was 30 years old when I had the operation and since then I almost useless in the field, "says Cléofl Neira, 50, from the door of his adobe house. In Yanguil , a village a few hundred people near the city of Huancabamba, in northern Peru, more than 15 women underwent the same operation tubal ligation. Most of these farmers were left disabled and painful health problems. They continue to demand justice against the authorities and have taken their case to the Interamerican Human Rights Court. Other judicial channels are being studied to force the state to compensate the victims.
I did not want to undergo this operation, but not know that she can not have children anymore, I do said. They came with promises of food, medicines but we saw nothing but pain, "explains Cléofl mother of seven children he had before the operation.
"They" are the emissaries of the Ministry of Health, Government of Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000) who were sent to the mountains of the Andes between 1995 and 2000 to meet the orders of the authorities: to reduce the birth rate the field as he had claimed the IMF. The World Bank transferred funds to help implement the family planning program which consisted of Voluntary Surgical Contraception. Moreover, the United States through U.S. Aid, Fujimori funded the project, which was free to act, enjoying a comfortable re-election in 1995.
"volunteer had nothing. The vast majority were forced or tricked exchange for a few kilos of rice or sugar ," says Joseph, an activist for women's rights defenders. In all of Peru, an estimated 300,000 women were victims of forced sterilization. All were farmers, indigenous, poor and illiterate with very little education.
"Every day a nurse came out to see us and convince us to operate and told us we could not continue giving birth as guinea pigs [guinea pig] was very offensive what we say and in the end we were a group of five women all paid, travel and food to Huancabamba "says Cléofl.
fight against this crime
Today, none of the doctors or nurses who performed the operations still working at the hospital Huancabamba. "They disappeared when we started doing research. The government took them to Lima and some were dismissed," said Josefa. In 1996, emerged the first testimonies of women who were operated on. Organizations like the Committee for Latin America and the Caribbean for the Defense of Women's Rights (CLADEM), under the responsibility of Giulia Tamayo, gathered information and lodge complaints.
"One day I went to the hospital and I saw there were 20 women lying on the floor in a pool of blood, all newly operated. At that moment began the struggle to stop this crime," says Joseph.
with his father and her husband tried to report the case, but neither the mayor nor the makers took into account his testimony. "They made me sign a paper that was the authorization of sterilization, but not I could read. Today, I regret having signed "concluye.Vestida with traditional straw hat, Bacilia Herrera remembers it like yesterday's operation. " I went to the hospital because he had a sore back and I suddenly put on a stretcher and gave me injections. Next day he was operated, "says Bacilia, mother of five children, a low in the mountains, where women come to have between seven and ten children.
In his play, Bacilia was fortunate to be operated by the doctor Jesus, now deceased. It was not the case for most women who passed through the hands of nurse practitioners, who have targets to meet. "It was found Then, in questioning doctors, who were paid a percentage of each sterilized woman, "said Josefa.
About 18 farmers were killed following the operations. Many were left with life-long consequences." The operation was very quick and the day after we got a soup and out into the street, many returned to work at the farm [farm] as usual, but then we could not move, "says Cléofl. She is one of the most affected Yanguil. Seven months after his operation, was admitted to emergency in the hospital suffering from severe pain. The doctors had forgotten a string of six inches in his belly.
"Now whenever I have burning pain in the waist, I can not haul firewood ", confesses to show the scar left, which resembles another navel. Like most of the women operated, you can not have sex with her husband. " I have Luckily, my husband rejected me, "explains . Many homes were destroyed after the operations, because the husbands left their wives, regard as useless to the house.
After managing several Human Rights Commissions in Congress , forced sterilization research at the time of Fujimori found on the Attorney General's Office and move slowly, citing lack of resources. The Peruvian NGO Manuela Ramos presented CLADEM along with the case before the Interamerican Human Rights Court. Victims still waiting for some compensation, but his fate now depends on who wins the presidential election runoff on June 5.
"If you win the Keiko [Fujimori's daughter] against Ollanta Humala, and we can not expect justice, we will fall into oblivion forever," said Neira Cléofl anguish.
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