After World War II the world was shocked when the news of the Nazi eugenics programme in Germany became known, with the forced sterilization of over 400,000 people suffering from various physical and mental disabilities, with another 275,000 murdered in the euthanasia programme.
Awareness of this terrible crime did not seem to make much difference in Peru under the government of President Alberto Fujimori whose "Public Heath Plan" between 1995 and 2000 set out to forcefully sterilize mostly illiterate indigenous women living in poverty in the Andes Mountain Region.
As most of these women did not speak Spanish but only Quechua or Aymara, they had little chance to fully understand what was happening to them. The majority did not sign or understand consent forms and were subject to coercion, deception, bribes of food, force and threats of being sent to jail.
After attending the United Nations Conference on Women in Beijing, China, in 1995, Fujimori set out to limit population growth. He aimed to diminish the number of births to indigenous women living in poor areas.
His plan was called "The Green Plan" and its objective was to stop as soon as possible demographic growth among those considered culturally backward. Areas such as Apurimac were targeted in a process known as "Voluntary Contraceptive Surgery". Quotas were established for the respective health centres and prizes were awarded to the medical professionals who exceeded their quotas. Pressure was placed on doctors to meet their monthly quotas and health officials were specially trained to capture as many women for sterilization as possible. 
Each month Fujimori was informed of the number of forced sterilizations taking place. For example, in the year 1997, the Minister of Health reported to Fujimori that for the first seven months of that year, 64,831 sterilizations had been accomplished which was 43% of the quota of 150,000 for that year. Near the end of his term, Fujimori bragged that he had cut Peru's birth rate from 3.7 children per woman to 2.7 children a decade later.
When the human person is taken as just another commodity, human values are forgotten, power takes over and the law is compromised. This in terms of a civilized society is hard to understand. Yet the intimate details of how a modern human being is subjected to a betrayal of her human dignity can only be explained in terms of what happened.
Michaela Flores, one of the victims, received three calls from the local health centre in Curabamba, in the province of Cusco. On the third call she answered and with her husband went to what they were led to believe was a health campaign. On arrival there were about 50 women waiting in the reception area. They were told to board an ambulance which brought them to a medical centre. She was then made to lie down on a stretcher and was promptly tied hand and feet. While she was pleading to be let go, someone applied an injection which put her to sleep.
Later, she woke up with a distinct sensation of being drugged and a burning pain in her lower abdomen. As she looked around she discovered she was not alone. There were several women groaning and calling for their husbands. In the midst of this suffering, the voice of a doctor told the women “You have to thank President Fujimori now because you will never have any more children.”
From that time Michaela complained that she had a tumour, pains in her legs and continuous pain elsewhere. She cannot work in the fields anymore and neither can her friends and neighbours who have been through the same ordeal. For some of her friends and neighbours the result has been a break-up of their families. The intimate details of their operations caused shame, so they remained silent for years. But now that the full story of what happened is out, they are glad to speak out and demand justice.
After the fall of Fujimori, a Peruvian Government Report in 2002 stated that 331,000 women and 25,000 men had been forcibly sterilized during his government. Fujimori has been accused of genocide and crimes against humanity.
It took time to organize the victims to demand justice as most of them are engaged in a daily combat with poverty. In time, "A Woman’s Association of all those Affected by Forced Sterilizations" was organized. A legal case to prosecute those involved lasted from 2003 until 2009 when the Public Prosecutor closed the case, stating that the statute of limitations on cases of serious bodily injury and manslaughter had run out. In 2011 the case was reopened after an appeal to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. It was closed again in January 2014 when the Public Prosecutor decided that no crimes against humanity had been committed by Fujimori and 26 high ranking former health department officials. The defence team has tried to place the blame on excesses by provincial officials.
The Women's Association for the victims has decided to appeal the decision and referred specifically to the case of 33-year-old mother of seven Mamerita Meztanza. She died in 1996 after being pressured into surgery by being told that women who gave birth to more than seven children would be imprisoned. Four low-ranking provincial doctors have been prosecuted for her death. There are also documented cases of another 18 women who died as a result of the sterilization surgery in unsanitary conditions.
The Women’s Association will have to fight a legal battle to prove the monstrous ordeal to which they have been subjected. They are poor indigenous rural women and are taking on the smartest legal experts in the country.
However, their success goes far beyond the confines of medical practise. When power goes unchecked in the modern state the savage instinct in humanity is unleashed and civilization is reduced to a dominant social fashion and in such a situation there are no guarantees for anybody.
Columban Fr Maurice Foley lived and worked in Peru for many years.
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LISTEN TO: Reflection - When human values are forgotten (Duration: 8:08mins, MP3, 3.72MB) |