International roundup

By Agencies
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The four women all had sought medical help for obstetric emergencies, and each ended up in prison sentenced to 30 years on aggravated homicide convictions for allegedly terminating their pregnancies.

After spending a combined four decades behind bars in El Salvador, one of the four countries in the Western Hemisphere with total bans on abortions, they were recently released thanks to a campaign by human rights activists.

They sat down in front of journalists this week to tell their stories and assert they were wrongly charged and unfairly convicted in a country where even a miscarriage carries the risk of a long prison sentence for women who are young and poor.

“I had just turned 17 years old and they locked me up. It was unfair, I lost my youth, I lost my family, all of my dreams came crashing down,” said Kenia, who like the other three women gave only her first name.

Kenia said she had called the local equivalent of 911, lost consciousness and woke up in a public hospital surrounded by police officers.

“One told me that he would make sure I rotted in prison and that’s how it was. He was the main witness against me. It was his version against mine. It was hard,” Kenia said.

Now, 26, Kenia wants to make up for lost time.

“I got my family back and I don’t want to stall. I want to keep studying, study English, perfect my cosmetology to be able to help my family,” she said.

Kenia was released Jan. 17, after serving almost nine years of her sentence.

She was 1 of 5 women serving 30-year aggravated homicide sentences who President Nayib Bukele ordered released since Dec. 23 under pressure from the online human rights campaign.

Morena Herrera, director of the nonprofit Citizen Group for the Decriminalization of Abortion, which has been working to free women since 2009, said El Salvador’s abortion ban doesn’t punish all women, just those who are poor and can’t afford good legal representation.

Poor women, often with lower levels of education, have less access to health care and end up in the public health system where doctors and nurses are compelled to report suspected abortions.

El Salvador has criminally prosecuted 181 women who experienced obstetric emergencies in recent decades.

Since 2009, 62 women have been freed from prison with the help of women’s rights collectives, meanwhile 12 still remain in prison.

The women spoke one day after Colombia’s Constitutional Court legalized abortion up to 24 weeks.

MEXICO

This season’s bullfights in Mexico City may be the last, as legislators in the city assembly seek to revive a bill banning the activity.

This year’s season closed Sunday at the city’s Plaza Mexico arena, and it was marked — as has become routine — by protesters.

Last year, the assembly’s Animal Welfare Commission gave preliminary approval to a law banning public events “at which animals are subject to mistreatment and cruelty that result in their death.”

But the bill never made it to a vote before the full assembly.

Animal rights activist Alberto Luvianos says legislators may have been cowed by the potential lost income.

“They (legislators) recognized that animals have rights, but the issue they are worried about is the income from bullfighting,” said Luvianos, who estimated the fights create about 3,000 jobs.

The bullfighting associations claim the real number is ten times that amount.

Evangelina Estudillo is one of them.

 She has worked as street vendor outside the area for 20 years, and the income helped her raise nine children, now the prospect of a ban makes her uneasy.

“The president would have to do something. Look how many families rely on this,” Estudillo said.

Since 2013, four states in Mexico have already banned bull fights, and polls indicate substantial support for a ban.

A ban in Mexico City, currently the largest venue for the events, would be an international setback for bullfighting.

“I respect those who are against it, but I don’t agree. I see it as an art, a part of culture, and I make a living off of it”, said Paco Dominguez, who sells bullfighting merchandise and posters.

PANAMA

Prosecutors and human rights officials went to the region of Panama’s Ngobé-Buglé people Monday to investigate claims by a dozen Indigenous women that they had been subjected to sterilization procedures without their consent.

The teams were dispatched to look into allegations made before a legislative commission that visited the area in October.

The procedures allegedly took place at a public hospital run by the government.

Legislator Walkiria Chandler said the complaint came from a spokeswoman for the 12 women, each of whom apparently spoke only the Indigenous language and already had two children.

The Ngobé-Buglé are the largest of Panama’s many Indigenous groups.

“If this is a policy, the women should be informed and allowed to give their consent,” Chandler said.

The Health Ministry said any such procedure would require a signed letter of consent.

“This procedure is not done without this document, and thus this cannot have been done in the manner in which it is being described,” the ministry said in a statement.

It remained to be seen whether the women would have understood what they were signing, without a translator.

PERU

A Peruvian judge started a trial this week for corruption charges against former President Ollanta Humala and his wife, both accused of money laundering in a scandal involving Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht that has stained the highest political leaders in this South American country over the last two decades.

Humala is the first former leader of Peru standing trial in Latin America’s biggest graft scandal, although three other ex-presidents have been involved in the case.

Prosecutors accused Humala and his wife of receiving over $3 million from Odebrecht for his presidential campaigns in 2006 and 2011.

Both denied any wrongdoing.

Humala is a former army colonel who lost the 2006 election but won five years later. Prosecutors seek a 20-year sentence for the former leader and 26 years for his wife Nadine Heredia, who’s been accused of having used the money to buy some properties.

Odebrecht admitted in a U.S. Justice Department plea agreement to paying $800 million in bribes to high-ranking officials around the region in exchange for lucrative public works contracts.

The trial is being done virtually because of the pandemic.

Humala and his wife were arrested in 2017 as a preventative measure but released the next year.

Now, the former first lady is under house arrest and the ex-president is free, although he needs to go to a court every month to report and sign before a judge.

The couple appeared virtually before the judge only to hear the charges. The trial is expected to stretch over several months.

The Odebrecht corruption scandal has shaken Peru’s politics, with nearly every living former president now under investigation.

Former President Alejandro Toledo, in office from 2001 to 2006, has also been accused of illegally receiving money from Odebrecht and who’s facing an extradition process from the U.S. Ex-leader Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, who left office in 2018, is under house arrest for similar charges.

Former leader Alan García, in office from 2006 to 2011, shot himself in the head in 2019 as authorities arrived at his home to arrest him in connection with the Odebrecht probe.