Lima, November 24 (teleSUR-RHC)-- A documentary about a mass sterilization campaign of women and men from Peru’s poorest regions debuted Saturday in Lima. Presented at the first session of the Twelfth Latin American and Caribbean Feminist Conference, the documentary’s title is “Scars of Deception.”

Some 300,000 women and 22,000 men were sterilized without informed consent during Alberto Fujimori’s second term in office from 1996 to 2000. According to the film’s producers, 18 women died due to complications.

The victims had been part of Fujimori’s Reproductive Health and Family Planning Program, a campaign to ostensibly fight poverty that the former Peruvian president had originally unveiled in 1995 at the International Women’s Conference in Beijing.

In response to Fujimori’s claim, late feminist lawyer and human rights activist Giulia Tamayo Leon told El Pais in 2002 that Fujimori “considers [sterilization] a great strategy to fight poverty while in other countries, anti-poverty campaigns are directed toward education and health.”

Presented at the Cultural Center of Spain, the documentary depicts ongoing cases, demands for reparations and lawsuits filed against the Peruvian government.

“Scars of Deception” shows 15 personal testimonials of victims and family members, including Celia Ramos. She died in 1997 after being operated on without even the minimum health and safety provisions in the district of Catacaos.

The 12th Latin American and Caribbean feminist conference got underway on Saturday. Under the motto: “For the liberation of our bodies,” 1,500 women from several countries are attending the conference.