International adoption reveals its dark side
Ralitsa Vassileva / CNN
ADOPTION MOST FOUL: Like many children, Esther was abducted when she was only a few-months-old.
Guatemala: International adoptions are raising some serious concerns as a disturbing story has revealed its dark side. Each year, several thousand Americans adopt children from Guatemala. But not too long ago, the State Department started advising prospective parents to consider ‘other’ options.
Esther Sulamita is finally home and is nestled close to her mother. But like many children Esther was abducted when she was only a few months old - only to re-appear under a different name in Guatemala’s controversial foreign adoption system.
Last year, Esther’s mother Ana Escobar, scoured hospitals and orphanages across the country in a desperate attempt to find her daughter. Now, after a DNA-test which proved her identity, Ana has finally got her daughtrer back.
“It’s something that I don’t know how to express, it is a quite great joy honestly, I’m telling you, I can’t find a way how to express what I’m feeling right now that I have the baby,” says an overjoyed Ana.
Ana says Esther was ripped from her arms by a band of armed men who locked her in a storage closet.
It was a ‘mirale’ as Ana puts it, when she spotted Esther — who is now a toddler — at a state adoption office in Guatemala city. She petitioned for an identity test and the results brought her daughter back home.
“it is the first case of a stolen girl that was found using the council’s verification system, the DNA proved it was the daughter of the mother that was looking for her,” says national council for adoptions’ Elizabeth de Larios.
While Esther’s story ended with a heartfelt reunion, not all of the cases in Guatemala have the same happy ending. In fact, baby trafficking is such a problem that lawmakers have announced an overhaul of the country’s foreign adoption process.
The new policy requires case-by-case review of every pending foreign adoption which means thousands of families hoping to adopt may have to wait a little longer.
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