SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador — It’s been 10 years since Teodora del Carmen Vásquez lost consciousness in a bathroom at work when she was nine months pregnant and delivered a stillborn baby. After police accused her of killing her newborn, she was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
A third of the way through her sentence, she passes the weeks and months at the Ilopango Women’s Prison reading books. “In the 10 years I’ve been here, I’ve probably read 500 books,” the 34-year-old Vásquez told Univision during a recent visit.
Confident and well-spoken, she sat in an airy, shaded courtyard area at the front of the prison, much different from what she describes as the overcrowded quarters where she lives alongside hundreds of women.
[For more on this story by Jessica Weiss, Andrea Patiño, go to http://www.univision.com/univi...trial-in-el-salvador]
Photo: Ricardo Andrés Velásquez Parker, a parliamentarian in the right-wing ARENA party, introduced a motion last year to increase the maximum sentence for abortion from eight to 50 years. Here, on his desk, are symbols of his fight to defend what he calls the "smallest," most vulnerable members of society. Andrea Patiño.
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