Is the Democratic Memory Law failing Spain’s stolen babies?
The Ministry confirms that, since 2022, it has recognised victim status for only one child taken without the free and legitimate consent of his parents.
Tudela de Duero, 4 August 2026.
Olmo Gómez Aldaz, the only child recognised to date under Spain’s Democratic Memory Law as a victim of removal without the free and legitimate consent of his parents, considers that his adoption concealed that removal and is seeking its annulment through the courts. “Adoption in Spain is irrevocable,” he says.
The confirmation comes from a reply by the Ministry of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory dated 28 July 2026. According to the document, the only Personal Declaration of Recognition and Reparation granted to a child taken without the free and legitimate consent of his parents is the one issued to Olmo Gómez Aldaz on 19 February 2026.
“As the only child recognised, I feel a special responsibility: to make what happened visible and to help other victims find answers and seek reparation,” Olmo Gómez Aldaz says.
Olmo Gómez Aldaz was separated from his mother shortly after his birth in Bilbao in the summer of 1971, appropriated and registered as the son of an unknown mother, and finally adopted nine months later. In his recent book, DOGA 2025. The Battle for My Identity, he recounts the process that led him to reconstruct his history and, in 2025, secure judicial restoration of his original parentage without affecting his adoption.
This situation of dual parentage had no precedent in Spain.
The case differs in an important respect from that of Inés Madrigal, one of Spain’s best-known stolen-baby cases: while she was registered as the daughter of false parents, the removal of Olmo Gómez Aldaz appears to have been concealed through the adoption system itself.
The two cases share the same lawyer, Guillermo Peña Salsamendi, a leading legal figure in the stolen-babies cause. “The fact that, four years after the Democratic Memory Law was adopted, only one child has been recognised warns us that the law is not responding to those affected,” Peña says.
The Basque Government also recently recognised Olmo Gómez Aldaz as a victim under the Basque Country’s 2023 Historical and Democratic Memory Law because he was taken as a minor and subsequently deprived of his identity. Gogora confirmed that he is also the first person recognised under the Basque law in a case involving the so-called stolen babies.
The fact that only one child has been recognised almost four years after the law was passed raises the question of why recognition is not reaching the victims.
While countries such as Australia, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands have publicly acknowledged forced adoptions and introduced measures for reparation, support and family tracing, Olmo Gómez Aldaz calls on Spain to begin a similar process and adopt all necessary measures to facilitate access to archives, investigation of cases and reunification of separated people.
“This entire journey is dedicated to the memory of my mother, Micaela Aldaz Ilarregui,” he says.
Olmo Gómez Aldaz is an activist for the rights of adopted people and of those separated from their families of origin. He is a member of the Victims’ Platform of the María Madre Association of Bilbao and of La Voz de los Adoptados. His website, gomezaldaz.com, brings together the documents, official recognitions and account of his case.
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Ministry response confirming the only declaration granted
Documentation
- Ministry response
- State recognition as a victim
- Gogora recognition
- First person recognised by Gogora
Media contact
Olmo Gómez Aldaz
prensa@gomezaldaz.com
(+34) 603 384 677
gomezaldaz.com
English translation. The original Spanish PDF is preserved unchanged.