Abstract
Information on abortion and domestic abuse is being covered up in Nicaragua.
Magaly Quintana, founder of Catholics for Free Choice – an organisation that monitors violence and analyses data – meticulously follows up new cases while decoding official statistics on rape, femicide and abortion.
This modest outfit has become the go-to place for reliable information amid a deluge of policies by the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) government curtailing women’s rights and suppressing related data. It has become a thorn in the ostensibly left-wing government’s side by publishing easy-to-read bulletins that often contradict official reports.
Quintana’s latest challenge is monitoring the consequences of the contentious new family committees, a new-fangled name for party political cells that have existed since the FSLN came to power in the revolution of 1979.
By order of a presidential decree, domestic violence victims must first seek counselling from these neighbourhood family committees, which are authorised to assess the seriousness of each allegation. The committees, which include party loyalists and church representatives but no trained experts, were introduced at the end of 2014. “This is the latest attempt to hide the reality of many women’s lives in this country by making violence a family problem,” said Quintana. “How many women will die waiting for these committees to decide their fate?”
Catholics for Free Choice was founded soon after Daniel Ortega, the former Sandinista guerrilla leader, won the 2006 presidential election and immediately began restricting women’s rights and access to information. Ortega won the election, after three failed attempts, on a “Christianity, socialism and solidarity” platform. He won after striking what many believe was a cynical deal with the Catholic church to secure its support.
Within weeks, Ortega introduced a law criminalising abortion in all circumstances, without any prior public consultation. Nicaragua became one of five countries in the world with a total ban on abortion, even in cases of rape, or when the foetus is unviable, or when the mother’s life is a risk. An unconstitutionality case filed to the supreme court in January 2007 by human rights organisations remains unheard. Ortega has described abortion as an imperialist policy.
Protesters in Managua demonstrate against the high rate of violence against women in Nicaragua
Photo credit: Oswaldo Rivas/Reuters
The pre-election deal also gave the church power to restrict sex education in schools. The existing guidebook, developed in conjunction with civil society groups, was withdrawn and replaced with a version that strictly adheres to church teachings on contraception and reproduction. The rhythm method is in; LGBT relationships and sex for enjoyment are out. Violent attacks against LGBT young people are on the rise, according to the children’s rights NGO Plan International, which works with youth groups across the country. At least five people were murdered and six seriously assaulted in homophobic attacks in 2012.
The impact of the abortion law has been almost impossible to assess independently as the ministry of health has not published comprehensive obstetrics data since 2006. It has, however, reported annual reductions in maternal deaths, which has won it international awards.
The pre-election deal also gave the church power to restrict sex education in schools
But in February 2014, the respected digital news website Confidencial leaked internal reports which suggest that official numbers were manipulated to hide maternal deaths that may have been preventable if the pregnancy had been aborted. The ministry of health reported 71 maternal deaths in 2013 and 51 in 2012. The leaked documents revealed the actual numbers were 87 and 71.
Faced with serious allegations the government adopted its now familiar response: silence. “The government plays with the numbers, with the truth, so what gets published often has nothing to do with reality. If they get caught, they say nothing,” argued Quintana.
The abortion ban was introduced despite Nicaragua having one of the world’s highest rates of sexual violence against girls. In 2013, forensic doctors examined 6,609 sexual violence victims – of whom 51 per cent were under 13, according to the Institute of Legal Medicine. In 2012, 1,609 girls aged between 10 and 14 became mothers, according to the ministry of health.
Official numbers were manipulated to hide maternal deaths that may have been preventable
Sex with a girl under the age of 14 constitutes statutory rape under Nicaraguan penal code. Catholics for Free Choice started analysing sexual violence figures published by the national police, the Institute of Legal Medicine and the ministry of health – which were often contradictory – to decipher how many perpetrators were being prosecuted. The police and ministry of health have not published figures since 2012. “They never say why it stops, it just stops,” said Quintana.
There is deep-seated animosity between Ortega and the fiercely independent women’s movement. It is widely believed that Ortega has never forgiven the feminist leaders, many of whom fought alongside him in the civil war, for supporting his step-daughter Zoilamérica Ortega Murillo, now 46, who has accused him of sexually abusing her between the ages of 11 and 21.
“We believe that no one, not even the Daniel Ortega, should have immunity against such violence, and for that, women have paid a high price,” said Juanita Jimenez, a veteran human rights lawyer with Autonomous Women’s Movement.
Ortega Murillo eventually withdrew her case from the Inter American Court of Human Rights, but has publicly repeated the abuse allegations. Ortega and Rosario Murillo, her mother, have always denied the allegations.
Ortega remains popular, partly because the opposition parties are so weak, but every election since 2006 has been mired by allegations of fraud. The family’s expanding business empire includes TV stations and newspapers.
“Power is increasingly concentrated in the hands of the Ortega dynasty, and its government is increasingly intolerant of any criticisms,” said Gonzalo Carrion, director of the National Human Rights Commission.
The unlikely relationship between the church and Ortega continues, though not without incident. Just before the 2012 municipal elections, the Catholic Conference of Bishops publicly condemned election fraud and corruption, and said that Nicaragua “urgently needed to redesign its political system”.
“Out of the blue newspapers and women’s organisations got calls from the government saying the supreme court was finally going to hear the unconstitutionality abortion case,” said Mayte Ochoa from Ipas, a global reproductive rights organisation.
“It was reported by the press, so of course the church stopped talking about transparency and fraud, and the appeal never went anywhere. It was all about sending a message to the church: we give you women’s rights, in exchange you keep us in power.”
There have been glimmers of hope. In 2012, amid growing pressure from the international community, Ortega’s government passed the landmark Law 779 which outlawed all gender-based discrimination and obliged the state to support women and children leaving violent relationships. It also established specialist police stations, courts and prosecutors for gender violence offences.
But it immediately faced widespread opposition from church leaders, magistrates and lawyers’ associations and ordinary men, who took to the streets to denounce Law 779 as anti-men and anti-family. Bishop Abelardo Mata said in a TV interview: “The new number of the beast is not 666, but 779.”
The new family committees are part of subsequent reforms which have fundamentally changed Law 779. The government says the reforms promote family values, but for others they represent a dangerous backward step.
“The essence and objectives of Law 779 have been completely lost. It is now more difficult and dangerous for victims to speak out and get justice, at a time when growing numbers of dismembered and decapitated bodies indicate hate crimes against women are increasing. This machismo policy has put women’s rights back 50 years,” said Jimenez.
