Home | Business News | Browse by Publication | N | NotiCen: Central American & Caribbean Affairs

CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE A RECURRENT PROBLEM IN RURAL NICARAGUA.

Article Excerpt
Rosita, the nine-year-old whose pregnancy and subsequent abortion shook Nicaragua and Costa Rica in 2003, is back in the news, this time as the mother of a 19-month-old daughter. It is now alleged that the man who assaulted her in 2003 was not a coffee worker in Costa Rica, where the family had gone from Nicaragua to work the Costa Rica harvest (see NotiCen, 2003-02-27). The assailant was then, say accusers, and has continued to be for the past four years, her stepfather, Francisco Leonardo Fletes Sanchez.

Fletes, together with Rosita's mother, pled with authorities all the way up to Nicaraguan President Enrique Bolanos for an abortion to save her life in 2003. The abortion was denied but performed anyway in a private clinic. Therapeutic abortion was legal at the time in Nicaragua, but only under highly restrictive conditions (see NotiCen 2006-08-31 and 2006-11-02).

It is also now alleged that Rosita's mother, Maria de los Santos Esquivel Reyes, was aware of and consented to the continuing sexual activity between the child and her stepfather. Rosita's story took on a life of its own long after the child had returned to obscurity. She was immortalized in documentaries on child abuse and her story was taken up by organizations supporting abortion. Books and any number of essays and articles were written supporting therapeutic abortion and supporting the helpless parents struggling to save their daughter.

That core narrative now requires revision; the facts as they were assembled now need re-examination. "What is happening now is tragic, it is a story with an end that nobody expected and that few of us believe," said Marta Maria Blandon of the Red de Mujeres contra la Violencia (RMCV).

This organization took on Rosita's cause in 2003, standing by the parents and agitating for her right to an abortion. The RMCV also carried out, or sponsored, psychological testing of the child that had ruled out parental complicity. The organization is deeply involved this time as well. It has seen to Rosita's care and housing with her daughter in a facility for this purpose and is keeping the location a secret.

The issues were investigated in secret by the Comisaria de la Mujer (women's division of the police) of the department of Masaya, with the participation of the RMCV. The local police were not...

View this article FREE - Now for a Limited Time, try Goliath Business News
Free for 3 Days!