From the Associated Press on October 25, 2011, Guatemala Court Sentences 2 in Adoption Case, an update on the contested adoption of Anyeli Liseth Hernandez Rodriguez:
A Guatemalan court sentenced two women to 16 and 21 years in prison on Monday for trafficking a stolen baby who was given for adoption to a U.S. family.
Special prosecutor Lorena Maldonado said the sentences handed down to a lawyer and the legal representative of an adoption agency will reinforce the birth mother’s bid to get her daughter returned from the United States.
“Even though the criminal proceedings are separate from the adoption process, these sentences help, and confirm the argument of the mother, Loyda Rodriguez, that this girl is her daughter and was stolen from in front of her house, and that there is a criminal structure in Guatemala that steals children,” said Maldonado.
Guatemalan authorities have asked that Anyeli, now named Karen Abigail, be removed from her adoptive family in Missouri and returned to Guatemala. Such an occurrence would be a first in any international adoption case. Adoptions from Guatemala to the United States closed in December 2007, with some 300+ cases still pending. Read the article here.
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