SUPREME COURT OF JUSTICE LIFTS IMMUNITY OF JUVENILE COURT JUDGE

Guatemala, 8 May 2014. The Supreme Court of Justice (SCJ) ruled to lift the immunity of Judge Mario Fernando Peralta Castañeda, formerly the judge of the Court of Children and Adolescents and Adolescents in Conflict with Criminal Law (Escuintla Department), because of irregularities in adoption procedures he oversaw.

The application to lift immunity, filed by the Public Prosecutor's Office (MP) and the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), was ruled on by the CSJ on 19 March 2014. With this latest ruling, the judge has had his immunity lifted on four occasions.

The complaint stated that Judge Peralta would use "child laundering" to prevent the minors from being located and claimed by their biological parents, disguising the illegalities of the procedure in order to ensure the impunity of actions taken by network members. These actions were largely fuelled by economic interests.

To complete the illegal adoption procedure documents were forged and the child's identity was hidden in order to give the impression that his or her rights had been violated. Subsequently, a custody case would be brought, pursuant to the Comprehensive Protection of Children and Adolescents Act, without fulfilling all the legal requirements.

Through these means, Judge Peralta was able to declare the abandonment of the minors—the final requirement to begin an adoption procedure—and create a sense of legitimacy for the actions of other stakeholders (including the Asociación Primavera) in the illegal procedure.

To do so, the Asociación Primavera would reach a prior agreement with Judge Peralta, he would declare the abandonment of the minors and make the actions seem legal. In reality, the procedures were plagued by substantive shortcomings such as DNA evidence that the women claiming to be biological mothers were not actually the mother of the child.

The lifting of immunity hearing was heard by the President of the Third Chamber of the Court of Criminal Appeals, Narcotics and Crimes against the Environment, Carlos Ramiro Contreras Valenzuela, who ruled that the facts reported by the MP and CICIG were sufficient grounds on which to lift immunity and investigate Judge Peralta.