The US government issued 2,354 adoption visas to American couples during El Salvador's twelve-year civil war years. Many of the children were illegally taken and sold into international adoption rings. Pro-Busqueda has so far been able to find 61 children taken from their parents.
In 1994, a Spanish Jesuit priest called Jon de Cortina helped families track down five of the children taken by the army 12 years before, during the La Guinda de Mayo massacre; the children had been dumped at a Red Cross orphanage 100 miles from their village. News spread and mothers such as Josefina came forward to report their missing children for the first time.
Buoyed by this early success, Father Jon created the Pro-Busqueda [Search] Association of Disappeared Children, a charity with a shoestring budget to investigate disappearances.
Read more about Pro-Busqueda and some of the children who have reconnected with parents in this article from
The Independent.
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