Guillermo turned out to have been stolen as a baby: Fiom starts campaign

The 'Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo' have been campaigning in Argentina for years. The reason? Their grandchildren were stolen forty years ago during a military dictatorship in the country. There are now indications that several stolen babies have ended up in the Netherlands. That is why Fiom, the institute for descent issues, has started a campaign.

During the military dictatorship in Argentina, which lasted from 1976 to 1983, around 500 children were stolen from their biological parents. Currently only 137 have been traced. Due to indications that some predatory babies may be staying in the Netherlands, a Fiom campaign has recently been launched. The institute wants to guide predatory babies to their biological families.

Early doubts

One of those Argentinian predators is Guillermo Amarilla Morfino. He lives in Argentina, but is temporarily in the Netherlands for his work as a representative of the ESMA Memory Site Museum. Morfino's doubts about his origins started early. "From an early age I doubted whether the people who raised me were my real parents."

He therefore asked his mother all kinds of questions, including about her pregnancy. "And how was my birth? Did the sun shine? I never got an answer to those questions." Morfino did not dare to express his doubts in concrete terms. “I felt guilt, shame and fear.”

DNA test

When Morfino took a DNA test, his doubts turned out to be correct. His parents turned out not to be his biological parents. “After the test I felt liberated,” he says. "I felt a huge relief because my doubts were correct and I was not crazy. It was a miracle."

A second DNA test then led to a match with someone from the Argentine database of the Grandmothers of the Plaza Mayo, the grandmothers who are looking for their lost grandchildren. Morfino turned out to have been born in a clandestine detention center in 1980 and his biological family had disappeared in the meantime.

Morfino's identity was subsequently falsified by the military. "I am not adopted, but appropriated. It is comparable to an illegal adoption." Yet he bears no grudge against his 'parents'. “But I don't like them,” he says. “There is no love if there is deception and secrets.”

Very emotional

Through the Argentinian database, Morfino eventually comes into contact with his biological family, which leads to a meeting. "It was great to meet my biological brothers, very emotional. After thirty years I could finally hug them." He corrects himself: "It is not a meeting, but a reunion. It is a temporary 'distance' until we are reunited again."

A beautiful moment, but at the same time he has been lied to his whole life by the people he thought were his parents. In fact, Morfino's father turned out to be part of a battalion that belonged to the army intelligence service. "The same battalion turned out to be responsible for the disappearance of my biological family and the murder of my grandmother. So my father is not a good person."

Migration flow

A complex situation. And it is therefore possible that there are also people in the Netherlands with a similar situation to that of Morfino. "Due to the migration flow between Argentina and the Netherlands at that time, you also have to look here," says Ellen Giepmans, director of Fiom. "These people may also include Argentinians who have adopted predatory babies."

Campaign

Following this information, Fiom was approached by Hijos, an organization that is committed to finding grandchildren of Argentine grandmothers. In Argentina, the grandmothers of stolen babies have been campaigning for decades to find their grandchildren. This led to a campaign in the Netherlands to track down possible predatory babies.

"Time is running out for the grandmothers, so it has to happen now," says Giepmans. "Even if it is only a small chance: we want to contribute to this. For the same money, there are more people in the Netherlands who do not know that they have been adopted."

Check and ask

According to Morfino, there are a few things that people with Argentinian roots – those born between 1976 and 1983 – can pay attention to. "People should see if they have an official birth certificate that actually states where they were born."

He continues: "They can also check whether or not there are any photos of their pregnant mother. Especially if there are doubts and nothing else is known about the pregnancy," he says. "People with doubts can also check to see if they have people around them who were part of the Argentine armed forces from that time."

Morfino believes it is very important that people become aware of the Fiom campaign, so that perhaps more predatory babies can be traced. “There are families, brothers, sisters, grandfathers and grandmothers who have been looking for you all their lives and welcome you with open arms.”