El Salvador: teen rape victim jailed over stillbirth to face retrial for murder

[Judi Lynn]

Pro-choice activists say Evelyn Beatríz Hernández’s case will be important in determining the stance of the country’s new leader

Reuters in Bogotá
Wed 10 Jul 2019 14.52 EDT Last modified on Wed 10 Jul 2019 19.56 EDT

A teenage rape victim in El Salvador who was convicted for murdering her child and jailed for nearly three years after a stillbirth will face a retrial next week, her lawyers said on Wednesday.

Evelyn Beatríz Hernández was handed a 30-year prison sentence in 2017 for aggravated murder by a female judge who ruled the teenager had induced an abortion, which is a crime under any circumstance in the Central American nation.

Her sentence was annulled in February in an appeal before El Salvador’s top court, marking a victory for the Citizen Group for the Decriminalisation of Abortion (CDFA), a local rights group pushing to free about 20 jailed women with similar cases.

“We’re convinced that Evelyn is innocent,” Ana Martínez, one of Hernández’s lawyers at the CDFA, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation ahead of Monday’s court date. “We hope that on Monday the rule of law and justice wins in this country.”

More:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/10/el-salvador-woman-retrial-stillbirth-conviction-evelyn-beatriz-hernandez

[Judi Lynn]

1. Oscar Martnez drowning: El Salvador takes blame (El Salvador)

Key facts on migration from El Salvador:

In 2016, 1 in 10 Salvadoreans had no access to drinking water or sanitation service, according to the UN

Almost one-third of the country lives below the national poverty line

In 2015, El Salvador had the highest murder rate in the world but the latest official data indicates that the rate has been falling since then

The number of Salvadoreans apprehended at the US border has increased significantly in recent months. In the fiscal year to October 2018 the figure was 31,369. Since then, it has nearly doubled.

Óscar Martínez drowning: El Salvador takes blame
1 July 2019

Mr Bukele told the BBC his government had to fix the issues that forced people to migrate in the first place.

Mr Bukele, who took office a month ago, promised he would work to make El Salvador a safer and better place.

The bodies of Óscar Martínez and his daughter Valeria, who drowned in June, were buried in El Salvador on Monday.

About 200 relatives and friends attended the private funeral in the capital, San Salvador.

Drowning photo exposes US border risk for migrants
A photograph of them lying face down in the water of the Rio Grande shocked the world and reignited the debate about illegal immigration and US President Donald Trump's hardline policies.

President Bukele said the father and his 23-month-old daughter had been fleeing El Salvador, not the United States.

"People don't flee their homes because they want to, people flee their homes because they feel they have to," he told the BBC in the capital, San Salvador.c

More:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-48823102