Authorities hand over 2 more adoptive babies
1:15 AM
Posted: Sunday, August 26, 2007
GUATEMALA CITY (AP) -- Authorities investigating an adoption home in Guatemala said Saturday they have released two children to U.S. couples after determining their adoptions were legal.
The assistant director of the government's welfare agency, Sully de Ucles, told The Associated Press that a judge had ordered the children be handed over to the two families on Thursday. She did not provide further details.
The children were among 46 children taken into government custody Aug. 11 after police raided the Casa Quivira adoption home in the colonial tourist hub of Antigua as part of a national attempt to bring adoption agencies in line with international standards.
Two other babies have also been released since then to a U.S. couple.
Nine children were hospitalized this week with respiratory problems, and the others were sent to undisclosed locations while the investigation continues.
Clifford Phillips of Florida, who owns and runs Casa Quivira with his Guatemalan wife, Sandra Gonzalez, e-mailed a statement to the news media on Saturday saying he and his attorneys are demanding to know the whereabouts of the remaining 33 children.
Guatemalan officials argue the home's paperwork did not meet legal standards.
Phillips and Gonzalez, an attorney, say the hundreds of adoptions they have handled since Casa Quivira opened in 1996 have been legal. Outside experts familiar with the situation have said that Casa Quivira has a spotless record.
The U.S. has pushed for a crackdown in an industry that has placed more than 25,000 Guatemalan children in U.S. homes since 1990 -- so many that every 100th baby born in Guatemala grows up as an adopted American.
The assistant director of the government's welfare agency, Sully de Ucles, told The Associated Press that a judge had ordered the children be handed over to the two families on Thursday. She did not provide further details.
The children were among 46 children taken into government custody Aug. 11 after police raided the Casa Quivira adoption home in the colonial tourist hub of Antigua as part of a national attempt to bring adoption agencies in line with international standards.
Two other babies have also been released since then to a U.S. couple.
Nine children were hospitalized this week with respiratory problems, and the others were sent to undisclosed locations while the investigation continues.
Clifford Phillips of Florida, who owns and runs Casa Quivira with his Guatemalan wife, Sandra Gonzalez, e-mailed a statement to the news media on Saturday saying he and his attorneys are demanding to know the whereabouts of the remaining 33 children.
Guatemalan officials argue the home's paperwork did not meet legal standards.
Phillips and Gonzalez, an attorney, say the hundreds of adoptions they have handled since Casa Quivira opened in 1996 have been legal. Outside experts familiar with the situation have said that Casa Quivira has a spotless record.
The U.S. has pushed for a crackdown in an industry that has placed more than 25,000 Guatemalan children in U.S. homes since 1990 -- so many that every 100th baby born in Guatemala grows up as an adopted American.
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