Chilean judge prosecutes 5 people accused in stolen babies scandal
A Chilean judge announced this week the Chilean judiciary is moving to prosecute five people in connection with reports of babies stolen from their biological families and adopted out to families overseas in the United States and other countries.
Under the power of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet in the 1970s and 1980s, some experts believe thousands of babies were taken and trafficked around the world.
For the first time, a judge in Chile, Aguilar Brevis is formally accusing five people for their reported roles between 1970 and 1990 in connection with ripping families apart and illegally adopting out children to unknowing parents.
Judge Brevis in a release this week ordered the capture and imprisonment of Ivonne Gutiérrez Pávez, Ismael Moisés Espinoza León, Carlos Sigisfredo Vega Segura, Laura Rosa Silva Sánchez and Sylvia Clara Vilches Rojas in connection with the disappearance and illegal adoption of two children. Chilean officials confirm Gutiérrez Pávez is being prosecuted of two charges of child abduction. Officials believe she in Israel, and her extradition has been requested.
An investigation done by the Chilean judiciary formally uncovered a scheme that played out in the 80s in San Fernando, Chile involving a network of lawyers, Catholic priests, members of social organizations, health officials, and a judge to identify and place minors whose mothers were low-income for adoption to foreign couples who paid out thousands of dollars...sometimes reaching $50,000.
RELATED: Stolen at birth in Chile: How a Houston firefighter is helping families connect the dots
The five people accused are facing several offenses including abduction of minors, illicit association, abduction and prevarication.
In 2022 a Houston firefighter, Tyler Graf rang the alarm of what had happened to him. His biological mother in 1983 gave birth to him prematurely in Chile and was told her son had died in the maternity ward. Graf says decades later his mother found out her son hadn't died and was illegally put up for adoption in a plot sanctioned by the Chilean government. The family that adopted Graf in the United States say they had no idea.
In the last several years Graf made it his mission for this story to stay in the limelight as he looked for accountability while simultaneously keeping his day job at the fire house and launching a non profit to help connect other adoptees to their biological families.
Graf launched the Connecting Roots organization a year after tracking down his own mother and biological family through DNA testing in Chile.
"In Chile, they have a root number which is like a social security, and we can log into the records of Chile. If it was an illegal adoption, this root number still exists, and in Chile, we are still citizens of Chile. We never died, we never left the country. I still, we still, have separate names in Chile," Graf said in a 2022 interview with ABC13. "These adopted mothers are also victims. They're victims of deception and their character, and I want to help other people who were taken advantage of," Graf said.
The organization has now been able to reunite dozens of adults with their biological Chilean families after being separated decades ago by the government.
