American man 'stolen' as a baby finds family in Chile

[Judi Lynn]

Callum Jones

Published 16:16, 28 May 2023 BST
| Last updated 16:16, 28 May 2023 BST



Featured Image Credit: USA TODAY

A man from the US who was 'stolen' as a baby has found his family and met them in Chile for the very first time.

It really does sound like something out of a movie, but for Scott Lieberman it is very much the reality of his life nowadays.

The 42-year-old, who resides in San Francisco, knew that he was adopted from Chile, but was unaware he was in fact stolen from his birth parents.

During the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet (1973-90), many babies from Chilean families were stolen, often from poorer families.

While an investigation into the number of stolen babies has languished over the years, Chilean officials have previously said the number could be in the thousands.

However, some who took part in the illegal adoptions have died, so it is quite tricky to pinpoint an exact number.

More:
https://www.unilad.com/news/american-scott-lieberman-adopted-stolen-chile-842785-20230528

(If your eyes welled up with tears the moment you saw this man's first photo, you weren't alone. Very real image, unexpectedly familiar to very real life.)

[Judi Lynn]

1. Previous article from 2019:'Where are they?': families search for Chile's disappeared prisoners

Many went missing between 1973 and 1990 during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet – and relatives are still seeking answers

by Martin Bernetti/AFP/Getty Images. Words by Paulina Abramovich
Wed 14 Aug 2019 02.00 EDT

It has been 43 years since Cesar Cerda, a member of Chile’s Communist party, was dragged off by agents of Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship. Cerda is just one of 1,000 former opponents of the far-right regime still listed as missing, despite the tireless efforts by family members to find them. Cerda was 47, and a father of three, when he was arrested on 19 May 1976 after months of regime persecution of Communist party leaders.

“Where is he? Where’s his body? We’ve spent our lives asking those questions,” said Juana Cerda, his 62-year-old daughter, who was standing at the main cemetery in Santiago in front of a memorial to the 3,200 people who died or disappeared during the dictatorship. Alongside her mother, she trawled hospitals, police stations, detention centres and military barracks without finding answers to her questions, just like other family members of the missing from Chile’s bloody 1973-1990 dictatorship, during which time 38,000 people were tortured.

Juana Cerda said: “This search has been very painful. My mother went on hunger strike. She chained herself to a fence outside the Congress building. “It completely turned our lives upside down.”

All she knows about her father is that he was taken off to the notorious Villa Grimaldi and Simon Bolivar torture centres in the capital.

. . .

“It’s difficult to find missing prisoners, given that the aim was exactly that: to make them disappear without leaving a trace,” said Elizabeth Lira, an expert from Alberto Hurtado University. Many bodies were blown up using dynamite and about 180 people were dropped into the sea from aircraft. Family associations accuse the army of withholding information as part of a “pact of silence”.

More:
https://www.theguardiancom/world/2019/aug/14/where-are-they-families-search-for-chile-disappeared-prisoners

[Judi Lynn]

2. Chile Judge Reveals 500 Children Were Illegally Adopted Abroad

Published 18 February 2018



Augusto Pinochet | Photo: EFE/Archive

Published 18 February 2018

The practice was common during the dictatorship, affecting mothers in a situation of vulnerability, according to a report.

At least 500 children were illegally adopted by foreigners during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet according to an investigation released Sunday by judge Mario Carroza.

Social worker Telma Uribe, 96, is accused of having a major role in mediating between the families, reported Chile's daily La Tercera.

Uribe's role was in connecting international organizations specialized in adoptions for foreign families, especially in the United States between 1973 and 1990 —when Pinochet was in power.

After several minors were found to be adopted illegally, the judge broadened the investigation that soon revealed about 500 more cases thanks to a report by Maria Cecilia Erazo, a social worker at the Catholic University and lawyer for the Appeal Court of Santiago.

More:
https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Chile-Judge-Reveals-500-Children-Were-Illegally-Adopted-Abroad-20180218-0017.html

[Judi Lynn]

3. Children Stolen by Chilean Dictatorship Finally Come to Light

By Marianela Jarroud



Ana María Luna Barrios searches murals of photos of people “disappeared” after the 1973 coup d’etat that ushered in the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet in Chile, looking for a face that might be her mother, from whom she was apparently taken after being born in captivity. Credit: Marjorie Apel/Creative Commons


SANTIAGO, Dec 31 2014 (IPS) - The suspicion that babies of people detained and disappeared during Chile’s 1973-1990 dictatorship were stolen is growing stronger in Chile, a country that up to now has not paid much attention to the phenomenon.

“There has always been a suspicion that something similar to what happened in Argentina also occurred in Chile, and that many women who were pregnant when they were detained actually gave birth in detention centres,” a 70-year-old woman who asked to be identified simply as Carmen told IPS.

“No one dug into that issue much back then, because we were afraid, and nobody would have listened to us,” she added.

During the Sep. 11, 1973 coup, Carmen, a high school teacher who actively supported the left-wing Popular Unity government of socialist President Salvador Allende (1970-1973), was in a small town in southern Chile doing political work with a group of other young activists.

A few hours after Allende was overthrown by the coup led by General Augusto Pinochet, Carmen saw one of her fellow activists killed right next to her as they were protesting against army troops advancing on the small town. “You never get over that pain,” she said.

More:
https://www.ipsnews.net/2014/12/children-stolen-by-chilean-dictatorship-finally-come-to-light/