Adoption and Foster Care Biographies - Argentinian Orphans of the Dirty War - Adoption History

Argentinian Orphans of the Dirty War: 1976-1985

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History:
Between 1976 and 1985, the military dictators of Argentina operated a policy of kidnapping, torturing, murdering, and "disappearing" their political opponents. Children of their victims were often adopted, sometimes by the very people who had tortured and murdered their parents.

There is a campaign now, Grandmothers of May Square (Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo), run by the parents of the dead and missing, to find and reclaim their grandchildren.

Of an estimated 200 such orphans, about 55 have been traced and 30 of them have been reunited with their biological families.

(A different policy was operated in El Salvador during the civil war in the 1980s. Government troops kidnapped and stole thousands of children in insurgent areas and placed them for adoption within El Salvador and overseas, pretending they were orphans, and pocketing large sums of money in fees and bribes. An organization, The Association in Search of Disappeared Children, has been successful in reuniting some of the children with their birth families.)

References:

• Mora y Araujo, Marcela, and Cerrutti, Gabriela. "Missed, Not Forgotten," The Guardian [London], 31 August 1995, p. 14
• Vanished Gallery. "Forced Adoptions of Victim's Babies."
• Fainaru, Steve. "El Salvador Awakes to the Reality of 'Disappeared' Children." First published in the Boston Globe, 17 July 1996.
• "The Vanished Gallery."

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