Chile’s “Children of Silence”

Rafael Romo of CNN just recently published a story on the “Children of Silence” in Chile, where he tells the stories of families who gave birth to children in Chile during the 1970s and 1980s of the Augusto Pinochet regime, only to tell stories about their children being taken away, and illegally adopted elsewhere. He tells the story of one child and a mother:

Rojas, a 58-year-old resident of the Chilean capital of Santiago, said her baby was taken shortly after she gave birth.

He was born two months early, but doctors and nurses assured Rojas that he was healthy and would soon be sent home with her.

“The nurse put the baby on my chest while she finished the paperwork,” Rojas recalled in an emotional interview with CNN. “Then she told me they were going to take him to an incubator because he was a little small.”

She would never see him again. The next morning, a nurse told Rojas the infant had died. Her requests to view his body were denied, Rojas said. She was never given a death certificate.

This is a great article to read, as it shows how individuals are looking to find the truth to what happened during this time. This is also related to international relations from a human rights perspective. The government was allowing such crime to take place, unwilling to protect the families. Families had no place to turn for justice when these actions were committed against them.  And these actions are still impacting families and children today, who are working to find out what really transpired decades ago.

CNN will air a documentary by Rafael Romo entitled The Children of Silence. The documentary will be shown on CNNi at 11:30am eastern standard time today, October 31st, 2014. If possible, I would recommend people take time to watch the documentary.