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Yahoo
5 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Chile prosecutes individuals alleged to have stolen babies
It's a dark chapter in Chile's history. During the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet from 1973 to 1990, thousands of babies were stolen from their biological mothers and sold into adoption, mainly to foreign couples from the United States and Europe. In Chile, they're known as 'The Children of Silence.' And now, for the first time in the country's history, a Chilean judge announced he was prosecuting individuals alleged to have stolen babies in the country. Alejandro Aguilar Brevis, a Santiago Court of Appeals judge in charge of the investigation 'determined that in the 1980s' there was a network of health officials, Catholic priests, attorneys, social workers and even a judge who detected and delivered stole babies from mainly impoverished mothers and sold them into adoption to foreign couples for as much as $50,000, according to a Monday press release by Chile's judiciary. The investigation, which focuses on the city of San Fernando in central Chile, involves two babies who were stolen and handed over to foreign couples, according to the judiciary statement. According to the statement by Chile's judiciary, the ring allegedly focused on 'abducting or stealing infants for monetary gain' with the purpose of 'taking them out of the country to different destinations in Europe and the US.' The judge charged and issued arrest warrants for five people, who he said should remain in pre-trial detention for 'criminal association, child abduction, and willful misconduct,' the release said. The Chilean government has made an extradition request to Israel for a former Chilean family court judge who now lives there and was allegedly involved, the release added. CNN contacted the judiciary to determine if those involved have legal representation and how they respond to the allegations, but there has been no response so far. The judge ruled that the statute of limitations does not apply in this case because as 'these are crimes against humanity committed under a military regime and must be punished in accordance with the American Convention on Human Rights and the jurisprudence of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.' The investigation was announced Monday, one day after Chilean President Gabriel Boric said that a task force he created last year to investigate cases of stolen babies has issued its final report. Following its recommendations, Boric said the Chilean government will 'create a genetic fingerprint bank that will provide additional means of searching for origins and enable family reunification for the many babies who were stolen for so long and given to foreign families.' Constanza del Río, founder and director of Nos Buscamos (We Are Looking for Each Other), a Santiago NGO dedicated to reuniting families of stolen babies said that she feels cautiously optimistic because actions by countries like Chile to find the truth about the stolen babies have been 'very slow and something that revictimizes the victims.' Del Río, herself a victim of an illegal adoption, filed a lawsuit in 2017 demanding an investigation by the Chilean government. Authorities named a special prosecutor, but the investigation went nowhere, she said. Another prosecutor took the case for five years only to declare last year that he hadn't been able 'to establish that any crimes have been committed,' according to Del Rio. President Boric has said creating a task force proves his government is serious about the issue and has spoken publicly about it, recognizing the systematic theft of babies back then as a fact. There could be tens of thousands of cases. The theft of thousands of babies in Chile has been documented for over a decade by non-governmental organizations. Since 2014, CNN has reported about multiple cases where people stolen as babies have reunited with their biological mothers after DNA tests proved they were, in fact, related. Constanza del Río says Nos Buscamos alone has built a database that includes about 9,000 cases and has helped reunite more than 600 parents with their stolen children. Ten years ago, Marcela Labraña, the then-director of the country's child protection agency (SENAME, by its Spanish acronym), told CNN her agency was investigating hundreds of cases but suspected there could be thousands more. 'This is no longer a myth. We know nowadays that this happened, and it was real. It's not a tale that a couple of people were telling,' Labraña said at the time. CNN's Cristopher Ulloa contributed reporting.
New York Times
01-03-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Lawsuit Against Panama Challenges Detention of Trump Deportees
A group of high-profile lawyers on Saturday filed a suit against Panama over its detention of migrants deported from the United States, threatening to disrupt President Trump's new policy of exporting migrants from around the world to Central American countries. The lawsuit, filed against the government of Panama before the Inter-American Commision on Human Rights, names 10 Iranian Christian converts and 102 migrants detained at a camp near a jungle in Panama as plaintiffs, according to a copy seen by The New York Times. The suit argues that the United States violated the Iranian group's right to asylum on account of religious persecution and that Panama has violated domestic and international laws, such as the American Convention on Human Rights, in its detention of the migrants. The lawsuit was filed only against Panama, although one of the lawyers involved said he planned to file a separate complaint against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security this coming week. Responding to a request for a comment on the lawsuit, a spokeswoman for President Raúl Mulino of Panama, Astrid Salazar, said that the migrants 'are not detained' by the Panamanian government. 'They are not in our command but rather that of IOM and UNHCR.' The migrants are being held at a fenced camp guarded by armed Panamanian police officers, and Panama's security ministry controls all access to the facility. The International Organization for Migration and the U.N. Refugee Agency do not have regular presence at the camp, and have said that they are not in charge of the migrants, but rather are offering some humanitarian support, like providing funds for food. The suit filed on Saturday requests that the commission issue emergency orders saying that none of the detained migrants at the jungle camp should be deported to their countries of origin. 'Panama's government has no domestic or international authority to detain people under these circumstances,' said Ian Kysel, associate clinical professor of law at Cornell Law School and the plaintiffs' lead counsel. In mid-February the Trump administration opened a new front in its efforts to deport millions of people by sending recently arrived migrants from around the world to Central America. About 300 people were flown to Panama and held at a hotel in Panama City, including the 10 Iranian converts, several children among them. More than 100 people who did not agree to return to their countries of origin were later transferred to a detention camp near the Darién jungle, where they remain. The Trump administration has since thanked Panama for its assistance in tackling migration challenges. But the arrival of the deportees and their detentions have created problems for the government of Mr. Mulino, which agreed to take the migrants but has received criticism from the United Nations, human rights activists and lawyers for holding them without criminal charges. The human rights commission is a seven-member body whose decisions apply to members, including Panama. It is meant to be used when individuals feel their domestic legal options have been exhausted or in cases where irreparable harm is imminent and plaintiffs say they need rapid legal protections. The commission cannot impose sanctions, but ignoring its decisions could come with political risks. José Miguel Vivanco, an expert on human rights issues in Latin America, said that if the commission ruled in the plaintiffs' favor, he thought Panama would comply. Were the commission to rule in favor of the plaintiffs, halting their deportations, it could make it more difficult for Mr. Trump to convince leaders in Panama and elsewhere to take in migrants the United States does not want to deal with. After sending the migrants to Panama, the Trump administration sent 200 migrants from Central Asia, the Middle East and Eastern Europe to Costa Rica, including dozens of children. As in Panama, the migrants are being held at a remote facility several hours' drive from the capital. Mr. Kysel said similar legal actions are expected against other countries in Latin America, including Costa Rica, that are cooperating with Mr. Trump and accepting deportees. In both cases, the Central American governments said they planned to deport people quickly to their home countries. In the lawsuit, lawyers argue that for the Iranian Christians deportation would carry 'irrefutable harm,' because Iran's law stipulates that converting from Islam is a crime punishable by death. 'I am afraid of what will happen to me at the hands of the government of Panama,' one of the Iranians, Artemis Ghasemzadeh, said in a sworn declaration filed in the lawsuit. 'I still want to seek asylum in the United States and pursue a free life as a Christian there.' Ms. Ghasemzadeh, 27, who fled Iran in December and made her way from Mexico across the southern U.S. border, has been publicizing their ordeal in media interviews. She first attracted global attention when a video in which she recounted being shackled and deported to Panama spread widely online. The commission typically issues decisions in such cases within 48 hours, said Mr. Vivanco. The bar for the commission to issue protections to plaintiffs is very high, he said. But given Iran's policy toward converted Christians, he thought the case had a chance. 'I think this is going to get the attention of everyone involved,' he said. Mr. Kysel said he hoped the lawsuit deterred other countries from participating in Mr. Trump's deportation plans. 'Panama and any other country in the region face legal liability if they receive, detain and deport asylum-seekers summarily expelled from the United States,' said Mr. Kysel. The lawsuit is a result of collaboration among lawyers and legal groups in multiple countries. One of the lawyers, Ali Herischi, who is representing the Iranians pro bono, said he plans on filing a separate lawsuit this week against the Department of Homeland Security. The lawsuit would be on behalf of Ms. Ghasemzadeh and the nine Iranian Christian converts, three of them children, in Panama and three Iranians deported to Costa Rica. A spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security has previously said that none of the migrants had 'asserted fear of returning to their home country at any point during processing or custody.' Ms. Ghasemzadeh contends she repeatedly asked to fill out paper work for asylum but immigration officials at the camp in California where she was held kept telling her this was not the time. Mr. Herischi said the motion would challenge the legality of their deportation and requests as a remedy that the group be allowed to apply for asylum in the United States.
