Thursday 22 May 2003 Update (RE-posted with permission from Susana Luarca, Attorney at Law)
Re: "The Thursday Update" on Guatemalan Adoptions
Dear Friends,
Here is the first part of this week's The Thursday
Update containing up-to-date
Information.
a. Clarification of Post-March 5 Cases
b. New Birthmother Interviews
c. What Makes a Case a "pre-March 5 Case"
d. Delays in Release of Files from PGN
CLARIFICATION ON POST-MARCH 5th CASES
Ethica's president, Trish Maskew posted incorrect
information earlier
this week regarding post-March 5th adoption cases and
we want to clarify
the actual situation. Maskew stated that “... it is
reported that several cases which were
considered filed post-March 5 have been processed by
the PGN. “ Because this statement could be interpreted
as if the PGN is accepting post-March 5 cases and
giving them its approval, we feel obligated to clarify
that it is not so. The Procuraduría General de la
Nación (PGN) has two sections and now, a new office
which is the Central Authority, for the Hague
Convention purposes. The section of the PGN that gives
its approval for adoptions
is the Procuraduria section. If a post-March 5th
adoption is presented to PGN, it will be assigned to
one of the lawyers and they will make an objection
which will be “failure to comply with the Hague
Convention provisions”.
Such a 'decision' by that PGN lawyer should not be
understood as the
file being “processed”. It is simply another type of
rejection. We have
tried to convince the Chief of Section that the PGN
lawyers should also
specify any other reason to object, along with the
objection they may
have about the Hague convention. He did not accept our
helpful
suggestion which would have helped keep things moving
more smoothly and
quickly.
BIRTHMOTHER INTERVIEWS
If the adoption file is presented to the Central
Authority, a date for
the interview of the birth mother will be set. To
date, the few mothers
who have been interviewed have complained about the
interviews, which
have been similar to the ones conducted by the US
embassy, with the same
lack of respect for the dignity of the mothers. Our
lawyers group will talk to Mr. Epifanio Monterroso,
director of the Central Authority, to present a motion
to instruct the people who
conduct the interviews of the birthmothers to do so
with utmost respect
and courtesy.
The Central Authority said that after the birthmother
interview, they
wantto see the children being adopted the following
week. We will not oppose that.
My impression is that the Central Authority is playing
games to buy time
while the Constitutional Court rules on the legal
challenges we
presented in the lawsuit. The more they show that they
have no serious
plans to implement the Hague Convention, the more
confident we feel that
the challenges to Guatemalan's accession to the Hague
Convention will be
upheld. The Court is scheduled to hear last arguments
on the
constitutional challenge on May 30. After that date,
the Court has 20 days to rule on the case.
DELAYS IN RELEASE OF FILES FROM PGN
Many adoptive parents have been asking why there is a
delay of the
release of the files being subjected to the approval
of the PGN.
Apparently, Rudio Lecsán Mérida, who has other duties
besides the PGN
(he is on the board of directors of a bank that is
being liquidated and
also fills in for the Attorney General whenever
needed) has been
extremely over-busy in recent weeks.
Last week I went to Mr. Merida's office (I know him
well) and talked to
the two lawyers who assist him, Elizabeth de Larios
and Mary de Mérida.
Both were very nice and kind, but commented that they
barely have the
opportunity to speak to Mr. Mérida because he has been
so busy lately.
(I doubt that regarding Mary, because she is his wife)
In Merida's office it was easy to see piles of files
on top of every
surface in Mérida’s secretaries’ office. Later, our
sources informed us
that Mérida signed many of files very late Thursday
and Friday night. We
expect that those files will be returned to the
notaries very soon and things will get moving along
once again.
If the PGN's comments on your file indicate that they
want additional information, your lawyers will have to
supply it and present the file
back to the PGN once again. Merida went away on a
trip but in this
case someone else signs the files, so his trip
does not necessarily mean that everything gets
completely stalled. He is expected to be back in his
office on Friday May 23.