US expands DNA rule to ensure Guatemala adoptions

By Mica Rosenberg

GUATEMALA CITY, Aug 2 (Reuters) - The United States will soon require that the DNA of Guatemalan babies be tested twice before adopted by Americans to avoid child trafficking in a system rife with corruption, the U.S. embassy said on Thursday.

Guatemala has the highest per-capita adoption rate in the world, a lucrative business for private lawyers who run the trade and who are sometimes accused of forging papers or paying mothers to sell their children.

The United States already requires a DNA test to match the birth mother with the child at the beginning of the adoption process, but starting next week will require a second test before the baby leaves the country, often many months later.

"This second DNA test will confirm that the child given the visa is the same child that was originally given up for adoption," the embassy said.

"The embassy is implementing this process in response to the worries about the unregulated adoption system in Guatemala," it said.

All children adopted by Americans from Guatemala must have their cases approved by the embassy before they are granted citizenship.

The embassy in Guatemala City said in a statement the new rules would be implemented on Monday.

Under pressure from Washington, Guatemalan lawmakers ratified the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption earlier this year. This will strengthen adoption rules in the small Central American nation.

The international treaty does not take effect until Jan. 1 and the United Nations has suggested suspending adoptions until then.

Newspaper articles about suspected child traffickers have fueled rumors of baby-snatching. Several communities have attacked suspected culprits, in a few cases beating or burning them alive.

This week, over a dozen Ministry of Education employees were briefly held hostage by angry villagers in a small town after a local radio accused them of planning to steal babies for adoptions.