6/14 Update from Asociacion Defensores de la Adopcion

Guatemala UPDATE SUPPLEMENT
(RE-posted with permission from Susana Luarca, Attorney at Law). We appreciate Susana's permission to temporarily repost this information as we feel it is important for as many people to read what is going on.

(Part One of Two)
Dear Friends,

As I write these lines, a ceremony is taking place at the PGN to officially announce and establish a new DNA testing lab to use in the adoption process. The speeches of the Attorney General and PGN director were about keeping adoptions open but with more transparency; they insisted that they are not trying to close international adoptions. At least on the surface, that is encouraging.

However, this does not mean all is well, and I am pretty sure they are about to announce some new twists in the adoption process, something we might not expect.

That doesn't mean adoptions would stop, but the entire process might get more involved and less efficient than ever.

As I have been sharing with you, the inefficiency of these bureaucrats is overwhelming. Some years ago, a number of embassies began requiring the DNA test. The embassies carefully elaborated on and they established their required system of doing the test. It was made mandatory and began working quite well.

At our request but without warning, on September 12, 2002 the PGN demanded that the DNA should be done in all cases, for all adoptions, even though a particular embassy may not have required it.

Because of the fact that this would erase uncertainties and accusations, we applauded the measure, but asked for specific guidelines. We couldn't get any guidelines at all, and at that moment, all adoptions for countries that had not
required a DNA test came to a standstill.

The Attorney General remained silent and PGN director Merida was "too busy" to see us. Most ridiculously, the files of children who had been *declared abandoned* began to be rejected, "for lack of DNA test", even though by their very nature, abandonments would of course not have DNA tests. Further, the legalizations/certifications and translations of the DNA test results were a problem that we had to solve, gradually over time.

It took a while - three to four months - to get things back on track.
But it has taken until now, nine months later, they have finally implemented a DNA unit, right at the PGN, where it should be, to make the tests easier, faster and more transparent. We don't know when DNA tests will start be processed at this new unit or if it will be required that all DNA tests be processed here. And again, there have not yet been any promulgated specific guidelines on exactly how the process is to work or how the test material and results are to be handled. I hope not, but it would not surprise me if an announcement was suddenly made that all DNA tests must be processed at the new PGN DNA unit. Imagine the confusion if they made such an announcement without taking into account DNA tests in process, regulations for handling the test, requirements for mother/child photos, and so on. But that is unfortunately the history of these types of new rules here.

Guatemala UPDATE SUPPLEMENT PART TWO of TWO

With the Hague Convention, the same thing is happening. Guatemala has this new Treaty that they do not now how to implement, and they don't have among them someone who can lead the way.

It is like having a car with no gas. Then someone puts in diesel fuel, but they have no driver. Then they find a driver but he doesn't know how to drive a manual transmission. Finally they get a proper driver, only to find out that the fuel is the wrong type. And at this point it is midnight and all the gas stations are closed. Then in the morning, when the station opens, they find they have no money.

To make things worse, the public officers don't want to take our suggestions, because the PGN lawyers are very resentful of the amounts that it is said that lawyers charge for adoptions. In their eyes each adoption file becomes evidence of the wealth that the lawyers are getting, and they are not. They resent this because they believe it is not fair that the lawyers "earn so much", when they are the ones who are contributing with their work to make the adoption possible.

It is my impression that the confusion over the Hague situation will be resolved fairly soon. I don't have a crystal ball, although many people believe that I do. But an educated guess is that in two to three months all this problems will be solved. This will require hundreds of hours of legal work, lobbying, attending meetings and keeping our ears to the ground.

So, this doesn't mean that you can relax now and focus only on theories and what you perceive as "issues" in adoptions from Guatemala. You can address any of that later, once adoptions are again being processed as smoothly as possible.

What my prediction does means is that if we all want the problems to be solved, we have to keep working, writing letters, making pressure, to move the people in power to help us to push away this bureaucratic roadblock. In all of this I urge you to be very careful when dealing with the media, especially television and talk show programs.

If you do decide to write letters include what you wish about your particular situation, but don't just focus on self-centered issues; and please be clear in conveying the following message:

THE HAGUE CONVENTION DOES NOT APPLY TO THIRD STATES AND SINCE NO
IMPLEMENTING LEGISLATION HAS BEEN PASSED,THE ADOPTIONS BY US CITIZENS SHOULD NOT FALL UNDER ITS SCOPE.

To those who remind us that Guatemala may do as it pleases, it is true.
But you can still have influence by putting on pressure.

In Guatemala, it is our duty, as lawyers and as citizens to preserve the integrity of the Constitution and the State of Law in our country. What the PGN is currently doing with the effective suspension is illegal and we are not going to let them do it without raising our voice and taking the proper legal actions. But we need your support and the pressure that your country may bring, by clearly asserting its position as third state. (In the case of the USA)

Best Regards,

Susana Luarca, Attorney
Association in Defense of Adoptions
Guatemala

Posted by Kelly at June 13, 2003 08:40 PM