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CANADA

Last Updated November 25, 2005

Racist Impunity's Long History in Canada

Index Inuit - Inuit mother and papoose (ViewImages) Thousands of girls and boys were raped and tortured, and many were murdered, in Canada's aboriginal boarding schools, most of which shut down in the 1970's.

The unchecked criminal violence suffered by these girls and boys has become a major cause of rampant child prostitution and other serious social ills among several generations of Canada's First Nations (Native/indigenous) peoples.  This violence is called genocide

Over 90,000 survivors of the Canadian church and government run aboriginal boarding schools exist.  Their stories are finally being heard by the public, despite efforts by those in power to silence any discussion of the issues.


Soul Wound: The legacy of Native American Schools

A 2001 report by the Truth Commission into Genocide in Canada documents the responsibility of the Roman Catholic Church, the United Church of Canada, the Anglican Church of Canada, and the federal government in the deaths of more than 50,000 Native children in the Canadian residential school system.

The report says church officials killed children by beating, poisoning, electric shock, starvation, prolonged exposure to sub-zero cold while naked, and medical experimentation, including the removal of organs and radiation exposure. In 1928 Alberta passed legislation allowing school officials to forcibly sterilize Native girls; British Columbia followed suit in 1933. There is no accurate toll of forced sterilizations because hospital staff destroyed records in 1995 after police launched an investigation. But according to the testimony of a nurse in Alberta, doctors sterilized entire groups of Native children when they reached puberty. The report also says that Canadian clergy, police, and business and government officials “rented out” children from residential schools to pedophile rings.


....Arnold Sylvester, who like Dennis Charlie attended Kuper Island school between 1939 and 1945, corroborates this account.

“The priests dug up the secret gravesite in a real hurry around 1972, when the school closed. No-one was allowed to watch them dig up those remains. I think it’s because that was a specially secret graveyard where the bodies of the pregnant girls were buried. Some of the girls who got pregnant from the priests were actually killed because they threatened to talk. They were sometimes shipped out and sometimes just disappeared. We weren’t allowed to talk about this.” (Testimony of Arnold Sylvester to Kevin Annett, Duncan, BC, August 13, 1998).

From: Hidden from History: The Canadian Holacaust (Microsoft Word Document).


"These crimes are alleged to have occurred for more than a century in the state-sponsored and church-run Indian Residential Schools which legally interred every Indian child across Canada between the years 1890 and 1984. During this period, more than 50,000 children died in these schools, according to the statistics of [the Canadian] Department of Indian Affairs. Most of the bodies of these dead children have never been located or recovered.

May 20, 2004, a representative of three major indigenous groups in Guatemala presents a formal protest letter to the Canadian Embassy in Guatemala City.


"Mass murder was done to my people and we demand to know where the churches buried the children who never came home from the residential schools. Innocent children were tortured, sterilized, and murdered. Their spirits will never rest until their remains are brought home to their own territory."

- pyouth_union (pseudonym)


Within Canada, indigenous women and children are sexually exploited with impunity.   The notorious residential school system is the most visible marker of sexual and physical violation perpetrated by a society against innocent girls and boys, for the 'crime' of being a "First Nations" person. 
 

 

Love and Death in the Valley is a contemporary David and Goliath tale that will inspire and challenge the reader. It is the personal story of Reverend Kevin Annett, the minister who single- handedly exposed the murder and genocide of aboriginal people by the government of Canada and his employer, the United Church of Canada. This book is his own gripping and passionate account of his heroic efforts against insurmountable odds to document hidden crimes among west coast native people after he began a ministry among them in Port Alberni, British Columbia in 1992.

 
Love and Death in the Valley

Reverend Kevin Annett (See Below)

ISBN: 1403348200

 

 
   Sacred Lives

Canadian Aboriginal Children and Youth Speak Out About Sexual Exploitation

By Save the Children Canada (See below)

Ninety percent of child prostitutes in Canada are indigenous (first nations).

 

 
Flowers on my grave : how an Ojibwa boy's death helped break the silence on child abuse.

Includes bibliography and references.

ISBN 0002554291 (A Phyllis Bruce Book, HarperCollins Publishers re: Lester Disarrays, 1974-1988.
Teichroeb, Ruth

 

 
Victims of benevolence: discipline & death at the Williams Lake Indian residential school, 1891-1920

Williams Lake, British Columbia. Cariboo Tribal Council. Includes bibliographical notes.

ISBN 0969663900. Library of Congress call no. E 96.6 .W54 F87 1992.


 

On the Rape of Indigenous Children with Impunity

 

Sexual abuse of First Nations [Canadian indigenous] children is at crisis proportions. This form of violence is a legacy of colonialism. As previously mentioned, residential schools held First Nations children captives. These children were terrorized sexually with no avenues of escape. When they were allowed to visit their families during holidays, these children often felt increasing loneliness and despair due to a widening sense of cultural estrangement, and abandonment. 

 

From: Lynne, Jackie 1998 "Colonialism and the Sexual Exploitation of Canada's First Nations women," paper presented at the American Psychological Association 106th Annual Convention, San Francisco, California, August 17, 1998.  Jackie Lynne is a social worker based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

 


"...There are a huge number of court cases coming through in this area. The abuse of children was so widespread, that it has formed part of Canada's general history. With newspaper reports of payments to exceed one billion dollars. 
 

.

 

News Articles


Added Nov. 25, 2005

Canada

Indigenous summit ends - Canada to pay US $1.7 billion to thousands of child sexual assault and torture victims of Canada's forced Native boarding school system.

Kelowna, British Columbia province - Prime Minister Paul Martin said Ottawa will spend more than $5 billion on a massive program intended to improve the lives of native people.

$US 1.7 billion will be used to pay thousands of former pupils at 130 forced boarding schools who were subjected to physical and sexual abuse spanning 70 years.

Beverly Jacobs, the president of the Native Women's Association, said there's nothing in this agreement to curb the alarming rate of violence against women.

Premier Martin has promised to hold a future summit on native women's issues.

- CBC News

Canada

Nov. 25, 2005


Added Nov. 25, 2005

Indepth: Aboriginal Canadians

- CBC News

Canada

Nov. 25, 2005


Added Nov. 25, 2005

Abuse payout for Native Canadians.

- BBC News

United Kingdom

Nov. 25, 2005


Added Nov. 25, 2005

Canada's troubled native children

Jul. 31, 2002

- BBC News

United Kingdom


Added Nov. 25, 2005

Canada to settle Indian abuse cases

30 Oct. 30, 2001

- BBC News

United Kingdom


Added Nov. 25, 2005

Abuse in Canada

28 Dec. 28, 2000

- BBC News

United Kingdom


Added Nov. 25, 2005

Canada

Indigenous summit begins

Kelowna, British Columbia -- Indigenous leaders are negotiating with Canadian officials regarding a multibillion-dollar plan to fight poverty  and settle damage claims for mistreatment.

Some 100,000 children were required to attend such residential schools over the past century, and the sad history of their abuse has long been cited by Indian leaders as the root cause of epidemic rates of alcoholism and drug addiction on reserves.

- Associated press

Nov. 25, 2005

 


May 31, 2005

Canada

 Government Funds $5 Million Study of Violence Against Native Women.


October 6, 2004

Aboriginals will Occupy Churches and Government Offices Across Canada to Recover Remains of their People.


October 4, 2004

Amnesty Slams Canada for Ignoring Murders of 500 Indigenous Women Over Last 30 Years.


October 4, 2004

"Discrimination and Violence Against Indigenous Women in Canada" - Amnesty's Report Summary.


December 4, 2003

Vancouver British Columbia - 38-year-old Vancouver sex offender, Martin Tremblay, was sentenced in BC Supreme Court today. Tremblay received 3 and 1/2 years in custody and 18 months probation for sexually assaulting and videotaping 5 Aboriginal girls aged 13-15 at the time.

December 4, 2003 Press Release

- Justice for Girls

 

Hidden from History:
The Canadian Holocaust

The Untold Story of the Genocide of Aboriginal Peoples by Church and State in Canada

by (Rev.) Kevin Annett


Microsoft Word version of the full report:

HIDDEN FROM HISTORY

The Canadian Holocaust

The Untold Story of the Genocide of Aboriginal Peoples by Church and State in Canada

A Summary of an Ongoing, Independent Inquiry into Canadian Native “Residential Schools” and their Legacy


Kevin Arnett's Web Pages on the Canadian Indigenous Genocide:

http://canadiangenocide.nativeweb.org/index.html

http://hiddenfromhistory.org/


Late 2004 Additions to Kevin Arnett's Web Pages:

 

Links to Articles Discussing the Historical Background of School-Based Anto-Indigenous Genocide in Canada

 

(Added December 27, 2003)

Canada and the United States: 

Soul Wound: The legacy of Native American Schools

[About the rape and torture with impunity of Canadian and United States indigenous youth in government and church-run residential schools.]

[In addition to the true history of the sexual assault perpetrated against indigenous Canadian girls and boys for decades, it must be noted that a similar system existed, on perhaps a lesser scale, within the United States.  This article addresses both 'systems' of the systematic rape and torture of children.]

[In Canada:]

A more complete history of the abuses endured by Native American children exists in the accounts of survivors of Canadian “residential schools.” Canada imported the U.S. boarding school model in the 1880s and maintained it well into the 1970s—four decades after the United States ended its stated policy of forced enrollment. Abuses in Canadian schools are much better documented because survivors of Canadian schools are more numerous, younger, and generally more willing to talk about their experiences.

A 2001 report by the Truth Commission into Genocide in Canada documents the responsibility of the Roman Catholic Church, the United Church of Canada, the Anglican Church of Canada, and the federal government in the deaths of more than 50,000 Native children in the Canadian residential school system.

The report says church officials killed children by beating, poisoning, electric shock, starvation, prolonged exposure to sub-zero cold while naked, and medical experimentation, including the removal of organs and radiation exposure. In 1928 Alberta passed legislation allowing school officials to forcibly sterilize Native girls; British Columbia followed suit in 1933. There is no accurate toll of forced sterilizations because hospital staff destroyed records in 1995 after police launched an investigation. But according to the testimony of a nurse in Alberta, doctors sterilized entire groups of Native children when they reached puberty. The report also says that Canadian clergy, police, and business and government officials “rented out” children from residential schools to pedophile rings.

The consequences of sexual abuse can be devastating. “Of the first 29 men who publicly disclosed sexual abuse in Canadian residential schools, 22 committed suicide,” says Gerry Oleman, a counselor to residential school survivors in British Columbia.

Randy Fred (Tsehaht First Nation), a 47-year-old survivor, told the British Columbia Aboriginal Network on Disability Society, “We were kids when we were raped and victimized. All the plaintiffs I’ve talked with have attempted suicide. I attempted suicide twice, when I was 19 and again when I was 20. We all suffered from alcohol abuse, drug abuse. Looking at the lists of students [abused in the school], at least half the guys are dead.”

The Truth Commission report says that the grounds of several schools contain unmarked graveyards of murdered school children, including babies born to Native girls raped by priests and other church officials in the school. Thousands of survivors and relatives have filed lawsuits against Canadian churches and governments since the 1990s, with the costs of settlements estimated at more than $1 billion. Many cases are still working their way through the court system.

[In the United States:]

Rampant sexual abuse at reservation schools continued until the end of the 1980s, in part because of pre-1990 loopholes in state and federal law mandating the reporting of allegations of child sexual abuse. In 1987 the FBI found evidence that John Boone, a teacher at the BIA-run Hopi day school in Arizona, had sexually abused as many as 142 boys from 1979 until his arrest in 1987. The principal failed to investigate a single abuse allegation. Boone, one of several BIA schoolteachers caught molesting children on reservations in the late 1980s, was convicted of child abuse, and he received a life sentence. Acting BIA chief William Ragsdale admitted that the agency had not been sufficiently responsive to allegations of sexual abuse, and he apologized to the Hopi tribe and others whose children BIA employees had abused.

 

(Added December 30, 2003)

British Columbia, Canada

Native Men Tell of Rape

...A hushed BC Supreme Court heard a 44 year-old native man tell Monday of being raped by a dormitory supervisor at the Alberni Residential Shool when he was 10 years old. Dennis Thomas was testifying at the first day of the second phase of the lawsuit by two dozen former students. They're seeking compensation for sexual and physical abuse. In the first phase, the federal government and the United Church of Canada were found "vicariously liable" as the employer/operator of the school for the assaults. The second phase deals with direct liability and the issue of knowledge...

 

(Added December 27, 2003)

Canada:

The Indian Residential School Survivor's Society

[About the rape and torture with impunity of Canadian indigenous youth in government and church-run residential schools.]

...Psychological and emotional abuses were constant: shaming by public beatings of naked children, vilification of native culture, constant racism, public strip and genital searches, withholding presents and letters from family, locking children in closets and cages, segregation of sexes, separation of bothers and sisters, proscription of native languages and spirituality. In addition, the schools were places of profound physical and sexual violence: sexual assaults, forced abortions of staff-impregnated girls, needles inserted into tongues for speaking a native language, burning, scalding, beating until unconscious and/or inflicting permanent injury.

**

Psychological and emotional abuses were constant: shaming by public beatings of naked children, vilification of native culture, constant racism, public strip and genital searches, withholding presents and letters from family, locking children in closets and cages, segregation of sexes, separation of bothers and sisters, proscription of native languages and spirituality. In addition, the schools were places of profound physical and sexual violence: sexual assaults, forced abortions of staff-impregnated girls, needles inserted into tongues for speaking a native language, burning, scalding, beating until unconscious and/or inflicting permanent injury.

They also endured electrical shock, force-feeding of their own vomit when sick, exposure to freezing outside temperatures, withholding of medical attention, shaved heads (a cultural and social violation), starvation (as punishment), forced labor in unsafe work situations, intentional contamination with diseased blankets, insufficient food for basic nutrition and/or spoiled food. Estimates suggest that as many as 60% of the students died (due to illness, beatings, attempts to escape, or suicide) while in the schools.

**

...Today, approximately 90,000 survivors in their thirties and older are trying to understand, heal from, and move beyond this devastating experience. About 14% are involved in some form of litigation while the other 86% are living out their lives as best they can.

"What I remember of that time was passing Muncho Lake on the trip up north, [to residential school] and imagining I was drowning. That is where I left my life; I drowned in Muncho Lake. I haven't forgiven my parents to this day because...they weren't there to protect me."

Survivor, Kamloops School
2000

It is generally accepted that the forced removal of children from their families was devastating for Aboriginal individuals, families, communities and cultures. This is regularly being confirmed by researchers today.

First Nation communities experience higher rates of violence: physical, domestic abuse (3x higher than mainstream society); sexual abuse: rape, incest, etc. (4-6x higher); lack of family and community cohesion; suicide (6x higher); addictions: drugs, alcohol, food; health problems: diabetes (3x higher), heart disease, obesity; poverty; unemployment; illiteracy; high school dropout (63% do not graduate); despair; hopelessness; and more.

The Indian Residential School Survivors Society was formed to provide help, hope, healing and honor for those adult children who are still seeking resolution in their lives. If you wish to email any of our staff please go to our staff and email page.

 

(Added December 27, 2003)

Canada: 

Abuse in the aboriginal residential schools in Canada & the Mushkegowuk Cree of Fort Albany, Ontario - Abstract

[About the rape and torture with impunity of Canadian indigenous youth in government and church-run residential schools.]

This is a 10 page paper discussing abuse in Aboriginal residential schools in Canada and in particular that in Fort Albany, Ontario. Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries in Canada, the federal government in partnership with a number of religious organizations ran over 130 “residential schools” for Aboriginals. 

Originally intended to promote the assimilation of the Aboriginal people within white society, by the time the majority of the schools closed in the 1960s and 1970s, it soon became obvious that in addition to religion and education being promoted within the schools, so too was a horrific amount of physical and sexual abuse being performed. Generations of Aboriginals who passed through the schools have suffered a great deal from the abuse and are trying within their own communities to heal from their ordeals.

 

(Added December 27, 2003)

Canada: 

Aboriginal Peoples and Residential Schools in Canada

[About the rape and torture with impunity of Canadian indigenous youth in government and church-run residential schools.]

There are a huge number of court cases coming through in this area. The abuse of children was so widespread, that it has formed part of Canada's general history. With newspaper reports of payments to exceed one billion dollars. But the cost in human life, in human suffering - is beyond any words that I can write. Native Law does not provide legal counsel. This page is for educational (bibliographic) purposes only.

[This document contains over 90 bibliographic references to to Canadian residential school sexual assault issue.]

 

Apri 27, 2003 

Ex-residential school student files suit. CANADA: A middle-aged Yukon man is suing the federal government and the Catholic Church for abuses he says he suffered at the hands of priests responsible for his care during his days at the Lower Post, B.C. residential school. The lawsuit was filed with the Yukon Supreme Court earlier this month. In it, the 57-year-old first nation man says he was repeatedly sexually assaulted by two boys' dorm supervisors over an eight-year period. The man would have been five or six when the abuse started in September 1952. It didn't end until June 1960. While he's suing the Attorney General of Canada, the Catholic Episcopal Corporation of Whitehorse, four religious orders and the priest in charge of the school, it's the two dorm supervisors who were responsible for the abuse, the lawsuit alleges. 

-- Whitehorse Star, "Ex-residential school student files suit," 

From: www.whitehorsestar.com/ , by Sarah Elizabeth Brown, (Poynteronline, Posted by Kathy Shaw, Apr 27 03)

 

May 14, 2003

Denomination Thwarts Bankruptcy 

From: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2003/005/14.25.html

Christianity Today: CANADA: The Anglican Church of Canada has made a deal with the Canadian government that leaders hope will keep the denomination from bankruptcy. The agreement, signed on March 11, caps the church's financial responsibility at $25 million for lawsuits alleging physical and sexual abuse in Indian residential schools (CT, Jan. 7, 2002, p. 20). The Anglican Church will be responsible for 30 percent of compensation awarded in validated cases of abuse; the federal government will pay the other 70 percent. Although only 11 dioceses ran schools, all 30 are taking responsibility for compensating victims. "I'm very pleased and, in a way, amazed that dioceses so quickly could mobilize themselves to make decisions," said Archdeacon Jim Boyles, the church's general secretary and chief negotiator. The agreement puts pending court cases into an alternative dispute resolution process. This will include counselling, pastoral care, therapy and legal advice, says Anglican Archdeacon Larry Beardy, a member of the negotiating team.

 

Canada - October 5, 2002 - Poverty leads to prostitution

EDMONTON -- A large number of aboriginal women work in the sex trade out of poverty -- and their children follow in their footsteps, say outreach workers.

 

From:

Advocacy e-Mail Newsletter  1998-2001 - Chuck Goolsby

1-Subject: Young Indian Children in Saskatchewan, Canada Sexually Exploited

From: cmg_jr@ix.netcom.com

Date: 01/28/01 09:55:34

Subject: Young Indian Children in Saskatchewan, 

Canada Sexually Exploited


 8-year-old prostitutes stun Saskatchewan politicians

 © 2001 Toronto Globe’s Mail, Canadian Press, Regina  

January 6, 2001

Children as young as eight years old are selling sex on Saskatchewan's streets, social Services officials told shocked politicians yesterday in an all-party committee studying the problem.

Saskatoon police have witnessed johns trying to buy sex from four and five-year-olds, said Randy Pritchard, Social Services’ senior program consultant.  

Mr. Pritchard said poverty and peer pressure play a big part in children ending up on the street.  

He said youngsters use the money they make as prostitutes to buy things they are not getting at home, such as drugs, make-up and clothes.  

They also feel as though they belong to a family of sorts on the street, he said, and sometimes lure their friends or younger siblings into the same work.  

Street children typically miss a lot of school, have substance-abuse problems and are coping with sexual and physical abuse at home, said Dan Perrins, deputy minister of social Services.

“The reason they choose street life is because the alternative is worse, and unfortunately the alternative is home,” he said.  

Johns may be seeking out younger sex partner because they think children are less likely to carry sexually transmitted diseases, suggested Laura Bourassa, Crown counsel from the justice Department.

But she added, “You only need to have one sexual encounter to risk getting a sexually transmitted disease.  The chances are you are not the child’s first sexual encounter.”  

She estimated that as many as 200 children-most of them aboriginal-are working in each of Saskatchewan’s two major cities and as many as 85 are in Prince Albert. 

 

From:

Advocacy e-Mail Newsletter  1998-2001 - Chuck Goolsby

2-Subject: Aboriginals make up majority of young prostitutes (About the report "Sacred Lives, Canadian Aboriginal Children & Youth Speak Out About Sexual Exploitation" - see article #4 also.)

12/06/2000 - © 2000 Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

 

Date: 12/06/00 00:40:28

Subject: Indigenous youth make up 90 percent of

Canada's child, teen prostitutes.

  

Dear friends of human rights - FYI. 

Chuck Goolsby

Date:    12/06/00 00:08:27

 

Subject: Re: Aboriginals make up majority of young prostitutes

 

Hi L.,

 

Thank you much for this information.  I guess you know that I have, in the past, made the same point.  Not a nice point to make, and one that goes against cultural currents that stress covering up any reality that can cause an individual embarrassment within those cultures.

 

In the age of HIV/AIDS, those codes of silence have to end, or the sexual oppression of indigenous youth, which is common throughout all regions in the Americas, will cause a permanent end to the indigenous peoples affected.  To stop that result, people must begin to speak up and defend our young people.

  

People of conscience everywhere need to

understand that reality as it relates to youth of

all racial and ethnic backgrounds.  

 

 - Chuck Goolsby

 


 

Aboriginals make up majority of young

prostitutes

 

© 2000 Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

Dec 4, 2000

 

OTTAWA - A government report has found that

up to 90 per cent of child and teen prostitutes in

Canada are aboriginal.   The 97-page report,

called "Sacred Lives," says the aboriginal

community faces unacceptable risks of being

dragged into the commercial sex trade.  

 

Risk on the street

 

The study, which includes interviews with 150

aboriginal youth who have been sexually

exploited, says it's vital for them to re-establish

cultural connections.  The report was done by

Save the Children Canada and the federal

government and released on Monday.  

 

The authors, Cherry Kingsley and Melanie

Mark, found that widespread racism,

declining culture, and crushing poverty

are among the reasons native youth end

up on the streets.  

 

One native youth interviewed in the report

said they're targets for prostitution because

they're vulnerable and used to the exploitation.

 

Kingsley and Mark, who are both native,

travelled across Canada for five months to do

the study.  

 

"It was a really haunting, gruelling

experience," Kingsley said on Monday.

"These young people came forward with the

hope things would be different and they

deserve a response," she said.

 

The report recommends a series of round-

table discussions and building a national

youth network.

 

"There's no sex trade in the world that can

survive unless we let it collectively, and it's

thriving," Kingsley said.

 

Last month, an international report suggested

a lack of government planning is turning

Canada into a hot spot for the sexual

exploitation of children.

 

 

From:

Advocacy e-Mail Newsletter  1998-2001 - Chuck Goolsby

Subject: Indian Lawsuits on School Abuse

May Bankrupt Canada Churches (Excerpt)

 

Date: 11/02/00 12:30:28

 

Subject: Canadian indigenous boarding school rape victim lawsuits to bankrupt Canadian churches

 

Dear friends of human rights,  

 

The use of violent sexual assault as a tool of the oppression of indigenous (Indian/Native) women, minor girls and boys and even men, has been a feature of life in the Americas since 1492.  Within the U.S., numerous government and church run boarding schools have been the location of mass rapes of Indian children.  Several years ago, over 400 children in a

school in the Southwest were the victims of such assaults.  A Lakota psychologist found, in the 1970's, a school in the U.S. Northwest where 80 of the 120 girl boarding school students had been raped by non-Indians from the local town.  All over Latin America, many indigenous women and minor girls continue to

suffer the fate that their mothers and grand-mothers have suffered since 1492 at the hands of men who rape them with impunity.  

 

These policies, together with the actions of the U.S. Indian Health Service in their forced sterilization campaign against indigenous women, in which 70,000 women were victimized in the 1960's and 1970's,

represents genocidal violence that has been perpetrated with impunity.

  

A couple of years ago, a Canadian indigenous chief spoke on CBC, the Canadian Broadcast System, heard locally in DC on WAMU FM, a public radio station.  This chief related how he, after being forced to go to a religious run boarding school, was subjected to routine beatings, electric shock and RAPE, from the

age of 12, perpetrated by clerics at the school.

 

Please find here below an excerpt of the beginning of an article from the November 2, 2000 edition of the New York Times regarding this issue in Canada.  

 

As the descendant of Catawba and Muskogee Creek peoples who also faced this racist madness, I encourage all of you to act, in this day and age, to assist the women and minor girls in our local communities who continue to suffer sexual assault from men who act with brazen impunity.  Why?  In many cases, it is because indigenous women and girls are not viewed as having even the right to their own bodies, nor to the human dignity and protection from crime that we take for granted.  

 

Sincerely,

 

 

- Chuck Goolsby

 

 

Other Resources from www.ReligiousTolerance.org

Books on residential schools:

  • Constance Deiter, "From Our Mothers' Arms."  Out of print but may be available through public libraries.

  • Suzanne Fournier and Ernie Grey, "Stolen From Our Embrace: The abduction of First Nations children and the restoration of aboriginal communities," Out of print, but a used copy can often be ordered

  • Agnes Grant, "No End of Grief: Indian Residential Schools in Canada," Pemmican Publications, (1996). Read reviews / order this book.

  • Jim Miller, "Shingwauk's Vision," University of Toronto Press, (1996). Read reviews / order this book safely from Amazon.com online bookstore.

  • John Molloy, "A National Crime: Canadian Government and the Residential School System, 1879-1986," Can be ordered from http://www.chapters.ca

  • Ruth Teichroeb, "Flowers on my grave : how an Ojibwa boy's death helped break the silence on child abuse," HarperCollins,  Read reviews / order this book. This book describes the brief life of Lester Desjarlais, (1974-1988).

  • Books by the Williams Lake, B.C. Cariboo Tribal Council:

    • "A conspiracy of silence: The care of the Native students at St. Joseph's residential school," (1991).

    • "Victims of benevolence: discipline & death at the Williams Lake Indian residential school, 1891-1920," ISBN 0969663900. 

  • Grant, Peter R. "Settling residential schools claims: litigation or mediation" in Aboriginal Writes, Canadian Bar Association National Aboriginal Law Section, 1998-JAN.
 
Related Issues:

School Exploitation Across Canada & the Americas


Forced Sterilization Across Canada & the Americas


The indigenous of the United States


LibertadLatina.org's Indigenous Latin  America Index

Indigenous Americas - "In situations of armed conflict, abuse against indigenous or other minority group girls and women tends to be particularly cruel. In periods of armed conflict in Latin America, violence against women - especially rape - has been rampant..." 

"In Guatemala, political violence left 150,000 [mostly Mayan] dead and 50,000 disappeared during the 1980s, as well as 200,000 orphans, 40,000 widows, and between 400,000 and one million displaced."

..."In many parts of the world, rape is being used as a weapon of war to terrorize the civil population. In Mexico, during the first years of conflict in Chiapas, 50 rape cases against indigenous women were reported."

From: UNICEF and the AIDS Information Exchange Newsletter

Note: Chiapas, Mexico and Mayan Guatemala are one continuous region.

About this Crisis - The indigenous of Latin America - Index - El Salvador

The El Mozote Massacre (El Salvador): The women were disposed of next. "First they picked out the young girls and took them away to the hills," where they were raped before being killed, Amaya reported. "Then they picked out the old women and took them to Israel Marquez's house on the square. We heard the shots there."

The children died last. "An order arrived from a Lt. Caceres to Lt. Ortega to go ahead and kill the children too," Amaya observed. "A soldier said 'Lieutenant, somebody here says he won't kill children.' 'Who's the sonofabitch who said that?' the lieutenant answered. 'I am going to kill him.' I could hear them shouting from where I was crouching in the tree."

About this Crisis - The indigenous of Latin America - Index - Peru

About this Crisis - The indigenous of Latin America - Index - Guatemala

El Rio Negro (The Mayan Community of Black River, Guatemala) Massacre

"The soldiers and the (paramilitary civil defense) patrollers started grabbing the girls and raping us," recalls Ana, one of a handful of survivors of the massacre. "Only two soldiers raped me because my grandmother was there to defend me. All the girls were raped."

In total, 177 women and children died that day. The village, one of the most far flung of Rabinal municipality in Baja Verapaz province [Guatemala], disappeared.


Other Related Issues in the Americas

LibertadLatina.org's Latin America Index

Mexico Index

Columbia Index


Slavery Index

A New LibertadLatina Index of Indigenous and Latina Women & Child Sex Slavery Issues Listed by Region and Date.

-  Added December 20, 2004

 

 

 
     

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LibertadLatina

Analysis of the political actions and policies of Mexico's National Action Party (PAN) in regard to their detrimental impact on women's basic human rights


Map shows the epicenter of the earthquake in the Caribbean island nation of Haiti, and its proximity to the capitol city - Port-Au-Prince

Haiti

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Added: Feb. 08, 2010

Mexico

Family and friends bid farewell Wednesday to a victim of Sunday's massacre, one of 12 teens and 3 adults killed at a party in Ciudad Juarez.

Photo: Julian Cardona For the Houston Chronicle

Feb. 3, 2010

Dallas Morning News Editorial: Mexico's Rock-bottom Moment

Excerpt

Against a two-decade timeline of drug-trafficking outrages in Mexico, last Sunday's slaughter of 16 at a teenager's quinceañera party in Ciudad Juárez seems likely to follow a familiar pattern. First comes stunned horror. Then comes the national outcry to do something. Government officials get hauled before the legislature for questioning. Someone resigns. Outrage subsides. Life goes on, same as before.

The Mexican government's behavior resembles that of an addict who's yet to hit that rock-bottom moment of realization that things absolutely must change. Yes, President Felipe Calderón has deployed thousands of soldiers and police officers to border cities and targeted corrupt public figures for prosecution. But that's clearly not sufficient.

Back in the 1990s, it seemed impossible that Mexico could slide any further into the depths. Remember when a Catholic cardinal was murdered by drug-cartel gunmen in Guadalajara? Or the well-reported links between a president's brother and the drug cartels? The army general named head of Mexico's drug enforcement agency who was subsequently arrested as an operative for a major cartel? The two northern governors implicated as operatives in a major cartel?

The next decade brought unspeakable levels of violence as rival cartels vied for territorial control. Thousands died. A free-for-all atmosphere now prevails, especially in Juárez.

"Mexico has abandoned us, betrayed us," José Luís Aguilar Rangel said as he looked down upon the coffins of his son and nephew, two of the young victims of the Sunday massacre.

In late 2008, Mexico's federal human rights commission reported that, on average, prosecution and conviction occurs in only one out of every 100 crimes. That's for reported crime. In 90 percent of cases, people don't even bother. Rangel clearly isn't alone in believing the government has abandoned him.

Yet, through it all, Mexican officials consistently play down what's happening. It's worse in Guatemala, they say. Just last month, Dallas Consul General Juan Carlos Cue-Vega sought to minimize the border-area violence as mainly drug thugs killing other drug thugs.

We don't buy it. Those Juárez teens had nothing to do with the drug cartels. In December, gunmen killed the mother, sister and aunt of a military hero who had been killed participating in a drug raid. The terrorists made clear: Come after us, and we'll go after your entire family.

"Where is the line drawn on indiffer-ence? If we cannot answer this question, the assassins can continue hiding themselves under the cloak of a complicit population – [complicit] either by conviction or by apathy," the Mexico City daily El Universal commented...

Dallas Morning News

Feb. 05, 2010

See also:

LibertadLatina Commentary

From top left: Rigoberta Menchu, Esther Chavez, Teresa Ulloa and Lydia Cacho

A Rock-bottom Moment in U.S. Action to Combat Latin American Human Trafficking and Slavery?

Let's draw the line  on indifference!

The February 5, 2010 editorial by the Dallas Morning News, Mexico's Rock-bottom Moment, accurately describes the atmosphere of government corruption and indifference (at the federal, state and local level) that permeates Mexico and allows criminals to engage in horrendous behavior with reckless abandon.

That reality does not only apply to the war on drug cartels. These conditions of impunity also make it nearly impossible to effectively fight modern human slavery and other forms of sexual and labor exploitation.

We say 'modern' human slavery, but in Mexico, slavery, from the time of the Spanish colonization, had actually never stopped. Poor Indigenous and mixed-race (Mestizo) peoples, who are racially marginalized in Mexico, have always been easy marks for sexual and labor exploitation. This reality impacts children especially hard.

In 1994, for example, a U.S. National Public Radio news report noted that in Mexico's southern Chiapas state, the majority indigenous population was expected to serve their whole lives as unpaid peon farm workers on the plantations of wealthy Mexicans of European descent, in exchange for nothing more than being given rice and beans.

That is slavery!

The ability to rape and demand free labor of the Indigenous and Mestizo poor in Mexico with impunity has been a 'right' of the Spanish descended elites for 500 years.

As we have stated in previous comment-aries, our focus on the crisis of gender oppression in Mexico came about because:

1) The oppression of women is severe, and especially impacts indigenous women and girls;

2) by extension, the sex trafficking industry, fueled by the multi-billion dollar drug cartels, enslaves tens of thousands of women and girls each year;

3) Mexico is Latin America's border with the United States, causing the great majority of migration and human trafficking from the region into the U.S. to be funneled through Mexico;

4) With "60 plus" percent of the human trafficking victims in the U.S. being victims who are Latin American, solving the Mexican crisis holds the key to solving foreign sex and labor trafficking in the U.S., and potentially in much of Latin America;

5) Mexico has a brave and very articulate women's rights, indigenous rights and anti-trafficking movement, lead by many unseen leaders, and others who are more visible. they dare to confront impunity in Mexico, despite the risk of government sponsored intimidation, false imprisonment and murder that they face for disrupting the status quo and the power of the elites.

How can a Mexican Government that acts to support those who oppress women be an honest partner in suppressing the power of sex and labor traffickers?

How can a Mexican society that is based upon very strongly embedded traditions of male supremacy (machismo) change to actually begin to defend the basic human rights of women and girls, when its own government fights reform to maintain the status quo?

How can a Mexico where influential business and political leaders have corrupt ties to the sex trafficking 'industry' defeat those forces?

How can activists make progress when international organizations such as Amnesty International have identified the fact that human rights activists face false imprisonment to halt their work, and, together with activist journalists, face a very real threat of being murdered?

These are the pressing questions that the women's rights movement face and seek answers to.

This movement deserves the full moral and financial and collaborative support of human rights, indigenous rights and women's rights activists, and all people of moral conscience, from across the world.

Most importantly, the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama must stand up and very publicly demand that the State of Mexico stop fighting against these human rights movements, and finally adhere to their international commitments to respect the rights of women and children.

The recent track record of the Calderón administration shows that it is indifferent to the issue of human slavery, and will only take minimal action to avoid getting a bad grade (and thus risk possible U.S. sanctions) from the annual U.S. State Department Trafficking in Persons report. Therefore, the movement to end slavery continues its long struggle to force the Calderón government to change its misogynist ways.

Among the leaders of Mexico's pioneering women and children's rights movement are Teresa Ulloa, a pioneering women's rights lawyer and Executive Director of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women for Latin America and the Caribbean (CATW-LAC). Ulloa has been a clear voice for identifying the need to enact and enforce anti-trafficking laws. She has identified the fact that 50 million women and children are at-risk of falling into the hands of human traffickers across all of Latin America. She has also declared that 5 million victims of human trafficking exist within Mexico. Ulloa has also stated that an estimated 1.5 million persons engage in prostitution in Central Mexico alone, and that 75% of those at any given time are girls between the ages of 12 and 13. Ulloa's serious research into these problems contradicts the research of others who conclude that only 20,000 children are engaged in prostitution in Mexico.

We also salute award winning journalist, author and women's center director Lydia Cacho, who responded to the impunity in child sex trafficking in the internationally popular tourist city of Cancun, Mexico by writing a well-researched book that exposed the complex links of collaboration between millionaire entrepreneur Jean Succar Kuri and child sex trafficker and a network of other businessmen and corrupt government officials. In response to the publication of Cacho's book, in December of 2005 the child sex trafficking network exposed by Cacho arranged with the governor of Puebla state, Mario Marin, to have Puebla state police officers arrest Cacho and drive her over 1,000 miles to Puebla state to face criminal charges of defamation for the accusations made in her book. During the trip and while in prison, state officers threatened Cacho with rape and with death.

Eventually cleared of the charges, Cacho has recently faced continuing threats to her life by armed suspects who shadow her daily movements. She lives 24 hours a day with armed guards. While Cacho's supporters in Congress demanded an investigation by the Supreme Court (a role that the Court may play in state corruption cases under Mexico's constitution), and despite the fact that one Supreme Court justice assigned to investigate the case found evidence to warrant investigation of Governor Marin by the full Court, the Court's justices decided that Cacho's treatment did not constitute a violation of her basic rights.

In utter disgust at the Supreme Court's behavior in this case, the Attorney General's special prosecutor for crimes against women, Alicia Elena Perez Duarte, resigned.

Child sex trafficker Jean Succar Kuri is in jail thanks to Cacho's efforts. However Puebla Governor Mario Marin and Succar Kuri's other accomplices continue living undisturbed in complete freedom.

We posthumously salute Esther Chavez, Lydia Cacho's mentor and the founder of the movement to publicize and demand action to end the mass murder (femicide) of women in northern Mexico's Ciudad Juarez. Chavez' tireless work to confront the apathy and impunity of government officials was the training ground that taught a generation of new leadership in the Mexican women's rights movement. By extension, Esther Chavez' legacy guides all of our efforts to dare to face into the wind and openly confront misogynist terrorism across Latin America.

Like Esther Chavez, Rigoberta Menchu is a long time leader working in defense of the basic human rights of indigenous peoples. A K'iche' Maya woman from Guatemala, Menchu's work impacts conditions for indigenous women and children in both Guatemala and Mexico. Winner of the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize, Menchu was a 1997 candidate in Guatemala's presidential elections.

Rigoberta Menchu and her family survived the 1970s-to-1990s anti-Mayan genocide in Guatemala in which 200,00 people died, including 50,000 women. Several members of Menchu's family were murdered, and she, like hundreds of thousands of Mayan Guatemalans, had to flee the attempts of the nation's government to mass murder its indigenous citizens.

Today Menchu continues to promote indigenous and women's human rights through the Rigoberta Menchu Tum Foundation (La Fundación Rigoberta Menchú Tum).

Menchu has been especially active in efforts to end the sex trafficking of young indigenous girls in Guatemala and Mexico, where they consitute one of the largest groups victimized by commercial sexploitation of children (CSEC).

We also give high praises to the CIMAC women's news agency. Their large network of women reporters has persistently documented the outrageous injustices confronting women and girls in Mexican society. CIMAC is not afraid to point the finger at government agencies and officials where that is warranted, in addition to identifying major criminal organizations and individuals who victimize women and girls with impunity.

CIMAC's highly professional news team has described in accurate detail the facts surrounding the issues of sex trafficking, rape and other crimes against women, and the lack of legislative and law enforcement action in Mexico to protect women and girls from these atrocities.

On the single issue of the rape with impunity of (mostly indigenous women and girls) by Mexican military personnel, CIMAC has published more than 340 comprehensive articles since 2007.

In July of 2008, CIMAC's offices were ransacked by 'unknown' vandals. CIMAC's computers were destroyed or stolen. This act of intimidation occurred days after CIMAC published an article that identified the fact that high ranking military officers working at Mexico City's equivalent of the Pentagon frequented the child prostitution brothels that exist just down the street from military headquarters.

Letters of solidarity poured in from across the globe in response to these criminal acts, which remain in impunity.

We especially applaud the fact that CIMAC for covering the mass gender atrocities facing poor indigenous women in a Mexico where such crimes are never, ever punished.

A Google search of the CIMAC News web site shows that:

* 120 CIMAC articles mention Rigoberta Menchu

* 170 CIMAC articles mention the late Esther Chavez

* 120 CIMAC articles mention Teresa Ulloa

* 550 CIMAC articles mention Lydia Cacho

We also give kudos to CIMAC for publishing information from the International Organization for Migration's office in Tapachula, noting that the southern Mexican border with Guatemala is a lawless zone where between 450 and 600 women and girl migrants from Central and South America are raped each day. The same CIMAC article notes that the global NGO Save the Children has identified southern Mexico as being the largest zone for the commercial sexual exploitation of children in the entire world.

Thanks to the trailblazing work of these brave journalists and activists, the criminals, the wealthy business owners and corrupt public servants who cooperate with them can no longer hide under a rock. The evidence is irrefutable that an ongoing mass gender atrocity is taking place in Mexico, and neither the Mexican federal government (lead by a National Action Party which has openly misogynist policies), nor the United States is taking any visible action of significance to stop that violence.

Thanks to the heroic work of Rigoberta Menchu, Esther Chavez, Teresa Ulloa, Lydia Cacho, the team at CIMAC and many other activists, the fact of the human slavery crisis in Mexico and the rest of Latin America cannot be denied by anyone.

These realities present a challenge to the global, and especially to the U.S. based anti-trafficking movements. Do they remain silent on this issue, or do they take appropriate action to give the crisis facing Latinas a proper seat at the table of deliberations in this movement?

The modern anti-trafficking movement was born in the 1990s in response to the enslavement of thousands of Eastern European and Russian women after the fall of the Soviet Union, and focused today principally on the issues of the enslavement of European, South Asian, East Asian and domestic minor U.S. youth. The focus areas reflect, interestingly enough, the ethnicities of the the majority of the activists in this movement.

All of those populations deserve attention. So do Latin American victims. Latin American and Asian victims were trafficked into the U.S. long before the anti-slavery sprung-up in Western nations (The risk of being sex trafficked was known in the U.S. even in the 1950s).

Yet more than ten years into the development of this movement, we have yet to hear public pronouncements about the Latin American / Latina immigrant human slavery crisis from the U.S. Federal Government, nor from the academics nor major U.S. NGO heads in the U.S. who have pioneered the effort to stop modern slavery.

During a number of major speeches on human trafficking that I have attended, virtually every region of the world will be  mentioned except Latin America. Latina immigrant victims in the U.S. are almost never mentioned. Academic papers, speeches and promotional materials from the major anti-trafficking organizations are equally lacking in coverage of the crisis facing Latin America.

In late 2009, for example, I called Public Radio's nationally broadcast Diane Rehm Show based at WAMU, from American University Radio, to talk with Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times reporters Nicholas D. Kristof and his wife Sheryl WuDunn (a former Times reporter), as they discussed their book Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide.

In a reflection of the limited priorities of the majority of NGOs and U.S. federal government voices in the anti-slavery movement, Kristoff and WuDunn emphasized both in their book and during their radio interview, that their coverage of the crisis in women's rights as it exists in developing nations involved East Asia, South Asia and Africa. They did not even mention Latin America.

When I stated that Mexico is a major crisis area for human trafficking and that Save the Children had identified southern Mexico as the largest region for commercial sexual exploitation of children in the world, both authors responded by saying that, in their view, India was the largest zone for sex trafficking in the world and had to be tackled first. They admitted that they had not looked at Latin America in researching their otherwise important book on gender oppression. 

In point of fact, the sex trafficking networks began to focus on Latin America in their search for large numbers of women and children to enslave as law enforcement began to crack-down on Asian sex trafficking several year ago. Latin America's crisis is, arguably, just as large as that of India, where around 1 million children are sex trafficked at any given time.

One of my main motivations for expanding the LibertadLatina project (we are now in our ninth year), was to respond to the lack of publicly available factual information on the crisis in Latin America. That information gap leaves Latin American relatively isolated and without support from the global community (with the active role of the United Nations being a welcome exception to that fact).

I recall that about 7 years ago, a young Asian American man who had just graduated from college with a major in Women's Studies, and who was then a volunteer at Polaris Project, one of the leading anti-trafficking NGOs in the U.S., told me that "Latin America doesn't have a human trafficking problem. My professors said that Latin America didn't have a problem." This guy changed his attitude after I referred him to the LibertadLatina web site.

We would hope that such ignorance was a thing of the past. But today in 2010, the U.S. based anti-slavery movement continues to discuss anti-trafficking as a crime that impacts Europeans, Asians and U.S. domestic minor victims only.

We really have to wonder what the motivations are that drive that misguided thinking.

U.S. Ambassador-at-Large Luis CdeBaca, the Director of the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons at the U.S. State Department, is the U.S. Government's leading voice on human slavery issues. He is Mexican-American, and has prosecuted over 100 human trafficking cases, many involving Latin American victims and perpetrators.

In 2002 CdeBaca invited me to apply for a position as a victim advocate working with his team at the Justice Department's inter-agency Worker's Exploitation Task Force. So it is with great respect that we implore Ambassador CdeBaca to respond forcefully to the critical emergency facing women and girls in Latin America and its Diaspora in the U.S., a crisis that he is thoroughly familiar with.

We also insist that U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Ambassador CdeBaca's boss, and U.S. President Barack Obama, Secretary Clinton's boss, move into action forthwith to address the defense of women and girls being exploited by the Latin American networks who prostitute enslaved Latina victims in urban brothels and rural farm worker camps in almost every county and city in America.

Ambassador CdeBaca, Secretary Clinton and President Obama, we insist that you get together and collaborate to develop a public policy and action plan to address the "60 plus percent" according to Ambassador CdeBaca, of human slavery victims in the U.S. who originated from Latin America. Funding a few NGOs across the region (some of whom are known to misuse their mandates), is not an adequate answer.

You can act to combat these problems without requiring an earthquake to kick-start you in the right direction, which is a process that we have seen of late in regard to Haiti.

We need everyone, the general public, concerned NGOs, academics and other activists to contact the White House, the  U.S. State Department and their congressional members to demand immediate action in regard to the Latin American and indigenous aspects of the human slavery crisis.

Without our efforts, the crisis will continue to grow out of control, putting at risk and entire generation of young women and girls who deserve the right to live in freedom from the tyranny of the gender hostile environment that they live in today.

Write to you senators.

Write to your House of Representatives members.

Write to President Obama

U.S. Department of State 2201 C Street, NW Washington, DC 20520. Main Switchboard: 202-647-4000.

End Impunity Now!

Chuck Goolsby

LibertadLatina

Feb. 08, 2010

See also:

Trata de blancas en Centroamérica

Human Trafficking in Central America [and Mexico]

María de Jesús Silva [who's daughter Jackeline Jirón Silva was kidnapped into sexual slavery at age 11 - comments on her search across Central America and southern Mexico for her daughter]: "I saw things that I never imagined existed... The brothels are full of children, sold by traffickers and abandoned by their parents. I saw them prostitute them-selves and wished that any one of them would have been my daughter. I settled for caressing the hair of these girls, and I imagined that in the 'next' brothel, I was going to find my daughter. Everything that I have suffered through is nothing compared to what my girl is going through."

...According to Ana Salvadó, executive director for Mexico, Latin America and the Caribbean for Save the Children:  "the panorama for childhood in Latin America is growing more bleak over time, and child trafficking is growing rapidly in each of these countries..."

Save the Children has identified the border region between Guatemala and Mexico as being the largest hot spot for the commercial sexual exploitation of children in the entire world.  Ana Salvadó: "It is a bottleneck, because many children attempt to migrate from Central [and South] America to the United States, and they never get past [southern] Mexico…

…A study by the international organization ECPAT… ...reveals that over 21,000 Central Americans, mostly children, are prostituted in 1,552 bars and brothels in Tapachula, Mexico… 

Traffickers sell these child victims to Tapachula's pimps for $200 each.

More that 50% of these children are from [indigenous] Guatemala.  The rest are Salvadorans, Hondurans and Nicaraguans.  They range in age from eight to fourteen-years-old.

...In 2006, the International Labor Organization conducted a survey of adult attitudes in Mexico, Central America and South America, where it is quite easy [for men] to engage in sexual relations with children.

Some 65% of respondents stated that they don't see any problem, and they don't feel any sort of conflict or fear in regard to having sex with boy and girl children, and "they don't feel that there is anything wrong with doing it."

...Mexico has been converted into a paradise for pimps and a living hell for thousands of Central American girl children like Jackeline Jirón Silva, whose captors have prostituted her during the past 32 months.  It is known that during half of that time, Jackeline has been held in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas.

- Ana Lilia Pérez

Revista Contralínea

Oct. 22, 2007

See also:

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

Afirma la experta Teresa Ulloa

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

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

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

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

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

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

Nadia Altamirano Díaz

CIMAC Noticias

Dec. 12, 2008

See Also:

Human Rights Activists in Mexico Under Attack

Activists suffer imprisonment on fabricated charges to stop them from doing their work

Amnesty International

Jan. 21, 2010

See Also:

LibertadLatina

Special Section

Journalist / Activist

Lydia Cacho is

Railroaded by the

Legal Process for

Exposing Child Sex

Networks In Mexico

See also:

The United States

Obama's Slavery Czar

Ambassador-at-Large Luis CdeBaca fights human slavery for a living...

...Whether it was farm workers, or women in brothels, the percentages continue to be overwhelmingly Latino. Sixty-plus per cent of the [trafficking] victims in the U.S. are Hispanic.” ...

Lynn Sherr

The Daily Beast

Nov. 24, 2009

See also:

Ransacking of Longtime Women’s News Agency in Mexico City Raises Concerns About Motives

The devastation and disorder of a burglary and violent vandalism at the women’s news agency CIMAC (Women’s Communication & Information) offices in Mexico City last weekend suggest that it was more than a common break-in, according to Lucía Lagunes Huerta, general director of the organization. Manual Fuentes, a lawyer for CIMAC noted that the evidence might be “leaving a message that CIMAC is vulnerable.” On behalf of the news agency, Fuentes filed a burglary charge with the Attorney General’s office of the federal district of Mexico.

CIMAC has covered women and women’s human rights issues throughout Mexico, Central & Latin America and the world for 20 years, including special in-depth articles about various unresolved cases of femicide and sexual violence against women in Mexico as a systemic violation of women’s human rights. This journalistic work has included the hundreds of murders and disappearances of women in Juarez, Mexico; the 14 cases of sexual assault charges of women against soldiers on July 11, 2006 in Castaños in the northern state of Coahuila; and charges of sexual assault and torture of 26 women by Mexican police on May 3, 2006 in San Salvador Atenco (northeast of Mexico City), all of which remain unresolved.

Fuentes said that in the legal documents filed about the burglary against CIMAC, Erica Cervantes, a staff member declared that when they arrived the morning of Monday, July 28th they found the locks to their offices smashed and totally destroyed. Likewise, the disarray in the office was extensive and unlike typical burglaries was focused more on documents and files, including those containing confidential information about special investigations and coverage by CIMAC. Fuentes said, “it was obvious they were searching for information and documents…this is something that is very serious since CIMAC is dedicated to the denouncement and dissemination of issues that affect women in the exercise of their human rights.” ...

FIRE – Feminist International Radio Endeavour

July 30, 2008

See also:

Modern-Day Slavery in Mexico and the United States

...As Mexico and the U.S. are connected physically and through criminal links, issues the Mexican government deals with will subsequently impact the U.S. Many of the Mexican criminal networks notable for narcotrafficking are also involved in human trafficking. According to the Inter Press Service, “at least 20 networks are involved in the trafficking of persons, with links to organized crime rings involved in other activities like drug smuggling.” Rampant corruption plagues the U.S.-Mexico border, where high-ranking Mexican officials have been accused of taking bribes from drug rings. According to Gary Hale, DEA intelligence chief for Houston, the U.S. effort to end the drug war has forced these criminal networks to seek “other crime activities to generate their income.” Hale reports that, due to the U.S. government’s crackdown on drug trafficking, crime rings income has decreased significantly. As a result, many of the criminal networks have searched for other activities, like human trafficking, to supplement their income.

Ambassador C. de Baca believes that focusing on eradicating human trafficking could improve U.S.-Mexican efforts to combat other forms of transnational crime. According to C. de Baca, human trafficking “appears to be an area where the [Mexican government] is prepared to cooperate with [the U.S.].” C. de Baca and others are hopeful that the exchange of information on human trafficking cases will build relationships between Mexican and U.S. officials that might help further combat the drug war...

Megan McAdams

Council on Hemispheric Affairs

Dec. 21, 2009

United States: Migration and Trafficking in Women
A comparison study on migration and trafficking in women in the US.

Until recently, trafficking of women in the United States was rarely acknowledged. It was not until Russian and Ukrainian women began to be trafficked to the United States in the early 1990s that governmental agencies and many NGOs began to recognize the problem. As many critics, including us, have pointed out, Latin American and Asian women were trafficked into the United States for many years prior to the influx of Russian traffickers and trafficked women. The fact that it took blond and blue-eyed victims to draw governmental and public attention to trafficking in the United States gives, at least, the appearance of racism.

Patricia Hyne

Coalitio Against Trafficking in Women (CATW)

2002


Added: Feb. 08, 2010

Guatemala

At the January 31st, 2010 commemoration of the 1980 Spanish Embassy Massacre, Nobel Laureate Dr. Rigoberta Menchu Tum kneels at a tapestry covered with the names of many of those who were murdered by government forces during the Guatemalan civil conflict.

Exposición fotográfica y artística en conmemoración del 30 aniversario de la masacre de la embajada de España

El día domingo 31 de enero de 2010 diferentes organizaciones de derechos humanos de Guatemala, montaron una exposición plástica en la Plaza Mayor de la ciudad  que incluyo una galería fotográfica de los acontecimientos sucedidos hace 30 años.  La actividad se abrió con una conferencia de prensa presidida por la Dra. Rigoberta Menchú Tum.

Photographic and artistic exhibition in the 30 commemoration of anniversary of the massacre of the embassy of Spain

On January 31st, 2010, human rights organizations from across Guatemala presented an art and photography exhibit to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Spanish Embassy Massacre in Guatemala City. The event began with a press conference by moderated by Dr. Rigoberta Menchú Tum.

Distinguished human rights defenders, including Aura Elena Farfan, Julio Solorzano Foppa, Miguel Ángel Alvizures participated.

Gustavo Meoño and Mario Minera related to the assembled crowd the history of the Spanish Embassy Massacre, in which 37 Mayans, students and Spanish diplomats were killed. The victims included Vicente Menchú, father of Dr. Rigoberta Menchu.

 Noting that, despite the time that passed, this crime remains in impunity. The participants called on the authorities to take action, open an investigation, and punish those responsible for the murders.

The exhibition included photographs that the events of the day of the massacre, as well as the consequences of the government repression during the civil conflict. The photos of some of the [45,000] persons who were made to disappear [during the genocide] were shown.

A huge quilt with the names of victims of the armed conflict was laid in the center of the event grounds.

Guatemalan artist Marlon García displayed some of his works, and collaborated in organizing the exposition. 

Rigoberta Menchu Tum Foundation

La Fundación Rigoberta Menchú Tum

Feb. 02, 2010

See also:

An indigenous woman in Guatemala holds a sign saying: Wanted: Jose Erain Rios Montt (the unseen part says, "for genocide") - during the 28th anniversary of the Spanish Embassy Massacre in Guatemala City, Guatemala in 2008.

General José Efraín Ríos Montt is best known outside Guatemala for heading a military regime (1982–1983) that was responsible for some of the worst atrocities against civilians in the 36-year Guatemalan civil conflict.

Photo: MiMundo

About the Spanish Embassy Massacre

Starting in 1977, a large number of Maya K’iche’ and Maya Ixil inhabitants from the municipalities of Nebaj, Chajul, San Juan Cotzal and San Miguel Uspantan, all located in the northern region of the Department of Quiche, began to organize under the newly created Committee for Peasant Union (CUC). During the year 1979, a number of oppressive acts were carried out by the army against the residents of these municipalities. [That is - military campaigns by government soldiers of mass-rapes and massacres carried out against entire villages of innocent civilians].

In response to such repression, Maya Ixil and Maya K’iche’ peasants, many of them members or local leaders within the CUC, travelled to Guatemala City so as to denounce both at national and international levels the human rights atrocities which were taking place in their communities.

Once in Guatemala City, the peasant delegation visited a number offices and personalities seeking help in divulging their accounts. But their effort was in vain. At the National Congress, access was denied to them. The press also refused to cover the story.

The delegation, however, did receive support from students at the University of San Carlos (USAC), militants from the Robin Garcia Student Revolutionary Front (FERG), some labor unions, as well as a few social organizations... In the end, they decided to occupy an Embassy.

A public declaration from the indigenous communities which peacefully occupied the Spanish Embassy, dated January 31, 1980, states: “...We have been left no other choice but to occupy the Spanish Embassy as the only resource to make our pleas known at both local and international levels.”

The military government of General Lucas Garcia decisively selected to remove the protesters “by any means”. Hence, after only a few minutes after the occupation took place, dozens of police and state security agents surrounded the Spanish Embassy grounds.

Immediately after knocking down the door, [the security forces] made use of a flamethrower, or similar gas-emitting device, against those found inside the ambassador’s office; most were struck by the flames from the waist up and propelled backwards, hence causing a pile-up effect.

Dark smoke was seen come out of the windows, and all 37 people present were burned alive.

The case of the Spanish Embassy Massacre serves as precedent and proof of the intensive and excessive political repression applied by the Government of Lucas Garcia in 1980. It clearly reflects the situation lived during such time where political opposition, demands for social justice, and the denouncement of human rights violations were completely disallowed. In addition, it also reflects the state of terror in which Guatemala society lived under at that time.

Twenty-eight years after the event, a number of activities were carried out to commemorate those massacred: a demonstration in front of the Constitutionality Court (CC), a forum focusing on the topic of Impunity, as well as a vigil in front of the current Spanish Embassy.

Spanish Embassy Massacre: 28th Anniversary

MiMundo

Feb. 27, 2008

See also:

Rigoberta Menchú in Nicaragua

On October 16, 1992, Rigoberta Menchú Tum, heir of the Maya-Quiché people of Guatemala, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The Nobel Committee recognized in Rigoberta Menchú "a symbol of peace and reconciliation 500 years after Christopher Columbus' arrival to America," underscoring that she is a "vivid symbol of peace and reconciliation despite the ethnic, cultural and social divisions in her country, the American continent and the world."

Only a week before, Rigoberta Menchú had been in Nicaragua to attend the III Encounter of the Continental Campaign of 500 Years of Indigenous, Black and Grassroots Resistance, held in Managua from October 7-12. During her stay, she was given an honorary doctorate in Humanities from the Central American University (UCA). The UCA paid homage to her "contribution to the defense of human rights and the indigenous peoples of Latin America, particularly in her country, for more than 15 years," describing her as "a dignified and distinguished representative of the indigenous peoples of our continent."

Rigoberta Menchú's personal denunciations of the marginalization of the continent's indigenous peoples, of which she and her family have been victims, praised UCA rector Xabier Gorostiaga, have "contributed to educating international public opinion about these very serious problems." He noted that she has become "a genuine representative of the indigenous peoples and popular majorities of Central and Latin America, reclaiming the right to freedom and to the life of our cultures, principles shared by the Society of Jesus and the Central American University of Nicaragua."

Father Gorostiaga also recognized that Menchú has been a "Christian leader in her indigenous community, daughter and sister of martyrs, participating since age 10 in pastoral activities, deeply dedicated to an evangelizing mission in favor of the most oppressed and to the formation of an autochthonous church in Guatemala."

 Central American University

Dec., 1992

See also:

LibertadLatina Special Section

About the genocide and femicide confronting women and girls in Guatemala


Added: Feb. 08, 2010

Florida, USA

Advocates Hope to Rescue Underage Super Bowl Sex Slaves

Super Bowl XLIV

Two dozen volunteers from around the country gathered inside a Miami conference room earlier this week to prepare for the Super Bowl.

They're not here for the game, though. They will spend several days fanning out through the city to rescue underage girls who have been trafficked to South Florida as sex workers.

``The Super Bowl is obviously a really big deal for prostitution,'' Sandy Skelaney, a program manager at Kristi House, a program for sexually abused children, told the group.

``We have a bunch of girls being brought down by pimps.''

Just as police, hoteliers, restaurateurs and retailers have prepared for the big game, so too have children's advocates. For weeks, volunteers have printed fliers, prepared scripts and organized outreach teams in an effort to identify -- and, with luck, rescue -- girls who are being forced into prostitution.

Last year, when the Super Bowl was held in Tampa, the state Department of Children & Families took in 24 children who were brought to the city to serve as sex workers, said Regina Bernadin, DCF's statewide human-trafficking coordinator.

``Miami is known as a destination city for human trafficking, and sporting events are generally recognized by the experts as magnets for prostitution,'' said Trudy Novicki, who heads Kristi House...

Throughout the year, Miami-Dade police hold between 15 and 20 operations targeting underage prostitution. For major events, such as the Super Bowl, the department works with the FBI's Innocence Lost Task Force.

``At large events such as this, we increase our presence . . . with the ultimate goal being that no children are sexually exploited,'' Maj. Raul Ubieta, who works with the department's Strategic and Specialized Investigations Bureau, said through a spokesman...

The outreach workers are organized into eight teams, divvying up the Spanish-speakers and trying to have one man each. In teams of two, three or four, the volunteers -- who came from as far as New York City and Alabama -- spread out across Miami-Dade -- from South Beach to Hialeah to Downtown Miami....

Marbin Miller And Jennifer Lebovich

The Miami Herald

Feb. 5, 2010


Added: Feb. 08, 2010

North Carolina, USA

Human-Trafficking Ring Busted in Wilson

Wilson County Sheriff Wayne Gay says that investigators arrested a man Thursday for allegedly running a prostitution ring with ties to human trafficking, according to media reports.

WITN News reports that Felipe Ramirez Chavez faces a misdemeanor charge of maintaining a place for prostitution. Chavez was being held in the Wayne County Jail Saturday under a $1,000 bond and has also been placed placed under a detainer by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Gay told WITN that a few weeks ago, acting on tips about a prostitution ring, deputies raided a house on U.S. Highway 301 and found one woman. Information from that raid led them to arrest Chavez at his residence at 2101 Fair Place in Wilson.

Two women were found at Chavez's residence, but investigators believe that three or four women lived there, Gay said.

The sheriff said he believes this prostitution ring is unique in the county.

Chavez's first court appearance was set for March 5.

WRAL

Feb. 6, 2010


Added: Feb. 06, 2010

Missouri, USA

Flor, 37, talks about her experience as a labor trafficking victim: "I thought slaves were only in the past, just in history. It happens every day."

From: A New Slavery: Border Crossing - Photo Gallery - The Kansas City Star

Photo: Keith Myers / Kansas City Star

Kansas City Star’s Human Trafficking Series Wins Award in Kansas

The Kansas City Star’s series on human trafficking in America has won the 2009 Burton W. Marvin Kansas News Enterprise Award.

The award was presented Friday to reporters Laura Bauer, Mike McGraw and Mark Morris during the annual William Allen White Day festivities on the University of Kansas campus.

“We are again happy to honor quality journalism in Kansas,” said Ann Brill, dean of KU’s journalism school. “The winners this year represent the impact that great storytelling can have in a community.”

The five-part series, published in December, found that the U.S. government is failing to find and help thousands of human trafficking victims. According to the judges, the series reflected a “commitment to serving the public and demonstrated initiative on acting on that commitment.”

The Kansas City Star

Feb. 05, 2010

See also:

The Kansas City Star’s week-long human trafficking series from December of 2009

The Kansas City Star

Dec., 2009

See also:

LibertadLatina Note

We would like to applaud the Kansas City Star for their December, 2009 special series of articles on human trafficking. Their work was one of the few mainstream English language print articles in recent years that focused on the fact that Mexico, Guatemala and other regions of Latin America confront a major sex and labor trafficking crisis. They also highlighted the fact that Latin Americans comprise the majority of human trafficking victims in the United States.

End Impunity Now!

Chuck Goolsby

LibertadLatina

Feb. 06/07, 2010


Added: Feb. 06, 2010

Haiti

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton in Haiti

Photo: Reuters

Clinton Urges Solution to Haiti 'Kidnap' Case

Port-au-Prince - Former U.S. President Bill Clinton urged the U.S. and Haitian governments on Friday to resolve the case of 10 American missionaries accused of trying to take children illegally out of quake-hit Haiti.

Clinton, named by the United Nations to coordinate relief efforts for survivors of the devastating Jan. 12 quake, made the appeal during a visit to the shattered Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, his second since last month's disaster.

The accused U.S. missionaries, most of whom belong to an Idaho-based Baptist church, were arrested a week ago and charged on Thursday with child kidnapping and criminal association.

Haitian authorities say the group tried to take a busload of 33 Haitian children across the border into the Dominican Republic without any papers proving the minors were orphans or any official permission to take them out of the country.

The missionaries deny any intentional wrongdoing and say they were only trying to help children left destitute by the Jan. 12 earthquake, which killed more than 200,000 people, injured some 300,000 and left over a million more homeless.

The Americans' case is diplomatically sensitive and aid groups complain it has distracted media and world attention away from the struggle to feed and shelter hundreds of thousands of Haitians camped out in wrecked streets.

"What's important now is for the government of Haiti and the government of the United States to get together and work through this," Clinton told CNN in Port-au-Prince.

He said he understood the Haitian government's efforts to try to protect its children from possible child traffickers and unlawful adoptions following the catastrophic quake.

But he also said the missionaries could be telling the truth when they argued they simply wanted to help the children and did not mean to violate any laws. Evidence has emerged that many of the intercepted children were not orphans but were given up by parents who wanted them to have a better life [Note that the missionaries at-first stated to the press that all of the children were orphans - LL].

"The government of Haiti ... (is) not looking for some big fight here. They just want to protect their children and they also want to make sure they have a good inventory so they don't send children away that maybe have an aunt or an uncle that have an income," Clinton said...

Reuters

Feb. 5, 2010


Added: Feb. 06, 2010

Texas, USA

Deputies Investigating Alleged Abduction, Sex Assault

Houston  -- A nine-year-old girl was approached and nearly abducted at an apartment complex in southwest Houston Saturday. Her family is thankful she's safe, but police haven't found the man who investigators say tried to lure her away.

The Precinct 5 Constables Office was called out to the University Apartments on Beechnut near Fondren at around 2pm. When they arrived, they found the shaken nine-year-old girl. She told authorities the man lured her to the back of the apartment complex by asking her to help him find his cat.

When he got back there, authorities say the man made a sexual advance on the girl and tried to get her into his truck.

Fortunately, she managed to escape and ran and reported the incident. Neighbors meantime, are mad.

"What I think about it is that if I see him, you won't have to worry about him," said neighbor Joe York. "You'll never have to worry about him again."

"It's kind of worries me because you know it can happen to anybody," said neighbor Erik Benitez. "Just like it happened to a little kid, it could happen to any grownup."

The suspect is described as an Hispanic man between 35 and 40 years old. He was last seen driving a blue Toyota truck. Deputy constables, as well as Houston police officers, searched the neighborhood Saturday afternoon, but he was not located.

We are told HPD's juvenile sex crimes unit has been notified. Anyone with information is encouraged to call Crime Stoppers at 713-222-TIPS.

KTRK

Jan. 24, 2010


Added: Feb. 06, 2010

Florida, USA

Composite image of suspect

Deputies Investigating Alleged Abduction, Sex Assault

The Charlotte County Sheriff's Office is asking for help with their investigation of reported abduction and sexual assault of a 15-year-old girl in the area of Palmetto Circle in Port Charlotte.

Deputies took the call about the alleged abduction shortly after 9:30 p.m. Thursday. The girl said she was walking by herself and that two men forced her into their car.

The girl says both of the men were in their mid twenties.

She said one of the men was Hispanic and described him as tall and skinny with black spiky hair and wearing a red shirt.

She told deputies the other man was white and wore glasses. The girl described that man as tall and thin, wearing a white T-shirt and jeans.

She said both suspects speak English with a Spanish accent.

The vehicle is an older white 4-door car, with dark tinted windows, and a reflective stripe down the side.

If anyone has information about this case, please call Detective Ian Alvarez at (941) 575-5361 or Crime Stoppers at 800-780-TIPS.

WBBH

Feb 05, 2010


Added: Feb. 05, 2010

Georgia, USA

Thomas E. Perez
Assistant Attorney - General - Civil Rights Division - U.S. Department of Justice: "...
Human trafficking will not be tolerated in the United States..."

Citizen of Mexico Sentenced for Role in Federal Sex Trafficking Conspiracy

Atlanta - Miguel Rugerio, 28, a Mexican national, was sentenced to federal prison today by United States District Judge Clarence Cooper on charges of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking and related immigration offenses, and of transporting one of the victims of the conspiracy, a young Mexican woman identified as “N.M.,” in interstate and foreign commerce for purposes of prostitution.

Acting United States Attorney Sally Quillian Yates said of today’s sentencing, “This defendant lured young women from Mexico with the promise of money and legitimate jobs and then forced them into prostitution and repulsive living conditions. He is now going to federal prison for five years and then will be expelled from the United States.”

In Washington, D.C., Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division, said, “This defendant deprived vulnerable victims of their freedom, their dignity and their civil rights. Today’s sentencing should send a clear message to would-be perpetrators that human trafficking will not be tolerated in the United States.”

“Few crimes are more repugnant than sex trafficking helpless and innocent victims,” said Kenneth Smith, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Immigration and Customs (ICE) Enforcement Office of Investigations in Atlanta.

“This sentencing is gratifying given the horrible conditions the victims in this case were forced to endure. While we can’t erase the suffering these women experienced, by aggressively investigating and prosecuting these cases, ICE and its law enforcement partners are sending a powerful warning about the consequences facing those responsible for such schemes.”

FBI Atlanta Special Agent in Charge Greg Jones said, “Today’s sentencing of Mr. Rugerio provides further opportunities for law enforcement agencies such as the FBI, as well as the many and varied victim assistance based agencies, to highlight the growing crime problem known as human trafficking. Mr. Rugerio will now have five years in federal prison to consider the exploitation and victimization of those that he brought in to the U.S. under false pretenses for purposes of prostitution.”

Chicago Press Release

Feb. 04, 2010


Added: Feb. 04, 2010

The United States, The World, Haiti

U.S. Ambassador-at-Large Luis CdeBaca, the Director of the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons at the U.S. State Department, speaks at the Preview to the Annual Meeting of the President's Interagency Task Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons

Preview to the Annual Meeting of the President's Interagency Task Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons

Ambassador Luis CdeBaca: …I’m the Ambassador-at-Large for the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking. Today, Secretary Clinton will chair the President’s interagency task force. She’ll be joined by other members of the task force, including the Attorney General, the secretaries of Labor, Homeland Security, and Health and Human Services; the USAID Administrator, the Director of National Intelligence, as well as representatives from the White House, Department of Defense, Education, Agriculture, and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

This meeting, which… is mandated under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, is the first held under the Obama Administration. In today’s meeting, we will look forward to a very candid and progressive discussion that highlights the work that each agency is conducting individually as well as collectively to combat modern slavery. In addition, it’s a chance to preview the anti-trafficking efforts in the days, weeks, and months ahead as we work together to make measured progress against every form of exploitation, including forced labor, peonage, and sexual servitude, in response to the President’s declaration of January as Human Trafficking and Slavery Awareness and Prevention Month.

[In regard to child trafficking in Haiti:]

Ambassador CdeBaca: We have begun to – we’ve actually got funding out the door already to a group called Heartland Alliance that’s part of the child cluster that’s one of the more experienced U.S. counter-trafficking organizations. They work with a lot of the trafficking victims in the Midwest. They’re out of Chicago. But they also do counter-trafficking projects for – with grant money from us around the world. And they’re stepping up their activities in Haiti…

Ambassador CdeBaca: …There’s been reports, that I think have been reported on in the news as well, of men coming into some of the camps, using offers of food or water to get girls to leave with them in trucks. Now, obviously, we don’t have any hard evidence as to what’s happening to those girls once they leave with those men, and so that’s why the term “the notion of” trafficking…

What we’ve done in the last three weeks is we’ve repositioned a number of those projects. In the Dominican Republic, for instance, we’re working with the Solidarity Center so that we can try to turn that project around a little bit and have it catch, if there are folks that are coming over the border in search of jobs, in search of work, that they know their rights, that they know that they shouldn’t put themselves into a situation where they can be exploited.

So we’re working on the Dominican side with that project, and then we’re also moving money into Haiti as far as trying to build up those child protection brigades, as far as working with the groups such as the Jean Robert Cadet Restavek Foundation and others to try to make sure that we can have some things in place to protect those children.

Question: You asking for more money for Haiti? You said that previously you had about $500,000 a year in projects. And I know you guys have – don’t have yet an exact sum for assistance for Haiti. But do you plan to ask for additional money to combat these kinds of – to combat trafficking in Haiti?

Ambassador CdeBaca: Well, we have 500,000 to begin with. We will reposition about another a million, taking that from other projects, frankly. And so we need to look at how we make sure that those projects, which – the money of which hasn’t gone out the door yet. And those countries don’t necessarily (inaudible) or not, now that we’re looking at the Haitian side.

Obviously, we’re looking at what the long-term funding needs are. We have about $20-, $22 million in grant funds that we administer in the Trafficking office. We work with our partners at USAID and at the International Labor Affairs Bureau over at DOL, and we are shaking the trees right now to figure out what money there is in this year’s budget, as opposed to looking into the next year...

[The linked web page contains a video recording of this presentation.]

Luis CdeBaca

Director, Office To Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons

U.S. Department of State

Feb. 3, 2010

See also:

Changing Views: Government Promises Action

The Obama administration is weeks away from announcing a new surge — this one aimed at escalating the war on human trafficking in America.

“In January we are going to be announcing a major set of initiatives,” Janet Napolitano, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, told The Kansas City Star.

Napolitano disclosed the administration’s plans at the conclusion of The Star’s six-month investigation exposing numerous failures in America’s anti-trafficking battle.

Although details of the plan were not released, advocates and other experts said they’re cautiously optimistic that this is the best chance in years to address many of the problems revealed in the newspaper’s five-part series. They’re also hopeful that the administration, which has reached out to them and asked what changes are needed, will correct structural flaws in the broken system.

“It is time to go back to the drawing board and promote a more seamless, coordinated plan,” said Florrie Burke, a nationally known advocate for trafficking victims.

Other experts said it’s also time for congressional oversight hearings on the flagging decade-long struggle, and time to centralize an anti-trafficking effort that is thinly spread across a vast bureaucracy plagued by inter-agency wrangling and a lack of coordination.

Part of: Human Trafficking in America | A Star series

Mark Morris, Mike Mcgraw And Laura Bauer

The Kansas City

Dec. 15, 2009

See also:

LibertadLatina Commentary

Chuck Goolsby

We note for the record that the Obama Administration indicated in December of 2009 that they would be presenting a major new initiative to combat human trafficking during January of 2010. As of February 3rd, 2010, that announcement had not yet happened.

It is not hard to understand that an escalation in attempts at terrorism within the U.S., as well as the Haitian earthquake emergency are likely to be among the factors that have pushed back such an announcement. It is concerning, though, that we see no sign in the February 3, 2010 news conference comments of Luis CdeBaca, Director of the U.S. State Department's Office To Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, that the Obama Administration is on the verge of rolling-out any such effort.

We hope that, whenever this action is taken (and even if it never comes about), the Obama Administration recognizes that, as Ambassador CdeBaca stated in a December, 2009 press interview with the Kansas City Star, some 60% of trafficking victims within the U.S. are from Latin America, and a great many victims are trafficked across the Mexican / U.S. border.

Currently, the attention to Haiti's emergency is very much in order. We note that the world press has sounded the alarm bell about the risk of child sex trafficking in the wake of the Haitian earthquake like never before.

While the press, assisting governments and NGO organizations work through the ongoing crisis in Haiti, we ask the world to also remember that hundreds of thousands, if not millions of children and young women face an equally urgent risk of kidnapping, rape and sex trafficking across Latin America and the Caribbean. Yet neither the U.S. federal government nor the NGO community nor most major news entities in the English speaking world have strongly acknowledged, nor have they reacted effectively to that harsh reality.

We hope that the press and the NGOs who get invited to attend events such as the February 3rd Preview to the Annual Meeting of the President's Interagency Task Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons dare to ask the hard questions, as some reporters at the event asked in regard to Haiti (see the linked event transcript).

The same questions need to be asked about U.S. government policy and action in defense of human trafficking and exploitation victims across the Americas, and indeed the world.

We are most concerned at this time about the deafening silence in regard to Latin America's enormous problems with human exploitation and slavery. That silence has existed not only during President Obama's term, but it also occurred during the administration of President George W. Bush.

When prominent academics, government leaders and press writers and authors speak publicly about human trafficking, the focus is invariably on the crisis in Europe, Asia, and to a lesser extent Africa and domestic minor sex trafficking victims in the U.S. All of these communities deserve, and have gotten attention.

Those who have not gotten attention are the women and children of Latin America and the Caribbean where, as leading anti-trafficking activist Teresa Ulloa, director of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW) for Latin America and the Caribbean (CATW-LAC) notes, an estimated 50 million women and children are at-risk of falling into the hands of human traffickers. As Ulloa further states, some 5 million victims exist in Mexico alone.

Given that 60% of the trafficking victims in the U.S. are Latin Americans, where is the U.S. government's attention to their crisis?

'Little Brown Maria Trapped in the Brothel' deserves our help now!

Ignoring the issue allows the drug cartel financed mega-traffickers to laugh all the way to the bank, because they know that at least today, Uncle Sam is not even thinking about coming after them. Nor, apparently, is Uncle Sam planning to defend and rescue 'Maria' anytime soon.

We insist upon a change to that way of thinking. Does the fact that poor indigenous and African descendent victims in Mexico and the Dominican Republic are people of color really mean that CNN, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and anti-trafficking NGOs who receive federal funds can't ring the alarm bell and help put out the fire, and must continually ignore this raging emergency?

We insist, among dozens of other items on our to-do list, that the U.S. Government demand that Mexico and Japan ACT NOW to rescue and restore the estimated 3,000 to 4,000 indigenous children who have been kidnapped with impunity by the Japanese Yakuza mafias and taken to Japan to be sold as 'geishas' in sexual slavery.

Giving attention to Haiti is a good start. Of course, hundreds of thousands of trafficked children existed in Haiti before the earthquake.

Where was the press then?

Writing from the middle of an anti-trafficking movement that is maturing... but slowly!

End Impunity Now!

Chuck Goolsby

LibertadLatina

Feb. 04/05, 2010

See also:

The United States

Obama's Slavery Czar

Ambassador-at-Large Luis CdeBaca fights human slavery for a living...

...Whether it was farm workers, or women in brothels, the percentages continue to be overwhelmingly Latino. Sixty-plus per cent of the [trafficking] victims in the U.S. are Hispanic.” ...

Lynn Sherr

The Daily Beast

Nov. 24, 2009


Added: Feb. 04, 2010

Haiti

Haitian music star Wycelf Jean

Wycelf Jean Reacts To Human Trafficking Arrests In Haiti

In light of the tragedy in Haiti, a new problem is rising in the capital of Port Au Prince, human trafficking.

Ten Americans were arrested Sunday on charges of human trafficking after Haitian officials say they tried to take 33 Haitian children ranging in age from 2 months to 12 years to the Dominican Republic without proper documentation and permission.

Now outraged about the turmoil racking his country, Wyclef Jean released a series of angry tweets denouncing the traffickers saying, “My message to the child traffickers n Haiti I give you my word we will hunt you Down one by one, and you will be judge[d] with no Mercy!”

The civilians accused of trafficking are part of a Baptist church in the U.S. and maintain that they were trying to save abandoned and orphaned children and planned to relocate them to safety.

They are being held at a government building until officials determine if they should go before a judge.

Haiti's government has halted all adoptions for the time being unless the adoption plans were set in motion before the quake.

Danielle Canada

HipHipWired.com

Feb. 1, 2010

See also:

Wyclef Jean Volunteer Killed By Haitian Car-Jacker

Hip-hop star Wyclef Jean was forced to deal with another tragedy while helping desperate survivors of the Haiti earthquake, after a volunteer for his Yele Haiti foundation was shot dead in a car-jacking.

The former Fugees star and native Haitian rushed to his homeland when the massive tremor hit the nation earlier this month, ravaging the poor country's infrastructure and killing more than 150,000 people.

But Jean and his team of volunteers had to contend with more than just the devastation left by the earthquake, they witnessed the desperate lengths Haiti's people were going to in a bid to survive - which ended in terrible consequences for one young helper.

He explains, "Jo Jo was shot and killed on the second day we were there. He was the victim of a car-jacking. I left him alone for two hours and he was driving in the city.

"A guy stopped him and told him to get out of the car. No one knows quite what happened next but he was shot twice and killed instantly. The jacker didn't even want the car, he just wanted to take the fuel."

And Jean is adamant he will never be able to forget the horrific scenes he witnessed.

He says, "It looked like the apocalypse - there were bodies everywhere. It's a sight that will stay with me for ever. It's something you just can't put into words. I filmed everything with a video camera because I was convinced people would not believe what we told them."

www.StarPulse.com

Jan. 31st, 2010


Added: Feb. 04, 2010

Haiti, Puerto Rico

Ricky Martin arrives at the 52nd Annual GRAMMY Awards held at Staples Center on January 31, 2010 in Los Angeles, California.

Photo: Larry Busacca, Getty Images for NARAS

Ricky Martin Has Haiti on His Mind
Amid the glamour of the red carpet, Ricky Martin's mind was on Haiti.
The singer, who has been campaigning against human trafficking for several years, just returned from the island.
"Situations like this, unfortunately, people take advantage and they start traffic human beings," he said. "It's very intense down there, kids crying in the street, corpses everywhere. It's going to take a while for things to get back to normal."
Martin plans to start working with Habitat for Humanity to start rebuilding homes in Haiti.

Marco R. della Cava

USA Today

Jan. 31, 2010

See also:

The Ricky Martin Foundation


Added: Feb. 04, 2010

Missouri and Kansas, USA

Two Agencies Won't Seek Federal Funds in an Effort Against Human Trafficking

Two local agencies - the Independence Police Department and Hope House - received three-year Justice Department grants in 2006 but will not reapply, officials said. The grants expired at the end of last year.

It is unknown whether other local agencies will apply for grants, according to Justice Department officials. New grants will be given later this year.

Independence police didn’t reapply because detectives must focus on other crimes, said Maj. Ken Jarnigan. Two detectives assigned to human trafficking are now fighting cyber crimes, he said.

“It was a juggling act; which priority do we focus on?” Jarnigan said. “We felt like our department and citizens would be better served by them doing cyber crimes rather than human trafficking. In a perfect world we would have tried to do both.”

Hope House CEO Mary Anne Metheny said in a statement that the shelter would continue to provide services for victims eligible for existing programs.

“However, we will no longer offer human trafficking training or facilitate the coalition against human trafficking,” Metheny said.

The Kansas City Star reported in December that the U.S. attorney’s office had stopped referring human trafficking victims to Hope House after the shelter reportedly failed to fulfill some of its obligations under the grant.

Although trafficking is considered a coastal phenomenon, more alleged traffickers — 36 in the past three years — have been prosecuted by federal authorities in western Missouri than anywhere else in the nation. One Kansas City case, involving Giant Labor Solutions, is thought to be the largest labor trafficking ring uncovered in U.S. history.

But the absence of federal money for the human trafficking task force won’t change what local authorities are doing, said U.S. Attorney Beth Phillips.

“The task force is still fully functioning,” Phillips said. “It’s still meeting and investigating and prosecuting cases. Human trafficking investigations remain a priority of our office.”

Laura Bauer and Mike McGraw

The Kansas City Star

Feb. 02, 2010


Added: Feb. 04, 2010

Haiti

Bandas de Violadores Aterran a las Haitianas

Bands of Rapists Terrorize Haitian Women

Los criminales recorren como alimañas los campamentos de desplazados para elegir a sus víctimas. La policía se confiesa incapaz de proteger a las mujeres.

When night falls, criminal men with lanterns roam the refugee camps in search of their victims. The police confess that they cannot protect all women...

www.publico.es

Feb. 03, 2010


Added: Feb. 04, 2010

Haiti

Aumenta a un Millón la Cifra de Niños Huérfanos

Earthquake Pushes Number of Haitian Orphans to 1 Million

El número de niños huérfanos tras el terremoto que devastó Haití se ha duplicado y alcanza actualmente el millón de afectados, según un informe de la Comisión Europea.

El Universal

Mexico City

Feb. 03, 2010


Added: Feb. 04, 2010

Haiti, The Dominican Republic

Haitiana Recupera Hijo Robado en Cabo Haitiano y Vendido en Dominicana

Haitian Woman Recovers Her Child, Kidnapped in Cape Haitien. Child had been sold in the Dominican Republic

Tras ser secuestrados en Haití, muchos menores son vendidos para luego ser explotados en las calles de República Dominicana, como pedigueños o en actividades de prostitución, como fuera el caso del hijo de Cariné Oguí Pié, quien recuperó en esta ciudad, al norte de Dominicana, a su hijo de siete años, que fuera robado en Cabo Haitiano y trasladado, vendido y obligado a trabajar en las calles santiagueras como mendigo.

La Nacion Dominicana

Feb. 03, 2010


Added: Feb. 04, 2010

Haiti

Niños Haitianos Pululan por las Calles

Haitian Children Mass in the Streets

La procuradora del Tribunal de Niños, Niñas y Adolescentes de Santiago, Antia Beato, estimó ayer necesario que instituciones públicas y privadas realicen esfuerzos conjuntos para resolver el drama que representa la cantidad de menores de origen haitiano que pernocta en las calles de esta ciudad, al ser traficados desde su país.

www.listindiario.com.do

Feb. 03, 2010


Added: Feb. 04, 2010

Haiti

Miles de Haitianas, Sin Servicios Salud y Con Mayor Riesgo de Violencia Sexual

Thousands of Haitian Women Lack Health Services and Risk Sexual Violence

Miles de haitianas no pueden acceder ni a los servicios de salud reproductiva ni a sus métodos habituales de planificación familiar y afrontan un mayor riesgo de violencia y de explotación sexual.

EFE

Feb. 02, 2010


Added: Feb. 04, 2010

Indonesia

Red de Prostitución Infantil que Operaba por Facebook fue Desmantelada

A Prostitution Network Selling 15- and 16-year-old Girls, Operating on FaceBook, is Taken Down by the Police in Jakarta.

La Policía de Indonesia arrestó a dos supuestos proxenetas que administraban la organización.

EFE

Feb. 03, 2010


Added: Feb. 04, 2010

Spain

Las Niñas Agredidas en el Bus Escolar, Invitadas a Irse de su Instituto

Two 12-year-old Girls Sexually Assaulted on School Bus are Invited to Leave their School

Una ya ha sido trasladada a un centro concertado. La otra víctima de la agresión no puede pagarlo y convive a diario con cuatro de sus agresores.

www.20Minutos.es

Feb. 03, 2010


Added: Feb. 04, 2010

Spain

Una Madre se Enfrenta a 30 Años por Prostituir a Sus Hijas, Menores de Edad

A Mother Faces 30 Years in Prison for Exhibitionism and for Prostituting Her Underage Daughters

El padre también se sentará en el banquillo por mantener supuestamente relaciones sexuales delante de las pequeñas

www.diariodesevilla.es

Feb. 03, 2010


Added: Feb. 04, 2010

Brazil

Campaña Contra la Explotación Sexual Será Lanzada en Rio de Janeiro, el 8

Rio de Janeiro Will Start a New Campaign Against Sexual Exploitation February 8th

Con el slogan "Explotación Sexual de Niñas/os y Adolescentes es Crimen.

www.adital.com.br/s

Feb. 03, 2010


Added: Feb. 04, 2010

Bolivia

Víctimas de Abuso Sexual en Hogar Vida ya Son 42

Forty Two Victims of Sexual Abuse Have Been Discovered in an Orphanage Run by Evangelical Christians in the town of Sipe Sipe

El personal sabía desde hace tres años que los mayores violaban a los más pequeños

Staff remained silent for at least the past three years while knowing that children between the ages of 4 and 13 were were being raped at the Life Center.

www.lostiempos.com

Feb. 03, 2010


Added: Feb. 04, 2010

Texas, USA

Benito Vargas

Fugitive Finder: Sex Trafficking Suspect

Benito Vargas has a history of human trafficking and is currently wanted on Suspicion of Aggravated Sexual Assault of a Child.

Investigators said he found his latest victim in Jalisco, Mexico, and his mother and sister both participated in abusing the girl.

On October 27, 2009, while in Jalisco, Vargas persuaded a 16-year-old girl to leave her home and return with him to his home 210 W. 10th Street in San Juan.

Vargas took the girl to Matamoros and arranged for her to be smuggled into the United States.

Upon arriving at the San Juan [Texas] home, investigators said Vargas repeatedly assaulted, verbally abused and raped the girl.

The teen was forced to wake up at 5 a.m., bathe three children who lived in the house with Vargas' mother and sister, and walk the children to a nearby school.

The girl was also expected to complete daily chores including preparing breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Investigators said the teen tried to defend herself and received countless threats that she would be killed or arrested for being in the U.S. illegally.

On December 13, 2009, the girl was kicked out of the house.

With no relatives, friends or anywhere to go, she sat by the curb in front of the house for two days and did not eat.

At night, she would sneak onto the property and sleep on an old sofa in the front yard.

Police believe Vargas is in Mexico along the U.S./Mexico border.

Vargas is described as a 23-year-old Hispanic male with brown eyes and black hair.

He is 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighs 180 pounds.

Vargas also goes by the name Benito Cordero-Vargas.

Call the San Juan Crime Stoppers line at (956) 283-TIPS if you know how to find him.

Benito's mother, Ofelia Vargas, has been arrested for not reporting the abuse.

Benito's sister, Belen Vargas, was already in custody on unrelated charges and is now facing assault charges.
 

ValleyCentral.com

Feb. 01, 2010


Added: Feb. 04, 2010

Texas, USA

ICE: Houston a Hub for Human Trafficking

HOUSTON -- U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have conducted what they call an "unprecedented" criminal investigation into Houston transport businesses suspected of illegally smuggling people into the county.

On Tuesday, 22 people were arrested and charged with using their businesses to transport recently smuggled aliens. Eighty-one illegal immigrants were also arrested and have been placed in removal proceedings.

The three-month investigation dubbed "Night Moves" targeted both transport businesses suspected of housing immigrants, as well as the individual drivers who move them. ICE agents say Houston has become a growing hub for human trafficking. In one location, immigrants were guarded with weapons, pit bulls and surveillance cameras.

In addition to the arrests, ICE agents also seized 32 vehicles, 18 weapons, and $45,000 cash.

Katherine Whaley

Feb. 3, 2010


Added: Jan. 31, 2010

Haiti

A girl stands inside an open air market in Port-au-Prince.

Photo: Reuters / Shannon Stapleton

Haitian Women Lose Out In Post-Quake "Survival Of The Strongest"

In one of the camps sheltering the homeless in Haiti's earthquake-stricken capital, a group of male volunteers stands guard over hundreds of teenage girls and young women as they sleep during the night.

The women there are so afraid of being attacked that they have organized the protection themselves, according to ActionAid, which says several women have already reported cases of rape or sexual abuse to their staff in the camp.

Elsewhere in Port-au-Prince, women have left food lines empty-handed after groups of men raided food distribution sites watched by police who were too few and too powerless to stop them...

Aid workers and human rights activists are increasingly worried that in a country where women's rights are routinely trampled upon or ignored, women are again being marginalized. This time, they fear women are losing out on their fair share of desperately-needed aid following the devastating quake that killed up to 200,000 people and left nearly 1 million more homeless in the Caribbean island nation...

Loss of Rights Icons

Experts with experience of responding to natural disasters say women and children are especially vulnerable after such calamities.

But this is particularly true in a country where one-third of women and girls said they had suffered physical or sexual violence, and more than 50 percent of those who had experienced violence were under the age of 18 -- such were the findings of a study carried out by the Inter-American Development Bank in Haiti in 2006.

In one report, a Swiss doctor described how he treated a girl -- who, he said was at most, 12 years old -- for vaginal lacerations after she had been pulled out from under the rubble and raped by her rescuer. The account was a harrowing reminder of how precarious life can be for women and girls in Haiti, Bien-Aime said.

On top of their battle to deal with the aftermath of quake, Haitian women lost three of their best champions in the Jan. 12 disaster.

Myriam Merlet, Magalie Marcelin and Anne-Marie Coriolan were women's rights icons who were instrumental in the campaign to criminalize rape, experts say.

The law was eventually changed in 2005.

"What the loss of these women for Haiti means is really the loss of half of the women's movement which was a powerful movement but nevertheless very, very small in numbers, very limited in capacity and resources," Bien-Aime told AlertNet.

"Each of these women who died contributed enormously to the lives of women in terms of changing laws and seeking justice for women who have been violated in some way whether it's domestic violence or rape. They were irreplaceable in the context of Haiti."

Merlet, who held a senior position in the Ministry for the Rights of Women, was one of the first women to document cases of rape during Haiti's 1991-4 military regime and identify its use as a political weapon, Amnesty's Ducos said.

Marcelin founded Kay Fanm, which for many years operated the only shelter in the country for women who had been battered by their husbands and boyfriends. It later opened another shelter for survivors of sexual violence.

Coriolan founded one of Haiti's largest women's advocacy groups, Solidarite Fanm Ayisyèn (SOFA).

Against a backdrop of widespread impunity and poverty, these organizations were important in ensuring that survivors of sexual abuse received immediate access to adequate medical care -- anti-retrovirals, contraceptive pills -- as well as psychological support and legal advice.

The deaths of these leading activists were a blow to Haiti's women's rights movement, but Ducos said many women were part of this movement which despite the challenges continues to evolve and grow.

Katie Nguyen

AlertNet

29 Jan 2010


Added: Jan. 31, 2010

Haiti, Latin America

Ecuador's President Rafael Correa answers questions from journalists next to Haitian President Rene Preval, during a news conference in Port-au-Prince January 29, 2010.

Shipment From Puerto Rico Unexpected Blessing For Orphans And The Hungry

Today World Concern is beginning to feed 3,000 additional people and provide emotional support to orphans because of a donor from Puerto Rico. The donor decided to help those suffering in Haiti and coordinate the shipment of two barges full of food, tarps, clothes, toys and other emergency supplies to Haiti.

Though it was not neatly packaged, this aid has provided World Concern yet another opportunity to immediately deliver food to hundreds of hungry families. World Concern is delivering the toys included in the shipment to an orphanage.

"There are a lot of people around the world who want to help," said World Concern President David Eller. "This is a great example of the world's generosity to Haiti."

In the meantime, World Concern waits on massive supplies of aid to be released by larger clearinghouses, hopefully within the next day.

"It has been frustrating knowing that resources have landed in the country and systems have been delayed in getting these supplies released," said Eller...

Seattle-based World Concern has worked in Haiti for more than 30 years and currently provides hope to 125,000 people. Our staff of more than 100 in Haiti work with the poor includes microfinance, agriculture, disaster response and small business development. World Concern works with the poor in 24 countries, with the goal of transforming the lives of those we touch, leading them on a path to self-sustainability.

For more information and to donate, visit www.worldconcern.org or call 1-866-530-5433 (LIFE)

World Concern - USA

Via Reuters' Alertnet.org

Jan. 29, 2010


Added: Jan. 31, 2010

Florida, USA

Some of the members of the Haitian Orphan Rescue Mission of American Baptists, mostly from Idaho, accused of taking children out of Haiti without government authorization

American Baptists with 'Haitian Orphan Rescue Mission' Detained in Haiti for Child Trafficking

A group of American Baptists have become embroiled in the center of a growing fear in Haiti after the devastating earthquake - human trafficking.

Ten men and women were detained in Malpasse while allegedly attempting to cross the border into the Dominican Republic with 33 children in tow without proper paperwork, according to officials.

"No children can leave Haiti without proper authorization, and these people did not have that authorization," Haiti's social affairs minister, Yves Cristalin, told Reuters.

The church group, most of whom are from Idaho, were arrested Friday night. They claim to have been taking the children - ranging in age from two months to 12 years old - to an orphanage in the neighboring nation.

"In this chaos the government is in right now, we were just trying to do the right thing," said Laura Silsby, a spokesperson for group, to the Associated Press.

The Baptists were part of the "Haitian Orphan Rescue Mission," Silsby said. It's goal is to save abandoned children and bring them to a 45-room hotel at Cabarete, a beach resort in the Dominican Republic, which the group claims to be converting into an orphanage.

"We had permission from the Dominican Republic government to bring the children to an orphanage that we have there," she told Reuters.

"They accuse us of children trafficking," Sillsby said. "This is something I would never do. We were not trying to do something wrong."

Haitian officials fear child trafficking could be underway following the devastating earthquake.

Speaking to CNN last week, Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive said he has received reports of kids being sold, and he believed human organs were also being taken from victims of the quake for profit.

But aid group UNICEF was quick to refute the claims, saying child trafficking is a major concern in the impoverished nation, but there is no hard evidence to back up the government official's claims.

Michael Sheridan

New York Daily News

Jan. 31, 2010


Added: Jan. 31, 2010

Texas, USA

[Texas Supreme Court to Make Decision on the Rights of Prostituted Children]

Sixteen-year-old Angela was said to be a “case study” in the difficulty domestic human trafficking victims represent to law enforcement.

Though first forced into prostitution at age 11, it would be several years before local police would discover her. But instead of being rescued as a child victim, she was placed into the juvenile system in 2008 on a theft charge after a man accused her of stealing his wallet and pants. Only after first prosecuting her as a criminal — due in part, they said, to her uncooperativeness — did law enforcement recognize her as a child victim. Some months later her full story came out.

County officials said last summer that ‘Angela,’ diagnosed with hepatitis and HIV, was finally in a “safe place” getting counseling and medical attention.

Some would like to see child victims jump straight to the help line, and a decision pending with the Texas Supreme Court could move things strongly in that direction, according to Dottie Laster, a New Braunfels-based advocate fighting against human trafficking and the sexual exploitation of children.

The case involves a girl identified as B.W., taken from her mother at age 11 and placed with Child Protective Services. After running away from CPS, she was picked up by Houston Police Department officers two years later after they observed her trying to sell herself on the street. She was booked on charges of prostitution. Later, after her age of 13 became known, she was placed in the juvenile system and charged with delinquency for committing prostitution instead of returning her to CPS.

Attorney Ann Johnson argued that the child should have never been put on the “prosecutorial train.” That state law holds that children under the age of 14 cannot consent to sex. Period.

“Despite their discovery that one of the passengers on that train was a 13-year-old, mentally deficient child with undeniable evidence of sexual exploitation no one to this day has pulled the emergency stop cord to say, ‘Wait. We’re supposed to be handling this issue differently’” Johnson said...

“You can protect a child when they’re in danger without charging them with a crime,” Laster said, adding that the outcome in the case could transform how state law enforcement responds to child victims.

“I believe if they rule to protect the victim that it could greatly change the way juveniles are protected in Texas; if they rule to punish the victim, it could set us back years and cause harm to many more juveniles, or minors, children. However you want to say it, I still look at them as children.”

And if Texas judges find their way to the federal mindset, they will discover that “any child in commercial sex is considered a victim of trafficking,” Laster said.

Of course, this is Texas. Worse. This is Houston, Texas, we're talking about.

The city was pegged last year as the national hub in child trafficking. Judging from the position of the DA's office, reform there — despite the training that Laster, now working with MillionKids.org and running her own consulting group, has given many of its law-enforcement officers - may come most grudgingly.

Greg Harman

The San Antonio Current

Jan. 30, 2010

 


Added: Jan. 31, 2010

Mexico

Niñez cada vez más expuesta a migración y trata

Children are Ever-More Exposed to the Migration and Trafficking

México DF, - Esther es una niña guatemalteca de cuatro años de dad que durante varios días viajó a través de México con la finalidad de llegar a Estados Unidos para reencontrarse con sus padres, quienes pagaron a una “coyote” para que la acompañara.

Antes de partir, la “coyote” le dio instrucciones para responder a los interrogatorios de la migra mexicana: tendría que guardar silencio, mientras que su acompañante fingiría ser su madre. También tendría que “hablar como mexicana” y aprender el himno nacional de México.

Sin embargo, en un retén de Coahuila a Esther le preguntaron que si traía “pisto” y ella respondió que sí, evidenciando no ser mexicana, pues en algunas partes de Centro América “pisto” significa dinero. Fue entonces cuando las detuvieron y Esther fue repatriada a Guatemala.

Esto es solo un pequeño esbozo del contenido de la publicación “Migración sueños y esperanzas del sur”, divulgado por la organización chiapaneca Melel Xojobal, que muestra la migración en la frontera sur, principalmente de niña y niños que viajan de Centroamérica a México para alcanzar el sueño americano...

Narce Santibáñez Alejandre

CIMAC Noticias

News for Women

Jan. 29, 2010


Added: Jan. 31, 2010

Mexico

Tráfico de Influencias Beneficia Pederastas en Oaxaca

Impunidad en el caso del Instituto San Felipe

Influence Peddling Benfits Pedophiles in Oaxaca State

Impunity Continues in the San Felipe Childcare Center Sex Abuse Scandal

México DF, - Han pasado tres años desde el abuso cometido contra el hijo de Leticia Valdés Martell cuando tenía cuatro años edad, en el Instituto San Felipe en Oaxaca, y el caso sigue impune. Los agresores siguen en libertad a pesar de que fueron plenamente identificados por el niño.

En conferencia de prensa, la señora Valdés Martell explicó que el Instituto nunca fue clausurado y la única detenida, Magdalena Rufina García Soto, quien entregaba al niño para ser abusado, podría salir en libertad, porque la Tercera Sala Penal del Tribunal de Justicia del Estado de Oaxaca ha retrasado por más de medio año la resolución de confirmar o incrementar la sentencia que se dictó por 10 años.

En lo que respecta a Gabriel Constantino García (esposo de la directora Yolanda León Ramírez) y Salvador Pérez Ramírez (maestro de computación), ambos violadores del niño, siguen prófugos, pues el Ejecutivo estatal no ha consumado las órdenes de aprehensión...

Cirenia Celestino Ortega

CIMAC Noticias

News for Women

Jan. 29, 2010


Added: Jan. 31, 2010

Florida, USA

West Palm Beach Vigil Brings Attention to Stash Houses for Sex Slaves

West Palm Beach - Rick Rose was suspicious of the constant flow of cars visiting a small-frame house next to his well-appointed bed and breakfast in one of the city's trendiest urban neighborhoods.

"We thought it was drug-dealing," he said of the reason he summoned police.

So, the president of the Grandview Heights Neighborhood Association was understandably stunned when federal agents raided the house, saying it was used as a brothel by a sophisticated ring that brought young Mexican women into the United States and forced them to work as sex slaves.

"It sounds weird to say, but in general they were very nice people," he said of his former neighbors. "I guess we're all a little bit naive about what's going on around us."

Around 7 p.m. Thursday, 20 people with flashlights gathered at the Armory Art Center across from the house on Lake Avenue to draw attention to the illegal activity that often goes unnoticed.

While federal agents two years ago shut down the ring that also used three other West Palm Beach houses, the illicit trade still flourishes elsewhere in the city, said Renee Morrison, a Palm Beach activist who organized the vigil.

"The point of this is that we have a form of terrorism in our neighborhoods," she said. People, she said, have to get involved to stop it...

...According to agents who were involved in the 2008 raid of the ring that extended from here to Homestead to Fort Myers, it's often hard to detect. The houses appear to be normal residences...

The ring was busted when one of the victims began cooperating with federal authorities. Eventually, another victim led them to the house with the picket fence on Lake Avenue. She was initially smuggled into the United States when she was 14 and taken to Queens, N.Y., then Atlanta and then Miami, wrote Jonathan Cruz Camacho, an agent for the U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. To keep her in line, her husband/pimp would regularly beat her.

She was moved often between stash houses on the state's east and west coasts. Two here were on Wellington Street, off Mercer Avenue, and another was on Bradley Street, off Parker Avenue south of Southern Boulevard. She was taken to the Lake Avenue house to turn $25 tricks, Camacho wrote. She told agents she made about $2,500 a week.