Page 12 - aruba-today-20180421

A12 WORLD NEWS
Saturday 21 april 2018
Argentine women see legal abortion closer than ever

By DEBORA REY them out despite a 2012
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina Supreme Court ruling that
(AP) — Pushed by a wave was supposed to remove
of demonstrations by wom- barriers and take judges
en's groups, the homeland out of these decisions.
of Pope Francis seems clos- Argentina's Roman Catho-
er than ever to legalizing lic Church is leading the
abortion. resistance against the ini-
The protests and shifting tiative.
public opinion have led "When you deny the most
conservative President elemental right to live, all
Mauricio Macri to call for human rights hang by a
Congress to launch a de- thread," said Gustavo Car-
bate on a broader legal- rara, who was recently
ization of abortion in Ar- named auxiliary bishop by
gentina, which currently the pope. "If there's an ex-
allows the procedure only cuse to eliminate a human
in cases of rape or risks to life, there will always be
the mother's health. reasons to exclude humans
A bill allowing elective who are a nuisance from
abortion in the first 14 weeks this world." In recent years,
of pregnancy was intro- Argentina has been at the
duced in Congress earlier In this April 10, 2018 photo, a young woman with text in Spanish written on her back that reads forefront of social move-
this year with the backing of "Wealthy women abort, the poor die" during a pro-abortion demonstration in Buenos Aires, Ar- ments in the region. In 2010,
70 lawmakers from across gentina. it became the first country
the political spectrum. The Associated Press in Latin America to legalize
bill needs 129 votes in the same-sex marriage. More
257-seat lower house and straits after the father re- some horrible situations," "What point is there in pe- recently, the Ni Una Menos,
then would go to the Sen- fused to accept responsi- Rodas said. "If something nalizing abortions if they or Not One Less, movement
ate. The lower house vote bility. goes wrong, who do you continue to happen?" that was created in Argen-
is expected in June. Macri Desperate and alone, she call? Who do you fall back asked Nelly Minyersky, a tina to fight gender-based
has said that even though went to a pharmacy on on? No, you just die." 90-year-old lawyer and violence has grown into a
he remains anti-abortion, the poor outskirts of Buenos Argentina's health ministry one of the authors of the global phenomenon.
he would not veto the bill if Aires and paid twice her estimates that between bill, who underwent an ille- These days, demonstrators
passed. monthly salary for the drug 370,000 to 522,000 Argen- gal abortion more than 50 have filled the streets in
Natalia Rodas welcomes misoprostol. Unsure if the tine women undergo ille- years ago. front of Congress wearing
this unprecedented open- drug would harm her with- gal abortions each year Although therapeutic abor- the green handkerchiefs
ing to greater abortion out medical supervision, and thousands of women, tions to protect the mother that symbolize the abor-
rights in Argentina. The she fearfully took the pills mainly poor, are hospital- are allowed in Argentina, tion rights movement. Even
31-year-old housemaid re- and aborted. ized each year for compli- advocates say doctors and dozens of lawmakers wore
cently found herself preg- "An illegal abortion has cations. It is the main cause judges often continue to them when the bill was
nant and in dire economic made me live through of maternal death. block women from carrying introduced.q

Ex-rebel leader in Colombia

relocates amid talk of arrest

resettling temporarily in a cartel. The arrest made tage the peace process.
rebel transition zone in his Santrich the first high-rank- "They took the first one
native Caqueta province ing leader in the peace away already," Marquez
"until there is more clarity process to be charged with told a group of former reb-
and certainty about what criminal activity, unsettling els on April 12. "And Sant-
comes next." rank and file rebels already rich told me 'Ivan, you'll be
Marquez didn't specify concerned about the slow next.'"
In this March, 8, 2018 file photo, Ivan Marquez, a former leader what he meant but said he pace of implementation of For now, Colombia's gov-
of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, FARC, pauses remains committed to the the historic accord. ernment is trying to down-
during the announcement of the withdrawal of former guerrilla 2016 peace deal that saw Also arrested in the U.S.-led play speculation surround-
commander Rodrigo Londono from the race for president, cit-
ing both criticism of the political process and his serious health almost 7,000 guerrillas turn sting was Marquez's neph- ing Marquez's surprise
problems, at a press conference in Bogota, Colombia. over their weapons and ew, Marlon Marin, who has decision to abandon the
Associated Press form a political movement. since been taken to New capital, where he had
Earlier this month, Colom- York and is cooperating been living for the past
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) soon be arrested as part of bian authorities arrested a with prosecutors oversee- year.
— The former chief peace a U.S. drug investigation. top FARC ideologue known ing the case. Interior Minister Guillermo
negotiator for Colombia's The rebel leader known by the alias Jesus Santrich Marquez has suggested he Rivera said Marquez told
FARC rebel movement has as Ivan Marquez alerted on U.S. charges of conspir- could be captured next him that he wanted to
decided to relocate to a the Colombian govern- ing to smuggle 10 tons of and has accused the U.S. engage with some of the
rural camp for ex-guerrillas ment of his plans in a letter cocaine into the U.S. in ca- and Colombia of orches- 7,000 former fighters living
amid speculation he could Thursday. He said he was hoots with Mexico's Sinaloa trating the arrests to sabo- in the rural camps.q