Inicio           Quiénes somos           Corresponsales           Resumen Semanal           Coberturas internacionales           Servicios SEMlac          Archivos           Enlaces

Peru: Public hospitals and death

By Julia Vicuña Y.

Lima, October.– "I found it extremely difficult to make the decision to be operated on. I did not want to leave my family for ever. I had my bladder damaged over surgery and I have had to use pampers ever since. The doctor told me I have to be operated on again. I never imagined they could ruin my life", said Judith Rivera (44), who got AIDS at a public hospital.

She had a blood transfusion last April 18, shortly after she was diagnosed with uterine myomatosis and had her uterus removed at the Daniel Alcides Carrión Hospital in Callao, 15 kilometers away from Lima.

"I tried to kill myself. I could not understand how I had got the virus", she recalled.

Her initial reaction gave her food for thought. Those responsible for my misfortune should not go unpunished. "I can not leave my three daughters and my husband now. I have to prove we are not promiscuous people, as an assistant had suggested. I was not HIV-positive when I first visited this hospital. I will report my case to the police", she told her godmother.

Her neighbors in Ventanilla district helped her. They raised money to cover her travel expenses and lawyer’s fees.

After several weeks of public demand and demonstration, President Alan García received her at the Presidential Palace, asked her for pardon and informed her that the State would give her 95,541 dollars in compensation and a new house.

"I think a serious mistake has been made in Rivera's case. I urge officials and professionals to avoid such a serious error", he stressed.

Some days before the President made the announcement, officials at the Ministry of Health (MINSA) had stated that there had been no negligence in Rivera’s case and that no compensation would be provided. "The donor was not aware he was HIV-positive", they added.

"HIV/AIDS cases due to blood transfusions clearly show how weak protocols and processes are and how poor input quality is", said Amador Vargas, dean of a local School of Medicine.

These cases make up one to two percent of the total, a MINSA report indicated.

The measures MINSA has adopted do not include eradicating illegal blood sale, stressed Elizabeth Carrillo, manager of the Edgardo Rebagliati Hospital blood bank. This facility is under the umbrella of the National Institute of Social Security.

Sellers, popularly called vampires, arrive at public hospitals at around 6.30 a.m. and offer their blood for 22 to 32 dollars.

Penologist Luis Llamas Puccio stressed that the Attorney’s Office should conduct an investigation to identify those actually responsible for Rivera’s case.

Article Nº 286 of the Criminal Code establishes that the fact of transmitting an infectious disease is a crime. If the patient dies, the sentence may be up to 20 years in prison. If the patient does not die, it can reach 10 years, he told a local daily newspaper.

Common practice

MINSA undertook to conduct inspections at all blood banks in 2005, after seven newborns and an adult woman contracted HIV/AIDS through blood transfusions at a maternity hospital in Lima. A local attorney prosecuted its director Víctor Bazul and another three doctors.

Out of 238 blood banks, 39 were closed down last July because they had failed to meet minimum requirements. They kept blood in household refrigeration equipment and had no cryogenic system in place.

Against this background, MINSA set up a multidisciplinary fact-finding mission that included representatives of the Pan American Health Organization, the National Medical Association, the Peruvian Society of Tropical Diseases and some universities.

The crisis in the sector has also reached dialysis centers. Over thirty people have contracted hepatitis C at these facilities in the last few months.

Mexico: Increased violence against women

By Sara Lovera L.

Mexico, October.– The number of acts of violence against women has grown by 72 percent in the last 17 years. This has called for increased medical services.

Data show that victims usually exhibit low labor productivity, are often absent from work, and suffer from lack of attention and depression.

These are some of the findings in a study put together by five researchers at the National Institute of Public Health. Still unpublished, the work was based on a national survey conducted by the Ministry of Health in 2005.

Over 7,000 women (30 percent of over 24,000 respondents) said they had to be taken to hospital at some point in time. Around 13 percent required hospitalization.

Sexual-violence victims include poorly educated women living in the city or the countryside, married or under consensual union.

Rosario Valdez, Martha Hijar, Leticia Ávila, Rosalba Rojas, Aurora Franco and Leonor Rivera conducted the study and highlight the need to take these data into account to improve health care and do effective prevention work.

Attacks by husbands or concubines have a physical and psychological impact on women, they concluded.

They also have a negative bearing on household economy. This is particularly serious in a country under crisis, with over three million jobless, the document indicated.

Research works into women's abuse in Mexico way back to the early 1990s, it added.

The study involved 34,042 women aged 15 to 80. Over 22 percent said they had completed primary education; 27.3 percent, secondary education; 9.1 percent were illiterate; 16.8 percent, elementary education; 7.8 percent, polytechnic school; 10.8 percent, basic education; and 5.1 percent were university graduates.

Regarding marital status, 56 percent were married; 18 percent were under consensual union; 11.8 percent were single; and the rest were separated, divorced or widows.

Those married or living with their boyfriends have experienced domestic violence over a whole decade in some instances.

The women under study spoke of physical violence (pushing, blowing and getting wounded), psychological or emotional violence (intimidating, humiliating and threatening), and sexual violence (forced sex).

Out of the total number living with sexual partners, 7.8 percent recognized they were subjected to violence. Answers to indirect questions showed that the current rate of acts of violence stands at 21.5 percent, well above the one that had been estimated in the 1990s.

The survey corroborated the following: 19.6 percent of the women under review were suffering from psychological violence; 9.8 percent, from physical violence; and 5.1 percent, from economic violence. They can endure more than one form of violence and some of them go unnoticed.

The study paved the way for future research into structural, cultural and social conditions having a bearing on the phenomenon and into the need to formulate appropriate public policies.

Acts of violence against these women (23.5 percent) have negatively affected their health. Many of them said they have had bruises and pains, mainly on their heads and arms.

Most injuries were inflicted during or after sexual relations. Around 11 percent reported some injury; 9.8 percent, genital infections; and 8.4 percent, vaginal bleeding.

Thirty percent had to go to the doctor's. Out of this percentage, 86.5 percent went to the doctor's once and 13.5 percent required hospitalization.

Four percent of the women under study said they had been kicked or beaten on the abdomen while they were pregnant.

One every five women in Mexico is currently suffering from some form of violence that requires medical care.

Uruguay: Stop Killing Our Daughters

By Cristina Canoura

Montevideo, November.– María Esther Marcos is 48 years old and has a husband, five children alive and one murdered. On April 18, 2007, her daughter María Fernanda Rial (26) was shot to death by her boyfriend Walter Daniel Olivera, a 42-year-old policeman.

The murderer had been accused of acts of violence and had been tried. He managed to bypass restraining orders and wear the gun he used to kill María Fernanda before committing suicide. She left two children: an eleven-year-old daughter and a nine-year-old son. They are now living with their biological father, close to the house of their maternal grandmother, who raised them.

After feeling powerless and angry for months, María Esther realized that some signs of violence against her daughter had gone unnoticed to her.

"I could not read them", she told WNS, sitting in her dining room, in a poor neighborhood on the outskirts of the city. The day when Walter Daniel smashed the TV set to pieces, she thanked God because he had taken it on the set and not on her daughter. She was not aware of the fact that such an action was just the preamble to physical aggression.

Six months after having buried María Fernanda, she decided not to go on mourning. Many other young women take the same risk day after day and their mothers do not know what to do to protect them from aggressive men.

María Esther and María del Carmen Iguini, who had gone through a similar experience five years earlier, established the NGO Stop Killing Our Daughters.

She still tries to hide her tears when she says: "I felt powerless as a mother because I did not know how to help her. We hided her, cared for her, defended her, but we failed to find a way for her to come out well," she regretted.

"I just followed my conscience, my common sense. Fathers, brothers and uncles feel they are in a vacuum. The person who experiences violence usually seeks and gets help, but what about us?" she wondered.

Marcos contacted another NGO (Space for Personal Growth), which provides aid to women suffering from domestic violence. Headed by Silvia Ferrero, an expert who was trained at the University of Buenos Aires, this organization sets up women solidarity networks.

It has developed protection mechanisms for women in need. It takes them together with their children to safe places until there is a court ruling (preventive or any other measure) on the aggressors.

They are treated by a psychologist and assisted by a lawyer until they can get back home. They help them report their cases to the police, meet wit forensic doctors, find jurists and join self-help groups, and accompany them to court hearings.

“The idea is to provide advising to mothers after we get trained, set clear goals and devise ways to move ahead”, María Esther commented.

"We want the local authorities to provide these women with special homes rather than shelters that are mainly intended for homeless and jobless people", she emphasized.

"We also ask local companies to give jobs to women suffering from violence, who have no income or are unemployed. They just run away from violent boyfriends or husbands", she noted.

"Emaús is a humanitarian organization supplying clothes, mattresses and bed sheets to women who leave all their belongings behind", she commented.

"We are trying to get a provision in the Domestic Violence Act repealed because it is not being actually enforced. It bans violent men from getting close to victims", she added.

There was a restraining order on my daughter’s boyfriend when he came here on December 24, when he went to her workplace on April 3, and when he finally found out her whereabouts and killed her, she indicated. "Such an instrument is useless", she felt.

"If a man breaks the law, he should be taken to prison. Let’s protect women because men are not being condemned. We call the police, but they show up when the guy is gone", she remarked.

"We at the organization are fully aware of the need not to grant any license to policemen involved in acts of violence. They make use of it just to disturb women," she added.

The Act

The Domestic Violence Act has been in force since July 2002 in Uruguay. It established the so-called Family Courts and specific precautionary measures to be adopted by judges to protect the victim’s life, physical and emotional integrity, freedom, personal safety, economic assistance and patrimony.

Judges are empowered to ask the aggressor to leave the family house; ban, restrain or limit his presence at the victim’s home, workplace or school, prevent him from communicating with the victim, his/her relatives, witnesses and informers, and seize his weapons.

"We plan to carry out an information campaign at local schools, churches, temples and sport clubs. It will not be friendly, but aggressive. We will put pressure because this has been going on for long", María Esther announced.

"We are being trained to deal with these cases. So far, we have sent them to Space for Personal Growth" she added.

She is determined to find a lawyer who will help her re-open the case of her daughter’s fiancé. Although he is dead, she is sure that the file was full of irregularities.

Like her, many other women whose daughters or relatives have been killed meet on the first Thursday of every month at the Municipal Esplanade (Mayor’s Office). They carry posters containing murdered women's names and photos.

Dominican Republic: Women’s solidarity

By Mirta Rodríguez Calderón

Santo Domingo, November.– If Martina is still alive, she must be in her mid 30s. A couple of years ago, she tried to see the coroner at the National Attorney’s Office in the city. She had a black eye and an arm sling, and walked with difficulty.

She had been there before. She had been found to have serious injuries caused by her brutal husband, who had stolen most of her household appliances, including the refrigerator, had left her with a broken leg, had often forced her to have sex, and had smashed her poor house doors to pieces.

She was always terrified and disappointed. No woman can win this battle, because men get protected and protect each other. We women do not have money to pay a lawyer’s fees and send abusers to prison. "My husband has repeatedly said he will kill me", she stressed.

She really knew what she was talking about. In the Dominican Republic, where there are around nine million inhabitants, the number of women who had been murdered by late September was 108, and over 100,000 charges had been filed in the capital city alone by women who had been raped, beaten, offended, stolen and/or blackmailed.

The Criminal Procedural Code and law violators

The current situation is likely to change with the establishment of a Defense Lawyers' Network.

Passed last year, the controversial Code has established that defendants should be provided with defense lawyers.

When a woman manages to take an abuser to court, he is appointed a defense. When a woman is accused, she has nobody to resort to. Many women decide to drop charges and get back with the abusers, feeling powerless and disheartened.

This came from Clara Luna, a lawyer who is the head of the Defense Department at the State Secretariat for Women's Affairs. She began working in a province where she saw “everything”, especially women’s defenselessness.

"I would like to get more people committed to this work. We should raise awareness if we want to prevent women from getting killed", she told WNS.

"I see that women live under terror and rely completely on their husbands. They are not economically and psychologically empowered", she added.

Acts of violence have not continued growing, and many women are breaking the silence and doing their best to take aggressors to court. They lack money and information for this purpose, Clara noted.

Even when the abuser is condemned under Law No. 24-97 on Family Violence, women’s cases are not followed up.

Insufficiencies

Although the law exists, violence against women is not a priority to the government. The State Secretariat for Women’s Affairs does not have money to keep the National Violence Prevention and Control Committee operating and help state agencies and civil society organizations work together.

Most women are living under poverty and panic, and the information about their rights is inadequate.

The Defense Lawyers’ Network plans to submit a bill to Congress seeking to enforce the rights of violence-affected women.

This statement came from Ilkania Ramírez, one of its active promoters. She works in eastern Santo Domingo, an area where there are many things people lack and where women are often beaten up and left with their children without any material support.

Incest is another criminal category. We recently arrested a father who was taking his two daughters to a hotel to have sex with them. Although their mother had been suspicious, she did not dare to report the case to the police. The man is now in jail.

A huge problem

The problem is huge, but the efforts being made to face it are of a similar magnitude. A second shelter will be opened on November 25 for women suffering from violence. They can go with their children and seek guidance there.

Clara Luna hopes to establish other facilities for these women, where they can stay and get ready to go on with their lives.

Roxanna Reyes has been the country’s associate attorney general for ten years. Such a position exists only in the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. "A “Zero Tolerance” proclaimed by the Prosecution will help build women's confidence and demand the very best from attorneys", she believes.

"It is important for the Prosecution to realize that its work will be followed up", she told WNS.

"Police agents often mistreat women, and attorneys usually turn a deaf ear to them, she stressed. As the Prosecution is going to be monitored, we will see where mistakes are made", she added.

"A legal office has been established to take care of victims. While abusers have defense lawyers supplied by the Supreme Court, victims will have them from the Prosecution", she explained.

"There are 10 people getting trained. They will not be enough, but it is a good start, she emphasized. When the Defense Lawyers’ Network covers the whole country, a step forward will have been taken in coping with gender violence", she remarked.

"In my capacity of head of the Defense Department at the State Secretariat for Women’s Affairs, I will do my best to have the Network operating all over the country. If there is no real commitment, apathy and indifference will further prevail and more women will be killed," Clara Luna concluded.

Nicaragua: The Internet, poverty and women

By Sylvia Ruth Torres

Managua, November.– A new world record was established last October 17. On the World Poverty Day, over 38,000 people gathered together in the country’s capital to support the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), especially those having a direct impact on women.

Translated into four languages, the Internet-disseminated international message stressed that the number of poor people in the world is not likely to be reduced by half by 2015.

The Economist recently recognized that women are a powerful force to boost economic growth. The statement was so relevant that the World Bank decided to include it in its new gender approach. Exercising gender equality is an “intelligent” economic practice, it indicated.

The most developed countries today are the ones exhibiting the greatest equality. In India, a World Bank report said, the states where women play an active role are the most developed economically.

It could not be otherwise. Participants in a Seminar on Economic Empowerment highlighted the importance of this process. Held last September in Rome, the event was organized by the Legal Institute for Development. Most attendees came from Africa, Eastern Europe and Latin America, and their papers dealt with similar situations.

To women, poverty means lacking control over income rather than having low or no income at all. It also means missing opportunities because they have no power and voice, and being ignored, undervalued, unattended and underrepresented, the message emphasized. The international campaign is sponsored by UNIFEM and the Women’s Funding Network.

"Inequality results from no economic empowerment. Many women get killed because they have no place to go or because they do not have resources to live," participants in the Seminar said.

"The lack of economic resources forces women not to report cases of incest and sexual abuse. Economic autonomy provides a sort of protection mechanism", they added.

Against this background, small, gender-conscious financial companies have supported women’s empowerment.

Deborah Burand, an expert at Grameen, a foundation based in the United States, presented an exciting experience at the event:

A Tanzanian woman thanked a small financial company for having given her a credit and having helped her deal with painful knees. As she manages her own resources, she is no longer forced to kneel down before her husband and ask him for money to send their children to school.

In Nicaragua, when agricultural production drops, women generate money providing a number of services.

Many people in poor countries live off remittances sent by immigrants, mostly women. That is why the new international campaign promotes women's involvement in economic programs seeking to face hunger, illiteracy, malnutrition and disease.

RECUADRO

The Women's News Service from Latin America and the Caribbean, International News Agency, offers this weekly service. No reproduction without authorization. Any comment o suggestion please contact us: semlac@redsemlac.net