THE REGISTRATION IS OVER. WHAT NEXT?
The Guatemalans have the reputation of leaving everything for the last minute. Maybe that is why the registration process of over three thousand adoptions was less stressful for them than for the very organized foreign parents and adoption agencies, who plan everything in advance and who are not used to this kind of last minute rush.
By this time, must of you have received word that the adoption of your child was successfully registered. The last information we got came on Tuesday, about seven in the evening, while the people at the CNA kept working to finish their task before the stroke of midnight, although no one was submitting new cases at that time, just waiting for the registration numbers. Prensa Libre, biased against adoptions as always, quotes negative remarks of the new appointed directors, Marilys de Estrada and Elizabeth de Larios, who according to PL, expressed their surprise and concern for the high amount of children being registered, questioning where do they come from. For their information, those children are a small fraction of the more than 35,000 children who die every year of curable diseases and that thanks to adoption, will live happy and healthy lives, surrounded by the love of their forever families.
In case you wonder, no constancies will be issued. The number and seal of the CNA on the first page of the copy of the four page form is enough proof of registration. No investigation of the information provided in the four page form will be done by the CNA, because as ADA stated, the information was none of their busieness and the purpose of the form was for registration only, not for investigation. That is something that the amparo helped to make clear, although the Amparo Court has not ruled on it. Denial of the suspension of the offense act or law is not necessarily a denial of the amparo.
Added to the adoption file, it will open the gates of the PGN. After a month and a half of not admitting any cases, the amount of files being submitted or resubmitted at the PGN, will create a flood of cases. We hope that the reviewers and their reviewers as well, realize that looking for reasons to reject, that are not even required by law, only adds to their workload and that by delaying the cases, more than hurting the lawyer who has to wait longer to get paid, they are hurting a child who needs a family. More than ever, it is time that the PGN realizes that nobody opposes the thorough review of the cases, but that it is beneath them to display their power, by rejecting the same case, over and over, just because they can do it.
If an adoption in process was not registered with the CNA, that adoption cannot be finished according to the notarial process. The child will be placed by the CNA. If an abandonment decree was not ruled last year, the court will rule, when at last it does, that the child must be placed with a family by the CNA, not by the director of the hogar, who still will have the legal custody but not the right to find a suitable family for the child.
Taking into account the Guatemalan-last-minute factor and the problem with the former directors who clung to their positions way after they were fired, and the lack of funds to work, because even the registration was done all by hand, as if there were no computers and other gadgets to make life easier, we see with great concern that there are no plans to implement child care services. The lawyers keep getting petitions of mothers who want to place their children for adoption and there is not a place where they can be directed to do so. The registration of in process cases was very important, but so is the care of children whose mothers cannot support or keep them. Thus far, there are no alternatives for them. UNICEF must be very happy that those children will be tossed out in a garbage dump or left at any public place, at the mercy of whoever finds them, as it has happened in all the countries where UNICEF has closed down adoptions.
ADA is deeply concerned for the welfare of the children and for the right of the mothers who choose to give a better life to the children they cannot keep. Because we are fully convinced that the State of Guatemala is not prepared to assume the enormous responsibility of taking care and finding families for the needy children, we cannot sit back and watch how the number of children of the street grows, while Casa Alianza and UNICEF make better and more heart wrenching videos of the terrible situation of the children in Guatemala, to increase the donations of unsuspecting souls, who don’t know that the money they donate, will never go to alleviate the situation of those children, because for those organizations, children are like animals in a zoo. Must be kept caged, so people can watch them. They cannot be let out of Guatemala, so they can be visually exploited. What a shame!
For those reasons, ADA will remain filing all the necessary legal actions to restore the rights of the mothers, of the children, of the foster mothers, of the private orphanages and of the law professionals, to participate in the adoption process, in a Hague complying system, that will not leave it entirely in the hands of the government of Guatemala. We trust that justice will prevail, and that this State centralized system which is not respectful of our democratic system and our Constitution will be ruled unconstitutional and that the opportunities for the children will open again.
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