• Sec. Clinton headed to Guatemala and G900 update
News broke yesterday that US Secretary of State Clinton is going to be headed to Guatemala next week and will be meeting with Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom again on March 5th. This is obviously a golden opportunity for the current pending adoption problems to be discussed at a very, very high level. We have been in touch with our contacts at the US State Department and they assure us that that Sec. Clinton has received the pertinent information on our cases along with a request to include it in the discussion. They are not able to guarantee that it will be in the discussion, however.
Click here to read the official Department of State announcement.
Other news :
• California Senator Barbara Boxer’s office is collaborating with the Guatemala 900 on a Congressional letter to Guatemala’s First Lady. When this effort comes to fruition, your reps will be able to contribute their signatures. Please make contact with your reps to update them on your situation and give them a heads-up to the potential letter. This will help get their signature on the letter, when the time comes.
• The Guatemala 900 is searching for another Senator to LEAD a concurrent initiative targeting the US Ambassador to Guatemala. Please reach out to your reps to make this request. If you want to discuss how to approach your reps on this one, please contact us.
• UNICEF agreed to moderate a “Guatemalan Summit” of the key players in Guatemala (PGN, CNA, MP, etc.), but only if the US Department of State requested them to. The two met last week - we are awaiting to hear the result of the meeting.
• MEDIA follow up : We are refining our press package for distribution to media outlets who may be interested in reporting on our situation. This is still very much an up-hill battle. If anyone has contact with a major media outlet, we’d love to hear from you. Meanwhile, we’re also investigating options to create our own short documentary to ensure the story is told in the most respectable and accurate manner.
Keep visiting the Guatemala 900 website — there is a lot happening right now!
Thank you for all you continue to do on behalf of the waiting children and families in this situation.
I would be happy to ask Senator Lugar of Indiana to participate in leading an initiative to target communication to the Ambassador of Guatemala. Please contact me via e-mail and let’s discuss how you would recommend approaching that.
Angie
I just visited the US State Dept. website via your link included above and read the posted schedule for Secretary of State Clinton’s visit.
I clicked the contact us link at the bottom of the page which took me to a page where I could select to e-mail a question/comment. I chose that tab and then chose Secretary of State as the subject. I sent a message asking the Secretary of State Clinton include the completion of the pending grandfathered cases on her agenda with President Colom.
I thought I would post this here as a suggestion for how others can take an action, if they would like.
I do believe the more our collective voices are heard, the more likely we are to get results.