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I’m constantly searching for more information on the registration process for in-process adoptions. This is what I have found to date.
The lawyer handling your adoption must complete the paperwork (a copy of which you can see here) and then submit it to the new Central Authority. In addition to details about the adoption case, these forms require the finger and footprints of the child to be adopted. Apparently a lot of the information on these forms relates to the Power of Attorney (POA) document. Perhaps this is an indication that the POA will be the requirement to be grandfathered in under the old system. Unfortunately, there has yet to be an announcement regarding this issue.
Once the completed form is submitted (with the finger and footprints) it is stamped. After eight (business) days, the lawyer can return to the Central Authority to receive a certificate of registration. Your agency should inform you when your file has been registered with the Central Authority.
Meanwhile the new president, Alvaro Colom, who announced in his inaugural speech that: “Today is the beginning of privileges for the poor, for those without opportunity. We intend to overcome intolerance, inequality, discrimination and lack of solidarity,” is facing the tough reality of inheriting unforeseen debt from the previous administration. He recently announced that that the debt of the Ministry of Communication was over 2 billion Quetzales ($265 million US dollars) and not $40 million US dollars as told to him previously. This is apparently going to seriously affect his proposed budget plans.
And just a reminder that it is still not safe to speak your mind in Guatemala, Hugo Arce, an outspoken Guatemalan journalist, was found dead in a hotel room in Guatemalan City, shot in the chest. His irreverent columns have inflamed many public figures, including Alvaro Colom’s wife, Sandra who was planning on filing defamation charges against him.
Back in 1991, Arce was arrested and charged with drug possession after he criticized then president Jorge Serrano Elias and the national army for human rights violations. After seventeen days in prison where he claimed he suffered from beatings, interrogation and given little food and water, he was released and the charges dropped by a judge.
