25,000 Chilean children abducted and forcibly adopted

After several decades of dictatorship, some Chilean families will finally be able to rebuild themselves with their children, torn off and adopted without their authorizations.

Almost 25,000 children were separated from their biological parents in Chile during the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship, mainly between 1973 and 1990. These disappearances led to forced adoptions with the complicity of public administrations.

It was in 2014 that local and international media highlighted these cases of "irregular adoptions". It was a baby trafficking network that affected women from modest or poor social backgrounds, identified upstream by social workers. When they were born, these children were stolen and then adopted by wealthy parents from the United States or Europe. In total, 18 countries are concerned with the complicity of social workers, doctors, judges and priests.

These revelations prompted adopted children and birth parents to question their history. Today, thanks to the possibility of DNA testing, many families have been reunited.

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"The hospital made mothers believe that the baby was stillborn"

To remove children from their mothers, some hospitals went so far as to pretend that the newborn was dead. "The hospital made the mothers believe that the baby was stillborn. They did not show them the body, nor issue them with a certificate attesting to the birth of the baby.", underlines Marisol Rodriguez, founder of the association Enfants et Mères du Silence pour Europe 1. "Some were told that their child had health problems, that in Chile he could not survive and that their only option was adoption."

A scheme that brought in a lot of money since a child cost 30 million pesos, or about 34,000 euros. "Those responsible for these thefts said it was to help the children have a better life, so that they could study. But their main motivation was money," accuses Marisol Rodriguez to Europe 1. A dictatorship which aimed to eradicate poverty. "I want justice to be done for all mothers whose children have been stolen, because no one listened to us, we were never taken seriously", says Sonia Molina, a Chilean mother whose daughter was adopted without her consent.

"The only thing I want now is to hug my daughter"

Since these facts were exposed in 2014, the case has been brought to justice by Chilean NGOs. Some families were able to find each other thanks to DNA tests. This is the case with Sonia who was able to find her daughter, Ema, in 2019. The latter, now 49, lives in Sweden and she also had a DNA test on her side. "I'm happy, even though she's far from me. At least I know she's there. The only thing I want now is to hug my daughter.", confides Sonia.

The Chilean Congress set up an extraordinary commission in November 2018, which recommended opening a DNA bank so that DNA fingerprints are accessible to all. A measure that is currently on hold because of the coronavirus pandemic.