A Chilean Mother Reunites in Santiago on November 11 With Two Children Stolen From Her: Nearly 40 Years Later, Her Sons Travel From Maryland, and Judicial Reports Estimate About 20,000 Forced Adoptions Under the Dictatorship
SANTIAGO, Chile — Nearly 40 years after three of her children were forcibly taken from her in Chile, Teresita Padilla embraced two of them again on Wednesday, November 11, back in the country where they were born, Reuters reported. The reunion was the latest victory for activists who use DNA testing and meticulous document-hunting to uncover thousands of child thefts and irregular adoptions during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.
Padilla's sons Tim Rolnick, 41, and Travis Murdoch, 37, travelled from Maryland in the United States to Chile for the reunion. God gave me back my children, whom I thought I had lost forever, Padilla said moments after meeting them, the Associated Press reported. The brothers, along with Travis's twin, were taken from their biological mother while she was still in the hospital.
Authorities estimate as many as 20,000 children were forcibly taken from their parents during the 17 years of Pinochet's military regime, which argued forced international adoptions would reduce child poverty, according to Chilean judicial reports obtained by the Associated Press. During the dictatorship, at least 3,095 people were killed or forcibly disappeared, according to government figures, and tens of thousands more were tortured or jailed for political reasons. Both of Padilla's children grew up in the United States.
Genealogical research and DNA testing made the reunion possible with the help of Santiago-based organization Nos Buscamos, part of a broader effort by activists and relatives to reconnect families separated by Chile's adoption scandal, one of many human rights abuses during Pinochet's dictatorship from 1973 to 1990. Nos Buscamos estimates that more than 50,000 Chilean families have been affected, the Associated Press reported.
Source: Associated Press
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：智利首都圣地亚哥的天际线与格兰圣地亚哥塔（资料图，本稿重逢发生的城市）。图中是从圣克里斯托瓦尔山望去的圣地亚哥市区。3BRBS，CC BY-SA 3.0（按 Wikimedia Commons 文件页抄录），经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: file photo related to this report. 3BRBS，CC BY-SA 3.0（按 Wikimedia Commons 文件页抄录）, via Wikimedia Commons.
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