Adoptions in Jalisco may be placed on hold following the release of a video that appears to show two psychologists trying to convince two girls at a Guadalajara children’s home to be adopted by an Italian rather than a Mexican couple.
The controversy over the video prompted Claudia Corona, the director of the State Family Council (Consejo Estatal de Familia or CEF) – the agency that oversees adoptions in the state – to take a two-month leave of absence from her post while the matter is investigated.
The video was taken in the Pedacito de Cielo home, where the girls have lived for almost five years. It shows the psychologists first offering “anti-lying” candy to the sisters, aged 5 and 7, before getting them to agree to “have new parents” rather than go and live with their baptismal godparents.
At the end of the video the girls are asked if they would mind having Italian parents, to which the elder one states that she wants Mexican parents. One of the psychologists replies, “Perfect, that’s not a problem.” The girls then put their thumb prints on a piece of paper.
The video was released to the media last week at a press conference presided over by Guillermo Ogarrio, the president of College of Family Rights. He said it was “perverse and grotesque” how the rights of the girls were manipulated during the interview.
Also present at the press conference were the girls’ godparents, Carmen and Walter Fedorenko, who in January submitted an application to become the siblings’ legal guardians. The couple had been longtime volunteers at the children’s home, where they became close to the girls.
For reasons that are not clear, the CEF last month prohibited the Fedorenkos – who have three children of their own – of having any contact with the girls.
After reviewing the video, CEF legal spokesperson Ruben Reynoso Flores accepted that the children were up for adoption but stressed that “in no moment were we looking to place them abroad, because we always give preference to Mexican couples.”Reynoso admitted that the two psychologists appeared to be pressuring the children. He has since taken over from Corona as the temporary director of the CEF.
One of the psychologists involved in the video, Berenice Barba, told local Spanish-language daily Milenio this week that she did not manipulate the children, nor was she under instructions from the CEF to pressure them to agree to being adopted by foreigners.
Barba said the interview with the girls was actually a therapy session designed to get them used to the idea of having new parents, including the possibility of foreign ones. She said asking them to put their thumb prints on a blank piece of paper was a ploy to help them realize they had made a big commitment.
Barba has a master’s degree in family therapy from Guadalajara’s UNIVA university and said the techniques that she used were in accordance with standard practices.
Barba said she hasn’t ruled out legal action against her detractors.
The State Attorney General’s Office (PGJEJ) had planned to hear testimony from the two girls on Monday but the session was called off because Ricardo Cervantes, director of the Pedacito de Cielo home, said the children should not be subjected to questioning under the current circumstances.
Some 100 people from local children’s homes and NGOs demonstrated outside the state governor’s mansion Monday, calling for the CEF director to be fired. They also demanded a complete overhaul of the council and the adoption process in the state. Some of the participants wore masks to protect their identities.
However, around 20 staff at the CEF said they would be working “under protest” until Corona was reinstated. The employees called for an audit of all 130 registered children’s homes in Jalisco.
The CEF has been the target of much criticism of late, with the State Human Rights Commission (CNDH) issuing 11 recommendations about its practices in the past five years.
“This manipulation of children is not an isolated case. It happens on a continuous basis,” said Juan Manuel Estrada, a private investigator and director of the Fundacion para Niños Robados y Desaparecidos (Find), who filed many of these complaints with the rights commission, including one last week about the polemic video.
Friction between Estrada and Corona, who became CEF director five years ago, goes back more than a decade. He said 11 years ago Corona was instrumental in getting two girls adopted to a couple in Spain. The girls had to be returned after the process was ruled illegal.
Meanwhile, CEF employees have called for an investigation into Estrada and the FIND organization.