Page 12 - ARUBA TODAY

A12 WORLD NEWS
Saturday 4 auguSt 2018
Brazil's top court wrestles with abortion during hearings

By PETER PRENGAMAN gal abortion.
BEATRICE CHRISTOFARO "The crime is how wom-
Associated Press en are having abortions,"
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Sup- said Diniz, who earlier in
porters and opponents of the week said she had re-
legalizing abortion testified ceived threats because of
Friday in front of Brazil's top her vocal position on the
court, which is holding two topic.
days of extraordinary hear- Hermes Rodrigues Nery,
ings on an issue increasingly from the National Asso-
debated in South America. ciation of Pro-Life and
The hearings at the Su- Pro-Family, argued that
preme Federal Tribunal the right to life begins at
come as a handful of conception and that con-
countries in South America cerned groups should fo-
have moved toward de- cus on attacking the root
criminalizing the procedure causes of poverty, not
in the first trimester of preg- helping the poor get abor-
nancy. In Brazil, a deeply tions.
conservative nation that is "The culture of death im-
home to the world's larg- pedes our development
est population of Catholics as a nation, development
and fast-growing evangeli- that only comes from hu-
cal faiths, abortion is illegal A demonstrator holds a plastic doll shaped like a fetus during a Catholic church event against man capital," he said.
and comes with a punish- the legalization of abortion, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Thursday, Aug. 2, 2018. More than 40 experts from
ment of up to three years Associated Press all sides of the debate were
in prison. There are three expected to testify on Fri-
exceptions: if a woman is elective abortions during larly onerous on poor black gling to raise three children, day and Monday, Aug. 6,
raped, pregnancy puts her the first 12 weeks of preg- women. had an illegal abortion and but there was no timeline
life in danger, or the fetus is nancy. Debora Diniz, an anthro- died. Citing a 2016 survey on when the court could
brain-dead. Some emphasized a fetus' pologist and law professor undertaken by the univer- make a decision.
The question before the right to life, while others at the University of Brasilia, sity, Diniz noted that 1 in 5 to terminate an unwanted
court is whether to allow said that inequality makes told the story of a black Brazilian women under 40 pregnancy. q
the current ban particu- maid who, already strug- years old have had an ille-
A glimpse into life in Cuba's 2 Guantanamos

By RAMON ESPINOSA 1960s following the revolu- Some 5,000 U.S. military and aiding the 9/11 terror small garden featuring sun-
Associated Press tion led by Fidel Castro, to personnel, dependents attack on the U.S. flowers at the base that
GUANTANAMO, Cuba (AP) deter Cubans from trying and civilian contractors live The city of Guantanamo detainees tend as the Stars
— While Muslims detained to find refuge at the base. on the base. The detention is home to about 200,000 and Stripes flutter over-
at the U.S. naval station Some land mines are also center that opened there people, many of whom head.
base at Guantanamo believed to remain on Cu- in January 2002 now holds work in agriculture. They Hours after the harsh sun
Bay bowed their heads in ban soil, while the troops on 40 detainees, including five cultivate cocoa, sugar- reaches its peak, Marines
prayer on a recent day, the U.S. side rely on sound men facing trial by military cane, coffee and other and sailors at the base
Cuban men in the nearby and motion sensors. commission for planning crops, compared with the sometimes head to the
city of Guantanamo toot- beach in their uniforms.
ed horns and banged on Cubans in Guantanamo
drums as they prepared for strip off their clothes and
a carnival. jump into a bright green
The two Guantanamos river where horses also take
have been a contrast since a refreshing dip. At dawn,
the U.S. opened the base U.S. military personnel put
at the southeastern tip of on sneakers and head out
the island in 1903, follow- for runs, while young Cu-
ing the Spanish-American bans clad in flip-flops exer-
War, and the divide has cise at a small park in the
only grown under Cuba's city.
communist government, Even though Fidel Cas-
which refuses to cash the tro died nearly two years
annual rent checks from ago, he lives on in the two
Washington as it insists the Guantanamos. His name
U.S. leave. is emblazoned on a con-
People on both sides of the crete sign on the highway
closely monitored bound- leading into the city that
ary have long led different reads, "Yo Soy Fidel." A
lives, yet they all live under bobble-head figure of the
government restrictions former leader chomping
and appeals to patriotism. In this July 24, 2018 photo, a taxi driver steers his classic American car past a sign that says in on his trademark cigar is
They are separated by a Spanish "I'm Fidel" on road to Guantanamo Bay naval base, Cuba. sold at the base radio sta-
"cactus curtain" planted by Associated Press tion, whose motto is "Rock-
Cuban soldiers in the early in' in Fidel's Backyard."q