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Spain probes 849 cases of alleged baby trafficking

Sat, 2011-06-18 14:38 - Kerry

By Harold Heckler

June 18, 2011 /  sacbee.com

MADRID --     Spanish prosecutors are  investigating 849 cases of newborn children stolen from their mothers and sold  to other families for profit, the country's attorney general said Friday.

Candido Conde-Pumpido said 162 cases had already been referred for trial and  only 38 have been dropped for a lack of evidence.

It is well documented that babies were taken from women who had supported the  defeated Republican side after Spain's 1936-39 civil war. However, some of the  baby trafficking cases are as recent as the mid-1990s.   

    "A great many Spaniards" had been affected by the scandal, which took  place "over a prolonged period of time," Conde-Pumpido said at a news  conference.

His office was alerted to the cases by ANADIR, an association of people  searching for lost children or parents.

Enrique Vila, a lawyer representing ANADIR, said what had begun as a  politically motivated punishment for Republican sympathizers eventually became a  purely moneymaking scheme that persisted illegally well past Spain's return to  democracy in 1978.

Investigating magistrate Baltasar Garzon has calculated there could have been 30,000  baby thefts in Spain in the wake of the civil war.

Vila has argued that there was more or less a nationwide network behind it,  involving doctors, nurses, midwives, nuns and intermediaries that would find  children for couples that wanted them. Mothers were told that their babies were  stillborn.

"It is not possible to attribute this to a single organization," said  Conde-Pumpido, speaking in the eastern city of Valencia following a meeting with  prosecutors general from Spain's 17 autonomous regions.       

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Comments

Sat, 2011-06-18 14:51 — Kerry

The uncivil way to adopt

It's uncanny to me how many times civil war (and its often bloody aftermath) is behind so many infant adoption scams, which include illegal adoptions and adoptions in which the so-called orphan was adopted and later abused or at the very least, treated very badly post-placement, thanks to stigmas against a particular race, ethnicity or religion

Germany 1939-1945.

Greece 1945-1949.

Spain 1936-1939 and the subsequent dictatorship of Francisco Franco 1939-1975.

Argentina 1976-1983.

El Salvador 1980–1992.

Cambodia 1970-1993.

Guatemala 1960-1996.

Ethiopia 1998-2000.

Have foreign adopters at any point ever put war and infant adoption together long enough to realize just how corrupt such ICA programs can be, and why ICA may make matters much worse for the child already touched by corruption and war? 

Sat, 2011-06-18 18:21 — Simon

News from the goodness angel

I wonder if the next hype will be an adopted child from Syria or Libya, now that Goodness Angel of the World, Angelina Jolie has landed in the region. A mediterranean child certainly will be fitting decoration for the $11 million mansion where she and hubby, Brad Pitt, seem to be staying at the moment.

Sat, 2011-06-18 18:46 — Kerry

Questionable "goodness", through ICA

Yea, I don't understand her role in terms of the UN and Adoptionland -- there sure seems to be a huge conflict of interest, especially when you consider the places where she has adopted from, (Cambodia, Vietnam, Ethiopia) and how war and corruption has affected the women and children living there.

Jolie, ICA celebrity extraordiaire is not the face people need to see when getting a closer look at the lives of those who live in one of the 5 most dangerous countries for women.  These countries include Somalia, India, Pakistan, Congo, and Afghanistan.... regions where rape is rife and women have no rights, and very little education. 

To give an example of the mixed message she sends, in March of this year, Jolie visited Afghanistan, asking for the rights of indivuduals to be protected.

The United Nations is calling for protection for individuals exiled by conflict in Libya, including thousands of refugees and asylum seekers unable or trying to leave the country for neighbours, Egypt and Tunisia.

They are also asking that all sides protect the human rights and safety of civilians trying to flee to Liberia, whilst clashes continue in the Ivory Coast.

'As we witness these newest crises unfold in west and north Africa, it is critical that all parties respect the fundamental right of people in danger to flee to safety, whether civilians caught in conflict in their own country or refugees and asylum seekers caught in new conflicts,' Jolie  said in a statement.

'All I'm asking is that civilians be protected, and not targeted or harmed.'

[From:  Angelina Jolie visits refugees in Afghanistan and issues a humanitarian appeal for troubled Libya ]

Poverty, desperation and little education are key ingredients to a variety of child trafficking schemes... including ICA, which has become very vogue in the celebrity community.  Note how the USA still has yet to ratify the treaty to the UNCRC.... a fact Jolie tends to leave out, when discussing the rights and plights of individuals in war-torn areas or countries in profound distress.

I think more people, westerners especially, need to take the time to think how ICA does not aid mothers and children in these regions.  Unmonitored and unchecked, ICA only enables and encourages forced births and child kidnapping, all so Americans and Europeans can get the infants/young children they truly desire.  

Surely those with relative wealth can see how dangerous and harmful it can be for both woman and child if women are forced to have babies and those babies are forced into orphan centers (and used as commodities), all so do-gooders can claim humanitarian efforts are reaching pregnant women ("widows") and "orphans" in war-torn regions of the world.