Chile is no longer conducting a criminal investigation into possible child theft and illegal adoptions by a Dutch 'fake nun'. After the death of Truus Kuijpers last year, the Chilean investigating judge no longer decides whether she was guilty of this. His spokesperson told this site.
Adoption victims and interest groups are disappointed. They call on the Dutch government to conduct its own investigation, because new abuses continue to come to light about Kuijpers' adoption practices.
In Chile, a criminal investigation has been going on for years into the illegal adoptions of 20,000 children during the dictatorship in the 1970s and 1980s. Kuijpers, who ran a children's home there and falsely posed as a nun, was one of the suspects. Chilean mothers and adoptees accuse her of stealing children for adoption in the Netherlands. This would involve at least a hundred children.
According to investigating judge Jaime Balmaceda, five hundred cases are in a final phase and six hundred have been dismissed, including Kuijpers' case. She died exactly a year ago. "Due to her death, she is no longer a suspect and no statement will be made about her possible criminal liability," said a spokesperson for Balmaceda.
The spokesperson emphasizes that it had not yet been determined whether she was guilty before her death. She cannot say whether research is still being conducted into Kuijpers' sister in the Netherlands, with whom she arranged the adoptions.
Slow and amateurish
Interest groups in Chile criticize the 'slow' and 'amateurish' research. No one has yet been criminally prosecuted. "The deaths of people mentioned by victims are the perfect excuse not to continue the investigation," said Ana María Olivares Rivas of Hijos y Madres del Silencio.
"We are frustrated with the role of the judiciary, which questions testimonies of the mothers and abducted children, despite all the evidence. The will to convict the guilty is lacking because many of them are judges, doctors and lawyers. The families from whom sons and daughters were taken are not believed because they were poor.”
Truth Commission
Chilean President Gabriel Boric is considering setting up a truth commission to prosecute perpetrators. This also happened after the Pinochet dictatorship with disappeared prisoners.
Olivares Rivas thinks it is 'a shame' that the Netherlands does not conduct an investigation into Chilean adoptions, as the Swedish government does. Outgoing Minister Franc Weerwind (Legal Protection) sees no point in this because of the criminal investigation in Chile. "I don't want to get ahead of things," he wrote in answers to parliamentary questions from the SP. 'I have confidence that the Chilean constitutional state will investigate this thoroughly.'
There is nothing to prevent the Netherlands from starting an investigation now
Alejandro Quezada, illegally adopted
Now that Chile is no longer investigating Kuijpers, the way is clear, according to illegal adoptees Mirjam Hunze and Alejandro Quezada. Alejandro: "Nothing prevents the Netherlands from starting an investigation now."
They say they have alerted both the Ministry of Justice and Security and the Chilean police to Kuijpers since 2018. In addition, Kuijpers had a large network in Chile and the Netherlands and her sister and former board members of the children's home are still alive.
"It is too short-sighted to stop the investigation because Kuijpers has died," says Mirjam. "There are still perpetrators and accomplices in Chile and the Netherlands. They must be heard. The Netherlands must take action now, because time is running out."
A spokesperson for Weerwind said that the ministry will request information about the criminal investigation in Chile into Kuijpers and her sister. "Based on this information, it will be determined whether further action will be taken."
