By Brandon Hall
(Email him at WestMiPolitics@Gmail.com)
The Peruvian government is reopening an expansive criminal investigation into a shocking forced sterilization scandal involving a high-profile donor to Congressman Bill Huizenga. Many questions still remain about the secret trip Huizenga took to Japan, paid for a group associated with Ryoichi Sasakawa, a key figure in the scandal who dubs himself "the world's richest facist."
It was reported Saturday that "Peruvian judicial authorities have ordered the reopening and expansion of a criminal probe into the mass forced sterilization of an estimated 350,000 women and 25,000 men during the 1990s."
Congressman Bill Huizenga recently took a one week trip to Japan with his wife- they left on Valentine's Day and returned a week later.
This was not personal, rather, official Congressional business, of course. According to documents filed with the House Ethics Committee and available at Legistorm, Huizenga "Attended foreign policy meetings, met with Japanese and U.S. officials."
However, not a single word was mentioned via press release, nor anywhere on Huizenga's Facebook or Twitter for the whole week. Huizenga concealed the trip from Constituents, who were basically led to believe Huizenga was in the district, or in D.C.
Instead, Huizenga was thousands of miles away, enjoying a luxurious trip to Japan that cost over $20,000.
It's quite strange Huizenga would omit this fact and make it look like he was back home in the U.S... As I ruminated as to why Huizenga did this, the reason soon became crystal clear.
Documents filed with the House Ethics Committee show the trip was paid for by two entities, the U.S. Association of Former Members of Congress, and the Sasakawa Peace Foundation.
The first organization is what it sounds like. The second, however, is far more interesting. And the guy who founded it has a disturbing history.
Ryoichi Sasakawa, a Japanese millionaire supportive of the controversial "Unification Church," once said of himself, "I am the world's richest fascist."
The Sasakawa Peace Foundation, which bears his name and co-sponsored Huizenga's trip, is one of many organizations he founded or was an integral part of.
Another very prominent group is the Nippon Foundation. That group came under fire a few years ago for its ABHORRENT involvement in the forced sterilization of hundreds of thousands of Peruvian woman.
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| Sasakawa (Wikipedia) |
According to Wikipedia, "The Nippon Foundation, alongside the United Nations, USAID, and other international aid agencies, supported a massive family planning campaign in Peru, known as Voluntary Surgical Contraception. It was later revealed that under the campaign, undertaken by Alberto Fujimori's administration in Peru from 1996 to 2000, nearly 300,000, mostly indigenous, women were forcibly sterilized."
Sasakawa's group donated millions to fund the sterilizations and provided equipment for"sterilization festivals," among other things. Here's an excerpt of an article from Catholic Culture:
"A STRANGE JAPANESE CONNECTION
A few days after becoming the new Minister of Health, Dr. Luis Solari de la Puente—a noted surgeon and pro-life leader—was surprised to notice the generous donations that had been made by a Japanese non-profit organization called The Nippon Foundation to promote "health initiatives" in Peru's rural areas.
After reviewing the support provided by the foundation, Solari de la Puente found out that 100 percent of the money, equipment, and material donated by the organization was related to birth-control programs. Moreover, most of the equipment used for the controversial "sterilization festivals" held by health workers in rural Andean areas during the Fujimori years came from the same organization.
Solari eventually discovered that the Nippon Foundation...had also donated $2 million for a "reproductive health campaign" in the lightly populated Amazon basin."
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| Rep. Bill Huizenga |
It's absurd to think Congressman Huizenga simply neglected to mention he was in Japan. He knew his constituents wouldn't like the fact that as our Country (which is $18 trillion in debt) faces a number of issues and families continue to struggle, Huizenga was trotting around Japan for a week.
It's like when Obama constantly plays golf as the world goes to hell-it doesn't sell well in West Michigan.
Even worse for Huizenga: his trip was partially funded by a group with an extremely controversial founder who was part of a deplorable assault on women and girls in Peru. Talk about a "War on Women," jeez. He knew damn well that wouldn't be popular, either.
>>>Huizenga should immediately refund the portion of the money this group spent on his trip.
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Brandon Hall is a lifelong political nerd from Grand Haven, and is the Managing Editor of West Michigan Politics.
Email him at WestMiPolitics@Gmail.com
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| Photo By Darlene Dowling Thompson |
Thanks for this article!
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