Beaten, suffocated, forced into an abortion: the fate of one Venezuelan woman under Maduro

Latest Amnesty International report documents ongoing state detention and torture in the South American country – all while its president seeks renewed links with the west

Luke Taylor, The Guardian
Tue 29 Aug 2023

When Emirlendris Benítez suddenly went missing in August 2018, her family feared the worst. So they were incredulous to hear Venezuela’s attorney general announce on television 10 days later that she had been detained on a motorway and arrested for orchestrating a plot to assassinate President Nicolás Maduro with a drone.

The 42-year-old tradeswoman was sentenced to 30 years in prison and remains behind bars in Caracas where Amnesty International says she has been the victim of some of the most egregious human rights abuses.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/aug/29/beaten-suffocated-forced-into-an-abortion-the-fate-of-one-of-many-venezuelans-under-maduro

29.08.2023

News

Amnesty International

Venezeula – The Only Ones Arrested After a Child’s Rape: The Women Who Helped Her

The assault of a 13-year-old girl in Venezuela and the arrest of her mother and a teacher who helped her end the pregnancy have forced a national debate about legalizing abortion.

By Julie Turkewitz and Isayen Herrera
Photographs by Meridith Kohut
April 13, 2021

MÉRIDA, Venezuela — She wore a ponytail and a red T-shirt, the words “Glitter Girl” sketched across the front.

Gripping her mother’s hand, she spoke softly, describing how she had been forced out of school by Venezuela’s economic crisis, and then was raped at least six times by a neighborhood predator who threatened to harm her family if she spoke out. At just 13, she became pregnant.

Continued: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/13/world/americas/venezuela-abortion-assault.html

Venezuelan women lose access to contraception, and control of their lives

By Julie Turkewitz and Isayen Herrera, New York Times
February 20, 2021

SAN DIEGO DE LOS ALTOS, Venezuela — The moment Johanna Guzmán, 25, discovered she was going to have her sixth child, she began to sob, crushed by the idea of bringing another life into a nation in such decay.

For years, as Venezuela spiraled deeper into an economic crisis, she and her husband had scoured clinics and pharmacies for any kind of birth control, usually in vain. They had a third child. A fourth. A fifth.

Continued: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/02/20/world/venezuelan-women-lose-access-contraception-control-their-lives/

A heartbreaking sign of Venezuela’s deepening child welfare crisis

Baranyai: A heartbreaking sign of Venezuela's deepening child welfare crisis

Robin Baranyai, Special to Postmedia News
Updated: March 6, 2020

The graphic is straightforward but shocking: a red circle crossed through with a line — the universal symbol for nope — imposed over a stick figure standing next to a trash bin. Dangling upside down above the garbage is a small stick figure in a diaper.

“Prohibido botar beb(C)s,” the text reads: “Dumping babies is forbidden.”

Continued: https://lfpress.com/opinion/columnists/baranyai-a-heartbreaking-sign-of-venezuelas-deepening-child-welfare-crisis

06.03.2020

Venezuela – This Woman Performed Her Own Abortion — And Was Lucky To Survive

This Woman Performed Her Own Abortion — And Was Lucky To Survive
After barely surviving two illegal abortions, Beatriz sells birth control on the black market to help other women in Venezuela, as the economic and political crisis deepens.

Karla Zabludovsky, BuzzFeed News Reporter
Posted on February 28, 2019

CARACAS, Venezuela — With a flick of the wrist, Beatriz pulled out two strips of birth control pills from her top.

Contraceptives are in short supply in Venezuela, with most pharmacies sold out, so it’s largely up to black marketeers like Beatriz to supply women with them. And despite their exorbitant price tag — on the street, $1 gets you a month’s birth control, but that represents a week’s salary — the pills remain highly sought after.

Continued: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/karlazabludovsky/venezuelas-crisis-is-pushing-women-to-have-illegal-abortions