Decades later, Chile’s ‘stolen’ babies reunite with ‘birth’ mothers

Emotional reunion of U.S.-raised Adamary Garcia with birth mother in Chile after 41 years, highlighting Chilean adoption history.

Four decades after they were cruelly forced apart, U.S.-raised Adamary Garcia and her birth mother fell into each other’s arms on Saturday (February 22, 2025) at the airport in Santiago, Chile.

Without speaking, they embraced tearfully: A rare reunification for one the thousands of Chileans taken from their mothers as babies and given up for adoption abroad. “The worst is over,” Edita Bizama, 64, said as she beheld her daughter for the first time since her birth 41 years ago. Ms. Garcia had flown to Santiago with four other women born in Chile and adopted in the United States.

Reports have estimated there were 20,000 such cases from 1950 to 1990 — most of them during the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.

Ms. Garcia lives in Puerto Rico. She broke down in tears as she recounted how, as a child, she accidentally found out she was adopted, and then tried for years to shelve the knowledge, before finally making peace with it. “I am fortunate. I have my mom and dad [in the United States], and now I have another mom and three brothers” in Chile, she said.

Last October, a DNA test confirmed her origins and Ms. Garcia arranged to meet her birth mom through the foundation Connecting Roots, which has so far reconnected 36 Chilean women with children taken from them against their will.