Survivors of forced sterilization in Peru: 25 years waiting for justice

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Dilcia Cano Guerrero, Ana Martínez Guevara, Nilda Guerrero Carrasco and Catalina Adriano Ramírez are members of the Association of Women of the Province of Huancabamba (AMHBA), which brings together more than 300 members and currently assumes the vice-presidency of the National Association of Women Affected by Forced Sterilizations (AMPAEF). Since March 1, 2021, - the date on which the Charges Support Hearing against former President Alberto Fujimori, his former Health Ministers and other officials, for the case of forced sterilizations, resumed - the victims connected online from their communities to follow this process. “We have been without justice for 25 years. Some colleagues have died. Recently, one of the leaders of our organization, Cleofé Neyra, died of covid-19, who was linked,and she was also a defender of the lagoons against the mining company that came to contaminate them. She was always attentive to the Audience until she got sick. Now that the investigation is over, we wait for Judge Martínez to make a decision in favor of our lawsuit. Fujimori and all the accused have to pay for their crime ”, sentence Dilcia Cano, president of the AMHBA.

More information

• The search for justice for forced sterilizations in Peru, in pictures

• The Peruvian Prosecutor's Office denounces Fujimori for the scandal of forced sterilizations

• Indigenous and poor: 20 years without guilty for the victims of forced sterilizations in Peru

The Postponement Hearing is a judicial process that has lasted almost four months, from March to June 14, 2021, after having been postponed three consecutive times. It was chaired by Judge Rafael Martínez Vargas, who during the process listened to the arguments of the prosecutor Pablo César Espinoza. This attributes the responsibility of the crime "against the body, life and health in the form of serious injuries and tortured death" of María Mestanza Chávez and others to former President Alberto Fujimori, former Ministers of Health Marino Costa Bauer, Alejandro Aguinaga and Eduardo Yong Motta and former officials of his government.

“We have seen how Fujimori's lawyer made fun of our suffering and said that he is not guilty, that the guilty are the doctors. We well know that Fujimori ordered the women to be tied up and that is why they did it to us by force, "explains Ana." Every month they went up to our villages to take us to operate with lies, without telling us what they were going to do to us. They cut us off and made us a pity ”, adds Catalina, pointing to her belly. The aftermath of forced sterilization has left lives cut short in Huancabamba, a district in northern Peru, more than a thousand kilometers from the capital.

“We are impoverished, in poor health, with pains throughout our bodies.

I have a tumor where they tied me, ”says Dilcia.

“We can no longer work as before, we depend on our husbands, or the daughters or sons we had before we were tied up.

Others have taken their own lives because their families, their husbands and in their villages hated them.

They told them that they had trained to be with one and the other ”, explains Nilda.

"All this we tell is our truth, as the research where we participate says

The truth is in our bodies

.

We are tired of so much waiting.

The judge, who has conscience and gives the order to prosecute Fujimori ”, asks Ana.

Members of the Association of Women of the Province of Huancabamba IAMAMC

María Esther Mogollón, advisor to AMPAEF and companion of these women for almost 25 years, affirms: “We hope that Judge Rafael Martínez will finally open the trial against the guilty and take into account all that is sustained in the Hearing by the Prosecutor's Office and the defense of the victims ”. It emphasizes that the role of the Prosecutor's Office has been "overwhelming" by showing 182 evidence of conviction against those responsible. "The case is made up of 1,312 victims, many Quechua speakers and living in poverty."

Sigfredo Florián is a lawyer at the Legal Defense Institute, an organization that became involved in the defense of 14 victims in 2015, after filing a complaint against the continuous filing of the tax investigation and achieving its opening again.

The lawyer maintains that the complaint filed by the Prosecutor's Office “is well founded because it shows how the Ministers of Health informed Fujimori about the progress of sterilizations between 1995 and 2000. It was a higher level information.

I am optimistic that the judge will make the decision to open a criminal proceeding and that the pertinent procedures will be carried out in court with a view to a future oral trial. "

Free defense to the aggrieved

Within the framework of different Peruvian laws, as well as the National Gender Equality Policy, whose strategic plan includes the duty of the public defense to attend to women victims of violence, as well as the National Human Rights Plan that recognizes women Women as a special protection group, the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights (MINJUSDH) provides the public defense service to those aggrieved by forced sterilization who lack sufficient means.

Luzmila Adrianzén, director in charge of Public Defense and Access to Justice of the MINJUS, affirms that, currently, they exercise the legal sponsorship of 1,824 people, of which 1,772 are women and 52 are men who come from different tax investigation processes. “Our intervention begins from the complaints presented by the aggrieved persons before the public defenders or by pre-existing complaints. It is essential to have the express authorization of each victim requesting the service. We coordinate with victims' associations and other organizations involved in this issue to inform citizens about how to access free public defense.To reach out to the victims' communities, we work with the Ministry of Women and Vulnerable Populations (MIMP) and through the district directorates. The pandemic made us stumble and now we are doing it by phone ”, explains Adrianzén.

Every month they went up to our villages to take us to operate with lies, without telling us what they were going to do to us.

They cut us off and made us a pity

Catalina Adriano Ramírez, survivor of forced sterilization

In 2015, the Registry of Victims of Forced Sterilization (REVIESFO) was created, in which 6,793 people are registered, of which 6,616 are women and 177 are men. “Those who have registered with REVIESFO are within the universe of people who consider themselves victims of forced sterilization. They can access free legal advice and sponsorship in charge of public defense; to have preferential comprehensive health care through the Comprehensive Health System, and to obtain psychological care and social assistance in the Women's Emergency Centers of the Ministry ”, explains Adrianzén. It clarifies that the affected parties do not necessarily have to be registered in REVIESFO to access public defense,as it is addressed to any person who considers himself to be affected by the forced sterilization that occurred between 1995 and 2001.

“Currently, we have 18 district directorates in the country, where 108 public defenders work with specific designation to prioritize cases of people affected by forced sterilizations. It is a sufficient number for the attention to the sponsored ones ”, affirms Adrianzén. For Sigfredo Florián - who recognizes the important work of public defense - it is necessary to reinforce with more public defenders due to the significant number of survivors who do not have defense.

Once the aggrieved person agrees to access the public defense, a series of actions are followed for their defense.

The complaint is formalized before the Public Ministry, legal assistance is provided and evidence of each case is collected.

If the trial of the guilty begins, Adrianzén explains: “We become a civil party, we collaborate with the Public Ministry and the Judiciary to clarify the facts by offering evidence;

obtain civil compensation proportional to the damage caused to the victim;

supervise the execution of the sentence in accordance with the penalty and ensure that the civil compensation is effective in the collection for the victim or his heirs in the event that the person has died. "

Several members of AMPAEF, in a public action in front of the Palace of Justice in Lima, Peru.

“In Huancabamba, all the women linked hope to have access to public defense. But with the pandemic, and because in some villages the calls do not come in and we do not have to pay the recharges, sometimes, it is difficult for us. The best thing would be if the lawyers from the ministry could come up to meet with us ”, explains Nilda. “The women that IDL sponsors do not have technology because they live in the most remote areas or the cell phone they have is not modern to establish communication. It is through contacts that we make in the provincial capitals that we can reach them so that they have the necessary information ”, adds Florián.

Adrianzén believes that the Peruvian justice system is prepared to assume responsibility in favor of the demand for justice of these women.

“I believe that judges and defenders understand the great responsibility they have to comply with and carry out a clean process.

We are at a stage where we all want to reach a good port and with all the clarity of the facts.

On our part, we will comply with everything related to legality because we are at the service of the people who need it most, such as those injured by forced sterilization. "

The president makes a commitment

On June 3, the newly elected president Pedro Castillo Terrones met with representatives of the AMPAEF. “It was an emotional and simple meeting. Her first words were: 'I sympathize with your pain and your struggle, dear sisters. María Elena Carbajal, president of the Association of Victims of Forced Sterilization of Lima and Callao, explained the suffering they face in their search for justice and reparation ”, explains María Esther.

Among the demands that AMPAEF presented to Castillo is to carry out a Memory and Dignity policy that evidences what happened at a personal, family and community level. Also, comprehensive repairs. "There is already a law, but the Government refuses to comply with it," says María Esther. They explained his health and the insufficiency of the SIS. They expressed the need to continue with the support of public defense, translation in Quechua and access to virtual media. The election of Pedro Castillo as president is a hope for the AMPAEF. "Being a man of the country, like us, we hope that he will comply with the country and with the commitment he assumed with our demand," they maintain.

While waiting for Judge Martínez's opinion, the victims make their voices heard and organize on Thursday, August 19, the International Seminar on

Memory and Human Rights: 25 years after forced sterilizations in Peru

. They have the support of the Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Sexuality, AIDS and Society of the Cayetano Heredia University and the Institute for Health, Sexuality and Human Development Studies, as well as other human rights organizations. “With this event we begin the construction of Memory and Dignity of the victims of forced sterilization and we intend to influence the process of prosecution of the main perpetrators. Those affected, activists and researchers who have supported these years participate in it ”, explains Mogollón, from AMPAEF. “We continue to make our voice heard throughout Peru so that the judge can decide now. If he says he is bringing Fujimori to trial, we know that it will be difficult, but not impossible, for our request for justice and reparation to be fulfilled. It's been 25 years and we haven't given up ”, concludes Dilcia Cano.

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