In recent years, stories have emerged about irregular adoptions that took place in Chile during the 17-year rule of General Augusto Pinochet, who seized power in 1973.
But the trafficking of children from Chile did not begin — or end — with his dictatorship. It continues to this day. This cross-border investigation reveals the network of perpetrators and the modus operandi behind this ongoing crime.
A team of investigative journalists from Italy, France and Chile conducted the first transnational investigation proving that thousands of children were adopted irregularly in Chile, from the 1970s to the present. They are known as the “hijos del silencio” (children of silence).
The journalists’ reporting uncovers a system supported by religious groups, social workers, judges, private foundations and international adoption agencies.
While the dictatorship accelerated the mechanisms that enabled this system, recent evidence shows that similar practices have continued up to at least 2024.
The team spent six months on the investigation and gained access to thousands of classified judicial files that reveal how trafficking was coordinated by a network of perpetrators.
Thanks to dozens of interviews — including with Chile’s investigative police and the Minister of Justice — the journalists were able to expose how this criminal operation has evolved and persisted over the decades.
Among the more than 40 testimonies gathered over the past six months is one from a woman who arrived in Italy at the age of 16 and was held captive by her “adoptive parents”, who never officially adopted her. Other cases involve children sent to France, Italy, the United States, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Belgium, and even Australia.
There are desperate mothers still searching for their children, who vanished from state-funded residences of the National Service for Minors, Chile’s child protection agency, with the most recent cases dating to 2024.
There is a nun who once managed an institution where abuses occurred. She now lives quietly in Rome and has previously worked in the Vatican. There is also a priest who founded an organisation that sent babies abroad starting in the 1970s. Despite information the Chilean police hold on him, he continues to operate under a different name.
See the stories below.
