Peru Sterilization Case: Former President Alberto Fujimori to Face Trial

By Joshua Summers First Posted: Mar 02, 2021 02:28 AM EST

Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori will face trial after being charged with pushing Peru sterilization over thousands of its populace. Yahoo! News reported that along with the former President, health officials were the key factor of the sterilization, which, according to Fujimori, is consensual.

However, BBC noted that a percentage of the population claimed that they were not informed, while others received harassment. The program aimed to eradicate poverty and cut birth rates among poor families.

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The Sterilization

U.S. News and World Report noted that the judicial process is led by Judge Rafael Martinez, following years of demands from the human rights activists and numerous obstacles such as prosecutors who did not mind the case of Fujimori in the past. In response to that, the new prosecutor of the case, Pablo Espinoza, pointed out that sterilizations are executed in unsanitary conditions, including some women who lost their lives from infections.

BBC noted the Peruvian Health ministry's data that more than 270,000 women and 22,000 men underwent sterilization due to the Peruvian government's effort to control the birth rate between 1996 and 2000. The health officials from the Fujimori administration and the former president himself argued that the sterilization that happened was all with the patients' consent.

However, Yahoo! News shared that thousands of women who have voiced their situation came from poor indigenous areas of Peru with Quechua as their first language. It implies the limited understanding of the documents presented to them by the medical staff. One of the victims of the issue is identified as Rudecinda Quilla, whose statement is a part of the legal evidence. She shared that when she was trying to get her fourth child issued for a birth certificate in 1996, the medical experts told her that the only way for her to avail the document is to have a tubal ligation.

Quilla shared with BBC that she refused, but she was forced to the hospital bed, her feet and hands tied then injected with anesthetic, and when she woke up, she was sterilized, and the medical staff told her that she will "never breed like an animal again."

The Case

U.S. News and World Report added that as president, Fujimori announced in a congress in China back in 1995 that his administration will establish a program that will help the poor Peruvian women decide on how many children they want to have, later resulting in women sterilized without their knowledge. Former President Fujimori said through his lawyers that he should not be tried in the sterilization because it is not included in the crimes that he is going to be judged when he was extradited from Chile in 2007.

BBC noted that the Hearing for Peru Sterilization will be conducted virtually to abide by COVID restrictions. However, it is unclear whether Alberto Fujimori, who is currently having his 25-year sentence for human rights abuses, will show himself in the hearing.