{"page":"\u003clink rel=\"stylesheet\" href=\"https://lessonplanet.com/assets/packs/css/resources-572d6a42.css\" /\u003e\n\u003clink rel=\"stylesheet\" href=\"https://lessonplanet.com/assets/packs/css/lp_boclips_stylesheets-f4d0de30.css\" media=\"all\" /\u003e\n\u003cdiv data-title='DNA test proves baby put up for US adoption was stolen at gunpoint' data-url='/boclips/videos/5c54bb12d8eafeecae1224da' data-video-url='/boclips/videos/5c54bb12d8eafeecae1224da' id='bo_player_modal'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='boclips-resource-page modal-dialog panel-container'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='react-notifications-root'\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-header'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-type'\u003e\n\u003ci aria-hidden='true' class='fai fa-regular fa-circle-play'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\nVideo\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003ch1 class='rp-title' id='video-title'\u003e\nDNA test proves baby put up for US adoption was stolen at gunpoint\n\u003c/h1\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-actions'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='mr-1'\u003e\n\u003ca class=\"btn btn-success\" data-posthog-event=\"Signup: LP Signup Activity\" data-posthog-location=\"body_link_boclips\" data-remote=\"true\" href=\"/subscription/new\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003eGet Free Access\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"\"\u003e for 10 Days\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e!\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-body'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-info'\u003e\n\u003cdiv aria-label='Hide resource details' class='rp-hide-info' role='button' tabindex='0'\u003e\u0026times;\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003ci aria-label='Expand resource details' class='rp-expand-info fai fa-solid fa-up-right-and-down-left-from-center' role='button' tabindex='0'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\n\u003ci aria-label='Compress resource details' class='rp-compress-info fai fa-solid fa-down-left-and-up-right-to-center' role='button' tabindex='0'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-rating'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='resource-pool'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='pool-label'\u003ePublisher:\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003cspan class='pool-name'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='text'\u003e\u003ca data-publisher-id=\"30356011\" href=\"/search?publisher_ids%5B%5D=30356011\"\u003eCurated Video\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-description'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='short-description'\u003e1. Zoom into Ana Escobar talking2. Medium of Escobar lifting her daughter Esther Sulamita3. Various close ups of girl4. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Ana Escobar, mother:\"When I didn't have her I experienced the anguish of looking for her. Now...\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003cspan class='full-description hide'\u003e1. Zoom into Ana Escobar talking\u003cbr/\u003e2. Medium of Escobar lifting her daughter Esther Sulamita\u003cbr/\u003e3. Various close ups of girl\u003cbr/\u003e4. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Ana Escobar, mother:\u003cbr/\u003e\"When I didn't have her I experienced the anguish of looking for her. Now that I have her, being a mother is very hard, because she has come back very aggressive, so it has been very hard for me.\"\u003cbr/\u003e5. Various of Escobar and her daughter playing in the park\u003cbr/\u003e6. Escobar and her daughter eating ice cream\u003cbr/\u003e7. Escobar walking\u003cbr/\u003e8. Wide of media conference given by the Survivors Foundation\u003cbr/\u003e9. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Norma Cruz, Founder and Director of Survivors Foundation\u003cbr/\u003e\"We were able to demonstrate that the DNA tests had been manipulated, the tests are not reliable, therefore this strengthens the cases of Jeidy and Scarlet (other mothers whose children were stolen) to have DNA tests done in the United States so that those adoption processes can be stopped.\"\u003cbr/\u003e10. Close Escobar's daughter Esther Sulamita\u003cbr/\u003eFILE: Guatemala City - 2007\u003cbr/\u003e11. Casa Cuna Quivira de Antigua, Guatemala\u003cbr/\u003e12. Various shots of children inside Casa Cuna\u003cbr/\u003eAna Escobar spent 14 months looking for the newborn daughter that had been stolen from her at gunpoint from the Guatemala City store where she worked.\u003cbr/\u003eOne day she saw daughter being held in the arms of another woman, a foster mother who was helping an American couple adopt her.\u003cbr/\u003eDNA tests eventually proved what Escobar already knew: the girl was her daughter, taken in March 2007, when she was just six months old.\u003cbr/\u003eEsther Sulamita is the first Guatemalan kidnap victim to have been reunited with her mother using DNA test results that would normally be used to guarantee the legitimacy of each adoption.\u003cbr/\u003eThe attorney general's office said officials suspect more cases will be found because the lawyers in Esther's case have vouched for documents in dozens of other pending adoptions, as well as many more involving children now growing up as Americans.\u003cbr/\u003eAuthorities issued arrest warrants for a doctor, two lawyers and two others in Esther's case. \u003cbr/\u003eA Guatemalan NGO, the Survivors Foundation, is helping two mothers whose children were stolen to get DNA tests in hopes these would lead them to their babies and any adoption process that is in place could be stopped.\u003cbr/\u003eThere have been long-held suspicions that at least some of the nearly five-thousand Guatemalan babies adopted by US couples each year were stolen and sold to baby brokers who worked with doctors and lawyers to create false identities for the children.\u003cbr/\u003eGuatemalan adoption officials say there is no evidence that the couple from Indiana who were trying to adopt Esther knew she was stolen. \u003cbr/\u003eAuthorities have said adoptive US families, many of whom spend 30,000 US dollars or more for what they were told are legitimately surrendered babies, are also victims of the corrupt system.\u003cbr/\u003eAt least two other stolen children have been found in nurseries that handled international adoptions, one with a fake identity, although neither had officially been put up for adoption yet, according to the Guatamalan National Adoption Council review.\u003cbr/\u003eEscobar's nightmare began on the morning on 26 March 2007 in the shoe store she runs, when a gunman and three others arrived and locked her in a storage room.\u003cbr/\u003eWhen she finally got out, the baby and a few pairs of shoes were missing.\u003cbr/\u003eShe didn't know why her baby was stolen, and began searching hospitals, orphanages, police stations, looking for her daughter. \u003cbr/\u003eWhen the baby's father did little to help, she accused him of being involved somehow. Prosecutors investigated, but found no evidence.\u003cbr/\u003eThe couple eventually separated and closed the shoe shop.\u003cbr/\u003eEscobar moved in with her mother, and lost touch with Esther's father. \u003cbr/\u003eShe no longer thinks he was involved, and says her accusations were fuelled by anger.\u003cbr/\u003eWith few answers and only her mother's support, she pushed on.\u003cbr/\u003eAs Guatemala's reform efforts gained momentum in August with a high-profile police raid of the Casa Quivira adoption agency, Escobar demanded to see the babies, armed with a tattered picture of her daughter.\u003cbr/\u003eShe found nothing, but as the fraud scandal grew, she became more active, haunting agencies and government offices.\u003cbr/\u003eGuatemalan lawmakers imposed a tough new adoption process this year, but agreed under US pressure to investigate the cases initiated under the old, corrupt system.\u003cbr/\u003eThen with many signs of fraud presenting themselves, the Adoptions Council decided to freeze these adoptions and take another close look at each case.\u003cbr/\u003eEscobar sat in the council's lobby, studying the babies as they were brought in. On the second day, she saw Esther in the arms of a foster mother.\u003cbr/\u003eAt that time, Esther was officially Susy Amarilis Fernandez Molina.\u003cbr/\u003eHer case file showed no evidence of fraud, and she was only weeks away from being handed over to the Indiana couple.\u003cbr/\u003eAfter the girl's DNA matched Escobar, arrest warrants were issued against five Guatemalans: the woman listed as the birth mother; foster mother Juana Elizabeth Perez Estrada; Dr. Feliciano Hernandez Citan; the lawyer brokering the adoption, Jorge Mario Sum Santiago; and the lawyer representing the US couple, Otto Rene Galvez Abril.\u003cbr/\u003eFour immediately disappeared. The doctor was arrested and then released on 400 US dollars bail after telling a judge he did not know the alleged mother and some time ago had lost the rubber stamp used to forge his approval of birth documents. \u003cbr/\u003eReached by the AP by phone, Sum Santiago said from hiding that he had no reason to suspect the case was fraudulent and plans to sue the woman who posed as the birth mother.\u003cbr/\u003eHe also said he has about 10 other pending adoption cases and has worked on dozens of them over the years.\u003cbr/\u003eKnowing she finally had her daughter back was the happiest moment of Escobar's life, but there are cruel reminders of everything she lost. \u003cbr/\u003eShe still has almost no information about what happened to her child for more than a year.\u003cbr/\u003eEsther has no memory of her mother. She is withdrawn, aggressive and often refuses to eat.\u003cbr/\u003eShe suspects Esther may have been abused, and investigators are looking for any evidence of that.\u003cbr/\u003eEsther does have moments, though, when events of the past year melt away. At a park, the toddler chased a cousin around a basketball court and squealed with delight. \u003cbr/\u003eAll the while, Escobar kept a close watch.\u003cbr/\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='action-container flex justify-between'\u003e\n\u003cbutton aria-expanded='false' aria-label='Read more description' class='rp-full-description' type='button'\u003e\n\u003ci class='fai fa-solid fa-align-left'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\n\u003cspan id='read_more'\u003eRead More\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/button\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-report'\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv aria-labelledby='resource-details-heading' class='rp-info-section'\u003e\n\u003ch2 class='title' id='resource-details-heading'\u003eResource Details\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-resource-details clearfix'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='detail'\u003e\n\u003cdl\u003e\n\u003cdt\u003eCurator Rating\u003c/dt\u003e\n\u003cdd\u003e\u003cspan class=\"star-rating\" aria-label=\"3.5 out of 5 stars\" 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