VivirLatino

Let me come clean. I have problems with transnational and transracial adoptions. There, I said it. I think the system is racist on a number of levels. The president of Guatemala has some concerns too, leading him to suspend adoptions starting in the new year.

The country’s president said he is taking the measure — seen by some as extreme in that it ignores the fate of what will quickly be thousands of abandoned children — amid growing concerns about the current system, which opponents say has led to paying mothers for children or coercing them to give up their babies.
An average of 17 children born in Guatemala leave the country for the United States every day with the parents who adopted them. Guatemala has long been considered a place where adoptions are relatively fast and uncomplicated. The Central American country is behind only China in the number of children adopted out to American families every year.
Guatemala has the highest per capita rate of adoption of any country in the world. One of every 100 children born in the country is adopted internationally. American officials say 5,000 adoptions have been approved this year, an all-time high for Guatemalan adoptions to the U.S. American officials also say that last year’s 4,000 adoptions were legal and untainted by any problems.

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