Great report
Forced adoptions in Chile, mothers and children in search of the truth
Audio 7:30 p.m.
Aída Cáceres' daughter was taken from her at birth, before being adopted in France.
© Justine Fontaine/RFI
By: Justine Fontaine Follow
20 mins
Between the 1960s and the 1990s, more than twenty thousand Chilean children were adopted and taken abroad by French, Italian, American, Belgian or Canadian families.
Adoptions encouraged by the dictatorship of General Pinochet.
But years later, voices began to rise in Chile: several thousand biological mothers had in fact never accepted that their babies be given up for adoption.
RFI went to meet these women in Chile, but also children adopted in France, who are looking for their origins.
(Replay)
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From our correspondent in Chile,
1,200 kilometers south of Santiago, on the island of Chiloé, Ruth Huisca puts wood back into the stove that warms the main room, in the middle of the austral winter.
This housekeeper, in her fifties, receives us in a red house with typical architecture of the island, with its facade covered with wooden shingles.
In the mid-1980s, Ruth lived and worked in Osorno, in the south of the country.
She becomes pregnant by her boyfriend when she is 17, and he is 16. He leaves for another city, and Ruth gives birth alone to a little girl in the hospital of Osorno.
But she does not dare to return to her home in the countryside.
“
At the time, I couldn't have come back to my grandparents with a baby.
They would have kicked me out, they would have given me a beating.
So I was afraid to tell them that I was pregnant.
And I looked for a pension for my daughter, I entrusted her to a lady I trusted.
»
For the first few months, Ruth sees her baby every day, and works at the same time in a bar.
But customers are scarce, and she finds a better paid job on the island of Chiloé, 200 kilometers away.
His daughter, Claudia, is boarding with the same person, a former work colleague.
“
I gave him 5,000 pesos a month, it was a lot of money at the time.
But I fell ill, and for six months I was bedridden.
I never knew exactly what I had.
And I couldn't send money at that time.
So this lady denounced me
”, says Ruth over coffee and cookies, while the rain begins to fall outside.
Ruth is summoned to court, accused of having abandoned her daughter.
At that time, she hardly knew how to read, because she left school at 12 years old.
She does not understand the documents presented to her.
“
The social worker here told me that I was young, that one day I was going to get married and have many children and that I was not worried.
And that I had to sign.
I asked her if I was going to be able to see my daughter again, she said yes.
She assured me that if I didn't sign, I would be arrested.
I was afraid of going to prison.
And I ended up signing.
»
She then realizes that these documents were papers to give Claudia up for adoption.
And despite searches at the police station, Ruth never found her daughter.
It was only a few years ago that she realized that she was not the only one to have experienced a similar story.
“I heard her cry.
Then I never saw her again”
Back in Santiago, Aída Cáceres receives us in a small house, in the municipality of Padre Hurtado.
Before moving to the capital, she too lived in southern Chile.
She lost track of her second child just after giving birth at Coronel hospital, 500 kilometers from the capital.
“
At 21, I got pregnant with a little girl.
I arrived at the hospital with complications.
My daughter was born, and I vividly remember the nurse saying,
"Look how beautiful your daughter is."
That's all I remember.
I heard her cry.
And then I never saw her again.
“, she says.
A caregiver tells her that her daughter is dead.
But Aida can't believe it, and she tries to get to the bottom of it.
We are then in 1986. “
I looked for her in the Coronel hospital, but she was not there.
I asked what had happened to him, asked lots of questions.
Until I found this nurse.
And she said to me:
"Your daughter is not dead. She was sent to a home for minors".
They said I had abandoned her!
But I've never been in court, I've never signed any adoption papers, ever.
»
Aída searched for her daughter for years, without success.
But three years ago, she received messages on Facebook from France.
“
Are you my mother?
".
“
That question, I will never forget.
»
Since then, she regularly hears from her daughter, despite the language barrier.
Marie, that's her current name, soon sends her a copy of her adoption file.
“
Here, that's his passport…
” she said, leafing through the file, which she printed and kept carefully.
She dwells on her daughter's passport photo: “
It was still a baby…!
she sighs.
And she is surprised at the speed with which her daughter was adopted.
“
Because she was born on September 21, and on December 17 of the same year, she was already leaving Chile, with a court decision saying that a French couple was coming to pick her up.
And then in the report, it is written that I lived on the streets, and that I was an alcoholic.
While I never drank a drop of alcohol!
And I've always been quite a homebody, always had a home.
»
Hundreds of complaints filed
In Chile, more than 700 complaints have been filed in recent years for forced adoptions, which took place mainly during the period of the Pinochet dictatorship, between 1973 and 1990. But the Chilean judicial police and victims' associations estimate that since the 1960s, more than 20,000 Chilean children may have been adopted irregularly.
One of these associations is called “
Hijos y madres del silencio
”, (“Children and mothers of silence”).
Marisol Rodriguez, who is looking for her big sister, is the spokesperson for this NGO created in 2014 to help mothers find their children.
“
We are about 12 thousand people, in a private Facebook group.
We do everything online.
To help mothers and their families in their research, we ask them to do a DNA test because they really don't have any other way to find their loved ones.
Children adopted abroad, on the other hand, often have documents, the name of a city, a surname... We do the research with them but we also suggest that they do a DNA test to be sure, because the papers they have are often false.
Unfortunately, only 250 searches have been successful so far.
“says Marisol Rodriguez.
The women victims of these forced adoptions were mainly poor, young, single, and sometimes from the indigenous peoples of Chile, in particular the Mapuche people.
Some were illiterate.
The association has identified a series of people and institutions whose names appear in forced adoption files.
“
Nuns and priests were involved, very often social workers too.
Lawyers, judges... Hotels... There was a whole network
, assures Sol Rodriguez, co-founder of the association.
And it was also about making the adoptive parents believe that they were doing something good.
Not that they had come looking for a child who had disappeared from the hospital.
»
These intermediaries used the same methods to remove children from their mothers.
"
The first was to tell the mothers that their child had died at birth, but without giving them the body
," explains Sol Rodriguez.
The second method more often concerned mothers who worked as domestic workers or in the countryside, for example: these people told them that they were going to take care of their children during the week, and that they could pick them up on weekends. .
But after a few weeks, they gave them up for adoption without their consent.
Finally, in the third case, they told the mothers that their newborns had very serious illnesses, which could not be cured here.
And that if they loved their child, they had to give him up for adoption, so he wouldn't die in Chile.
»
For more than 700 children, the last known address in Chile, indicated on their passport, was that of several hotels in Santiago.
Guido, 59, worked in one of these hotels, which has since closed.
For the first time, he agrees to tell the microphone of RFI what he saw.
We find him at his home, in the southern suburbs of the capital, after his day's work.
When he was employed at the hotel restaurant, between 1979 and 1997, he met many couples who had come to adopt children in Chile.
"
They stayed for about two months,
" he recalls.
At first, they were alone for one or two weeks.
Then someone appeared who gave them all the contacts.
And then the kids would come
,” he says.
“
After a fortnight or so they went down to the hotel restaurant to do the paperwork with the lawyers, I served them at the table.
The Italians only adopted babies, never older children.
And the French and the Australians adopted children of about 3 or 4 years old.
»
Today, he wonders about the role played by the hotel in these adoptions.
He remembers for example a woman, who was officially director of public relations.
“
She had her office there, but she never really worked as a public relations officer.
When the foreign couples arrived, they always sought to speak with her.
She was the link between the lawyers and the adoptive parents, because she spoke French and English.
»
A spike in adoptions under the dictatorship
Irregular adoptions took place, before and after the dictatorship of General Pinochet.
But if these networks were able to function without any problem under the military regime (1973-1990), it was mainly because the junta itself had decided to promote the adoption of poor children by foreign couples.
This has been shown by historian Karen Alfaro in her research.
She teaches at the Austral University of Chile, in Valdivia, and has been working on this subject for several years.
“
Under the dictatorship, Chile became one of the main countries from which children left to be adopted abroad,
” she explains.
Forced child adoptions are part of a policy of social violence against these poor families.
It was a kind of social eugenics.
»
At the time, the regime transformed Chile into a laboratory of neoliberalism, under the influence of the "
Chicago Boys
", recalls the researcher.
“
The dictatorship was trying to show its economic development.
In this context, these poor social categories, and
"irregular minors"
as they called them, were perceived as a problem
, underlines the researcher.
The press referred to them as
"the big problem"
of our country.
»
In the midst of the Cold War, the dictatorship feared that as they grew up, these children would join the opposition.
On the other hand, the leaders of the military junta were unwilling to spend money on social programs.
"
They therefore propose to significantly increase the number of adoptions of Chilean children
," noted Karen Alfaro.
For this, the adoption procedures are then simplified.
During her research, the historian showed that children were sold between 6,500 dollars, for a baby, and 150 thousand dollars, for siblings.
But for her, under Pinochet in particular, the motivations of intermediaries were often ideological, more than financial.
“
I was able to conduct interviews with social workers involved in cases of irregular adoptions,
specifies the historian.
And they said that these practices took place within the framework of an institutional policy.
They were convinced that they had saved children from their own families, because they believed that they were destined for poverty, for chaos.
So there were ideological reasons for many civil servants, doctors, judges and social workers
.
»
A diplomacy of adoptions
Finally, according to its research, the regime used these adoptions to renew diplomatic relations with several Western countries which had welcomed a large number of Chilean exiles and where the dictatorship was particularly criticized for human rights violations which were happening there.
Sweden, for example, has been one of the main destination countries for Chilean children adopted abroad.
At the time, the Swedish authorities had been alerted to irregularities, but decided to turn a blind eye.
During the same period, France was the fourth country where the most young Chileans were adopted, according to partial data compiled by the Chilean consular authorities.
The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, for its part, indicates that 1,706 Chilean children have been adopted in France since 1981, without further details, despite several reminders from us.
The right to know one's origins
Thousands of kilometers from Santiago, these children have grown up and some are now seeking to know their story.
Lucile Gimberg, of the RFI antenna in Spanish, went to meet them in the south-west of France.
Near Toulouse, the association Chilean Adoptees Worldwide, (Chileans adopted throughout the world), organized an information meeting at the end of July, in a village hall.
A few dozen people are present, including Johanna Lamboley.
She is one of the representatives in France of this NGO.
“
I was adopted in Chile in 1986, at the age of 5 and a half,
she explains.
I was stolen from my biological mother, with whom I lived.
She spent 36 years looking for me.
»
Thanks to the association, Johanna found her mother.
But she considers that this subject is still too little known.
“
There is an omerta in the world of adoption in France, so we want to alert Chilean children who are looking for their roots that we exist, that they can contact us and that we can try to help them to the extent possible, to reconnect with their identity
,” she says.
Build yourself up around your personal story
Not all adoptions of Chilean children were necessarily irregular.
But the results of research often provoke conflicting emotions.
Laetitia Bourgier, 34, also managed to contact her biological family in Chile.
After searching for years, she appeals to the National Service for Minors in Santiago, which finally finds her mother, and sends her a letter and a photo of her.
“
When I see his photo, that's it, I see who I look like!
We have the same nose, the same mouth, the same eyes and eyebrows
,” she says with a big smile.
“
When you are adopted, the question of who you look like is the first question you ask yourself.
Before anything else,
"who do I look like?"
And there it is!
“, she recalls.
In the mail, "
She tells me she never gave me up for adoption.
There, for me, it's still a relief.
I tell myself that it was not just in my head.
But it's not easy.
It changes my whole story, which is the foundation of my identity as a person.
It was a psychic tsunami, that discovery.
I wouldn't have done it years before because I wasn't strong enough.
And that called a lot of things into question.
When I returned to France, I asked myself: what is my life like?
Did I really choose her?
and my work?
".
Laetitia also discovers that her mother was told she had died in the hospital.
And she realizes that her birth certificate has been falsified.
Today, she wonders about the responsibility of France in these cases.
“
We can only wonder.
There are still many, many children who left Chile for France, who went through the French Embassy,
she underlines.
They know how the laws work.
However, children have left the country without certain compulsory documents… There are a lot of gray areas.
It would still be very surprising if they did not question themselves on that
, ”she points out.
A welcome committee at Toulouse airport
The victims' associations believe that most often the adoptive parents were not aware that these children had in fact never been abandoned.
Laetitia's father, André, supported his daughter in the search for her origins.
He is one of the rare parents to agree to recount the steps he took with his wife at the time.
“
It was actually very simple.
We already knew that in France it was very difficult, adoptions.
It took 4 or 5 years, and again, it was not easy,
he explains at the microphone of Lucile Gimberg, from the RFI antenna in Spanish.
And we knew it was easier to adopt in a foreign country.
The couple knows several people who have already adopted in Chile.
They therefore choose to leave for Santiago.
Their friends give them contacts and addresses.
A kind of guide for the adopter, written by hand, and thanks to which they find Laetitia in a hospital after only two weeks there.
They only pay translation costs, administrative costs in the courts, assures André Bourgier.
He and his wife do not notice anything that seems abnormal to them.
On their return, they are expected at Toulouse airport by a very enthusiastic welcome committee.
“
About fifteen or twenty friends, who had already adopted little Chileans.
They were waiting for us almost like the messiah, at the airport.
It's fabulous as emotion!
»
In France, the court pronounces the full adoption of Laetitia without difficulty.
So when his daughter told him that she had been forcibly taken from her biological mother, “
At the time, of course, it did something to me, because you still have to digest
it,” recalls André Bourgier.
But today, he says, he is happy that Laetitia was able to find her biological family.
“
Now, when she talks about her story, she is a little more liberated.
She's less stressed
," he said.
Taboo
For other parents, however, broaching this subject with their adopted children seems out of the question.
This is what happened in the family of Alban Dubaux, 30, whom Lucile Gimberg met during the information meeting of the Chilean Adoptees Worldwide association, near Toulouse.
This young policeman was adopted in Punta Arenas, the southernmost city of Chile, in Patagonia.
On his passport, which was established in Chile, when he was only 15 days old, Alban already bore his French surname and first name.
An irregularity which today complicates the search for his origins, but did not prevent him from leaving the country without incident, then being adopted in France.
"
From what they told me, my adoptive parents were contacted before I was born
," he says.
At first, his parents tell him where he comes from.
But around the age of 6, his mother finds him rummaging through his adoption file.
Then she braces herself, and refuses to talk about her origins again.
A few years later, Alban realizes that the papers have disappeared.
“
I couldn't get my hands on the documents I had seen when I was little.
And after speaking with my parents, I saw that it was very taboo, impossible to speak more with them.
It was really violent, really to make me stop snooping and put my nose elsewhere.
“, he says.
Despite the opposition of his adoptive parents, Alban decided to continue the research on his own.
He got married three years ago, and he and his wife would like to have children.
But before that, Alban would like to know his own story.
“
What matters most to me is really to know what happened above all.
Why was I abandoned?
Is this wanted?
Not intended ?
And I need to touch the flesh of my flesh, whether it's a brother, a sister, a grandparent...
", he says.
Being able to take her biological mother in her arms is also what Johanna Lamboley, of the Chilean Adoptees Worldwide (CAW) association, wants.
If health restrictions allow it, she will go to Chile this year, for the first time since her adoption.
And she appeals to the French authorities.
“
We would just like the French government, as the governments of Sweden, Holland and elsewhere have done, to help us and also recognize that there has been some error in their handling of adoption files.
“, she specifies.
In Santiago, Aída Cáceres also dreams of meeting her daughter in person.
But for now, she can't afford a plane ticket to France.
Finally, for the association Hijos y madres del silencio, it is urgent that the investigations already underway in Chile move forward.
According to its co-founder, Sol Rodriguez, these forced adoptions could constitute crimes against humanity.
“
We can't leave all of this under the rug when there has been so much injustice.
Mothers are dying right now without knowing where their children are,
she regrets.
It is terrible because it is child theft and here in Chile there have been thousands of them.
»
She recalls that forced adoptions also concern countries other than Chile.
Finally, she asks the government of her country to relaunch a DNA database project, created to help mothers find their children, but which has been on hold for a year and a half.
►
For more information:
-
Association Hijos y madres del silencio
-
Association Nos buscamos
-
Association Chilean Adoptees Worldwide (CAW)
-
Origins research program of the National Service for Minors (Chile)
-
Journalistic investigation of the Chilean online media Ciper, in which the Hotel Conquistador is mentioned
-
RFI report in 2014, during the first journalistic revelations on this subject
-
Irregular adoptions in countries other than Chile: (Switzerland / Sri Lanka)
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