Imagine being 42 years old and finding out your entire origin story was a lie. Not just a small fib, but a massive, state-sponsored deception. That is exactly what happened to Jimmy L Thyden González.
In August 2023, Jimmy walked down a street in Valdivia, Chile. He was carrying 42 colorful balloons. Each one represented a year he’d spent away from his biological mother, Maria Angelica González. When they finally locked eyes, he didn't just see a stranger. He saw a woman who had been told her newborn son died in a hospital incubator four decades ago.
She was lied to. He was stolen.
Honestly, the sheer scale of this is hard to wrap your head around. Jimmy wasn't just an adoptee looking for his roots; he was a victim of a "counterfeit adoption" scheme that flourished during the 17-year dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet. While Jimmy grew up in Virginia, served in the U.S. Marines, and became a criminal defense attorney, his mother in Chile spent decades mourning a child she thought was buried in an unmarked grave.
The Lie That Built a Life
Jimmy’s journey started in 1980. He was born prematurely in a Santiago hospital. Doctors told Maria the baby needed an incubator. Then they told her he died. They told her the body had been "disposed of." It’s a chillingly common story from that era.
Thousands of babies were taken. Mostly from poor families. Mostly from mothers who didn't have the resources to fight back.
✨ Don't miss: Ukraine War Map May 2025: Why the Frontlines Aren't Moving Like You Think
Fast forward to April 2023. Jimmy, living in Ashburn, Virginia, read a news story about a man from California who discovered he had been stolen from Chile. That sparked something. He reached out to Nos Buscamos, a Chilean nonprofit dedicated to reuniting families. Within weeks, a DNA test through MyHeritage confirmed the impossible: he had a mother, four brothers, and a sister still living in Chile.
Why the Jimmy L Thyden González Case is Different
A lot of people find their birth parents. It happens every day on ancestry sites. But Jimmy’s case shifted from a personal reunion to a legal crusade.
Most people don't realize that the paperwork for these adoptions was meticulously forged. Jimmy’s documents claimed he had "no living relatives." His adoptive parents—who Jimmy describes as "unwitting victims"—believed they were giving a home to a child whose mother couldn't care for him.
But once he knew the truth, Jimmy didn't just stop at the hug. In July 2024, he returned to Santiago, not as a tourist, but as a lawyer and a former Marine. He filed a criminal complaint against the Chilean government.
He wants more than just an apology.
🔗 Read more: Percentage of Women That Voted for Trump: What Really Happened
Breaking Down the Numbers
- 20,000 cases: The estimated number of coerced or criminal adoptions reported by the Chilean judiciary.
- 50,000 families: The number of families Nos Buscamos believes were actually affected.
- 17 years: The duration of the Pinochet regime where these practices peaked.
- 0 charges: As of mid-2024, the number of people successfully prosecuted for these systematic abductions remains disturbingly low.
Jimmy is pushing for the state to take responsibility. He’s looking for reparations, sure, but mostly he's looking for acknowledgment. He's working to ensure that the Chilean government funds DNA testing and travel for other "counterfeit adoptees" who can't afford the $2,000 plane tickets he had to sell his truck to buy.
Navigating the Emotional Fallout
You've got to wonder how his American parents felt. Jimmy has been vocal about their support, though it’s clearly complicated. They raised him. They loved him. And then they found out the foundation of their family was built on a crime.
It’s messy.
When Jimmy met Maria, he told her in Spanish, "I love you very much." He spent a week in Chile. He learned how to make fried empanadas with her. He realized they share the same love for cooking. He even added "González" to his legal name to reclaim the piece of himself that was taken in that hospital room in 1980.
What Most People Get Wrong About These Adoptions
There’s a misconception that these were just "back-alley" deals. They weren't. This was a "systematic situation," according to Ciro Colombara, the human rights lawyer working with Jimmy. It involved doctors, nurses, social workers, and judges.
💡 You might also like: What Category Was Harvey? The Surprising Truth Behind the Number
It was a business.
And it wasn't just Chile. Similar patterns have been seen in other countries with dark histories of dictatorship. But Jimmy's background as a lawyer makes him uniquely dangerous to the people who want to keep this buried. He knows how to read the files. He knows how to spot the "discrepancies" he first noticed in his adoption papers back in 2011 before a deployment to Afghanistan.
Actionable Steps for Those in Similar Situations
If you or someone you know was adopted from Chile between the 1960s and 1990s, there are concrete things you can do. The landscape is changing because of people like Jimmy.
- Register with Nos Buscamos. This nonprofit is the gold standard for Chilean reunions. They have the local knowledge and the passion to navigate the bureaucracy.
- Upload DNA to MyHeritage. They have partnered specifically with organizations in Chile to provide free kits to suspected victims and their families.
- Check for "Red Flags" in Documents. Look for phrases like "mother unknown" or "no living relatives" in cases where the child was clearly born in a hospital. Forged documents often have inconsistent dates or signatures from officials who were later linked to trafficking.
- Seek Specialized Legal Advice. Standard adoption lawyers might not understand the "counterfeit" aspect. Look for human rights attorneys familiar with international adoption fraud.
- Support the Advocacy. Follow the progress of Jimmy’s lawsuit. Public pressure is often the only thing that moves the needle on government-led investigations.
Jimmy's story isn't over. He recently finished a Master’s in International Human Rights at American University. He's basically turning his trauma into a toolkit for justice. He isn't just "James Lippert" anymore; he is Jimmy L Thyden González, and he is making sure the world remembers the babies Chile tried to forget.