Army abducted Guatemalan children adopted in 1980s

GUATEMALA CITY – Hundreds of Guatemalan children adopted in the early 1980s were stolen from their parents by the army during the country’s civil war, a national commission announced yesterday.

“We have registered 1,084 cases of children disappeared in Guatemala — and between 1979-1984, 500 of these were adopted,” commission coordinator Axel Mejia told Reuters. He said most of the children were abducted by the army during attacks on Mayan Indian villages as part of a crackdown on communities suspected of sympathizing with leftist guerrillas.”They took 48 people by helicopter, including my son.We never saw them again,” said Carmen Sanchez, 43, a Mayan Indian whose 2-year-old child was abducted when the army raided the village of Rio Negro in 1982.Sanchez said she did not know if her son had been adopted.Just months before, both Sanchez’s parents and her sisters were among 177 massacred by army-led paramilitaries.The National Abducted Child Search Commission, set up to reunite abducted children with their parents, has made contact with a number of families, including one in Tennessee and one in France, who unwittingly adopted stolen children.”Their first reaction is disbelief and they demand DNA tests,” Mejia said.Adding that in many cases the adopted children do not want to meet their biological parents.Mejia said the Guatemalan army took the children to orphanages and church organizations claiming they were war orphans.Parents of the abducted children now want the government to force the army and adoption agencies that operated in the 1980s to open their records to the commission.”I believe up to 60 per cent of the children who disappeared went to adoptions, but we need to see the records,” said Mejia.Human rights groups calculate 45,000 people, including 5,000 children, were forcibly abducted or “disappeared,” during Guatemala’s 36-year civil war that ended in 1996.Guatemala has the world’s highest per capita overseas adoption rate and refuses to reform its adoption laws, which have been criticized by the United Nations.In Argentina, former junta leaders Jorge Videla and Emilio Massera have been indicted for the illegal adoption of babies born to mothers killed or “disappeared” during the country’s 1976-83 military rule.- Nampa-ReutersHe said most of the children were abducted by the army during attacks on Mayan Indian villages as part of a crackdown on communities suspected of sympathizing with leftist guerrillas.”They took 48 people by helicopter, including my son.We never saw them again,” said Carmen Sanchez, 43, a Mayan Indian whose 2-year-old child was abducted when the army raided the village of Rio Negro in 1982.Sanchez said she did not know if her son had been adopted.Just months before, both Sanchez’s parents and her sisters were among 177 massacred by army-led paramilitaries.The National Abducted Child Search Commission, set up to reunite abducted children with their parents, has made contact with a number of families, including one in Tennessee and one in France, who unwittingly adopted stolen children.”Their first reaction is disbelief and they demand DNA tests,” Mejia said.Adding that in many cases the adopted children do not want to meet their biological parents.Mejia said the Guatemalan army took the children to orphanages and church organizations claiming they were war orphans.Parents of the abducted children now want the government to force the army and adoption agencies that operated in the 1980s to open their records to the commission.”I believe up to 60 per cent of the children who disappeared went to adoptions, but we need to see the records,” said Mejia.Human rights groups calculate 45,000 people, including 5,000 children, were forcibly abducted or “disappeared,” during Guatemala’s 36-year civil war that ended in 1996.Guatemala has the world’s highest per capita overseas adoption rate and refuses to reform its adoption laws, which have been criticized by the United Nations.In Argentina, former junta leaders Jorge Videla and Emilio Massera have been indicted for the illegal adoption of babies born to mothers killed or “disappeared” during the country’s 1976-83 military rule.- Nampa-Reuters