Santiago, November 12
Two brothers who were separated from their mother at a hospital and illegally handed over to families in the United States during the military rule of Augusto Pinochet in Chile have reunited with her after 41 years.
Teresa de Jesus Padilla, 66, who had endured decades of separation from her children, was finally able to embrace her sons.
Tim Rolnik, 41, and Travis Murdoch, 37, grew up in the United States. Although they knew they had been raised by another family, they did not know the full circumstances of their separation.
In 2020, Rolnik discovered through a DNA test that his biological family was in Chile. With the help of relatives and organisations working to reunite separated families, he later learned that his two brothers were also living in the United States. His twin brothers, Travis and Chris, had also been separated from their mother four years later and placed with an American couple.
After the three brothers got in touch, they developed a close relationship. Six years after their initial contact, Rolnik and Travis travelled to Chile to meet their mother. Their other brother, Chris, who was seriously injured in a road accident in 2013, could not join them due to his health condition.
According to a Chilean judicial report, around 20,000 cases of children being forcibly or illegally handed over to other families occurred during Pinochet’s 17-year rule. The civil society organisation Nos Buscamos estimates that more than 50,000 families may have been affected.
Poor and disadvantaged women were the primary targets of these illegal networks. Constanza del Rio, director of the organisation, said social workers, doctors, judges and lawyers were also involved.
During Pinochet’s rule, at least 3,095 people were killed or forcibly disappeared, while tens of thousands were tortured or imprisoned for political reasons.
Padilla had struggled with poverty since childhood. When she became pregnant, she trusted the hospital’s assurance that it would help secure a better future for her children. However, her children were taken away at the hospital, leaving her to endure a lifetime of separation.
“My children were taken away from me through threats and intimidation. I had to live with that pain throughout my life,” she said.
Following the reunion, Padilla said she had got back the sons she had believed she had lost forever.
Travis said that rather than dwelling on the pain of the past, he wanted to move forward and create new memories with his family.
—RSS/AP
