Spain's Stolen Babies Our World

World. Katya Adler goes to Spain to investigate claims of widespread

Spain is reeling from an avalanche of shocking allegations of baby

theft and baby trafficking. It has been recently revealed to be going

on for decades. Graves are being exhumed. Their contents show the

cynical deceit used to trade in human lives. TRANSLATION: She was

Since the Spanish Civil War, hundreds and thousands of babies

has been trafficked by nuns, priests and doctors. I have been

meeting the heartbroken mothers searching for the children they

thought had died at birth. TRANSLATION: I was convinced they

did not bury the baby. I had doubted the boy died. He is alive

in my heart. The stall and an trafficked babies are grown up,

searching for their biological Madrid housewife Manoli Pagador has

three-quarters. And lots of grandchildren. She never got over

the loss of her first-born, a son, nearly 40 years ago. Tributes win

their first taught me he died, that was the worst thing on earth. My

world collapsed. From that moment on, I no longer existed. In April

1971, Manoli Pagador gave birth to a healthy baby boy week in

The birth seemed to go well. There were no complications. The horror

of what happened next has thwarted Manoli Pagador ever since.

TRANSLATION: I said, are you not going to give him to me? They said,

no. We need to give him to the doctor. At first, I had a baby

crying. That crying went away. It went further away. And then, nine

hours later, a man arrived. She said, your baby has died. -- a

Manoli Pagador and her husband never believed their baby died.

Like many other parents across Spain with similar stories, they

believed their child was stolen. I have always doubted the boy died.

Until recently, some members of Manoli Pagador's own family doubted

her. Her eldest daughter of believes passionately that her

brother was stolen. She has turned detective to find out the truth.

TRANSLATION: My mother has told me her story many times. How she had

her baby and how they treated her. I feel so much anger. So much.

Right now, I am living in a bubble and looking for my brother. Us

victims will do the investigation. I will tell you that now. Recent

events in Spain have given Manoli Pagador and Mar and thousands like

them new hope. TRANSLATION: Hundreds of Spaniards he believed

they were the victim of last baby trafficking demand as a national

investigation. There are alleged incidents of trades of the Spanish

infants including baby steps. The volume and similarity of their

The campaign was spearheaded by Some of the families who believed

their babies were stolen had begun private investigations. Shocking

evidence has emerged. Babies' graves are being exhumed across

Spain, making for disturbing discoveries. One Great had a pile

of stones in it. Another, the remains of an adult leg. The grave

of a baby girl showed the brains of a baby boy, my relative at all to

the distraught parents. Spaniards are appalled. As public pressure

advance, there are likely to be more exhumations in the coming once.

While most of the exhumations have been done privately, a judge in

southern Spain has ordered the first state exhibition. The Spanish

government has appointed a national co-ordinator to oversee this. The

project is called ninos robados, or the stolen children. How many are

there? I do not come up with a figure myself but from the volume

of his official investigations, there are many. This is a serious

matter. When it affects something as essential as your own identity,

the right to know your origins is a fundamental right. Spain's judicial

system is examining cases which took place between 1960 and 1990.

The origins of this tragedy are In 1939, General Franco seized

power at the end of the civil war. He began a dictatorship over a

country that was economically devastated and bitterly divided on

Thousands were executed or imprisoned. Their children were

placed with right-wing Catholic families or put into institutions

run by the clergy, and brainwashed with a fascist doctrine. To seal

the fate of the children of his enemies, Franco and acted a new

option war in 1941. It made it legal to name the adoptive parents

of -- the biological parents. Infants were unaware that they were

adopted and that other people told some otherwise. His deceit laid the

foundation for the mass trafficking of babies that would follow for the

While Spanish society continues to be rocked by the scandal pop --

scandal, reverberations are built around the world. Randy Ryder was

born in Spain but used in Texas. He is a writer. He had a difficult

childhood, living between an Austrian mother and a Texan father.

For the first half of my life, I spent with my mother. She was an

alcoholic. She would say that you are not really mind. And that I got

you from a very bad woman in Spain. But I was... I read that off as

gibberish. It was only by accident that Randy Ryder began to find out

the trees. He was holidaying with his own son with his -- in Austria.

He was commented on the lack of resemblance between his grandson

and his mother. At that point, my grandmother was -- looked at me and

said, you do not have my blood. I said, what are you talking about?

She said, you are not part of my blood biologically. When Randy

Ryder confronted his father about what his grandmother has said, his

father admitted he had been bought. He finally said, OK, you are. I

want you to know that the best -- picked the best one of the bunch.

He told me that he provided $5,000 to pay for the first. -- the birth.

A large percentage of that cash went to someone. Randy Ryder

requested his birth certificate from the Spanish Consulate. He was

surprised that the people who knows -- that those people were listed as

his biological parents. The combination of Franco's adoption

laws have left victims like Randy rider few clues as to their real

identity. Mar's own investigation is growing. She believes Randy

Ryder is her stall and brother. TRANSLATION: She was watching the

numerous TV programmes dedicated to helping victims search for their

biological relatives. She spotted an immediate family resemblance in

one of the contributors. I saw him on television. I felt, this guy

looks a lot like my father. I was a nervous wreck. After thinking for

40 years that my brother had died, I now find out that he could be

Randy Ryder, Manoli Pagador and Mar have decided to get DNA tested to

see if they are related. They will pick the DNA results together. A

handful of DNA matches have already been made between stolen babies and

mothers who were told their child had died. It is concrete proof that

for decades, Spanish papers were being forcibly taken and sold on.

Under Franco, the Church assumed a prominent role in Spain's social

services, including hospitals, schools and children's homes.

Individual nuns and priests were ideally placed to organise the

trafficking of babies, sorting them from others as -- that they

There are numerous support groups, blogs and websites where the teams

level allegations at individual doctors, hospitals and private

clinics. The most Pretorius of these is the clinic in the --

notorious, is this clinic in Madrid. It is wisely being described as

extremely catholic. Hundreds of babies are believed to be traffic

from this clinic. It was well known to be the place to go if you wanted

a baby fast and have the means to pay for it. In 1981, civil registry

sources indicated that 70% of women who gave birth at the clinic were

registered as mother unknown. This was legal under Spanish law. It was

meant to protect the anonymity -- anonymity of unmarried mothers. But

it was widely used to cover up baby trafficking. Photojournalist was

working for interview magazine in 1982. They received a tip-off about

unmarried mothers being coerced to give up their babies for

trafficking. TRANSLATION: There was a Doctor Who ran the clinic. We

tried to speak to him so he could tell us what was going on. He

They told us things that people would arrive to give birth and then

one person would take another baby. At one point during the interview

they told us but when women wanted to keep their baby they were then

told their baby had been born dead. I said, do they not want to see it?

They said yes but we keep several babies in the freezer. He then

arranged to return it to the San Ramon clinic in the dead of night

to see for himself. This nurse opened the door and we went through

to a back room. They opened the door to a freeserve. They showed me

a child, a baby girl, that had been stillborn. They kept her as a model

I have come to Tenerife to see a woman who believes her baby was

stolen in the 1980s. Her story is similar to many people who say

their babies was taken from them at Dr Eduardo Vela had sedated her

When she came round he was at her TRANSLATION: Dr Eduardo Vela told

me the birds had been complicated and the baby had had some

difficulties. He was not sure that she had survived. I started to cry

and he told me, do not cry. I am going to baptise her so that she

will go to heaven with the angels. Then he came back with that thing.

It was wrapped in a towel or a cloth or something. He courts the

baby close to me. It was very pale he said. Give her a kiss. So I kiss

her. -- I gave her a kiss. Why was she so cold? She was completely

frozen. Shortly afterwards, Dr Eduardo Vela return. This time

without the baby. He strokes me and told me, do not cry. God has taken

her with him. It is better this way because a child with disfigurements

and health problems would have been She went on to have more children

but she never believed her baby really died. She is convinced that

she knows why she was targeted to have her baby taken. TRANSLATION: I

probably did not fit the right profile for the doctor. At the time

I was a divorcee with a child outside marriage and with a younger

man. I do not believe in God. I am a politically incorrect person

because I am towards the left. Everybody knows this. I work with

left-wing movements in Madrid. He knew all of this. She is not the

only mother who believes she was shown a frozen baby by a Dr Eduardo

Vela as part of an elaborate deceit. Clare one was able to run a baby

factory for decades, producing babies Forder without being held to

account. We asked him for an interview but he declined, as he

has done towards any requests for interviews. I gave birth in his

latest clinic, here in Madrid, over one year ago. That is how I have

managed to get an appointment to see him today. As a newly expecting

He immediately assumed I was talking about the allegations of

He explained he was providing a service for women who did not once

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 80 seconds

or could not keep their baby. -- He clearly had had enough of my

questions and headed for the door. Dr Eduardo Vela denies any

wrongdoing. He still claims he was storing the baby in the freezer to

carry out an autopsy. Experts I have spoken to save the story has

made no sense and would clearly be in contradiction of to loss at the

time. People at the clinic have difficulty finding information for

their babies because the doctor burnt all of the files. Their only

hope now is the end a matching. This lady and her daughter have

come to Madrid to me Randy Ryder, who is arriving from Texas. -- to

meet. Tomorrow they will get the results of their DNA tests to see

if they are actually related. TRANSLATION: I am nervous and

excited. I am happy because I am going to meet him in person. Just

talking about it makes my heart In the end, all of Spain's stolen

and a traffic babies have to hang on is there hope that the end a

matching will succeed in reuniting their families. The day has finally

come fall all of these people to find out the truth. -- to come for.

I have spent much time looking in the mirror and asking, who are you?

Where do You come from? More months of waiting and hoping are about to

end, here at the DNA testing laboratory. They are about to find

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It is such an awful feeling. They talks about it, the possibility

that may be Randy Ryder was not the Sun and further they were looking

for. But when the final result came and you see their faces and you

know their lives that were broken before, just feel a little bit more

broken now. This is happening all over Spain. The same crisis, that