Photo: Oscar Berger and friend (Google Images)

I can’t reveal my sources, but today I heard that the president of Guatemala, Oscar Berger, has finally agreed to support an amendment to the recently approved adoption law allowing in process adoptions to continue under the current laws. If this is indeed fact and not fiction, hurrah and it is about time! As I’ve mentioned in several previous blogs, this amendment should be voted on after the November elections. Let me insert a caveat: governments are predictably unpredictable and it could be later or perhaps even earlier, but that is highly unlikely.

I’m going to presume that Oscar’s change of mind is a result of political pressure from the US and his good friend George Bush. Sometimes (and only sometimes) a little interference from the US is a good thing. We have heard so much anti-adoption rhetoric from this president and his wife Wendy. It was his most recent announcement that was the catalyst of the huge organized protest against changes in the Guatemalan adoption process. He said that he would freeze adoptions to the United States on Jan. 1, even those that were started months earlier and are considered in the "pipeline.”

And why are Mr. Berger and his wife so anti-adoption? Is it their desire to preserve family unity or care for the abandoned and homeless children themselves? His record as president certainly doesn’t indicate that. No social welfare infrastructure was established to help feed, educate or provide medical services for the poor of Guatemala. The poor just got poorer during his regime, and there is no light at the end of the tunnel.

I’m wondering if the Bergers want to stop adoption because they are just terribly embarrassed and perhaps ashamed that so many children in their country can only have a life without chronic malnutrition, illiteracy and sickness if they are adopted. To date, adoption has been the only solution for many children whose parents could not care for them aside from orphanages. Domestic adoption is very rare.

Unfortunately Wendy Berger has done perhaps more harm than her husband in the adoption arena. Here is just one example of the many harmful bills she tried to help pass in congress: negative impact she has had:

“February 2007: Information is reaching U.S. officials that Wendy Berger, the wife of Guatemalan President Oscar Berger, and Vice-President Eduardo Stein will introduce a Guatemalan adoption Code of Good Practices on Friday, February 16, 2007. While it is unclear what the legal effect of such an introduction would be, this Code, which is apparently approved by UNICEF, could hinder if not halt Intercountry Adoption from Guatemala.”

And here’s something else that sounds like a rumor, but according to Susana Luarca of the ADA, is a proven fact. As wife of the president, Wendy Berger is a key player in the Office of Social Work of the Wife of the President, also known as SOSEP. During her husband’s term, this agency did not use any of its apparently abundant resources to improve the lives of children in orphanages or care for any of the abandoned children in Guatemala. As a matter of fact, at one time an orphanage was “given” to her by Buckner International Resources and UNICEF. Eventually it had to be closed down due to deteriorating conditions and the poor health of the fifty children who had been residents there.

Mrs. Berger does try hard to impress visiting dignitaries to her country by taking them to the best privately run orphanages.

When the Bergers retire from office in January 2008, they will leave behind a legacy of social apathy. They will also have secured a notorious spot in the adoption history of Guatemala because instead of implementing changes built on a system that had many outstanding features, such as foster parents, they will completely wipe it out only to replace it with a
dysfunctional substitute.

Read the following article to review the effect of Berger's presidency on Guatemala:

The Limits on Pro-Poor Agricultural Trade in Guatemala:Land, Labour and Political Power-
Krznaric, Roman. 2005.

Photo credit: Google Images