Chile’s Children of Silence: Uncovering the Truth

Author Summary

During Pinochet’s regime many children went missing or were adopted illegally across many countries. His dictatorial regime was imposed on the innocent citizens of Chile. The effects were far-reaching but primarily involved innocent children who did not have any say in the matter. Given the lack of documentation and the discreet nature of such adoptions many children do not know who their parents are and to this day are trying to find out more information.

Introduction

Transnational adoptions date back to the post-war period and were prevalent in Latin American countries, with Chile being the second most common country involved in the process (Monsalve & Morales, 2021). During the Chilean military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973–1990), it was estimated that 20,000 Chilean children were adopted without parental consent (Content Engine LLC, 2022). Compared to previous years, the number of adoptions had suspiciously increased in general and were thought to be illegal, with children being adopted without proper documentation (Content Engine LLC, 2022). Pinochet’s fascist government caused a repressive environment correlating to the thousands of children that went missing during his regime. However, because neither Pinochet’s administration nor the successive governments that followed never recorded any evidence of the disappearances and concealed existing information, many of these adoptees still struggle, even today, to find their origins. Although many fascist dictatorial regimes in South America such as Argentina and Paraguay also had illegal child “adoptions” or trafficking, there have been records of the events occurring. Without evidence of illegal child adoptions or trafficking, it is imperative to explore how the events transpired and who aided in the kidnappings of the children that went missing or were abducted to ensure that such catastrophic events do not occur in history again.

There are three goals of this study. One is to analyze the circumstances and events that contributed to the kidnappings and illegal transnational adoptions of the missing Chilean children (known as the Chilean Children of Silence). The second is to understand the political structure that enabled so many children to be adopted so unusually. The last is to identify the reason for which the children were illegally and discreetly adopted transnationally. Thus, the paper is divided into three parts: the first focuses on key players, the second focuses on the relevant themes, and the third focuses on the significance of this work. The following information was obtained from JSTOR review articles, Content Engine, books, news articles as well as other academic journal articles.

The following list includes the most important players who contributed to the repression and aided a secret governmental scandal that would rob infants and children over seventeen years.

Augusto Pinochet

Pinochet was the repressive dictator throughout the fascist military regime known as the Junta. He was initially a soldier in the military and was recruited in the late stages of the coup to overthrow Salvador Allende, the current president at the time; however, the CIA never saw him play a “significant” role during the preparation for the coup (Kornbluh, 2013). Pinochet believed that eradicating all opposition (primarily socialist parties) would allow for the creation of a new virtuous society (Borzutzky, 2017). He believed that he was the ‘divine’ savior chosen by God to save the country (Borzutzky, 2017). Similar to the policies of fascism, where the nation’s interest is prioritized over the people’s interests, gradually, Pinochet’s priorities as well as the country’s soon become the same (Borzutzky, 2017).

Directorate of National Intelligence (DINA)

DINA was a Chilean secret police agency headed by Manuel Contreras (Kornbluh, 2013) to carry out the murderous mission of the Caravan of Death to decimate enemies, terrorize people and raid and search houses to take prisoners without charge (Borzutzky, 2017). DINA became renowned for three types of human rights violations: secret detention camps, systematic and inhuman torture, and disappearances of many Chileans including children (Borzutzky, 2017). Since they were associated with the disappearances of Chilean children, it is likely that they were involved with the adoption scheme carried out by the Pinochet government.

A total of 2000-4000 civilian personnel, informants, and military and non-commissioner officers influenced the known disappearances of nearly 1100 Chilean civilians and one US citizen during Pinochet’s 17-year dictatorship (Borzutzky, 2017). Civilians and their families were blindfolded, abducted, and taken to facilities where they’d be tortured to provide information about the Pinochet regime’s enemies, specifically supporters of the Allende government (Borzutzky, 2017).

The National Center for Information (CNI)

After DINA’s involvement in the killings of prominent international leaders, the US administration pressed for General Pinochet to close DINA (Borzutzky, 2017). Though DINA was abolished, the CNI was established under the leadership of Humberto Gordon who took over DINA’s staff, properties, and budgets (Borzutzky, 2017). It still carried out the same violent practices including the torture of many Chileans, countless human rights violations, and human trafficking schemes that DINA had originally used (Borzutzky, 2017).

Chilean Military

Chilean military agents sought to create chaos and terrorism to overemphasize the leftist threat (Borzutzky, 2017). The army conducted “search and destroy” missions in the early mornings in poor neighborhoods, with numerous young men being arrested (Borzutzky, 2017). Some were imprisoned, sent to internal exile, or disappeared (Borzutzky, 2017). These cleansing operations, “operaciones de limpieza,” were meant to make people afraid and provide a sense of a permanent Marxist threat and state of war (Borzutzky, 2017). In one instance, the Chilean military drove 70 buses over a three-year period where several Chilean babies were then transported to Sweden to married couples who could not be parents or wanted to adopt from Chile (Karen & Morales, 2021). Therefore, there is an established pattern of the Chilean military being involved in the illegal trafficking of these children and they were likely involved in the illegal adoptions of Chilean children during Pinochet’s regime.

Chilean Courts

Many Court members either willingly supported Pinochet or were intimidated into submission. The entire Judiciary deserted its constitutional powers under the Supreme Court’s guidance and took up the government’s rhetoric and dictum that oppression was needed to restore law and order (Borzutzky, 2017). The Supreme Court was to oversee and control the decisions of the lower courts via the Recurso de Queja. Yet, cases were completed after a long time, and outcomes mostly favored the government (Borzutzky, 2017). Decree Law (D. L) 788 gave the Junta the authority to modify the Constitution without the Supreme Court (Borzutzky, 2017). The Supreme Court thus gave up its right and obligation to supervise the military tribunals and their interpretation of the laws (Borzutzky, 2017), granting immunity to Pinochet and his followers who committed human rights atrocities (Borzutzky, 2017). Judges who pursued human rights cases were punished and confessions given via torture were accepted (Borzutzky, 2017). Although the Habeas Corpus writ guaranteed individual freedom, it was denied to illegally detained people (Borzutzky, 2017). The Supreme Court overruled lower court decisions that protected the rights of illegal detainees until 1984 (Borzutzky, 2017). In summary, the Courts desecrated a vital constitutional function–protection of individual liberties; and actively participated in supporting a dictatorial regime (Borzutzky, 2017).

Themes

After reviewing several secondary sources, these themes were generated as to why or how the events occurred. These identified trends or ideas were then viewed in the context of the time period and analyzed to determine the role they played in the abduction of Chilean Children of Silence.

United States Influence

The first theme presented is the prominent role that the US played in allowing the formation of a brutal oppressive dictatorship that would later commit a malicious operation to abduct children and set them up for illegal transnational adoption.

Kissinger along with President Nixon and other US agencies agreed that the policy towards Chile would be “the cool and correct posture.” They were looking to see what measures could be taken to “intensify Allende’s problems” and “create conditions in which a collapse or overthrow may be feasible” so that a democratic system could be established (Kornbluh, 2013).

The US focused on financing smaller companies in Chile and put stress on the economy. Aside from funding opposition and protests, the US sought to destabilize the Chilean economy by stopping new commitments, loan assistance, and export guarantees. Kissinger ordered Chile’s credit rating to be dropped resulting in the refusal of a $21 million loan which “aggravated Chile’s problem of attracting and retaining needed capital inflow through private foreign investment” (Kornbluh, 2013).

These US policies to deplete the Chilean economy pushed Chile away from communism and created an environment that allowed for a coup to occur by building tensions that uprooted Chilean democratic movements (Kornbluh, 2013). This resulted in the socialist government of Salvador Allende, which they detested, to be replaced with a tyrannical fascist dictatorship of Pinochet that would commit countless human rights violations and major terrorist acts. During Pinochet’s regime, the US continued relations with Chile, and Pinochet “listened” to the US when he dissolved DINA, despite replacing it with the CNI shortly after.

Role of Fascism

Fascism is the term that describes a governmental structure where the interests of a nation become prioritized over individual interests. In this case, Pinochet’s interests ran the affairs of the state. Like other dictators, he believed in the rule of the elite and used excessive military force. Pinochet enacted three laws to successfully carry out his repressive regime: the Anti-Terrorist Law, the Amnesty Decree Law 2191, and Article 24 of the Constitution. Together, these legislations allowed Pinochet’s regime to successfully kidnap, torture, and bury them in unmarked graves all the while granting immunity to the government officials who committed these atrocities. Since there was no “evidence”, the military could always deny the crimes (Borzutzky, 2017). Thus, Pinochet was able to crush political opponents and intimidate and torment the rest of society, specifically the families and communities of disappeared loved ones (Borzutzky, 2017).

The effects of the US’s heavy involvement in Chile’s economy spilled over into Pinochet’s regime. Pinochet’s Labor Minister implemented a set of economic reforms resulting in a steep decline in social spending and a significant decline in wages (Borzutzky, 2017). Moreover, during this time, children faced malnutrition, struggled to find reliable shelter every day, or were severely traumatized after witnessing family members being beaten to death by a DINA agent. Due to a weak economy and rising unrest from the daily violence caused by DINA, it is believed that transnational adoption was used to reduce poverty and control Chilean population growth (Karen & Morales, 2021; Londoño, 2021). As a result, many who aided in the illegal adoptions, such as the church, doctors, or judges, justified their shady practices, proclaiming that they were providing a child with salvation; they claimed to be saving them from life in a deathly environment by providing them with a new adoptive family abroad who was meant to protect them. However, there was never any certification for an adoptee’s parents to be certified as proper legal guardians, nor were there any checkups later on (Salvo Agoglia & Alfaro Monsalve, 2019).

The adoption destinations of poor Chilean children were common to Sweden, France, Italy, and the United States. These transnational adoptions served as a way for Pinochet to enhance his global reputation by forming close diplomatic and political relationships with these countries, specifically with Sweden (Content Engine LLC, 2021, 2022). Ulf Hamacher, a notable far-right politician who headed the “Sweden-Chile Society” and a member of a Swedish fascist party in the 1970s strove to facilitate this close relationship with the military dictator (Content Engine LLC, 2021). He collaborated with the Chilean dictatorship through political propaganda and revealed information about the activities that the exiled Chileans (who went against Pinochet) carried out. They also formulated a communication campaign to develop the image of the Chilean dictatorship (Content Engine LLC, 2021). Swedish officials lied to the public that the adopted children had been abandoned while, in reality, they had been abducted (Content Engine LLC, 2021). Overall, the political alliance between the Chilean military dictatorship and the Swedish fascist regime was largely responsible for the mass illegal trafficking and transmigration of Chilean children.

Broad Adoption Policies

Law No. 7613, established in 1943, granted legal consent to a Chilean adoption without interaction between the adoptive parents and the party consenting to adoption (Salvo Agoglia & Alfaro Monsalve, 2019). With this law, mothers could adopt Chilean children by bypassing regular and tedious adoption policies (Salvo Agoglia & Alfaro Monsalve, 2019). This includes “Assumption of birth” which resulted in granting proof of births to non-biologic mothers and “theft of identity” where a child was registered as one’s own when it was not biologically theirs (Salvo Agoglia & Alfaro Monsalve, 2019). The establishment of this law in 1943 allowed for suspicious and unsupervised adoption exchanges to take place. Then, in 1965, Law No. 16346 supported the idea of “legitimate adoptions” which extinguished a child’s background of parentage and origin (Salvo Agoglia & Alfaro Monsalve, 2019). In this way, there was absolute secrecy such that it would be impossible to trace a child’s biological parents (Salvo Agoglia & Alfaro Monsalve, 2019). Thus, Chile contained no records of an adopted child’s birth parents which made it extremely difficult for the stolen children during the Pinochet era to reunite with their birth family even after his regime ended.

Both these laws were applied to domestic and international adoptions (Salvo Agoglia & Alfaro Monsalve, 2019). If a child were to be adopted internationally, the birth mother would grant permission for her child to leave the country and be looked after by an interested family by either sending an application to a notary or through a judicial procedure (Salvo Agoglia & Alfaro Monsalve, 2019). However, there was never any legal authorization by a legitimate government official, counseling of parents, or follow-up (Salvo Agoglia & Alfaro Monsalve, 2019).

Additionally, the main institutions linked to the caring of children were managed by the wives of the military junta (Salvo Agoglia & Alfaro Monsalve, 2019). Pinochet’s wife, Lucıa Hiriart in particular, managed the CEMA-Chile and the Corporation for Childhood Nutrition (CONIN) which irregularly adopted poor children and exploited them for work in Chile and internationally. Most of them were babies who illegally left the country since there was no regulation at the time (Salvo Agoglia & Alfaro Monsalve, 2019).

Even after Pinochet’s regime, Chile’s adoption policies had not improved mostly because Pinochet’s authoritative practices were still being used until the twenty-first century. Specifically, with the implementation of Law No. 18703 in 1988, children were permitted to leave the country for adoption purposes without any formal requests, evaluation, selection of adoption families, or follow-up. This led to the foundation of child trafficking for many years to come (Salvo Agoglia & Alfaro Monsalve, 2019).

Lies and Bribery

The only confirmed affiliation to be accused of any aid in the illegal trafficking of children during Pinochet’s government was the Catholic church. Ironically, the church had been the most resistant to Pinochet’s dictatorship by putting pressure on the new political authorities to acknowledge the abuses of Pinochet’s regime. They had also actively sponsored many human rights organizations, provided healthcare services to children, and aided 4,000 people to leave the country (Borzutzky, 2017). This was the time when the Chilean people had the highest faith in the church (Henneberger, 2014).

Since Chile is predominantly Catholic, babies were taken from single mothers of middle-class families due to the stigmas around single mothers at the time. Children were taken primarily from poor families and indigenous Mapuche communities, however, the trafficking scheme involved the consent of daycare centers, children’s homes, doctors, and public hospitals (O’Brien & Reuters Staff, 2014). Adoptive parents specifically in Europe and the United States paid approximately $6,500-$150,000 to international adoption agencies per child (Content Engine LLC, 2022). A portion of the sum would go toward the officials who chose “suitable” children (Content Engine LLC, 2022). Church officials used three methods to coerce mothers into giving up their children: 1) informing the mothers that the child was either dead or stillborn, 2) forcing the mothers to sign documents that they didn’t comprehend, 3) declaring mothers unfit for raising children (2014; Content Engine LLC, 2022). Some reports indicated that social workers were paid to certify false documentation of child abandonment. Nurses and doctors were bribed to create birth certificates detailing that a baby had died; and judges were paid to permit the transfer of custody (Content Engine LLC, 2022).

For example, from 1970-1980, a Catholic priest by the name of Gerardo Joannon from the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary was involved in giving up babies for adoption without the consent of the parents, telling them that their child had died (O’Brien & Reuters Staff, 2014). He claimed that he “helped around four or five cases” because he wanted to “prevent abortions” during the days when single mothers were shamed (BBC, 2014; O’Brien & Reuters Staff, 2014). The church confessed that he’d known that the children were alive, but still conducted funeral masses for them (BBC, 2014). Joannon confessed that he knew ten doctors and six priests who “did the same thing” (Henneberger, 2014).

Additionally, there have been several Catholic homes involved in trafficking using similar practices (Henneberger, 2014). In three cases, the nun was accused of working with a group of administrators, doctors, and nurses who kidnapped babies from mothers who gave birth at the maternity hospital of Barros Luco (Henneberger, 2014). The nuns had told the victims that their children were either dying or dead (Henneberger, 2014). Parents were not given a death certificate and were unable to see the body (Henneberger, 2014). Mothers who returned later to persist in requesting proof of their baby’s death were told that there was no record of them having been a patient or that the baby’s body had been burned (Henneberger, 2014).

Another organization by the name of the Salesian Sisters of St. John Bosco used to run a home in Curico, Chile. They are also under investigation (Henneberger, 2014). Luisa de Carmen Melo Leyton, a former director, suspiciously left the convent and the country in 1983 after being questioned about her work there (Henneberger, 2014). Similarly, Sr. Isabela Longoni, another former director, claimed that she “doesn’t remember the arrangements” (Henneberger, 2014). It is also said that three nuns who worked at the Good Shepherd home for girls in Iquique (northern Chile) during the dictatorship and into the mid-1990s seemed to have been connected to irregular adoptions (Henneberger, 2014). Likewise, another group of women named the Benedictine nuns ran another home and allegedly testified that they sent 99 children to Holland and Germany to be adopted (Henneberger, 2014). Furthermore, a nun from the Salesian Sr. Maria Graciela Soto lied to a mother and her baby and confessed to helping a couple adopt a child saying that she “would do it again…because it was the right thing to do” (Henneberger, 2014).

While the church aided in trying to protect the rights and safety of Chilean citizens, their purpose of illegal adoption was to get the children out of Chile in hopes of a “better” lifestyle. Pinochet’s regime was extremely militaristic and violent and Church officials believed that it was necessary to “save” them by trafficking them. Since families were lied to about the health conditions of their children, it was near impossible for transnational Chilean adoptees to reunite with their original families because their birth parents presumed them to be dead. Only recently, have there been efforts by organizations such as Nos Buscamos to try to unite adoptees with their familial origins.

Significance

Throughout this study, there were three main goals that were investigated as described in the following paragraphs.

The first being analyzing the circumstances and events that allowed for the abductions and transnational adoptions of more than 20,000 Chilean children during the 1970s-1980s. It is important to note that these events stemmed from the combination of the detrimental impact the US had on Chilean politics and their economy. Backing Pinochet planted the seeds for a coup. By overthrowing Allende, this only furthered the US’s Cold War agenda in South America. Decades long interference in the Chilean economy from supporting small Chilean companies, cutting off loans, and stopping numerous financial commitments influenced the collapse of the Chilean economy, leading to the origins of mass poverty, outright violence, and human rights violations during the fascist dictatorship. Meddling into the affairs of another country, like in the case of the US with Chile, must be thoroughly examined considering that the subsequent impacts are felt by an entire nation’s population.

The second was to understand the political system that allowed so many children to be adopted in an irregular manner. Pinochet and his upper echelon of government officials had unprecedented power in the fascist system to enact laws that pushed their agenda forward. The government’s “shortcut” adoption policies such as Law No. 7613 and Law No. 16346 allowed children to be smuggled out of Chile and adopted transnationally without raising suspicion. This made it harder for adoptees to return to Chile during Pinochet’s regime. Moreover, while other fascist regimes in South America also used this common practice of illegal adoptions such as its incremental use during the Dirty War in Argentina, there was documentation of the children being illegally adopted. However, in the case of Chile, the Pinochet government hid and/or covered up the evidence, making it nearly impossible to trace one’s birth parents. Specifically, the implementation of Pinochet’s Amnesty Laws allowed Pinochet along with other officials to never be fully convicted for aiding in this organized child trafficking.

The third was to identify why so many children were illegally and discreetly adopted transnationally. From the little information available and from the context of when these illegal adoptions occurred, it can be concluded that Pinochet was completely aware of the trafficking; yet, there are many speculations as to why he encouraged the practice whether it be an attempt to decrease the widespread poverty or extend alliances with other nations (particularly Sweden). Additionally, it’s critical to take into consideration that Pinochet and his government’s use of adoptions for Chilean children was completely separate from that of the initiatives taken by the church. Doctors, judges, nurses, lawyers, etc. who aided the church were either bribed or coerced, but they all believed in the same cause: these trafficked children, the Children of Silence, would be safer anywhere, but Chile.

Conclusion

Today, Chilean adoptees still struggle to find their parents of origin. Due to the secrecy of the adoptions as well as the hesitation by other governmental officials to publish evidence of these illegal traffickings because they would be tied to the crimes, this issue was only made public in 2014 with Sweden beginning its inspections only in 2021 after pressure from the Chilean adoptees in the country (Londoño, 2021; Content Engine LLC, 2021). Over the years, more and more Chilean adoptees used DNA ancestry tests which confirmed the numbers of abducted children that were somehow correlated to the brutal practices undertaken by Pinochet’s dictatorship (Londoño, 2021). However, despite the ongoing investigations, no one has still been charged in connection to the kidnappings (Londoño, 2021). Due to the limited knowledge of this topic, it is imperative to conduct more investigations to solidify the evidence of how these events took place.

On a more positive note, efforts have been made to try to punish wrongdoers and bring justice to the thousands of Chilean adoptees. The organizations of Chilean Adoptees Worldwide (CAW) along with Nos Buscamos are working together to raise awareness about illegal adoptions and its challenges in Chilean embassies throughout the world as well as reuniting adoptees with their biological parents in Chile (Quezada et al., 2018). Moreover, Mario Carroza, the minister of the Chilean Supreme Court, is currently pursuing an independent investigation of the situation (Quezada et al., 2018). He began trying to analyze various international minor adoption documents from Esmeralda Quezada and Telma Uribe Ortega, former Social Assistant Directors at the Swedish Adoption Center, and Father Alceste Piergiovanni, Director of the Chilean Institute of Colonies and Camps. Since Chile nor the Supreme Court directly sponsors his criminal research, Carroza suspects that many governmental officials are reluctant towards these investigations because of their potential involvement in the adoption scheme (Quezada et al., 2018). The aim of his team, Chilean Adoptees Worldwide (CAW) is to one day eliminate illicit international adoptions on a global scale (Quezada et al., 2018). Due to the complex nature of this topic, it is imperative that more awareness about the issue is raised to enable increased support for the official efforts of an ongoing investigation to bring justice to the thousands of Chilean children stolen from their families.