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Ciudad Juarez News

A recently-born baby boy was hospitalized in Ciudad Juarez this past week after being rescued from a movie theater trash can. Susana Sandoval, the spokeswoman for the city’s DIF family shelter, said the baby was being checked for infections from possible contact with bacteria. The discovery of the baby in a bathroom garbage receptacle at the Misiones Cinepolis theater was but the latest case of abandoned children in Ciudad Juarez. The DIF, which houses abandoned minors, has registered 51 cases of abandoned children in Ciudad Juarez from January to October 13 of this year.

Sandoval said various reasons explain infant and child abandonment, with the bulk of cases seen by her agency connected to drug abuse. "Many children who come are sent by the hospitals," Sandoval said. "The majority are minors that are born with withdrawal symptoms, children of women drug addicts who give birth, leave the hospital and leave the babies behind.” Other factors connected to infant and child abandonment include economic hardship, sexual and emotional abuse and repatriation from the United States. According to Sandoval, minors are sometimes abandoned by human traffickers, or "coyotes," who are paid to supposedly deliver the children to the United States.

Mexican law permits adoption of abandoned minors after a month passes without a child being claimed by biological relatives. With regard to the Misiones Cinepolis baby, Sandoval said 10 couples contacted the DIF with offers to adopt the newborn but the child welfare institution first must wait to see if the mother or other relative shows up to reclaim the child.

"Abandoning him is a negative for (the mother), but it has to be determined what caused her to do it," Sandoval said.

Sources: Norte, October 20, 2005. Articles by Sonia Aguilar.

Frontera NorteSur (FNS): on-line, U.S.-Mexico border news
Center for Latin American and Border Studies
New Mexico State University
Las Cruces, New Mexico

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