Taducción del texto ''JUSTICE DELAYED FOR PERU VICTIMS OF FORCED STERILIZATION''

1. 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

2. 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.

3. 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,

4. 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.