GUATEMALA: Court sentences two women to 21 and 16 years in prison, without parole, for illegal human trafficking and adoption

Record ID: 701762

  • Title: GUATEMALA: Court sentences two women to 21 and 16 years in prison, without parole, for illegal human trafficking and adoption
  • Date: 26th October 2011
  • Summary: GUATEMALA CITY, GUATEMALA (OCTOBER 24, 2011) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR TRIBUNALS TOWER JUDGES WALKING INTO COURT BIOLOGICAL MOTHER OF GIRL WHO WAS ADOPTED IN THE U.S., LOYDA RODRIGUEZ, IN COURT WOMEN INVOLVED IN ADOPTION CASE: ALMA BEATRIZ VALLE AND ENRIQUETA FRANCISCA NORIEGA DURING TRAIL RODRIGUEZ WITH HER ATTORNEYS (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) JUDGE, ANGELICA TELLEZ, SAYING: "
  • Embargoed: 10th November 2011 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Guatemala, Guatemala
  • Country: Guatemala
  • Reuters ID: LVAEAEVJWC1Z7RNKCO0HLF5IP4GJ
  • Story Text: A Guatemalan court sentenced two women accused of trafficking a stolen baby and giving it up for adoption to an American family on Monday (October 24), the latest scandal for the country's corruption-riddled adoption system.
    Alma Beatriz Valle Flores was sentenced to 21 years in prison for human trafficking, criminal association and using false documents which she signed.
    Enriqueta Noriega Cano, the legal representative of an adoption agency called Association Primavera where the girl spent a year before being adopted was sentenced to 16 years in prison.
    "Beatriz Valles Flores de Mejia has been sentenced to 12 years in prison, which is the maximum sentence given for human trafficking, increased because a minor is involved, this sentence escalates to 21 years and four months in prison without parole and Enriqueta Francisca Noriega Cano is sentenced to nine years in prison increased by a third which gives a total of 16 years of prison without parole," said judge, Angelica Tellez.
    Both women were also ordered to pay 100,000 quetzales ($25,600) each to the biological mother, Loyda Rodriguez, for damages.
    The girl Anyeli Liseth Hernandez Rodriguez, now seven, left the country on December 9, 2008. She was born on October 1, 2004.
    The girl disappeared on November 3, 2006 when she was two and a half years-old while she was playing in the patio of her home in Villa Hermosa, San Miguel Petapa, south of Guatemala City.
    Rodriguez welcomed the sentence.
    "God is fair. If they received this sentence that means God heard. God heard the truth and I feel happy because after seeking justice for five years, we have achieved it today," Rodriguez said after the sentencing.
    In July this year, Rodriguez, obtained a Guatemalan court order requesting the girl to be returned but it is unclear whether the order will be enforced. It would be the first for any adoption case in the world if U.S. authorities intervene to return the child to the biological mother.
    The sentencing of the two women will nevertheless help Rodriguez in her case to recover her daughter, her second child.
    According to U.S. media the girl lives with a family in Kansas City and have declined to comment on the case.
    An foundation called "Survivors," who helped Rodriguez begin the legal process against the women, said some of the blame lay with the family which adopted the girl.
    "We insisted, as it has been shown here, that everyone who took part in the adoption process of the minor, knew the minor had been stolen. They knew it was an illegal adoption, however, they continued, so the Monahan family (American family) are also responsible because they also took part in this illegal adoption," said Sobrevivientes foundation director, Norma Cruz.
    Guatemala has the highest per-capita adoption rate in the world, a lucrative business for private lawyers who run the trade and are sometimes accused of forging papers or paying mothers to sell their children.
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