The decision of Peru's Fourth National Criminal Court to annul the criminal charges against former President Alberto Fujimori for mass forced sterilizations in the 1990s has sparked national and international outrage. Around 300,000 women and 22,000 men, mostly from poor and indigenous communities, were sterilized without their consent as part of the National Reproductive Health Program. These programs aimed to control the population rate and were aggressively promoted by the Fujimori government.
The annulment of the charges against Fujimori and other responsible persons - including Alejandro Aguinaga, the then Minister of Health - is seen by human rights groups and representatives of the victims as a serious setback in the fight for justice. They criticize the court for putting formal procedural errors above the rights of the victims. María Esther Mogollón, spokeswoman for the women affected, stressed that this decision practically puts the case back to zero and once again puts justice a long way off.
Particularly controversial is the role of Aguinaga, who obtained the annulment of the charges through an amparo procedure. This is seen by critics as an attempt to acquit those responsible of the serious human rights violations. The court ruled that the previous investigations and trials, which were based on 182 pieces of evidence, were null and void because they were carried out under the old penal code and now had to be repeated under the new criminal procedure law.
This development is a bitter blow to the victims who have been waiting for justice for decades. Although Fujimori has already been convicted of other human rights crimes, the question remains whether he and others responsible will ever be held accountable for the forced sterilizations.
The court's decision has also attracted international attention, especially in the context of Fujimori's humanitarian pardon in 2017 and his subsequent release on health grounds. Human rights organizations are demanding that the case be pursued and that those responsible, including Fujimori, be held accountable for their crimes. The victims of forced sterilizations continue to hope for justice and reparations, although this fight seems more difficult than ever after this latest decision.
