Perspectivas / Perspectives

• Sombath Somphone disappeared a month ago after stopping at a police checkpoint, yet officials deny knowing his whereabouts
• Note of the Editor: Laos was known as the most peaceful country in the world until its forced involvement in the Vietnam war and subsequent Communist takeover

Bangkok, Jan. 24.─ hough it rarely makes international headlines, Laos has been in the spotlight for the past month. One of its most well-respected activists has gone missing after stopping at a police checkpoint. His disappearance has prompted the Laos government to suggest he was "kidnapped", but rights groups suspect he may have been abducted after campaigning against land grabs.

Sombath Somphone, 60, disappeared on the night of 15 December in the capital, Vientiane, and was last seen by his wife, Ng Shui Meng, who was driving ahead of him as the couple returned home in separate cars. CCTV footage shows the activist stopping at a police post, leaving his vehicle, and his Jeep being driven away by someone else. Later, a pickup truck with its lights flashing arrives, Sombath gets in, and he and two other men drive off.

• Additional marches gather thousands of supporters in St. Louis, Richmond, Lebanon (Pennsylvania)  and many other US cities and towns
• Irish pro life demonstrators held similar but unrelated marches in Dublin on Jan. 19
• Desde Roe vs Wade en 1973, han habido 56 millones de abortos en Estados Unidos  

Washington, DC, Jan. 25.─ The tens of thousands of participants at the annual March for Life in Washington Jan. 25 demonstrated just how determined they are not only by showing up in such large numbers on a bitter cold day but by continuing a 40-year tradition of protesting the U.S. Supreme Court's decision legalizing abortion.
 

"Forty years ago, people thought opposition to the pro-life movement would eventually disappear," Boston Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley told the crowd assembled on the National Mall for a rally prior to the march along Constitution Avenue to the front of the U.S. Supreme Court.

La jefa de la ONG Action Aid de la India anima a luchar por el avance de la igualdad 

  Nueva Delhi, Ene 22.─ India vive una oportunidad histórica para que las mujeres logren la igualdad, dice la activista Sehjo Singh (foto), nacida de Nueva Delhi en 1963. La ola de protestas por la brutal violación en grupo y la muerte de la estudiante el 16 de diciembre es la prueba. "La respuesta fue unánime y espontánea. La gente salió a demandar justicia", dice Singh, directora de programas y políticas en la ONG Action Aid (Ayuda en acción) desde hace un año. Protestaron mujeres, pero también hombres que no pertenecen a ninguna organización, hablaban por ellos mismos. "Eso me tiene muy optimista", dice tras recomendar las sopas vegetarianas del YWCA Kitchen. Es uno de los restaurantes que más frecuenta por su cocina y por su cercanía a Jantar Mantar, epicentro de todas las protestas.

"Hemos aprendido que el Gobierno tiene miedo de una sociedad que exige sus derechos. Tenemos que seguir presionando para que las cosas cambien". En las últimas semanas se han registrado nuevos casos de violaciones en varias partes de India. Su sonrisa cálida se desdibuja al reconocer que el camino que queda por recorrer es difícil. "Al pedir igualdad, las mujeres van a enfrentar más violencia, es una reacción machista".