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Indigenous & Latina Women & Children's Human
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Latina Women & Children at Risk |
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Sexual Exploitation of Latina Immigrant
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This section of
LibertadLatina.org
contains information regarding
worker's letter below) have come to the same
conclusion.
Chuck Goolsby,
December, 2004
- LibertadLatina
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Added:
Nov. 28, 2009
International Day for the Elimination of
Violence Against Women - 2009
Guatemala
 |
|
Mayan Women from
TRAMA
Textiles, which was
born out of the most desperate
and devastating times of the
Civil War in Guatemala when most
of the men -- grandfathers,
fathers, brothers, and sons,
disappeared [murdered], and the
women were forced to find a way
to survive and support their
households and communities.
Photo:
Rai |
Guatemala: donde la justicia para las
mujeres no llega
Guatemala -
A trece años de la firma de los Acuerdos de
Paz en Guatemala, las mujeres sobrevivientes
y víctimas de la violencia sexual ejercida
por militares y paramilitares entre 1981 y
1983 continúan exigiendo al Estado
guatemalteco la reparación del daño, la
restitución de sus propiedades y de sus
derechos, y esperando una justicia que no
llega…
Indigenous Women Victims of Rape During the
Civil War Break Their Silence
Guatemala: where justice for women
never arrives
Guatemala - Thirteen years after the signing
of the peace accords in Guatemala, the
surviving women victims of sexual violence
perpetrated by military and paramilitary
forces between 1981 and 1983 continue
demanding restitution of their property
rights and other reparations from the
Guatemalan State. They have been waiting for
a justice that never arrives.
These women came together in the plaza Justo
Rufino Barrios, in the historic center of
Guatemala as an activity to commemorate the
25th of November [International
Day Against Violence Against Women]. These
surviving victims of sexual violation during
the armed conflict broke their silence for
the first time.
The majority of these women are widows, as
their husbands were murdered during the
civil war. The women denounced the lack of
support and aid on the part of the
Guatemalan government who, they said, had
made false promises to repair the damage
caused to the victims.
According to the report “Guatemala, the
Legacy of the Violence”, Amnesty
International (AI), during the four decades
that the conflict armed in this Central
American country lasted, around 200,000
people were victims of homicide or forced
disappearance. Some 400 [(actually 440)
Mayan] communities were destroyed.
Sexual violence against women and children
was in-fact generalized during the entire
conflict. At the event, 4 women narrated how
they were abused, separated from their
husbands and had their land and homes stolen
from them during the civil war.
Petrona Cucul is a surviving woman of the
conflict. She remembered how the soldiers
burned their house and killed their husband.
She was left alone in charge of her four
children. After burning the house and the
harvest and killing all of their farm
animals, the soldiers raped her. Till this
day Cucul continues to demand justice and
aid from the government so that their
children can continue their studies.
Germana Lucas was also raped by soldiers.
Like Petrona, she had her land, her house,
and all of her belongings stolen from here.
She has never been repaid for these actions
by the State.
Isabela Méndez related how, before the
conflict, “there were good crops” of beans
and corn. Later everything changed. : Méndez
fled to the border and left her home. Who
will repay the damage that we suffered, the
pain, the sentiments?, she asked.
Illiterate and monolingual, Isabela was
forceful and, in her Mayan language, she
said: “I do not know how to read nor to
write, I do not speak Spanish. But I have
learned and recognize that I have rights and
that I am citizen of Guatemala. We want to
live peacefully and with justice.”
In a ritual ceremony, the indigenous women
gave to one ear of corn to the women victims
of sexual violence, as a symbol of
solidarity and cleansing.
The women stated that, even [now] when there
is no war, women continue to be
discriminated against, raped, excluded and
murdered for the single reason that they are
women.
We recall that, during the visit to
Guatemala in 2004 of the special
representative for women’s rights of the
Inter-American Human Rights Commission
(CIDH), was informed about the increase in
the number of murders against women; a
situation that is at its most serious when
indigenous women are the victims. For them,
justice simply does not exist.
The AI report on this subject makes
reference to a report by the Guatemalan
Truth Commission, which recognized that
during the armed conflict, the bodies of
women were used [by government forces] to
destroy and to intimidate the enemy [that
is, the entire Mayan population]. Rape
became one of the cruelest and degrading
ways to violate a woman’s rights during this
period.
The Truth Commission report notes that the
majority of victims of rape were young Mayan
indigenous women.
According to the document [and other
reports], in March of 1982 at least 140
women and children of Negro River were
forced to march up a mountain, where they
were [raped and then] murdered, some to
machete blows and others by strangulation.
Shortly after, 79 people, in their majority
women and children, were massacred in the
neighboring town of the Encounter.
As a result of the massacres and other
killings during the armed conflict, widowed
women, many with five or more children, were
forced off of their lands. They did not know
how to read, and they lived with the traumas
caused by the sexual assaults.
Without support from their government, these
women had to begin to help each other. They
began to weave alliances to talk, and to
fortify themselves by means of self-help
groups.
For that reason, on this commemoration of
this International Day for the Elimination
of Violence against the women, they decided
to speak up, and to continue demanding
justice. They conclude by stating, “although
they cut even the stem off of us, we bloom
again.”
Lourdes Loyal Godínez
CIMAC Noticias
News for Women
Nov. 27, 2009
See also:
Guatemala: No
Protection, No Justice: Killings of Women in
Guatemala
Amnesty
International
June 9, 2005
Guatemala
The Truth Under the
Earth: The Relationship Between Genocide and
Femicide in Guatemala
The war in
Guatemala has never ceased. While the Peace
Accords signed in 1996 demobilized some
combatants and weapons - the killing, raping
and torturing continues unabated. In 2009
the homicide rate for Guatemala, with a
population of 13 million, is about 8,000 per
year. Of these 8,000 murders approximately
10 percent are women and girls.
According
to figures from Guatemala City based women’s
group Grupo Guatemalteco de Mujeres (GGM)
between January 2002 and January 2009 there
were 197,538 acts of domestic violence,
13,895 rapes and 4,428 women were murdered.
What is perhaps even more disturbing is that
for this tsunami of violence there is a 97
percent impunity rate. One of the main
reasons for near total impunity in the
Guatemalan context is that the people
responsible for the genocidal civil war
against indigenous people in which 200,000
people were murdered and 50,000 disappeared
have never, nor are they ever likely to be
held accountable.
In August
and September of 2009 I visited Guatemala,
at least in part, to examine how the civil
war has been superseded by an as yet
undeclared social war, part of which is an
ongoing femicide...
I visited
Finca Covabunga, which is just up the road
from Chul, a bumpy, dusty, windy three hour
trip through the mountains on the back of a
pick up, north of Nebaj. On December 9,
1982, 75 men, women and children were
massacred by the Guatemalan army...
I talked
and recorded survivors of the massacre.
Margarheta lost her husband, animals, land
and all her possessions on that day. She
spent the next ten years living in the
mountains running from the army. Digging up
the bodies was painful for her as it brought
back a flood of painful memories...
The next
day Nicolas and I and a couple of other
activists visited a community on the
outskirts of Nebaj. It is named June 30th
which commemorates the date in 2006 in which
the community reclaimed land from the army -
who had stolen it after eradicating the
owners - and started growing food, teaching
their kids and various other projects of
self-determination...
While at
the community I met a young woman of sixteen
who had a six month old baby, the father is
a soldier and the conception method was
rape. Nothing has ever happened in regards
to this rape. In June of 2009 a woman who
had five young children, was raped, murdered
and cut up by soldiers. Nothing will likely
ever happen to the person/s who committed
this heinous act - impunity for such crimes
is total in Guatemala...
Colm McNaughton
UpsideDownWorld.org
Oct. 22, 2009
Added:
Nov. 28, 2009
International Day for the Elimination of
Violence Against Women - 2009
Guatemala
ONU: Lanza en Guatemala una Campaña
Latinoamericana Contra la Violencia de Género
La Organización de las Naciones Unidas (ONU)
lanzó hoy en la capital guatemalteca una campaña
latinoamericana que durará hasta 2015 con el
objetivo de unificar esfuerzos entre diferentes
sectores y fortalecer legislaciones para poner
fin a la violencia en contra de las mujeres…
The United Nations Kicks-off Regional Campaign
Against Latin American Gender Violence in
Guatemala
Guatemala City - The United Nations (UN) chose
the capitol of Guatemala [Guatemala City] to
launch is continent-wide campaign against gender
violence. The effort will continue until 2015
with the objective to unify efforts between
different sectors of society, and to fortify
legislative efforts to end violence against the
women in the region.
The campaign “Latin America, Unite to End
Violence Against Women," will involve efforts by
all of the agencies in the UN system. It is an
initiative of its UN Secretary General Ban
Kin-moon.
The launch was celebrated in the presence of the
president of Guatemala, Alvaro Colom, and the
core UN officials working across Latin America.
The November 25th event coincided
with the celebration of the the International
Day of Non Violence Towards Woman.
The director of the Economic Commission for
Latin America and the Caribbean (CEPAL), Alicia
Bárcena, stated during the presentation that the
various activities to be carried out through
this UN campaign will attempt to reduce the
levels of violence against the women.
A study by CEPAL of conditions of violence
facing women in the region was presented during
the event. CEPAL indicates that 40% of women in
the region are victims of physical violence, and
that the 60 percent suffer from psychological
violence.
The report “ Not Even One More! From Words to
Facts: How Much Farther Until We Get to This
Goal? declares that the many forms of violence
facing women in the region include domestic
violence, murder, sexual harassment and sexual
violence.
Latin American women also suffer from sex
trafficking, institutional violence,
discrimination against immigrants, and
race-based gender violence that targets
Indigenous and Afro-descendent women [and
girls].
The regional director for Latin America and the
Caribbean of the United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP), Rebeca Grynspan, explained
that by means of this campaign, the UN will
collaborate, together with the countries of the
region, in efforts to fortify legislation in
nations of the region regarding the protection
of the rights of women.
In addition, the campaign will advance a
“multisectorial plan”, that promotes the
prevention and eradication of
machista violence,
campaigns of sensitization, and development of
national capacities for data collection.
With this campaign, it needed Grynspan, “we will
revitalize the fight and the commitment of the
UN tp put an end to violence against women, an
urgent task that must be accomplished to prevent
the continuation of the sentence of violence
that generations of women have faced, which many
women have paid for with their lives."
President Colom of Guatemala emphasized the
importance of the United Nations’ choice of
Guatemala as the launch-point of this campaign.
Colom assured that “this constitutes a
commitment” by his government to eradicate the
evils that afflict Guatemalans women.
President Colom added that in Guatemala, most
women are targeted for violence because they are
poor, indigenous, young and women.
In this Central American country, one of most
violent of Latin America, and where the greatest
amount of violence against women occurs, two
women are murdered every day, often by men known
to them.
According to the International Commission
Against Impunity in Guatemala, a UN agency, 94%
of murders committed against women between 2001
and 2009 have remained [unsolved and] in
impunity.
EFE
Nov. 25, 2009
Mexico
La Trata de Mujeres, en Chiapas
La vulnerabilidad de las mujeres, adolescentes,
niñas y niños que van hacia los Estados Unidos
ha aumentado en gran medida ya que son el blanco
perfecto para las variadas formas de explotación
que existen en la mayoría de las fronteras del
país…
The Human Trafficking of Women in Chiapas State
Mexico is rich in natural environments, climates
and amiable people. However, we also have
problems in our southern region due to the
geographic location of Mexico. Adults and
children from Central [and South] America, who
migrate north in search of the American Dream
[in the United States], must migrate through
Mexico. As with all nations in the northern
regions of the Americas, Mexico experiences a
great influx of people from its neighbors to the
south. One alarming fact is that a growing
number of very young migrants are attempting to
travel north, putting themselves at risk of
facing bad experiences in the process.
Women, adolescents, girls and boys who attempt
to migrate to the United States are at
ever-increasingly risk of being exploited in
Mexico. They are a ‘perfect target’ for the
various forms of human exploitation that exist
along Mexico’s borders.
As a country of origin, transit and destination
for trafficking victims, Mexico is vulnerable to
the interminable networks of national and
international organized crime that are dedicated
to human slavery. Lamentably, Mexico has
reported large numbers of people who have been
enslaved for sexual and labor exploitation.
These victims include women, adolescents and
children, who are easier to convince, to
manipulate and to exploit.
Without a doubt the seriousness of this
situation represents enormous challenges for
Mexico’s government and its society, because it
impacts deals not only its direct victims, but
also their families, communities, and society in
general.
Opinion of Eduardo González A.
www.informador.com.mx/
Nov. 27, 2009
The Dominican Republic, Haiti
Feministas Denuncian la Trata de Mujeres Para la
Explotación Sexual
Una agrupación feminista dominicana expresó hoy
su preocupación por el tráfico de haitianas a
territorio dominicano y de dominicanas hacia
Europa y otros países donde son explotadas
sexualmente por las redes que se encargan de
reclutarlas.
Feminists Denounce the Human Trafficking of
Women for Sexual Exploitation
A Dominican feminist group today expressed its
concern in regard to the trafficking of Haitians
into the Dominican Republic, and the trafficking
of Dominican women to Europe and other countries
where they are sexually exploited sexually by
the networks that recruit them.
While mafia networks that operate in the
Dominican-Haitian border recruit and deal to
Haitians to prostitute them in the Dominican
Republic, many women of this country also are
victims of trafficking networks, who send them
to Europe for prostitution, noted Raquel Rivera,
spokeswoman of the Coordination of Women of the
Cibao, located in the northern city of Santiago.
Rivera has presented the idea to the authorities
in both Haiti and the Dominican Republic that
they collaborate to eradicate the criminal
groups that traffic in the women of both
nations.
Rivera added that human trafficking, especially
involving women who are prostituted, is nothing
new in Latin America and the Caribbean. The
Dominican Republic and Haiti have not escaped
from these dynamics.
According to Rivera, the trafficking of Haitians
to the Dominican Republic to exercise
prostitution, and of Dominican women trafficked
to Spain, Italy, Greece, Germany and other
nations of Europe, is a result of the
discrimination, violence and lack of
opportunities that these women suffer.
Rivera added that all people who attempt to
migrate from their home countries in search of
better living conditions do so because the
authorities in their nations have not given them
the opportunity to live in dignity.
In Rivera’s opinion, the trafficking of women is
a new indicator of the level of violence that
affects females in Latin America and other parts
of the world.
EFE
Nov. 27, 2009
Mexico
Red de Pederastas en México (Primera
Parte)
La red de trata de personas
desarticulada el pasado 24 de octubre en
la colonia Guerrero no está aislada. Se
trata de crimen organizado que opera en
Tlaxcala, Guerrero, Chiapas, Morelos y
Oaxaca. Durante años hizo del Distrito
Federal un mercado para la explotación
sexual comercial infantil y lo convirtió
en punto de partida hacia los estados
fronterizos del norte…
Pedophile Ring is Broken-up in Mexico
City (Part One)
The human trafficking network that was
dismantled on October 24th,
2009 in the Guerrero neighborhood in
Mexico City is not isolated. This is
organized crime ring that operates in
the states of Tlaxcala, Guerrero,
Chiapas, Morelos and Oaxaca. For years
they made Mexico City, as well as
northern states on the U.S. border a
marketplace for the commercial sexual
exploitation of children.
"What we have here is a phenomenon where
women trafficked for sexual exploitation
were [first] assembled in Tlaxaca state.
From there, they are taken to other
states. They were taken to Puebla, them
to Tijuana, and then to the United
States," said Federico Pholsen
Fuentevilla, of the Friar Julián Garcés
Center of Tlaxcala.
The Mexico City Prosecutor’s Office
reported that investigations of this
network began last July when Maria del
Socorro Vázquez Villegas, aka "La Coco",
and Michelangelo Lopez Reyes, known as
"The Clown", who were arrested.
However, citizen complaints, and
neighborhood monitoring of the problem
began years ago.
"It has been almost seven years since we
began organizing the neighbors in our
[community] association to denounce the
prostitution that was happening in the
streets. First there were women, then
men and women, and now there are men,
women and children," said David
Alejandro Mondragon president of the
Buena Vista Neighborhood Association.
Seven youth between the ages of 14 and
16 were rescued. They are from Oaxaca
and Morelos states, and from Mexico
City. The authorities found evidence
linking this group with other pedophile
networks in hotels that were raided.
Pornographic materials, video cameras,
customer log books and other evidence
was collected, said Juana Camila
Bautista Rebollar, a prosecutor for Sex
Crimes Investigative Center in the
Mexico City attorney general’s office.
One victim testified that: "I was sold
from one man to anther and to yet
another, as if I were a toy.”
At the end of 2008 the Centro Fray
Julián Garcés and various civil society
organizations in Tlaxcala state
denounced the fact that a
well-structured network of pedophiles
operating in the cities of Tenancingo
and Zacatelco was recruiting youth, most
of them just over the age of 14, to be
trafficked to Mexico City for purposes
of prostitution.
"Disgracefully, sex trafficking is
inherent in the social behavior in some
cities and towns in Tlaxcala state. In
Tlaxcala, if you ask children what they
want to do when they are grown-up, they
say that they would like to have lots of
sisters in order to have money" [by
pimping them], said Dilcya Samantha
Garcia, assistant prosecutor for the
Care of Victims of within the Mexico
City prosecutor’s office.
Without backing from the government of
Tlaxcala, civil organizations and the
Human Rights Commission of Mexico City
discovered on their own the specific sex
trafficking routes into the Mexico City
neighborhoods of Colonia Guerrero,
Centro Historico, Alameda Central, La
Calzada de Tlalpan, La Merced and La
Central de Abasto.
Last August, the commission issued a
recommendation.
"The [government of the Mexico City
borough of] Cuauhtémoc was cynical in
its rejection of the commission’s
recommendations, even though they have a
moral responsibility for what is
happening, including their lack of
action, as in their failure to inspect
the hotels that shelter this activity,”
said Buena Vista association president
David Alexander Mondragon.
But the Pandora's box that opened by the
October 24th extends even
further.
"We have grave problems of human
trafficking in the state of Chiapas,
particularly in the area Zoconúzco and
Tapachula, where there is a brutal
problem in human trafficking," said
Samantha Garcia Dilcya.
The crusade began in the Federal
District on October 24th
brings us to the question, what took
them so long?
November 4, 2009
News Eleven
Added:
Nov. 28, 2009
Mexico
Aprueban Ley de Prevención en Trata de
Personas [en Tlaxcala]; prevén sanciones a
servidores públicos
Tal y como se había previsto, en sesión
extraordinaria del Congreso del estado se
aprobó por unanimidad de votos en lo general
y particular el decreto por el que se
crea la Ley de Prevención de la Trata de
Personas para el Estado de Tlaxcala, así
como las reformas a los Códigos Penal y de
Procedimientos Penales…
Tlaxcala State Congress Approves New
Anti-Trafficking Law
Just as had been anticipated, a special
session of the Tlaxcala state congress has
unanimously approved the Law to Prevent the
Trafficking of Persons of the State of
Tlaxcala. The law includes reforms to the
criminal code and sentencing rules in
relation to trafficking crimes.
The law has been designed to criminalize
human trafficking in the state, as well as
to provide for assistance, protection and
reparations for victims. The ultimate goal
is the eradication of trafficking in
Tlaxcala.
The legislation was approved after a brief
period of review by the state legislature’s
Commission on Constitutional Compliance, the
Interior, Justice and Political Affairs.
The law contemplates the formation of a
State Council on Human Trafficking. The
Council will be charged with developing
strategies and taking actions to prevent
trafficking. The Counsil will oversee the
provision of care for victims, which will
include medical, psychological, legal and
material services. The law also creates a
fund to support these operations through the
fines levied against those convicted of
trafficking offenses.
The law anticipates the participation of
municipal governments, who will be expected
to participate in prevention programs and
coordinate their anti-trafficking work with
civil organizations. Municipal governments
will be expected to be on the front lines of
efforts to detect trafficking crime.
The law identifies as a crime any activity
by a person that “promotes, solicits,
offers, facilitates, obtains, transports,
gives shelter to, gives or receives, for
themselves or for a third person, acts of
sexual exploitation, forced labor or
services, slavery or practices analogous to
slavery, or the extirpation of any human
organ, or tissue.”
Sentencing
In cases where the victims granted consent,
the perpetrator will not escape
responsibility. Their crime will be
sanctioned with prison sentences of between
seven and fifteen years, and fines amounting
to 500 to 1,500 days of minimum wage pay.
In cases where physical or moral violence
was used to control their victims, sentences
will range from 9 to 18 years in prison, and
will include fines of between 1,000 and
2,000 days of minimum wage pay.
Government employees found guilty of
trafficking related offenses will face
prison terms of 15 to 25 years, and fines of
1,500 to 3,000 days of minimum wage salary.
Government employees who are fired from
their positions will be ineligible for
reemployment for a period equal to the
length of their prison sentence.
In cases where the victimizer is a family
member, having a blood relationship with the
victim to the fourth degree, sentencing will
range from 15 to 25 years of prison time,
and the fine will be the equivalent of 1,500
to 3,000 days of minimum wage salary.
If the crime has been committed against a
person who is under age 18 or over age 60,
or against a person with a mental or
physical handicap, prison sentences will
range from 30 to 40 years, and fines will
range from 1,000 to 6,000 days of minimum
wage salary.
The Congress of Tlaxcala also reformed
Article 93 of the state penal code. The
reform defines pimping and human trafficking
as serious crimes. Suspects in these cases
will not be allowed pre-trail release on
bail.
Yvonn Márquez
e-Consulta
Nov. 2009
Washington
State, USA
Pacific Pair Accused
of Smuggling, Enslaving... Mexican
Immigrants
For at least three years, a couple in the
town of Pacific [a Seattle suburb] ran a
smuggling operation that brought illegal
immigrants from Mexico to be housed in the
garage of their home, where the immigrants
lived as indentured servants while paying
off their smuggling debt, according to court
documents.
Maria Bartola Santos-Gonzalez and Juan
Gonzalez-Guerra slipped illegal immigrants
from Aguascalientes, Mexico, across the
border and up into Washington state, for
$3,000 to $3,500 each, federal and state
documents allege.
Among their victims was an 8-year-old girl,
whom the couple brought to the United States
in 2007, along with her parents and brother.
The girl described to a school counselor and
to a Pacific detective how Gonzalez-Guerra,
55, a legal permanent resident, sexually
molested her.
Her 7-year-old brother told of how
Santos-Gonzalez, 63, a U.S. citizen, would
sometimes tie him up, cover his mouth with a
handkerchief or tape and beat him with a
stick, leaving purple marks.
The family said they were fed twice a day
and a chain was kept around the refrigerator
so they couldn’t get more food.
Family members told a Pacific detective the
couple threatened to “cut out their tongues”
if they told anyone about what happened and
told the immigrants the police wouldn’t
listen to them anyway because they were
undocumented...
Lornet Turnbull
Seattle Times
Nov. 27, 2009
South Dakota, USA
[News Briefs]
[Yankton -] Thumbs down to news that human
trafficking may be much closer to our front door
than we would like to believe. A Tea couple has
been charged with conspiring to sell the
services of underage prostitutes. The issue of
human trafficking has been receiving a lot of
publicity from human rights organizations around
the world and for good reason — it is one of the
most heinous crimes imaginable. Millions of
children are enslaved and used for sex acts.
According to data reported at CNN.com, the
global commercial sex trade exploits one million
children annually. At least 100,000 children in
America are victims of sex trafficking each
year. It’s no secret that this activity is
funneled through many small towns across the
nation. To have it uncovered so close to Yankton
is disturbing, and we hope that if this couple
is guilty they are brought to justice.
Yankton Press & Dakotan
Nov. 27, 2009
The United States
US Officials Begin Push
Against Human Trafficking
Boston - Fourteen cities are being targeted in a
new campaign aimed at alerting people about
human trafficking, federal immigration officials
have announced.
The "Hidden in Plain Sight" initiative,
sponsored by U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement, features billboards highlighting
"the horrors and the prevalence of human
trafficking," which the agency says is
equivalent to "modern-day slavery."
The words "Hidden in Plain Sight" are displayed
on the advertisements with a toll-free number
people can call to report situations where they
believe people are being sexually exploited or
forced to work against their will.
Cities in the new campaign are Atlanta; Boston;
Dallas; Detroit; Los Angeles; Miami;
Philadelphia; Newark, N.J.; New Orleans; New
York; St. Paul, Minn.; San Antonio; San
Francisco and Tampa, Fla.
Bruce Foucart, an ICE special agent in charge of
New England, said officials hope the billboards
persuade residents to report suspected cases to
ICE or local law enforcement.
"It's difficult to identify victims and it's
difficult for them to tell their stories," said
Foucart.
About 800,000 men, women and children are
trafficked each year around the world and about
17,500 of them end up in the United States,
according to ICE. Immigration officials say the
victims are lured from their homes with false
promises of well-paying jobs but are trafficked
into the commercial sex trade, domestic
servitude or forced labor.
Foucart said victims who cooperate with law
enforcement are offered temporary status and can
later apply to stay in the U.S. permanently.
Jozefina Lantz, director of New Americans
services at Lutheran Social Services in
Worcester, Mass., welcomed the new campaign and
said the public is generally unaware that human
trafficking is occurring near their homes.
"Often the victims get mistaken for undocumented
immigrants," said Lantz. "It's not the same
because these people were abducted from their
homes and forced into trafficking."
Lantz said her group has recently helped
trafficking victims from Africa and South
America.
Russell Contreras
The Associated Press
Nov. 10, 2009
Added:
Nov. 28, 2009
The United States
Sex Trafficking: An American
Problem Too
Editor's note: Professor Bridgette Carr directs the
Human Trafficking Clinic at the University of
Michigan Law School. The Human Trafficking Clinic
provides direct representation to victims of human
trafficking and works to identify solutions to
combat human trafficking.
Ann Arbor, Michigan...
The grim reality of child sex trafficking in the
United States is this: Human traffickers are selling
sex with children in big cities and small towns
throughout America...
Through my work with... clients in the Human
Trafficking Clinic we have identified a number of
ways to fight sex trafficking.
Raise awareness within your community: One of the
biggest barriers to helping victims of sex
trafficking is the lack of awareness about the
issue. Human traffickers profit when we think human
trafficking only happens in foreign countries.
• Human trafficking happens everywhere, and sex
trafficking cases involving children have been found
in all regions of the country. No community is
immune to the horrors of human trafficking.
• Communities must prioritize the fight against
human trafficking -- including providing enough
resources to law enforcement.
Change the conversation: Children who by law are too
young to consent to having sex obviously cannot
consent to selling sex, so:
• Victims should not be described as entering into
prostitution; they are being exploited and should be
described as victims of human trafficking.
• Law enforcement officials often arrest and detain
child victims of sex trafficking on either
prostitution charges or other charges, such as
truancy or curfew violations. Law enforcement must
be trained about human trafficking.
• Sellers of sex, especially when they are children,
should not be guilty of a criminal violation. Buyers
and pimps should be the only individuals at risk of
criminal penalties. This would ensure that no
victims are arrested or jailed.
Reduce demand: The reality of sex trafficking must
not be neutralized or glamorized.
• Individuals who travel abroad to purchase sex from
children are demonized in the media and identified
as sexual predators, yet individuals who stay in the
United States and pay to have sex with children are
given the anonymous title "john" -- and frequently
aren't even charged with a crime.
• Individuals who pay for sex with children in the
United States should be punished.
Commentary by Bridgette Carr
Special to CNN
Nov. 25, 2009
Maryland, USA
Charges Dropped in East
Baltimore Brothel Case
The sex trafficking and prostitution charges seemed
pretty clear cut -- Carlos Silot was accused of
running a brothel near Patterson Park, staffed with
illegal immigrant women, from a rented row house,
where police found a customer roster, photographs,
condoms and more. But the case fell apart this week
for a predictable reason: The women refused to
testify.
How could we have expected otherwise? Women are
brought to this country from Mexico, cut off from
family, made to endure countless deprivations, and
can't possibly expect that testifying against the
man they say was responsible would turn out well.
What believable assurances could the Baltimore
State's Attorney's Office possibly make that it
could protect these women? It certainly can't have
helped that prosecutors initially charged the women
-- the victims in this case -- with prostitution,
only dropping the charges due to a lack of evidence.
It's unclear why local, rather than federal,
prosecutors took this case. The U.S. Attorney's
Office can bring to bear more resources to
investigate the alleged crimes and to offer
protection for the women who are the true victims.
Moreover, federal laws for such crimes are much
stricter, thanks to a law signed by President George
Bush in 2005. The federal government also has
mechanisms to help provide legal status for victims
of such crimes -- the women in this case were in the
country illegally -- and to help them rebuild their
lives.
Maryland law was tightened recently to deal more
harshly with child sex trafficking, but not with
cases such as this one, in which the women were
adults. Sex trafficking involving adults is a
misdemeanor under Maryland law; if convicted, Mr.
Silot faced at most 10 years in prison on a charge
of pandering. That needs to be changed.
Editorial
The Baltimore Sun
Nov. 10, 2009
A Response by a Baltimore
Anti-Trafficking Activist
The news that a credible sex trafficking case "fell
apart" due to a lack of testimony from two victims
is unsurprising at best. Both foreign national and
U.S. citizen victims of sex and labor trafficking
face enormous obstacles as they attempt to leave (or
simply survive) unimaginable, often terrifying
circumstances.
However, rather than cast blame on prosecutors who
were undoubtedly trying their best to further a
tough-to-win case, it is more productive to
understand that in Maryland, over 100 community and
NGO advocates, law enforcement officers and
legislative experts have come together in the form
of the Maryland Human Trafficking Task Force to
assist victims and ensure justice, including
successful prosecution. This body, first convened in
December, 2007 by Baltimore City State's Attorney
Patricia Jessamy, U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein, and
Attorney General Doug Gansler, has grown not only in
number but in capacity to serve victims and "get the
word out" about the scourge of sex and labor
trafficking in Maryland.
Rather than curse the darkness, all of us have to be
part of growing light that is the human trafficking
movement in Maryland. A recent awareness event in
Baltimore -- held in the pouring rain -- brought
dozens of individuals and families together, seeking
ways to prevent all forms of human trafficking and
more effectively address the issue. Let's put aside
our differences and focus on the real enemy -- male
and female traffickers, from this country and
elsewhere, who ruthlessly exploit child, teen and
adult victims -- and on real solutions, which always
involve working together as one.
Sidney Ford
Nov. 10, 2009
LibertadLatina
Commentary
As a
resident of the state of Maryland for the past 40
years, I am impressed to see that the Maryland Human
Trafficking Task Force is a well-developed
collaboration between both state and federal law
enforcement and prosecutors, as well as
non-governmental anti-trafficking organizations and
individuals. According to the Task Force, they are
considered to be a model for such collaborations
nationally.
During my decades
in Maryland and the adjoining regions of Washington,
DC and Virginia, I have witnessed the many faces of
exploitation facing women and children in local
Latin American communities. Much of that history has
been told on
LibertadLatina.org.
During that time, I have been consistent in my
efforts to contact and collaborate with local law
enforcement, to ensure that Latin American immigrant
residents of the region receive equal and fair
access to the criminal justice system as victims of
crime.
During the past several months I have engaged in
dialog and activity with the Maryland Human
Trafficking Task Force. Their response has shown
some resistance to the idea of tackling the hard
issues that surround the Latin American dynamics of
human trafficking and exploitation in Maryland, but
I trust that the Task Force will have an open mind
to learn about the unique conditions that face our
local Latino communities, where anti-immigrant
hostility and the traditional code of silence
combine with an often-times unfriendly interaction
with government to create cover for the criminal
activities of traffickers and the sexual exploiters
of women and children.
In response to the above
Baltimore Sun editorial and the response to it by
Task Force activist and veteran direct services
provider Sidney Ford, I posted the below commentary
on the Maryland Human Trafficking Task Force web
site on Nov. 22, 2009.
End
impunity now!
Chuck
Goolsby
LibertadLatina.org
Nov.
27, 2009
Added:
Nov. 27, 2009
Jamaica
 |
|
International head of the
Salvation Army, General Shaw Clifton (2nd
left) with Colonel Onal Castor, territorial
commander of the Caribbean; and members of
the organization's local chapter Lieutenant
Lynette Row (2nd right); and Colonel Edmane
Castor, following a press conference at the
Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in New Kingston
yesterday. (Photo: Garfield Robinson)
|
Salvation Army General Arrives in
Jamaica
General Shaw Clifton, the international head of the
Salvation Army, arrived in the island yesterday for a
three-day visit during which he will attend a series of
meetings and church services with members of the
organization's local chapters to offer encouragement and
to discuss ways to tackle gang-violence, human
trafficking and other issues affecting Jamaica.
His visit is the first to the island and will be
followed by a stop in Haiti tomorrow on his way back to
England.
"The purpose of my visit to Jamaica is to find out for
myself what the Army is doing here. I have heard about
it, I have read about it, but I am here mainly for my
own education," Clifton said at a press briefing at the
Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in Kingston yesterday.
"One specific issue, a worldwide issue, is human
trafficking and I am very interested to find out how
this impacts your beautiful island of Jamaica," he said.
"The Salvation Army is deeply concerned about the level
of human trafficking for sexual proposes over the world
and we are committed to doing everything in our power to
combat it," he added.
The Jamaica Observer
Nov. 25, 2009
Arizona, USA
Border Patrol Agents Arrest Sex
Offender
U.S. Border Patrol agents from the Yuma Sector arrested
a convicted sex offender in Kingman on Wednesday who was
in the country illegally.
According to Agent Michael Lowrie, at about 2 p.m., the
Arizona Department of Public Safety called the Yuma
Sector's Blythe Station and said they had a "possible
illegal alien" in their custody.
Agents assigned to the Blythe Station responded to the
Kingman jail and took custody of the individual, who was
later identified as Jorge De Jesus-Martinez.
Lowrie said agents determined that De Jesus-Martinez was
in the country illegally and transported him back to the
Blythe Station for further processing.
During processing, Lowrie said a fingerprints checks
revealed that De Jesus-Martinez was a convicted sex
offender
Back in September of 2008, De Jesus-Martinez was charged
with one count of rape and one count of sexual battery.
He was convicted on both counts and sentenced to serve
two years in prison.
"He served his time in Stockton, California," Lowrie
said.
Lowrie said De Jesus-Martinez will be processed for
removal proceedings and deported back to Mexico.
James Gilbert
The Yuma Sun
Nov. 06, 2009
California, USA
Two Men Plead Guilty to Running
Prostitution Ring
San Diego - Two men have pleaded guilty to helping to
run a prostitution ring for migrant workers in San Diego
County.
Eduardo Aguila-Tecuapacho and Carlos Tzompantzi-Serrano,
who are both illegal immigrants from Mexico, pleaded
guilty in federal court on Wednesday of harboring
illegal immigrants for prostitution.
Each could face up to 10 years in prison. They are
expected to be sentenced in January.
Court documents say Aguila-Tecuapacho rented an
apartment in Vista where one of the prostitutes lived.
Prosecutors say Tzompantzi-Serrano drove the women to
work in outdoor brothels.
A third man who faces charges of bringing the women
across the border from Mexico will stand trial next
month.
The Associated Press
Nov. 26, 2009
Maryland, USA
 |
|
Drawing of suspect |
Girl, 14, Says Man Fondled
Her, Exposed Self in Howard Store
Howard County police are looking for a Hispanic
man in his late 30s or early 40s who a 14-year-old
girl said kissed her hand, fondled her and exposed
himself in an Ellicott City department store.
The girl said the man, who spoke only Spanish,
ran off after her grandmother approached.
Police on Wednesday said the incident took
place in a Kohl's department store on Montgomery
Road, but they did not specify when it happened.
Anyone with information is asked to call
410-313-STOP. Police are offering a $500 reward for
information leading to an arrest.
Don Markus
Baltimore Sun
Nov. 26, 2009
Massachusetts, USA
 |
|
Francisco Wellington Barros-Gomes |
J.C. Penney Clerk Charged with
Dressing Room Rape
A sales clerk at a J.C. Penney department store in
Sturbridge has been arrested and charged with raping
a boy in a dressing room, police said.
Francisco Wellington Barros-Gomes, 26, of Charlton,
was charged with indecent assault and battery on a
child under 14 and rape of a child with force,
according to Sturbridge police. He was arraigned
today in Dudley District Court and ordered held on
$25,000 bail.
Police arrested Barros-Gomes after they responded to
a report of an assault at the Sturbridge store
around 6 p.m. yesterday.
Barros-Gomes is a Brazilian immigrant who is here
legally as a resident-alien, police said.
Edward Mason
The Boston Herald
Nov. 25, 2009
Added:
Nov. 27, 2009
North Carolina, USA
Officers Save Suicidal Child Sex
Suspect
Henderson County - An inmate awaiting trial on charges
of raping a child tried to commit suicide, but was saved
by officers who took quick action, according the the
sheriff.
The man, whose identity is not being released, is
charged with first-degree rape of a minor child and
first-degree sexual offenses against a child, tried to
hang himself at the Henderson County Detention Center at
about 3 a.m. last Saturday.
Security cameras showed that from the time the inmate
hanged himself until officers intervened was well under
a minute. The officers were able to respond to the unit,
lift and hold the victims body weight, and untie the
bed-sheet noose.
“If not for them, he would have died,” Henderson County
Sheriff Rick Davis said...
The inmate is being held on a $301,000 dollar secured
bond.
He is also under federal detainment [via] the 287(g)
program pending the outcome of any possible conviction
and sentencing resulting from his current charges...
WYFF
Nov. 24, 2009
Alabama, USA
Romero Sentenced to 130 Years
Enterprise man found guilty of five sex-related charges
against children was sentenced to 130 years in prison
Thursday morning in Coffee County Circuit Court.
Jorge Romero was found guilty in September of two counts
of sodomy first degree, two charges of sexual abuse of a
child less than 12 and one charge of first degree rape
in 30 minutes by an eight woman, six man jury after a
two-day trial. He had remained in Coffee County Jail
without bond, pending Thursday’s sentencing where he has
remained since his arrest in August 2008 and after
federal immigration officials placed a hold on him as an
illegal alien.
Kelley sentenced Romero to 30 years each for two first
degree sodomy convictions, 20 years each for two sexual
abuses of a child less than 12 convictions and 30 years
for the first degree rape conviction. Because the
convictions involved children, Kelley told Romero that
he is not eligible for parole.
During the trial the girls, now aged 8 and 7, separately
testified perched upon three reams of copy paper in
order to see the court. Both said they had been touched
inappropriately by Romero when they were visiting his
home. Using anatomically correct dolls, the girls
separately showed the court what Romero had done to
them...
The director of Dothan’s Women’s and Children’s
Services, who is also a nurse, told the court she had
examined both girls and that both showed evidence of
sexual trauma...
The Enterprise Ledger
Michelle Mann
Nov. 19, 2009
Florida, USA
 |
|
Richard Morales-Marin, and
Juan Hernandez-Monzavlo |
Therapy Dog Helps Young Girl
Testify Against Men Who Raped Her
On October 30, illegal aliens Juan
Hernandez-Monzalvo, 25, and Richard Morales-Marin, 24,
were found guilty by an Orange County, FL jury of
kidnapping and sexual battery, along with other charges.
On February 5, 2009, the 11-year-old girl
was walking to school when she was grabbed by the two
Mexican nationals, who forced her into their car at
knifepoint. They drove her to an abandoned house where
both men took turns raping her.
Because of the girl’s young age and the
severe trauma she has suffered, prosecutors brought a
therapy dog into the courtroom to help calm her frayed
nerves and allow her to testify against her brutal
attackers.
The little girl never looked at her
assailants, but locked eyes with the gentle Golden
Retriever as he lay close to her, and described the
ordeal to the courtroom.
“He grabbed my neck and put a knife to my
throat,” she said.
She continued: “He told me to get in the
car, I was crying. He told me if I didn’t he’d kill me.”
She said that when the pair was finished
with her, they ordered her to put her clothes on and get
back into the car. They drove her to another area and
fled...
Sickeningly, one of the men,
Morales-Marin, testified that he thought the little girl
was a prostitute and that she went with them willingly.
He claimed that he did not realize she was only a child
until after he and his cohort had both raped her, when
he noticed her small backpack.
Both men face up to life in prison and
will be sentenced in January.
One of the rapists, Juan
Hernandez-Monzalvo, had actually been previously
deported to Mexico, but easily made his way back to
Florida. He has been arrested many times for driving
without a license.
Both Hernandez-Monzalvo and Morales-Marin
are suspected of committing other sexual assaults in the
area. The Orange County Sheriff’s Office say that DNA
evidence has linked Morales-Marin to a recent rape near
a local mall.
Dave Gibson
The
Examiner
Nov. 17, 2009
See also:
Cops: Orlando-area Rape Suspects
Could Have Many More Victims
The
Orlando Sentinel
Feb. 13, 2009
See also:
Two Arrested in Rape of
11-year-old
MyFoxOrlando.com
Feb. 11, 2009
New York State, USA
Illegal Alien Charged with Rape in
Endicott
Endicott police arrested and
charged an illegal alien Tuesday with several felonies
related to the rape of a 21-year old female.
Arnoldo Monroy-Gonzalez, 18... was charged with
first-degree rape, first-degree criminal sex act and
first degree unlawful imprisonment.
Endicott police said Monroy-Gonzalez, of Guatemala, was
accused of holding a female against her will for over
two hours and forcing her to engage in sex acts at knife
point. Police recovered the knife and other evidence
during a search of his apartment.
Monroy-Gonzalez was remanded to the Broome County Jail
without bail.
Police were assisted by U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement in Syracuse.
Press & Sun Bulletin
Nov. 24, 2009
Added:
Nov. 27, 2009
Washington State, USA
Girl Reportedly Slain to Keep Her
from Claiming Rape
Investigators say a 14-year-old
Sunnyside girl was killed after saying she would report
that she had been raped.
The 22-year-old Outlook man suspected of slashing her
throat and leaving her to bleed to death next to an
irrigation canal was ordered held on $500,000 bail at
his first court hearing in the case Wednesday afternoon.
Jesus Fabian Perales was arrested Tuesday on suspicion
of first-degree murder in the October 2008 death of
Francisca Hernandez-Ramirez.
The girl's body was discovered in February in the Yakima
River near Prosser.
She had been missing since Oct. 20, 2008, and was
identified in February through dental records. Her
family had reported her as a runaway shortly after she
disappeared.
Perales fled the Yakima Valley after Hernandez-Ramirez's
death, but authorities said they learned last week that
he had returned.
An arrest report by Yakima County sheriff's detectives
gave the following account:
Hernandez-Ramirez, the suspect and several others had
been drinking and playing cards at a home in Outlook.
One of the men at the party found Hernandez-Ramirez
passed out on the bathroom floor. After he helped her
up, she said she wanted to go home.
That man and the suspect then drove her toward
Sunnyside. Midway through the trip, she started
screaming that she had been raped by another male at the
party.
The men drove around the area while deciding what to do.
They decided to drop her off in an orchard, hoping that
she would forget what happened when she awoke.
The suspect told the other man, who was driving, that he
would deposit the girl, then return to the vehicle.
When he came back, the driver asked if she was all
right, and Perales said she was "good."
The autopsy found that her throat had been cut, severing
both carotid arteries.
The next day, Perales returned and told the driver he
needed to sell or destroy the car because it might
contain evidence of Hernandez-Ramirez's death.
He also threatened to kill the driver or his family if
he went to police...
Mark Morey
The Yakima Herald-Republic
Nov. 25, 2009
Added:
Nov. 27, 2009
Minnesota, USA
 |
|
Benjamin Delacruz Ajqui |
Illegal Alien Sentenced in
Minnesota for Raping 14-year-old Girl
A few days ago, after pleading guilty to first-degree
criminal sexual conduct, Benjamin Delacruz Ajqui was
sentenced to 12 years in prison for the rape of a
14-year-old girl. The attack took place this past
summer, amidst a pastoral setting in central Minnesota.
On the afternoon of July 28, 2009, the teenaged victim
was riding her bicycle along the Lake Wobegon Trail,
when she encountered Ajqui. The Mexican national, who
was also riding a bike, grabbed the girl and shoved her
down into a ditch, where he raped her.
Ajqui fled the scene and was later captured in a nearby
cornfield.
At the time, Stearns County Sheriff John Tanner told
reporters: "The suspect responsible for this, I'm sure
waited for this young girl to get into a secluded area
where he couldn't see anybody else on the trail system
and took advantage of that opportunity.” ...
Dave Gibson
The Examiner
Nov. 19,2009
Added:
Nov. 27, 2009
California, USA
Police Detectives Shocked at
Remorseless Suspects in Gang Rape of San Francisco-area
Girl, 15
The shocking gang rape of a
15-year-old San Francisco-area girl was awful enough.
But what has shaken even veteran cops is the complete
lack of remorse shown by at least some of the suspects
arrested in the case.
It’s "disgusting" and "the
worst thing I’ve heard of," Richmond Detective Ken
Greco, who has been on the force for 29 years, was
quoted in The San Francisco Chronicle.
The victim was found
semiconscious beneath a picnic table after being
brutalized by up to 10 suspects for about two hours.
"She was raped, beaten,
robbed and dehumanized by several suspects who were
obviously okay enough with it to behave that way in each
other’s presence," police Lt. Mark Gagan told the
Chronicle.
"What makes it even more
disturbing is the presence of others," Gagan said.
"People came by, saw what was happening and failed to
report it."
"This just gets worse and
worse the more you dig into it," Gagan told CNN. "It was
like a horror movie after looking at the evidence. I
can’t believe not one person felt compelled to help
her." ...
Manuel Ortega, 19, a former student at the school, was
arrested soon after he ran from the scene. He faces
charges of rape, robbery and kidnapping, and was held on
$800,000 bail...
Also arrested Tuesday night
were a 16-year-old San Pablo boy and 21-year-old
Salvador Rodriguez of Richmond. On Monday, police
arrested Manuel Ortega, 19, and a 15-year-old boy, a
student at Richmond High who knows the rape victim...
Adam Sommers
The New York Daily News
Oct. 28th 2009
Latin America, Mexico
|
 |
|
Reverend Steven Cass of the
Breaking Chains Ministry sits with teens
saved from the streets of Tijuana, Mexico. |
Training school for Missionaries
With the Heart to Help Children Who are Being Sexually
Exploited
We are going to convert the downtown center we have a 5
story building in the center of Acapulco's oldest
tourist zone into a training center for missionaries who
want to be trained to go out to all of Latin America to
work with these high risk children.
We were called to this massive problem and we believe
the Lord provided this building for this cause. The
program will be bi-cultural as all student groups will
be a equal mix of Latin American students co-laboring
with North American students. We will be teaching these
students how we work the red light zones in a
non-threatening manner. The classes will focus on how to
gain trust, provide the out and also how to build the
appropriate local relationships.
The school will run on a 90 day semester culminating
with the graduating class being sent out to a city in
Latin America to apply what they will have learned here
in Acapulco both academically as well as in real life
outreach.
The needs are great in this area
as Latin America has actually overtaken Asia as the
primary source of child exploitation [globally].
One
of the roles of this school will be to reach out to the
woman and children of the local community offering them
vocational training as well as English classes. Where we
excel as a ministry is gaining the trust of those who
come in. From these people we get information that is
otherwise unattainable. It is this information which
leads to many of the children we actually rescue from
the streets.
The
needs are as follows:
1. We need
approximately 50K to restore this facility and to
prepare it to be able to house these class groups of 20
students.
2. We need
missionaries with street level experience who are
willing to join our staff for training. We are looking
for 90 day commitments but will also have shorter term
opportunities for specialists
3. We need
teams who are willing to present this training to
churches both in the US and Canada but also to the
churches in Latin America.
4. We need
materials and vocational programs that are proven to
train the
1000's of single
mothers starving in this city
as well as English as a second language materials.
5. Most
importantly we need your prayers that this school will
come together in Gods will. It is a grand project and
something we don't feel ready for but at the same time
feel the Lord calling us to go now.
In Christ
Steven T Cass
Breaking Chains Ministry
Nov. 17, 2009
Mexico
|
 |
|
Three
mothers testified in April, 2009 in
Chile against the state of Mexico in
regard to their daughters' murders.
(From left
to right) Josefina Gonazalez,
United Nations representative Florenti
Melendez, Irma Monreal, and Benita
Monarrez.
Photo
by Maria Grusauskas - The Santiago Times |
Fallo de CoIDH, un Hito en
Lucha Contra Feminicidio
Documenta
violaciones de México a Convención Belém Do Pará
México, DF.- La
sentencia de la Corte Interamericana de Derechos
Humanos (CoIDH) –la cual no es pública aún– que
posiblemente condenará al Estado mexicano por el
feminicidio de tres mujeres (de ocho) encontradas
asesinadas en un campo algodonero en Ciudad Juárez,
cobra especial relevancia porque para emitirla se
analizó la Convención Interamericana para Prevenir,
Sancionar y Erradicar la Violencia contra las
Mujeres (Belem Do Pará)...
Lourdes Godínez Leal
CIMAC Noticias
News for Women
México DF
Nov. 20, 2009
See also:
State Held Responsible for
Three Juárez Killings
Mexico City - The
families of three young women murdered in Ciudad
Juárez, in the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua
on the border with the United States, had to wait
eight years for justice, which they finally obtained
through the inter-American system.
The Inter-American Court
of Human Rights, part of the Organization of
American States (OAS), found the Mexican state
guilty of denial of justice to Claudia González,
Esmeralda Herrera and Berenice Ramos, whose bodies
were found with five others in November 2001, and to
their relatives...
The trial against Mexico
opened April 27 [2009] in the Court's branch in
Santiago, Chile. The non-governmental National
Association of Democratic Lawyers (ANAD), the Latin
American and Caribbean Committee for the Defense of
Women's Rights (CLADEM), the Citizen Network for
Non-Violence and Human Dignity and the Centre for
Women's Integral Development (CEDIMAC) provided
legal support for the victims' relatives.
Eight bodies were found
in a cotton field across from a "maquiladora," a
factory assembling tax-free imported materials for
export, on the outskirts of Ciudad Juárez. Five of
them were still unidentified when the accusation was
presented, so the Commission decided to exclude them
from the petition...
Known as the "Juárez
femicides," at least 300 women were murdered between
1993 and 2003, and most of the perpetrators have
gone unpunished, according to human rights watchdog
Amnesty International. The disappearances and
killings of women are still continuing.
In 2003, the Mexican
National Human Rights Commission published a special
report on the cases of 263 murdered women and 4,587
who had disappeared since 1993. It accused state and
municipal authorities of serious omissions in the
investigations...
Emilio Godoy (IPS)
Nov. 20, 2009
Added:
Nov. 21, 2009
Texas,
USA
Neighbors: Park Where Girl Was
Assaulted Could Use More Light
More details were released
Wednesday about the sexual assault of girl at Dottie
Jordan Park in Central East Austin...
A 12-year-old girl told
police she was walking home in front of the park around
7 p.m. when a man pulled up next to her in a red
extended pickup truck. She says he tried to coax her
inside.
"She continued to walk away
from the man. She said the man then exited the truck,
pulled her into the park and sexually assaulted her,"
APD Corporal Scott Perry said.
The girl described her
attacker as Hispanic, 30 years of age, 5'8" tall and 150
pounds. She told police he wore a red shirt, jeans,
brown boots and black gloves.
"It's really sad that an
innocent child at 12 sexually assaulted. That's sad
especially 'cause there's a lot of children around
here," Moten said.
Children don't just come
here for the park. This is a route... [that] many use to
walk to and from area schools. An elementary school zone
ends where the park begins...
Noelle Newton
KVUE News
Oct. 28, 2009
The United States
Secretary Napolitano and ICE
Assistant Secretary Morton announce that the Secure
Communities Initiative identified more than 111,000
aliens charged with or convicted of crimes in its first
year
Washington, D.C. -
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet
Napolitano and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
(ICE) Assistant Secretary John Morton today announced
that ICE's Secure Communities initiative-a partnership
with local law enforcement agencies that uses biometrics
to identify and remove criminal aliens-identified more
than 111,000 aliens in local custody charged with or
convicted of crimes during its first year...
The results announced today
are the product of enhanced interoperability between
DHS' US-VISIT and the FBI's Criminal Justice Information
Services Division criminal biometrics program-technology
that streamlines information sharing to enhance public
safety...
Since its inception in
October 2008, Secure Communities has identified more
than 11,000 aliens charged or convicted with Level 1
crimes, such as murder, rape and kidnapping-1,900 of
which have already been removed from the United
States-and more than 100,000 aliens charged with or
convicted of Level 2 and 3 crimes, including burglary
and serious property crimes...
U.S. ICE
Nov.12, 2009
The United States
...Arrested
for Raping 8-year-old Boy
On Wednesday, police in
Brewster, New York arrested a 24-year-old illegal alien
for molesting an 8-year-old boy.
The abuse was discovered
during an October 30th medical exam by the boy’s
pediatrician. The little boy told his doctor that
Mendez-Depaz was responsible.
Nelson Mendez-Depaz has been
charged with first-degree sexual abuse, and is being
held in the Putnam County Jail without bail.
Immigrations and Customs Enforcement has also placed a
retainer on the suspect.
The following facts help
illustrate the growing epidemic of child molestation
being committed by illegal aliens:
- Deborah Schurman-Kauflin
Ph.D. of the Violent Crimes Institute reports that the
U.S. illegal alien population includes at least 240,000
sex offenders. Based on various studies, it is estimated
that they will commit 130,909 sex crimes annually.
- 63 percent of the sex
crimes committed by illegal aliens, were done so by
previously deported criminals...
Examiner.com
Nov. 14, 2009
The United States
Senators Press Holder on Rape Kits
Holder
Pledges His Dept Will Address Backlog
Following a
CBS News investigation on untested
rape evidence, Senators asked Attorney
General Eric Holder today if the Justice Department will
do more to ensure that untested evidence in rape cases
is processed and analyzed by crime labs.
Judiciary Committee Chairman
Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) said he was disturbed to
have recently learned that despite federal funding
“substantial backlogs remain.”
Holder responded, “Mr.
Chairman, I not only pledge that we should, we have to
work on this. For every crime that remains unsolved,
there is a rapist who is potentially still out there and
ready to strike again. The Justice Department looks
forward to working with this committee to come up with a
way in which we do away with that backlog.” ...
The Rape, Abuse and Incest
National Network (RAINN) told CBS News that in response
to the CBS story on rape kits online sessions with their
National Sexual Assault Online Hotline increased by 53%.
"Stories on topics such as
this have the potential to trigger difficult memories
for those who have been affected by sexual violence,
that's why it's critical that viewers are provided with
information on how to get help, and what to do if
they've been sexually assaulted," says Katherine Hull,
spokesperson for RAINN.
Laura Strickler
CBS News
Nov. 18, 2009
See also:
California, USA
|
 |
|
Lavinia Masters
at age 13 |
Raped at 13, Victim Fights to
Eliminate Rape Kit Backlog
...Lavinia Masters was raped
by a stranger in her Texas home when she was 13.
It was a hot July night in
1985, and the Texas sixth-grader had been sexually
assaulted by an unknown suspect...
DNA testing had not been
available when Masters was assaulted. But in 2005,
police said they discovered the DNA in her kit matched
DNA samples from a man who was already serving time in
prison for unrelated crimes, including sexual assault.
But the suspect could not be
prosecuted in Masters' case because the statute of
limitations had run out.
...Masters, now 38, decided
to let her name be known to shed light on the issue of
backlogged rape kits.
Government officials say
many police departments and crime labs across the
country are inadequately funded and overwhelmed, leaving
many rape kits untested. Rape victims' advocates say
leaving the kits untested suggests law enforcement
agencies aren't prioritizing rape cases.
In Los Angeles, California,
7,495 untested rape kits were in the police department's
system in October 2008, the department said. The rape
kits may have the critical DNA that could lead to the
arrest of offenders, exonerate those wrongly convicted
and end the agonizing uncertainty for rape victims...
The Los Angeles Police
Department drew criticism last year over its backlog. By
September, the LAPD reported the backlog had dropped to
2,937 due to an influx of federal grant money and the
efforts of its DNA Task Force. The tested rape kits
resulted in 405 suspect hits, according to law
enforcement officials...
Stephanie Chen
CNN
Oct. 15, 2009
The
United States
Liberan a 52 Niños en Acción
Contra Prostitución Infantil en EU
Washington. Al menos 52
niños fueron liberados en una acción contra la
prostitución infantil en Estados Unidos, en la cual
además fueron detenidas 690 personas, entre ellas 60
presuntos proxenetas, informó hoy el Buró Federal de
Investigaciones (FBI) en Washington.
La acción de tres días se
realizó en 36 ciudades y fue parte de una iniciativa que
desde 2003 combate la prostitución infantil y el tráfico
de niños en Estados Unidos.
"La prostitución infantil
sigue siendo un problema grave en nuestro país", afirmó
el subdirector del FBI Kevin Perkins, que aludió a la
alta cifra de niños rescatados. Agregó que desde el
comienzo de la iniciativa fueron rescatados unos 900
menores obligados a prostituirse. Además hubo 500
condenas.
DPA
Oct. 26, 2009
See also:
52 Children Rescued in Nationwide
Sex-trafficking Raids
Federal officials arrest
almost 700 people, including 60 suspected pimps, in a
three-day crackdown on child prostitution. The youngest
victim was 10, authorities say.
Reporting from Washington -
Federal officials rescued 52 children and arrested
nearly 700 people over the last three days in a
nationwide crackdown on child prostitution.
Almost 1,600 agents and
officers took part in the raids, which followed
investigations in 36 cities, according to the FBI, local
law enforcement agencies and the National Center for
Missing and Exploited Children. Included in the arrests
were 60 suspected pimps, according to the FBI and local
police officials.
Authorities
say the youngest victim was 10...
The sweep, dubbed Operation
Cross Country, is part of the Innocence Lost National
Initiative, started in 2003 to address child sex
trafficking in the U.S.
The initiative has rescued
nearly 900 children; led to the conviction of 510 pimps,
madams and their associates; and seized $3.1 million in
assets, according to the FBI.
"We're having an enormous
impact on this business," said Ernie Allen, president of
the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
Most of the recovered
children have been girls, who usually become victims of
traffickers around age 12, Allen said.
He estimated that 100,000
children are still involved in sex trafficking in the
U.S., adding that the problem is growing partly because
of the recession.
Joe Markman
The Los Angeles Times
The Associated Press
contributed to this report.
Oct. 27, 2009
California,
USA
|
 |
|
Miguel Angel
Herrera |
Rape Suspect Sought in Halloween
Acid Attack
Los Angeles - Police are
asking for the public's help in finding a man accused of
pouring battery acid on his girlfriend's face before
raping her on Halloween night.
Police say 30-year-old
Miguel Angel Herrera restrained and tortured his
girlfriend after the two got into a heated argument at
his apartment around 9:00 p.m.
Captain Art Miller says
Herrera told the woman he wanted to teach her a lesson.
Miller says he punched the
woman, stabbed her with a knife, whipped her with an
electrical cord, poured acid on her face and body and
tried to make her drink the acid.
Miller says Herrera raped
her before allowing her to leave.
The woman drove to her
family's house.
She was taken to the Newton
Division Police Station then to a local hospital where
she was treated and released...
Herrera is described as
Hispanic, with black hair, brown eyes and was last seen
driving a Nissan, Titan pick-up truck license plate
number 8-K-5-5-4-6-9.
It's believed the incident
was an isolated attack, however, police are trying to
find out if there were any additional victims.
Anyone with information is
asked to call Southwest Detectives at (213) 485-2585.
KTLA-TV, Los Angeles
Nov. 11, 2009
Texas, USA
San Antonio Blogger Has Had Enough
"Free South Park Mexican" Sentiment
A little over seven years
ago, we wrote about the South Park Mexican trial.
[Rapper South Park Mexican -
SPM], born Carlos Coy, had it all: money, his own record
label, a nightclub and, most importantly, the ear of a
generation. He was the voice of a new type of person:
the Southern and Southwestern Mexican-American who
acclimated to American life through black culture -
specifically hip-hop - instead of white. As Tejano music
and culture started to wither and die in the wake of the
murder of Selena, SPM stepped into the breach with a new
style and swagger.
As the '90s progressed,
young Texas Latinos stashed their hand-tooled leather
belts, ostrich-skin boots and Charro-style hats and
replaced them with, as commentator Rolando Rodriguez
recently put it, " 'south side fades,' fitted Astros
hats, oversized t-shirts, [and] gold grills in the mouth
spittin' Southern slang."
And then Coy's weakness - a
predilection for sex with underage girls - came to
light. In June of 2002, Coy was convicted of the
aggravated sexual assault of the nine-year-old daughter
of two family friends and sentenced to 45 years in
prison.
Many of SPM's friends were
outraged, and a measure of their scorn can be found in
the comments at the end of our trial coverage.
A sampling:
Ana Sanchez from Phoenix:
"How can an innocent man sit behind jails to rot without
having a proper trial. I think its a bunch of **** how
the prosecutors sent him to 45 years of prison without
studying the evidence. The lawyers did not bring up the
girls possible intentions of accusing him of rape. All
those lying b*** want is the money and publicity!! All I
can say is dat SPM can be doing so many things outta
prison and instead he is caged like an animal. FREE
SPM!!!!!!!!!!!"
And again and again,
variations of "FREE SOUTH PARK MEXICAN!!!!!", a cry you
can also hear in underground rap videos and see on
T-shirts and in videos to this day.
Enough,
writes Rolando Rodriguez, a native of Richmond, Texas,
now based in San Antonio:
"In their minds and for the
fans, all of this is a conspiracy by a bunch of "money
hungry ****" who wanted to cash in on his earnings and
fame. For the sake of the community I come from and for
the inspiration he brought to Hispanics in Houston and
elsewhere, I want to believe that, so bad.
"But I can't. I have an
eight-year old daughter and the thought of anything like
that happening to her doesn't allow me to support the
"Free SPM" movement, and that should be reason enough
for those who have children of their own and do follow
the "Free SPM" movement, not to anymore. I'd rather be
wrong about SPM's guilt and face my own community in
embarrassment, than be wrong about his innocence and
face my own daughter in shame." ...
"Today, we've got to find a
new hero," he says. "We need to find someone who's more
socially conscious, whose delivery is more positive. Why
not use that power for good?"
Houston Press - Houston
Music Blog
Nov. 18, 2009
Mexico
[Voices from some of the
good people working for change on the front lines of the
crisis in Mexico...
LL]
Rescues In the Works - We Need
Prayer Coverage
Breaking
Chains Ministry Update
My heart is aching lately as
I feel like while we are making major strides all around
us the world seems to be falling. I live in a part of
the world where lawlessness and murder are daily
occurrences...
There are 5 major rescues in
process...2 of them are here in Acapulco. One is a group
that is stealing children from the street, they use
methods which include getting the children addicted then
using them to deliver drugs, once they have them working
the girls are sent to deliver drugs to a home where they
are taken by force and moved to other parts of Mexico
and at times to the US or other countries to become sex
slaves. We have enough information now that we know how
it is happening but still lack the solution so please
pray with us that God will come through.
There is one girl who is in
my sights now who has been on the streets since she was
13..she is now 17 and sadly has a 3 month old baby. She
was put in my path during a recent outreach which was
considered a failure by the team that was with me. For
me it was a grand victory as we found Beranice even
though she refused to speak with us or even let us
minister to her baby. Yesterday I dropped off diapers
and baby food to her at the spot she lives on the street
in the middle of drug addicts. I just left the stuff and
walked away as I wanted her to see there was no agenda
beyond giving her and her baby help. God led me to this
and I believe it was enough that today when I go for
them she will receive at least my offer of a safe home.
Please pray for her and the baby and that the light will
shine bright enough to let her see through the dark to
the opportunity the Lord is giving her and her
daughter...
The last 2 cases involve
dangerous situations so I cannot share details...they
involve many children most of whom have yet to reach 16
and yet they are being prostituted. The clients are
mostly American men and praise God we have help with the
US govt. that will God willing not only get these men
but also get these children to safety...
In Christ
Steven T Cass
Breaking Chains Ministry
Nov. 17, 2009
Mexico
Arrestan en México a un
Estadounidense Acusado de Pornografía Infantil
Guerrero - Agentes federales
capturaron en el sureño estado mexicano de Guerrero a un
estadounidense acusado del delito de pornografía
infantil, en la modalidad de almacenamiento, informó hoy
la Procuraduría General de la República (PGR, Fiscalía).
La fuente señaló en un comunicado que se trata de John
Terrence McGovern, quien fue detenido ayer cuando
llegaba al aeropuerto de Zihuatanejo (Guerrero),
procedente de Los Ángeles, California...
Arrested in
Mexico to an American man accused of child pornography
Guerrero - The federal
Attorney General's Office (PGR) has announced that
federal agents in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero
have arrested an American accused of the crime of
possessing of child pornography.
John Terrence McGovern was
arrested yesterday as he arrived at the airport in
Zihuatanejo (Guerrero), from Los Angeles, California.
The investigation was headed
by the Special Unit for Research into Trafficking in
Minors, Undocumented Persons and Human Organs, in
cooperation with U.S. authorities.
According to investigators,
authorities searched McGovern's house in Michigan (USA),
and found information linking emails with the generation
and distribution of child pornography originating from
Zihuatanejo, Guerrero.
Police also searched
McGovern's home in Zihuatanejo and found eight compact
disks containing sexually explicit images where those
photographed appear to be under age 18.
McGovern is being held in a
prison in Acapulco, in Guerrero state.
EFE
Nov. 12, 2009
Maryland, USA
Police: Jogger Sexually Assaulted
on Trail
Takoma Park - Police are looking for a man who allegedly
sexually assaulted a woman while she was jogging.
Montgomery County Police say a woman was dragged into
the woods along the Sligo Creek Stream Valley Trail in
Takoma Park around 5 p.m. Thursday.
Once inside the woods, the suspect sexually assaulted
the woman.
Police say the suspect is a Hispanic man, age 25-35 and
about 5 feet, 7 inches to 5 feet, 9 inches with short
black hair. He was wearing a heavy long sleeve beige
shirt and baggy pants.
Police are asking anyone who may have been in the area
near the Carroll Avenue Bridge to call them at
240-773-TIPS (8477).
WTOP News
Nov. 20, 2009
California, USA
Police: Man Tries To Kidnap Girl
On Her Way To School
Bakersfield - On Thursday around 7:30 a.m., an 18 year
old female Bakersfield High School student reported that
as she was walking in the 300 block of California
Avenue, she was approached by a man who asked if she
needed a ride.
Police said the girl refused
the ride and walked away only to be contacted a few
blocks later by the same man who grabbed her arm and
told her to go with him. The girl pulled away from the
suspect who then grabbed her buttocks as she ran away,
police said.
The man is described as
Hispanic in his mid 20s. He is said to be between 5 feet
8 inches tall and 5 feet 10 inches tall with a thin
build. He has a bald or shaved head and was last seen
wearing a gray sweater with lettering on the front and
light blue jeans, police said.
Prior to the assault police
said the man was seen standing near a lowered maroon
1990's mini truck, possibly a Chevrolet, with
aftermarket rims.
Anyone with information
related to this offense is encouraged to call the
Bakersfield Police Department Investigations Division at
326-3846.
TurnTo23.com
Nov. 20, 2009
Washington State, USA
|
 |
|
Sketch of driver
of minivan |
Two Men Sought in Attempted
Abduction in Redmond
The Times' criminal justice
team looks behind the scenes and behind the headlines.
The Redmond Police
Department has released these sketches of two men
involved in the attempted abduction of a 14-year-old
girl on Wednesday afternoon.
The girl was standing on the
corner of Avondale Road and Northeast 90th Street when a
light blue van with two men pulled up alongside her. The
passenger said to the girl, "Come here" several times.
When the man opened his door
and attempted to grab her, the teen turned and ran in
the opposite direction as the van sped off. The girl
worked with authorities this afternoon to create
sketches of the passenger and driver.
The passenger is described
as a Hispanic male in his early 40s with a heavy build,
dark "tanned" skin tone, and black hair. He stands is
5-feet-6 to 5-feet-8 and has a pointed nose with a bump
in the bridge of his nose.
The driver is thought to be
a Hispanic male in his mid- to late-40s with a thick
build, "messy" black hair, double chin, wrinkles, and
dark "tanned" skin.
They were driving a light
blue mid-to-late 1990s minivan.
Anyone with information on
the men or their vehicle is asked to call Redmond
police at 425-556-2584.
The Seattle Times
Nov. 19, 2009
California,
USA
Police Looking for Suspected Child
Harasser
[San Diego] - East County
authorities were on alert Thursday for a man who
harassed a girl walking to school.
The girl told deputies she
was walking near Apple Street and Paraiso Avenue shortly
before 9 a.m. Wednesday when a man pulled over a
late-model dark blue minivan next to her and asked if
she wanted a ride to school, said San Diego County
sheriff’s Deputy W. Bunk.
“I’ve been watching you and
your sisters,” the man told the girl, according to Bunk.
When she asked him how he knew she had sisters, he
responded: “I’ve been watching you and seeing you around
here.”
He then asked for the girl’s
phone number; she said she didn’t have one, Bunk said.
The man then began to follow
the girl as she walked on, asking her again to accept a
ride, Bunk said.
The girl “became frightened
and ran to the 7-Eleven store located on Jamacha Road
and Grand Avenue, where she called her mother and waited
until deputies arrived,” Bunk said.
Authorities described the
man as Hispanic, around 40, about 6 feet, with a goatee
and short unkempt hair. His minivan had dents and
scratches.
San Diego News Network
Nov.19, 2009
Central America
Central America: Gender-based
Violence, the Hidden Face of Insecurity
Managua - Gender-based violence and sexual abuse are
serious public security problems in Central America, and
Nicaragua is no exception, according to reports by
United Nations agencies and women’s organizations.
The Central American Human Development Report 2009-2010,
released on Oct. 20 by the United Nations Development
Programme’s (UNDP) Regional Bureau for Latin America and
the Caribbean, says violence against women, adolescents
and children is the "hidden" and "most invisible face"
of public insecurity in the region.
According to the study, entitled "Opening Spaces for
Citizen Security and Human Development", two out of
three women murdered in Central America are killed for
gender-related reasons, a phenomenon that is known as
femicide.
Gender violence, however, remains largely concealed by
prevailing social attitudes that condone it and by the
victims’ reluctance to report abuse...
The women who pressed charges had suffered the worst
abuse, including sexual assault, bodily injuries,
mutilations and torture, Granera said. More
specifically, 4,129 were cases of domestic violence,
2,253 were cases of sexual assault, and 8,645 were cases
of physical and psychological harm, such as threats,
blackmail and verbal abuse.
"The rest of the victims kept quiet. This shows that
even though it is the leading public security problem
(in Nicaragua), it is the least reported crime, and,
therefore, the one with the greatest impunity," Granera
said.
The UNDP report, which assessed levels of public
insecurity in Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador,
Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama, reported that
Central America has become the
region with the highest levels of non-political violence
worldwide.
However, the report clarifies that while the countries
of Central America's so-called
"northern triangle" have homicide rates five to seven
times higher than the global average of nine per 100,000
people - 48 per 100,000 in Guatemala, 52 per 100,000 in
El Salvador and 58 per 100,000 in Honduras -
Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Panama to the south are
significantly safer, with murder rates of 11 per 100,000
population, 13 per 100,000 and 19 per 100,000,
respectively.
Women, adolescents and children, ethnic minorities and
groups with alternative sexual orientations are the main
victims of what the study refers to as the region’s
"phenomenon of 'invisible' (or rather 'invisibilized')
insecurities," whereby certain groups are "exposed to an
exceptional disparity between the risk of violent or
predatory crimes they face and the protection they
receive." ...
Bautista noted that the report presents at least six
atrocious forms of "invisible crimes" that plague
children in Central America: murder, forced
participation in criminal activities, police brutality,
domestic abuse, sexual abuse and assault, and forced
labor and prostitution...
In Nicaragua, one out of three women married or living
with a man has been subjected to physical violence,
including sexual abuse, at some point in her life. Half
the victims report that they first suffered abuse before
the age of 15.
"According to the United Nations Population Fund
(UNFPA), in 2008 alone there were 1,400 pregnant girls
under the age of 15. Most of these pregnancies were the
result of rape," Millón said, citing a study published
in Managua in June by the multilateral agency.
...Violence
against women - like violence against children or ethnic
minorities - "is almost totally excluded from the
official debate on public insecurity in the region,"
said Millón...
José Adán Silva
Inter Press Service
Nov. 16, 2009
California, USA
 |
|
Sketch of suspect |
Attempted Kidnapper Wanted In
Encino
Police
are looking for a man who tried to kidnap a teenage girl
as she walked in Encino.
Police Tuesday were
searching for a man who allegedly tried to kidnap a
13-year-old girl as she was walking in Encino.
The teen told investigators
with the Los Angeles Police Department that a man jumped
out of his parked vehicle and grabbed her at around 2:20
p.m. Nov. 11, near Magnolia Boulevard and Zelzah Avenue.
As he dragged the girl
toward his car, she screamed and managed to free herself
from his grasp and run away, according to authorities.
The suspect immediately ran back to his car and drove
off, authorities said.
The suspect was described as
a Hispanic man in his 30s or 40s. He is 5 feet 6 inches
tall and weighs about 200 pounds. He had a shaved head
and wore a white oversized T-shirt and dark baggy
shorts.
He was driving a white
four-door SUV with a broken right tail light, possibly a
1995-2005 GMC Yukon, with a license number that began
with "4Y."
Anyone with information
about the case was urged to call LAPD Detective Larry
Concepcion at (818) 374-7725, or the toll-free number
(877) LAPD 24-7.
CBS
Nov. 17, 2009
Texas, USA
Rowlett Police Warn of Possible
Child Enticement Threat
We recently got word from the RPD about a report of a
possible child enticement -- an adult trying to get a
child into his vehicle -- a few weeks aqo in the 9500
block of Waterview Parkway. A 10-year-old girl told
police an unknown Hispanic man approached her and told
her several times to get in his truck. He finally gave
up and drove away southbound on Liberty Grove Road
toward Merritt.
The man is 30-40 years of age with a mustache or small
beard, wearing a dark blue long-sleeve shirt "with
buttons." His truck is an older-model red two-door,
possible a Toyota, with an open bed, a dent in the right
rear passenger side, and chrome or silver rails on the
bottom of the truck.
Anyone with information about this is asked to call the
RPD's Investigations Division at 972-412-6220.
Richard Abshire
The Dallas Morning News
Nov. 18, 2009
Nevada, USA
 |
|
Sketch of suspect |
Police Seek Suspect in Attempted
Kidnapping
Las Vegas police are searching for a man
in connection with an attempted abduction of a
13-year-old girl who was walking to school Friday.
Lt. John Bradshaw said today that the
attempt happened in the morning as the girl was walking
to Mack Middle School.
She was walking near Vegas Valley Drive
and Mountain Vista Street when a Hispanic man driving a
black SUV made disparaging remarks to her and tried to
lure her into his vehicle, Bradshaw said.
The girl told school authorities about
the incident. She did not know the man.
Anyone who knows the man in the sketch or
who has knowledge of the incident is urged to call Las
Vegas police’s Sexual Assault Section at 828-3421 or
Crime Stoppers at 385-5555.
Las Vegas Review-Journal
Nov. 18, 2009
California, USA
Woman Pushing Stroller Attacked in
San Rafael
San Rafael police are
investigating an assault on a woman pushing a baby
stroller in the Canal area.
The attack occurred Monday on a private walking path
parallel to Playa del Rey, said San Rafael police Sgt.
Jim Correa. The woman told police a man approached her
from behind, covered her mouth and tried to pull her
backwards, but she was able to pull away.
The man then grabbed the
woman's breasts and buttocks before running away toward
Bellam Boulevard, Correa said. The infant in the
stroller was not harmed.
The suspect was described as
Hispanic, 20 to 25 years old, thin and about 6 feet tall
with short black hair. He was wearing a black sweater
and black pants and was carrying a cell phone...
Anyone with information can
call the San Rafael Police Department at 485-3000, or
place anonymous tips with Bay Area Crime Stoppers at
800-222-TIPS, a multilingual line.
Gary Klien
Marin Independent Journal
Nov. 18, 2009
Texas, USA
Elementary on Alert After Reported
Attack
The principal of a southeast
Houston elementary school warned parents about a
possible attempted abduction of a student on his way to
class Tuesday.
Cornelius Elementary
Principal Karen Jackson said a mustached Hispanic male
wearing a black jogging suit and blue shoes grabbed a
fourth-grade boy off a bike and tried to drag him up a
driveway Tuesday morning. The boy escaped, ran to campus
on the 7400 block of Westover and reported the attack,
and the suspect remains at large.
Jackson said the school will
remind students to run away in similar situations, and
said Houston Independent School District police will be
patrolling the area more heavily.
Houston Chronicle
Nov. 18, 2009
California, USA
Yuba City Police Warn of
Suspicious Activity Near Bus Stop
Yuba City police today
issued a warning about a man who apparently tried to
pick up two children who had just been let off a school
bus.
The incident occurred about
1:10 p.m. Tuesday at Whyler Road and Oji Way, said
police spokeswoman Shawna Pavey.
The bus driver saw a man
pull up in a white van or sport utility vehicle and talk
to the children, who "looked shocked," she said.
When the bus driver
investigated, the children — a boy and girl ages 10 and
12 — told her they did not know the man and that he had
asked them if they wanted a ride, Pavey said.
The man was described as a
Spanish-speaking Hispanic male adult. No further
description of the man or his vehicle was immediately
available.
Police commended the driver
for being alert and getting involved.
Appeal-Democrat
Nov. 18, 2009
New Jersey, USA
Newark Police Report Child
Abduction Attempt
Newark police are warning
residents that a man tried to lure an 11-year-old boy
into his van Tuesday afternoon.
The boy said the man drove
up to him in the area of Parkshore and Edgewater drives
at about 4:20 p.m. and asked him if he needed a ride,
police said.
When the boy declined, the
man got out of the van, opened the passenger door and
asked him to get in, police said. The boy ran away.
Officers searched the area
but were unable to locate the man or the vehicle.
The van is described as
being green with tinted windows and may have the letters
"NVE" on the license plate.
The driver is Hispanic,
about 5 feet 11 inches tall and is described as having a
"big stomach," police said. He was wearing a black
sweatshirt, blue denim pants with holes in the knees and
a blue wristband on his left wrist.
Anyone with information
about the incident is asked to call the Newark Police
Department at (510) 578-4237.
Bay City News
Nov. 04, 2009
Kansas, USA
DNA points to Rape Suspect
DNA evidence pointed the
finger Tuesday at a law school graduate as the man who
impregnated an underage girl he is charged with sexually
assaulting.
Ralf Moises Mondonedo, 41,
of Bedford, Texas, is charged with one count of rape or,
in the alternative, one count of aggravated incest with
a relative 16 to 17; six counts of aggravated indecent
liberties with a child 14 to 15; two counts of criminal
sodomy with a child 14 to 15; one count of attempted
criminal sodomy with a child 14 to 15; and one count of
battery, according to court records. All but the battery
are felonies...
Karol Elias, co-laboratory
director at the Paternity Testing Corp. in Columbia,
Mo., told jurors the probability that Mondonedo was the
father of the victim's child was 99.99 percent...
Mondonedo and the girl last
had sex around Thanksgiving Day in 2008, a time when she
felt like vomiting all of the time, the victim said. The
defendant told her that if they had sex, it would get
rid of the baby, the girl testified.
The attacks were reported to
Topeka police on Jan. 5, 2009, after the girl told her
mother, and an over-the-counter test confirmed she was
pregnant, the girl and her mother testified.
Mondonedo, who graduated
from the Washburn University School of Law in December
2003, had worked for the Kansas Attorney General's
Office for almost four years, starting in April 2004. He
worked in the consumer protection division, but not as a
lawyer or investigator, an office spokeswoman said soon
after he was charged.
Steve Fry
The Topeka
Capital-Journal
Nov. 18, 2009
North Carolina, USA
|
 |
|
Caught on tape.
A hotel surveillance camera
shows Shaniya Davis being carried into a
room by a man believed to be Mario Andrette
McNeill. |
Fayetteville mother's arrest sheds
light on human trafficking problem
Fayetteville - North Carolina is a prime destination for
human trafficking due to its many highways and
interstates, according Senator Ellie Kinnaird, D-Orange.
"It’s out there. It’s out there (and it's) scary,” she
said.
Kinnaird has sponsored anti-trafficking legislation
before the General Assembly. She said the weekend arrest
of a Fayetteville mother on human trafficking and felony
child abuse charges shows that the trafficking trade is
more prevalent than most people realize.
“I think people just have a view of what our American
life is, and it doesn't encompass really evil criminal
acts like this,” she said.
According to Fayetteville police, Antoinette Nicole
Davis, 25, offered daughter Shaniya for prostitution.
The 5-year-old's body was found Monday afternoon
southeast of Sanford, ending a weeklong search, police
said.
Kinnaird said if Shaniya was involved in a sex
trafficking plot, she is among other victims in the
state.
“Many of them are Asian women and children. Many of them
are Hispanic women and children. But as we saw to our
horror (possibly with Shaniya), they are now homegrown,
and may have been all along,” she said.
Paralegal Rachel Braver, with the statewide Task Force
(RIPPLE) to address Human Trafficking, said the state's
large immigrant population also plays a part in
attracting human traffickers. She said it is difficult
to know just how many victims are out there...
State lawmakers approved a bill in 2007 making human
trafficking a felony offense and offering state
assistance to victims...
WRAL
Nov. 16, 2009
See also:
Tragic end to Shaniya Davis search: Body of missing
5-year-old found
Sanford, North Carolina - A missing
5-year-old whose mother was accused of offering her for
sex was found dead off a heavily wooded road in a rural
area Monday, ending a weeklong search, police said.
Searchers found Shaniya Davis' body early
Monday afternoon about 100 feet off a wooded road
southeast of Sanford, in central North Carolina,
Fayetteville Police spokeswoman Theresa Chance said. She
declined to comment on a cause of death or the condition
of Shaniya's body.
"We've got a lot of people out at the
scene right now that are torn up," Chance said.
"Detectives have been running off adrenaline to find
this little girl and to bring her home alive. You have a
lot of people in shock right now."
Two people have been charged in her
disappearance, one of them her mother, Antoinette Davis,
25. Police charged Davis with human trafficking and
felony child abuse, saying Shaniya was offered for
prostitution. A first court appearance for Davis was
scheduled Monday afternoon, and police said she did not
yet have an attorney.
Authorities also charged Mario Andrette McNeill, 29,
with kidnapping after they said surveillance footage
from a Sanford hotel showed him carrying Shaniya there.
Authorities said McNeill admitted taking the girl,
though his attorney said he will plead not guilty...
The Associated Press
Nov. 16, 2009
Mexico
|
 |
|
Photo: ADNMundo |
Preocupación por el Crecimiento del “Turismo Sexual”
Infantil
La
Cámara de Diputados de México asegura que hay 20 mil
menores explotados.
Un
informe de la Cámara de Diputados aseguró que en México
20 mil menores de edad son explotados sexualmente.
Además, informó que las bandas de tratantes de personas
crecieron y que operan en 21 estados del país…
Legislators Express Concern About
the Growth in Child Sex Tourism in Mexico
A
report published by the federal Chamber of Deputies [the
lower house of Congress] declares that 20,000 minors are
being sexually exploited in Mexico. The report also
notes that human trafficking gangs are on the increase,
and are operating in 21 of Mexico’s [31] states.
According to a
U.S.
State Department
report
on human trafficking in 2009, Mexico had almost 20,000
children and adolescent victims of sexual exploitation,
especially in tourist and business areas.
The
Special Prosecutor for Crimes of Violence against Women
and Trafficking in Persons (FEVIMTRA), assigned to the
Attorney General's Office (PGR), reported that in 2008
it has started only 24 preliminary investigations into
trafficking cases.
Only
two of these cases were prosecuted. Among the victims
are Mexican women, as well as foreign women from El
Salvador, Korea, Argentina, China, Honduras, Peru and
Guatemala.
New
Alliance Party member Deputy Cora Alonso Pinedo, during
the introduction of her proposed amendments to Article 6
of the Law to Prevent and Punish Trafficking in Persons,
said that the original law had omitted the prosecution
of offenses where there was consent by the victim.
The
lawmaker explained that the current law states that if
the victim consented, no crime was committed, an
approach that conflicts with the provisions of
international instruments to which Mexico is has
subscribed.
Alonso
Pinedo said that positive change would be achieved if a
greater level of legal certainty was established in
these cases...
No
significant judgments or penalties against traffickers
have been reported during the past year, despite the
fact that 24 federal preliminary investigations had been
initiated.
Mexico, Country of Origin
According to the United Nations Fund for Children
[UNICEF], child sex tourism has been detected in 21 of
Mexico’s states.
"The
Coalition Against Trafficking in Women said that Mexico
is ranked fifth worldwide for these victims, and that at
least 250,000 children and teenagers are in the sex
trade.
Deputy Pinedo Cora Alonso stressed that child sex
tourism continues to grow in [the cities of] Acapulco,
Cancun, Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez.
ADNMundo.com
Oct. 26, 2009
Texas, USA
Hundreds in Dallas County Deported
Before Their Trials
Hundreds of defendants awaiting trial for violent crimes
in Dallas County have been deported by federal
immigration officials and then set free in their home
countries.
The practice goes back to at least 1991 and includes the
release of murder, kidnapping and child rape suspects.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials say
they're required to deport illegal immigrants quickly
but are now in talks with local agencies who are trying
to resolve the problem...
One survey of prosecutors shows that since 1991 in
Dallas County, nearly 1,000 illegal immigrants have not
stood trial after being accused of felonies. That number
also counts cases in which a wanted person fled before
being arrested, but does not include all Dallas County
cases – just ones that prosecutors judged to be of the
highest priority.
Those who post bail and agree to then be sent home are
taking advantage of the system to escape justice, said
Terri Moore, top assistant to District Attorney Craig
Watkins...
Officials from the DA's office, the Dallas County
Sheriff's Department and ICE met this week to discuss
the problem. No quick fixes were found, but they plan to
meet again, officials said...
The agency's policies led to the
deportation of one defendant, Jose Rico, who returned to
Mexico before he could stand trial in the rape of two
girls in separate incidents. DNA connected him to both
sexual assaults, court records show.
Both girls, ages 12 and 14, were bound with clear duct
tape. The attacker told one of the girls: "I have a gun.
I will kill you."
Rico, 34, posted his $125,000 bond and was deported in
August...
In Dallas County, judges this week took a step toward
decreasing the chances that someone in the country
illegally will post bond and be deported before trial.
Judges began setting the bail at $100,000 per charge if
a defendant is in the country illegally.
Under the new system, the bail for Rico, the child rape
suspect, probably would have been $200,000...
Jennifer Emily
Dallas News
Nov. 14, 2009
See also:
Dallas Police Identify Suspect in
2 Child Rapes
Dallas
police today released the identity of the man believed
to be responsible for raping two children in northeast
Dallas.
He was
identified as Jose Rico, 33, an illegal immigrant,
police said.
Rico was
being held in the Dallas County jail on charges of
aggravated sexual assault and burglary of a habitation.
He is also
under an immigration hold...
In both
assaults, the victims -- girls between 12 and 14 -- were
home alone when a man entered through an unlocked doors.
Both girls were bound before they were raped.
[During]
the
Oct. 16 assault the attacker... entered the home while
the girl and an 11-month-old baby were alone.
The man
confronted the girl as she was coming out of a bathroom,
pushed her back in and turned off the lights. He
threatened to hurt the baby if she screamed.
[During]
the
Jan. 30 attack... a man with a similar description bound
and raped a girl while she was home alone.
Dan X.
McGraw
The Dallas Morning News
March 26, 2009
Guatemala
Guatemala: Where Sexual
Exploitation of Minors Is Not a Crime
Guatemala City - Sexual
exploitation of minors is not classified as a crime in
Guatemala, where activists say child sex tourism is on
the rise, and the toughest penalty for "corruption of
minors" and "aggravated procuring" is a 400 dollar fine.
"I had problems at home, and
a girlfriend took me to work with her in a bar." That is
how Alba, at the age of 14, began to be sexually
exploited in a brothel on the outskirts of the
Guatemalan capital. Her mother was demanding that she
bring money home, and she saw it as a way to earn an
income.
For Alba's family, which is
poor, the 160 dollars a month that she brought home was
an important source of income.
Alba was the only underage
girl in the bar where she worked, which attracted a
relatively upscale clientele. She was also the most
popular, to the point that she was the target of envy on
the part of her fellow sex workers.
But hers is not an isolated
case. Although no precise figures are available, in 2002
it was estimated that 2,000 minors were sexually
exploited in Guatemala City alone, according to a report
by Casa Alianza (the Latin American branch of the New
York-based Covenant House, a child advocacy
organisation) and ECPAT (an international NGO working to
end child prostitution, child pornography and the
trafficking of children).
Of those 2,000 minors, 1,200
were from El Salvador, 500 from Honduras and 300 from
Guatemala itself. María Eugenia Villarreal, ECPAT
director for Latin America, says Central America is a
hub for trafficking in minors, child pornography and sex
tourism...
Villarreal told IPS that
"the problem continues to grow." She put the number of
victims as high as 15,000 nationwide, the majority of
them girls between the ages of 15 and 17, who are mainly
exploited in brothels in the capital and in border and
port areas.
The Guatemalan Congress is
studying a draft law that would classify sexual
exploitation as a crime, which would be punishable by
six to 12-year prison sentences. Guatemala is the only
country in Central America that has not yet updated its
laws in this area, and according to experts, the
political parties are in no hurry to do so.
"I do not see any hope that
Guatemala's penal code will be reformed in the short
term, because that would touch the interests of people
with political and economic clout," said Héctor
Dionisio, coordinator of Casa Alianza's legal programme
in Guatemala.
Doria Giusti, a United
Nations children's fund (UNICEF) representative in
Guatemala, told IPS that "children are not given high
priority in Congress, and the sexual exploitation of
minors is a taboo issue. Besides, most of the lawmakers
are men, so a sexist viewpoint prevails." ...
Alberto Mendoza
Inter Press Service (IPS)
Oct. 13, 2009
Florida, USA
 |
|
Juan Gomez Dominga |
Man Arrested for Human Trafficking
Bonita
Springs - A Bonita Springs man was arrested on human
trafficking charges Wednesday.
Juan
Gomez Dominga is accused of forcing a young girl to have
sex for money.
Deputies
say the girl went into labor with her second child
Wednesday and doctors at Health Park Hospital became
suspicious when she gave inconsistent stories about her
living situation.
Investigators learned that she had been illegally
smuggled into the United States three years ago and was
taken to work at a nursery in Homestead, Florida.
According to her statements, she was forced to have sex
with managers there to pay back the smuggling cost.
Domingo
knew the victim and her family and heard about her
situation. Deputies say he offered her marriage as a way
out.
Deputies
say once she moved to Bonita Springs to be with Domingo,
he would drop her off with different women who would in
turn deliver her to various brothels in Bonita.
Domingo's brother tells WINK news the victim is only 16
years old.
Domingo's bail has been set at 1 million dollars. He is
charged with human trafficking and forced labor.
Max
Turnier
WINK
News
Nov.
14, 2009
Honduras
 |
|
Women protest
the forced closing of the last two feminist
radio programs in Honduras by the de facto
government regime led by Roberto Micheletti.
The tape on their mouths and bodies read:
"Censured. We have no freedom."
Photo:
Feminist's International Radio Endeavor
(FIRE)
See also:
Daysi Flores
(right), host of "Time to Speak" on the air.
Women's radio programs
closed in latest assault
on civil liberties
Oct. 17, 2009 |
Report on Women's Human Rights
Violations Shows Systematic Attack on Women Under
Honduran Coup
On Nov. 2 representatives
from Honduran women's organizations presented a grim
panorama of violations of women's human rights by the de
facto regime led by Roberto Micheletti before the
Inter-American Human Rights Commission.
Their testimonies provided
documented proof that the coup regime and its security
forces have been responsible for rapes, beatings,
murders and harassment of Honduran women in the
resistance movement, and the dictatorial elimination of
gains in gender equity. These crimes against women have
been committed in the context of impunity for the
perpetrators...
Honduras has a strong and
organized feminist movement. This movement came
together, fortified by the integration of hundreds of
independent women, in the coalition Feminists in
Resistance following the coup. It has seen its members
beaten, its hard-fought gains rolled back, its
institutions taken over and its projects for gender
equity in public policy shattered over the past four
months, under an illegitimate and ultraconservative
regime. Despite the personal risk and the continuous
setbacks, it remains strong and united and committed to
restoring the rule of law necessary for peaceful
advances in women's rights...
• The most prevalent forms
of police and military violence against women involve
insults and beatings aimed at women’s vaginas, breasts,
hips and buttocks.
• Of the 240 cases
registered, 23 women were victims of groping and
beatings targeted to the breasts and crotch area as well
as sexual insults and threats of sexual violence.
• Of these 23 cases, 7
involve rapes that occurred in the cities of
Tegucigalpa, San Pedro Sula, Choloma, El Progreso and
Danli. These were all gang rapes carried out by police
and used explicitly to “punish” women for their
involvement in demonstrations. It is suspected that all
were pre-meditated as the police involved used condoms.
These rapes all occurred while the women victims were
apprehended after peaceful demonstrations or during
curfews. Of these 7 cases, only 1 woman has presented a
formal case to the authorities (the Inter-American
Commission for Human Rights). The other victims have
presented their testimonies to women’s human rights
organizations but have refused to register their cases
with the Honduran government Office of Human Rights or
Office of Women’s Rights.
• While it is certain these
are not the only cases, all the women who are victims
give three reasons why they do not register their
complaints with the authorities: 1) they fear that the
inevitable police investigation will involve the men who
perpetrated the crime; 2) since the coup, women do not
trust the judicial system to provide an effective
response; and 3) where cases have been reported, the
police have refused to register the complaint, as in the
case of a 17-year-old raped in the company of another
woman on September 22nd...
Americas Mexico Blog
Nov. 5, 2009
Mexico
 |
|
Gabriel García Márquez |
A Film Adaptation Runs Into
Trouble
A rights group filed a criminal complaint last week
against adapting Gabriel García Márquez's "Memories of
My Melancholy Whores" into a movie.
In the 2004 book, a 90-year-old falls in love with "an
adolescent virgin."
Mexico
City - When the Nobel Prize-winning Colombian author
Gabriel García Márquez penned his most recent novel,
"Memories of My Melancholy Whores," the wily old master
knew he was being provocative.
The
book begins with this line by an unnamed narrator: "The
year I turned 90, I wanted to give myself the gift of a
night of wild love with an adolescent virgin."
But
there is art and there is life. And so just as an
international cast and crew were about to begin filming
a movie adaptation of the 2004 novella, the plug was
pulled as the filmmakers and García Márquez were
denounced as aiding and abetting perverts.
A human
rights organization called the Regional Coalition
Against Trafficking in Women and Girls in Latin America
and the Caribbean [CATW-LAC] filed a criminal complaint
with the Mexican attorney general last week, asserting
that the filmmakers would be "responsible for acts that
could be constituted as the crime of condoning child
prostitution."
That is
a serious assertion in Mexico, which faces challenges to
control sex trafficking and child prostitution.
"We
don't want them to put García Márquez in jail,"
coalition director Teresa Ulloa told the Associated
Press. "What we want is for them not to film the movie."
...
"The
question of the week is why García Márquez agreed to
take to the screen 'Memories of My Melancholy Whores' at
a time when the world is fighting against the growing
commercial sexual exploitation of children and
adolescents. The novel has a limited audience, while the
film would end up on television and find a mass
audience," wrote Lydia Cacho in the newspaper El
Universal.
Cacho
is not just a columnist but an internationally
recognized crusader against the sexual abuse of women
and children. She investigated a ring of pedophiles
operating out of the coastal city of Cancun and then
wrote a book about it, "The Demons of Eden: the Power
Behind Child Pornography."
In the
García Márquez novel, the protagonist is a randy old
goat, a newspaper columnist as bitter as ancient
almonds, without family or friends, who paid money for
each of the 514 women he has slept with in his misspent
existence. Before the young virgin Delgadina is
presented to him, the brothel owner drugs the nervous
girl with salts of bromide and the herb valerian, which
puts her into a deep sleep. The narrator does not touch
her that night but lies beside her, falling in love for
the first time in his life...
Cacho
is not having any of it. "In his novel the Gabo says the
old man falls for Delgadina. This argument we heard from
hundreds of pedophiles seeking virgin girls between 13
and 14 years for rape and all those who paid for the
kidnapping, buying and selling of children," she said.
Guadalupe Loaeza, a public intellectual whose barbed wit
is often aimed at the rich and powerful, came to the aid
of García Márquez in the pages of the newspaper Reforma:
"As I remember, while reading your book it never entered
my mind that this was a defense of pedophilia," any more
than Vladimir Nabokov's "Lolita" was...
William Booth
The Washington Post
Oct. 17, 2009
See
also:
Gabriel García Márquez, the Nobel
Prize Winner in Literature for 1982
Mexico
Military Abuses Brought to
Inter-American Commission
Mexico City
- A
case of rights abuses allegedly committed by the Mexican
armed forces is coming up for a hearing at the
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), where
it joins a long list of accusations against the army in
this Latin American country.
As part
of the IACHR's 137th Period of Sessions, which began in
Washington Monday, a hearing will be held Thursday on
"Public Security and Human Rights in Tijuana, Mexico" at
which activists and victims' relatives will report human
rights violations allegedly committed by Mexican
soldiers.
"We
want to denounce what is happening as a result of the
public security model, which is generalized throughout
the country but has had specific consequences in certain
areas, like Tijuana," in the northwestern Mexican state
of Baja California, activist Humberto Guerrero with the
non-governmental Mexican Commission for the Defense and
Promotion of Human Rights (CMDPDH), one of the
plaintiffs in the case, told IPS.
The
complaint, one of five cases against Mexico being heard
Thursday, will air the case of a group of municipal
police in Baja California who were detained and tortured
by members of the military...
As an
autonomous organ of the Organization of American States
(OAS), the IACHR has a mandate under the OAS Charter and
the American Convention on Human Rights. Its principal
function is "promoting the observance and the defense of
human rights." ...
The
Mexican state faces several lawsuits at the
Inter-American Court of Human Rights.
Among
them is the case of community leader Rosendo Radilla,
kidnapped and disappeared in 1974 by soldiers in the
southwestern state of Guerrero;
the
rape of two indigenous women by troops in the same state
in 2002; and the 2001 murders of three women in Ciudad
Juárez on the border with the United
States, notorious as the scene of hundreds of femicides
(gender related murders) in recent decades.
The
hearings coincide with Attorney General Arturo Chávez's
visit to the United States this week to report on the
progress of the Mérida Initiative, an anti-drug plan
approved by the administration of former U.S. president
George W. Bush (2001-2009) which provides 1.4 billion
dollars in aid for Mexico and Central America.
This
year Mexico will receive 420 million dollars under the
Mérida Initiative.
Emilio Godoy
Inter Press Service (IPS)
Nov 4, 2009
Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania Law
School Held a Symposium on Sex Trafficking and Labor
Trafficking
The Penn Law Review symposium provided a forum for
scholars and practitioners on combating human
trafficking on Nov. 13th and 14th, 2009.
Feminist and anti-trafficking activist Gloria Steinem
kicked off the symposium with opening remarks and
participated in the Labor Trafficking panel discussion.
Media-Newswire.com
New Jersey
Authorities Close 3 Brothels in
Cumberland County
Bridgeton - County, federal and local law enforcement
collaborated in a month-long investigation this summer
that ended with the shutdown of two alleged brothels in
Bridgeton and one in Vineland.
Cumberland County Prosecutor Ronald J. Casella on Friday
said his worst fear is the operations involved human
trafficking; that is, women forced against their will to
be prostitutes.
Hispanic men were the clients. A total of seven females
from New York were recruited for the brothels, which
were set up in houses. The women were not indicted
because prostitution is only a disorderly conduct
offense...
One
prostitute was an underage girl believed to be 16; she
was not charged due to her age...
The
alleged operator of one brothel... in Bridgeton, is
registered sex crime offender Juan Marrero of Middlesex
County, authorities said.
Casella said the underage girl worked at Marrero's
brothel, which resulted in a second-degree charge of
promoting prostitution against him and three others. The
offense of second-degree promoting prostitution can
carry a five-year prison term.
The
other brothels were [also]... in Bridgeton. Daniel
Lopez-Araiza and his girlfriend, Selene Guevara,
operated them, Casella said...
Cirilo L. Sanchez, a Mexican national, had pleaded
guilty earlier to a fourth-degree charge of promoting
prostitution. He was given 90 days in the county jail
and will be deported.
Sanchez... is listed as a customer of Marrero...
A
four-count indictment was filed against Lopez-Araiza,
Guevera and two other men. It lists three charges of
promoting prostitution, ranging from third- to
fourth-degree offenses, and resisting arrest.
A
five-count indictment names Marrero and 16 other men. It
lists four counts of promoting prostitution, ranging
from second- to fourth-degree offense, including the use
of a girl under age 18.
Joseph P. Smith
The Daily Journal
Nov. 7, 2009
Connecticut
Hartford Police Hunt Suspect in
Reported Sex Assault on Minor
Hartford - Police said they are searching for a 60-year-old East
Hartford man who is suspected of sexually assaulting a
minor.
Detectives of the Hartford Police Department's Juvenile
Investigative Division have obtained an arrest warrant
charging Jorge Ortiz, also known as Jorge Astudillo,
with sexual assault in the first degree and risk of
injury to a minor...
Ortiz,
a Colombian national, is described as a Hispanic male
with black hair, medium complexion and brown eyes. He is
5-foot-6 and weighs 180 pounds.
Authorities believe he may be attempting to flee the
country. Ortiz is also the subject of a pending
deportation proceeding by Immigration and Customs
Enforcement.
Anyone
with information on the whereabouts of Jorge Ortiz is
asked to contact Detective Edward P. Foster at
860-757-4342 or call Hartford Crime Stoppers at
860-722-TIPS (8477).
The
Hartford Courant
Nov. 5, 2009
Florida
|
 |
|
David Sanchez |
Family Friend Arrested For Raping
Girl
Palm Bay - An illegal immigrant in Palm Bay faces multiple
counts of sexual battery after officers say he sexually
assaulted a 13-year-old girl. David Sanchez, 28,
investigators say, used a family friendship to rape the
child.
Sanchez
is an illegal immigrant from El Salvador who has already
been deported once for doing the same thing to another
child in Alabama. Investigators say he
returned to the U.S. in mid-2008 where he began having
an unlawful sexual relationship with a then,
On
Sunday detectives arrested Sanchez after the girl’s
father found him having sex with his daughter in her
bedroom.
“Prior
to entering the home, the suspect removed the hurricane
shutters from the girl’s bedroom window and she let him
in through the back door,” said Detective Greg
Guillette. “When dad was at the bedroom door, the
suspect jumped out the window and fled.”
After
the confrontation the girl told her father she’d been
having a sexual relationship with Sanchez since the
middle of last year when she had just turned 12 years
old.
“This
child was taken advantage of in the worst possible way,”
Guillette said. “She was coaxed into thinking it was
okay and the suspect continued to sexually abuse her
until he was finally caught.”
Sanchez
faces 15 counts of first-degree sexual battery on a
child. He is being held in the Brevard County Detention
Center without bond.
WFTV.com
Oct. 27, 2009
Massachusetts
Man Arraigned for Groping Women on
Orange Line
Somerville - An Everett man has been identified as the
person who groped at least four women on Boston subway
cars in the past six months, Suffolk County District
Attorney Daniel F. Conley said today.
Hugo
Hernandez, 22, was arraigned this morning in the Boston
Municipal Court on four counts of indecent assault and
battery. Assistant District Attorney Patrick Devlin
recommended that he be held on $25,000 cash bail; Judge
Michael Coyne, noting that Hernandez is the subject of
an immigration detainer, set bail at $2,000 on each
count, for a total of $8,000. Coyne further ordered
Hernandez to stay away from all MBTA stations and
conveyances if he posts bail and to check in weekly with
the Department of Probation.
“Young
or old, male or female, everyone has the right to ride
the subway without being grabbed or groped,” Conley
said. “If you see that behavior or if you’re subjected
to it, then don’t hesitate to contact Transit Police at
617-222-1212. Time and again, victim reports have taken
suspects off the streets and out of the subway.”
The
charges against Hernandez arise out of an extensive,
seven-month investigation by members of the MBTA Transit
Police that began when two separate adult women reported
that a man had groped them on an Orange Line train on
April 28.
Both
women were assaulted while traveling northbound on the
Orange Line during the late afternoon. One of them used
her cell phone camera to photograph the assailant; she
later provided that photo to responding Transit Police
officers.
Two
other women reported similar incidents, one on the
evening of Sept. 10 while traveling southbound on the
Red Line and the other on the evening of Oct. 19 while
traveling northbound on the Orange Line. All four
provided similar descriptions of the assailant.
Wicked Local Somerville
Nov. 06, 2009
Virginia
|
 |
|
Jose Orlando Romero-Feliciano |
Staunton Man Pleads Guilty to
Molesting 8-year-old Girl
STAUNTON — A Staunton man who was on the lam for several
months after being accused of molesting an 8-year-old
girl in February pleaded guilty Tuesday in circuit court
to a charge of forcible sodomy...
Staunton assistant prosecutor Anne Reed said Romero-Feliciano was
baby-sitting the child, ill at the time, when he decided
to play a game Reed said he learned in his native Puerto
Rico. He blindfolded the girl and had her taste fruit
and whipped cream in an attempt to identify the foods.
But while the girl was still blindfolded, Reed said
Romero-Feliciano orally sodomized the girl.
Reed
said Romero-Feliciano told police the molestation wasn't
planned. "It just hit him at that moment," she said.
Seminal
fluid found on the girl's clothing matched
Romero-Feliciano's DNA.
Romero-Feliciano fled Staunton after getting a ride from
a friend to Washington Dulles International Airport,
where he caught a flight to Seattle. Later, Reed said he
took a bus to Louisiana, where he was living under an
assumed name. The U.S. Marshals Service eventually
apprehended Romero-Feliciano in West Monroe, La.. He was
extradited to Virginia in July.
Reed
said based on Virginia's recommended sentencing
guidelines, Romero-Feliciano, who has a previous 2006
Staunton conviction for possession of a controlled
substance and then violated probation in that case,
faces anywhere from six to 20 1/2 years in prison. Reed
said she will ask for a "substantial" prison sentence...
Brad Zinn
NewsLeader.com
Nov. 4, 2009
California
Affidavit: Teen Says He Killed Boy
Found in Dryer
Mendota
- Authorities say in court documents that a California
teenager charged with murder confessed to killing a
4-year-old boy because the child was going to reveal the
teen molested him.
Fresno
County prosecutors have charged 14-year-old Raul Castro
as an adult. His arraignment hearing was postponed
Wednesday.
The
affidavit was filed by sheriff's Detective Sergio
Toscano to get an arrest warrant.
It says
Castro lured Alex Mercado into a bathroom and molested
him. When Alex threatened to tell his mother, Castro
said he held him under water in a bathtub until he died
then hid the body in a clothes dryer, the affidavit
states.
Castro
is scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday on charges
including murder and sodomy...
The Associated Press
Nov. 04, 2009
Tennessee
|
 |
|
Mauricio Alberto Morales |
Suspected Serial Rapist Charged
with Raping 10-year-old
Nashville - A suspected serial rapist in jail on charges
he raped two adult women in Nashville in separate cases
in 2008 and earlier this year has been indicted for
raping and fondling a 10-year-old girl.
A grand
jury in Davidson County on Friday indicted Mauricio
Alberto Morales on three counts of child rape, one count
of aggravated sexual battery and one count of aggravated
burglary after DNA evidence linked him to the girl's
bedroom.
Morales, a 32-year-old El Salvadoran national, is
believed to have entered the girl's room through a
window in the overnight hours in late April.
The
10-year-old reported she was sexually assaulted more
than once.
Morales
is charged with raping a 49-year-old woman at her home
on Madeline Drive in January and in June 2008, raping a
32-year-old woman and assaulting her four-year-old son
at their home on Antioch Pike.
Morales
was located at his sister's home in Texas on July 3 and
taken into custody for both incidents.
Police
said in 1998, Morales was convicted of aggravated
burglary and aggravated assault in Houston.
He was
behind bars for six years before being deported from the
United States in 2004.
WKRN
Nov. 02, 2009
The World, Latin America,
Venezuela
Kidnapping and Human Trafficking –
the Seamy Side of Globalization
Globalization has
created new opportunities for the transfer of people and
products across borders, and broadened the scope of many
businesses around the world. But it’s not all good news
of course: one of the seamier sides of growing
international commerce is the abduction and trafficking
of human beings.
The problem is getting
worse. Just over a year since the collapse of the global
market, countries around the world have reported a
significant increase in cases of the exploitation of
people for monetary gain. While cases of kidnapping and
ransom continue to be common in African and Latin
American countries, such as Nigeria and Venezuela, the
majority of organized human trafficking cases are
actually in Europe.
The United Nations
Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) announced that the
number of human trafficking cases has increased
dramatically since 2006. In Europe alone, its report
estimated there are 270,000 victims of human
trafficking, but authorities fear it is only a fraction
of unreported cases. The majority of these victims are
women who have been forced into prostitution.
Yet the most shocking
statistic released by the UN is an estimate that only
around one-in-100,000 traffickers are actually convicted
for human exploitation. “Perhaps police are not finding
the traffickers and victims because they are not looking
for them,” said the UNODC executive director Antonio
Maria Costa. “Lives should not be for sale or for rent
on a continent that prohibits slavery and forced labour,
and prides itself on upholding human dignity.”
Even though most human
trafficking cases are in Europe, human abduction and
kidnapping have also become a significant problem in
Latin America. Recently, Venezuela became the
continent’s latest hot spot for kidnappings, with
abduction rates higher than both Colombia and Mexico.
The country’s most recent surge of kidnappings have been
in Barinas, in west central Venezuela, where the
abduction rate is 7.2 people per 100,000 inhabitants.
According to the country’s interior ministry, the
national average is much lower - roughly two kidnappings
per 100,000 inhabitants...
Leah Germain
International News Services
Oct. 28, 2009
Added:
Nov. 03, 2009
LibertadLatina
Commentary
|
 |
|
Chuck Goolsby |
We say again...
Give
Latin America and Especially its
At-Risk Indigenous Peoples
a Seat at the Table in the Global Fight Against Gender
Oppression
The above article from International News Services,
Kidnapping and Human Trafficking – the Seamy Side of
Globalization, states that "most human trafficking
cases are in Europe."
From our perspective, the idea that more human
trafficking victims exist in Europe than in Latin
America and Asia does not ring true. Among the experts
trying to focus the spotlight of urgent action on the
crisis in Latin America is Teresa Ulloa, executive
director of the Latin American and Caribbean branch of
the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW). Ulloa
estimates that in Mexico alone, 500,000 victims of
trafficking exist, far beyond the
United Nations
Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) estimate that 270,000
victims exist in Europe. Ulloa also notes that Mexico
generates an estimated 17% of its gross domestic product
(DGP) from prostitution.
Repeatedly, the mainstream press, experts in human
trafficking and entities such as human trafficking task
forces around the United States fail to take notice of
the fact that Latin America is an unending source of sex
trafficking victims, given that regional efforts to
combat the problem are weak, unfunded and largely
unsupported by national governments, civil institutions
and the public.
Until the anti-trafficking movement wakes-up and
discovers that modern Latin American sexual slavery and
related forms of community-based sexual exploitation are
absolutely pervasive in the cities and farm fields in
every corner of the United States, victims will continue
to suffer, anti-trafficking funds will continue to be
misdirected, and multi-billion dollar trafficking mafias
will continue to laugh in the face of civilized society.
That is not an acceptable scenario for the present or
the future.
Although the anti-trafficking movement in western
nations is made-up of a dedicated cadre of mostly white
and Asian activists, Latin American, Indigenous
American, African and other populations, those who are
those who are most especially targeted for kidnapping,
rape and sexual and labor enslavement in the Americas,
deserve an equal place at the table in the
anti-trafficking movement.
Their interests must be represented. That representation
is not being effectively accomplished today.
Now why is that?
End impunity now!
- Chuck Goolsby
LibertadLatina
Nov. 03, 2009
See also:
Un millón de menores
latinoamericanos atrapados por redes de prostitución
Former federal special
prosecutor for violent crimes against women - Alicia
Elena Perez Duarte:
|
At
least one million children across Latin America
have been entrapped by child prostitution and
pornography networks.
[In
many cases in Mexico] these child victims are
offered to [wealthy] businessmen and
politicians. |
Full story (in English)
|
Guatemala
Guatemaltecas Son
Madres Desde los Diez Años
Incesto, violación
y falta de educación sexual, las causas
Las niñas
guatemal-tecas suelen tener hijos más
temprano de lo que mudan dientes. Desde los
diez años de edad ellas ya conocen una sala
de parto y saben lo que significa
recuperarse del dolor de una cesárea...
Guatemalan Girls
Become Mothers From the Age of Ten
Incest, Rape and a
Lack of Sex Education are the Causes
Guatemalan
girls have children sooner than they loose
all of their baby teeth. From the age of ten
they know what a delivery room is, and they
know what it means to recover from the pain
of a cesarean section.
Human
rights advocates see this social phenomenon
as a problem that occurs behind closed
doors, and involves abuse by the father, an
uncle or a grandfather within the home.
Prosecutors and the Public Ministry are
convinced that the statistics are an
indication of a high incidence of rape in
this nation.
Experts on
sex education perceive the problem as
resulting from poor knowledge about sex and
its consequences, which leads to a state of
social disorder.
In this
Central American country of 14 million
inhabitants, with a population of five
million children, girls menstruate between
the ages of 10 and 13. According to the
Maternal and Child Health Survey of 2006, 26
of 100 girls have their first sexual
experience between the ages of 13 and 15.
These teens
typically have their first relationship with
a friend, a boyfriend or a partner. But in
many cases their first experience is a
result of rape.
Two out of every ten
girls have been raped before finishing
elementary school. Frightened,
rejected and discriminated against by their
families, these girls accelerate their
sexual maturation by [an average of] 5
years. By the time they reach age 20,
according to the National Statistics
Institute, they often have two or three
children.
A study
conducted in 2006 by the Guttmacher
Institute, entitled "Early Childbearing: A
Continuing Challenge," in Guatemala there
are 114 births per thousand women, while in
the rest of the region, the figure is 80
births per thousand women...
However,
pregnancies in girls are not only related to
a lack of sex education. According to Ana
Gladys Ollas of the Prosecutors Office for
Human Rights for Women, pregnancies are also
the result of incest and emotional blackmail
exerted by gang members and gangs of
teenagers who sometimes rape girls
collectively.
The
official noted that the neighborhoods where
poor pregnant girls live are also places
where gangs abound. And the situation is
repeated in prisons.
Girls are brought to
prisons to be raped as a result of acts of
extortion committed against their families.
In this
country, the poorest are also the most
vulnerable citizens. With just a [pennies]
to survive, a [typical] household with five
children must also submit to the extortion
of gangs that require them to pay fees of
$50 to $ 1,000...
Spanking,
scolding, beating, burning, being locked in
a room and [extreme] prohibitions are the
forms of violent punishment that girls
suffer on a daily basis. Some 22 of every
100 Guatemalan girls have been beaten by
their parents before age 15. These forms of
violence drive young girls to seek affection
from teens and men who end-up deceiving
them.
Leonel
Dubon, who heads the Foundation for the
Girl, explains that families get rid of
the babies of young girls through the use of
clandestine abortions. According to Zenaida
Escobedo, in charge of gender affairs in the
judiciary, in Guatemala around 65,000
illegal abortions are performed each year.
Often,
after giving birth, these girls sell their
babies for up to $600 to clandestine human
trafficking operations...
Mayan women
are the poorest, and often have up to 10
sons and daughters, as within indigenous
culture, condom use among men and
contraceptive use by women is often frowned
upon.
Full English
Translation
CIMAC / SEMIlac
Oct. 30, 2009
LibertadLatina
Note:
The above
story states that the rate of childbirth in
Guatemala is 114 births per thousand women.
In the surrounding region the birth rate is
80 births per 1,000 women.
Here are
comparable rates for young women between the
ages of 15 and 19 in the United States:
-
All races and origins, 42
-
Asian/Pacific Islander, 17
-
White (including Hispanic), 38
-
American Indian/Alaska Native, 55
-
Black (including Hispanic), 65
-
Hispanic, 83
Source:
U.S. Centers for
Disease Control (CDC)
- 2006
LibertadLatina
Note:
The targeting of
ten-year-old girls by teen and adult Latino
gang members for rape with impunity
described in the above story occurs not only
in Guatemala, by across the Americas.
See also:
A Washington, DC- Latina Social Worker and
Community Center Director's Letter - 1999
EXCERPT
"Over the past two years, I have been
observing a systemic pattern of violence
committed against girls and young women in
our community. This violence involves the
sexual abuse/assault against girls as young
as 10 years old...
...There
have been incidents of date rape, gang rape,
abductions, drugging, threats with firearms,
etc. The incidents are just as you
described in
your
[Mr. Goolsby's letter on
the subject to the National Center for
Missing and Exploited Children]
letter
and have been met with the same level of
indifference and dismissal of legal (never
mind moral) responsibility on the part of
civil institutions -- the police
department, public schools, etc."
...While some do say this is culturally
accepted behavior, the reality is that many
families -- mothers and fathers alike -- are
enraged and wanting to pursue prosecution of
the perpetrators, but they find themselves
without recourse when the police won't
respond to them, when they fear risking
their personal safety, and/or when their
legal status (undocumented) prevents them
from believing they have rights or legal
protection in this country. Many girls and
young women's families are threatened and
harassed by the perpetrators when it becomes
apparent that the family is willing to press
charges for statutory rape/child sexual
abuse.
...The use of intimidation and violence to
control girls and their families results in
the following: 1) parents/guardians back off
from pressing charges, 2) relatives do not
inform the police or others of sightings of
girls and young women who have been
officially reported as "missing juveniles,"
and 3) the victims of sexual violence refuse
to participate as "willing witnesses" in the
prosecution/trial process.
When this sexual violence occurs within the
context of a seemingly permissive public
environment -- indifferent civil
institutions, forced silence and complicity
of families, gang culture, a society that
explicitly promotes the sexualization and
exploitation of children through media --
its criminal and immoral nature goes
unquestioned. My question is how and where
do we create the public environment that
allows us to voice our disapproval and to
hold the implicated adults accountable for
their negligent care of our children?
...We're also looking at the rate of
incidence among black and Asian girls and
young women to document that this is not
merely a culturally accepted behavior, but
rather a complex and systemic form of
violence carried out against poor girls and
young women of color.
- From a
letter by a Latina Social Worker
and girl's community center director working
with young Latina girls in Washington, DC's
largest Latino neighborhood.
LibertadLatina
Note:
Although this serious, truthful, accurate
and poignant letter was written in
1999, from my observations, the same
conditions exist today in 2009. Nothing has
changed for the better, while the code of
silence in the barrio and the extending
tentacles of criminal networks have made the
violence worse, resulting in a permissive
environment in the Washington, DC, Maryland
and Virginia region.
End impunity now!
- Chuck
Goolsby
LibertadLatina
Nov. 03, 2009 |
Texas, USA, Mexico,
Honduras
|
 |
|
The sex trafficking routes
used by the brutal enslavers described in
the several cases related in this story.
Map:
LibertadLatina |
Special Investigation: Inside the
Slave Trade
Mission, Texas - One woman was sold on an auction block.
Another became an involuntary servant in the land of the
free.
"Human slavery, we have it. It is in our neighborhood
but a lot of people don't want to see it," says Jaime
Ortiz, a coordinator for the South Texas Civil Rights
Project.
"Slavery is still here in our neighborhood in the Rio
Grande Valley."
During Channel 5 News' investigation into the slave
trade, we met a woman in Reynosa who had escaped her
life as a sex slave the night before we spoke to her.
We'll call her "Carlita."
The Honduran native says her captivity began the moment
she arrived by boat in Veracruz, Mexico. Her smuggler
sold her to a madam and the nightmare began.
"Carlita" tells us she ended up in a nearby brothel.
Forty-five days later, she was lined up again for
auction in Reynosa.
She was allegedly one of half a dozen women up for sale.
…A man bought her there for $1,000.
"Carlita" says she was held captive in a home for three
months…
Her captors would allegedly rape her and other slaves
repeatedly. "Carlita" tells us screaming and yelling
only made it worse. She learned to be quiet and turn the
pain inward.
Eventually, she asked a trusted friend for help and
escaped.
"Carlita" tells us her buyer wanted a child. But his
long-term plans were to add "Carlita" into "the
pipeline." It's the dangerous underground sex slave
trade in American cities.
It starts in Houston.
FBI Agent Maritza Conde-Vazquez says Latin women like
"Carlita" become cantineras.
They're forced to work in dirty saloons found among a
cluster of cantinas. The businesses cater to Central
Americans and are often owned by people from those
countries…
From Houston, slaves are taken to Atlanta and moved
up the East Coast. From Washington, D.C., the pipeline
continues to New York. Some women are eventually
trafficked west to San Francisco...
Conde-Vazquez says the only reason traffickers force
women into prostitution is to make money.
"It's a very profitable business, when you come to think
about it," explains the FBI agent. "It's a human being.
And it's basically a person who can provide you endless
services as long as that person is alive and in fair
condition. It's going to provide you services for the
life of that person."
The FBI tells us victims rarely come forward and
traffickers are difficult to catch...
As for "Carlita," she was headed home to Honduras.
There's no word where she is tonight.
Alex Trevino
KRGV.com
Oct. 29, 2009
Mexico, Latin America,
The United States
Expertos: En Auge, la Trata de
Personas en México
Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas - México se ha convertido en
uno de los países que tienen un alto índice de trata de
personas, ilícito sólo superado por el tráfico de
drogas, advirtieron expertos de Centro y Sudamérica que
participan en el primer Congreso internacional sobre
migración, trata de personas y derechos humanos, que se
inició hoy en esta entidad...
Experts: Human Trafficking is
Booming in Mexico
Tuxtla Gutierrez, Chiapas state -Mexico has become one
of the nations that have a high incidence of trafficking
in people, [with profits] second only to illegal drug
trafficking, warned Central and South American experts
participating in the first International Congress on
migration, human trafficking and human rights , which
began today in this city.
Ana Maria Martinez, coordinator of the Violence and
Trafficking Convention of Save the Children in
Nicaragua; Edith Zavala, coordinator of the technical
secretariat of the Regional Network of Civil
Organizations for Migration of Honduras, and Rodolfo
Casillas Ramirez, a researcher at the Latin American
Faculty of Social Sciences Mexico (FLACSO), all
indicated that in Chiapas state, human trafficking is on
the increase, and declared that this criminal activity
is tied to the smuggling of migrants seeking to reach
the United States.
Edith Zavala stated that the problem has its origins
[principally] in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala,
Nicaragua, Mexico and the Dominican Republic, and that
the principal destinations are the United States and
Argentina.
4
Million Victims
Zavala explained that the International Labor
Organization estimates that there are some 2.5 million
victims of trafficking, of which 77 percent are women
and 48 percent under 18, but non-governmental civil
organizations indicate that people subjected to this
form of slavery amount to more than 4 million people.
The revenue generated is estimated at about 42 billion,
500 million dollars…
Rodolfo Casillas, a researcher at FLACSO, said the
sexual and labor exploitation is present within the
international and domestic migration flows because
current migration policies have undesirable effects that
lead to the existence, development and operation of
networks of smugglers and human traffickers.
We have moved from simple smugglers to criminal networks
that make this a lucrative business, and organized crime
has discovered this source of profits, he concluded.
Angeles Mariscal
La Jornada
Oct. 21, 2009
United States, Mexico
|
 |
|
Gustavo de la Rosa Hickerson
|
Mexican Official Calls U.S.
Detention Unfair
Rights watchdog for Chihuahua is released by Customs and
Border Protection
Human-rights official: Mexican soldiers part of drug
violence
El
Paso, texas - Chihuahua human-rights investigator
Gustavo de la Rosa Hickerson feels betrayed and
disappointed.
One
day after being released by U.S. immigration
authorities, Hickerson said Thursday that he felt
betrayed by the Mexican government for not coming to his
aid after he was taken into custody against his will
last week.
And
he said he was disappointed in a system in the United
States that allows immigration officials to take someone
into custody for his or her own safety without legal
recourse.
"I
was in prison five days without a legal cause to process
me -- why? Because the only thing I did was to say I was
afraid to be in Juárez," Hickerson said at a news
conference.
On
Oct. 15, de la Rosa was crossing at the Paso del Norte
Bridge into El Paso when officers recognized him as a
human-rights activist and questioned him, said his
lawyer, Carlos Spector.
Spector said border agents asked de la Rosa whether he
was afraid to be in Mexico because of his work. de la
Rosa told the agents that he was afraid but that he did
not want asylum.
de
la Rosa said that at the moment of his detention, he
expressed fear to go back to Juárez because one of his
bodyguards was recently killed and he needed time to
find out why. He added that the slaying was not
connected in any way to him. de la Rosa receives
protection from Mexican authorities.
Early in October, de la Rosa said he could document 170
cases in which Mexican soldiers extorted, kidnapped,
tortured, beat or killed innocent people while deployed
in the state to limit the violence that has taken hold
in Chihuahua.
"I
want to know who ordered my detention for being afraid.
They didn't protect me; they detained me. Why did the
Mexican Consulate not intervene?" asked de la Rosa, a
former director of the Cereso prison in Juárez.
"The
Mexican Consulate was notified of my detention
immediately," he said.
"I
feel betrayed by the Mexican consul; he didn't even show
up to visit me once. This is not fair, not only because
of who I am, but for the rest of the Mexicans," de la
Rosa said.
But
Mexican Consul Roberto Rodríguez said that at the
beginning of de la Rosa's detention, he took immediate
action by sending a letter to Ana Hinojosa, director of
field operations for Customs and Border Protection,
asking her to inform the consulate about de la Rosa's
legal status. The letter was sent on Oct. 16, one day
after de la Rosa's detention...
Aileen B. Flores
The El Paso Times
Oct. 23, 2009
California, USA
Richmond - Four teens could appear in court as early as
Thursday after being charged in the alleged gang rape of
a 15-year-old girl outside her high school homecoming
dance in Northern California.
The four - ages 15, 16, 17 and 19 - were charged
Wednesday with rape and enhancements that they acted in
concert, which could make them eligible for life in
prison.
"These are people who played a significant role in the
incident," Richmond Police Lt. Mark Gagan said. "I'm
confident that more arrests will be made."
Besides rape, the 19-year-old, Manuel Ortega of
Richmond, was charged with robbery and assault causing
great bodily injury. It was unknown if he had an
attorney.
The other three face one count each of felony rape with
a foreign object. They were charged as adults because of
the severity of the crime, Gagan said. The 16-year-old
also faces robbery charges.
All four remained in custody Wednesday. A fifth suspect
arrested Tuesday, 21-year-old Salvador Rodriguez of
Richmond, also remained jailed but had not been charged.
The alleged gang rape and beating Saturday night at
Richmond High School have rattled the city of about
120,000 in the San Francisco Bay area.
Police believe as many as 10 people ranging in age from
15 to mid-20s attacked the girl for more than two hours
in a dimly lit area. As many as two dozen people
witnessed the rape without notifying police...
New York Daily News
Oct. 29, 2009
Nevada, USA
Police Arrest Mother of Girl, 15,
in Relationship with Soccer Coach
Daughter told police
her mother approved of relationship, but mother denies
it
Henderson Police have arrested the mother
of a 15-year-old girl who was in an ongoing sexual
relationship with a soccer coach.
The private soccer club coach,
40-year-old Gabriel G. Lopez of Las Vegas, was booked
Wednesday on 11 counts of statutory sexual seduction,
Henderson Police said.
A Henderson police officer spotted a
black Chevy Tahoe parked in a dark area of the Arroyo
Grande Sports Complex parking lot about 10:30 p.m.
Tuesday, police said. The officer found a man and a girl
inside the vehicle and the girl said she had had sexual
relations with Lopez since June.
Police said that the alleged sexual
relationship is believed to be consensual, the girl had
not reached the age of consent, which is 16 years under
state law.
After Lopez and the girl gave police
separate interviews to the police, the girl told police
that her mother approved of the relationship. "Love only
comes around once," she quoted her mother as saying.
The girl also told police that her mother
also said, "You can't deny love. You never know who it
will be," according to a police report.
The girl told police that her mother
suggested Lopez provide a second cell phone to the girl,
so her father would not find out about the relationship,
the report said.
According to the mother's interview with
police, she denied approving of her daughter's
relationship with Lopez, and told her to end the affair.
The mother is facing a felony charge of
child abuse, neglect or endangerment.
Mary Manning
The Nevada Sun
Oct 23, 2009
Texas, USA
|
 |
|
Francisco Manuel
Rodriguez |
Lubbock Man Sentenced for Rape of
11-Year-Old Girl
A Lubbock man will spend up to 35 years in prison for
the rape of his young neighbor.
137th District Judge Cecil Puryear sentenced Francisco
Manuel Rodriguez, 36, for the July 2008 rape of an
11-year-old girl.
Rodriguez pleaded guilty Monday. He had faced up to life
in prison.
His victim described the attack Tuesday morning in front
of families from both sides of the case.
Rodriguez walked into the girl’s house while she was
home alone and began rubbing her legs, the girl said.
It progressed to forced sex from there.
“I asked him what he was doing but he never answered
me,” the girl said. “I told him to stop, but he didn’t.”
She reported the assault shortly after. Police found
Rodriguez drinking beer on his couch not long after her
call.
Logan G. Carver
Avalanche Journal
Oct. 27, 2009
Connecticut, USA
Norwalk Man Guilty of Sexually
Abusing 11-Year-Old Girl
Stamford - A Norwalk man was found guilty
by a Stamford Superior Court jury of sexually molesting
his girlfriend's 11-year-old daughter and faces 60 years
in prison when sentenced in January.
After the guilty verdict came in at noon
Tuesday, Judge Richard Comerford increased Ricardo
Roman's bond to $250,000, and he was taken into custody.
Since his arrest on two counts of first-degree sexual
assault and risk of injury to a child in January 2008,
Roman had been freed on $20,000 bond.
The jury found Roman, 40, formerly of 3
Trinity Place, Norwalk, guilty on all three counts.
The verdict, after five hours of
deliberation Monday and Tuesday, followed three days of
testimony last week where the victim, now 18, and
Roman's daughter, 19, testified against him. The
victim's name is being withheld by The Advocate. Last
week, Roman took the stand and denied the allegations
and professed his innocence.
Supervisory Assistant State's Attorney
James Bernardi, the prosecutor, said jurors made the
right decision. "I think the jury carefully considered
the evidence and came to the right conclusion. The
victim in the case lives in South Carolina, and the
victim's advocate said she was extremely gratified and
emotionally overcome by the verdict," he said...
During the trial, the victim told the
jury that when she was 11 and 12, Roman forced her to
perform oral sex on him at the Trinity Place apartment
on more than one occasion.
The woman said that even though the
sexual abuse occurred much earlier, she decided to come
forward with her allegations against Roman in 2007 after
she gave birth to a boy -- not Roman's -- and wanted to
give him a "better life."
John Nickerson
Stamford Advocate
Oct. 27, 2009
Texas, USA
12-year-old Sexually
Assaulted
in Northeast Austin
Police are investigating the sexual
assault of a 12-year-old girl in NE Austin on Tuesday
evening.
Police responded to the call of a
sexual assault around 8:30p.m. at the Dottie Jordan
Recreation Center, located at 2803 Loyola Lane, that’s
near Manor Road and Northeast Drive.
Authorities tell KEYE TV a Hispanic
male enticed the girl into a vehicle where he sexually
assaulted her.
Police aren’t releasing any other
details but say they are investigating the incident...
John Bumgardner
WeAreAuston.com
Oct 27, 2009
Austin
California, USA
Maximum Sentence Handed Down in
Three Molestations
Oroville - A Gridley farmworker captured
in Mexico was sentenced Tuesday to the maximum term of
12 years in prison for molesting three minor girls.
Rodolfo Dolorez Campos had been facing a
potential life sentence on multiple charges of
continuous sexual abuse of minors, before pleading no
contest this summer to three of the molestation counts.
Prior to sentence being imposed Tuesday,
statements were read to Butte County Superior Court
Judge Thomas Kelly from the defendant's wife and the
three victims.
The spouse said Campos frequently beat
her when he drank, but that she did not immediately go
to the police because he was the sole breadwinner in the
family.
It was after he fled to Mexico that she
said she learned of the molestations involving the three
victims, ages 13 and 14.
In her written statement, Campos' wife
told the judge that before her husband was arrested last
year and extradited back to face trial, he had been
involved in smuggling illegal aliens across the border.
A victim witness advocate read prepared
statements from two of the molestation victims and a
third victim addressed the court herself Tuesday.
All three said they reviled Campos for
the humiliating and emotionally scarring crimes against
them and hoped he could receive more time behind bars
than 12 years.
The judge noted that was the maximum
sentence that could be imposed on the counts to which
the defendant had pleaded no contest.
The plea bargain had been offered in part
to avoid the victims having to relive the ordeal on the
witness stand, the judge noted.
Kelly agreed with deputy district attorney Lynda Hunt
the crimes were "particularly cruel and callous," the
teenage victims were vulnerable and Campos had taken
advantage of a position of trust...
|
Terry Vau Dell
ChicoER.com
Oct. 21, 2009 |
California, USA
|
 |
|
Victim is carried to waiting
helicopter ambulance |
15-year-Old Girl Beaten and
Gang-raped Outside of High School
Richmond, - Police
believe as many as a dozen people watched a 15-year-old
girl get beaten and gang-raped outside her high school
homecoming dance without reporting it.
Two suspects were in
custody Monday, but police said as many as five other
men attacked the girl over a two-hour period Friday
night outside Richmond High School.
"She was raped, beaten,
robbed and dehumanized by several suspects who were
obviously OK enough with it to behave that way in each
other's presence," Lt. Mark Gagan said. "What makes it
even more disturbing is the presence of others. People
came by, saw what was happening and failed to report
it."
The victim remained
hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries.
Manuel Ortega, 19, was
arrested at the scene and was being held on $800,000
bail for investigation of rape and robbery. He is not a
student at the school.
Richmond police Sgt.
David Harris said he did not know if Ortega had retained
an attorney.
A 15-year-old student
also was booked late Monday on one count of sexual
assault...
The Associated Press
Oct. 27, 2009
See also:
Friend of Gang Rape Victim Blasts
School Officials Over Safety
...Police investigating the rape have
arrested five people -- two adults and three minors, who
will be charged as adults, said Lt. Mark Gagan, the
Richmond police spokesman.
As many as 10 people were involved in the
assault in a dimly lighted back alley at the school,
police have said. Another 10 people watched, without
calling 911.
The victim was released from hospital
Wednesday.
[Article includes link
to video report]
Moni Basu
CNN
Oct. 29, 2009
Colombia
|
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|
Indigenous women
in Colombia
Photo:
Intermón Oxfam |
Sexual Violence as Weapon of War
Women's bodies are not spoils of war, say the women of
Colombia.
Bogota, - Sexual
violence is used as a weapon of war in Colombia by all
parties in the country’s longstanding armed conflict,
and its main victims are women and girls, states a
report recently released by Intermón Oxfam, backing up
claims made repeatedly by national and international
human rights groups.
At the launch of the
report, released simultaneously in Bogota and Madrid,
Paula San Pedro of Intermón Oxfam – the Spanish branch
of the relief and development organization Oxfam
International - stressed that all of the armed groups in
Colombia, including government security forces,
far-right paramilitary forces and leftist guerrilla
rebels, use sexual violence as a weapon of war, "to the
extent that it has become an integral part of the
conflict."
...Over four million
people have been forcibly displaced by the ongoing
conflict since 1995, according to figures from a number
of non-governmental organizations, including the
Consultancy on Human Rights and Displacement (CODHES).
This figure represents roughly 10 percent of the
country’s total population of 42 million.
The majority of the
displaced are peasant farmers and black or indigenous
Colombians forced off their land, often after witnessing
the killing of family members or rape of women from
their communities…
Machista culture trumps modern laws
The persistent struggle
waged by women eventually had an impact in the judicial
and legislative arenas, leading to reforms of existing
laws and the adoption of new ones. Their achievements
include the recognition of women as victims of sexual
violence and of their right to compensation.
Nevertheless, "these
legislative advances do not appear to have had any
effect in actual practice," Quintero told IPS.
This is because the
modernization of the country’s laws has done nothing to
change the underlying culture or to curb acts of
aggression against women "in a particularly machista and
patriarchal society," said San Pedro, the coordinator of
the Intermón Oxfam report, at its launch in Madrid.
The report estimates
that "between 60 and 70 percent of Colombian women have
suffered some form of sexual, physical, emotional or
political violence" - statistics that show that violence
against women is a phenomenon that goes beyond the
problem of the armed conflict.
Moreover, it is a
phenomenon that has actually worsened instead of
diminishing in recent years. Sources consulted by IPS
concurred that the "democratic security policy"
implemented by the right-wing government of President
Álvaro Uribe has resulted in a rise in violence against
women...
...The report to be
released by Sisma-Mujer in November maintains that the
perpetrators of this violence go unpunished in an
astounding 97 percent of cases...
"There is not a single
region in the country where women can feel safe," said
San Pedro, before going on to stress that
"Afro-Colombian and indigenous women are the most
vulnerable to sexual violence, given the triple
discrimination they suffer because of their gender,
ethnicity and poverty."
Helda Martínez
Inter press Service (IPS)
Oct. 21, 2009
Added:
Oct. 25, 2009
Nicaragua
|
 |
|
Photo:
Evelyn
Hockstein |
Rozievel, 15 and
pregnant, is a child prostitute. She gets into a
customer's car on a main street in downtown Managua,
Nicaragua. "I do this to help my mother, she is a
diabetic. My father left us when I was nine and we
have no other alternatives. My mother knows what I
do. I used to sell goods at the market but I didn't
make enough money. I sold cigarettes and water in
bags. I had a friend who also worked in the market
and she suggested I come with her."
"I was raped when I was 13 by two
guys. It was seven in the evening and I was on my
way home from the market when they raped me. These
two men used to live in the neighborhood where we
used to live. We had problems with these men. (After
the rape) I stayed home for a month without going
out. We needed money, so we borrowed some, but we
were in so much debt I decided to go to the
streets."
"Two months after I started
working she (mother) asked me how I got money, and I
told her. My mom is 60 and a diabetic, and she can't
work. She agreed there was no other alternative. I
finished third grade. I dropped out when we didn't
have any money. ..I go out every night and I make
100 -150 Cordoba's [$US 4.84 to $7.26]...
Evelyn Hockstein
The above photo and story are part of
a
photo collection on child and
youth prostitution by
Evelyn Hockstein.
Added:
Oct. 24, 2009
Guatemala, Mexico
|
 |
|
Jacqueline
Maria
Jirón Silva,
who was kidnapped at age 11 at a beach
in Nicaragua, is one of many thousands
of children who have been prostituted in
the city of Tapachula, Mexico.
The NGO
Save the Children has identified
southern Mexico as being the largest
zone for the commercial sexual
exploitation of children (CSEC) in the
entire world. The lawless city of
Tapachula is the epicenter of that
crisis of impunity. |
Buscan rescatar a niños
guatemaltecos explotados en Tapachula
El
Gobierno mexicano pondrá en marcha un programa de
sensibilización denominado “Los Hijos del Águila y el
Quetzal”, que tiene como objetivo rescatar a niños en
riesgo de calle, en su mayoría indígenas guatemaltecos,
que son víctimas de explotación laboral y de
prostitución en Tapachula, Chiapas…
Authorities Seek to Rescue Guatemalan Children Exploited
in Tapachula, Mexico
The
Mexican government will launch an awareness program
called "The Children of the Eagle and the Quetzal, which
aims to rescue street children at risk. Most of these
children are indigenous Guatemalans who become the
victims of labor exploitation and prostitution in
Tapachula, Chiapas.
Moises Sanchez Lopez, head of Human Rights for the city
government of Tapachula, explained that the first phase
of the project is to raise awareness with messages
through the media, including that adults not give money
to street children, because that money is destined for
the pockets of the criminal networks that exploit them.
Sanchez added that the second phase is to rescue the
street children. They have sought support from the
consulates of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, the
National Human Rights Commission, the United Nations
High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the
International Organization for Migration (IOM), the
National Migration Institute, the Special Prosecutor for
Attention to Crimes Against Migrants, and the Catholic
Church affiliated NGO Defenders of the Human Rights of
Migrants and Entrepreneurs.
Sanchez said the program seeks to prevent children from
becoming victims of sexual and labor exploitation.
In
Tapachula, dozens of children, mostly indigenous
Guatemalans, are forced to work in begging, selling
candy and cigarettes, shining shoes, cleaning
windshields and as clowns.
These children, who average 13 years-of-age, work as
many as 12 hours a day for negligible wages, and in some
cases, without pay. They are forced to live in
overcrowded conditions and are only given one meal a
day.
According to the complaint by Guatemala’s diplomats, the
majority of children living in villages on Mexico’s
border are sold by their parents to be exploited in
Mexico. Children with disabilities are sold for higher
prices, and are taken to the cities of Tuxtla Gutierrez,
Tapachula and Huixtla.
The
the program "The Sons of the Eagle and the Quetzal," has
been developed by the state government of Chiapas,
through its Secretary for Southern Border Development,
Secretaria de Desarrollo de la Frontera Sur, working
together with the DIF
[Integral
Family Development] social services agency.
Prensa Libre
Oct. 22, 2009
See also:
LibertadLatina
Special Section
The city of Tapachula,
near Mexico's border with Guatemala,
is one of the largest and most lawless child sex
trafficking markets in all of Latin America.
A 2007 study by the international
organization
ECPAT
[End Child Prostitution and Trafficking]...
revealed that over 21,000 Central Americans,
mostly children,
are prostituted in 1,552 bars and brothels in Tapachula.
According to one study of conditions in Tapachula, city
police efforts focus not on stopping rampant child
prostitution, but on making sure that child prostitutes
don't congregate around city schools and residential
neighborhoods.
Tapachula is also the center of the crisis of rape with
impunity that takes place along Mexico's border with
Guatemala. The International Organization for
Migration's office in Tapachula has estimated that 450
to 600 Central and South American migrant women per day
are raped along the Mexican side of the border, with no
Mexican law enforcement response to that mass gender
atrocity whatsoever.
The largely Mayan state of Chiapas, where Tapachula is
located, is the only non-federal government entity in
the Americas to have developed a working relationship
with the United Nations to obtain assistance in its
efforts to begin to combat exploitation in the region,
due to the urgency of their crisis of impunity.
- Chuck Goolsby
LibertadLatina
Oct. 24, 2009
 |
|
¡Feliz
Día Internacional de la Mujer!
Happy International Women's Day!
LibertadLatina
Nuestra
declaración de 2005 Día Internacional de
la Mujer es pertinente
hoy en día, y define bien la
emergencia hemesferica que
enfrentan las mujeres y en particular as
niñas de todas las Américas.
Pedimos a todas las personas de
conciencia que siguimos trabajando duro
para inform al público en general acerca
de esta crisis, y que aumentamos nuestra
presión popular sobre los funcion-arios
electos y otros encarga-dos de tomar
decisiones, que deben cambiar el statu
quo y responder con seriadad, por fin, a
las atrocidades
de violencia de género -en
masa- que afectan cada vez mas a las
mujeres y las niñas de las Américas.
¡Basta ya con la impunidad y la
violencia de genero!
LibertadLatina
Our 2005 statement
for International Women's Day
is relevant today, and accurately
defines the hemispheric emergency facing
women and especially girl children in
the Americas.
We ask that all people of conscience
work hard to continue informing the
general public about this crisis, and
that we all ramp-up the pressure
on elected officials and other decision
makers, who must change the status quo
and respond, finally, to the
increasingly severe mass gender
atrocities that are victimizing
women and girls across the Americas.
End Impunity and violence against women
now!
Chuck Goolsby
LibertadLatina
March 8, 2008 |
|
|
Read our special section
on the crisis in the city of Tapachula
Mexico
The city of Tapachula, near
Mexico's border with Guatemala,
is one of the largest and most lawless child sex
trafficking markets in all of Latin America.
Our new news section tracks
events related to this hell-on-earth, where over half of
the estimated 21,000 sex slaves and other sex workers
are underage, and where especially migrant women and
girls from Central and South America, who seek to
migrate to the United States, have their freedom taken
from them, to become a money-making commodity for
gangs of violent criminals.
A 2007 study by the international organization
ECPAT
[End Child Prostitution and Trafficking]...
revealed that over 21,000 Central Americans, mostly
children, are prostituted in 1,552 bars and brothels in
Tapachula.
- Chuck Goolsby
Libertad Latina |
|
Added June 15, 2008
Ending Global Slavery: Everyday Heroes
Leading the Way
Humanity United and Change-makers, a project of Ashoka
International, are conducting a global online competition
to identify innovative approaches to exposing, confronting and
ending modern-day human slavery.
View the over 200 entries from 45 nations
See especially:
Teresa Ulloa: Agarra la Onda
Chavo", Masculini-dad, Iniciación Sexual y Consumo de la
Prostitución ('Get It Together Young Man: Masculinity, Sexual
Initiation and Consumption of Prostitution).
Equidad Laboral Y La Mujer
Afro-Colombiana
(Labor
Equality and the Afro-Colombian Woman)
Alianza Por Tus
Derechos, Costa Rica:
Our borders: say no
to traffick-ing of persons, specially children
(APTD's
news feed is a major source of Spanish language news articles
translated and posted on
LibertadLatina).
Prevención de la migración
temprana y fortalecimiento de los lazos familiares en apoyo a
las Trabajadoras del Hogar en Ayacucho
(Preventing early migration and re-enforcing families)...
serving women in Quechua and Spanish
in largely Indigenous
Ayacucho, Peru.
LibertadLatina.org contributor Carla Conde
- Freuden-dorff, on her work assisting Dominican women
trafficked to Argentina
Contribute
your comments and questions about competition entries.
- Chuck Goolsby
LibertadLatina
June 15/21/22,
2008
See also:
Added June 15, 2008
The World
Entrepreneur for Society
Bill Drayton discusses the founding
of Ashoka... "Our job is not to give people fish, it's not to
teach them how to fish, it's to build new and better fishing
industries."
- Ashoka Foundation
See also:
Ashoka Peru |
|
Mexico
 |
|
A woman is paraded before
Johns on Mexico City's San Tomas Street, where kidnap
victims are forced into prostitu-tion and are 'trained'
(C) NY Times |
The Girls Next Door
The New York Times'
ground-breaking story on child and youth sex trafficking from
Mexico into the United States
[About Montser-rat, a former child
trafficking victim:]
Her cell of sex traffickers offered
three age ranges of sex partners -- toddler to age 4, 5 to 12
and teens -- as well as what she called a ''damage
group.'' ''In the damage group they can hit you or do
anything they wanted...''
- Peter Landesman
New York Times Magazine
January 25, 2004 |
Latin American
Trafficking News Summary
Hurricane Wilma - 2005
Earthquakes and hurricanes...
The impact of natural disasters on
women and children's human rights in the Americas
Video
Roundtable on Trafficking of Women and Children
in the Americas
- Organization of
American States
United States
More than 163,000 Hispanic children... are
reported missing and exploited in the United States every year.
- National Center for Missing & Exploited
Children (NCMEC)
March 22, 2006
Latin America
Beyond Machismo - A Cuban Case Study
"I am a recovering macho, a product of an
oppressive society, a society where gender, race and class domination do
not exist in isolated compart-ments, nor are they neatly relegated to
uniform categories of repression. They are created in the space where
they interact and conflict with each other, a space I will call
machismo."
- Cuban-American
theologian and ethicist
Dr. Miguel de la Torre
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"Familia" by Salvadoran
artist Zelie Lardé. (1901-1974)
|
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Who will protect them from impunity?
We
Must! |
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/ Welcome
The recent dropping of charges against accused Baltimore brothel operator Carlos Silot emphasizes the need for Maryland anti-trafficking advocates to understand clearly the dynamics of sexual slavery in Latin America, and especially Mexico. I have worked on these issues in Montgomery County, Maryland and greater Washington, DC for 25 years. My site:
LibertadLatina ,
recounts some of that history, and explores
related problems in Latin America.
Some 17% of Mexico's gross domestic product is generated from prostitution, according to Teresa Ulloa, executive director of the Coalition Against Trafficking and Women - Latin America and Caribbean (branch). CATW-LAC is a coalition of some 250 NGOs.
The history of long-standing child and youth sex trafficking crisis in San Diego, California highlights the problems that showed-up in the Carlos Silot case. Women and girls are trafficked from communities where the original traffickers know their families. They, and victims from across Latin America face a very real risk of having their families murdered if they speak-up and testify. In addition, corrupt law enforcement agents routinely participate in trafficking in Latin America. Victims who have been brought to the U.S. have no way of knowing whether they should trust our agents and institutions, so they don't.
More information about the "child rape camps" of San Diego County may be found here.
Chuck Goolsby
Nov. 22, 2009