Morena Herrera is a reference in the fight for the right to abortion in Central America, one of the most restrictive regions of the world to exercise this right. Originally from El Salvador, last June she participated in the meeting of the Latin American Consortium against Unsafe Abortion (CLACAI) held in Panama. The meeting was attended by colleagues and experts from all over the region. An authentic green tide that stained Panama City for a few days. There he granted this interview to Americanas.
A week after that conversation, hundreds of kilometers away in El Salvador, a group of organizations paid tribute to Manuela, a woman who in 2008 was sentenced to 30 years in prison accused of having an abortion when in reality what she had was an obstetric emergency. In 2010 Manuela died of poorly treated lymphatic cancer, but her struggle and her case endured in the collective memory of Latin American women and made her a symbol for dignity and the right to decide over our bodies.
The same happened with Beatriz's case in 2013. Another woman whose right to health was violated by the State and denied a therapeutic abortion. Although the pregnancy was eventually interrupted, the criminalization of abortion in the country caused a delay by the authorities that impacted Beatriz's health. The physical and mental sequelae took their toll and seriously affected his situation. Beatriz died four years later after being hospitalized for a minor motorcycle accident. In both cases, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights condemned in 2021 and 2023 the Salvadoran State to ask for forgiveness and comply with measures of reparation and non-repetition with the family and children of these women. "I think Manuela's sentence and Beatriz's sentence are of crucial importance," says Morena Herrera. "It's the hope for El Salvador right now, but for other Latin American countries as well."
El Salvador is one of five countries in Latin America that still prohibits abortion in its legislation without exceptions and therefore there is a risk of going to prison. The penalties for performing abortion can range from two to eight years in prison, but there are cases in which the crime can change to aggravated homicide and the sentence can reach up to 30 years, as happened in the Manuela case. That is why it is so important that the IACHR recognized that the State violated the right to health of these women.
Herrera acknowledges that after the sentences and thanks to the efforts of lawyers, activists and support groups, El Salvador "has made efforts to advance in the reparation of the family, but it is still necessary that there is a public apology that helps Manuela's family clear her name." What they have not done is the recognition that her human rights were violated, to ask for forgiveness, which represents symbolic reparation (...) Manuela's parents are very old and need that emotional reparation. They need the state to ask them for forgiveness," says the activist.
The State, personified in the government of current President Nayib Bukele, still does not recognize that it violated Manuela's human rights, has not publicly apologized to the family and has not disclosed on its official websites or in newspapers of greater national circulation the content of the IACHR sentence. "Progress in some countries has important meanings in others, but we must recognize that we will not have the complete task until we achieve better conditions for all women in all countries," says Herrera.
Manuela was always innocent and her family needs to hear it. For this reason, several civil society groups and feminist activists have paid special tribute to her in her community, waiting for the State to fulfill its duty. "This act was a way of telling Salvadoran society and the community where Manuela's family lives that she was innocent and that her human rights were violated," says Catalina Martínez Coral, director for Latin America at the Center for Reproductive Rights.
In the ruling, the court recognized that the State violated the rights of the woman and demanded a public pardon with her family and comprehensive care, access to health and education for her children. In addition, El Salvador was urged to create a protocol for the care of obstetric emergencies, a guarantee of professional secrecy on the health of patients and the development of sex education in schools.
For the first time, an international court directly pointed to the obstacles women face in accessing reproductive health services in El Salvador. This sentence set a precedent that would later be reaffirmed with Beatriz's case.
Morena Herrera says that health authorities have designed a protocol that still has "windows of discretion in the application" that continue to affect women and that do not fully guarantee the non-criminalization of obstetric emergencies. "Many medical professionals skip the protocol, they do not respect it," he points out and adds one more fact: "The guidelines of many hospitals and health centers in El Salvador can still break professional secrecy for legal reasons and that women continue to be denounced."
"No other woman should be criminalized after suffering an obstetric emergency and states must create guarantees so that women can access comprehensive health services, including reproductive health services, without fear of being denounced by medical personnel and without fear of being violated or having this threat of going to jail," says Catalina Martínez.
Herrera reflects on the importance of comprehensive sexuality education programs throughout the education system and says that they have regressed in recent years due to pressure from groups that deny rights. "One thing is what the authorities say and another thing is what happens in schools. And that's where I say that not everything goes through laws and public policies, but what people are doing, "says the activist.
Herrera has verified the drift to the right that her country is experiencing and the complication that this represents for women's rights, however, the activist does not give up and finds in feminism the strength to move forward. "We are in difficult scenarios in several countries, however, as a whole I see a force that walks, that is advancing, that we generate information, scientific evidence and confirmation that working, that fighting for reproductive justice is the best possibility of well-being for all people," he says.
"Abortion in Latin America is going to be recognized as a women's right sooner or later," she says to close the interview.
A movie, 'Blanquita'
In this image provided by Piano Distribucion, Laura López in a scene from "Blanquita." (Piano Distribution via AP) Piano Distribution (AP)
By Erika Rosete
A decade ago, Chilean businessman Claudio Jaime Spiniak Vilensky was arrested in the country's capital due to an inspection in which drugs and large amounts of money were found in his car. The case could have remained there, but the Chilean authorities also ordered to search the millionaire's house in one of the communes with more purchasing power in the city: Vitacura. Inside, the police found more than 70 pornographic videos with children's content, jewelry, drugs, weapons, silencers, and irrefutable proof that in that residence parties were held in which the businessman and members of the Chilean political class satisfied their sickest and lowest desires with children and adolescents who recruited through other people who were paid for the work. in the central Plaza de Armas of Santiago, where people in a state of indigence and in conditions of high vulnerability used to congregate.
The film by director Fernando Guzzoni, Blanquita, is a reminder of what happened, a raw look at what happened more than ten years ago and that shook the entire country, going through its political class, business, judges and magistrates, but also that meant an absolute scorn in the media and a lesson that many of the journalists have continued to analyze to this day.
Blanquita is the fiction of Gema Bueno, "Gemita", as the media infantilized called the woman considered a key witness in the case. Blanquita is a woman who has been subjected to sexual violence since childhood and who comes to declare before the media, and supported by a priest, who was a victim and witness of what happened in the residence of a millionaire businessman who, accompanied by other rich and powerful men, rape and torture girls and boys like her. In her statements, the woman manages to describe the body and physical signs of a politician she never names, and lists the different violence that took place in that place. The testimony is gradually blurring and makes the public repeatedly wonder whether or not what Blanquita does is a valid way to unmask the atrocities that happen horribly under the shelter of power and money.
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