has long been a champion of human rights and
women's rights in Guatemala. She and her NGO took up the
Qwomen's rights in Guatemala. She and her NGO took up the
issue of the many problems with the Guatemalan adoption
system about four years ago as an outgrowth of their concern
over women's rights. In the past she has called for a "truth
commission" to examine all adoptions that have taken place in
the last decades in Guatemala. Approximately two years ago
she led a protest over the adoption issue in front of the
Embassy. More recently, there have been reports in the press
that Cruz engineered the ouster of PGN head Baudilio Portillo
Merlos because of the irregularities with the adoption
process. In March, the Secretary recognized Norma Cruz as a
Woman of Courage (REFTEL). Cruz was recognized for her and
her organization's work countering sexual and domestic
violence in Guatemala. Since January 2008, USAID has
financed a USD 25,000 sub-contract to Cruz's organization to
provide legal support to victims of homicide, particularly
female victims.


11. (U) On July 15 Cruz announced that she was organizing a
hunger strike to raise awareness and demand justice for the

three women who claim their children were stolen. Eight days
into her hunger strike, Guatemalan authorities announced the
arrest of a man and women in connection with the kidnapping
the Batz Par baby. On July 25, Cruz called off her strike
after the Guatemalan judicial system agreed to accept her
petition to review the case. Although this action was
reported in the press as, "the beginning of the process of
nullifying the adoptions," and Cruz cited it as a legal
victory, under the Guatemalan legal system, the judiciary is
required to accept a petition from a citizen. However, the
publicity from her hunger strike may well have sped up the
process of having the judiciary grant a review of these
cases. As the children were stolen in different geographical
areas, three separate lower courts are each examining a case.
After a period of review, the individual courts will decide
whether the cases should be accepted for further legal action
or rejected.


12. (SBU) In March and April, the Guatemalan Attorney
General's office, through the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty
(MLAT),requested DOJ cooperation in obtaining DNA samples
from the children in the US. These samples would then be
compared to those taken from the three women in Guatemala to
determine if they are the children's birth mothers. This
request is currently under review by DOJ.

McFarland