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2011 DC Stop Modern Slavery Walk on the National Mall in Washington, DC was a great success, with over 1,600 people having registered for the event.

We were encouraged to see more Latina / Latino participation at this year's gathering.

Thanks to everyone to spoke with us at our information table!

Chuck Goolsby

Oct. 24, 2011

See also:

2011 DC Stop Human Slavery Walk and Rally

National Mall

Washington, DC

On Saturday, October 22, 2011, thousands will unite for the 2011 DC Stop Modern Slavery Walk on the National Mall to celebrate human rights, raise public awareness about human trafficking and raise funds for non-profits working to end the practice. The event includes a 5K walk around the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials, resource fair, children's area, live music and luminary speakers, including survivors of trafficking. Last year's walk attracted over 2,000 walkers and raised over $100,000.

At the 2010 march and rally, Libertad Latina provided the only info table among those of 30 or so NGOs to address the Latina, Afro-descendent & indigneous aspects of the human trafficking issue.

For 2011, we are glad to see that vetern Latin@ legal services NGO Ayuda, Inc. is a co-sponsor of this important event.

For those who can attend, We look forward to meeting you there!

Chuck Goolsby

LibertadLatina

See also:

Ayuda Seeks Supporters for Walk to Stop Modern Slavery

Ayuda, Inc., a provider of legal and social assistance for low–income immigrants in the Washington metropolitan area, is looking for supporters to participate in the 2011 DC Stop Modern Slavery Walk taking place on October 22 at the National Mall.

Ayuda will cosponsor the event, which will include a 5–kilometer walk, an anti–trafficking resource fair, guest speakers, and live music.

Human trafficking is an issue that Ayuda regularly addresses. Through legal and social services, the organization has helped hundreds of men, women, and children who have been enslaved in the United States.

Those wanting to participate can do so by either joining Team Ayuda on the walk (the team will have at least 25 walkers) or making a donation online. Ayuda will receive 80 percent of all funds raised.

For more information, contact Casey Tyler at casey @ayuda.com, or visit DC Stop Modern Slavery Walk.

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Title:

LibertadLatina Commentary

A Response to Bill Bennett's Assault on Black America

In regard to the September 28, 2005 statement by William Bennett, a leading conservative Republican commentator, strategist and former U.S. Secretary of Education, that:

"You could abort every Black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down…"

Publisher:

This document may be reproduced.

Publish Date:

2005-10-03

Join a Rally Against Bill Bennett

WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 5, 2005
8:00 a.m. (During Bennett's Show)

SALEM RADIO NETWORK

1901 North Moore Street, Arlington, VA

19th St. at Moore, Downtown Rosslyn, VA

See also:

LibertadLatina.org

Huracán Katrina Cobertura Especial.

Hurricane Katrina News, Commentary

Why race, social class and gender do indeed have an impact on victim services both in the case of Katrina, and in the case of official responses to the mass trafficking and exploitation of Latina and other women & children of color across the U.S. and the Americas.

New Orleans

Added Sep. 14 2005

Updated Sep. 17 '05

'Official' Violence Against Women, Children.

Suburban Gretna City and Jefferson Parrish police officers deliberately blocked public access to a bridge leading out of New Orleans, and fired live-ammo gun shots over the heads of over 800 hungry elderly, and women, children and men who sought aid in Hurricane Katrina's aftermath.

Later, Gretna City Police, standing on the City of New Orleans side of the bridge, pointed pistols at children, yelled epithets, stole the group's food and water, destroyed their shelters and forced them from the safety of the elevated highway.

LibertadLatina

This event, like so much that we report on, was a deeply immoral act of impunity and abomination!

End Impunity Now!

- Chuck Goolsby

Sep. 14-15, 2005

NOW joins in protests against racist comments by Bill Bennett on the public airwaves.

- National Organization for Women
October 5, 2005

LibertadLatina

Commentary

On September 28, 2005, leading Republican strategist William (Bill) Bennett declared on his national radio show that crime could be reduced by 'aborting all Black babies.'

Bennett's excuses are not fooling anyone. He has intentionally crossed the line of moral decency to commit violent 'psychological rape' and a deliberate incitement to racial violence in a very public way.

Proposing racist genocide is unacceptable in public dialog!

We insist on a FULL apology from Bennett and the Republican National Committee.

- Chuck Goolsby

LibertadLatina.org
Oct. 3-4, 2005

PDF File Version

MS Word Version

Bill Bennett's remarks about 'aborting Black babies.'

CNN:

Then there's former Secretary of Education Bill Bennett, who defended himself in the wake of a statement-bomb,

"If you wanted to reduce crime, you could -- if that were your sole purpose -- you could abort every Black baby in this country and your crime rate would go down. That would be an impossibly ridiculous and morally reprehensible thing to do, but your crime rate would go down,"

he said.

Democrats, including leaders Senator Harry Reid and Rep. Nancy Pelosi, were quick to condemn Mr. Bennett's comment. However, CNN caught up with Bennett on the street last night and he said,

"I was putting forward a hypothetical proposition. Put that forward. Examined it. And then said about it that it's morally reprehensible. To recommend abortion of an entire group of people in order to lower your crime rate is morally reprehensible. But this is what happens when you argue that the ends can justify the means,"

he told CNN. Asked if he owed people an apology, Bennett replied, "I don't think I do. I think people who misrepresented my view owe me an apology."

- CNN - The Situation Room - Sep. 30, 2005

Preface:

LibertadLatina.org brings the voices of people of color into the larger anti-sexual-exploitation and anti-human-trafficking movements. It has very interesting to see that the anti-trafficking movement has been able to develop a broad coalition of advocacy organizations, government agencies and individuals from across the political spectrum.

Within the U.S., conservatives have been a leading component of that movement.

The intensive energy that conservatives, especially those within the Republican Party, have devoted to building an effective anti-trafficking movement deserves praise, and we openly applaud those efforts.

While conflicts do exist between political factions in this movement, such as in regard to HIV/AIDS policy, in general, so-called 'liberals' and 'conservatives' have found common ground by uniting in the global effort to defeat organized crime networks and the 'demand' by unscrupulous men who see nothing wrong with kidnapping, raping and enslaving women and children for profit.

We need conservatives in this movement!

Although many conservatives in the U.S. support those goals, there are some 'social conservatives' who do not. There is a component of the conservative world that is white supremacist, and is also male supremacist. Their views are often referred to as the 'far-right-fringe' of the conservative movement. They do have political power.

In the context of the anti-sexual-exploitation movement, the impact of this far-right-fringe can be seen in verifiable statistics:

Approximately 1,000 African American women were raped in the Southern U.S. during Dr. Martin Luther King's spiritual and political campaign to end racial segregation.

From the 1980's to the 1990's, 200,000 Mayan indigenous women, children and men were murdered in Guatemala. They were non-combatants who were mass-murdered by the non-Mayan (white) elite mandated armed forces, who held centuries-long, race-based grudges against the Mayan population. They felt that, as the U.S. had wiped out most of its indigenous peoples in the 1800's, they too had a right to do the same. The administration of Ronald Reagan supported the Guatemalan military's murder campaign, which was the largest act of racial genocide in the modern history of the Americas. Even today, social conservatives within the anti-trafficking movement get extremely angry when the issue of Guatemala is raised. That is the case even though at least 50,000 Mayan women were murdered; almost every Mayan girl over the age of 7 was raped by pro-U.S. military forces, and the long-term aftermath of that genocide is a current crisis of femicide in 2005 Guatemala that sees over 400 women brutally tortured, raped and murdered each year.

As the wife of a former Guatemalan presidential guard agent related to me in a Washington, DC conversation about her husband's feeling about his work in the 1980's:

'I felt sorry for the women who I had to kidnap, torture, rape and murder.'

When public broadcasting planned to air a fair documentary describing the atrocities in Guatemala, Republican social conservative leader Newt Gingrich, then Speaker of the House, demanded that the program not be aired, and then settled for having conservative commentators (apologists) present an alternative view of events on a panel that would comment on the documentary. (How can you give an 'alternative view' that justifies the genocide of 200,000 Mayan people, including 50,000 women; and the rape of almost all Mayan women and girls?
On another occasion, Speaker Gingrich declared, at the start of Congressional hearings on the atrocities in Guatemala, that: 'Anyone who holds such hearings should be ashamed of themselves.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) reports currently that of American Indian (Indigenous) women who experience rape in the U.S., 82% of the victims had been assaulted by white men. (These are not men who identify with liberal ideas.)
DOJ also reports that Native American women face a rate of rape in the U.S. that is 3.5 times higher than the average rate of rape faced by other U.S. women.

In San Diego, California, the very heartland of the social conservative movement, some men who see nothing wrong with exploiting Mexican underage girls do so with impunity:

"When I came here, in one hour I counted that one little girl had been with 35 men, one after the other. She just lifted her skirt. It is just vaginal masturbation," notes [doctor] Patricia...

"The girls that I saw that time [in the fields] were very young, they were not over 14 years old. they had been sold a lot to 'los gringos' (American men)." "This area is full of red necks, they are far right-wing white American men to whom they sell the virginity of little girls" notes Patricia.

I was present many times when these gringos called Julio [Salazar] asking to be sent a "cherry girl" (a virgin).

It is here, in one of the five corners of San Diego, where the Salazar brothers have extended their network.

From:

The Sex Trafficking of Children in San Diego County, California

El Universal newspaper

January 9,10 and 11, 2003

Translated by Chuck Goolsby

The San Diego region's large complex of military bases also has one of the highest rates of reported rape in the U.S. military services.
The U.S. Equal Opportunities Commission and other investigatory agency have found a systematic pattern of denying Black voters their equal rights through a number of schemes to deny their access to voting polling places.
In August, 2005 the Republic National Committee publicly apologized to Black Americans for the past use of race-card tactics to rally white support for them.
During the 1996 Republic National Convention, presidential candidate General Colin Powell, in delivery of the keynote convention speech, asked those assembled to "cut racism out of the heart and soul of the Republican Party."

The past association of far-right-wing conservatives, within and outside of the Republican Party with both racial and race-based sexual exploitation cannot be denied. Conservatives themselves do not deny it.

A conservative activist in the anti-trafficking and anti-exploitation movements cannot, I assert, at the same time be in agreement with the racist and sexist principles represented in the above list of atrocities, abuses and crimes against women and people of color. You cannot be racist, and also an effective fighter against traffickers, because traffickers target and exploit largely women of color (and largely because conservative institutions fail to assist the victim community).

You do have to decide which side you are on.

We like to believe that our current president, George W. Bush, represents a 'compassionate conservatism' that focuses on fiscal conservatism, basic family values and defense against crime and terrorism. We hope that his goals are not conflated with those factions of the far-right-wing of the social conservative movement that feel that exploiting the lives and rights of children, women and men of color is an alright thing to do.

We hope that all of this is true.

Within the far-right-wing of the social conservative movement in the U.S. exist persons and organizations who are racist and sexist. They are very active politically, and often feel a need to be compensated by the George W. Bush administration for their support during his two presidential elections.

Within this context, the preposterous, inflammatory and racist remarks of Bill Bennett... that 'aborting all Black babies will reduce crime...' do not seem surprising. It is an attempt to roll-back progress towards racial harmony and equality, and to cater to the interests of far-right-wing ideologues who tremble every time they see a person of color successfully participating in American life. Bennett's actions also seem to be an effort by social conservatives to both help deflect attention from the Hurricane Katrina debacle, while at the same time rallying their troops under a flag of racial hatred.

Republicans, remember your roots!

GOP History
The Republican Party was born in the early 1850's by anti-slavery activists and individuals who believed that government should grant western lands to settlers free of charge.

From:

The web site of the Republic National Committee

Last, if social conservatives actually want to have an honest discussion about race and crime, let's have that discussion.

While discussing Black crime, we also need to discuss (to keep the dialog honest):

The fact that social conservatives have, since the end of the Civil War, and even more intensively since the era of the integration of the South, opposed equal rights and equal opportunities for African Americans, creating poverty.
The fact that Ronald Reagan's social conservative based administration openly decided not to enforce anti-discrimination laws, leading to the era of what was then called the 'angry white male revolution' in the workplace.
The fact that Clarence Thomas (the Black Supreme Court Justice who was head of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunities commission in the Reagan Administration)... intentionally allowed 70,000 discrimination complaints to be held up, forcing them to expire past the statutory limitation period [they were later re-instated]... when he was head of the U.S. EEOC.
The fact that 250 to 300 Black churches were burned down, especially in the South, in the aftermath of the Reagan legacy of openly tolerating racial discrimination in American public life. At the time, the press interviewed many officials who said the violence was not racially motivated. Really?
White American drivers have engaged in 12 instances of pointing their car at me in my affluent Maryland suburb, and then accelerating the car towards me. These acts of vehicular assault have occurred during the 17 years that followed the end of the Reagan Presidency. (Other Black Americans here have experienced the same treatment). In each of these instances, the drivers were guilty of criminal charges that would net them 25 years in prison, but of course they knew that they would not be caught. During the Summer of 2005, my sister and her daughter experienced such an episode, where a white woman driver stopped at a traffic light, my family members began crossing, and the driver intentionally accelerated towards them. As you may have seen from television police shows, a sworn officer facing such a situation is allowed to shoot the driver. No such remedy exists for the many Black Americans who face these racial assaults that threaten our lives.
The fact that during the 1990's, a local human relations commission official, responsible for the intake of Hispanic discrimination cases, discussed with me the then current state of racial attacks occurring everywhere in our Montgomery Maryland county (and of these cases are well-documented on LibertadLatina.org).
During that time, this Hispanic Case Intake Officer commented on a case I had recently documented. He told me that our local community had a long history of having poor white men come into Latino neighborhoods to "HUNT LATINOS" - a direct quote from this human rights expert. He meant that white men would come into the community seeking Latinos to beat up. This Latino official noted that it was only a matter of time before open race war broke out in our seemingly modern and affluent county. That too was an aftermath of a socially conservative, post-Reagan America.
The fact that most of the U.S.-based cases of the sexual exploitation of indigenous and Latina immigrant women described on LibertadLatina.org have occurred in a social, political and legal environment that has condoned disparate treatment of women of color and children of color victims, at least in part as an aftermath of the tolerance for discrimination set up as legitimate during the administration of social conservative President Ronald Reagan.
The fact that racially discriminatory drug laws (and Bill Bennett previously headed federal anti-drug efforts) provided mandatory stiff 5 year prison sentences to those possessing crack cocaine (popular in the Black community) while imposing no such mandatory sentences for powder cocaine (popular with white, middle-class Americans). As a result of this dynamic, the nation's prisons have been filled with Blacks and Latinos, most of whom (and especially women) were convicted for non-violent drug offenses.
The fact that overt discrimination exists today (especially in the South) and that has perpetuated severe poverty for Black Americans.
The fact that the standard profile of U.S. serial killers and pedophiles is that of white American men between 25 & 40. Therefore, if 'abortion' were a viable solution to crime (as Adolph Hitler's eugenics theories held)... all types of ugly racial scenarios come into play.
The fact that far-right-wing conservatives from the racist branch of that movement are constantly seeking to bring about social conditions that will lead to race war - a scenario that they envision will lead to a miraculous (in their perverted minds) extermination of Blacks, Latinos, Asians and other non-whites, leaving America a mono-racial so-called paradise. (See any white supremacist web site in regard to their openly racist views about this subject.)

We as an American society WILL NOT go back in time, to placate the wistful desires of a small gang of racist thugs, leading to a roll-back in civil rights and gender rights gains.

We WILL defend the right of all American children, women and men to live in freedom, defended by law and government from the violation of their right to live free from harassment and discrimination in schools, workplaces and all public spaces.

For the decent conservatives and Republicans, and their affiliated non-profit advocacy partners in the anti-trafficking movement such as the Salvation Army, you are going to have to decide which side you are on, and, if you are a moral person, denounce Bill Bennett's grotesque, indirect call for racial genocide.

An open call to genocide is unacceptable behavior in a civilized society. Bill Bennett's premeditated inflammatory remarks, as a leading spokes-person for the social conservative movement, have deeply offended every person of color in the United States.

Mr. President, Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman and Republican Congressional leaders, denounce Bill Bennett's remarks today (and in stronger, less ambiguous ways than the statements you have made to date)!

The whole world is watching this issue!

And Bill Bennett - Apologize!

A response to Bill Bennett's assault on Black America

Responding to an Outrage!

What Motivated Bennett’s Comments?

Bill Bennett's comments are neither trivial nor off-the-cuff. They were deliberate, and their destructive impact was planned and anticipated by social conservatives long before his horrible declarations about ‘aborting all black babies’ were uttered in public.

During a period in which the racist aspects of social conservatism are taking a bashing in the aftermath of the Hurricane Katrina disaster crisis, Bill Bennett is deliberately firing back against that bashing. Bill Bennett is an extremely intelligent man and is a leading, veteran strategist in the social conservative movement. There is no doubt in my mind that his comments were deliberately meant to be inflammatory to once again ‘raise the flag’ of race-baiting politics to: 1) rally social conservatives; 2) deflect focus from Katrina.

Hurricane Katrina and Racist Remarks: Comparisons to Past Acts of ‘Domestic Terrorism.’

Bill Bennett's remarks constitute an act of incitement to racist domestic terrorism, similar to yelling 'fire' in a crowded movie theater. In this case, the only victims at risk of 'getting burned' are non-white Americans.

Both the act of domestic terrorism that was the April 19, 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, and the Hurricane Katrina FEMA disaster management debacle showed racist far-right-wing conservatism in the worst possible light.

In both cases, racists in my racially integrated community and around the country had to hold their heads low, as they faced depression and a lack of visible public support from the public, national leaders and the mass media for their immoral acts.

The Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 forced such racists to suppress their true intentions [of promoting racial division in the U.S.] for a decade. That act of domestic terrorism was too horrible for America to fathom, and its impact destroyed adults and little children in daycare... of all races (as did 9-11). U.S. FEMA and the rest of the federal government responded to the Oklahoma City and September 11, 2001 terror catastrophes with speed and concern. Why did Hurricane Katrina victims not receive equal treatment?

Hurricane Katrina, Black America and Federal Responses

The Hurricane Katrina crisis affected Black Americans disproportionately, at least in New Orleans. The reaction of FEMA and other federal agencies was obviously not swift.

Reasonable people can conclude that race was a factor in that ‘slower’ response to a disaster that was greater than Oklahoma City and (perhaps the 9-11-2001 attacks). Certainly, watching 60,000 Black U.S. citizens starve for 4 to 5 days live on CNN while nothing was done by FEMA to feed or rescue them was… an unspeakable abomination.

In the wake of the stinging public criticism of the President Bush’s policies of gutting FEMA; cutting New Orleans levee reinforcement funding for years; and FEMA's sitting around during the Katrina disaster while thousands suffered and died in New Orleans (not to mention FEMA’s prohibiting the Red Cross and volunteer doctors from assisting), some far-right social conservatives apparently see a window of opportunity to exploit these conditions, justify federal inaction in New Orleans and earn points with their racist constituents.

Bill Bennett’s openly racist remark is but the latest round in efforts to re-kindle the ‘racist wing’ of the social conservative movement.

By making his outrageous and blatantly racist declaration about 'aborting all Black babies' in the immediate aftermath of the Katrina crisis, Bill Bennett is trying to justify and legitimize the federal government’s decision to not feed, protect and rescue the 100,000 people trapped in New Orleans after the flood.

The federal government’s role in handling the Katrina disaster exposes ugly truths in America. As CNN news anchor Soledad O'Brien stated while interviewing (then) FEMA director Michael D. Brown: 'After the Tsunami the U.S. airlifted food aid to the people of Banda Aceh [Indonesia] within two days. Why, 4 days after Katrina, can't you airlift food to the [starving] American people in New Orleans [30,000 Americans in the convention center and 30,000 Americans in the Superdome]?’

FEMA director Michael Brown responded by lying through his teeth and stating on national television that FEMA had provided 150,000 meals to the people in the New Orleans Convention Center and elsewhere at the time of the interview.

That was a direct lie on Michael Brown’s part. Those people were, at the time, starving and dying!

Infants and elderly were dying from starvation and dehydration. CNN could drive to the scene, but the Red Cross (not allowed to deploy by FEMA) and the queued trucks of food and water could not find there way into New Orleans until 4 to 5 days after the hurricane. The New Orleans Times Picayune newspaper’s editorial made this point clearly in the days after the arrival of food and water at the Convention Center (see below).

A CNN news anchor commented at the time in a way that dismissed the Times Picayune editorial as a heated expression of [the anchor’s tone of voice implied ‘unjustified’] anger in the immediate aftermath of the Katrina disaster’s destruction of New Orleans. Shame on CNN’s anchor for saying that! …Unjustified anger? Based on what? Republican talking points maybe, but not the facts.

From an African-American perspective, it is clear as a bell that Michael Brown saw the masses of Black faces starving, shrugged his shoulders, and, together with a vacationing George W. Bush said: So what! - We are no stranger to that racist attitude in America.

That scenario is, I believe, how most Americans view the Katrina crisis (as Bush’s dip in the polls show). Only the mass media refuses to address the topic of racism in federal crisis response in such a direct and honest way.

The Impact of the Katrina Debacle on Social Conservative Morale

In the Washington, DC region, I saw the reaction to the criticism of the handling of Katrina disaster relief express itself via the previously mentioned sullenness among racists, and also in the form of public increased public hostility towards African Americans. As a personal note, during a visit to Reston, Virginia several days into the controversy, I was subjected to hostile interactions in public places, and a driver almost ran my car off the road.

Bill Bennett's remarks are intended to pull out the old 'race card' and use it in politics again. The Republic Party higher-ups have just recently apologized for past use of the 'race card' (race-baiting) used against African Americans.

Deflecting Culpability for Katrina from the George W. Bush Administration to Black Leaders

During recent days, CNN and other media have downplayed the role of the Bush administration's cronyism in gutting FEMA's disaster response capability.

This his been done largely by making the supposed defects in the leadership capabilities of Black public officials, and the Democratic Louisiana governor, a bigger focus of news coverage than the missteps of FEMA and the George W. Bush administration.

Among the Black public officials targeted for critical review by CNN, for example, is New Orleans Police Superintendent Eddie Compass (who is Black). In an interview with Republican Louisiana Senator David Vitter, CNN news anchor Miles O'Brien called the Chief's behavior and statements “bizarre” and “erratic.” Did Miles O’Brien have to walk in Commissioner Compass’ shoes? No!

Louisiana Republican Senator David Vitter responded [to O'Brien]... 'I wouldn't read too much in to Compass' resignation... he has been to hell and back [during the Katrina crisis].'

Senator Vitter also stated that the focus should be on Michael Brown of FEMA, and that Brown criticizing Mayor Ray Nagin (who is Black) and Governor Blanco… “is like the president of Enron criticizing another corporation’s ethics.”

Other easy targets have been New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin and democratic Louisiana governor Blanco. They have generally received a more intensive criticism in the mass media than the Bush administration has received. CNN and others seem to have amnesia when they trash Nagin’s performance. Do we not recall that only Nagin’s screaming on the phone that the governor and the fed’s needed to “get up off you’re as*es and respond to the biggest disaster America has ever had”… got the U.S. military’s C5 heavy air transports and the heavy helicopters and military field hospitals into the air and flying frantically towards New Orleans? Bush, Brown and even Blanco didn’t make that happen, Nagin [and General Honore] did!

The National Guard escorted visit by Rep. William Jefferson, to visit his flooded New Orleans home after a day of reviewing the crisis zone, is also a failed target-the-Black-man story that seeks to deflect culpability by focusing on the Black Congressman's innocent desire to get some of his belongings [long after the day’s disaster inspections had been completed, and the National Guard troops were going back to their barracks]. General Honere' was recently reported in the press as having done the same thing. He is not being criticized. Why not (not that he should be, but why the double standard… because he has helped the President save face)?

When Rep. Jefferson was interviewed on CNN's Aaron Brown show, he gave a reasonable, non-defensive explanation for his action. He also stated that: “I know the Republican National Committee is playing up talking points about me.” That one statement burst the bubble on the newsworthiness of the Jefferson story right then and there. Yet, conservative CNN anchors continue to raise the issue.

In addition do deriding Black leaders, the press (including CNN) has heavily emphasized the so-called fact that a number of people were murdered in the Superdome and New Orleans Convention Center. Press reports from late September, 2005 stated that coroner’s office examinations have concluded that NONE of the dead persons found in the Superdome were murdered. A number of more recent press articles have challenged the original rumors. The fact is, most of the atrocities originally attributed by the national press to Black Katrina victims did not happen at all! Thanks to the New Orleans Times Picayune for revealing the truth!

The fact is that, as every day passes, the Republican 'talking points' marketing mechanism floods the press with their rationale... to provide a smokescreen for the Bush administration’s culpability for abandoning the taxpaying U.S. citizens, the children, women and men of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. The administration must respond. Their reputation and their political survival during the 2006 mid-term Congressional elections depend upon repairing their credibility. The Republican Party must denounce Bill Bennett!

Why Engage in Race Baiting in 2005?

Bennett has very publicly made a statement that openly advocates the genocide of every Black child in America. How, my friends, do you think that the Black community feels?

We have just had a major Republican leader advocate our genocide! And all the press and politicians can do is to provide America with a watered down milk-toast discussion of the issue, without addressing its true nature and gravity? That is not acceptable!

Do those who rationalize Bennett's remarks, on CNN and throughout the press, feel that Black children, mothers of newborns, women who are pregnant, and everyone else in the Black community can feel comfortable living in America in 2005 (given a long history of past racist terrorism) when Bennett gets away with openly advocating our genocide on a public scale akin to the actions of the 1940's Nazi German Reich?

Bill Bennett effectively achieves several important results with his violent, obscene and genocidal statement:

Bennett presents a very public rallying cry for racist right-wing conservatives who's spirits have been pulled down recently by the very legitimate criticisms of Bush's federal response to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and its failure to feed 60,000 innocent women, children and men in New Orleans for 5 days after the crisis started.
Bennett's remarks - rationalize - (seek to justify) the Bush administration's apathetic and indifferent response to tens of thousands of Black victims in the wake of Katrina, America's worst mass-casualty disaster ever.
By declaring, effectively, that all Black Americans are criminals [the logical extension of his abortion comments]... Bennett seeks to provide a rationalization for the brazen act of the abandonment of Katrina's victims... because those victims were (according to Bennett) Black criminals.
Bennett's rallying cry will serve to energize the currently depressed forces of racist thought and action in mainstream America. Those who are racist tend to keep their hostile thoughts to themselves when no national political figure takes the lead. Now, Bennett has chosen to take the lead (and the heat) to make a bold stand for re-asserting the power of racist traditionalists over the power of compassionate conservatives.

(The phrase 'compassionate conservatism' implies that 'normal' conservatism is not compassionate - that it is, among other things... racist.)

Bennett's racist statement about abortion comes immediately in the wake of the appointment of John G. Roberts, Jr. as Chief Justice of the United States. Considering that Roberts had to be asked if he believed in a right to vote and desegregation (in Brown v. Board of Education)... Bennett's racial assault represents a second shot over the bow of the ship of the march towards racial equality and harmony in the U.S.

· The racially skewed lack of federal response to the Katrina disaster.

· The declaration by Bill Bennett that all Black babies should be aborted.

These are bold steps by social conservatives. They require a bold, articulate and civilized response by all decent Americans.

How Should Americans Respond to this Thinly Veiled Call to Commit Racist Genocide on Black Citizens?

Bill Bennett should not be allowed to continue to expound his ideas on anti-Black Genocide without a demand that the Republican Party openly and (more) forcefully denounce his remarks (President George W. Bush and the Republican National Committee stating that the remarks were "not appropriate" ... is NOT enough to repair the damage done). They must, as Colin Powell asked Republicans to do during the 1996 Republican National convention: "Cut racism out of the heart & soul of the Republican Party."

Last, there is a far-right-wing faction in America that actively promotes the idea of 'ethnic cleansing' America of Black and brown peoples. Bill Bennett's remarks cater very directly to this sizable group of people. Thanks to Bill Bennett, those people (and the 12 mostly young White Americans who have tried to run me over as I cross the street in my well-to-do suburban community during the past 18 years [especially during the ‘angry white male revolution of the 1980’s] are among them)... will once again feel emboldened, and they will again feel comfortable in committing acts of domestic terrorism against children, women and men of color in the United States.

One of the most visible markers of racist domestic terrorism against Black Americans occurred about 15 years ago when racist domestic terrorists burned down 300 African American churches in the southern United States. Even then social conservatives tried to argue in the press that no pattern of racism was involved. Really?

Bill Bennett’s remarks are a continuation of a centuries old pattern of racial attack on Black Americans for no reason other than the fact that we are African Americans.

Bill Bennett engaged in a long-used tactic in his latest utterance about 'aborting all Black babies.' That tactic, which I have faced many times personally, is to have a white racist person walk near a Black American person, and state the word n****r so softly that, the Black listener cannot openly accuse the racist of having made the remark to others (police, school authorities, workplace managers, etc.)... so that the racist assailant completes their act of psychological rape uncontested by justice. It is a modern form of racist guerrilla warfare.

Bill Bennett, despite his denials, has just deliberately pushed all Americans deep into a hell-hole of open racial conflict. The only way out of that hell is to demand that the mainstream Republican Party and the mainstream press openly and unequivocally denounce Bill Bennett’s remarks as what they are: a deliberately inflammatory race-baiting instigation to commit violent domestic terrorism.

My quiet suburban neighborhood has a gun club gunnery range in it. Members of the range have come out and excitedly shot many boxes of ammo in rage during several well-known public events:

1. When, during the 1996 presidential campaign, far-right Republican candidate Pat Buchanan said at a rally: "Don't just stand there, mount-up!" (as in – mount-up to partake in a racist lynch-mob). I still recall former CNN reporter Judy Woodruff shaking her head while Buchanan said that.

2. When Democratic President Bill Clinton was acquitted during his impeachment trial.

3. When Venus and Serena Williams played each other at Wimbledon for the first time.

These were all public events that enraged social conservatives.

I fully expect the local gunnery range to be packed in the coming days and weeks, in response to Bill Bennett's openly inflammatory racist remarks.

Bill Bennett's intentional act of ‘kick-starting’ the process of re-legitimizing racial hatred and racist domestic terrorism in 2005 America requires a forceful, articulate and persistent response by all people of good will! We will not allow racists to put our children and families in danger once again!

WE WILL NOT REMAIN QUIET while a leading conservative Republican leader advocates our genocide!

WE WILL STAND UP and denounce this open call to genocide, that will embolden domestic racial terrorism!

Chuck Goolsby

Founder and Coordinator

www.LibertadLatina.org

Chuck@LibertadLatina.org

October 3-5, 2005

See also:

The Times-Picayune of New Orleans printed this editorial in its Sunday edition, criticizing the federal government's response to Hurricane Katrina and calling on every FEMA official to be fired: An open letter to the President.

Excerpt:

In a nationally televised interview Thursday night, he [former FEMA head Michael D. Brown] said his agency hadn't known until that day that thousands of storm victims were stranded at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. He gave another nationally televised interview the next morning and said, "We've provided food to the people at the Convention Center so that they've gotten at least one, if not two meals, every single day."

Lies don't get more bald-faced than that, Mr. President.

Yet, when you met with Mr. Brown Friday morning, you told him, "You're doing a heck of a job."

That's unbelievable.

Rumors of deaths greatly exaggerated. Widely reported attacks false or unsubstantiated - Times-Picayune of New Orleans. - September 26, 2005
Mayor Ray Nagin's voice cracked with anger and anguish Thursday night in an interview with New Orleans radio station WWL-AM.
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid and other Democrats on Thursday demanded that former Education Secretary William Bennett apologize for remarks on his radio program linking the crime rate and the abortion of black babies.
On October 2, 2005, the conservative National Review columnist Andrew C. McCarthy had a front page link to a column titled: "There is Nothing Wrong with What Bill Bennett Said." On October 3, 2005, no such link exists. That column has been replaced by one with a less affirmative name...
October 3, 2005 The National Review's Andrew C. McCarthy's column: Let’s be honest about what Bill Bennett said. 10/03 8:31 a.m.
Tapes Show Local Officials Acted in Louisiana While FEMA Delayed. National Public Radio has a report with a series of phone calls among local officials in Louisiana where you can clearly hear them making necessary preparations for the coming storm, while help from FEMA was delayed for days. - Democratic National Committee.

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Updated:Oct. 24, 2011

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LibertadLatina

Key new special sections

About the crisis of forced prostitution of minor girls and young women in the largest center for organized sex trafficking in Mexico: Tlaxcala state.

The war against indigenous women and girls in the Americas

The crisis in the Dominican Republic

The crisis in Paraguay - including coverage of the important work of anti trafficking prosecutor Teresa Martínez and the unjust retaliatory impeachment that she is now facing

Latest News

Últimas Noticias

Added: Oct. 24, 2011

Mexico, New York, USA

Lydia Chacho (right) has received the 2011 Civil Courage Prize

Leading Figures in the fight against sex trafficking win 2011 Civil Courage Prize

New York, New York - Lydia Cacho Ribeiro of Mexico and Triveni Acharya of India will receive the 12th annual Civil Courage Prize in New York on October 19. The Prize of $50,000 will be divided between the two women in acknowledgement of their leadership roles in the fight against the abuse of women and children…

Lydia Cacho Ribeiro is one of Mexico's best known investigative journalists and a prominent women's rights activist. She is the founder of the Women's Assistance Center in Cancún, which provides free legal, psychological and medical services to women and child victims of domestic and sexual violence and trafficking, as Mexico is a top destination for sex trafficking from other countries in the region.

Following the 2005 publication of her book, The Demons of Eden, in which she implicated a number of influential businessmen and politicians in a child pornography network, she was wrongfully arrested, detained and ill treated before being subjected to a yearlong criminal defamation trial. She was cleared of all charges but continues to be a target of harassment and threats to her life for her continued work on behalf of abused women and children.

Many have suggested that she leave Mexico as a safety precaution. She has replied, "I am not going away. I am not going anywhere other than forward, to shed light on everything. Those, the corrupt, the evil are in reality very few. We men and women, on the other hand, keep being the majority, and so I do not lose the hope that Mexico can change."

A Sorbonne graduate and linguist, Cacho is the author of seven books, most recently Slaves of Power: A Journey to the Heart of World Sex Trafficking of Women and Girls (2010). Currently a columnist for the Mexico City newspaper, El Universal, she has spoken about how many lesser known journalists feed her information that they are too afraid to publish under their own name.

Triveni Acharya is President of the Rescue Foundation, an organization devoted to the rescue, rehabilitation and repatriation of women and children who have been victims of kidnapping and sex trafficking. The victims, who are from India, Nepal and Bangladesh, are sold into forced prostitution in India...

The Train Foundation

(PDF file)

See also:

Added: Oct. 24, 2011

New York, USA

Lydia Cacho Blasts Facebook

Mexico’s most prominent human-rights activist says the site has become a tool for sex predators—and isn’t doing enough to combat the problem. Facebook says otherwise.

A prominent human-rights advocate has accused Facebook of becoming the stomping grounds for sex predators, traffickers, and child pornographers.

Lydia Cacho Ribeiro, a Mexican journalist and activist known for busting pedophile rings, made the comments in New York on Wednesday night, while accepting the Civil Courage Prize from the Train Foundation, an organization that awards an annual $50,000 prize to activists. Cacho Ribeiro challenged [keynote speaker] United Nations Under-Secretary General Michelle Bachelet [head of UN Women] and 130 others in attendance to join her new campaign to pressure Facebook to take serious action against child abusers.

“If anyone has the power to do it, talk to the owners and CEO of Facebook to stop child pornography that is going on Facebook every day,” she said. “We are seeing thousands of children—babies from 2 and 3 months old to girls from 7 to 10 years old—that are being sold, and having pictures taken by guys, predators, on Facebook,” she continued. “Stop Facebook. Tell them to stop child pornography.”

Facebook strongly denied the accusations when contacted by The Daily Beast. Joe Sullivan, the company’s chief of security, said Facebook’s security software constantly searches the site’s pages for evidence of sexual predators and child abusers. Every picture uploaded by Facebook users is run through a program called “Photo DNA,” he said, to look for possible matches with offenders. The company saves the data, he said, and makes referrals to law-enforcement agencies…

Cacho Ribeiro first gained international attention as a journalist and activist in the '90s in Cancun, Mexico, where she established a high-security shelter for female victims of domestic violence and human trafficking. In her book, Demons of Eden, published in 2004, Cacho exposed a high-profile businessman and politicians involved in a child pornography ring. Now an award-winning author of seven books, she recently accused the Mexican drug cartels of smuggling underage girls to the U.S. for prostitution…

Newsweek

Oct. 21, 2011

Added: Oct. 23, 2011

Congressional anti trafficking leader acknowledges that 1.2 million victims of sex and labor slavery exist in Mexico

Mexico

Deputy Rosi Orozco is the president of the Special Commission to Combat Human Trafficking in the Chamber of Deputies in the Congress of the Repiblic

México, quinto lugar en AL en trata de personas

México. D.F. México ya ocupa el quinto lugar en América Latina con el mayor número de víctimas de la trata; se estima que un millón 200 mil personas son explotadas sexual y laboralmente en territorio mexicano. Y la cifra de víctimas va en aumento, mientras federales, estatales y municipales, poco o nada hacen para combatir ese delito.

Así lo advirtió la presidenta de la Comisión Especial de Lucha contra la Trata de Personas, diputada federal, Rosi Orozco, quien alertó que en todo el territorio nacional continúan despareciendo niñas y niños, con la consecuente angustia y desesperación al interior de las familias afectadas.

Señaló que uno de los casos representativos de este delito, es el de Georgina Ivonne Ramírez Mora, de 22 años de edad, quien trabajaba en un casino situado en el municipio de Atizapán, y desapareció el 30 de mayo de 2011, días después de manifestar a una de sus compañeras de trabajo su intención de renunciar a dicho empleo.

Aclaró la legisladora que la Procuraduría mexiquense tiene conocimiento de este caso y sin embargo no se ha avanzado en la investigación.

Por ello, propuso que la Cámara baja haga un llamado tanto a los gobernadores, como a las procuradurías estatales para que, en el seno de la Conferencia Nacional de Gobernadores (Conago) den a conocer los resultados de los operativos en contra de la trata de personas, así como las estadísticas reales de menores recuperados.

Mexico holds fifth place in human trafficking in Latin America

[Deputy Rosi Orozco declares that 1.2 million victims exist across the nation]

Mexico City – According to Deputy Rosi Orozco, who is the president of the Special Commission to Combat Human Trafficking in the Chamber of Deputies [lower house of Congress], Mexico currently has the fifth highest number of human trafficking victims among Latin America nations, with an estimated 1.2 million victims of sex and labor exploitation. The numbers of victims continue to increase as federal, state and local authorities do little or nothing in response, said Deputy Orozco.

The anti trafficking leader in warned that girls and boys continue to disappear across Mexico, which has a devastating impact on their loved ones.

Deputy Orozco discussed a representative case, that of Georgina Ivonne Ramírez Mora, age 22, who worked at a casino located in the municipality of Atizapán. Ramírez Mora disappeared on May 30, 2011, just days after she mentioned to one of her coworkers her intentions to resign from her job.

The attorney general’s office for Mexico state has opened an investigation in the case, but no progress has been made toward resolving it.

Deputy Orozco has recently proposed that the Chamber of Deputies issue a call to the nation’s governors and state prosecutors, calling upon them to use the forum of the National Conference of Governors to share their state statistics in regard to the numbers of enforcement operations being carried out in their states.. She added that state leaders should discuss [and be honest about] the actual numbers of minors who have been rescued in their respective states.

Alfredo Plascencia Sánchez

Diario Portal

Oct. 17, 2011

Added: Oct. 23, 2011

Paraguay

Harvard Law School graduate James H. Thessin was sworn in as the U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Paraguay by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on September 8, 2011

Embajador de EEUU en Paraguay, preocupado por desafuero de fiscala Teresa Martínez

El embajador de Estados Unidos en Paraguay, James Thessin, manifestó su preocupación sobre el desafuero de la fiscala Teresa Martínez al fiscal general del estado, Rubén Candia Amarilla, según comentó a la prensa este último.

Durante una visita protocolar que realizó este viernes el embajador estadounidense Thessin al Ministerio Público, se reunió con el fiscal general Candia Amarilla a quien le expresó su preocupación por la decisión que tomó el Jurado de Enjuiciamiento de Magistrados (JEM), de desaforar a la agente Teresa Martínez.

El desafuero ocurrió luego de que la agente fiscal fuera denunciado por difamación, calumnia e injuria, por haber allanado una casa de citas, en donde según una denuncia de la Secretaría de la Niñez, explotaban a una adolescente.

Anastasio Gómez, el dueño de la casa de citas, querelló a la fiscala Teresa Martínez, que finalmente fue desaforada por el JEM.

Ambassador expresses U.S. concerns about the impeachment of anti trafficking procescutor Teresa Martínez to Paraguay's Attorney General

The U.S. ambassador to Paraguay, James Thessin, has expressed concern about the the impeachment of federal prosecutor Teresa Martínez to Paraguayan Attorney General Ruben Candia Amarilla.

During a diplomatic visit that took place this past Friday at the Public Ministry, Ambassador Thessin expressed his concerns in regard to the decision by the Trial Jury for Magistrates (JEM) to impeach prosecutor Martínez.

The impeachment process began after Martínez was sued for defamation, libel and insult in the aftermath of a raid by authorities on a brothel where, according to the Secretariat for Children, an adolescent girl was being exploited.

Anastasio Gomez, the owner of the brothel, filed the lawsuit against Martínez, resulting in the impeachment charges being brought by the JEM.

Última Hora

Mexico

Oct. 21, 2011

Added: Oct. 23, 2011

North Carolina, USA

Man accused in Charlotte human trafficking operation

Charlotte - A human trafficking operation was going on inside a southwest Charlotte home, according to investigators. They said a man who is in the country illegally sold women for sex...

Filemon Guzman-Martínez is charged with human trafficking and forcing women into prostitution.

Court documents said agents found business cards with pictures of women posed in a sexually suggestive manner and the phrase “What do you have to lose” written in Spanish.

In a bedroom of the house he rented, they found a bulk package of condoms and a woman with a suitcase. Almost all of the clothing, agents said, consisted of lingerie.

“It's a growing problem,” said Del Richburg, a special agent with Charlotte's Homeland Security Office. “It's a problem we've seen on the rise.”

Richburg said human trafficking is bringing a steady stream of victims from Mexico and Central America to Charlotte on the promise of jobs that don't exist.

“Might be as a nanny or working in a restaurant -- where they're brought up here and forced into prostitution,” Richburg said...

Neighbors said they hope federal agents won't stop investigating now.

“Just the tip of the iceberg -- there's four more houses of them,” Ronald Caldwell said.

Federal agents wouldn’t comment on whether they're looking at other houses in that neighborhood, but said new victims are being moved in and out of Charlotte every week.

Martínez, who was apparently in the country illegally, will make a first appearance in federal court on Thursday.

WSOC-TV

Oct. 12, 2011

Added: Oct. 23, 2011

Mexico

Youth Career Initiative pilots human trafficking awareness training for hotel staff in Mexico

Press Release

The Youth Career Initiative (YCI), a six-month education program that provides disadvantaged young people with life and work skills in leading hotels, launches its first training workshop in Mexico this week for hotel staff working with participants who have survived human trafficking. Course attendees include General Managers, HR and training managers, representatives of YCI’s local coordinating partners, and staff of local shelters.

The half-day training program is also aimed at representatives from other partner organizations in the target locations for this project. This workshop is conducted with partial support from the U.S. Department of State Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (G/TIP).

The training has two main aims: to raise awareness about the complex issue of human trafficking, particularly within the context of the hotel industry; and to enable hotel staff coordinating the YCI program to better support participants who have survived human trafficking. Facilitated by a team comprised of human trafficking experts, as well as hotel staff, the training workshop offers a general overview of the issue before delving into particular challenges within the hospitality industry. It also provides an insight into the victims’ experience including the rescue and recovery process, while encouraging discussions about how to support the re-integration of survivors.

The training course was developed with input from a range of local shelters, anti-trafficking organizations, governmental organizations and hotel companies. Leading hotel companies participating in this Mexico pilot include InterContinental Hotels Group, Marriott International Inc., and NH Hoteles.

As a new adaptation of the YCI model, this pilot project aiding the re-integration of survivors of human trafficking will initially run in three pilot countries (Mexico, Brazil and Vietnam). The first pilot is currently running in Mexico City with 45 young people, 15 of whom are survivors of human trafficking. The eventual aim is to scale up the project to involve all 11 participating YCI countries.

3BL Media / theCSRfeed

Oct. 21, 2011

Added: Oct. 21, 2011

Mexico

Soledad Griensen

Hallan pruebas de trata de personas vs Griensen

El Ministerio Público que sigue la investigación sobre el caso de Soledad Griensen, dio a conocer que existen elementos de prueba suficientes para consignarla ante un juez de Garantía por los delitos de trata de persona, cuya pena máxima llega a los 24 años de prisión.

La investigación se fortaleció luego de que agentes investigadores realizaron un cateo en el refugio Mujeres Unidas Contra la Violencia ubicado en el cruce de las calles Delicias y Jiménez de la colonia 9 de Septiembre.

"Ahí se encontraron documentos y una serie de evidencias que llevaron al Ministerio Público a solicitar dos órdenes de aprehensión", dijo ayer el fiscal Jorge González Nicolás, quien rechazó dar a conocer las identidades, sin embargo trascendió que se trata de la misma Griensen y un familiar cercano.

El propio gobernador del estado, César Duarte Jáquez, refirió durante un evento celebrado ayer en Cibeles que se buscará la pena máxima para esta mujer al tiempo que llamó a los representantes de distintas organizaciones sociales a no utilizar la bandera de organizaciones para intereses mezquinos.

El fiscal Jorge González, manifestó que el albergue Mujeres Unidas Contra la Violencia, estaba dentro de un grupo de ocho organismos a los que se canalizaba a personas que eran víctimas de la violencia, entre ellas mujeres y niñas.

"Desde luego que se canalizaron a personas a ese lugar, pero a partir de este año, Gobierno del Estado ya no apoyaba a este albergue económicamente, además de que del estudio que se hizo se determinó que no se cumplía con ciertos requisitos", reconoció el funcionario estatal.

Añadió que lamentablemente existe un vacío en la ley que no permite una supervisión constante a este tipo de centros, pero por ello mismo, este año no se otorgó ningún tipo de subsidio por parte del Estado.

"Hay un gran vacío, pero en cuanto a la comisión de un delito, definitiva-mente que existe responsabilidad por parte de la Fiscalía para investigarlos tan es así que ya está detenida esta persona", señaló.

Dijo que la Fiscalía escuchó en declaración a las cinco mujeres que fueron víctimas del maltrato por parte de la señora Soledad Griensen pero además de la trata de personas, incurrió en la privación ilegal de su libertad.

Félix A. González

Norte Digital

Oct. 21, 2011

See also:

Added: Oct. 21, 2011

Mexico

Owner of Juarez Women’s Shelter Being Investigated for Abuse, Human Trafficking

Soledad Griensen Porras being investigated for abuse, human trafficking

A battered women’s shelter in Mexico is at the center of a human trafficking, abuse, and forced prostitution investigation, where a woman thought to be “a charitable soul” has been accused of abusing the women of the shelter.

Soledad Griensen Porras, 55, is being accused of forcing a number of women into prostitution and holding them against their will at the Mujeres Unidas contra la Violencia (Women United Against Violence). Some even claim Griensen punished them by putting chile on their private parts.

Many in the community are shocked to hear these allegations, as Griensen is known to donate food and blankets to those in need, and is said to regularly fight for women’s rights.

However, according to police, while everything looked copacetic, the women say men routinely came to the shelter soliciting sex, for which Griensen requested payment. Others claim they were forced to pay her in order to leave the shelter.

When officers searched the shelter, they say they found pornographic material, though it is unclear what exactly was found.

A neighbor who asked to remain anonymous told the El Paso Times she knew the community saw Griensen as the woman who gave the less fortunate groceries, blankets and toys, but she saw how Griensen was when in or around the shelter, which not only helps battered women, but is said to help those with substance abuse issues.

“I’m not going to tell you she was a nice person,” she told the Times. “Outside, she helped a lot, but she didn’t treat well the people inside.”

The unnamed neighbor said she once heard from one of the girls in the shelter that the place was “hell” and once had her hair shaved off for misbehaving.

But while this neighbor is not entirely surprised by the accusations against Griensen, others are having trouble believing them.

Irma Casas, director of the women’s rights organization Casa Amiga, said she was in the shelter about four months ago and did not see anything out that would lead her to believe anything sinister was going on.

Casas said the shelter was well kept and clean. Adding that a woman she had recently conversed with from the shelter did not report anything like what is being claimed.

However, Casas did suggest police look at all the shelters in the area to ensure nothing like this was happening elsewhere.

“This is a symptom of the little or null political and social intervention in this topic,” she said. “We should evaluate if in the case of Mrs. Griensen there had been an inspection of the spaces and who was in charge of them.”

So far, four of the five women who spoke to police have filed complaints against Griensen with state authorities.

Authorities say Griensen is currently being held and is facing human trafficking charges, and may face additional charges for threats, injuries, and deprivation of liberty.

Hispanically Speaking News

Oct. 20, 2011

Added: Oct. 19, 2011

Mexico

Nueve mexicanas eran obligadas a prostituirse en un refugio para mujeres

Ciudad Juárez (México), 18 oct (EFE).- Nueve mujeres de Ciudad Juárez (norte de México) fueron rescatadas hoy por agentes de la Policía Municipal de un refugio para víctimas de violencia donde eran obligadas a prostituirse, informaron fuentes oficiales.

Las mujeres denunciaron que el lugar funcionaba como una "casa de citas", donde acudían hombres invitados por la directora del refugio, señaló Adrián Sánchez, portavoz de la Policía.

Las nueve víctimas aseguraron que también varios niños que vivían en el refugio fueron igualmente obligados a prostituirse.

La directora del refugio Mujeres Unidas contra la Violencia, Soledad Griensen, de 53 años, fue detenida y presentada ante el Ministerio Público, dijo Sánchez a Efe.

Ciudad Juárez cobró notoriedad en la década de 1990 por la muerte de cientos de mujeres, principalmente jóvenes trabajadoras de empresas maquiladoras (de ensamblaje). Muchos de estos crímenes, cometidos por miembros de la delincuencia organizada, asesinos seriales o imitadores de estos, no fueron esclarecidos.

Las autoridades locales han expresado su preocupación por el alto índice de trata de personas en esta urbe fronteriza con la estadounidense El Paso (Texas).

Women and children are forced into prostitution at women's shelter

Police in the city of Cuidad juarez in Chihuahua state today rescued nine women and several children from a domestic violence shelter where the victims had been forced into prostitution.

Those rescued reported that the shelter [effectively] functioned as a brothel, where the female director invited men [to exploit the shelter’s residents], said Adrian Sanchez, spokesman for the police.

The nine adult victims also claim that several children who lived at the shelter were forced into prostitution.

The director of the Mujeres Unidas (Women United) shelter against Violence, Griensen Soledad, age 53, was arrested and brought before the local prosecutor’s office, Sanchez told EFE.

Ciudad Juarez gained notoriety in the 1990s due to the death of hundreds of women. Those victims were mostly young maquiladora (assembly plant) workers [those with indigenous characteristics were especially targeted]. Many of the crimes had been committed by organized crime members, murderers and serial imitators…

Local authorities have expressed concern about the high incidence of human trafficking in this city, which sits adjacent to El Paso, Texas.

EFE

Oct. 18, 2011

Added: Oct. 17, 2011

Mexico

Policías agreden sexualmente y torturan a mujer indígena

La detuvieron en Tulum luego de que fue asaltada en un bar

Tulum, Cuatro policías de este municipio de Quintana Roo fueron suspendidos por haber cometido los delitos de lesiones, abuso de poder y violación en grado de tentativa, contra una trabajadora de origen maya en el interior de la cárcel municipal.

Dos policías son mujeres –participaron en la detención– y dos más varones, quienes custodiaban la cárcel en el lapso en que ocurrieron los hechos. Se trata de Gisela Morales Reyes, Selena Torres Hernández, Liborio May May y Martín López Dorantes.

Sin embargo, otros cuatro elementos policiacos –de quienes se desconoce sus nombres y están en libertad– estarían implicados en la agresión contra Gabina Pat Díaz, de 24 años de edad y cocinera en un hotel de la Riviera Maya, quien fue obligada a desnudarse ante la presencia de seis agentes que la acariciaron y uno de ellos la presionó para tener relaciones sexuales a cambio de su libertad.

La indígena maya fue detenida por supuesta alteración del orden público, la cual es una falta administrativa de acuerdo con el Bando de Policía y Buen Gobierno Municipal.

Díaz relató a los medios de comunicación que los policías la insultaron y la colgaron esposada y desnuda contra los barrotes de los separos durante tres horas, tiempo –acusó– en el que fue torturada física y psicológicamente.

Los hechos se asentaron en la averiguación previa 845/2011 del Ministerio Público del Fuero Común en este municipio por violación en grado de tentativa y lesiones. Se informó que la investigación está en curso y que en breve se darían a conocer avances de la misma.

Los cuatro policías municipales identificados fueron suspendidos como una medida administrativa, pero no fueron detenidos ni arraigados por lo que se teme que haya impunidad en el caso.

La Comisión de Derechos Humanos del estado de Quintana Roo (Cdheqroo) ya atrajo también el caso con la apertura del expediente 151 por abuso de autoridad y trato cruel y degradante.

Gabina Pat Díaz fue detenida por los uniformados a las 5 de la mañana del pasado 8 de octubre, cuando se encontraba con unos amigos adentro de una discoteca.

Personal de seguridad del local llamó a la policía municipal luego de que Díaz decidió buscar por cuenta propia su bolso que –alegó la mujer– le sustrajeron en ese negocio. Ahí guardaba sus documentos personales, tarjeta bancaria y dinero en efectivo.

La agraviada narró que dos policías mujeres y un varón la sometieron con lujo de violencia, tirándola al piso, para luego subirla a rastras a una patrulla y trasladarla a la cárcel municipal.

Police torture and sexually assault Indigenous woman

The victim had been arrested in the city of Tulum after being assaulted in a bar

Four police officers friom [the tourist center and Mayan cultural site of] Tulum, in the state of Quintana Roo have been suspended after they were accused of attempted rape, assault and abuse of power. The victim was an indigenous Mayan woman who had been detained on disorderly conduct charges after she had been assaulted in a bar. The sexual assault took place in the city’s jail.

Two female officers who had participated in the arrest and two male guards who were on duty at the jail during the sexual assault were accused in the case. Gisela Morales Reyes, Selena Torres Hernandez, Liborio May May and Martin Lopez Dorantes were suspended from duty.

An additional four police officers, who’s identities and whereabouts are not known, are also implicated in the assault of 24-year-old Gabina Pat Díaz, who works as a cook in a hotel in the Riviera Maya tourist area.

While in custody, Díaz was forced to strip naked in front of six of the officers. She was then handcuffed to the bars of her cell as the officers put their hands on her. One of the officers pressured the victim to have sex with him in exchange for her freedom.

The victim had been arrested for disorderly conduct, which is an administrative charge in the city’s criminal code.

Diaz told the media that the officers insulted her and hung her naked and handcuffed to the bars of her holding cell for three hours, during which time she says that she was tortured physically and psychologically.

The facts were documented during a preliminary investigation conducted by prosecutors in Tulum. It was reported that the investigation is ongoing. The results will be announced shortly.

The four officers who have been identified were given administrative suspensions, but they have not been arrested or arranged, leading to fears that the case will be left in impunity [the case will be covered up].

The Human Rights Commission of the state of Quintana Roo (CDHEQROO) plans to open an investigation into abuse of authority and cruel and degrading treatment.

Gabina Pat Diaz was arrested at 5 am on Oct. 8, while she was with friends in a nightclub.

The club’s security staff had called police after Díaz decided to search on her own for her purse, which had been stolen in the club. Díaz stated that two female and one male police officer threw her to the ground and dragged her to their patrol car before taking her to the city jail.

Eduardo Cocom Sosaya

CIMAC Women’s News Agency

Oct. 13, 2011

Added: Aug. 04, 2011

Peru

Huánuco region in central Peru

CHS organiza talleres contra la trata de personas en Huánuco y Tingo María

Dirigido a autoridades y líderes indígenas

Con el objetivo de generar un espacio de reflexión sobre las funciones y obligaciones de los operadores de justicia en el tema de la trata de personas y la vulnerabilidad de la población indígena frente a este delito, la organización Capital Humano y Social Alternativo (CHS Alternativo) realizará talleres en Tingo María y Huánuco, ciudades de captación y de tránsito para la trata de personas con fines de explotación sexual a mujeres menores de edad.

Se informó que el taller en Tingo María se realizará el miércoles 12 de octubre en el Hotel Madera Verde, en tanto que el taller en Huánuco será el viernes 14 de octubre en el Grand Hotel Huánuco.

En dichos eventos se presentarán asimismo los resultados del análisis de expedientes sobre trata de personas en la región, el último suceso ocurrido en Madre de Dios y el documental “La noche de Jhinna”, reciente caso de explotación sexual presentado en el nightclub La Noche, en Piura.

Ambos talleres son auspiciados por la fundación alemana Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) y cuentan con el apoyo de la Defensoría del Pueblo, Paz y Esperanza y de la Federación Departamental de Comunidades Campesinas y Nativas – Región Huánuco (FEDECCANH).

ONG conducts workshops against human trafficking in Huánuco and Tingo María

Training is designed for indigenous leaders and authorities

With the aim of creating a space for reflection on the roles and responsibilities of criminal justice workers in regard to the issue of human trafficking and the vulnerability of indigenous peoples to this crime, the organization Human and Social Capital Alternative (CHS Alternativo) will present workshops in in the cities of Tingo Maria and Huanuco, which are known as locations where traffickers entrap and transport underage girl victims for purposes of sexual exploitation.

The workshop in Tingo Maria will be held Oct. 12^th at the Hotel Madera Verde, while the Huánuco workshop will be held on Oct. 14th at the Grand Hotel Huanuco.

The events will include discussion of an analysis performed of trafficking cases in the region, the most recent of which occurred in the city of Madre de Dios. The documentary "The Night of Jhinna" will also be shown. The film presents a recent case of sexual exploitation at a nightclub in the city of Piura.

Both workshops are sponsored by the German foundation Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) and have the support of the office of the [federal] Ombudsman of the People, Peace and Hope, and the Departmental [State] Federation of Peasant and Native Communities for the Huánuco Region (FEDECCANH).

InfoRegión

Peru

Oct. 11, 2011

Added Oct. 15, 2011

Paraguay

Hero: Internationally recognized Praguayan anti-trafficking prosecutor Teresa Martínez is currently facing impeachment based on defamation complaints brought by suspects whom she had actually investigated.

Hero: Patricia Villamil - former consul for Honduras in Chiapas state on Mexico's southern border, was removed from her post in mid-2011 in retaliation for her criticism of Mexican officials' failure to respond to the mass sex trafficking of Central American women and girls into Chiapas.

Hero: Lydia Cacho lives with continual death threats in the aftermath of her 2005 jailing and trial that was concocted by corrupt authorities in retaliation for her work to expose a wealthy child sex trafficker in the resort city of Cancun.

Hot spot:

Paraguay is located in the "Triple Frontier" region of South America, where its border converges with that of Argentina and Brazil.

The Triple Frontier is one of the very largest sex trafficking marketplaces in South America.

Libertad Latina

Commentary

Effective anti trafficking activists face retaliation across the Americas

Currently, Libertad Latina is providing coverage of the impeachment process that anti-trafficking prosecutor Teresa Martínez is facing in the South American nation of Paraguay. We have aggregated and translated several important news articles on the subject.

We regard the actions of the Paraguayan Trial Jury for Magistrates in bringing the impeachment charges against Teresa Martínez to be highly suspect. We agree with the conclusions of Paraguayan congressional deputy Aída Robles, who is the chairwoman of the Commission on Equality and Gender, that the decision to impeach Martínez is the result of the actions of powerful, unseen individuals who seek to bring an end to effective anti-trafficking prosecutions in that nation. The Paraguayan Association of Prosecutors and the Inter-agency Roundtable for Preventing and Combating Trafficking in Paraguay - made up of more than a 20 federal agencies and NGOs - have both released press statements in support of Martínez.

To paraphrase the statement released by the Paraguayan Association of Prosecutors, since when in western jurisprudence can a criminal suspect bring defamation charges against the prosecuting attorney in their case, and then have that complaint accepted by a judicial body as grounds for the impeachment of that prosecutor?

Paraguay is a poor nation. It also has a large indigenous population that has been subjected to sexual oppression for centuries. All poor and young Paraguayuan women are at risk of being sex trafficked to supply the voracious forced prostitution markets that thrive in the neighboring wealthy nation of Argentina. A recent press article noted that 80% of all women and girls who are sexually exploited in Argentina are from Paraguay.

Dozens of news stories have discussed the work of Teresa Martínez. They show that Martínez has been an effective leader in waging the nation's war against sex trafficking. Paraguay is located in the "Triple Frontier" region, where the borders of Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil intersect. For over a decade, the Triple Frontier has been one of the largest centers for criminal sex trafficking activity in the Americas. The challenges faced by Teresa Martínez in confronting the multi-billion dollar drug-and-sex trafficking cartels (both local and global) that are active in the region are daunting. Martínez has committed only one offense, that of daring to challenge the status quo that today allows poor indigenous and other Paraguayan women and children to be sex trafficked en-mass with impunity.

The impeachment action taken against Martínez follows a pattern of behavior that has been seen in other nations in the region. These underhanded responses have in common the fact that they are acts of retaliation that are designed to punish both public officials and private citizens who have become 'too' effective in their efforts to fight modern human slavery. Other victims of that scenario have included anti child sex trafficking activist, women's center director and journalist Lydia Cacho, who was jailed and tried for defamation (the same change being levied against Teresa Martínez) in Mexico in 2005 after publishing the book 'The Demons in Eden" - that exposed child pornographer Jean Succar Kuri and his corrupt associates in government and business - and, during 2011, Honduran Consul to the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, Patricia Villamil, who was removed from her post for speaking out publicly in regard to the fact that Mexican officials in Chiapas state were not taking action against the sex traffickers who were expoiting the many Honduran women and girls who had been lured to the region (we note that Chiapas state has been identified by Save the Children as being the largest zone for the commercial sexual exploitation of children - CSEC - in the entire world).

Recently, Libertad Latina has spoken with anti sex trafficking advocates who are active in Argentina and the Dominican Republic. Like Paraguay, the Dominican Republic is a major source nation for sex trafficking victims who are destined to arrive in Argentina, where they will be sexually exploited. From Argentina, a number of these victims - as well as Argentine women and girls - will be resold into the global sex market.

Our sources inducate that government entities as well as certain non-governmental agenices in the region actively work to cover-up sex trafficking cases. These include organizations that receive U.S. funds. The U.S. State Department is fully aware of these allegations through complaints that have been submitted to them.

The cases of Teresa Martínez, Lydia Cacho and Patricia Villamil represent part of a disturbing but not unfamiliar pattern. Although Latin America has moved away from its past traditions of authoritarian rule and political repression as its standard response to unconventional viewpoints, some of those in power continue to use such tactics when they find it convenient to achieving their more sinister goals.

Mexico and the Triple Frontier region in South America are two of the most critical hot spots for sexual slavery in the world. Any prosecutor or activist who dares to stand-up and defend the innocent children, adolescents and women who are victimized by this multi-billion dollar criminal business can expect to face retaliation. In other cases, such as those involving the mass sex trafficking of women and girls from the Dominican Republic to Argentina and other global destinations, the corrupt practices that allow these tragedies to continue to occur are not-yet clearly visible to the general public.

We who engage in anti-trafficking analysis work and news coverage will continue to bring these little-known dynamics to light.

There is an important lesson to be learned by the anti-trafficking movement and government entities working in the field in regard to this theme. The fact is that not everyone with official powers actually wants to see human trafficking and the sexual exploitation of women and children with impunity ended. Whether they are driven by greed and payoffs, or by the fact that their worldview is based on a sexist machismo that condones exploitation, or whether it is because they themselves exploit victims, many politicians and law enforcement authories across the Americas do not support the effort to stop the modern day slavers in our midsts.

Acknowledging that fundamental reality must become the first step to re-building the currently less-than-effective global strategies that are in-use for tackling traffickers and shutting them down for good.

A global campaign of condemnation that denounces the retaliatory action taken against Teresa Martínez must also be organized. A similar effort was highly effective in rescuing Lydia Cacho from unjust imprisonment in Mexico. People of conscience must make that happen once again. This time, it is Teresa Martínez who needs our help.

Finally, we call upon U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Ambassador Luis CdeBaca, director of the Trafficking in Persons office at State to provide all necessary support for Martínez in her time of need.

We say: End impunity now!

Chuck Goolsby

LibertadLatina

Oct. 15, 2011

See also:

Added: Oct. 15, 2011

Paraguay

Deputy Aída Robles, chairwoman of the Commission on Equality and Gender in the Congress of Paraguay

Preocupación por desafuero de la fiscala Teresa Martínez

La diputada Aída Robles (PPC-Central), titular de la Comisión de Equidad y Género, en conferencia de prensa, manifestó su preocupación por la Resolución del Jurado de Enjuiciamiento de Magistrados, relacionado al desafuero de la Agente Fiscal, abogada Teresa Martínez, de la Unidad Especializada contra la trata de personas y explotación sexual de niños, niñas y adolescentes. El documento que involucra a la afectada fue caratulado por difamación, calumnia e injuria.

"Estamos muy preocupados por la situación de la fiscala Teresa Martínez, porque es una de la que ha demostrado una capacidad de lucha contra la trata de personas, explotación sexual de niños y niñas en nuestro país. La fiscala recibe esta mañana (viernes 30 de setiembre), la notificación de desafuero, aparentemente por dos casos específicos; uno de ellos, se refiere al caso de Tacumbú, sobre pornografía infantil y el otro por realizar allanamiento de un lupanar", explicó la parlamentaria Robles.

Finalmente, la diputada Aída Robles, informó que desde la comisión que preside, realizarán las investigaciones correspondientes para esclarecer el caso, teniendo en cuenta la labor que desempeña la fiscala Teresa Martínez, contra la trata de personas y la explotación sexual de menores.

Congresswoman expresses concerns in regard to the impeachment of Teresa Martínez

Congressional deputy Aída Robles of the PPC-Central Party, who is also the chairwoman of the Commission on Equality and Gender, held a press conference to express her grave concerns in regard to the recent resolution of the Trial Jury for Magistrates, in which that body moved to impeach Teresa Martínez, who is Paraguay’s anti trafficking prosecutor within the Attorney General’s special unit to combat human trafficking and the sexual exploitation of children and adolescents. Martínez was charged [by a subject that she was investigating for child exploitation] with libel, slander and insult.

Deputy Robles, “We are very worried about the situation facing Teresa Martínez, because she has demonstrated that she has the ability to lead the struggle against human trafficking and child sexual exploitation in our nation. Prosecutor Martínez received the decision in regard to her impeachment on the morning of Sep. 30^th, 2011. The charges refer to both a child pornography case that occurred in the Tacumbú barrio of the capital city of Asunción, and also to a raid on a brothel.”

Deputy Robles also announced that the congressional Commission on Equality and Gender will conduct hearings to clarify the events in this case in the context of the work that Teresa Martínez carries out against human trafficking and child sexual exploitation.

La Presna

Paraguay

Sep. 30, 2011

See also:

Added: Oct. 15, 2011

Paraguay

La Diputada Aida Robles dijo que la fiscal Teresa Martínez es perseguida por gente poderosa

Deputy Aída Robles declares that prosecutor Teresa Martínez is being persecuted by powerful individuals

During a press conference organized in response to the impeachment of prosecutor Teresa Martínez, Paraguayan congressional deputy Aida Robles declared that the anti trafficking prosecutor is being persecuted by powerful people.

Deputy Robles noted that it is critically important that Paraguay have a point person in charge of anti trafficking prosecutions. She added that it would not be possible for the impeachment of Martínez to have occurred without the [behind the scenes] influence of powerful people being involved. She added that these forces want to see an end to the prosecution of human traffickers in Paraguay.

(Audio - In Spanish)

Radio Cardinal

Paraguay

Sep. 30, 2011

See also:

Added: Oct. 15, 2011

Paraguay

Diputada Aida Robles lamenta influencias en relación con el desafuero de fiscala Teresa Martínez

Paraguayan Congressional deputy Aida Robles laments that external influences have cause the impeachment case against anti trafficking prosecutor Teresa Martínez to come about.

(Audio - In Spanish)

Radio Ñanduti

Paraguay

Sep. 30, 2011

See also:

Added: Oct. 15, 2011

Context from 2010

Paraguay

U.S. Embassy cable on human trafficking conditions

...Most trafficking victims depart Paraguay via land border crossings near Ciudad del Este, Asuncion, and Encarnacion. The Women's Secretariat provided direct aid to 19 women in 2009. Of these, two were trafficked domestically, while the others went to Argentina (53%), Bolivia (31%), Japan (8%), and Spain (8%.).

Anecdotal evidence suggests that each year several thousand women, children, adolescents, and trans-gendered prostitutes (taxi boys) are trafficked internationally. An estimated 80 percent of victims are young women and adolescent girls. The Women's Secretariat (SMPR) estimated in January 2010 that 95 percent of TIP victims are exploited for commercial sexual purposes and that 52 percent of victims were minors.

...Paraguayan women, adolescent girls, and children are most at risk of being trafficked, primarily for purposes of sexual exploitation. Many street children are also trafficking victims. Studies show that most victims worked as street vendors when traffickers targeted them and that 70 percent of victims had drug addictions. Poor indigenous women living in the interior are also at significant risk. Argentine authorities speaking at seminars in Paraguay noted they frequently require translation assistance from Paraguayan consulates to interview TIP victims who speak only [the indigenous language] Guarani...

U.S. State Dept.

Feb. 17, 2010

See also:

Added: Oct. 15, 2011

Context from 2005

Paraguay

U.S. Embassy cable on human trafficking conditions

TIP (Trafficking in Persons) Senior Reporting Officer Linda Brown visited Paraguay as part of a four-country tour of South America. In meetings with Embassy officers, governing party officials, and representatives of NGOs, Brown discussed Paraguay's progress in combating trafficking in persons…

Brown had a number of meetings with various officials and NGOs, raising a number of issues in Paraguay's efforts to combat TIP.

Minister for Children and Adolescents Mercedes Britez de Buzo

--The Minister described efforts to combat the trafficking in children, pointing to participation in Embassy Montevideo's regional project, participation in the Embassy's bilateral project, and efforts to criminalize child pornography...

-- She spoke of the need to prosecute traffickers but conceded, based upon her own experiences as a prosecutor and judge, that it is not career enhancing in the judicial system to focus on trafficking or children's issues.

Attorney General Oscar Latorre and Prosecutor Teresa Martínez

--Latorre offered general remarks about the importance of stopping trafficking, but was not positive about prospects for the creation of a specialized unit of anti-trafficking prosecutors.

--Martínez described the history of TIP prosecutions in Paraguay, observing that the issue was unknown just 18 months ago, and is now an important focus in the Public Ministry (prosecutor’s office)...

Martínez described the difficulties in getting victims to cooperate, and the Attorney General's lack of legal authority to investigate independently.

Independent Women's Rights Activist and Consultant Andrea Cid

--The discussion primarily dealt with Paraguayan culture and the ways in which it complicates both government and NGO efforts to fight trafficking. In the eyes of many here, prostitution is not a bad thing in and of itself. Given the levels of stark poverty in the country, many feel that prostitution is a legitimate way to earn a living. Many families, she said, knowingly sell their own daughters into prostitution abroad in the hope that the girls will send money home.

--The legal culture in Paraguay complicates efforts to stop trafficking. She described the Penal Code and the entire judicial system as lenient, with laws prescribing mild penalties for crimes such as trafficking. The authorities are unable to stop traffickers from threatening victims who file complaints with prosecutors.

U.S. State Dept.

Jan. 04, 2005

See also:

Added: Aug. 04, 2011

Paraguay

Mujeres indígenas van perfilándose cada vez más como víctimas

La trata de personas es un delito que tiene como principales víctimas a personas de sectores vulnerabilizados en sus derechos, en particular cada vez más, a la población indígena.

La trata de personas es un problema sin visibilidad en las comunidades campesinas e indígenas, lo que constituye un negocio de pocos que nos desafía a todos.

El 14 de julio, en algunos medios de prensa, se publicó un caso de explotación de niñas indígenas del Chaco (como por ejemplo en el Última Hora Digital).

En la ocasión, realizamos la siguiente reflexión:

Es preciso estar cada vez más atentos ante el flagelo de la explotación sexual comercial, la explotación laboral, la servidumbre doméstica y el comercio de niños y niñas.

La trata de personas es un delito que tiene como principales víctimas a personas de sectores vulnerabilizados en sus derechos, en particular cada vez más, a la población indígena, que inmersa en situaciones de desigualdad y abandono, fácilmente escucha y accede a promesas de una mejora de vida hecha por personas inescrupulosas.

Las mujeres, más aún cuando son niñas y no hablan español, son muy proclives a ser engañadas. En este caso, se trató de niñas indígenas totalmente indefensas (que por razones de feria judicial en Argentina, todavía no han logrado retornar). En efecto, las jóvenes, niñas y adultas mujeres, al ser traficadas, una vez en el lugar de destino, ya se topan con un entorno desconocido, no cuentan con posibilidades de contacto familiar, ningún tipo de soporte, lo cual las coloca en una situación de desamparo total. Esta vez, el accionar de ambos Estados estuvo de su lado ¿pero, y el resto de casos denunciados y no denunciados? ¿y la trata interna de mujeres indígenas?

Paraguayan Indigenous women are increasingly being targeted as victims of human trafficking

Human trafficking is a problem without visibility in rural and indigenous communities. It is a business run by a few but which impacts many.

On July 14^th a number of media outlets published reports about the case of the exploitation of indigenous girls in the nation’s Chaco region.

On occasion, we have made the following observation: We must be increasingly vigilant against the scourge of commercial sexual exploitation, labor exploitation, domestic servitude and the trade in children.

Human trafficking is a crime whose main victims are people from sectors of society whose rights are vulnerable. This includes, increasingly, the indigenous population, which continues to be immersed in [a social condition of] inequality and neglect, which makes them at-risk to going along with the false promises of a better life to which they are subjected by unscrupulous people.

Women, and especially girls who do not speak Spanish, are very much at-risk of being deceived. This case involved two completely defenseless indigenous girls (who for reasons of the justice process in Argentina have not yet been returned [to their families]).

Young women, girls and adult women who have been trafficked are, once they reach the [trafficker’s intended] destination, faced with an unfamiliar environment. They have no access to family or other forms of support, which makes them helpless.

In this particular case, the actions of both states (Argentina and Paraguay) stood with the victims. But what about the [many] cases that go unreported. And what about the problem of the internal trafficking of indigenous women?

Base-IS

July 20, 2011

Added: Oct. 12, 2011

Paraguay

Teresa Martínez

Fiscales denuncian violación de Constitución en desafuero de Martínez

A través de un comunicado, la Asociación de Agentes Fiscales del Paraguay refiere que la decisión del Jurado de Enjuiciamiento de Magistrados, de levantar los fueros a la fiscala Teresa Martínez, es una flagrante violación de los artículos 255 y 270 de la Constitución Nacional, como una garantía del agente fiscal para el ejercicio independiente de su rol constitucional.

“Esta decisión establece un preocupante precedente que atenta en contra de la independencia en el ejercicio de las funciones de los Agentes Fiscales; pudiéndose llegar al absurdo de que el imputado en una causa penal podrá promover una querella por calumnia contra el funcionario fiscal encargado de la investigación con la finalidad de separarlo de la misma, con lo cual todo agente fiscal se encuentra expuesto a este tipo de acciones temerarias”, refieren.

En el texto, los fiscales instan al Jurado de Enjuiciamiento de Magistrados, a la rectificación inmediata de la medida tomada; a los Magistrados Judiciales, a valorar y fundar debidamente sus resoluciones en este tipo de casos, más aún teniendo en consideración la naturaleza y gravedad de los hechos punibles investigados por la fiscala Teresa Martínez, vinculados a la trata y explotación sexual de niños, niñas y adolescentes.

El viernes 30 de septiembre, el Jurado de Enjuiciamiento de Magistrados resolvió desaforar a la fiscala de la unidad de Trata de Personas, Teresa Martínez, a pedido del juez Manuel Aguirre, para ser juzgada por una acción de difamación, calumnias e injurias.

Durante la misma jornada del viernes, la Mesa Interinstitucional para la Prevención y Combate a la Trata de personas en el Paraguay solicitó a los miembros del Jurado de Enjuiciamiento de Magistrados reconsiderar la postura y las medidas respecto al desafuero de la fiscala Martínez.

Prosecutors denounce the impeachment of Teresa Martínez as a violation of the Paraguayan Constitution

The professional association of prosecutors in Paraguay has issued a press release in which they declare that the recent decision by the Trial Jury for Magistrates to impeach anti trafficking prosecutor Teresa Martínez is a flagrant violation of Articles 255 and 270 of the Constitution, which guarantee the independence of prosecutors in the exercise of their constitutional role.

"This decision sets a disturbing precedent which threatens the independent exercise of the prosecutorial function. The decision could result in the absurd scenario where a defendant in a criminal case could initiate a defamation lawsuit against the prosecutor in their case, with the intent of removing them. All prosecutors would then be exposed to such reckless actions,” said the statement.

Prosecutors urged the Trial Jury for Magistrates to take immediate action to rectify the decision made to bring prosecutor Martínez to trial, especially taking into consideration the nature and severity of the offenses that are investigated by Martínez, which involve cases of human trafficking and the sexual exploitation of children and adolescents.

On Friday September 30, the Trial Jury for Magistrates ruled in favor of a request by judge Manuel Aguirre to bring Martínez to trial on charges of defamation, libel and slander.

On the same day, the Inter-agency Commission for the Prevention and Combating Trafficking in Paraguay [a federal inter-agency coordinating committee] also asked the members of the Trial Jury of Judges to reconsider their decision to impeach prosecutor Martínez.

ABC Color

Paraguay

Oct. 03, 2011

See also:

Added Oct. 13, 2011

Paraguay

Jurado deja sin fueros a fiscala Martínez

El Jurado de Enjuiciamiento de Magistrados resolvió desaforar a la fiscala de la unidad de Trata de Personas, Teresa Martínez, a pedido del juez Manuel Aguirre, para ser juzgada por difamación, calumnias e injurias.

El Jurado de Enjuiciamiento de Magistrados finalmente resolvió desaforar a la fiscala de la unidad de Trata de Personas, Teresa Martínez, luego de que Anastacio Gómez Romero la denunciara ante el juez Manuel Aguirre.

La fiscala Teresa Martínez expresó a ABC Digital que el Jurado de Enjuiciamiento de Magistrados no le había notificado, y que recién a las 10 del viernes le enviaron una notificación.

“Es algo muy grave. Voy a contratar un abogado y defenderme. Tengo que pedir una copia de la denuncia. Es la primera vez en 30 años que recibo una denuncia”, expresó Martínez a nuestro medio…

La fiscala expresó que sus casos están concluyendo, y lamenta profundamente que no la hayan escuchado antes de tomar la medida.

Jurists remove Teresa Martínez’s prosecutorial authority

The Trial Jury for Magistrates has resolved to impeach Paraguay’s human trafficking prosecutor Teresa Martínez. Judge Manuel Aguirre requested that Martínez be tried for libel, slander and insult.

The decision was made after Anastacio Gómez Romero had filed a complaint against Martínez before Judge Aguirre.

Martínez told ABC Digital that the Trial Jury for Magistrates had not notified her of the decision until 10 AM on Friday.

Martínez, "This is very serious. I will hire a lawyer and defend myself. I have to ask for a copy of the complaint. This is the first time in 30 years that I have received a complaint...”

Martínez said that her cases [active human trafficking prosecutions] are concluding. She said that she deeply regrets that the cases were not heard before the action against her was taken.

ABC Digital

Paraguay

Sep. 30, 2011

See also:

Added Oct. 13, 2011

Paraguay

Fiscala Teresa Martínez respecto a su desafuero y proceso por difamación

Prosecutor Teresa Martínez speaks out in regard to the defamation case against her

(Audio - In Spanish)

Radio Ñanduti

Paraguay

Sep. 30, 2011

See also:

Added Oct. 13, 2011

Paraguay

Dr. Manuel Aguirre aclara sobre recepción de desafuero a fiscala Teresa Martínez

Judge Manuel Aguirre explains his actions in requesting the impeachment of prosecutor Teresa Martínez

(Audio - In Spanish)

Radio Ñanduti

Paraguay

Sep. 30, 2011

Added: Oct. 12, 2011

Paraguay

Paraguay's anti trafficking prosecutor - Teresa Martínez

La Fiscal Teresa Martínez enfrenta jucio por difamación

Boletín de Prensa

Mexico City - La Fiscal Teresa Martínez es desaforada para ser juzgada por difamación, calumnia e injurias, por defender el caso de una adolescente de 16 años que estaba siendo explotada sexualmente.

La Abogada y fiscal de Paraguay, que desde hace tiempo ha desarrollado un intenso trabajo a favor de las víctimas de trata de personas y de explotación sexual en Paraguay, será enjuiciada como defensora de derechos humanos

El caso de la Abogada Teresa Martínez, fiscal de Paraguay, que desde hace tiempo ha desarrollado un intenso trabajo a favor de las víctimas de trata de personas y de explotación sexual en Paraguay, quien también ha llevado casos en las investigaciones con sus países hermanos de Chile y Argentina en donde se han encontrado casos de trata.

En esta ocasión, Teresa llevaba un caso en el que estaba defendiendo a una chica de 16 años que estaba siendo explotada sexualmente. Por esta razón, le han demandado bajo los cargos de difamación, injurias y calumnias lo que ha llevado a su desafuero.

No podemos permitir que defensores que han estado trabajando en la impartición de justicia queden sin protección del estado y que sean incluso encarcelados por cumplir con su deber…

El resultado de su trabajo ha permitido la penalización y desarticulación de grupos dedicados al delito de la traía de personas en Paraguay y países colindantes.

Este desafuero resulta suspicaz ya que interfiere con algunas investigaciones en curso.

Repudiamos este desafuero que obstaculiza el combate a la trata de personas.

Solicitamos se reconsidere el desafuero de la fiscal, teniendo en cuenta la. trayectoria Teresa Martínez en la lucha contra la trata de personas, reconocida a nivel Nacional e Internacional.

Teresa Martínez es punta de flecha en el combate a la trata de personas a nivel Latino-americano, puntal en las operaciones de investigación y persecución para la desarticulación de las bandas delictivas e individuos que comercian con los seres humanos en todas sus modalidades.

Decisiones como ésta, exponen a los defensores de los Derechos Humanos frente a los delincuentes e impiden que puedan ejercer sus funciones como operadores de justicia quedando expuestos a denuncias que buscan evitar la aplicación de la Ley por parte de delincuentes.

Anti trafficking prosecutor faces impeachment for defamation in relation to her work

Press Release