Children have become a booming business in Guatemala
Children have become a booming business in Guatemala. They are given up for adoption, sold abroad, forced to engage in prostitution, mistreated or killed.
Trafficking in children has in recent years reached a worrying dimension across the region, from Mexico to Panama, but particularly in Guatemala.
In the first six months of 2007, 216 babies and young children were stolen from their families in Guatemala, according to an investigation by Casa Alianza. Barely a day goes by without at least one child being reported missing.
Newspapers regularly print appeals from the Guatemalan attorney general's office with photos of babies, whose parents are asked to reconsider their actions. If no parents exert a claim, the child is given up for adoption.
"This is a terrible thing, because Guatemala lacks appropriate legislation," said Claudia Rivera, director of Casa Alianza Guatemala.
Casa Alianza's building in Guatemala City currently houses 75 boys, 50 girls and 15 mothers with babies.
Rivera recalled the most recent case of kidnapping. In broad daylight, 9-month-old Honey Briseida was stolen from her pram opposite Cementos Progreso stadium in Guatemala City. The child has not been seen again.
Some 98 percent of Guatemalan adoptions see children granted to parents in the US.
"Money has turned an actually noble issue into a business in which children become merchandise," said Dionisio. "Children are supplied to order."
Even more horrifying, adoption is not the only motive behind child trafficking.
This year's killing of 9-year-old Alba Mishel Espana Dias has attracted particular attention. One day in June, the girl left home for a bookstore but never arrived. Her body was found the next day, missing several organs.
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