DNA tests in Guatemala have proven for the first time that a child put up for adoption through the state system was stolen from her mother.
Baby Esther Zulamita, was taken by armed men in 2007 at her family's shoe shop. Her mother, Ana Escobar, has spent the past year searching for the child.
In May, Escobar saw the toddler with an American woman who was adopting the girl.
She pressed authorities to check the DNA samples on file, and they found they were falsified. New tests proved Escobar was the mother.
It has long been suspected that some children were stolen to be put up for adoption in Guatemala. The country is second only to China as the source of babies adopted by US parents and the market is worth tens of millions of dollars a year.
Adoption official Jaime Tecu said: This is the first time that we've been able to show, with irrefutable evidence, that a stolen child was put up for adoption."
PA