HomeNewsBriefGuatemala Children Stolen for Illegal Adoption, Organ Trafficking
BRIEF

Guatemala Children Stolen for Illegal Adoption, Organ Trafficking

GUATEMALA / 6 AUG 2013 BY MARGUERITE CAWLEY EN

Guatemala's Attorney General's Office has received 22 reports of stolen children in seven months, indicating that the trade in illegal adoptions continues to flourish despite regulations, and also highlighting an even more disturbing phenomenon -- the use of children for organ trafficking.

According to children's prosecutor Erick Cardenas, the majority of stolen babies are sold for irregular adoptions or for their organs. Cardenas said that hospital workers including doctors and midwives are themselves often involved in the illegal business, helping criminal networks get false birth certificates for newborns, reported Prensa Libre.

In one reported case, an intruder dressed as a nurse is believed to have administered a sleeping pill to a new mother before taking her baby. The baby, who was later found abandoned, had apparently been stolen by a couple who wanted to be parents.

Nonetheless, the case led to the investigation of nurses on duty at the time of the incident. Meanwhile, reviews of one hospital center found that staff fail to use electronic bracelets with an "intelligent chip" to identify the mother and child, even though the bracelet was introduced as a preventive measure against infant theft in 2012.

InSight Crime Analysis

Illegal adoption is a crime that has plagued Guatemala for decades. Despite measures taken in recent years, in June, the director of a Guatemalan child welfare center reported a resurgence in the sale of children. High levels of impunity for illegal adoption cases, coupled with a complex process for legal adoptions, contribute greatly to the perpetuation of the crime.

Prior to 2007, when the country ratified an international convention on child trafficking, Guatemala was the second most common country of origin for adoptions in the world, with the vast majority of children sent to the United States. In 2008, Guatemala halted international adoptions due to growing concerns over child trafficking, though the measure has created serious complications for parents who were already in the process of adopting legally.

The number of cases reported by the Attorney General's Office for 2013 shows that the trade in illegal adoptions is still alive, while Cardenas' comments suggest that child snatching is not limited to adoptions but also has even more sinister purposes -- organ trafficking, which is a rising phenomenon in Latin America, though one more commonly associated with adults.

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

COCAINE / 24 MAY 2023

Guatemala's military was corrupted by Mexico's CJNG, a former Guatemalan colonel has confirmed during a drug trafficking trial in the…

BELIZE / 2 JUN 2022

Since El Salvador's government began a campaign of mass arrests two months ago in a gang crackdown, fewer than 60…

GENDER AND CRIME / 31 MAR 2023

Migrants across Latin America, especially Venezuelans, can fall into traps laid by organized crime in a variety of ways.

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Contributes Expertise Across the Board 

22 SEP 2023

This week InSight Crime investigators Sara García and María Fernanda Ramírez led a discussion of the challenges posed by Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s “Total Peace” plan within urban contexts. The…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Cited in New Colombia Drug Policy Plan

15 SEP 2023

InSight Crime’s work on emerging coca cultivation in Honduras, Guatemala, and Venezuela was cited in the Colombian government’s…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Discusses Honduran Women's Prison Investigation

8 SEP 2023

Investigators Victoria Dittmar and María Fernanda Ramírez discussed InSight Crime’s recent investigation of a massacre in Honduras’ only women’s prison in a Twitter Spaces event on…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Trafficking Investigation Published in Leading Mexican Newspaper

1 SEP 2023

Leading Mexican media outlet El Universal featured our most recent investigation, “The Geography of Human Trafficking on the US-Mexico Border,” on the front page of its August 30…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Coverage of Ecuador Leads International Debate

25 AUG 2023

This week, Jeremy McDermott, co-director of InSight Crime, was interviewed by La Sexta, a Spanish television channel, about the situation of extreme violence and insecurity in Ecuador…