AshleysMom1

GUATEMALA CITY - Authorities searched an adoption home run by a Florida man and his Guatemalan wife and rescued 46 children they believe may have been stolen or coerced from their parents, police said Sunday.

Guatemalan National Police spokesman Carlos Calju said the children, ranging in age from a few days to 3 years old, were found Saturday at the Casa Quivira children's home in Antigua, a colonial city popular among foreign tourists near Guatemala City.

Calju said Casa Quivira is run by Clifford Phillips of Deland, Florida, and his Guatemalan wife and attorney, Sandra Gonzalez. He said Phillips was believed to be out of the country and would fly to Guatemala on Monday. Calju did not say whether he would face possible legal action, and Gonzalez's whereabouts were not immediately clear.


The couple could not be reached for comment Sunday, and calls to the Casa Quivira Children's Fund in Deland went unanswered. No one responded to an e-mail sent to the children's home in Antigua seeking comment.


"We searched the house after we got a tip from neighbors telling us that every day they would see foreigners pick up children there," Calju said.
Authorities also said they arrested two lawyers who apparently processed the adoptions. Officials from the attorney general's office were taking care of the children at the home while police investigate, Calju said.


Attorney General Mario Gordillo said his office was trying to determine whether the children were stolen or obtained from their mothers under coercion. Most lacked the proper documents to be in the custody of someone other than their parents.


According to its Web site, the Casa Quivira is a private, licensed adoption home that opened in 1996 and offers its services only to people whose household is inspected by "a licensed adoption agency or social worker and (who) meet the immigration requirements of their country."


It said 40 employees work to give the children "loving, private foster care ... as well as excellent daily medical attention."


The State Department said in March it no longer recommends that Americans adopt children from Guatemala, saying women are frequently pressured to sell their babies and adoptive parents are often targeted by extortionists.


Last week, the U.S. Embassy in Guatemala started requiring two DNA tests before granting adopted infants a visa in order to ensure that the women giving the children up for adoption are the birth mothers.


Under Guatemalan law, unregulated notaries act as baby brokers who recruit birth mothers, handle all the paperwork and complete adoptions in less than half the time it can take in other countries. Casa Quivira says on its Web site it can complete adoptions six to eight months after a referral of a child is accepted.


U.S. parents adopted more than 4,000 babies from Guatemala last year, second only to China.
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http://www.casaquivira.com/

This is the adoption home that is charged with it. It breaks my heart for those families and children Im so glad some of them get to go back home to their families.

CRISTINACEC

Thanks for posting this my BIL and his wife adopted a girl from there last year. She supposedly was abandoned by her mother. There was no info on her father. I had done alot of reading about the issues that were going on when they were going on the process. I actually was against them adopting through there cause of the problems. There were some kind of legal issues that went on before they adopted her(they don't talk about it) and it took alot longer then normal to adopt her.
Hubby is going to ask his brother what agencency they went through hopefully not this one.

toomuchcoffeelady

And people question why fertility drugs, IUI, etc, look so attractive.

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Me - 29

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H - 34

1 angel baby
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1 failed adoption
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And people question why I can't just "be happy with your career and be grateful for what you DO have."

PCOS, IR, and Hyperinsulemia, also investigating adrenal, pituitary, and thyroid.

H also has some MF that's having us pursue IUI.

Clomid was a big fat failure. Researching both IUI and adoption from another agency & country.

mommavia

toomuch coffeelady, you have to remember that this is ONE PERSON, not an entire country. Yes, Guatemala adoptions are under scrutiny right now, but there are many ethical agencies and lawyers performing legal adoptions there.

We completely skipped fertility drugs, IUI, etc and went straight to adoption...I didn't want to put myself through all the fertility drugs and hope that could be smashed every month.

Cynthia

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Proud Mom of DS (3 yrs) born in Korea AND
DS2 (17 mo) waiting for us in Korea! (traveling June 10!!)
Thyroid Cancer Survivor since 09 April 2004


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