Chilean State sued for systematic theft of babies during Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship

Just over a year after discovering he had been stolen after birth, Chilean-American sailor Jimmy Thyden Gonzalez sued the Chilean State on Monday for the alleged crime of child abduction that lasted “for decades” and impacted thousands of families.

Last year, at 42 years old, Thyden González He learned about its origins, which date back to the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990) during which thousands of Chilean women had their newborn babies stolen and given up for illegal adoption.

According to data obtained by The Associated Press, the Chilean judiciary estimates that approximately 20,000 cases of forced or illegal adoptionswhile civil society organizations such as Nos Buscamos estimate that more than 50,000 families are affected.

“First of all, we want to start by acknowledging it. Let the government recognize that this happened, that a mistake was made.“And from there we can start thinking about what reparations should look like,” said Thyden Gonzalez, who adopted her biological mother’s surname last year, in an interview with AP in Santiago.

Forty-three years ago, hospital workers in the Chilean capital took María Angélica González’s son from her arms immediately after he was born. She was later told that he had died and that they had already taken charge of his body.

But actually The baby was given up for adoption to a family in the United Statesa case framed in a dark plot of illegal adoptions that, although not exclusive to that period, proliferated under the Pinochet military regime.

Although this is not the first complaint filed by Thyden González before the Court of Appeals of Santiago It comes at a time that could mark a turning point in the investigations into these adoptions that took place decades ago. This is because on Monday the magistrate Guillermo de la Barra assumed the reins of the judicial investigation into the abduction of minors.

Although there are other lawsuits in progress, the lawyer Ciro Colombara, a criminal lawyer specializing in human rights cases involving the State and the lawyer leading the complaint, explained that the previous ones were criminal actions directed at specific situations, while the complaint by Thyden González has a global strategy since denounces a “systemic situation that lasted for decades.”

“Apart from individual responsibilities, We are interested in determining the responsibility of the State of Chile”then “this will be a discussion in both local courts, national courts, and eventually international human rights courts,” Colombara said.

The judicial investigation in Chile began in 2017 and, as of today, is being processed in the Court of Appeals of Santiago. More than 1,200 reports of baby thefts and illegal adoptions, Most of them are in the United States and Sweden, Justice Ministry sources told AP.

So far no one has been convicted.

Child trafficking in Chile coincided with many other human rights violations that took place during the 17-year Pinochet dictatorship, who on September 11, 1973 led a coup to overthrow socialist president Salvador Allende. During the de facto regime at least 3,095 people were killed, according to government figures, and tens of thousands more were tortured or imprisoned for political reasons.

In 2017, the then magistrate Mario Carroza launched a judicial investigation into the theft and sale of babies, although there has been no progress since then. However, After the arrival of the leftist Gabriel Boric to power in 2022, the case gained momentum amid the president’s commitments to advance and intensify efforts to clarify the circumstances of these adoptions.

The issue marked the recent meeting between Boric and the Prime Minister of Sweden, Ulf Kristersson, who sealed a cooperation agreement to “make progress in sharing information and also begin joint work to address the issue of irregular adoptions” during a tour of Europe by the Chilean president.

With the agreement, signed by the foreign ministers of both nations, State intervention in crimes is admitted for the first time,since the document establishes that “those who sign, recognize that irregular adoptions were committed, which had serious consequences on the lives and human rights of the victims and their families, especially, on the right to identity.”