DNA tests confirm first stolen baby in troubled Guatemalan adoption system

DNA tests for the first time have confirmed that a baby was stolen from her mother and adopted for profit in Guatemala.

The baby, Esther Zulamita, was taken by armed men in 2007 at her family's shoe shop. Her mother, Ana Escobar, has spent the last year searching for the child.

Read more about adoptions from Guatemala here.

The apparent confirmation of an actual case of "baby theft" raises doubts about a law passed in December by Guatemalan legislators to overhaul the nation's poorly regulated adoption system, "in which poor mothers were paid to turn over their children to American couples," as the New York Times reported last year.

The New York Times reported that:

"The new law, pushed by the United States government, allows thousands of pending adoptions, most to Americans, to proceed. Guatemala sends more adopted children to the United States than any other country except China; this year [2007] it has sent 4,700. The new law also creates a government authority to handle future adoptions, bringing Guatemala in line with the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption and wresting the system away from lawyers who charge as much as $30,000 per child."

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Photo: Antonietta, held by a lawyer, awaits adoption by a Pennsylvania couple at a Guatemala government office. Credit: Daniel Hernandez-Salazar for The New York Times

Comments

[Kathi Thomas]

The question that isn't asked- or answered- is how many DNA tests have been confirmed? Two DNA tests are now required. One upon relinquishment, and this is where fraud could occur, and another shortly before the adoption is finished. While one might say that a baby has changed from 1 mo. old to 10 or 12 mo. old, it is hard to say that the photo of a 10 or 12 month old has changed much in a week or two.
With our first referred child, the DNA did not match to the woman who said she was the mother. It showed they were not related at all. The US Embassy stopped the adoption proceedings, and turned the woman and the baby over to the Guatemalan officials. The Court of Minors took the child. At that time (2000), we were told that less than 3% of all DNA tests came back as nonmatches. Since then, I've heard a figure of less than 1%.
Of course, even a single stolen baby is one too many, but the truth is, no matter what, there are always people who will try to "game" the system- whether that is in adoption, banking, or whatever, there are always creeps who circumvent the laws and don't care who they hurt.
Kathi Thomas