COURT LINKS ALMA BEATRIZ VALLE FLORES DE MEJÍA TO PROCEEDINGS
Lawyer accused of human trafficking and criminal association.

Guatemala, November 26, 2012. Today, the Eighth Court of the First Criminal Instance ordered that lawyer Alma Beatriz Valle Flores de Mejía be linked to proceedings and remanded in custody. Valle Flores de Mejía is accused of forming part of a criminal structure that conducted illegal adoptions—in this instance that of the girl Daffne Nayeli Camey Pérez, who was identified under the false name of Yajaira Noemi Muyus.

Based on the accusation and evidence offered by the Public Prosecutor's Office (MP), the judge ruled there to be sufficient grounds on which to link Valle Flores de Mejía to proceedings, because through her notarial work for the Asociación Primavera she made the illegal adoption of Daffne Nayeli Camey Pérez appear to be legal.

In the same case, Susana María de la Asunción Luarca Saracho (Asociación Primavera), Juan Carlos Pinillos García (lawyer) and César Augusto Galicia Prera (lawyer at Attorney General of the Nation's Office) were also linked to proceedings.

In this case, CICIG acts as a complementary prosecutor and supports the MP in its investigations.

Background
Gloida Eunice Pérez filed a complaint before the Public Prosecutor's Office (MP) whereby she declared that following a number of threats she handed over her children—Daffne Nayeli Camey Pérez and Eduardo José Camey Pérez—to the accused on September 10, 2006. The accused took advantage of the victim's vulnerability, which stemmed from the precarious situation in which she lived, to put her children up for adoption.

Lawyer Pinillos García, in league with other individuals, handed over the girl to Susana Luarca Saracho (linked to proceedings for criminal association and human trafficking), who filed a protection case file and a statement of adoptability before Judge Peralta Castañeda. The events took place between September 2006 and March 2008.

The minor's adoption was to be conducted against the will of her mother, and false documentation would allow an American family to adopt despite the DNA test establishing that the girl was not the child of the mother who handed her over for adoption.

Through the Asociación Primavera, Susana Luarca Saracho, with the support of Alma Beatriz Valle Flores de Mejía, initiated a voluntary adoption process to facilitate the illegal hand-over of the child. The accused failed to fulfill their objective: the mother filed various complaints and the authorities were able to locate the child, who currently resides with her biological mother.