Fujimori to be tried for sterilization without consent of nearly 350,000 women

More than 272 thousand tubal ligatures and around 22 thousand vasectomies They were carried out without consent and without knowledge during Alberto Fujimori’s tenure from 1990 to 2000 in Peru. After years of impunity The date has been set for his trial, which will be March 1.

These actions were carried out through a Government plan to reduce birth rates in rural areas and indigenous communities across the country, the national family planning program. Fujimori defended his policy on the grounds that it would be a progressive plan offering a wide range of contraceptive methods, which included surgical sterilization then illegal.

The victims were mainly from different indigenous communities of the country, of modest origin and speakers of Quechua, so they did not understand the consent they signed because it was written in Spanish. Near 2,073 women reported that their tubes were forcibly tied in front of local and international human rights groups, and at least 18 died from the operation. According to the Europa Press news agency, there are still today 1,307 outstanding complaints.

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Currently, the former Peruvian president is serving a sentence of 25 years in prison and Peruvian justice also accused former health ministers Eduardo Yong Motta, Marino Costa Bauer and Alejandro Aguinaga of the crime, according to the AFP news agency. The hearing was postponed two weeks ago the judicial process will not have interpreters of the Quechua variant in which some of the women who were called to testify were cast.

Testimonials

Josefina quispe She was 33 years old and had 5 children when she was subjected to a definitive contraceptive treatment without your consent. She woke up from the confused anesthesia, lying on a hospital stretcher, her whole body sore and with a scar on her abdomen. He started to ask what had been done to him, but no one answered him.

Mamérita Mestanza Chávez He had a well-known case, as it was brought before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). She was 33 years old and had given birth to her seventh child when nurses at the health center she attended insisted she have her baby checked. They claimed that if she did not agree to the tubal ligation, she would be fined or imprisoned. And this is how they operated on her without having carried out any preliminary studies or provided postoperative care. He died eight days after the operation, leaving seven orphaned children.

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Victoria vigo She says she was 32 weeks pregnant and was not feeling very well, which is why she went to her doctor. “They assessed me and decided to have an emergency Caesarean.” But her baby He was born with breathing difficulties and died shortly after. “A doctor was trying to comfort me by saying, ‘Don’t worry, you are still young, you can have another baby’,” but another doctor contradicted him: “She cannot have any more children. We have sterilized her.”

“I wanted to have more children, but this choice was taken from me without my permission “lamented Vigo, who a year later began his fight against the authorities who promoted years of litigation, in 2003 received compensation of $ 2,500. Vigo, what was the only one to have received compensationHe believes he only succeeded because he is middle class, educated and speaks Spanish.

Faced with Fujimori’s justification, Rosemarie Lerner, the director of the Quipu project which collects and shares the testimonies of victims of this Fujimori program, expressed her opinion. “The truth is that instead of promoting a variety of contraceptive methods, there were targets, quotas and a number of sterilizations that health workers had to achieve “he explained in an interview with the BBC. At the same time, Peruvian MP Tania Pariona agreed and affirmed in a dialogue with the magazine Nueva Sociedad, that “there was a chain of command for the implementation of said policy “ and stated that “a $ 30 commission for each sterilized patient to achieve the goals. “

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