Children Stolen from
Guatemalan Hospitals
The Guatemalan Public
Ministry is
investigating cases of
stolen newborns at
public hospitals, a
crime that allegedly
involves members of the
institutions' staff.
According to Alex Colop,
prosecutor for Child
Victims, the modus
operandi consists of
informing the parents
that their child died,
but they do not release
the corpse or give them
the body of another
child.
He added that two social
workers at Roosevelt
Hospital, the largest in
the country, are under
investigation after
several complaints about
that kind of acts.
One of the alternatives
is to exhume the
children's bodies to
carry out DNA tests,
Colop explained.
In 2006, the National
Civil Police received
more than 40
denunciations on
children aged 0-3 who
had been stolen from
hospitals in the capital
and other cities.
The babies are taken to
clandestine children's
homes while fake
documents are made to
give them in adoption,
generally to foreign
families.
Recently, the Congress
of the Republic ratified
the Convention of The
Hague on international
adoptions, which will
come into force on
January 1, 2008.
A law must be passed
before that day to
establish rigorous
requisites for adoption
and prevent the theft
and traffic of children. |
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