News

By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman

  MANAGUA, November 16, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) -The stepfather of “Rosita”, who collaborated with the international pro-abortion movement in 2003 to escape Costa Rica and obtain an abortion for his nine-year-old stepdaughter, has been convicted of rape after DNA evidence and eyewitness testimony proved he was the real father of Rosita’s child.

  Francisco Fletes fled Costa Rica with his wife and “Rosita” (the name used by the Nicaraguan press to hide the identity of Fletes’ stepdaughter) in 2003 with the help of the Central American director of the international pro-abortion group Ipas, while he was under criminal investigation by the Costa Rican government for raping Rosita, whose pregnancy had been discovered during medical testing.

  Marta Maria Blandon of Ipas, by her own admission, collaborated with Nicaragua’s leftist “Women’s Network Against Violence” to smuggle Fletes, his wife and stepdaughter, out of Costa Rica, enabling him to evade the investigation against him at the time. The family accused a Costa Rican man, Alexis Barquero, of being the perpetrator, an allegation he consistently denied (see previous LifeSiteNews coverage at: https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/aug/07081602.html).

  Blandon boasted of exploiting the case for political gain in a 2003 interview. “From the very beginning a strategy was developed by the members of the support group that was set up and led by the Red de Mujeres contra la Violencia [Women’s Network Against Violence] and many other organizations with long experience in the issues” Blandon told the Women’s Health Journal, adding that “This coalition of the broader women’s movement felt that it was the right time to lobby for an enforceable law allowing therapeutic abortion and to demand that the State take responsibility for Rosita’s case”.

  Blandon and her accomplice Lorna Norori knew that Fletes was a suspect in the case and wanted to flee the country to return to his homeland of Nicaragua. “Our number one priority was to get them out of there [Costa Rica], which is what the parents wanted,” Blandon said in the Women’s Health Journal interview, but acknowledged that “we were not able to leave Costa Rica because the parents had to make an official declaration for the trial of the rapist.”

  Despite the fact Norori was a therapist who has stated publicly that molestations are often perpetrated by family members, Blandon pooh-poohed the accusations against Fletes as “prejudice against immigrants” because he was a Nicaraguan in Costa Rica. “Even though Rosita’s attacker was already in jail, the judge maintained that there was insufficient proof against him,” she said. “Rosita and other children already had testified that he had abused and raped her, but the court was not satisfied. Why? Xenophobia, prejudice against immigrants. There was even an attempt to accuse Rosita’s father of the abuse.”

  Blandon and Norori went on to describe how they deceived the Costa Rican authorities in order to transport Fletes and his stepdaughter out of the country (see previous LifeSiteNews coverage at: https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/aug/07081602.html).  He was never prosecuted, and the falsely-accused Barquero spent three months in jail.

  The “Rosita” case became an immense cause celebre among pro-abortion groups, who publicized the story on an international scale, using it as a “hard case” and wedge issue to promote the cause of legalizing abortion in Latin America.  An award-winning documentary, “Rosita”, was made by a pro-abortion film team in the US, and was broadcast on Cinemax’s Latin America channel in 2006.  Pro-abortion groups also flew the family to Chile to promote legalized abortion in that country, although by their own admission the project was a failure.

  The true motive behind Rosita’s abortion began when the Nicaraguan newspaper El Nuevo Diaro revealed in August of this year that Rosita was pregnant again, and that her mother was accusing Fletes of the crime.  Fletes admitted in an interview while on the run that he had impregnated the girl, but denied responsibility for the 2003 pregnancy.  He was caught and arrested soon afterward.

“Rosita” admitted during the trial that in fact her stepfather had been sexually abusing her for years, and that he was the real father of her first child, aborted in 2003.  She asked forgiveness for collaborating in the false accusation against Barquero, a poor day laborer who says his life was ruined by the allegations.

  According to the prosecutor in the case, Rosita had been in a state of “dependency” since the beginning of her victimization by Fletes, and had therefore agreed to corroborate his lie about the source of her pregnancy in 2003, when she was still nine years old.

  The judge in the case is scheduled to determine Fletes’ penalty on Tuesday of next week.  Fletes’ attorney has asked for 15 years, while the prosecutor has asked for the maximum of 30 years in prison.

  Related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:

  Recent three-part series on “Rosita” case:
  Part I: https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/aug/07081602.html
  Part II: https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/aug/07081603.html
  Part III: https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/aug/07081604.html

  Nicaragua Government Moves to Close Legal Loophole Allowing Abortion
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2004/jul/04072705.html

  Questions Still Unanswered in Case of Nine-Year-Old Nicaraguan
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2003/apr/03040404.html

  No Charges Laid in Nicaragua Abortion
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2003/mar/03030411.html

  Ipas’ Marta Maria Blandon Involved in Abortion Deception
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2007/jan/070105a.html

  Women’s Health Journal Interview with Ipas Director Marta Maria Blandon
https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Marta+Maria+Blandon+and+Lorna+Norori%3a+%22we+have…