Guatemala apologizes to family torn apart by forced adoption

By AFP
Published July 12, 2024



Osmin Tobar hugs his mother Flor Ramirez during a ceremony at which Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo apologized for his forced adoption - Copyright AFP JOHAN ORDONEZ


Guatemala’s president on Friday offered an official apology to one of the many families whose children were taken away and adopted abroad in a multimillion-dollar black market.

Osmin Tobar and his brother J.R. were seven and two years old when they were picked up by officials in a poor district of Guatemala City in 1997, ostensibly for having being abandoned.

Tobar was adopted by a family in the US city of Pittsburgh. His brother suffered a similar fate, although his whereabouts are unknown.

“On behalf of the state… I apologize publicly for the events of which you were victims,” President Bernardo Arevalo said at an event in Guatemala City. The state’s role in the incident “has no justification,” he added.

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