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Article Excerpt
Faced with disruption of its lucrative baby-adoption industry, Guatemala has ratified the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption. Under the terms of the convention, the government must regulate adoptions to ensure that babies have not been bought or stolen. Guatemala signed the convention in 2003, but ratified it only after the US, whose nationals adopt most Guatemalan children, threatened to stop the traffic. The Guatemalan Congress has proposed a new law creating a National Adoption Council that would serve as an oversight agency but has yet to pass it.
The Hague Convention also threatens the Guatemalan adoption industry by demanding low fees to avoid baby selling or women deliberately getting pregnant for the purpose of adoption. Notaries who function legally as quasi-lawyers currently charge a "country fee" of up to US$19,000. This, added to other fees for paperwork and miscellaneous costs, plus airfare for prospective adoptive parents, can catapult the final costs beyond US$30,000. Notaries have been reported to make as much as US$25,000 per adoption. Costly though it is, US adopters appreciate the quick service. Guatemalan adoptions take, on average, half the...
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More articles from NotiCen: Central American & Caribbean Affairs
REGION'S LEFTIST PARTIES UNITE TO FIGHT NEW TRADE PACTS., June 07, 2007
NICARAGUA SEEKS NEW ARMS AND A BENEFACTOR., June 07, 2007
REGION FAILS TO ATTRACT HIGH QUALITY FOREIGN INVESTMENT., June 07, 2007
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