Chile: the quest for biological mothers of children illegally adopted under Pinochet
Audio 01:18
Several mothers who had a child illegally adopted under the Pinochet dictatorship are doing DNA tests in the hope of finding their trace.
© CLAUDIO REYES/AFP
Text by: RFI Follow
2 mins
From this Friday and until Sunday, May 18, the first European congress of Chileans “
in search of their origins
” is being held in Stockholm.
From the 1960s to the 1990s, more than 20,000 children were adopted illegally without their parents' consent.
A practice encouraged by the Pinochet regime which wanted to eliminate poverty while taking advantage of the cash flow.
For several years, Chilean biological mothers have been trying to trace their children.
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With our correspondent in Santiago de Chile,
Naïla Derroisné
At the age of 17, Cecilia Ottone gave birth prematurely to a baby boy.
It was September 18, 1975. “
They showed me the baby, I saw him, he cried.
And then they took him away for tests.
The next day I asked where he was and they told me he had health problems.
Afterwards, no one said anything to me or answered my questions.
Two days later, they told me that my baby was dead.
»
Cecilia never received a birth or death certificate for her child.
And she always had doubts, until the day she consulted a clairvoyant.
“
She was an elderly woman and she asked me how many children I had.
I told him that I had two.
But she told me she saw three.
I explained to her that it had to be my stillborn child and she replied that
"no"
, this child was alive.
»
A DNA test and a hope with this congress
On several occasions, Cecilia went to the hospital where she had given birth to obtain information, which she never had.
She then took a DNA test, hoping that her son would also do one and that their data would be crossed: “
I still have hope of finding my son and I am sure that he is still alive.
»
Cecilia sent her photo to be displayed this weekend in Stockholm at the congress of Chileans “
in search of their origins
”.
►Also listen: Grand Reportage - Forced adoptions in Chile, mothers and children in search of the truth
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