American man ‘stolen’ as a baby finds family in Chile
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Featured Image Credit: USA TODAY
A man from the US who was 'stolen' as a baby has found his family and met them in Chile for the very first time.
It really does sound like something out of a movie, but for Scott Lieberman it is very much the reality of his life nowadays.
The 42-year-old, who resides in San Francisco, knew that he was adopted from Chile, but was unaware he was in fact stolen from his birth parents.
During the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet (1973-90), many babies from Chilean families were stolen, often from poorer families.
While an investigation into the number of stolen babies has languished over the years, Chilean officials have previously said the number could be in the thousands.
However, some who took part in the illegal adoptions have died, so it is quite tricky to pinpoint an exact number.
Nonetheless, Lieberman began to wonder if he may have been involved after reading a news article about the scandal a few months ago.
Speaking to USA Today, he said: "The limited knowledge I knew about my adoption, it all made more sense in that one article than what I had been told and what I had thought my entire life."
Lieberman decided to reach out to Nos Buscamos - a non-governmental organisation dedicated to returning stolen individuals with their families.
And within days, Lieberman was told he had been handled by a child trafficker posing as a social worker, and that his mother was most likely tricked into giving him away.
The relationship with his family back home was confirmed through DNA tests, with them having no idea Lieberman even existed.
Lieberman recently travelled to Chile to meet his family and was greeted and embraced by sister, 45-year-old Jenny Escalona, at the airport.
"I'm still kind of processing everything, and I probably will be for a while now – months if not years," Lieberman told USA Today.
As he spoke to reporters, his newly-found sister comforted him, as he added: "This is where I was supposed to be."
Lieberman's biological mother is Rosa Mardones Peña, who never said a word about him, according to Escalona.
In fact, the sister says there was no word about a father either, as the newly-found siblings have different dads.
Peña sadly died of bone cancer in 2015 at the age of 58, and was forever left in the dark about what happened with her son.
