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 Americas & Beyond | May 2008 
Man Denies Buying Babies in Mexico to Sell in US
 Associated Press
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 |  | These women were irresponsible. What are their options? Abortion? I did what I could to give their children a better life.
- Amado Torres Vega |  | | | |
McAllen, Texas - A Texas man being held in Mexico on child trafficking charges said allegations that he bought babies from poor Mexican women and sold them to adoptive U.S. couples are false.
"A child is not an object — not a car," Amado Torres Vega, 64, of Harlingen, told The Monitor newspaper during an interview Thursday at the Reynosa, Mexico, Police Department. "We're dealing with lives and feelings. We're dealing with a child's future."
Torres and his 25-year-old girlfriend, Maria Isabel Hernandez, are suspected of buying more than a dozen children ages 2 or younger, Mexican officials said. If convicted, each could face up to 12 years in prison.
Investigators say the child trafficking ring was revealed when a woman came to a police station in Reynosa on Monday to report her granddaughter missing, spotted Torres there and claimed he had the baby.
Police later arrested Torres and Hernandez after finding them with the baby at a house in nearby Rio Bravo.
A criminal complaint filed against Torres contains statements from nine mothers who allegedly accepted money from him, the newspaper reported.
Tamaulipas state police investigator Raul Gamez said Torres helped smuggle pregnant women into the United States so their babies would be U.S. citizens, making them more easily adoptable here.
A 39-year-old mother from Rio Bravo told authorities she sold three children to Torres to pay for medical care for a 9-year-old daughter suffering from bone marrow cancer.
Torres told the newspaper his efforts to help the women were legitimate.
He said he worked for years with a Harlingen attorney and a San Antonio-based adoption agency to set up legally sanctioned adoptions. Any money that may have changed hands came from adoptive parents looking to ensure prenatal care for the child, he said.
"If you shake me twice, you'll find that no money comes out," Torres said. "I wasn't making a dime off of this."
Employees of the San Antonio agency said they never heard of Torres. He said he stood by his work.
"These women were irresponsible," he said. "What are their options? Abortion? I did what I could to give their children a better life." |
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