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Chilean American stolen as a baby reunites with his mom and gets a second chance at family
Kyle Adler, raised in a Chicago suburb after being stolen from Chile as an infant, reunited with his biological mother, Ana Maria Navarrete, earlier this year during the 17-year dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet.
The government estimates more than 20,000 children were stolen from families during the Pinochet regime; Navarrete, a single parent in Coronel, lost her son when a caregiver gave him to an American couple.
In 2017, Adler Googled "Chilean birth mom search" and found the Nos Buscamos Facebook group; a DNA test from Israel-based MyHeritage later confirmed a match with Navarrete, which Adler said "made it official."
Reunited two days after her 56th birthday on Valentine's Day, the two visited the hospital where Adler was born; "My birth mom's just been wanting me to be alive," Adler said before the trip.
Human rights lawyer Jimmy Lippert Thyden Gonz, who was also illegally adopted, sued the Chilean government three years ago and founded the nonprofit Grafting Hope to fight for survivors and educate U.S. lawmakers.