JUSTICIA  APLAZADA  PARA  VICTIMAS  DE  ESTERILIZACION  FORZADA  EN  EL  PERU  Publicado  el  14  de  Febrero  del  2012          Prensa  asociada    22   de   noviembre   del   2011   –   Aurelia   Paccohuanca,   quien   dirige   la   Asociación   de  Mujeres  Afectadas  por  la  Esterilización  Forzada  en  Cuzco,  comenta  que  ella  estuvo  entre   las  víctimas  de   la  esterilización  forzada  15  años  atrás,  un  poco  después  del  nacimiento  de  su  cuarto  hijo.  Más  de  2000  mujeres  han    formalizado  quejas  acerca  de  ser  esterilizadas  a  la  fuerza  bajo  el  programa  creado,  por  el  entonces  Presidente  Alberto  Fujimori,  para  reducir  dramáticamente  los  índices  de  nacimiento  en  Perú.  (AP)  Lima,  Perú  –  Fue  en  1996  cuando  Micaela  Flores  y  15  otras  mujeres  de  Los  Andes  del  Perú  aceptaron  que  las  lleven  a  la  clínica  de  Cuzco,  guiadas  por  la  promesa  de  un  chequeo  médico  gratis.      Cuando  llegaron,  ni  bien  ingresaron,   las  puertas  de   la  clínica  fueron  cerradas  con  llave.  ‘‘Vamos  a  hacer  una  pequeña   incisión,’’   le   dijeron  a  Flores,   ahora  de  54   años.   La  madre  de  siete  hijos,  dijo  que   los  enfermeros     la  ataron  de  pies  y  manos  y  que   la  anestesiaron   cuando   ella   se   resistió.   Todas   las   mujeres   -­‐dijo   Flores-­‐   fueron  quirúrgicamente  intervenidas    através  de  ligaciones  tubales.    Ella   esta   entre  más   de   2000  mujeres   que   han   formalizado   quejas   acerca   de   ser  esterilizadas   a   la   fuerza   bajo   el   programa   creado,   por   el   entonces   Presidente  Alberto  Fujimori,  para  reducir  dramáticamente  los  índices  de  nacimiento  en  Perú.    Fujimori,  actualmente  en  prisión  por  corrupción  y  autorización  de  escuadrones  de  la  muerte,    dijo  que  las  ligaciones  eran  voluntarias.  Pero  la  mujer  dijo  que  fueron  engañadas,   intimidadas   y   amenazadas   con   la   cárcel,   sobornadas   con   parcelas   de  comida  o  de  lo  contrario  presionadas  a  pagar  cuotas.    En   octubre,   Flores   pensó   que   la   justicia   finalmente   podría     estar   a   su   alcance  cuando   el   nuevo   gobierno   peruano   le   dijo   a   la   Comisión   Interamericana   de  Derechos  Humanos  que  estaba  reabriendo  una  investigación  criminalística    sobre  el   programa   1995-­‐2000,   que   esterilizó   más   de   300.000   mujeres;   la   mayoría  mujeres   de   la   sierra,   pobres   y   analfabetas.   Ya   han   pasado   tres  meses   y   hay   una  escasa  evidencia  de  progreso.      

Traducido  por  Katia  Gutiérrez  Marroquín                              

Texto  fuente.  JUSTICE  DELAYED  FOR  PERU  VICTIMS  OF  FORCED  STERILIZATION    ����Published  February  14,  2012  Associated  Press  Nov.   22,   2011-­‐   Aurelia   Paccohuanca   talks   during   an   interview   in   Lima,   Peru.  Paccohuanca,   who   heads   the   Association   of   Women   Affected   by   Forced  Sterilization   in   Cuzco,   says   she  was   among   the   victims   of   forced   sterilization   15  years  ago  shortly  after  the  birth  of  her  fourth  child.  More  than  2,000  women  have  issued  formal  complaints  about  being  forcibly  sterilized  under  a  program  created  by  then-­‐President  Alberto  Fujimori  to  dramatically  lower  Peru's  birth  rate.  (AP)  �LIMA,  Peru  –   It  was  1996  when  Micaela  Flores  and  15  other  women  from  Peru's  highlands  accepted  an  ambulance  ride  to  a  Cuzco  clinic,  lured  by  the  offer  of  a  free  medical  checkup.  But  when  they  arrived,  the  clinic's  doors  were  locked  behind  them.  "'We're  going  to  make  a  small   incision,"'  Flores,  now  54,  said  she  was  told.  When  she  resisted,  the  mother  of  seven  said  health  workers  tied  her  feet  and  hands  and  anesthetized   her.   All   the   women,   said   Flores,   were   surgically   rendered   barren  through  tubal  ligations.  She  is  among  more  than  2,000  women  who  issued  formal  complaints  about  being  forcibly  sterilized  under  a  program  created  by  then-­‐President  Alberto  Fujimori  to  dramatically  lower  Peru's  birth  rate.  Fujimori,  now  in  prison  for  corruption  and  authorizing  death  squads,  has  said  the  tubal   ligations   were   voluntary.   But   the   women   say   they   were   deceived,  browbeaten,   threatened   with   jail,   bribed   with   food   parcels   and   otherwise  pressured  into  the  operations  to  meet  program  quotas.  In   October,   Flores   thought   justice   might   finally   be   at   hand   when   Peru's   new  government   told   the   Inter-­‐   American   Commission   on   Human   Rights   it   was   re-­‐  opening   a   criminal   investigation   into   the   1995-­‐2000   program,   which   sterilized  more  than  300,000  women,  mostly  poor,  illiterate  Indians.  Yet  three  months  later,  there  is  scant  evidence  of  progress.  The  prosecutor  put  in  charge  of  the  case,  Edith  Alicia  Chamorro,  says  she  has  only  just  begun  to  study  its  62-­‐volume  folio  and  has  been  granted  no  special  financial  or  human  resources  to  devote  to  it.  Her  boss,  Peru's  chief  prosecutor  Jose  Pelaez,  did  not  respond  to  repeated  attempts  by  The  Associated  Press  to  discuss  the  case,  including  why  prosecutors  have  yet  to  contact  any  of  hundreds  of  women  who  are  eager  to  provide  testimony  in  hopes  of  receiving  restitution.  "Why  is  the  prosecutor,  the  minister  of  health,  the  national  ombudsman  closing  the  door  on  us?"  Flores  said  in  Lima  this  month  at  a  gathering  of  sterilization  victims  organized  by  a  congresswoman  who  has  long  supported  them.  Activists   say   that   besides   being   forced,   the   sterilizations  were   also   often   carried  out  in  unsanitary  conditions  with  little  or  no  post-­‐operation  follow-­‐up.  They  have  documented   18   cases   of   women   who   died   of   infections   shortly   after   being  neutered.  In  the  annals  of  government-­‐sanctioned  involuntary  sterilizations,  Peru's  appear  to  be  among  the  biggest.  Such   programs   began   in   the   late   19th   century,   spurred   by   eugenics  movements  that  aimed  to  diminish  the  stock  of  supposedly  substandard  people  starting  with  the  mentally  ill.  

Nazi   Germany   sterilized   an   estimated   400,000   women   before   World   War   II.  Sterilization  has  been  wielded  against  ethic  minorities  in  the  name  of  racial  purity  and,   as   in   Peru,   the   uneducated   poor,   said   University   of   Michigan   historian  Alexandra  Minna  Stern.  "These  type  of  large-­‐scale  campaigns  of  targeted  sterilization  unfortunately  are  not  that  uncommon  in  20th-­‐century  history,"  said  Stern,  and  Peru's  program  "has  the  most   in   common  with   the   sterilizations   that   occurred   in   the  U.S.   during   the   late  1960s   and   early   1970s   under   the   broad   umbrella   of   family   planning   and  population  control."  In  the  U.S.  they  were  typically  funded  with  newly  available  dollars  from  Medicaid's  expansion,   and   although   numbers   vary   widely   one   U.S.   study   estimated   that  100,000  sterilizations  paid  for  with  federal  funds  during  1972-­‐1973  were  coerced,  Stern  said.  Reckoning  with  that  legacy  is  North  Carolina,  where  nearly  7,600  men  and  women  were   forcibly  sterilized   through  1974.  A  panel  created  by   the  state's  governor   recommended   last   month   that   victims   be   given   $50,000   each   as  compensation.  That  could  cost  as  much  as  $100  million.  The  state  Legislature  will  decide.  Peru  hasn't  even  begun  to  discuss  that  question.  Its  prosecutors  have  barely  addressed  the  question  of  whom  to  hold  accountable  for   the   policy   that   Fujimori   framed   as   a   "family   planning"   program   while  announcing  it  at  a  1995  women's  conference  in  Beijing.  Fujimori   would   later   boast   from   exile,   three   years   after   his   corruption-­‐suffused  autocratic   regime   collapsed,   that   the   "completely   voluntary   reproductive   health  program"  had  dropped  Peru's  birth  rate  from  3.7  children  per  woman  in  1990  to  2.7  children  a  decade  later.  Officials  of  his  government  claimed  any  abuses  in  the  sterilization  program,  which  also  neutered  nearly  25,000  men,  should  be  blamed  on  overzealous  local  medical  authorities.  Director  Jeannette  Llaja  of  DEMUS,  an  advocacy  group  that  has  long  supported  the  sterilization  victims,  rejects  such  explanations.  "This  was  no  spontaneous  decision  by  bad  health  care  providers,"  she  said.  "It  was  something  directed  by  and  known  to  the  highest  authorities."  Supervisors   imposed   sterilization   quotas   on   health   workers,   she   says,   with   one  supervisor  she  knows  of  coming  under  such  intense  pressure  that  she  had  herself  sterilized.  The  program,  while  still  active,  became  so  controversial  that  the  U.S.  Congress  cut  aid  payments  to  Peru  that  were  used  to  fund  the  program.  After   his   government   fell,   Peruvian   lawmakers   initially   recommended   genocide  charges  against  Fujimori.  The  chief  prosecutor  at  the  time,  Nelly  Calderon,  told  the  AP  she  found  no  evidence  of  genocide  so  Fujimori  was  never  charged.  A   prosecutor   who   subsequently   supervised   the   investigation   of   three   Fujimori  health  ministers   and   lower-­‐ranking   officials,   Victor   Cubas,   said   the   testimony  he  reviewed  showed  most  of  the  sterilizations  were  coercive  and  carried  out  "under  a  government-­‐approved  plan."  That   probe   was   shelved   in   2009,   however,   after   Cubas'   bosses   determined   the  statute  of  limitations  had  run  out  on  the  alleged  crimes  of  serious  bodily  injury  and  manslaughter,  and  that  human  rights  charges  did  not  apply.  A   senior   official   of   President  Ollanta  Humala's   attorney   general's   office   reversed  that  assessment,  

however,  when  he  informed  the  Inter-­‐American  Commission  in  Washington  during  an  October  hearing  that  his  government  was  reopening  the  investigation  because  it  qualified  as  a  "crime  against  humanity."  Humala   had   revived   the   sterilizations   issue   during   last   year's   presidential  campaign   against   Fujimori's   daughter,   Keiko,   whom   he   defeated   in   a   runoff,  rekindling  media  interest.  Alejandra   Cardenas   of   the   New   York-­‐based   Center   for   Reproductive   Rights   says  she   considers   it   "a   crime   against   humanity   because   of   the   scale   and   systematic  nature  of  how  it  was  implemented."  Cubas   said   the   newly   reopened   investigation   could   include  Alberto   Fujimori,   72,  himself  as  a  potential  defendant.  None  of  the  three  ex-­‐ministers  would  agree  to  discuss  the  issue.  All  have  said  in  the  past  that  any  forced  sterilizations  were  isolated  cases.  One  sterilized  woman,  Serafina   Illa,   said  her  coerced   tubal   ligation,  administered  after   she   gave   birth   to   her   seventh   child   at   age   34,   went   so   badly   that   doctors  declared  her  dead  and  sent  her  to  the  morgue.  Her  husband  found  her  there  as  she  was  awakening,  she  told  the  AP.  Another  woman  who  underwent   the  procedure,  Mamerita  Mestanza,  didn't  wake  up.  Her   death   from   a   sterilization-­‐related   infection   became   the   basis   for   a   2003  settlement  reached  with  the  Inter-­‐American  Commission  in  which  Peru  agreed  pay  more   than   $100,000   to   Mestanza's   survivors   and   guarantee   her   children   free  education  through  high  school  and  free  medical  care.  After  it  was  determined  that  the  government  made  the  payments  but  didn't  honor  its  agreement  to  provide  free  education,  Peruvian  officials  told  the  commission  it  would  reopen  the  criminal  investigation.  Mestanza  had  been  told  she  needed  to  be  sterilized  because  women  who  gave  birth  to  more  than  seven  children  were  being  imprisoned,  according  to  the  settlement.  Other   women   were   told   that   if   they   refused   to   submit   to   the   surgery,   their  newborns  would  not  be  registered,  activists  say.  In  some  cases,  women  were  given  food  and  medicine  or  promised  free  education  for   their   children   if   they   agreed   to   be   sterilized,   said   Hilaria   Supa,   a   Cuzco  congresswoman  who  has  helped  organize  the  victims.  "In  Peru,  there  is  no  justice  for  the  poor,"  she  said.  �