Jon Clarke (Publisher & Editor)By Nicola Cowell
WHEN Josefa Gamez Gutierrez was told that her baby son had died at birth at Malaga Hospital, she had no reason to believe otherwise.
But now, 48 years on, the mother from the Axarquia, believes he was actually taken by fascists and brainwashed.
It is the third claim of forced adoption to come to light this year.
Gutierrez, from Almachar, was told at the time that her baby had died, but she and her husband were never allowed to see the body and there is no record of his death.
When she pushed for more information she was told that the baby had already been buried.
There is evidence to suggest that tens of thousands of children were stolen from their left-wing parents during the Franco era, in similar cases.
Forced adoption under Franco first came to light after a Malaga woman reported that her daughter was stolen in 1970 and a woman from Torrox claimed that her baby also disappeared in suspicious circumstances in 1976.
Last year, Antonia Radas told the Olive Press how she was abducted aged two after she and her mother witnessed her father’s execution for being a supporter of democracy.
Her mother Carmen had been forced to give her up after being jailed for her husband’s left wing past.
Radas lived a comfortable life surrounded by lies; she was told her parents had abandoned her.
Years later, she discovered the truth and got to know her mother for 18 months before she died.
“My mother was destroyed by the pain,” she revealed. “She lived for 60 years with my photo under her pillow.”
