Tag: ecuador

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13 and pregnant. Fortunately, she is not alone

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Your father left you with your mother at an early age, in school you are doing well but you still have a few years to go before you are ready.

Your future plans? you are just beginning to think about that, why the rush-you have a whole life ahead of you. Your mom works her ass off 6 days a week to make all the ends meet so you can go to school and so you can do everything else you want to do as a 13-year-old girl. Then you find out you're pregnant and, if you survive, will be a mother at 14. (The odds of dying during pregnancy are 5x higher under 15 than someone 25).

Her mother works 6 days a week for about 250 euros a month plus some social security. She goes to school and finds the love of her life there. They have a great time together and probably because of the lack of preventive education and contraceptives in this country, one thing leads to another. Talking about it is taboo, so once the high word finally gets out it turns out to be three months down the road. With an angry father after you who would rather see you dead than alive, the most logical decision is to run away with your future husband who is two years older. Deciding not to want to be a mother yet is something you can't do emotionally, and besides, having an abortion isn't allowed either. But you are confident, you will be a wonderful mother.

Abortion is only allowed if the mother's life is in danger or if the child is deformed, this requires a judge's approval, which is a long bureaucratic process in which by the time a decision is made it is often already too late. In addition, it is not accepted by the church, so if you already find a judge you can forget about "the support" of the church afterwards.

Between 2000 and 2010, the number of teenage pregnancies in Ecuador increased by over 70%. The only luck we can talk about is that the child was conceived in some kind of love, as 1 in 4 women in Ecuador become victims of sexual violence.

Many teenage mothers have no partner and raise the child on their own; it looks like this daughter will follow the path of her single mother.

She is fortunately not alone in her struggle. Nearly 40% of girls in Ecuador under 20 are mothers or pregnant. Among girls with no education, this number is even alarmingly higher.

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[The door stays shut. Could they be dead?

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For months I've been watching them as they play on the street, trying to make money on the side by renting out parking spots or with a customer walking into their house looking for a new adventure. A few days ago, three men left the house early. The gate in front of their front door was forcibly removed and there is no latch in the front door, since then there is no sign of life coming from the house of one of my neighbors...

The neighborhood in Quito where I currently live is not the safest neighborhood imaginable, it is recommended not to walk the streets there after 7 p.m., it is teeming with "rent by the hour" hostels and every business owner has an alarm button to call a special unit in case something happens.

The family, -if it is a family at all- consists of three children and two women. The youngest (boy) I estimate 5 years old and the two girls both under 15, one of whom is closer to 10 than 15. They live diagonally below the balcony where I stand several times a day to enjoy the view.

It was already a fascinating family in recent months; the little boy (5) could often still be found on the street in front of the house late at night near midnight, and when the blue fluorescent lights came on and two young girls had dressed up, many new and sometimes regular male customers could be found at my neighbor's house.

Last weekend there was a lot of commotion outside; the steel fence, which many houses have here, and my neighbors' until recently protective outer door were in the middle of the street. A couple of men forced their way through the wooden front door and clearly had no intention of leaving without answers. As one of the girls falls down after being hit in the face the men manage to work their way inside the house while screaming. The door closes for a moment and the muffling of voices seems to make the street quiet again.

Not much later the door shoots open again after which one of the girls runs to the corner of the street and calls out to whomever she thinks is the police. Just after her, one of the men runs after her. Disappointed that the car passing by was not a police car and visibly frightened, they work her way back to her home with resistance. After two of the men drag the steel fencing that was still on the street inside, the door closes.

A few minutes later, a police car comes speeding down the street, rounding the corner with shouts and glass clinking in the background, heading for the next report.

The next few hours find a pleading discussion going on in the background of my quiet balcony moment. It is time to go to sleep.

...Early the next morning, three men leave the apartment. Later I notice that there is no longer a door handle on the door and there are suspiciously new wooden boards in front of the window. Since then the street has been quiet, no child playing, no blue lights on or strange men in the street. Nothing at all. My neighbor's door remains closed. Could they still be there....

(Photo is not the door from this article)

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[DUTCH] Ecuador fights for internet freedom and wins #InternetLibre

As of today, in terms of protecting Internet freedom, Ecuador is not only known as the guardian angel of Assange and Snowden, among others, but they have taken another big step in protecting Internet freedom. 

A decision was made today to remove Section 474 (Retention of Records and Reports.) from COIP (Organic Penal Code).

Why this is good news. 

Among other things, this article will require Internet service providers to store all user data for 6 months. This would involve tracking Internet activity, phone numbers, addresses, static and dynamic IP data, and all fixed and wireless communication connections. In addition, all this data had to be linked to each other (user ed).

Another rule would be that Internet cafes had to record their customers (on video). Failure to transfer this data would fall under criminal law.

A decision was made today to waive Article 474, showing Ecuador is not going to follow the trend of many others to take away internet freedom

For the full legislation: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B5cMEHQ2197-Z3FiRlR4Q2s4dWc/edit (see page 188 for Article 474)