After nineteen years of waiting, a judge has ordered the opening of a trial for the implementation of a terrifying policy of control of the birth rate in the 1990s.
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For one hour, the judge has grown the names of the 1,307 complainants, mostly women, and some men, sterilized force in the 1990s. After nine months of audience and reading more 180 exhibits, Judge Rafael Martinez announced the opening of a criminal trial on Saturday 11 December, against the former autocrat Alberto Fujimori, in power from 1990 to 2000, and already convicted in 2009 to twenty-five. years in prison for violation of human rights and massacres. His former health ministers and his former health care advisor are also continued.
Alberto Fujimori, 83, currently hospitalized under police supervision for a heart problem, Eduardo Yong, Marino Costa, Alejandro Aguinaga – MP Fujimorist Fuerza Popular – and Ulises Jorge Aguilar, will be judged by a criminal court as alleged indirect authors “Avoiding life, body and health”. They are accused of orchestrated and implemented a policy of forced sterilization between 1996 and 2000.
Long judicial battle
This decision puts an end to a ten-nine-year-old justice battle (the first preliminary inquiry was opened in 2002 and the four-occasional file). A first victory for thousands victims who finally see the hope that those responsible for this policy are judged.
“This is a historic moment, both for the victims and for Peru and human rights,” says Maria Esther Mogollon, coordinator of the Peruvian Women’s Association victims of forced sterilization (AMPEF). “I call them one because many are not yet informed, there was no electricity yesterday in Anta [Cusco Region originating in more than 700 complainants]. There is a lot of emotion but the Waiting lasted so many years as there is also mistrust. Little by little, they pass from disillusionment to hope. “
In the second half of the 1990s, it is estimated that between 270,000 and 350,000 women, as well as 25,000 men, were sterilized as part of a birth control program supposed to promote “surgical contraception Volunteer “and whose official goal was to reduce poverty and foster economic growth.
In two years, from 1996 to 1998, the specialists consider that at least 180,000 people were operated under the constraint, including, for the most part, of the poor women of Quechua or originating in Amazon. A “racist and discriminatory policy,” said the prosecutor during preliminary hearings.
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