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After 40 Years Apart, a Chilean Mother Reunites with Two Children Stolen During Dictatorship
The reunion follows years of searching and a trafficking network that Chilean judicial reports say led to about 20,000 forced or criminal adoptions.
- On Wednesday, Teresita Padilla, 66, embraced sons Tim Rolnick, 41, and Travis Murdoch, 37, in Santiago, Chile, reuniting nearly 40 years after hospital workers took them during Gen. Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship.
- During Pinochet's 17-year regime, authorities estimate hospital workers forcibly took nearly 20,000 children for illegal international adoptions, arguing the practice would reduce child poverty.
- Genealogical research and MyHeritage DNA testing enabled the reunion with assistance from Santiago-based organization Nos Buscamos, which helped the brothers process their discovery.
- "God gave me back my children," Padilla said after embracing her sons. Rolnick described the reunion as "very surreal," calling it "shock, in a good way."
- Groups like Nos Buscamos estimate more than 50,000 Chilean families remain affected by trafficking networks comprising social workers, doctors, judges, and lawyers who arranged illegal adoptions.
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After 40 years apart, a Chilean mother reunites with two children stolen during dictatorship – WTOP News
SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — Four decades after a brutal separation, Teresita de Jesús Padilla was able to embrace two of her children again, after they were taken from her native Chile by hospital workers in one of the thousands of illegal adoptions under the late Gen. Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship. “God gave me back my children, whom I thought I had lost forever,” Padilla said moments after meeting Tim Rolnick and Travis Murdoch, 41 and 37, respec…
·Chevy Chase, United States
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After 40 years apart, a Chilean mother reunites with two children stol
SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — Four decades after a brutal separation, Teresita de Jesús Padilla was able to embrace two of her children again, after they were taken from her native Chile by hospital workers in one of
·Baltimore, United States
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Coverage Details
Total News Sources25
Leaning Left12Leaning Right3Center8Last UpdatedBias Distribution52% Left
Bias Distribution
- 52% of the sources lean Left
52% Left
L 52%
C 35%
13%
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