The Paraguayan court sentenced Carmen Quinteros, the lieutenant who had asked permission to breastfeed her baby, to house arrest.

The lieutenant of the frigate Carmen Quinteros Giménez, 33 years old, follows an irreproachable program within the Paraguayan army. She graduated with a better qualification, she never missed her career and her superiors trusted her. Until 2017, she became a mother and everything changed. The woman asked to be exonerated from the guards 24 hours a day to badfeed her baby and was refused. After filing a complaint in the civil courts, the situation worsened: she was sentenced to house arrest for 45 days.

His case sparked a scandal in the country. According to his commanders, who insist that the military woman made a mistake, the problem does not lie in the fact that she applied for a lactation license, but that she made her complaint public. As a result, his claim cost him a summary for "defamation and misconduct against military discipline".

As soon as this article appeared, in 2017, the Paraguayan army carried out a media campaign aimed at discrediting Quinteros, accused of having lied in front of the civil authorities.

But the lieutenant was not alone. Local women's groups supported her claim and mobilized to make her voice heard. The children's prosecutor, Monaliza Muñoz, said during a dialogue with the BBC that her case was a milestone. "The doors have been opened so that the rights of thousands of women and children are respected," he said.

Thanks to Quinteros' claim, it was possible to regulate the mandatory nature of badfeeding, constant monitoring of businesses, stability after work, among other regulations. Even the armed forces have set up rooms to allow their officers to badfeed and have systematized maternity and paternity leave.

"She is a heroine, she has brought us incalculable benefits, but the only one who has not benefited is her," Muñoz said. Finally, the Supreme Court of Paraguay ratified last week the decision of the Supreme Court of Military Justice and the lieutenant must remain a month and a half serving his sentence at home.

The military lawyer, Carlos Mendoza, pointed out that his client had not committed any crime. "It is a disciplinary sanction that has not yet been applied and we still do not know if it will comply, because a long time has already pbaded," he said. And he said that they had brought the case before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

The Ministry of Women expresses its concern at the measures taken against Lieutenant-Colonel Carmen Quinteros, knowing that badfeeding is a right of both children and the mother, which must be granted in conditions pic.twitter.com/Qje4rBUbA8

– Minister Nilda Romero (@MinNildaRomero) April 7, 2019

For its part, the Paraguayan government was indifferent. President Mario Abdo Benitez said that he could not "go against the law", although he could intervene as commander-in-chief of the armed forces.

The Minister of Women, Nilda Romero, announced Monday that she would ask the army not to apply the sanction against the lieutenant.

Source: TN