[Mary Mulcahy]

I just read on the Big list that Mr. Bruce Harris was asked to resign from The Covenant and Casa Aliniza for having an inappropriate sexual relationship with a young man from Honduras. For those of you who don't know, Mr. Harris has been a thorn in the side of Guatemalan adoptions and was involved with the Hague problems last year. He has made numerous allegations against Intercountry adoption in Guatemala and even with the safe guards like DNA insist that adoptions are illegal. Makes me sick to think about this man in his position abusing young men. Now, maybe some of the people who believed his BS will understand what kind of man he is and realize the lies he told.
Mary, mom to Daniel and waiting on little Julio

[Shoshana]

mary - did he lose his position for abusing a boy, or for having a sexual relationship with a man? if it's the former, then i'm glad the organization took action.

thanks...

[tonyy]

If you go to Google (or maybe another search engine) and type in Bruce Harris under the the news section, - the information is there....

[cbpwife]

I just saw it on the crawl on Fox News - it quoted the age as 14.

Elizabeth

[Shoshana]

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (Reuters) - International child welfare group Covenant House said on Friday it had fired its Latin America director, Bruce Harris, after he allegedly paid a Honduran youth for sex.

Harris, a British citizen, is well known in Central America for his work protecting street children and has often spoken out against sex tourists who exploit minors in the region.

"Covenant House has dismissed Mr. Harris because he recently paid a 19-year-old Honduran boy for sexual favors in a Tegucigalpa motel," Casa Alianza, the humanitarian charity's Latin America arm, said in a statement.

Harris had admitted "behaving in an incorrect manner" Casa Alianza said, adding that the teenager in question had been lodged by the charity in Honduras in late 2002.

Harris, reported to be in his late forties, was not immediately available for comment.

Casa Alianza, headquartered in Costa Rica, said it would cooperate with an investigation by Honduran prosecutors.

Harris was awarded an Order of the British Empire medal, or OBE, in 2000 for his work with homeless children in Central America.

A recent UK documentary showed Harris' efforts to combat child prostitution in Costa Rica, including working undercover as a customer in a child brothel in order to gather evidence.

[DianaPrince]

I was just about to post the link to that article, Elizabeth!

I know Bruce Harris is a touchy subject as he is incredibly unpopular in the Guatemalan adoption community, but this is of particular interest to me since I spent a year in an Honduran adoption program before switching to Guatemala. Honduras is, for all intents and purposes, closed to U.S. adoption, and the situation for street children there is as dire as anywhere in Central America if not worse. I couldn't care less about Mr. Harris' sexual preference or even his sexual practices (i.e. paying for sex); however, the age of the reported "youth" and the rumor that the person in question may have been a former client (this may not be an appropriate term, but I'm not sure what would be) of Casa Alianza has my stomach feeling pretty icky.

Regardless of how you feel about the influence of Casa Alianza in Guatemalan adoption, they have provided much-needed advocacy for the street children on Honduras, and I am deeply saddened by this whole situation.

Valerie

[cbpwife]

Correction!: when I was watching Fox News later last night the age did not appear on the crawl/trailer. I am fairly sure I saw it listed the first time, but not absolutely. Either I made a mistake or they made a mistake and removed the age from the information (more than likely the former). My apologies for questionable information.

Elizabeth

[csw]

Hi
All I have to say is "Oh my Gosh!

[ljohnson55]

I have to say I'm sickened by Mr. Harris' behavior. Regardless of the age of the "youth" in question, to pay for sex is to promote the very behavior that Casa Alianza purports to despise.

Power certainly corrupts, and I'm glad to see that CA took appropriate action in terminating Mr. Harris.

L

[Pamsko]

It's so sad that he was seduced by the very things he set out to help get rid of!

I'm glad he's been removed from the position he held.

[KevinK]

While I'm glad to be seeing him go, I feel horribly because it seems like there is no one pure in this world. I personally hate the hypocracy as much as anything. And of course I feel for this poor kid (yes, I'll use the term kid because I remember myself at 19). This was not BH going out and hiring a prostitute. This was a child who had lived in one of CA's homes. So I refuse to believe that BH was not misusing his position and trust in this thing. They say BH paid him. My guess is that he was "helping" this kid out and got sexual favors in return. And admittedly I fear how many more cases will come forward. It's hard to believe this was an isolated incident. The amazing thing is that he set an e-mail to the CA list annoucing his resignation for family reasons just a couple days ago. And in it, he even went so far as to say that he hopes no one will be upset at him for deciding to return to his family. How could he send that knowing this was coming.

But I agree that Casa Alianza and Covenant House have helped many children and have fought hard to end various types of exploitation. Adoption is a tough issue with many grey areas and he was an ideologue against anything that could be contrued as commercial. He lied and spread false propganda, but I always felt he thought he was ultimately doing the right thing.

Very sad...

Kevin

[Shoshana]

it was an abuse of power. If this 19-yr-old was a former client, then it is --unethical-- behavior to have sex with the client. It doesn't matter that he is past the age of consent - it doesn't matter that he is no longer a client. In the human services field, once a client, always a client - and that means-- no sex. It doesn't matter if it's an attorney-client relationship, or teacher-student, or clergy-congregant, or psychologist-client. Some people might argue that Harris wasn't personally in charge of the home and while that might make the act less despicable, he was still THE person in charge.

I never did believe in the 'purity' of Harris' motives. His speech always seemed filled with too much rhetoric and his agenda always seemed to contain an discomforting emotional spin.

[Mimi Morris]

I am so disgusted. This man has done everything in his power to discredit the Guatemalan adoption process and yet he is a hypocrite and a predator. Shame on him. It is bad enough that the indigent in these Central American countries are being exploited by pimps and drug dealers, but to have a known "crusader" for the poor take advantage of a teenage boy. I am appalled. You know what really makes me upset is that there will be no justice. There is no justice for poor Central Americans... Sigh.....