LibertadLatina Commentary

This protest poster says: "We won't be silent, and they will not silence us; Feminists of Honduras!" Photo:  Feminist International Radio Endeavor (FIRE)

We at LibertadLatina join with humanity in expressing our complete outrage at the leaders of the coup d'etat in Honduras. The leaders of the coup were not justified in kidnapping the democratically elected president of the nation and sending him into exile. The United Nations General Assembly, the Organization of American States and U.S. President Barak Obama, among many leaders of nations in the Americas, have all joined in demanding that President José Manuel Zelaya Rosales be returned to power.

Although the coup was approved by Honduran Supreme Court and Congress, this only shows that the nation's democratic institutions are weak. In Colombia, for example, President Álvaro Uribe, a conservative, is seeking, just as did President Zelaya in Honduras, to change the constitution to eliminate the current limits on the number of terms that a president may serve. Yet nobody is trying to overthrow Uribe for have proposed such an idea. The fact that President Zelaya had set-up a popular referendum, to allow the voters to decide the issue, was apparently too much democracy for the coup plotters, so they pounced on Zelaya and raped democracy in the process.

The independent press, including Feminist Radio International Endeavor (FIRE), CIMAC Noticias in Mexico City, and Indymedia Chiapas, have provided excellent coverage of the true story that is taking place inside Honduras. Some of the key stories are reprinted here.

The coup leaders have declared a state of siege, have targeted human rights activists, and have used rifle fire to attack unarmed protesters who are simply outraged that these cowards have resorted to taking power by force.

Coups were a common power-grabbing tactic in Latin America in the late 1900s. The region has since made significant progress in moving towards democracy. This coup is just one of many indicators that democracy is not a 'done deal' in all nations of the Americas.

The conservative coup plotters will, consistent with the emergent anti women's rights movement represented elsewhere in Latin America (with whom they are apparently allied), not bode well for women's equality.

We applaud the activism that we are seeing from brave women and men in the face of this military repression. Just as happened during the popular uprisings against dictators across Latin America in the 1980s and 1990s, the coup leaders in Honduras are using the tactics of the 'dirty wars' that lead to the murders and rapes of tens of thousands of innocent civilians in Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Chile, Argentina, Mexico and other nations of Latin America.

Video from a number of sources shows the terrorism with impunity that the coup's military supporters are using on innocent protesters.

See especially this YouTube video posted on Narco News web site that records the rifle fire of soldiers who were shooting into crowds of protesters, as well as an interview with a congressional representative as she visits wounded at a local hospital and expresses her indignation at the coup.

It is an act of cowardice for the current Honduran coup government to block CCN in Spanish, block the Internet, and place Honduras in a stage of siege with a suspension of all individual liberties. Given the repression that just occurred in the aftermath of presidential elections in Iran, the world community has very little tolerance for  such illegal behavior in Honduras.

Coup leaders, return President Zelaya to his elected position.

Nobody elected you.

Your corrupt government is not wanted and it will not stand!

End impunity now!

Chuck Goolsby

LibertadLatina

July 3, 2009

Honduras

Banner: "Feminists in Resistance; Coup leaders get out! Photo: CIMAC Noticias

Urge mayor presión a golpistas: feministas hondureñas

Lideresa pro-vida, designada canciller por golpistas 

Ante el Estado de Emergencia en Honduras, feministas y luchadoras sociales lanzaron un llamado a la comunidad internacional para que pronuncien una condena más enérgica contra lo que denominaron gobierno usurpador; “nos están disparando, golpeando, violentando todos nuestros derechos”, denunciaron…

Honduran Feminists Urge Greater International Pressure Against Coup Leaders

A female pro-life leader has been appointed foreign affairs chancellor by the usurpers

In the face of the state of siege that has been declared in Honduras, feminists and social activists have launched an appeal to the international community to deliver a strong condemnation against what they termed a usurper government. They state that: “We are being shot, beaten, and they are violating all of our rights.”

In a telephone interview with CIMAC Noticias, Hilda Rivera, coordinator of the Center for Women's Rights in Honduras, said that support from Latin America and the global community is urgently needed. Yesterday, the National Congress of Honduras approved a State of Emergency, temporarily suspending individual liberties...

"...We are urging more pressure from the world community, because the situation is becoming more violent here” says Rivera.

"Policemen and soldiers are shooting and beating us. It is urgent that the government not be given additional time [to consider ultimatums to step down]. We have put up with four days of bullets, beatings and rain. There is a general tiredness in the population. Nonetheless, the violence is increasing, so we are standing up to fight.”

Rivera stated that the coup is a serious setback for the entire society, and particularly for women, who’s rights were already restricted. With this coup, the problem is magnified...

Until now, "within the feminist movement we have not anticipated everything that may happen, but we are clear in our understanding that, with this ‘law of the strongest,’ we can be detained, they can raid our offices and homes, and we cannot assemble. It is of grave concern to us that we have important issues on our agenda that are threatened by the coup, such as the legalization of emergency contraception." ...

A central concern for Rivera is the safety of human rights defenders. “The government has already begun to ‘hunt’ various organization leaders by raiding their houses and arresting them." The coup plotters know that  women do not falter in our struggle. There is a danger that repression against feminist leaders may follow.

As an example that the coup government is not interested in defending the rights of women, Rivera cites the naming of the founder of Provida [Pro Life] in Honduras as Foreign Affairs Chancellor.

Eco-feminist Daysi Flores told Feminist International Radio (RIF) that the people are afraid and outraged. They cannot come out of their homes. But, says Flores, feminist resistance has been declared. Women’s rights are going to continue to progress, and we are going to continue the struggle.

Full English Translation

Gladis Torres Ruiz

CIMAC Noticias

News for Women

Mexico City

Honduras

Comunicado de grupos y organizaciones del Movimiento de Mujeres y Feminista de Honduras 

A Las Organizaciones Internacionales,  Cooperación Internacional, Organismos de Derechos Humanos y a lLos Estados del Mundo

El día domingo 28 de Junio, el Presidente de la República José Manuel Zelaya Rosales, fue agredido, secuestrado y enviado a la República de Costa Rica en el avión presidencial, custodiado por cuerpos militares argumentando que había violado la Constitución de la República por implementar una consulta popular mediante una encuesta de opinión, donde se consultara al pueblo si estaba de acuerdo o no que el 29 de noviembre se colocara una cuarta urna para proponer una Asamblea Nacional Constituyente, que tuviese como objetivo elaborar una nueva Constitución con la plena participación ciudadana de los diferentes actores sociales del país…

Statement By Feminist And Women¹s Organizations From Honduras Following the Coup D‘Etat

To International Organizations, International Development Agencies, Human Rights Institutions And To The States Of The World:

On Sunday, June 28, 2009 the democratically elected President of the Republic of Honduras, José Manuel Zelaya Rosales, was assaulted, abducted and sent to the Republic of Costa Rica in the presidential plane guarded by the military...

The people are peacefully expressing their rejection of the coup d’etat, demanding the immediate reinstatement of President Zelaya, and a return to the Rule of Law...

Given these egregious series of events, we request the support of international development agencies and the international community to demand the reinstatement of the Rule of Law, to demand an end to the prosecution of the members of the cabinet of President Manuel Zelaya Rosales and leaders of social movements and the media, and an end to all types of brutal violence and to prevent the imposition of fascism in our country. 

Most Honduran citizens advocate for peace, solidarity and the respect of human rights.  We emphatically denounce the complicity shown in these events by the Human Rights Commissioner of Honduras, Dr. Ramón Custodio, before the regional and international human rights organizations and the international community.

June 29, 2009

Tegucigalpa, Honduras

Signed:

Centro De Estudios De La Mujer ­ Honduras (Cem-H) - The Women's Studies Center

Centro De Derechos De Mujeres (Cdm) - The Center for Women's Rights

Centro De Estudios Y Accion Para El Desarrollo De Honduras (Cesadeh) - The Center for Development Studies and Action of Honduras

Published by Feminist International Radio Endeavor (FIRE)

June 29, 2009

Honduras

"Feminists in Resistance" Photo: CIMAC Noticias

Vive Honduras una insurrección popular contra usurpadores

Berta Cazares, candidata independiente a la presidencia

México DF - Vivimos en Honduras una insurrección popular, un levantamiento con la decidida participación de las mujeres, en contra de las fuerzas armadas y el grupo oligárquico que derrocó al presidente democráticamente electo Manuel Zelaya, pero el costo es alto y la situación de la población civil, incluida la niñez, es crítica, la vida cotidiana está alterada y la brutal represión tiene como blanco principal a la juventud…

Honduras is Experiencing a Popular Uprising Against the Usurpers

An interview with Berta Cazares, independent candidate for president

Honduras is living through a popular uprising, one that is being carried out with the wholehearted participation of women against the armed forces and the oligarchic group which overthrew democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya. The cost has been high, and the situation for civilians, including children, is critical. Everyday life has changed, and the brutal repression is targeting our youth.

Bertha Cazares Flores, an independent candidate for president of Honduras and the national leader of the Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras, described the situation in Honduras in a phone interview with CIMAC Noticias, three days after the military high command, most of Congress and the Supreme Court overthrew the President and his Cabinet…

Hundreds have been injured in the country, especially young people, said Cazares. In the 'Progress City' (Ciudad Progreso) area, the repression was especially brutal, perhaps because that area has historically been a center for social struggles...

In rural and indigenous areas of Honduras the situation is quite critical, including in [the town of] San Francisco de Ocaña, where, during the 1980s, the Army used machine guns against the civilian population. "That's where the resources should go, to see what is really happening there," Cazares says.

Cazares added that the people continue to defy the siege, the curfew and the ban on travel. There are military checkpoints throughout the country. Hundreds of people from rural areas, teachers and indigenous people, are moving toward to the capital...

Thursday

CIMAC: What should we expect on Thursday, the day announced by Manuel Zelaya for his return to Honduras? [The planned return date for President Zelaya has been pushed back to Saturday since this story was written. - LL]

Cazares: We call upon social movements and organizations that defend international human rights to come to Honduras in delegations, to support the civilian population...

We hope that [Mayan Guatemalan Nobel Peace Prize laureate] Rigoberta Menchú, along with other personalities such as Mirna Anaya, a judge on the Supreme Court of El Salvador, and [Argentinean 1980 Nobel Peace Prize leareate] Adolfo Perez Esquivel will arrive [to support President Zelaya].

Meanwhile, Berta is preparing - with an arrest warrant against her and the knowledge that "assassination is a terrible thing in Honduras" - for progress to be made today, Wednesday, when civic organizations will protest against the coup at an army cordon, just three blocks from the house that she one day hopes to govern from.

Full English Translation

Radio Progreso, pese a ser acallada por los militares golpistas, confirmó en una de sus transmisiones clandestinas que varios batallones de las Fuerzas Armadas de Honduras, desde el lunes han roto con los golpistas y el gobierno de facto, y han anunciado que permanecerán al margen de la represión al pueblo de su país...

Honduran Army Battalions Reject Repressing the Population

Honduran station Radio Progreso, despite being shut-down by the coup leaders, has confirmed in one of its clandestine transmissions that a number of battalions of the Armed Forces of Honduras have, since Monday, June 29th, broken with the organizers of the coup d'etat and the de facto government. They have announced that they will remain on the sidelines of the repression...

 Radio La Primerísima

Managua, Nicaragua

June 30, 2009

Chile

President Michelle Bachelet of Chile, during a June 23, 2009 visit with U.S. President Barak Obama

Bachelet Remueve a Jefe Policial

La presidenta de Chile, Michelle Bachelet, removió al jefe de la policia de investigaciones (civil), Arturo Herrera, tras una serie de denuncias de corrupción, incluida una que involucró a policías con una red de prostitución infantile…

Hace una semana, en el aniversario 76 de la policía de investigaciones, Herrera lamentó la relevancia dada por medios de difusión al caso de prostitución infantil que involucró a un grupo de policías activos.

Bachelet Removes Police Chief

The president of Chile, Michelle Bachelet, has removed the chief of the Investigations Police, Arturo Herrera, after a series of allegations of corruption, including a case in which police officers were allegedly involved with a child prostitution network.

Herrera resigned the post three months before his scheduled retirement. He did so after a telephone conversation with the president, held while she was visiting Mexico.

Upon her return to Chile the president accepted the resignation and appointed as his replacement Marco Antonio Vasquez, now police chief in the region of Bío Bío, 500 kilometers south of Santiago…

A week ago, during the 76^th anniversary of the Investigations Police agency, Herrera lamented the importance that the media had given to a case of child prostitution involving a group of police officers.

www.ansa.it/ansalatina

June 29, 2009

Texas, USA, Mexico

Man handed 5 years in sex trafficking

A former registered nurse was sentenced Wednesday to five years in prison for engaging in what was the first and so far only federal sex-trafficking case in San Antonio.

Brent Andrew Stephens, 41, who surrendered his nursing license amid the criminal case, pleaded guilty in March to conspiracy to harbor aliens for financial gain and conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion…

Stephens admitted that he and his business partner, Timothy Gereb, planned to use young Mexican women as escorts and in a massage parlor in May 2007.

The two paid Stephens' personal assistant, Maria de Jesus “Jessica” Ochoa; her sister, Consuelo Pilar Ochoa; and their mother, Isabel, to recruit and smuggle females from Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, to San Antonio.

The Ochoas smuggled three victims, including two minors, and took them to Stephens. The victims were given alcohol, threatened at gunpoint by Gereb and warned not to return to Mexico, court documents state…

The victims told agents that once they arrived in San Antonio, they were told they would have to work as prostitutes for five years to pay the $3,000 smuggling fees…

Gereb, 50, was sentenced earlier to 10 years in prison. Isabel Ochoa, 60, received time served. Consuelo Ochoa, 34, was sentenced to 18 months for the sex-trafficking case and 39 months for a separate drug case. Maria Ochoa, 32, got 12 months and one day and is now out of jail.

Guillermo Contreras

Express-New

June 25, 2009

Florida, USA

Lee County at Forefront of Slavery Fight

June 28, 2009

Mexico

Mexican Congressional Deputy Maricela Contreras speaks out about defects in trafficking law's regulations

Denuncian colusión de bandas y funcionarios para secuestrar migrantes  

México - La presidenta de la Comisión de Equidad y Género de la Cámara de Diputados, Maricela Contreras, denunció que bandas organizadas coludidas con autoridades cometen la mayoría de los secuestros contra migrantes en las zonas fronterizas.

Señaló que según el Informe Especial sobre los casos de secuestro contra migrantes se documentaron nueve mil 758 personas privadas de su libertad, y de ese total en nueve mil 194 casos el delito fue cometido por ese tipo de organizaciones criminales...

Congress Explores Allegations of Collusion Between Criminal Gangs and Government Officials to Kidnap Migrants

According to the Special Report, 9,758 persons were deprived of their liberty

In 9,194 cases, the offense was committed by criminal organizations

The president of the Commission on Equality and Gender of the Chamber of Deputies, Maricela Contreras has reported that Mexican authorities have colluded with organized gangs to commit the majority of kidnappings targeting migrants in border regions.

Deputy Contreras noted that a special report on cases of kidnappings against migrants documented the fact that 9,758 people had been deprived of their liberty, and that in 9,194 of these cases, organized crime was the perpetrator...

The report states that migrants who enter Mexico are subjected to extortion, robbery, kidnapping, illegal searches, beatings, chases, being thrown off of moving trains, rape, threats, psychological pressure and even murder.

Contreras pointed out that the assailants most often mentioned by victims are elements of the Federal Preventive Police, military personnel and agents of the National Institute for Migration.

Data reported by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (CEPAL) indicates that along the southern border of Mexico, 70 per cent of migrants are victims of violence. Some 60 percent of migrants suffer some form of sexual abuse, including rape.

The CEPAL report also emphasizes that the United States border with Mexico is also a very dangerous region, where women migrants become victims of sexual violence, forced prostitution, human trafficking and murder.

Deputy Contreras denounced these human rights violations and called upon Mexican society to not tolerate inefficiencies, incompetence and  complicity by govern-ment officials, behaviors that threaten the lives and integrity of thousands of men and women who cross the borders into Mexico...

Full English Translation

El Financiero Online

With information from Notimex / JOT

June 27, 2009

See also:

Sitio Oficial de Maricela Contreras Julián - Maricela Contreras' official web site (In Spanish)

Maricela Contreras Julián en la página oficial de la Cámara de Diputados - Maricela Contreras' Congressional web site - In Spanish

Mexico

Mexican Congressional Deputy Maricela Contreras, chairwoman of the national commission to combat trafficking, speaks out about defects in the federal regulations published by President Calderón that weaken the nation's first federal anti-trafficking law

Atorada, ley contra tráfico de personas

Señala diputada que Segob no incluyó fiscalía en el reglamento

La Comisión de Equidad y Género de la Cámara de Diputados lamentó que a pesar de que se han detectado redes de delincuencia organizada dedicadas a la trata de personas en el país, el programa nacional de combate contra este delito no podrá operar sino hasta 2011 debido a que no se ha instalado la comisión encargada de su elaboración y no cuenta con una partida presupuestal específica...

Mexico’s Law to Prevent and Punish Trafficking in Persons is Stuck in the Mud

The Interior Department failed to include a role for the special prosecutor for trafficking's office in the law’s published regulations

The regulations as written will tie the hands of the anti-trafficking law’s enforcement provisions until 2011

The Commission on Equality and Gender of the Chamber of Deputies (the lower house of Congress) regrets the fact that despite having identified organized crime networks involved in human trafficking in the country, the national program to combat this crime cannot begin operating until 2011. The [unexpected] delay is due to the fact that the commission responsible for standing-up these efforts does not yet have a line item in the federal budget, and therefore it has not been created.

Deputy Maricela Contreras of the Revolutionary Democratic Party (PRD) and chairwoman of the anti-trafficking commission, noted that another failure of the Department of the Interior (SEGOB) in drafting the required federal regulations that will activate the 2008 anti-trafficking law is the fact that SEGOB did not create a role for the office of the Special Prosecutor for Crimes of Violence Against Women and Trafficking (FEVIMTRA) [an office of the Attorney General of the Republic] as one of the institutions responsible for combating trafficking...

Contreras, as part of her analysis of the official anti-trafficking regulations published on February 27, 2009 in the Official Gazette, added that the targeting of organized crime is also absent from the regulations.

"This situation is serious, because the regulations do not recognize that the problem [of trafficking] originates with various forms of criminal organizations, from disorganized bands that are just starting up to the more highly structured trafficking networks and mafias," says Contreras...

The Joint Committee of Congress has made an appeal to President Calderón’s legal counsel requesting that the Executive open the official regulations for revision [to repair the many defects within]. Presidential deputy legal counsel Javier Sanchez Arriaga responded to Congress by stating that changing the regulations was a responsibility of the Interior Department (Segob). [And thus, nothing was ever done to improve the regulations - LL]

Full English Translation

Liliana Alcántara

El Universal

June 20 2009

See also:

Agence France-Presse (AFP)June 27, 2009

---

Added: June 28, 2009

Cecilia Romero, head of Mexico's national immigration service, says that sex tourism and pedophile networks are "inevitable." "El turismo sexual es inevitable" - Cecilia Romero del Instituto Nacional de Migración de México Photo: El Universal

LibertadLatina Commentary

President Calderón, the Human Rights Crisis at Mexico's Southern Border is Unacceptable

Our current series of articles covering the human rights emergency facing women and girl migrants at Mexico's southern border responds directly to the recent comments of Cecilia Romero, head of Mexico's national immigration service (the National Institute for Migration - INM). Director Romero stated in a press interview with El Universal, a major Mexico City daily paper, that human trafficking is "inevitable", and that, "the existence of the smuggling of migrants, human trafficking, pedophile networks, and the kidnappings and violence that affect thousands of migrants are only "evils of mankind" that Mexico cannot eradicate.

We strongly disagree with Director Romero and others in the leadership of Mexico's National Action Party, who habitually dismiss critical women's rights issues, including the femicide murders in Ciudad Juarez, as being the inevitable, and 'normal' results of male human behavior.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

The citizens of Mexico, Mexico's Congress and the international community need to hold the government of President Felipe Calderón accountable for his allowing unending mass gender atrocities to occur on Mexico's southern border with Guatemala and Belize.

In this hell-on-earth, an estimated 450 to 600 migrant women are sexually assaulted each day, according to the International Organization for Migration. Police response is almost non-existent. At times, police are complicit in this criminal violence.

Mexico's southern border is also the largest zone on earth for the commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC), according to Save the Children.

As Father Luis Nieto states in the below article about Salvadoran mothers who must come to Mexico's border to grieve for their raped and murdered daughters, "We cannot keep quiet, we cannot be complicit in this."

We strongly agree with that sentiment. Silence is also violence.

The federal government of Mexico is not ignorant of this ongoing catastrophe. The United Nations, the International Organization for Migration, Save the Children, elements of the Catholic Church, the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) and many members of Congress have, for the last several years, demanded action to end these atrocities.

Although INM director Cecilia Romero promised in February of 2007 that she would "entirely eliminate this terrible situation," no visible action has been taken to do so as of June of 2009, 16 months after Romero made that promise.

With the current economic slowdown and the expansion of global criminal sex trafficking operations, the rapes, kidnappings and sexual  enslavement of innocent migrants on that border is increasing with no end in sight.

As the United States Congress prepares to send over $400 million dollars in largely military aid to Mexico as part of the Merida Initiative to combat the drug cartels, we insist that human rights conditions be placed on those and other U.S. foreign aid funds that are headed to Mexico.

Mexico must close down the mass rape,  kidnapping, murder and child sex trafficking gauntlet that exists with total impunity on its southern border.

We also want to see the estimated 4,000 mostly Mayan indigenous children kidnapped from this region and sold to brothels in Tokyo, and also the uncounted thousands of other indigenous child victims who have been sold to brothels in New York and Madrid rescued, repatriated and then truly cared for.

Do you need money, President Calderón, to get these things done? Or is a misogynist, 'socially conservative' ideology that is resurgent in Mexico, and that has as its strongest voice the PAN political party, the real problem here?

Esta barbarie no será perdonado por Dios!

This barbarity will not be pardoned by God!

If Mexico does not have control over this part of its own territory, or if, as appears to actually be the case, the PAN's socially conservative agenda won't allow it to defend innocent and vulnerable women and children in crisis, consistent with their apathetic reaction to the femicide murders in Ciudad Juarez, then perhaps an international force organized by the Organization of American States, or by the United Nations needs to step-up to the plate, offer to help Mexico, and take control of the situation.

This crisis in Mexico is the best example in the Americas of why a new Global Plan of Action, as proposed by Ecuadorian Minister of Justice and Human Rights (Attorney General) Néstor Arbito Chica and diplomats gathered at the United Nations on May 13, 2009, is needed to get around this impasse.

Somehow, the fact that the government of Mexico is a signatory to the Palermo Protocol, and the fact that Mexico passed its 2009 U.S. Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report evaluation with a relatively positive Level 2 Rating (as we also acknowledge State's strong critique of corruption in Mexico), misses the point.

New and out-of-the box strategies are needed to oblige Mexico to fulfill its international obligations to end this mass gender atrocity once and for all.

It is not an impossible task.

The status quo today is... unacceptable!

End impunity now!

Chuck Goolsby

LibertadLatina

June 28, 2009

---

Added: June 28, 2009

Mexico

Salvadoran mothers gather to pray and leave offerings and crosses for their family members who were abused, kidnapped and murdered in the 'mugging and rape guantlet' at Mexico's southern border region known as 'La Arrocera' - the Rice Cooker.

Madres salvadoreñas depositan ofrendas en "La Arrocera"

El 80 porciento de los abusos cometidos contra los inmigrantes se cometen en esta zona de Huixtla, Chiapas

Huixtla, Chiapas - Los parientes de indocumentados fallecidos y desaparecidos visitaron "La Arrocera" , un pequeño tramo de escasos cuatro kilómetros que los indocumentados utilizan para evadir la caseta migratoria El hueyate, en Huixtla...

Salvadoran mothers leave offerings for their murdered children at "The Rice Cooker"

80 percent of abuses against migrants occur in this area near the city of Huixtla, Chiapas

Huixtla, Chiapas - relatives of deceased and missing undocumented migrants visited "La Arrocera," a four kilometer long rural trail that north-bound Central and South American migrants use to bypass the Hueyate immigration station in the city of Huixtla, Chiapas.

Under strict security arrangements and with the support of Mexico's National Commission on Human Rights (CNDH), members of the Committee of Families of Deceased and Missing Migrants toured the area of "the Rice Cooker" near Huixtla, a municipality in the state of Chiapas, where dozens of men and women have been assaulted, raped and murdered.

"The Rice Cooker" is a [rural] migrant trail where 80 percent of the assaults and homicides in the region are committed, according to testimony gathered by the Catholic Church and human rights organizations.

Even police will not enter this zone unless they have several officers armed with high-powered weapons.

Father Luis Angel Nieto prayed for eternal rest for all of those migrants who lost their lives here in their attempt to reach "the American Dream."

For the second time during the trip, Father Luis Nieto demanded that the Mexican authorities combat these crimes, that for several years have sewn pain and fear.

"We cannot keep quiet, we cannot be complicit in this," he said.

See also:

“Wall of Violence” on Mexico’s Southern Border

My Word is My Weapon

Dec. 24, 2008

Panama

The Sexual Reality of the Country

Panama is not only seen as a tax haven, but also a sexual paradise for tourists where everything is available for the right price

Every country has a seedy side and Panama is no exception. Like many other places in the world the sex industry is thriving and attracting visitors.

For many tourists that is one of Panama’s attractions. The so called “gentlemen’s clubs” offer not only beautiful women willing to do anything for the right price, but also the promise of forbidden pleasures.

Technically speaking sexual tourism is a crime, however there are Internet sites where the would be traveler will not only have all the their traveling arrangement taken care of, but also they throw into the package a lovely companion of whatever sex and age depending on the client’s preference...

Prostitution is a big business and organized crime gangs regularly bring women from Colombia, the Dominican Republic and other countries to work in the sex industry.

They bring the girls under false pretences promising them work. In reality the human traffickers take away their passports and use them as prostitutes in nightclubs and bars.

They are scared and lonely, in a foreign country, with nowhere to run to. They are terrified of the human traders and too afraid to go to the police because they know they are going to be deported...

Perhaps the worst part of the sex industry is the commercial sexual exploitation of children through on-line pornography and actual prostitution.

The Public Ministry is currently investigating 40 cases involving commercial sexual exploitation of children and pornography...

Marijulia Pujol Lloyd

Panama Star

06-04-2009

Mexico

Senators José Luis Máximo García Zalvidea (left) and Rubén Velázquez,

Senators Lázaro Mazón (left) and Francisco Javier Castellón Fonseca

PRD pide a INM explicación por red de lenocinio

Legisladores del PRD pidieron la comparecencia de Cecilia Romero Castillo, comisionada del Instituto Nacional de Migración (INM), por el caso de mujeres sin papeles de Centroamérica prostituidas...    

Legislators call upon the Joint Committee of Congress to call immigration (INM) director Cecilia Romero in to appear and explain apparent involvement of INM agents in Yucatán sex trafficking network

Congressional lawmakers from the Party of the Democratic Revolution [one of Mexico’s three main political parties] have called for Cecilia Romero Castillo, commissioner of the National Institute for Migration (INM) to appear before Congress to explain the situation of a case in which undocumented Central American women where prostituted in [the state of Yucatán, with the alleged involvement of immigration agents in criminal activity].

Senators José Luis Máximo García Zalvidea, Rubén Velázquez, Lázaro Mazón and Francisco Javier Castellón Fonseca presented an accord before the Standing [joint] Committee of Congress to "invite" to the commissioner of the INM to a meeting with legislative members of the First Committee.

PRD legislators want Romero to report on the performance of INM immigration officers in the areas of human rights, and especially in the state of Yucatán, “where a network dedicated to trafficking in persons and sexual exploitation of women" [involving INM officers] has been discovered.

The PRD congressional members have also asked the Standing Committee of Congress to request that the Attorney General’s Special Prosecutor for Crimes of Violence Against Women and Trafficking in Persons (FEVIMTRA) investigate and take action against agents in the INM’s Yucatán office for their involvement in human trafficking and sexual exploitation.

The Standing Committee was also asked to request from the National Commission on Human Rights that it open an investigation into the case, and assist the foreign national victims who have filed criminal complaints in the case.

Jorge Ramos and Ricardo Gomez

El Universal

Mexico City

June 17 2009

---

Added: June 27, 2009

Colombia

The 11 month police operation was code named for this well known Colombian novel

Así operaba la red de trata de personas más poderosa del país, desmantelada por la Policía  

Un grupo de 20 investigadores de la Policía de Infancia y Adolescencia de Medellín adelantó toda la investigación, que se inició en julio del año pasado. Una joven de 18 años denunció su caso. 

"Una amiga me dijo que le estaban ofreciendo un trabajo en Bogotá y que nos iban a pagar 300 o 400 mil pesos. Cuando nos presentamos nos subieron a un bus, pero para el Urabá. Luego nos recogieron en un taxi, nos quitaron los papeles y nos llevaron a una casa de citas. Allá un señor nos dijo que ya sabíamos a qué íbamos, hasta que la ley nos encontró como a los cinco días"...

Police dismantle the largest sex trafficking network discovered to date in Colombia

A group of 20 police investigators from the Children and Adolescents unit in the city of Medellin developed the entire investigation, which began in July of 2008. An 18-year-old youth originally reported to network to authorities.

"A friend told me that she had been offered a job in [the capital city of] Bogotá that would pay 300 to 400 pesos [between $140 and $185 US dollars]. When we reported for work we were told to board a bus, but it was bound for the city of Urabá. Then our employers picked us up in a taxi, they took our identification and took us to a brothel. There, a man told us that we knew what we were going to have to do. We were rescued by the police 5 days later.” ...

The authorities arrested 69 people, including 17 women. Police remain on the trail of another 28 suspects.

There were so many similar complaints from victims that investigators had concluded that they were not dealing with two or three people who induced women into prostitution, but a powerful network. One that trafficked women from Medellin not only to other cities in Antioquia department [state], but also to the capital, Bogota , and to Cucuta, Cartagena, Santa Marta and towns in the Magdalena Medio [the eastern-most region of Antioquia]. There are also indications that the network had contacts abroad to traffic women to Aruba and Venezuela...

"Send me another one like her and we will call the account even"

Police intercepted communications between members of the network. They were able to establish that eight people, which they called ‘The Commission,’ sold women for amounts ranging from 30,000 to a million Colombian pesos [between $14 and $467 US dollars].

One intercepted communicated from a customer of the network [a brothel owner] to a member of the ‘Commission stated: "You sent me a woman for 30,000 pesos, but she was very ugly. Send me another one like her and we’ll call the account even.” ...

After the operation, code named 'Candida Eréndida' [Innocent Eréndira, a novel by famed Colombian Nobel Literature Prize winner Gabriel García Márquez], police distributed leaflets in the city of Medellin to warn the public not to be taken in by these networks.

Police continue to investigate the network’s links abroad.

Full English Translation

www.eltiempo.com

June 26, 2009

Mexico, Guatemala

Photo: CIMAC Noticias

Niñez y prostitución en la frontera sur, el costo de llegar a EU

Leticia, una vida entre ebrios, maras y policías

Segunda y última parte

Suchiate, Chiapas. - Leticia, como miles de púberes y jóvenes en el submundo de la explotación sexual infantil en México, sobrevive entre ebrios, en esta zona de 700 kilómetros de frontera con Guatemala y Belice.

Tenía 12 años cuando llegó sola a Chiapas por primera vez, con la ilusión de continuar viaje y cruzar la frontera estadounidense en busca de un mejor futuro. Ahora, en su sexto intento, trabaja en una cantina de la zona. Apenas ha cumplido 14 años de edad...

The Cost of Reaching the U.S.; Children and Prostitution at Mexico’s Southern Border

Leticia at age 14: a life drinking, gangs and police

Second and last part

Suchiate, Chiapas state - Leticia, like many pre-teen and teenage youth living in the underworld of child sexual exploitation in Mexico, survives between bouts of heavy drinking here along Mexico’s 700 kilometer border with Guatemala and Belize.

Leticia was 12-years-old when she came alone to Chiapas for the first time, with the illusion of being able to reach and then cross the U.S. border in search of a better future. Now, after her sixth attempt, she works in a cantina (bar) in the area. She has just turned 14...

Unlike many of her fellow teen prostitutes, Leticia did not have to sell her virginity, a ‘service’ that customers are charged between $2,000 and $3,500 for. "I wanted to marry my boyfriend, but he abandoned me when he learned that I was pregnant. I had an abortion at two months out of disappointment," said Leticia, expressing with her child’s eyes a false maturity that shows even more her clearly her helpless...

Leticia says that many customers not only want to have sex, but they also want to photograph her or record her on videotape or on cell phones in exchange for an additional amount of money...

...The Chiapas State’s Attorney has, during 2009, dismantled three gangs dedicated to the sexual exploitation of minors in the cities of Tapachula, Tuxtla Gutierrez and Rayón. At least 14 detainees facing charges for procuring, criminal association and assault, among other charges.

The children and underage youth freed from these gangs had been forced to work in sexual slavery for more than 12 hours each day. They had to bring their enslavers $2,000 during that period. In exchange, they were given one plate of rice and beans to eat. These facts are just the tip of an ominous iceberg...

Full English Translation

Manuel de la Cruz

See also:

Mexico, Guatemala

Photo: CIMAC Noticias

Leticia, de 14 años, sobrevive en la explotación sexual

24 mil niñas y niños prostituidos u obligados a la pornografía

Primera de dos partes

Suchiate, Chiapas - Leticia es una niña centroamericana de 14 años, sin documentos, a quien prostituyen en una cantina de este municipio fronterizo con Guatemala.

Han pasado casi dos años desde que dejó su país natal para migrar rumbo a Estados Unidos. A pesar de las duras condiciones en que vive para lograr su objetivo, no deja de intentarlo. Sabe que la deportación es casi segura, según sus propias palabras, pero ni eso la detiene en su idea de cruzar la frontera, alternativa que encontró ante la miseria y el incierto futuro en su lugar de origen... 

Leticia, Age 14, Survives in Sexual Exploitation

24,000 boys and girls forced into prostitution or pornography across Mexico

First of two parts

Suchiate, Chiapas state – Leticia is a 14-year-old undocumented Central American girl who is being prostituted in a Cantina (bar) in this town on the Guatemalan border.

It has been almost two years since Leticia left her native country to migrate to the United States. Despite the harsh conditions she has had to live through in order to achieve that goal, she will not give up. She knows that her deportation from Mexico is almost certain, as she herself says. But she will not be detained in her effort to reach the U.S. border, seeking to find an alternative to the misery and uncertain future that she faced in her homeland.

Leticia’s situation is no different than that of  hundreds of children who have been trapped by this border region’s commercial sex networks, who have offered their victims “a way to make fast money.”

They are victims of exploitation of the international networks of traffickers who grab them either before or after they cross the border at the Suchiate River or along clandestine smuggling paths that exist all along the border with Guatemala. Advocacy organizations who fight on their behalf refer to them as “sex slaves...”

The director of the Movimiento Ciudadano de la Frontera Sur (Southern Frontier Citizen’s Movement), Juan José González, notes that the phenomenon of prostitution in the region has increased alarmingly. These are not isolated cases, he says.

On the streets, and in bars, clubs, schools and outside of shopping centers in cities such as Suchiate, Tapachula, Cacahoatán, Tuxtla Chico and Huixtla, it is common to find women [and girls] of different ages engaged in prostitution...

For now, while Leticia continues to be a victim of sexual exploitation, the director of Mexico’s National Institute for Migration (INM), Cecilia Romero, has recently told the newspaper El Universal that the existence of smuggling of migrants, human trafficking, pedophile networks, and the kidnappings and violence that affect thousands of migrants are only "evils of mankind" that Mexico cannot eradicate.

Full English Translation

Manuel de la Cruz

CIMAC Noticias

News for Women

Mexico City

June 24, 2009

The United States, Mexico

Joaquín Aguilar Méndez, right, a former altar boy, has sued the Rev. Nicolás Aguilar, shown in photo at left. (From a web site that takes an opposing position in the case of Nicolás Aguilar - in Spanish).

Arquidiócesis de Puebla y Los Ángeles toleran pederastia

México DF.- Integrantes de la Red de Sobrevivientes de Abusos por Sacerdotes (SNAP, por sus siglas en inglés) interpusieron una demanda contra las arquidiócesis de Los Ángeles, California, y de Tehuacán, Puebla, querella que involucra a los cardenales Roger Mahony y Norberto Rivera, respectivamente, informa la Agencia NotieSe.

El ciudadano, identificado como Juan Doe (“Juan Nadie”), abusado sexualmente en 1988 por el sacerdote mexicano Nicolás Aguilar, acusa a esas instancias eclesiales y al Departamento de Educación de California de negligencia en la protección a su persona, puesto que Aguilar trabajó como profesor después de ser transferido de Tehuacán a Los Ángeles por el entonces obispo local, Norberto Rivera...

CIMAC Noticias

News for Women

Mexico City

June 23, 2009

Charges of cross-border church abuses continue

Mexico City - A victims’ group said Thursday that it was filing a new lawsuit in Los Angeles, California, against Mexican and U.S. church officials accused of sheltering a suspected pedophile priest.

The lawsuit accuses Mexico City Cardinal Norberto Rivera of conspiring with Roman Catholic officials in the United States to shelter Nicolas Aguilar, a Mexican priest wanted in California for 19 felony counts of committing lewd acts on a child.

This is the third lawsuit filed by the group, Survivor’s Network of Those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, against the Catholic Church for allegedly protecting Aguilar. Two previous lawsuits filed in Los Angeles against the Mexican cardinal by Mexican citizens were dismissed in 2007.

This time, however, the unnamed plaintiff is a U.S. citizen.

“In this case it was a North American boy molested in North American territory,” said Jose Bonilla, a lawyer for SNAP.

Bonilla said he was “practically 100 percent sure” that the plaintiff, identified only as John Doe, would have his day in court. “But it’s going to be a long process,” he said.

In addition to Cardinal Rivera, the lawsuit charges the archdiocese of Tehuacan in the Mexican state of Puebla, where Rivera worked at the time, the archdiocese of Los Angeles and the California Department of Education with failing to protect the plaintiff from Rev. Aguilar.

Foreign Correspondency

June 18, 2009

Colombia

Stella Cardenas, director of Fundacion Renacer (the Rebirth Foundation)

Insuficientes, Nuevas Sanciones Sobre Turismo Sexual Y Pornografía Infantil En Colombia

Bogotá.- La muerte de Yesid Torres, de apenas 15 años, conmovió a los habitantes de Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, donde la explotación sexual va en aumento. El menor de edad falleció a consecuencia de una sobredosis de cocaína que consumió en el apartamento del italiano Paolo Pravisani, pederasta de 72 años,  quien lo había contratado para proveerle servicios sexuales, informó la agencia Semlac…

New Sanctions on Child Pornography and Sexual Tourism in Colombia are Insufficient

Bogota .- The death of Yesid Torres, a boy who had just turned 15, shocked the people of the city of Cartagena de Indias, where sexual exploitation is increasing. The youth died from an overdose of cocaine consumed in the apartment of Italian Paolo Pravisani, a 72 year old pedophile who had contracted Torres to provide sexual services.

In response to increasing levels of sexual exploitation, Colombian lawmakers passed a law on June 10, 2009 that applies new penalties, including a 20 year prison term for those who engage in producing child pornography. The law also makes child sex tourism a crime.

The legislation provides for prison sentences of 4 to 8 years for persons who promote child sex tourism, without the possibility of parole. The length of the sentence may be increased by half when the victim is under 12 years of age.

Stella Cardenas, director of Fundacion Renacer (the Rebirth Foundation), notes that although the penalty for promoting child sex tourism under the new law is higher than the 3 year sentence available under the old law, the length of sentence is still too low. She adds that the law fails to address cases of aggressors who sexually exploit youth between the ages of 14 and 18 who have consented to engage in [commercial] sex, often due to economic hardship.

CIMAC Noticias

News for Women

Mexico city

June 23, 2009

Véase también:

Luz Stella Cardenas

Luz Stella es la directora y fundadora de la Fundación Renacer, una organización que trabaja con niños y niñas víctimas de explotación sexual y ha atendido a lo largo de su historia a más de quince mil niños de Bogotá, Cartagena y Barranquilla. Desde 1988, su propósito fundamental ha sido combatir la explotación sexual infantil y acompañar a las personas explotadas sexualmente en su recuperación y realización personal...

Somos Más

Feb. 08, 2006

See also:

About Stella Cárdenas

Stella Cárdenas is building new institutional protections against child prostitution and pornography in Colombia by persuading the government to extend the mandate of its ministry charged with protection of children, the Ministry of Family Welfare... Stella and her Fundación Renacer ("Rebirth Foundation") contributed substantially to the passage of Law 360. This law, passed in 1997, for the first time assigned penalties–fines or jail sentences–for anyone who draws children into prostitution...

Ashoka International

2001

Mexico

Mexico's immigration commissioner Cecilia Romero

El turismo sexual es inevitable: INM

Para la comisionada del Instituto Nacional de Migración, Cecilia Romero, el turismo sexual, tráfico de personas, comercio de mujeres, redes de pederastia, plagio y violencia contra miles de migrantes son “males de la humanidad” que México no puede erradicar...

Mexico’s Immigration Chief: Sex Tourism is Inevitable

According to Cecilia Romero, the commissioner of Mexico’s National Migration Institute (immigration service), sex tourism, human trafficking, female commercial sex work, pedophile networks, and the kidnappings and violence that victimize thousands of migrants [crossing Mexico to get to the U.S.] are "evils of mankind" that Mexico cannot eradicate.

Even if such practices have triggered: 1) harsh reports [about Mexico] from the U.S. Department of State and Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission (CNDH); 2) complaints by foreign victims about their forced prostitution and sex trafficking; and 3) complaints from  [undocumented] Cuban migrants who have been extorted for thousands of dollars in their quest to get to Florida, Romero concludes that all of these problems have existed since the origins of migration...

[Commenting on strong criticism of the INM and repeated calls for her resignation,] Romero argues that the National Migration Institute has implemented a 'purification' effort which has caused a number of problems to emerge into the public spotlight.

The immigration director noted that since her team arrived as part of President Felipe Calderón’s government, she has accomplished much, but she is also aware that those achievements will never be enough [to solve the problems that exist].

Romero said that the vast majority of complaints that have been submitted [about official corruption] originate from within the INM itself. So far about 300 immigration officers have been reprimanded or removed. "This shows that we are making progress, although I will never be satisfied in our war against organized crime."

Romero adds that when there is discussion about immigrants, the finger is always pointed at the INM. But, she says, the criminal networks have state police, corrections officers and also immigration agents on their payrolls. We are investigating and pursuing them. Romero insists that her agency is taking action to get to the bottom of the problem of corruption.

LibertadLatina Commentary

We appreciate the fact that Cecilia Romero, the commissioner of Mexico’s National Migration Institute, is a rare federal agency director who is willing to be honest in expressing the Felipe Calderón Administration's lack of interest in treating the mass gender atrocity of adult and child sexual exploitation in that nation as a serious crisis requiring an urgent response.

According to the traditional beliefs of Roman feudalism that still prevail in Mexico, such behavior is, as Director Romero says, simply "inevitable."

The hidden follow-on to that statement is: "If it is inevitable, why do anything to fight it?"

So a nation like Mexico ends up doing only the minimum necessary to placate the U.S. State Department's Trafficking in Persons Office with the objective of receiving a reasonably good rating in the annual TIP report.

In other words, Romero is saying: Victims, don't hold your breath as you wait for help. That help is not forthcoming from President Calderón's federal government.

That is not a good enough answer!

Commissioner Romero's statement is consistent with the lack of action that the Mexican public sees from its federal government in regard to addressing modern human slavery and other forms of violence against women.

We are especially concerned that this policy position, stating that mass sexual violence and slavery is inevitable, is consistent with other positions taken on women's human rights issues by President Calderón's National Action Party (PAN), such as stating that the women who have been kidnapped, tortured, raped and murdered by the hundreds in Ciudad Juarez caused their own deaths because they wore immodest clothing and walked in bad parts of town.

Colombia

El turismo sexual aumenta cada día más en el país  

Bogotá - Las cifras sobre turismo sexual en Colombia son alarmantes. Vender el cuerpo a clientes que llegan de todas partes del mundo, se ha convertido en uno de los mejores negocios en el país, siendo Cali una de las primeras ciudades en la lista...

Sex tourism is increasing on a daily basis

Bogota - The figures on sexual tourism in Colombia are alarming. To sell your body to customers who arrive from all over the world has become one of the best businesses in the nation, with Cali being the city at the top of the list.

According to a report of the Rebirth Foundation (Foundation Renacer), in the past two years the phenomenon has grown 53% in Cali, the capital of Valle del Cauca department [state]. Minors form the majority of those involved in the business.

The most appealing magnets for foreign tourists who come to our nation are the bodies of girls between 12 and 14 years [who are sold to them in prostitution]. This business generates huge profits for the mafia. Although 202 cases have been documented during the past 24 months, these incidents have been reported neither to the police for minors nor to the SIJIN (the Judicial Investigations and Intelligence Service). 

elpaisvallenato.com

June 21, 2009

Inter press Service (IPS)

June 10, 2009

See also:

En Japón, de 3 a 4 mil niñas mexicanas víctimas de ESCI

Afirma la experta Teresa Ulloa

Three to four thousand underage indigenous girls from the poor states of Oaxaca, Chiapas, Guerrero and Mexico [state] have become victims of commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC) in Japan.

Puebla city, in Puebla state - Teresa Ulloa, Latin America and Caribbean Director of the Coalition Against Trafficking of Women (CATW) announced her estimates of the numbers of indigenous children sex trafficked to Japan, and explained that traffickers trick the victims using offers of thousands of dollars for their parents in exchange for  [obtaining permission] to take their daughters. The parents are told that their girls are going to the United States to work in fast food restaurant jobs.

Taking advantage of the condition of submission that Mexico's indigenous communities are forced to live in, the traffickers take their victims to Japan where they are prostituted and work as geishas, a role that Asian women no-longer want to play because today they have more decision-making power than in the past.

Ulloa said that before these victims from Japan are repatriated, the home conditions of these girls must be investigated to assure that they can be reintegrated without facing the risk of being sold or sexually exploited again.

Ulloa noted that in the year 2002 the CATW helped to repatriate two sisters, ages 8 and 10, who had been prostituted in a brothel in New York. They were subjected to exploitation again, 15 days later, because their family "had sold their daughters in exchange for two goats and two cases of beer."

During her interview with CIMAC Noticias, Ulloa declared: "the subject [of child protection] is not on the national agenda. Much attention is paid to drug trafficking, but the government hasn't even realized that the same drug trafficking networks are used for the [sex] trafficking of children, and that organized crime regards this activity to be one of their most important businesses." ...

Nadia Altamirano Díaz

CIMAC Noticias

Dec. 12, 2008

See also:

Mexico: Más de un millón de menores se prostituyen en el centro del país: especialista

Expert: More than one million minors are sexually exploited in Central Mexico

Tlaxcala city, in Tlaxcala state - Around 1.5 million people in the central region of Mexico are engaged in prostitution, and some 75% of them are between 12 and 13 years of age, reported Teresa Ulloa, director of the Regional Coalition Against Trafficking in Women and Girls in Latin America and the Caribbean...

During an international seminar in the city of Tlaxcala, Ulloa noted that, due to the conditions of marginalization in which they live, at least 50 million women and children in Latin America are at risk of being recruited for sexual exploitation.

La Jornada de Oriente

Sep. 26, 2007

---

Added: June 22, 2009

The United States - Latin America

The US Human Trafficking Report 2009: Whatever makes you think it's political?

The USA sometimes tries to make out the "equal partners" thing with the rest of the Americas and sometimes it doesn't. You get The Hawaiian making some lip service to the greater cause at the moment, but when push comes to shove and the bureaucrats are let loose, those old habits of arrogance, selective memory based on friendships and high-handedness towards "the brown people down there" shine on through.

Today the US State Department's ninth annual "Trafficking in Persons Report" was published, and here's how the region stacks up in the eyes of TheWorldPoliceman.™

Level One (complies with all, we luvs ya): Colombia

Level Two (not up to scratch but we see you're making an effort, try a bit harder, boyz): Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Uruguay.

Level Three (hmmm..not so good, kiddies. We're watching you so don't do anything stupid): Argentina, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Rep Dom, Venezuela

Level Four (bad bad bad naughty naughty sanctions sanctions): Cuba

But the biggest guilty party on human trafficking is left off the list completely. The country where many labor and sex slaves are sent by their paymasters and blind eyes are turned. Go on....take a wild guess as to which one.

The Democratic Underground

June 16, 2009

---

Added: June 21, 2009

The Americas

2009 TIP Ratings
	Tier 1
	Tier 2
	Tier 2 Watch List
	Tier 3

2009 U.S. Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report - Nations of the Americas

A-C: Antigua and Barbuda (Tier 2), Argentina (Tier 2 Watch List), Bahamas (Tier 2), Barbados (Tier 2), Belize (Tier 2 Watch List), Bolivia (Tier 2), Brazil (Tier 2), Canada (Tier 1), Chile (Tier 2), Colombia (Tier 1), Costa Rica (Tier 2), Cuba (Tier 3)

D-K: Dominican Republic (Tier 2 Watch List), Ecuador (Tier 2), El Salvador (Tier 2), Guatemala (Tier 2 Watch List), Guyana (Tier 2 Watch List), Haiti (missing), Honduras (Tier 2), Jamaica (Tier 2)

L-P: Mexico (Tier 2), Nicaragua (Tier 2 Watch List), Panama (Tier 2), Paraguay (Tier 2), Peru (Tier 2)

Q-Z: ST. Vincent and the Grenadines (Tier 2 Watch List), Trinidad and Tobago (Tier 2), Uruguay (Tier 2), Venezuela (Tier 2 Watch List)

See also:

Letter from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

Letter from Ambassador Luis C. de Baca

Introduction

Major Forms of Trafficking in Persons

The Three P's: Punishment, Protection, Prevention

Financial Crisis and Human Trafficking

Topics of Special Interest

Victims' Stories

Global Law Enforcement Data

Commendable Intiatives Around the World

2009 TIP Report Heroes

Tier Placements

Maps

U.S. Government Domestic Anti-Trafficking Efforts

U.S. Department of State Office of Trafficking in Persons

June 16, 2009

---

Added: June 20, 2009

Guatemala 

Justicia parece no llegar en casos de niñas víctimas de violencia

El sistema de justicia parece no ser efectivo en los casos de tres niñas asesinadas recientemente en San Lucas Sacatepéquez y de una menor violada en Sololá, ya que se han registrado señales de negligencia en las investigaciones y parcialidad en el estudio de las pruebas, denunció la Fundación Sobrevivientes...

Justice Appears Distant in Cases of Girl Victims of Violence

The non-governmental organization La Fundación Sobrevivientes (the Survivor’s Foundation) has denounced the fact that Guatemala’s justice system does not appear to be working effectively in two criminal cases: 1) that of three girls killed recently in San Lucas Sacatepequez; and 2) the case of a minor girl raped in the city of Sololá. The Foundation states that there have been indications of negligence and bias in the evaluation of the evidence in these cases.

In the first case, a 13-year-old girl was raped on July 8, 2008 in Sololá. Judge Frank Armando Martínez allowed the accused assailant, Martín Tambríz, to be freed despite conclusive evidence of his guilt. Forensic evidence had showed a positive DNA match tying Tambríz to the rape. The Foundation plans to appeal the acquittal.

Lawyers for the Survivor’s Foundation also expressed concern about the case of three girls, ages 7, 8 and 12, who were “butchered” on May 29, 2009 in the hamlet Chicamán in San Lucas Sacatepequez. It was ascertained that one of the victim’s was raped. Three men suspected in the crime have been detained. The Foundation emphasizes that there are signs of negligence in the investigation conducted by the District Attorney of Sacatepéquez, a fact that will not contribute to solving these crimes.

The Survivor’s Foundation has asked that the case be moved to the capital, Guatemala City to insure that the investigation and preparations for prosecution are able to be observed, ensuring that due process is respected in the case.

CERIGUA

June 19, 2009

---

Added: June 20, 2009

Guatemala

Juana Méndez, right, and her translator explain in Court how one of the two police-men who raped her told her after the attack: "Why are you complaining? I will put two bullets into you and throw you over an embankment." From the documentary film on the Juana Méndez case (in Spanish on YouTube)

Guatemala.- Una indígena guatemalteca es la primera mujer maya que logra que encarcelen a un policía por haberla violado

Nebaj - La indígena guatemalteca Juana Méndez ha sido la primera mujer maya que abre un proceso judicial contra un policial por haberla violado y logra que sea condenado, según contó ella misma en una entrevista con Europa Press.

El gran índice de impunidad en delitos contra las mujeres, según han denunciado reiteradamente asociaciones feministas, se rompe así con este caso. A Méndez "le hicieron daño" y ella "no lo quiso dejarlo así, quiso decir la verdad".

Pese a las amenazas de muerte y a los consejos que personas de su entorno le reiteraban para que retirase del proceso contra el policía, ella decidió seguir adelante. "Qué pienso, que tiene que haber ley; si un hombre me hizo eso, tiene que pagarlo"...

An Indigenous Mayan Woman has Become the First Female in Guatemala's History to Achieve the Conviction and Imprisonment of a Police Officer for Having Raped Her in Custody

Nebaj - Juana Méndez has become the first Mayan woman [in this Mayan majority nation] to pursue legal proceedings against a policeman for the crime of rape resulting in a conviction and a prison sentence.

This case succeeded despite the high rate of impunity for crimes against women, an issue that has repeatedly been raised by feminists.  Méndez stated: "they did me harm" and she "did not want to leave it at that, I wanted to tell the truth."

Despite death threats and the repeated advice from people around her to withdraw the case against the policemen, she decided to go ahead. "What do I believe? I believe that the rule of law has to exist. If a man does that to you, he has to pay.” Juana Mendez said that with the full support of her husband, who had told his wife that he would not respond to this problem with domestic violence [a common reaction of the husbands of rape victims]…

Méndez’ struggle for justice caused her insomnia from fear, and she couldn’t eat. But she never retreated, saying, “I had to tell the truth.” "I told the judge that these policemen had raped me.” Her female friends told her that she should not pursue the case, because her husband would beat her. She replied to them: “I don’t care if my husband beats me. I am going to tell the truth.”

The one policeman who was tried has been sentenced to 20 years in prison. Asked whether she fears retaliation when the convicted rapist gets out of prison, Méndez said that "I am afraid that he will do something. But I don’t think that he will get out of prison."

Echoing the sentiment of many indigenous defense association leaders, Méndez denounced the situation of impunity that we live through in Guatemala, and above all, she protests the crimes that were committed during the 36-year armed conflict [that ended in 1996]. I regret that the victims and the murderers have to live together.

Francisco Otero

Europa Press

May 10, 2009

See also:

New film about Juana Mendez

Juana Mendez will be remembered in Guatemala as the first woman who succeeded in achieving a conviction against a serving police officer for mistreating her in custody.

During her detention at the police station in Nebaj she was raped and sexually assaulted by several officers, one of whom was finally brought to justice. The Institute of Comparative Studies in Penal Sciences, ICCPG from its initials in Spanish, and Project Counseling Services, have made a film about the case which you can see here, in three parts (in Spanish).

El Instituto de Estudios Comparados en Ciencias Penales de Guatemala (ICCPG) fue el productor de una pelicula documental sobre el caso de Juana Méndez

From the film:

A study conducted in 2005 by the The Institute of Comparative Studies in Penal Sciences found that 75% of women arrested in Guatemala suffer sexual abuse at the hands of policemen while in custody.

Some 43% of these victims file complaints in regard to their abuse.

The answer of the Government, says the film, is: impunity.

Gabriela Barrios

April 6th, 2009

Also about Juana Mendez:

Supervivientes del genocidio Maya se sienten "olvidados" y acusan al Gobierno de incumplir los acuerdos

Supervivientes del genocidio Maya, acaecido durante la guerra civil de Guatemala (1960-1996), acusaron al Gobierno de la nación de incumplir los acuerdos de paz de 1996 y denunciaron que "se sienten olvidados" por las autoridades del país centroamericano.

Survivors of the Mayan Genocide Feel "Forgotten" and Accuse Guatemala's Government of Having Ignored their Obligations Under the 1996 Peace Accords

Nebaj - Mayan survivors of the genocide, which took place during Guatemala's civil war (1960-1996), have accused the national government of violating the 1996 national peace agreements and they feel neglected by the authorities of the Central American country.

This is what Juana Méndez believes. She asserts that "we continue living in poverty because our people have not yet recovered from the crimes committed against us." “They have not acknowledged the fact that the victims need material, as well as psychological support, such as in the form of opening a museum so that the families [of the victims] can understand what happened.”

Méndez explained that in her case, she had to flee to the mountains to avoid being attacked by soldiers. She doesn’t remember any longer how how long she was in hiding, but she feels that she is “one more victim of the military violence,” which had a major impact on women. However, Méndez says that she appreciates the efforts made by non-governmental organizations to bring light upon the violence that Guatemalan women suffered in the flesh during the war.

Francisco Otero

Europa Press

May 09, 2009

---

Added: June 20, 2009

Colombia

Statement of Ms. Navanethem Pillay, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to the 11th Human Rights Council

"In Latin America, I wish to reiterate that Colombia remains a situation of utmost concern. That country's 40-year-long armed conflict has resulted in enormous human, social, economic and political costs. Civilian lives, security and property continue to be targeted by all armed groups. Indigenous and Afro-Colombian are disproportionately affected. Sexual violence as a war tactic is directed against women and girls. Most victims are women heads of larger households, in their 40s, with limited education and few opportunities to work. The conflict continues to displace people. Antipersonnel mines, which the Government banned, but which are planted by guerrilla groups, keep exacting their toll on civilians.

I welcome the Government's invitation to a number of Special Procedures mandate holders, but also call upon it to act on their recommendations in an effective manner. The Government should take all the necessary steps to protect civilians, mitigate their suffering and address their need for justice."

United Nations Human Rights Council; United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)

Geneva, Switzerland

June 03, 2009

---

Added: June 20, 2009

Mexico 

2009 TIP Report: Summary of Evaluation of Mexico's Anti-trafficking Efforts

Mexico is a large source, transit, and destination country for persons trafficked for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and forced labor. Groups considered most vulnerable to human trafficking in Mexico include women and children, indigenous persons, and undocumented migrants. A significant number of Mexican women, girls, and boys are trafficked within the country for commercial sexual exploitation, lured by false job offers from poor rural regions to urban, border, and tourist areas…

Child sex tourism continues to grow in Mexico, especially in tourist areas such as Acapulco and Cancun, and northern border cities like Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez. Foreign child sex tourists arrive most often from the United States, Canada, and Western Europe. Organized criminal networks traffic Mexican women and girls into the United States for commercial sexual exploitation. Mexican men, women, and children are trafficked into the United States for forced labor, particularly in agriculture and industrial sweatshops.

The Government of Mexico does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so…

Prosecution

The Government of Mexico failed to improve on its limited anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts against offenders last year. No convictions or sentences of trafficking offenders were reported by federal, state, or local authorities… There are concerns over the new law’s effective implementation, particularly that victims must press charges against traffickers, otherwise they will not be considered trafficking victims and will not be provided with victim assistance.

NGOs and other observers continued to report that corruption among public officials, especially local law enforcement and immigration personnel, was a significant concern; some officials reportedly accepted or extorted bribes or sexual services, falsified identity documents, discouraged trafficking victims from reporting their crimes, or ignored child prostitution and other human trafficking activity in commercial sex sites. No convictions or sentences against corrupt officials were achieved last year…

…Last year Mexican authorities identified 55 trafficking victims within the country: 28 females and 27 males; trafficking allegations related both to commercial sexual exploitation and forced labor…

U.S. Department of State: 2009 Trafficking in Persons Report

June 16, 2009

---

Added: June 20, 2009

The Americas

Mailiana Morales Berrios - Costa Rican anti-trafficking activist

Fighting Human Trafficking a Critical Part of U.S. Foreign Policy

Public Awareness a Major Weapon in Fighting Human Trafficking

Washington — Around the world, people desperate for employment often find themselves tricked by human traffickers. An estimated 800,000 men, women and children are trafficked across international borders each year. Millions more are trafficked within their own countries.

This problem does not go overlooked by everyone, as some everyday heroes from a variety of nations take steps to end modern-day slavery...

For example, Canadian Benjamin Perrin founded The Future Group, a nongovernmental organization (NGO) committed to fighting human trafficking and the child-sex trade. By bringing together a team from across Canada, The Future Group works with foreign governments, other NGOs and businesses to address human trafficking and other global issues such as HIV/AIDS…

Costa Rican Woman a Pioneer in Anti-Trafficking Programs

…Over the last year, the Costa Rican government has made progress in addressing human trafficking crimes and helping victims. The government recently launched prevention campaigns as well as training efforts for government and law enforcement officials. Also, the government has begun to provide more victim assistance, although prosecution of human traffickers remains lacking.

Before the government began such efforts, Mariliana Morales Berrios was already fighting to protect trafficking victims. In 1997, she created the Rahab Foundation to help victims and their families find a new life, keeping the program running despite limited resources. Although she and her staff frequently face threats and attacks, they continue to help trafficking victims escape from their captors. In fact, since its founding, the Rahab Foundation has helped more than 3,000 victims and also trained more than 5,000 government leaders, law enforcement officials and tourism workers on human trafficking issues...

For these efforts, Perrin and Morales are being recognized by the U.S. Department of State in its annual report on human trafficking…

Yasmine Alotaibi

America.gov

June 16, 2009

---

Added: June 20, 2009

Mexico

Child Sex Tourism Growing in Border Cities Like Juárez, Report Says

Child sex tourism continues to grow in Mexican northern border cities like Tijuana and Juárez, according to a U.S. State Department report.

"Foreign child sex tourists arrive most often from the United States, Canada, and Western Europe," the report said.

People from Mexico also are trafficked into the United States for commercial sexual exploitation. Besides the northern border cities, the report said Cancun and Acapulco were popular child sex tourism destinations.

Each year, as many as 20,000 children are sexually exploited in these urban centers, officials said.

"Mexican men, women, and children (also) are trafficked into the United States for forced labor, particularly in agriculture and industrial sweatshops," the report said.

The U.S. federal government said corruption and lax enforcement were to blame for few human-trafficking prosecutions in Mexico.

The U.S. State Department released "The 2009 Trafficking in Persons Report" on Tuesday, and on Wednesday Mexican authorities announced the arrest of a Mexican federal immigration official assigned to Mexico City's airport on suspicion of human-trafficking.

Last week authorities in Costa Rica said they were investigating the trafficking of its citizens in Mexico.

Diana Washington Valdez

El Paso Times

June 18, 2009

---

Added: June 19, 2009

Mexico

"IMPUNITY" - Women victims of Police Assault at Atenco Protest at FEVIMTRA offices

"Women are not the Spoils of War!"

Exigen atenquenses a fiscalía agilizar juicios contra policías

Habitantes de San Salvador Atenco, particularmente 11 de las 26 mujeres que denunciaron haber sido víctimas de violencia sexual, física y sicológica por policías los días 3 y 4 de mayo de 2006 en ese municipio mexiquense, exigieron a la Fiscalía Especializada en Delitos Violentos cometidos contra Mujeres y Trata de Personas (Fevimtra) que ya consigne la averiguación previa que abrió y ejercite acción penal contra todos los uniformados que participaron en los acontecimientos, con el propósito de que sean sancionados por acción u omisión…

Women Victims of Sexual Violence at 2006 Atenco Protest March Demand That Special Prosecutor's Office for Crimes Against Women Expedite Proceedings Against Accused Policemen

Inhabitants of [the Mexico City suburb of] San Salvador Atenco, including 11 of the 26 women who reported being physically, psychologically and sexually abused by [male] police officers on May 3^rd and 4^th of 2006, have demanded that the [federal] Special Prosecutor's Office for Violent Crimes Committed Against Women, and Trafficking in Persons (FEVIMTRA) act upon the results of their preliminary investigation in the case, and bring the actors to justice for their actions and acts of omission.

During a demonstration in front of the offices of FEVIMTRA in Mexico City, the activists indicated that, "the Mexican authorities have once again demonstrated their inefficiency in prosecuting and punishing those responsible for the serious violations human rights that were committed in San Salvador Atenco. They were referring specifically to the fact that just recently, the only police officer to have been tried, convicted and sentenced for the assaults against women at Atenco was pardoned...

Full English Translation

Gustavo Castillo

La Jornada

June 17, 2009

---

Added: June 19, 2009

Mexico

20000 Migrants a Year Kidnapped in Mexico En Route to US

Some 20,000 of the 140,000 illegal migrants en route to the United States via the Mexico border to find work and a better life are kidnapped each year and subjected to rape, torture and murder, crimes that usually go unpunished due to the corruption of the authorities, fear of reprisals and distrust of authorities, according to Mexico’s independent National Human Rights Commission.

Mexico City – More than 1,600 migrants, above all Central Americans en route to the United States to find work, are kidnapped monthly and subjected to humiliations that usually go unpunished due to the corruption of the authorities, Mexico’s independent National Human Rights Commission reported.

“The kidnapping of migrants has become a continuous practice of worrying dimensions, generally unpunished and with characteristics of extreme cruelty,” commission chairman Jose Luis Soberanes said Monday at the presentation of the report.

Between September 2008 and February 2009, the commission registered a total of 198 cases of mass kidnappings of migrants involving 9,758 people.

Motivated by the yearning to begin a new life in the United States, each year some 140,000 people cross Mexico’s southern border intending to traverse the country and then cross the U.S. border, according to official figures.

To achieve their dream, the migrants have to travel thousands of kilometers with hardly any money and trusting unknown people who promise to help them, but there exists a risk that they will be betrayed and wind up in the hands of people-trafficking networks.

Upon presenting its report on the kidnappings of migrants, the rights commission called attention to their “high vulnerability” and denounced the fact that the practice “is on the increase.”

The document prepared by the panel includes many shocking testimonials, like that of a Salvadoran woman who was locked up and raped numerous times during the 48 hours she was held.

Finally, the young woman was freed because her family, who lives in the United States, gave in to the threats of her abductors and paid part of the $4,500 they demanded as ransom.

“But my companion didn’t have anyone to help her and so they shot her and let her bleed to death in front of me to intimidate me,” the woman said...

The kidnappings are committed mainly by organized bands whose members remain unpunished for the crimes because their victims do not report them since they don’t know their rights, they are afraid of reprisals and don’t trust the Mexican authorities, which, according to the commission report, are complicit with the criminals in at least 1 percent of the cases.

Victims are usually kidnapped in groups along certain stretches of the railroad lines in southern Mexico, where migrants commonly hop on northbound freight trains.

The commission had to move Monday’s presentation of the report to a different office after receiving a bomb threat – which turned out to be false – at the original venue.

The threat, according to Soberanes, was a “message” from the “bands interested in having impunity continue” for their crimes.

EFE

June 17, 2009

---

Added: June 19, 2009

Guyana

Guyana will not prosecute people for trafficking in personss just to satisfy the US, says minister

Georgetown, Guyana - Minister of Human Services and Social Security, Priya Manickchand, has lashed out at the United States of America’s rating of Guyana for its Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report by the US State Department which places Guyana on Tier 2 watch list.

“Guyana objects completely to being placed on the Tier 2 watch list...we do not believe that we have trafficking on the scale that should attract the attention of the US, the report is inaccurate in some of its assertions: it did not given us (government) credit for all that has been done,” she stated...

“We prosecute every person who can be prosecuted under the Act who would have committed acts of trafficking, what we do not have is a large number of convictions. We cannot dictate what the courts do, we do recognize that there are some weaknesses in the entire judicial system in terms of how long matters take to pass through the system and in that regard, the government is at present engaged in improving the entire justice system through the Justice Sector Reform Strategy,” she explained.

GINA / Caribbean Net News

June 18, 2009

---

Added: June 19, 2009

United States

Human Trafficking Rises in Recession

This particularly gory testimony, used by the US State Department to highlight the severity and widespread nature of human trafficking, is one of many alarming personal accounts included in their 2009 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report.

Time Magazine

June 18, 2009

---

Added: June 19, 2009

Jamaica

Jamaica cited for inadequate anti-human trafficking measures

Jamaica has again been ranked as a tier two country for human trafficking by the US State Department which has cited inadequate efforts to prosecute trafficking offenses and protect victims. In its ninth annual Trafficking in Persons Report released ...

RadioJamaica.com

June 18, 2009

---

Added: June 19, 2009

Costa Rica

Mejora en la lucha contra trata de personas

Costa Rica se supera en la lucha contra la trata de personas, según un informe del Departamento de Estado de los Estados Unidos.

Costa Rica has improved its standing in the 2009 U.S. State Department Trafficking in Persons Report. (Translation to follow)

Telatica.com

June 17, 2009

---

Added: June 19, 2009

The United States

Alerta de que la -esclavitud moderna- está aumentando por la crisis

El Gobierno de EEUU amplió la lista de países con crecientes problemas de tráfico humano de 40 en 2008 a 52 este año, en que ha incluido a Nicaragua, Irak, Filipinas, Antillas Holandesas y los Emiratos Arabes Unidos.

U.S. Government: Modern slavery is increasing during the current economic crisis.

www.ABC.es

June 16, 2009

---

Added: June 19, 2009

Colombia

Autoridades desmantelan banda de trata de personas y detienen a 69 personas

En más de 60 allanamientos fueron detenidos 52 hombres y 17 mujeres de la red que solicitaba damas de entre 18 y 25 años de edad en avisos clasificados en los diarios y les ofrecía trabajo en bares y restaurantes y altos ingresos, para luego obligarlas a prostituirse.

Authorities in Colombia dismantle sex trafficking ring and free 69 women between the ages of 18 and 25. (Translation to follow)

http://web.presidencia.gov.co

June 16, 2009

---

Added: June 19, 2009

Canada

Penalties for sex trafficking in Canada lax - US report

Vancouver, British Columbia - A US report on human trafficking says Canada has the laws needed to prosecute human traffickers and sex tourists, but the penalties dished out by the courts are lax...

KBS Radio

June 16, 2009

---

Added: June 19, 2009

The Dominican Republic

Washington: people trafficking still occurs Dominican Republic

The State Department's annual report, first under president Barack Obama's Administration, extends the list of countries with increasing human trafficking problems, from 40 in 2008 to 52 this year, among them Nicaragua, Iraq, the Philippine ...

Dominican Today

June 16, 2009

---

Added: June 19, 2009

The Vatican

Pope Praises "Courageous Commitment" of Religious Against Human Trafficking

Pope Benedict has lauded the “courageous commitment in defense of human life” of religious sisters involved in helping victims of human trafficking. The Pope's praise was contained in a telegram sent Sister Louise Madore, President ...

Vatican Radio

June 15, 2009

---

Added: June 19, 2009

Latin America

Sub-Regional Operations Profile - Latin America

In Central America and Mexico, efforts to improve border security, guard against terrorism and counter human and drug trafficking have led to stricter controls on the movements of undocumented migrants. ...

UNHCR (press release)

June 15, 2009

---

Added: June 19, 2009

Utah, USA

Human trafficking underground in Utah communities

But even in Utah, human trafficking, one of the world's top three most profitable hidden industries, has reared its ugly head. Dewayne Hopkins, a 27-year-old Salt Lake City resident pleaded guilty in May to conspiracy to commit sex trafficking ...

BYU Newsnet

June 15, 2009

---

Added: June 19, 2009

Georgia, USA

Sex-trafficking fight goes beyond streets

Teenage prostitutes, according to a mayor's report on child sex trafficking, had begun working within a few steps of the familiar inscription from Matthew on the church's wall: “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you ...

Atlanta Journal Constitution

June 14, 2009

---

Added: June 19, 2009

Nevada, USA

March Calls For End To Child Sex Slavery

The group Shared Hope International partnered with Canyon Christian Church for the event, drawing attention to the disturbing crime of human trafficking. A candlelight vigil was also held after the march. ...

Fox5 KVVU

June 13, 2009

---

Added: June 19, 2009

Latin America

OAS Assistant Secretary General: “the Future of Inter-Americ ...

In terms of the challenges, Ramdin offered that “there are still pending bilateral tensions and outstanding disputes among member countries” and that many of the traditional issues such as drugs and arms trafficking, discrimination, food security ...

ISRIA

June 12, 2009

---

Added: June 19, 2009

The Vatican

Women religious organize conference to combat 'new form of slavery'

This morning at the Vatican's press office, organizers announced a forthcoming congress on the theme: “Female Religious in Network against Trafficking of Persons.” The congress will focus on fighting and preventing human trafficking...

Catholic News Agency

June 12, 2009

---

Added: June 19, 2009

The Vatican

Women's religious orders vow to extend anti-human trafficking programs

Vatican City – With the global financial crisis and the increased desperation of the poor, human trafficking appears to be on the increase and the International Union of Superiors General is committed to extending its networks to fight ...

Cindy Wooden

The Catholic Review

June 12, 2009

---

Added: June 19, 2009

The Vatican

Religious Sisters Speak Out Against Human Trafficking

Religious sisters say they will not remain silent about the horrors of human trafficking. Here in Rome this week, the International Union of Superior Generals of women religious and the International organization for migration ...

Vatican Radio

June 12, 2009

---

Added: June 19, 2009

Mexico

Tlaxcala Diary

Fair Haven’s Father Jim Manship blogged his recent trip to Mexico. His second entry follows.

…Part of the presentation at the Center of Human Rights in Tlaxcala included a discussion of increased exploitation of women and girls — a very dangerous topic, as there is a large quantity of money associated with the sex trade. Exposing the sex trade has led to death threats against members of the Center of Human Rights. Influences of “machismo” in the culture, that is to say the domination of women by men, feed the tacit approval of this exploitation. Corruption has caused authorities to look the other way. Because the traffickers are not preying supposedly on local women and girls, there exists the attitude “It’s OK” because the victims are not from the area…

Traveling through a small town in Tlaxcala that is the notorious center for those involved in the trafficking of women and girls for the sex trade, one can see huge houses being erected in the middle of very humble neighborhoods. Such ostentatious expenditures signal those who are benefiting from the misery and enslavement of young women and girls. The traffickers and their families enjoy luxury cars and one purportedly has even begun purchasing buses to start a “legitimate” transportation company.

Those directly and indirectly involved in the trafficking of these women and girls have found it quite lucrative. The “dirty money” is plentiful. And I dare say, with the major disruption of the other source of “dirty money,” the Mexican drug trade, the exploitation of the immigrant women and girls, will sadly continue to increase.

New Haven Independent

June 12, 2009

---

Added: June 19, 2009

Mexico

Trafficking law aims to protect Mexican minors

...More than 8,000 children... come to the United States alone each year; many are seeking safe haven from human rights abuses, domestic violence and trafficking. When they are caught, they are put in immigration proceedings to decide whether they can stay or must return home. More than half of these children, some of whom are remarkably young, must face these proceedings without the help of a lawyer or guardian. The U.S. government does not provide people in immigration proceedings — even children — with a lawyer, even though the government is represented by a lawyer. Children who have viable claims are often not able to present them and are sent home, where their well-being, even their lives, may be in danger...

The good news is that more vulnerable children will have access to free lawyers and other basic protections thanks to the passage of a law that for the first time requires that children’s well-being be considered foremost by officials who pick them up entering the United States. The Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 says that when children come here without documents and without a parent or legal guardian, officials are to act according to the best interests of the child — and not according to an archaic and outdated system that was never designed to handle children.

The law requires the government to facilitate the representation of children by pro bono attorneys in the private sector. This opens the door to innovative public/private partnerships at no cost to the government that will make a real difference in these children’s lives.

Now the law needs to be fully implemented and the government needs to do its part. It must institute procedures that give children a fair opportunity to share their experiences of abuse and trauma. Judges and lawyers must be trained so that they don’t inadvertently cause children more trauma. Imagine being a young teenager and having to tell lawyers and a judge who you have never met your story of being sold to traffickers...

Nogales International

June 12, 2009

---

Added: June 19, 2009

Canada

World Vision targets child trafficking

The World Vision report urges greater recognition and criminalization of all human trafficking activities, many of which it says are tolerated by communities, overlooked by authorities and even sanctioned by families...

Mississauga

June 12, 2009

---

Added: June 19, 2009

Costa Rica - Mexico

Rosa María Casanova Maya, using the Alias "Rosi", was detained by Mexican officials for heading the human trafficking ring and pimping.

Ticas Say They Were Duped Into Traveling To Mexico Then Forced ...

Following up on the actions of Mexican authorities, Costa Rican authorities quickly moved to open an investigation into an alleged human trafficking ring that young Costa Rican women duped into traveling to Mexico, in the hopes of earning big money ...

Inside Costa Rica

June 12, 2009

---

Added: June 18, 2009

United States

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's press conference presenting the 2009 Trafficking in Persons report

Cuban-American Florida Republican Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen speaks at 2009 TIP report release press conference

US State Department releases its 2009 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton: "Today, the State Department releases our annual report on trafficking in persons. It underscores the need to address the root causes of trafficking, including poverty, lax law enforcement, and the exploitation of women. The Trafficking Report is not an indictment of past failures, but a guide for future progress. ...With this report, we hope to shine the light brightly on the scope and scale of modern slavery so all governments can see where progress has been made and where more is needed..."

Video of Secretary Clinton's press conference presenting the 2009 TIP report

Full transcript of presenter's remarks

The 2009 US State Department Trafficking in Persons Report - Index

Opinion-editorial essay by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

U.S. Department of State

June 16, 2009

U.S. State Department Trafficking in Persons Office director ambassador Luis C. de Baca delivers press briefing on the 2009 Trafficking in Persons Report

Briefing by U.S. State Department Trafficking in Persons Office director Ambassador Luis C. de Baca

[This year's TIP finds a 30% increase in countries listed in the 'Tier 2 Watch List']

"...The International Labor Organization issued a report, The Cost of Coercion, about six weeks or – excuse me, about a month ago, and in that report the ILO estimated about 12.3 million people being held in bondage worldwide, of whom they estimated about 1.5 million are for sexual slavery, sexual servitude, which is perhaps a little bit counterintuitive to what people have seen the modern slavery or the human trafficking problem as, historically. Certainly, press accounts, what you see in movies, what you see in mass culture, tends to define this as a problem of people being moved to prostitution, people perhaps being kidnapped into prostitution. Rather, what we see, what the UNODC has reported on in their trafficking report earlier this year, and what the ILO is reporting on, is the notion that people are being enslaved, whether it is for prostitution, whether it is in labor, agriculture, factories, fields, domestic service, that they are often entering into the relationship voluntarily and then becoming enslaved within that..."

"...At the end of the day, though, it’s not about administrative responses, it’s not about structural responses; it’s about the fact that this is a crime. It is one of the most serious crimes that is out there. The slavery and involuntary servitude that the traffickers hold their victims in is something that cannot simply be remedied by having different immigration structures, by having labor inspectors, by having different policies about various things. Rather, it can only be dealt with by investigating and prosecuting the people who dare to do this.

And so we certainly stand ready, not just abroad but also at home, for those countries who would like to engage, for those countries who are willing to do the same type of self-assessment that we did in the Attorney General’s report which was also released today, where we look at what are the strengths, what are the weaknesses of the United States Government’s response. For those countries who are willing to engage in that type of partnership, the trafficking office here at the State Department, the Justice Department and the rest of the U.S. Government stands ready to partner...

Video of TIP Office Director Luis C. de Baca's press briefing

U.S. Department of State

June 16, 2009

---

Added: June 17, 2009

Mexico

"My body is mine, and I decide." Photo: CIMAC

Cifras evidencian atropello a derechos SyR de las mexicanas

Aunque discurso oficial asegura respetarlos

México DF - Sin rumbo ni congruencia, la administración de Felipe Calderón propone en el discurso respetar la libre decisión de las personas sobre el número y espaciamiento de sus hijas e hijos y dotarlas de los medios para que así sea, pero en la práctica criminaliza a las mujeres que se atreven a ejercer sus derechos sexuales y reproductivos, como interrumpir legalmente un embarazo (ILE) o usar métodos anticonceptivos que eviten la implantación del óvulo, como el dispositivo intrauterino (DIU)...

Although official discourse ensures respect, statistics show that individual reproductive rights are abused

Mexico City - Lacking a clear and consistent policy, Mexican president Felipe Calderón states in his public discourse that he respects the right of individuals to freely choose number and spacing of their children, and is willing to provide them with adequate means to do so. In practice, the Calderón administration criminalizes women who dare to exercise their sexual and reproductive rights by either choosing to have an abortion or by using the intrauterine device (IUD) as a form of birth control.

...[Thirteen]... states have criminalized the use of intrauterine device (IUD) and emergency anti-contraception as "for being considered to be methods of abortion, contrary to scientific evidence.

International agencies like the the United Nations Fund for Population (UNFPA) and the Committee of Experts of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), among others, have insisted that a larger access to contraception will reduce the [high] levels of death during childbirth [especially in rural and indigenous areas]…

Despite the goal established in the PNP that the workers in health institutions be trained in the application of the NOM on family planning, and apply it in a strict sense, the reality is that these health workers put their moral beliefs, religious and ethical decisions first in their interactions with individual women.

This is according to Carlos Echarri, a researcher at El Colegio de Mexico. His research paper entitled Key Issues, Needs and Obstacles to Reproductive Health Care, addresses this issue.

The report states: "Through the institutionalization of the control of fertility by involving health institutions, staff have [actively] intervened to interfere with reproductive health decision that are completely private. Health center staff [impose their personal] values, norms and practices on the private topic of sexuality."

Extended translation

Lourdes Godinez Leal

June 16 09 (CIMAC)

---

Added: June 16, 2009

United States -

The World

Melanne Verveer - US Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues

Remarks at Swearing-in Ceremony of the Honorable Melanne Verveer as Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women's Issues

Secretary Clinton: …Melanne is most famous for the unwavering passion she brings to her causes. And for the last 15 years, that cause has been women and girls; their rights, their opportunities, their central importance to the future of our world’s progress and prosperity.

The absolute commitment she has always shown to giving voice to the voiceless, and making sure that the stories of everyday heroes and heroines would be known to a broader audience. She helped to launch the Vital Voices Democracy Initiative more than a decade ago, and she nurtured it and helped it to grow into what it is today. In the past eight years, she turned a government program into a global NGO, and the results of that work are ones that I encounter everywhere I travel on behalf of the United States. And she particularly helped to lead our commitment to end the intolerable scourge, the global crime of human trafficking.

So I was pretty lucky that Melanne was willing to accept this nomination to be our first ever ambassador on behalf on the issues and the causes and the women and girls that she has worked for so many years. She’s exactly the kind of diplomat that we need in the 21st century to exercise what we call smart power. And I am so pleased that the President agreed with me that there wasn’t any other choice for this job…

Video of Melanne Verveer's swearing in ceremony

Hillary Rodham Clinton

US Secretary of State

June 12, 2009

See also:

Melanne Verveer on Human Trafficking

Verveer has called human trafficking, which disproportionately affects women, one of the most important women’s issues she will address. "We need to elevate the race against human trafficking to the Grand Prix level, with Formula One-quality vehicles, sponsors and fuel. We simply can't stay in the slow lane for another ten years," she said in a 2007 interview.

She has long been an advocate of protecting women from trafficking. While working in the Clinton White House, she heard stories of networks that took women from their homes and “sunk them into a nightmare.” These stories inspired her to push for the 2000 Trafficking in Persons Act, which demanded an annual report on the state of human trafficking around the world.

As ambassador, Verveer will work with the Department's Trafficking in Persons Office to address trafficking in three ways: prevention, protection, and prosecution, all of which must be worked on together to be successful.. She has also called on the U.S. to work more closely with NGOs, international-law organizations and the business community to address the underlying problems that give rise to trafficking, including lack of opportunity and worker exploitation.

WhoRunsGov.com

May, 2009

See also:

Guatemala

Rosa Lacan Petzey

Vital Voices: Rising Voices of Guatemala

At age eight Rosa Lacan Petzey left home to seek work to support her family. For eleven years she worked away from home for meager pay, living with surrogate mothers. Her 14 hour workday left no time to study or to play. She lost her chance to enjoy childhood. 

Rosa’s story is common in Guatemala, a country recovering from a 36-year civil war that claimed more than 100,000 lives and displaced over 1 million refugees. The devastation wrought by the conflict permeates Guatemalan society, especially for young indigenous rural women.

At age 22 Rosa defies all expectations - she is an educated, single woman in unwavering pursuit of a focused professional goal - advocacy for reproductive health. As part of a Population Council program, she works with girls under pressure to drop out of school. Recounting her job, Rosa tells stories of smart, ambitious girls unable to pay school tuition, who reluctantly decide to enter the sex trade to pay for their fees.

Rosa sees herself as a mentor for vulnerable young women, someone who can inform, counsel and empathize with them. “Parents say the girls need to marry, because they don’t have the means to keep them at home.” As someone who went to work and back to school, Rosa challenges parents to see the potential in their daughters that she saw in herself.

Vital Voices selected Rosa to attend Rising Voices: Unleashing Young Women’s Economic Potential, a collaboration between Vital Voices and the World Bank Group supported by the Nike Foundation...

Student Fellow Megan Abbot

Vital Voices

LibertadLatina Commentary:

We congratulate Melanne Verveer upon her swearing-in as US Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues. We look forward to seeing serious efforts to defeat human trafficking and slavery during the Obama Administration. As Ambassador Verveer stated in 2007: "We need to elevate the race against human trafficking to the Grand Prix level, with Formula One-quality vehicles, sponsors and fuel. We simply can't stay in the slow lane for another ten years,"

Agreed! Full speed ahead!!

End impunity now!

Chuck Goolsby

LibertadLatina

June 16, 2009

---

Added: June 15, 2009

Mexico

trabajo infantil Child Labor

México: nueve años de incumplimiento con niñez trabajadora

Ni Plan Nacional ni definición de trabajos peligrosos

México DF - Hoy, Día Mundial contra el trabajo infantil, México cumple nueve años de haber adoptado el  Convenio 182 de la Organización Internacional del Trabajo (OIT), que responde a la necesidad de erradicar las peores formas de trabajo infantil, sin que haya adoptado, como se comprometió, un Plan Nacional de Acción y la determinación de los trabajos peligrosos para la infancia y su identificación geográfica.

Por ello, Jorge Hidalgo, de la organización Caminos Posibles, señala que en estos últimos nueve años de gobierno del Partido Acción Nacional (PAN), sólo se ha visto un retroceso de 15 ó 20 años en la problemática de trabajo infantil, porque no hay una política por favorecer los derechos de la infancia.

Mexico: Nine Years of Non-compliance with its Commitment to End Child Labor

Neither the Creation of a National Plan of Action nor the identification of dangerous jobs, both required by ILO Convention 182, have been carried out by Mexico

Mexico City- Today, on the World Day Against Child Labor, Mexico has passed its ninth anniversary since having adopted Convention 182 of the International Labor Organization (ILO), which addresses the need to eradicate the worst forms of child labor. However, Mexico has failed to fulfill its commitment to draft a National Action Plan and to define categories of hazardous work for children, and to map the locations there these types of work are carried out.

Therefore, Jorge Hidalgo, of the organization Caminos Posibles [Possible Paths], said that during the past nine years of government of the National Action Party [Partido Acción Nacional - PAN], has set back progress on eliminating child labor by 15 or 20 years, because they have no policy to promote children's rights.

Mexican children form part of the global statistics issued by the ILO showing that 100 million [underage] girls are working, or 46% of the total children working. Twenty percent of those girls are under 12 years old. It is estimated that 53% of them engage in dangerous forms of work...

The Mexican Context

Jorge Garcia Hidalgo noted that, according to official figures reported in 2007, 3,647,000 Mexican children engage in some occupation other than going to school. Of these, 67 percent are boys and 33 percent are girls. Some 67% are youth between the ages of 14 and 17.

The study indicates that the majority of children work in a family business with or without pay. Thirty eight percent of working children work in agriculture. Fifty two percent of them began working between the ages of 7 and 10.

According to the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI), in 2005 there were 1,630,185 domestic workers. Ten percent were under age 18, although only youth between 14 and 17 were counted in the survey.

According to [the social services consulting firm] Thais Social Development, it is estimated that 68 percent of girls who work in Mexico are engaged in domestic service...

The ILO, in this Day, calls for policy responses to tackle the causes of child labor, paying attention to the situation of girls, as well as urgent measures to eradicate the worst forms of child labor and attention to the need for education and professional formation for adolescents.

Full English Translation

Narce Santibañez Alejandre

CIMAC Noticias

June 12, 2009

---

Added: June 14, 2009

Wisconsin, USA

International Labor Organization's Campaign "Give Girls a Chance"

World Day Against Child Labor: Mexican Foreign Ministry releases report detailing Mexican children traveling to US alone are looking for work

…The global community observes World Day Against Child Labor

Begun in 2002 by the International Labor Organization, this year's theme is "Give Girls a Chance -- End Child Labor."

According to ILO estimates, of the 218 million child laborers worldwide, 100 million are girls. More than half of those girls are exposed to hazardous work in a variety of sectors, including agriculture, manufacturing, mining, domestic services and commercial sexual exploitation. In many cases, work performed by girls is hidden from the public eye, leaving the girls vulnerable to physical danger and abuse.

Girls are often forced to carry a double burden by contributing significantly to their own households' chores, including child care, as well as undertaking other employment outside of their homes.

…Recently, the Mexican Foreign Ministry compiled a report entitled 2008 Report of the Repatriation of Unaccompanied Minors. (In Spanish)

The report found that over 17,000 children from 0-17 were captured along the US-Mexico border by US authorities. The overwhelming reason that these children gave for coming to the United States was to work.

Some of the other major findings:

* 83 percent of the youth captured were boys, while 17 percent were girls.

* The main destination state for the children was California followed by Texas, Arizona, New York, Illinois and Florida.

* The majority of children were found to be between 12 and 17-years old…

* Of the children captured, 26 percent were indigenous mixteco.

This study by the Mexican government illustrates that there does exist a need by these children to work to help their families. Seeing that these are the ones who were caught, it stands to reason that many more escaped capture.

The more troubling thought is where are these other children and what are they doing?

One answer is certain -- they are in the United States.

Are they at the mercy of human traffickers and being prostituted out to satisfy the demented needs of a sick demographic? Probably.

Are they being forced to work in slave-like conditions with no or very little pay and no freedom? Most likely?

Have they sacrificed their childhoods to help their families? Yes.

Are they lost forever between two countries? Hopefully, not.

Though most of these children do disappear into the underworld of this nation, they do come up for air sometimes. It's up to all of us to be cognizant and question why a young person would be working in a particular situation or under certain conditions or be with a questionable group of people…

Marisa Treviño - Blogger

LatinaLista.com

June 12, 2009

---

Added: June 14, 2009

The World / El Mundo

Día mundial 2009: Demos una oportunidad a las niñas: Erradique-mos el trabajo infantil

AEl Día mundial contra el trabajo infantil se conmemorará el 12 de junio de 2009. Este año, el Día mundial marcará el décimo aniversario de la adopción del simbólico Convenio núm. 182 de la OIT que responde a la necesidad de erradicar las peores formas de trabajo infantil. A la vez que celebrará los progresos logrados en los últimos diez años, el Día mundial pondrá de relieve los retos que aún subsisten, haciendo hincapié en la explotación de las niñas en el trabajo infantil.

Se estima que hay en el mundo unos 100 millones de niñas víctimas del trabajo infantil. Muchas de ellas realizan trabajos similares a los que desempeñan los niños, pero también suelen sobrellevar dificultades adicionales y enfrentarse a diferentes peligros. Además, las niñas están también expuestas a algunas de las peores formas de trabajo infantil, habitualmente en situaciones de trabajo encubierto...

Organización Internacional del Trabajo (OIT)

World Day 2009: Give Girls a Chance: End Child Labor

The World Day Against Child Labor will be celebrated on 12 June 2009. The World Day this year marks the tenth anniversary of the adoption of the landmark ILO Convention No. 182, which addresses the need for action to tackle the worst forms of child labor. Whilst celebrating progress made during the past ten years, the World Day will highlight the continuing challenges, with a focus on exploitation of girls in child labor.

Around the world, an estimated 100 million girls are involved in child labor. Many of these girls undertake similar types of work as boys, but often also endure additional hardships and face extra risks. Moreover, girls are all too often exposed to some of the worst forms of child labor, often in hidden work situations.

International Labor Organization (ILO)

June 12, 2009

---

Added: June 14, 2009

Wisconsin, USA

Dr. Jefferson Calimlim Sr. and his wife, Dr.  Elnora Calimlim

Milwaukee couple each sentenced to six years in prison for forcing a woman to work as their domestic servant for 19 years

Milwaukee - A Brookfield, Wis., couple who kept a domestic servant in their home under conditions of servitude for nearly two decades was re-sentenced in federal court Tuesday to six years in prison. This sentence resulted from a joint investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the FBI.

Jefferson Calimlim Sr. and his wife, Elnora, both medical doctors in Milwaukee, were each sentenced by U.S. District Judge Rudolph T. Randa, Eastern District of Wisconsin, to six years in prison for forcing a woman to work as their domestic servant and illegally harboring her for 19 years in their Brookfield home…

According to evidence presented at trial, Jefferson Calimlim Sr. and his wife recruited and brought the victim from the Philippines to the U.S. in 1985 when she was 19 years old. In September 2004, ICE and FBI agents removed the victim, then age 38, from the Calimlim's Brookfield residence through the execution of a federal search warrant. The victim testified that for 19 years she was hidden in the Calimlim's home, forbidden from going outside, and told that she would be arrested, imprisoned and deported if she were discovered. She was not allowed to socialize, communicate freely with the outside world, or leave the house unsupervised, and she was required to hide in her basement bedroom whenever non-family members were present in the house.