Bogota psychologist Elsy Marina de Guadalupe Perez sentenced in baby-selling scam

March 18, 2011

A doctor and a psychologist were sentenced to nine years and six months in prison for selling babies in Bogota, Colombia, newspaper El Tiempo reported Friday.

Doctor Erber Jose Ochoa and psychologist Elsy Marina de Guadalupe Perez accepted the charges of trafficking and conspiracy in a plea bargain with the prosecution. In addition to almost a decade of jail time they will pay a fine of 533 times the monthly minimum wage.

Adenis Delgado Aguirre, who was also involved in the criminal scheme, was sentenced to seven years and five months in prison and will pay 433 times the monthly minimum wage.

The three worked at a Bogota health clinic called Ecomarly which apparently urged women to keep their babies instead of aborting them in order to sell the infants on. Investigations also concluded that they had told women that their babies had died in childbirth and then trafficked the newborns.

The trio, who were arrested eight months ago, were implicated in recordings of their conversations in which they offered babies for sale. 

Source: Hannah Aronowitz, "Doctors convicted of Bogota baby trafficking," Columbia Reports, March 4, 2011.