Teodora Vasquez is photographed during an interview with AFP in San Salvador on September 12, 2019
Teodora Vasquez spent 10 years in jail for murder in El Salvador. Her crime? Giving birth to a dead baby. Now a new film tells her story and highlights the plight of 16 women still serving long sentences, as pressure grows for legislative change. Vasquez, who served more than one-third of her 30-year sentence, will present the 90-minute documentary “Fly So Far” at a festival in Sweden on 23 September. “After being locked up for so long, you can fly, you can go far,” Vasquez told AFP in an interview, explaining the film’s title. Vasquez, who will be in Stockholm to launch the film has become an outspoken human rights defender.
Sixteen women are currently in prison in El Salvador for what human rights groups describe as obstetric emergencies. Under Salvadoran law however, they were convicted of having abortions. “Even if those 16 women regain their freedom, we will continue the fight because we don’t want future generations to end up in jail because of the kind of obstetric problem that happened us,” said Vasquez.
The film by Swiss-Salvadoran director Celina Escher hopes to highlight their plight on the world stage. The film focuses on Maria Teresa Rivera, who was given political asylum in Sweden after being jailed in El Salvador. It portrays her life inside as well as after her release, showing the difficulties experienced by these women integrating back into society, particularly given the stigma of the crime for which they were convicted.
Vasquez currently directs a project that provides ex-prisoners with the chance of a fresh start — offering healthcare, psychological help, employment assistance and legal advice. “We have the problem that when we recover our freedom we leave with a criminal record, and having a criminal record, prevents us from getting any job.“
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