Visual Politics Reproductive Rights Activism in Peru

Reproductive rights activism in Peru faces the challenge of pursuing justice for historical rights violations as well as seeking the legalisation of abortion. Activists face a complex and challenging political situation marked by corruption and instability (Peru has just installed its seventh president since 2016), as well as social and cultural opposition to abortion. This paper compares how two Peruvian feminist campaigns use visual politics to define themselves in relation to transnational and local contexts. The first case study looks at abortion rights activism in Peru and how it makes connections to the wider Latin American marea verde (green tide) through the use and re-imagining of the pañuelo verde (green scarf) as a visual symbol. Drawing on the transnational strength of this movement energises the movement in the face of democratic backsliding, and increasing limits to already narrow abortion access. The second case study focuses on the movement for justice for the victims of forced sterilisations carried out during the 1990s under the authoritarian government of Alberto Fujimori. There has been little legal justice or reparation for these victims, largely indigenous women living in the rural highlands. The feminist group Somos 2074 y Muchas Más (We are 2074 and many more) campaigns for justice through performance and visual protest. Their actions seek to draw direct links between the sterilisations and contemporary political issues of corruption and state violence. In comparing these two examples, this paper examines the past and present of reproduction in Peru. It argues that without addressing the roots of historical violations, Peru cannot achieve reproductive justice.