In the Valley of the Pregnant Girls
Nuvia has established a world record: pregnant with 8 years old, she has delivered a baby. The journalist discovers that there are 220 pregnant minors, rape victims. The President of Peru proposes a death penalty for rapists.
By Veronica Lazo. Huánuco (Perú)
Nuvia V.T. is the youngest mother of the new century. She turned nine years old the same day she gave birth. She lives in Huánuco, a region of the centre of Peru. A zone that already is the valley of the pregnant girls. Because her story, being the most shocking, isn’t, in any way, an exception. According to the Programa Juntos (Together Program), of support to poverty, there exist another 220 Nuvias, between 12 and 14 years old, waiting for the fruit of ferocious rapes. The cases of young abused children by relatives are counted by dozens.
Huánuco is a zone of extreme poverty. As the small village where Nuvia grew to her barely 130 centimeters. In this region many families survive with incomes that don’t reach the 75 cents of euro by day. There are villages where, from six p.m. in the afternoon, women can’t leave their houses. The night is synonym of tragedy and rapists’ best ally.
It is estimated that the official statistics reflect only the 30% of the cases. The parents hide it out of shame. On Huánuco highlands there are permanent robberies to buses. Frequently, in addition to robbing them, the thieves rape the female passengers.
It is not unusual that the culprits buy the silence of the parents with money. They take advantage of their poverty to reach impunity. One of the most recent cases is of a 12 year old girl impregnated by a neighbour. He, a powerful landowner, has kept hidden his crime to the justice by giving land to the parents of the youngster.
In the case of Nuvia, she was raped by her two first cousins during five months. The first time it was on the hill where she pastured her cattle. She returned to her home, on the Cochato village, in the Molino district (Pachitea province), when her relatives reached her.
Her case reflects the poverty of the region. The little girl, as frequently occurs in the zone, slept with her sisters. She has between four and seven of them (not an extact fact because the version comes from police informs badly redacted and from the words of an eight years old girl that doesn’t speak Spanish, that never went to school, whose mother lives in the same reality).
To overcome the cold, it’s not even enough the body heat of their relatives. The kids, and also the grown ups, heat themselves lighting, with matches or rocks, the manure of their cattle. The houses are built with “tapial”, some sort of mud wall made with mud and horse mane, dried to the sun. The water is obtained from a “puquial”, a well filled thanks to a natural spring. Electricity is a distant invention. They fed with what they grow. Rarely eat meat. Their animals are the way to obtain real money. But their sheep only get alms on the market. Sometimes they can’t get the equivalent of 50 cents of an euro. And, on occasions, they can’t even sell them.
Nuvia, the girl of this world, didn’t tell anybody what happened to her almost daily. It was her secret. Until she feels the burning sensation on her stomach. She suffers sharp pain. “My tummy hurts a little”, she says, on quechua language, to her mother. She, worried, takes her to the closest medical centre, placed on the Pachitea capitol, Panao. They walk for two hours through undergrowth and wind. It’s already summer and the weather is not an obstacle. When they arrive, a doctor examines her. He gets surprised by his first suspicion. As soon he puts his hand on her womb, he discovers that Nuvia’s illness is not a disease. Despite this, he gives her the first medical tests of her life.
The persistent rapes coincided with the moment of the girl’s ovulation. It is a rare but real phenomena. The diagnose: Nuvia, eight years old, barely a meter an thirty centimetres of height, expects a baby. The most precocious pregnancy of this century , and her, giving birth, will become one of the youngest mothers in history. The people in charge of the health centre call the police.
The agents arrive to her house looking for the culprit. Nuvia looks at them, puzzled. It’s the biggest movement of people she has ever seen. Her mother cries. The guards, dressed in grey, sport angry faces. She drops many tears, rather of uncertainty than of sadness.
The hunt begins. The authorities go after the culprits. Her cousins, Avilio Arostica Berrospi (between 23 and 29 years old) and the other, a 17 years old teenager, have already fled. A tip-off from a corrupt officer warned them. They escaped to the Peruvian jungle, to Aguaytia. A place where disappearing is a real possibility.
The police inspector Tomás Garay leads the search. If they don’t find them first, the habitants of the village will lynch them. When they don’t move anymore, they will tie them naked to a post. If the authorities don’t arrive in time, they will burn them alive. It’s the law of the village, tired of their young living these atrocities. In the meantime, the fugitives are winning the match to Garay and the village.
But that is the story of the executioners. And the victim? In august, they move Nuvia to a nun refuge in Panao. She is hidden and protected. Her pregnancy is complicated. At her age, her body is changing. She will keep on growing. The mammary glandes have started growing until reaching the size of a twelve year-old. The uterus grows from 5 to 30 centimeters. Passing the sixth month of pregnancy, the risk for the baby increases. Her body is not prepared to give birth naturally. The medical reports are clear. It is a “high risk pregnancy”. She must go to a hospital to take care of a pregnancy of these characteristics.
On September 28th she arrives to the capital of Huánuco city in an ambulance. The activity stuns her. Her small face reflects all she discovers. She is like a baby on her first car ride. She gets distracted with the trees. When she goes through the Malecón Centenario Leoncio Prado and she sees the Huallaga river, the hypnosis of the landscape is complete. She is followed by a mob of journalists. The flashes light up her face. She seems even younger.
The young girl is an irresistible hook for media. Politicians begin to intervene. The congresswoman Maria Luisa Cuculiza, close to the former dictator Alberto Fujimori, compromises to be her godmother. The pregnancy of the eight year old girl has risen the fire of one of the most intense political debates that Perú has ever lived: death penalty to the underage rapists.
The president Alan García has an obsession with this initiative being approved as soon as possible. The legislator Lourdes Alcorta describes rapists as “depredating and wild animals”, “perverted criminals”, “bastards” and “scum” that must die. The political editor of the diary El Comercio of Lima says that “with this (penalty, the Peruvian State) will not be able to solve anything while it has the education that we have, the prosecutors that we have, the justice that we have…”.
Even the cardinal of Lima, Juan Luis Cipriani, has intervened and supports the initiative. The opposition considers this a “smoke screen” according to the populism characteristic of García Perez. This year the reports of sexual abuse to minors largely surpass the 2000.
The gynaecologist of the Hermilio Valdizán Hospital of Huánuco, Fredy Vallejos Escalante, points that the case of Nuvia V.T. is absolutely exceptional. A pregnancy at this age only can happen because of two reasons: “a precocious puberty, a remote possibility, or because the girl has had sexual intercourse for a long time”. This way, the organism reaches maturity faster and the menstruation suddenly appears.
The same day she arrives to the Huanuco capital, on September 28th, the young girl is moved to Lima. The translator tries to explain to her what are those machines permanently pointed at her. She doesn’t understand. She has never seen a TV camera before. Her mother, around 35 years old, follows her a few steps behind. The weather has destroyed her skin. Her premature wrinkles allow to guess how much she’s been through. She has the same look of Nuvia. Shy, she is left behind by the mob. She walks slower. Wears a black skirt and covers herself with a pretty white shawl.
After seven hours on the road, Nuvia, separated from her mother, arrives to the Maternity of Lima. The goal of the personnel is the survival of her baby. Few believe this to be possible. The pregnant girl returns to the shelter for teenage mothers Santa Rita de Casia. On October, she begins to receive special psychological treatment. The teenagers there spoil her. In her village, her sisters become wards of the State, by decision of the prosecution.
On November 30th she goes under miscarriage danger and an urinary infection is feared. At the valley of the child-mothers the situation remains unchanged. A new case is in everybody’s mouths. It is discovered that a man named Máximo Encarnación Eugenio raped her daughter since she was 13 years old. When she ran from home, he made her return bounded by the wrists with a heavy load of rocks. During the long way back he hit her with a whip. On the river, he undressed her, and drowned her until she promised she will never do it again. Máximo had five children that could call him dad or grampa.
Old stories of yesterday and today. Just like the one of the child Nuvia.
On December 1st, coinciding with her ninth birthday, a c-section allows the birth of a boy with two and a half kilograms of weight. On the day she should have received presents, the child Nuvia becomes the youngest mother of the century.
Nuvia has established a world record: pregnant with 8 years old, she has delivered a baby. The journalist discovers that there are 220 pregnant minors, rape victims. The President of Peru proposes a death penalty for rapists.
By Veronica Lazo. Huánuco (Perú)
Nuvia V.T. is the youngest mother of the new century. She turned nine years old the same day she gave birth. She lives in Huánuco, a region of the centre of Peru. A zone that already is the valley of the pregnant girls. Because her story, being the most shocking, isn’t, in any way, an exception. According to the Programa Juntos (Together Program), of support to poverty, there exist another 220 Nuvias, between 12 and 14 years old, waiting for the fruit of ferocious rapes. The cases of young abused children by relatives are counted by dozens.
Huánuco is a zone of extreme poverty. As the small village where Nuvia grew to her barely 130 centimeters. In this region many families survive with incomes that don’t reach the 75 cents of euro by day. There are villages where, from six p.m. in the afternoon, women can’t leave their houses. The night is synonym of tragedy and rapists’ best ally.
It is estimated that the official statistics reflect only the 30% of the cases. The parents hide it out of shame. On Huánuco highlands there are permanent robberies to buses. Frequently, in addition to robbing them, the thieves rape the female passengers.
It is not unusual that the culprits buy the silence of the parents with money. They take advantage of their poverty to reach impunity. One of the most recent cases is of a 12 year old girl impregnated by a neighbour. He, a powerful landowner, has kept hidden his crime to the justice by giving land to the parents of the youngster.
In the case of Nuvia, she was raped by her two first cousins during five months. The first time it was on the hill where she pastured her cattle. She returned to her home, on the Cochato village, in the Molino district (Pachitea province), when her relatives reached her.
Her case reflects the poverty of the region. The little girl, as frequently occurs in the zone, slept with her sisters. She has between four and seven of them (not an extact fact because the version comes from police informs badly redacted and from the words of an eight years old girl that doesn’t speak Spanish, that never went to school, whose mother lives in the same reality).
To overcome the cold, it’s not even enough the body heat of their relatives. The kids, and also the grown ups, heat themselves lighting, with matches or rocks, the manure of their cattle. The houses are built with “tapial”, some sort of mud wall made with mud and horse mane, dried to the sun. The water is obtained from a “puquial”, a well filled thanks to a natural spring. Electricity is a distant invention. They fed with what they grow. Rarely eat meat. Their animals are the way to obtain real money. But their sheep only get alms on the market. Sometimes they can’t get the equivalent of 50 cents of an euro. And, on occasions, they can’t even sell them.
Nuvia, the girl of this world, didn’t tell anybody what happened to her almost daily. It was her secret. Until she feels the burning sensation on her stomach. She suffers sharp pain. “My tummy hurts a little”, she says, on quechua language, to her mother. She, worried, takes her to the closest medical centre, placed on the Pachitea capitol, Panao. They walk for two hours through undergrowth and wind. It’s already summer and the weather is not an obstacle. When they arrive, a doctor examines her. He gets surprised by his first suspicion. As soon he puts his hand on her womb, he discovers that Nuvia’s illness is not a disease. Despite this, he gives her the first medical tests of her life.
The persistent rapes coincided with the moment of the girl’s ovulation. It is a rare but real phenomena. The diagnose: Nuvia, eight years old, barely a meter an thirty centimetres of height, expects a baby. The most precocious pregnancy of this century , and her, giving birth, will become one of the youngest mothers in history. The people in charge of the health centre call the police.
The agents arrive to her house looking for the culprit. Nuvia looks at them, puzzled. It’s the biggest movement of people she has ever seen. Her mother cries. The guards, dressed in grey, sport angry faces. She drops many tears, rather of uncertainty than of sadness.
The hunt begins. The authorities go after the culprits. Her cousins, Avilio Arostica Berrospi (between 23 and 29 years old) and the other, a 17 years old teenager, have already fled. A tip-off from a corrupt officer warned them. They escaped to the Peruvian jungle, to Aguaytia. A place where disappearing is a real possibility.
The police inspector Tomás Garay leads the search. If they don’t find them first, the habitants of the village will lynch them. When they don’t move anymore, they will tie them naked to a post. If the authorities don’t arrive in time, they will burn them alive. It’s the law of the village, tired of their young living these atrocities. In the meantime, the fugitives are winning the match to Garay and the village.
But that is the story of the executioners. And the victim? In august, they move Nuvia to a nun refuge in Panao. She is hidden and protected. Her pregnancy is complicated. At her age, her body is changing. She will keep on growing. The mammary glandes have started growing until reaching the size of a twelve year-old. The uterus grows from 5 to 30 centimeters. Passing the sixth month of pregnancy, the risk for the baby increases. Her body is not prepared to give birth naturally. The medical reports are clear. It is a “high risk pregnancy”. She must go to a hospital to take care of a pregnancy of these characteristics.
On September 28th she arrives to the capital of Huánuco city in an ambulance. The activity stuns her. Her small face reflects all she discovers. She is like a baby on her first car ride. She gets distracted with the trees. When she goes through the Malecón Centenario Leoncio Prado and she sees the Huallaga river, the hypnosis of the landscape is complete. She is followed by a mob of journalists. The flashes light up her face. She seems even younger.
The young girl is an irresistible hook for media. Politicians begin to intervene. The congresswoman Maria Luisa Cuculiza, close to the former dictator Alberto Fujimori, compromises to be her godmother. The pregnancy of the eight year old girl has risen the fire of one of the most intense political debates that Perú has ever lived: death penalty to the underage rapists.
The president Alan García has an obsession with this initiative being approved as soon as possible. The legislator Lourdes Alcorta describes rapists as “depredating and wild animals”, “perverted criminals”, “bastards” and “scum” that must die. The political editor of the diary El Comercio of Lima says that “with this (penalty, the Peruvian State) will not be able to solve anything while it has the education that we have, the prosecutors that we have, the justice that we have…”.
Even the cardinal of Lima, Juan Luis Cipriani, has intervened and supports the initiative. The opposition considers this a “smoke screen” according to the populism characteristic of García Perez. This year the reports of sexual abuse to minors largely surpass the 2000.
The gynaecologist of the Hermilio Valdizán Hospital of Huánuco, Fredy Vallejos Escalante, points that the case of Nuvia V.T. is absolutely exceptional. A pregnancy at this age only can happen because of two reasons: “a precocious puberty, a remote possibility, or because the girl has had sexual intercourse for a long time”. This way, the organism reaches maturity faster and the menstruation suddenly appears.
The same day she arrives to the Huanuco capital, on September 28th, the young girl is moved to Lima. The translator tries to explain to her what are those machines permanently pointed at her. She doesn’t understand. She has never seen a TV camera before. Her mother, around 35 years old, follows her a few steps behind. The weather has destroyed her skin. Her premature wrinkles allow to guess how much she’s been through. She has the same look of Nuvia. Shy, she is left behind by the mob. She walks slower. Wears a black skirt and covers herself with a pretty white shawl.
After seven hours on the road, Nuvia, separated from her mother, arrives to the Maternity of Lima. The goal of the personnel is the survival of her baby. Few believe this to be possible. The pregnant girl returns to the shelter for teenage mothers Santa Rita de Casia. On October, she begins to receive special psychological treatment. The teenagers there spoil her. In her village, her sisters become wards of the State, by decision of the prosecution.
On November 30th she goes under miscarriage danger and an urinary infection is feared. At the valley of the child-mothers the situation remains unchanged. A new case is in everybody’s mouths. It is discovered that a man named Máximo Encarnación Eugenio raped her daughter since she was 13 years old. When she ran from home, he made her return bounded by the wrists with a heavy load of rocks. During the long way back he hit her with a whip. On the river, he undressed her, and drowned her until she promised she will never do it again. Máximo had five children that could call him dad or grampa.
Old stories of yesterday and today. Just like the one of the child Nuvia.
On December 1st, coinciding with her ninth birthday, a c-section allows the birth of a boy with two and a half kilograms of weight. On the day she should have received presents, the child Nuvia becomes the youngest mother of the century.
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1 comentario:
You should remove this blog please. I don't want her to be able to find this when she gets online. Please respect her privacy. She has her whole live ahead of her and doesn't need people reading this.
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