Harley_Tech
July 24th, 2008, 02:25 PM
GUATEMALA CITY — Adoption officials said Wednesday that DNA tests indicate a Guatemalan baby reported stolen from her mother was being adopted by a U.S. couple, the first strong sign that the Central American nation's troubled adoption system relied in part on abducted children.
Authorities have long believed that children were stolen or bought to supply Guatemala's $100 million-a-year adoption industry before thousands of pending adoptions were frozen in May.
Previously, dozens of mothers reported stolen babies and at least two were found in orphanages, although they had not yet been put up for adoption.
But adoption officials revealed to The Associated Press on Wednesday that DNA (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,390044,00.html#) tests identified toddler Esther Zulamita, who was reported stolen on March 26, 2007. The girl was in the process of being adopted to an unidentified U.S. couple.
Jaime Tecu, director of a team of experts reviewing all pending Guatemalan adoptions, said the DNA test results represent the first time officials have directly linked a baby reported stolen by its mother to the fraud plagued adoption system.
"This is the first time that we've been able to show, with irrefutable evidence, that a stolen child was put up for adoption," Tecu said.
The baby's mother, Ana Escobar, said armed men locked her in a storage closet at the family's shoe store north of Guatemala City and took the 6-month-old.
"When I got out, my daughter was gone," she told the AP in an earlier interview about the case.
She spent months searching hospitals and orphanages, looking for the child.
Link to the rest of the story: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,390044,00.html
While they are there, ask if anyone has seen Caylee.:loco:
R
Authorities have long believed that children were stolen or bought to supply Guatemala's $100 million-a-year adoption industry before thousands of pending adoptions were frozen in May.
Previously, dozens of mothers reported stolen babies and at least two were found in orphanages, although they had not yet been put up for adoption.
But adoption officials revealed to The Associated Press on Wednesday that DNA (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,390044,00.html#) tests identified toddler Esther Zulamita, who was reported stolen on March 26, 2007. The girl was in the process of being adopted to an unidentified U.S. couple.
Jaime Tecu, director of a team of experts reviewing all pending Guatemalan adoptions, said the DNA test results represent the first time officials have directly linked a baby reported stolen by its mother to the fraud plagued adoption system.
"This is the first time that we've been able to show, with irrefutable evidence, that a stolen child was put up for adoption," Tecu said.
The baby's mother, Ana Escobar, said armed men locked her in a storage closet at the family's shoe store north of Guatemala City and took the 6-month-old.
"When I got out, my daughter was gone," she told the AP in an earlier interview about the case.
She spent months searching hospitals and orphanages, looking for the child.
Link to the rest of the story: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,390044,00.html
While they are there, ask if anyone has seen Caylee.:loco:
R