As part of my connection in the global intercountry adoption community, I have contact with biological families who lose their children to intercountry adoption. Most of them are desperate to find a way to learn if their children are alive and safe, many want contact, barely any of them have the power or resources to fight to win back their children. This is especially tragic when they did not willingly give up their children in cases of outright theft, or were coerced, misled, and taken advantage of due to their vulnerable situations.

One father whom I’ve had the pleasure of being connected to for some years is Gustavo Amilcar Toba Fajardo. Gustavo is a Guatemalan father who legally fought for his sons for over 20 years! They were sent to the USA via an intercountry adoption without his consent or knowledge. He contributed to our ICAV Perspective paper (p126) which we presented to The Hague in 2020. Finally, here is his day of truth and recognition! It happened on 12 July with the Guatemalan government publicly acknowledging the wrongs in the illegal adoption of his sons.

I wanted to provide a translation in English of what was shared in this historic moment because this is the first government issued apology to a family for an illegal intercountry adoption despite a history spanning 70 years of these same intercountry adoption practices occurring, with many more victims such as Gustavo’s family, across many more countries other than Guatemala. I hope that as the next 20 years unfolds, we might see this happen more often as families and adoptees empower themselves and find pathways to holding entities accountable for the wrongs done via illegal and illicit intercountry adoptions.

Huge thanks to the following people who provided me with the English translations:
James: Gustavo’s translation
Mark Hagland: President’s translation

Huge thanks to Gustavo for sharing his incredible day with us and giving me permission to provide an English translation! I hope it will inspire adoptees and biological families around the world to never give up in their fight for truth and recognition of the wrongs done in causing so much unnecessary family separation.

Watch the video of the event with speeches (in Spanish):

Gustavo Amilcar Toba Fajardo speech

Timecode in YouTube video 30:33mins to 34:25

Good afternoon Mr President and friends. Excuse me, for me, this is the biggest happiness! I fought for 20 years seeking justice. 

Thank you Mariela for not giving up on this or me and for the opportunity to come to Cassa Alianza. We fought for 20 years and it was not easy during this huge political period of impunity that we found. 

We planted some seeds Mr President. Those seeds are here now, blooming in this moment. We have fought against impunity. You can also fight against this. Even with all the corrupt actors on the stage, even in spite of me publicly denouncing this situation, I received death threats, they tried to kill me, including Licensia who was the leader of the orphanage at the time, accusing me of misinformation and slander. I am simply reclaiming my right as a father because they took that away. Today I am here showing my face and I will always do that for my children. Thanks to my wife who supported me during the time and was a fundamental piece of this entire fight that we have been through. 

Mariela, thank you! It’s an emotional moment for me to be here in front of you all. If it wasn’t for the media, this fight against impunity wouldn’t have been known or possible. Mariela, thank you because you have helped me and others lots. Other adoptees in other countries today are looking for their roots, looking for their paternity. I don’t have a lot of words.

Osmin, thank you for being here. Little Osmin, thank you and I love you guys with all my heart. For me it is a blessing and a source of happiness to have found you. It was like being reborn in that moment. It was 1 October when I found you in the night. From then we started communicating closely until 10 May 2011 when you reappeared. I felt you giving me renewed strength for this fight which is reflected here.

And we are going to keep going Mr President.

When you all go home tonight, hug your children. I didn’t have that opportunity. But now that I have both my kids, I come here telling all adoptees, mission complete! We are here.

Bernardo Arévalo de León’s speech

President of Guatemala

Timecode in YouTube video 1:03:03 hrs to 1:10:47 hrs

The path towards truth begins with the recognition of error. It hurts us Guatemalans as a people that in our history, the unjustified, involuntary, and forced separation of children and teenagers from their families has been approved of and even facilitated by the government. Breaking the cycle of conditions that have made these types of things possible, to free ourselves from this history of ruptures and tragedies, involves day-to-day work that requires us to recognize, repair, and redirect the actions of the institutions to guarantee that these acts will never happen again. But it is also necessary to reconcile ourselves to caring society a future free of violation of human rights. The use of the State to facilitate these acts has no justification or excuse; it is to be condemned in every sense.

This case is specific: the tearing apart of [the family] of Doña Flor, Don Gustavo, and Osmin and his brother, is an example of something that must never be allowed to happen again. Osmin, your bravery and your consistent fight to question the government and the society, have worked to guarantee that the government and society would take action to make sure that what happened to you and your brother should never happen again. Doña Flor, Don Gustavo, your lives have doubtless been impacted by this tragic tearing apart of your family. But today, please accept the embrace of the entire people, who celebrate that you have been reunited. The authorities extend their expression of fraternal and civil solidarity.

This public act of apology is specifically connected to the act that was committed against the family that is here with us today. It is an act of apology specifically directed towards Osmin, Doña Flor, and Don Gustavo. But it will also serve to represent the government’s need to apologize to every single family and every single person who have been failed by the action or inaction of every civil servant. Above all, it represents our commitment to overcome the poor practices, poor policies, impunity, indifference, and negligence that have caused the government and its institutions to not protect families that have experienced ruptures.

Osmin Ricardo Tobar Ramírez, Flor de María Ramírez Escobar, Gustavo Tobar Fajardo, as Constitutional President of the Republic of Guatemala, and in the name of the government I represent, I offer you a public apology for the experience of which you were victims. On previous occasions, this government has handed down sentences involving violations of human rights. These were not cold [unfeeling] acts; this is not a cold act. These acts recognise an obligation to act with legal force. This is a genuine act recognising the gravity and importance of what has happened, and with human warmth and solidarity.

To every one of the civil servants of this government, I assure you that human rights will be the horizon towards which we move forward, to achieve a life of peace and harmony. Human rights are the cement of democratic harmony. Guatemala must move forward, and must overcome this history of family ruptures. Today’s act brings us closer to creating the social cohesion necessary to effect reconciliation and create life in a society in clear respect of the dignity of every single one of its members. Thank you very much.

Resources

Guatemalan government apologises to victims of illegal adoptions

I was deceived, I never returned home: the story of an irregular adoption in 1997 (Spanish but open in Google Chrome for auto translate)

Guatemala apologises to family torn apart by forced adoption

The Lost Children of Guatemala (video documentary covering the 30,000 Guatemalan adoptees sent abroad in child trafficking rings, includes Mariela and Gustavo)

ICAVs Perspective paper: How Authorities could respond to Illicit adoptions (2020, presented to The Hague, in French and English)

Victims of Illegal intercountry adoptions speak out at the UN (2023 presentation in video and our ICAV paper, in English, Spanish and French)