Chile’s Stolen Babies

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.3 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 26 September 2019

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

A Chilean man - adopted at birth and sent overseas - searches for the mother forced to give him up. He is among thousands now finding out the truth about their past. Many mothers were pressurised into giving up their children during General Pinochet’s military dictatorship in the 1970s and 80s. A government investigation is gathering evidence from judges, socials workers, medical staff and nuns who are all thought to be involved. Families are meeting after decades. And mothers are being reunited with children they were told were dead. (Image Mans Backman. Credit: Family photo)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Thanks for downloading this edition of assignment. I've been living in Chile for a few years and I was really shocked when I started hearing stories about mothers saying their babies have been stolen from them.
0:10.0	I started to investigate and found out there were thousands of children who are now adults
0:15.8	who are finally discovering the truth about their adoptions.
0:18.8	Just imagine what it would be like to find out everything you thought was true was a lie.
0:24.1	It was something I was wanted to do. I wanted to meet her in person to be with her and to see her smile eyes and touch her and that's
0:38.9	always been my biggest dream.
0:41.1	Mon's Batman has spent decades looking for his mother.
0:45.0	I always wanted to tell her after all these years I've been I've been fine.
0:50.0	Growing up in Sweden was great my mom and dad that adopted me, took care of me, and I'm sure
0:56.3	she'd been wondering all these years, she'd been looking for me.
1:00.3	Mons is one of some 20,000 children who were adopted by foreign couples from Chile during the military
1:06.7	dictatorship of General Agosto Pinochet in the 1970s and 80s.
1:11.9	I'm Jane Chambers. Welcome to assignment on the BBC World Service.
1:19.0	It's an issue that's been making headlines here. A government investigation started last year because
1:24.7	there's growing evidence to show many of these overseas adoptions were illegal.
1:29.1	A special police unit was created a few months ago to cope with all the mothers coming forward
1:35.2	around Chile to try and find out what happened to their babies.
1:39.4	I've been following Monde's case since the start of the year as he's looking for his birth mother and I
1:44.9	want to try to make sense of what happened to him and thousands of other families.
1:49.4	When we're all that correpone the Rede duetes.
1:54.0	We are driving round the countryside near Temuco.
1:58.0	There are lots of indigenous Mapuche communities here.
	...

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