Madres que reclaman
devolución de sus hijas siguen en huelga de
hambre
Mothers Demand the Return of their Kidnapped
Children
Four Guatemalan
mothers whose babies were kidnapped to be sold
in foreign adoption are continuing a hunger
strike in front of the National Palace of
Culture. The women started the protest on April
28th.
Norma Cruz, director
of the Survivors Foundation, which assist women
victims of violence, stated that representatives
of the National Council on Adoptions, and the
federal Attorney General's office have expressed
interest in assisting the families.
Nonetheless, Cruz
lamented, we don't see real, concrete action,
and the investigation has not brought-about any
positive results.
The mothers have
vowed to continue their protest until there are
clear signs that authorities are taking this
case seriously.
Raquel Par, an
indigenous woman of the Kakchiquel Mayan ethnic
group, told of how on April 4, 2006, her
daughter, Heidi Saraí Batz, was drugged and then
kidnapped by a woman in the Villa Hermosa
neighborhood on the south side of Gauatemala
City.
Ana Escobar, another
victim, related how on March 26, 2006 an armed
man entered the shoe repair shop where she
worked, attempted to rape her, locked her in a
bathroom, and then kidnapped her 6-month-old
daughter Esther Zulamitha.
Olga López, whose
daughter Arlene Escarleth disappeared on
November 27, 2006, and Loyda Rodríguez, mother
of Angielyn Lisset Hernández, kidnapped on
November 3, 2006, also discussed their
tragedies.
According to Cruz,
these are just four of the hundreds of cases in
which young, poor and unprotected women become
victims of organized criminal gangs whose
business it is to rob children to sell to
foreigners in adoption.
Cruz: "We have
denounced dozens of adoption lawyers. The
authorities take this information, but they
don't do much to stop these crimes."
In December of 2007,
the Guatemalan Parliament adopted the Law of
Adoptions, authored by the National Council on
Adoptions, an organization representing diverse
organizations.
Guatemala's
government was pressured into enacting the law
after the
Hague Conference on
Private International Law declared in
July, 2007 that Guatemala was the number one
source country in the world for children given
in adoption, where the legality of these
adoptions are not guaranteed.
- Actualidad -
Terra
Spain
May 5, 2008
Paraguay
Niños indígenas fueron
abandonados en Luque
Indigenous children live abandoned on the street
Approximately 30
indigenous children from the community of
Caaguazú live on the streets of the capitol city
of Asunción because, they say, there is no food
to eat in their community. The children told of
hold the community has no more land, and nobody
is buying what their parents make for sale.
The children pass
the day sniffing glue and begging on the
streets. They flee when the National Indigenous
Institute (INDI) picks them up, because they
feel that they are not treated right by INDI
staff.
Attorney Myriam
Antonia Mora de Cáceres, of the local Center for
Child and Adolescent Counseling states that when
she brings the children clothing and checks up
on them, they express fear of being taken back
to INDI.
- abc.com.py
May 2, 2008
Nicaragua
Niña obligada a
prostituirse
An Underage Girl is Kidnapped into Forced
Prostitution
Police are
investig-ating the case of a 16-year-old girl
from Somoto, who was offered work in Guatemala
and ended-up enslaved in a brothel.
Rosa Díaz Martínez
filed a criminal complaint stating that 18 days
ago, a local human trafficker and taxi driver,
Luis Alfonso Benavides, from San Lucas, had
taken her daughter to the Guatemalan border,
where he paid a bribe to border agents to allow
the minor to pass into Guatemala.
The girl, who had
been offered a good job, was picked-up on the
other side of the border by her supposed new
Guatemalan employer, who took her to San Luis.
Díaz Martínez: "This
man promised my daughter a job. But she was able
to call me from Guatemala, and told me that she
was being held against her will in a brothel
together with other girls, some of whom were
also from Somoto, Nicaragua."
During the phone
call, the girl told her mother that the taxi
driver told her during the trip that he would
return her to Nicaragua, but only after her
family had paid him $1,800.
Díaz Martínez: "I am
afraid that something bad will happen to my
daughter, because I have come to find out that
this trafficker is a very dangerous man, who
tricks many young girls by offering them good
jobs, and then sells them into prostitution."
Díaz Martínez has also learned that this
trafficker is protected by police in Guatemala.
During an interview
with La Prensa, the taxi driver Benavides denied
having taken the girl to Guatemala. He states
that Antonio Díaz, a businessman from
Tecohumante, Guatemala was visiting him, and the
girl asked him for work. Benavides states that
she made an agreement to go to Guatemala
directly with Díaz.
- William Aragón
Rodríguez
La Prensa
Nicaragua
May 2, 2008
New York State,
USA
Jesus De-Maria
Sandoval-Lopez
Cops: Man flashed girl in
Mount Kisco store
Mount Kisco - An
[undocumented] immigrant living in Mount Kisco
has been arrested for allegedly exposing himself
to a 10-year-old girl at the T.J. Maxx store on
Main Street, police said.
Jesus De-Maria
Sandoval-Lopez, 23... was arraigned... on
misdemeanor charges of endangering the welfare
of a child and public lewdness, Mount Kisco
police Detective Lt. Patrick O'Reilly said.
Sandoval-Lopez was
arrested Wednesday afternoon at the store after
he allegedly displayed his genitals to the child
in the girls clothing section. A security guard
detained him until police arrived.
The girl was crying
hysterically as she told officers what had
happened, police said.
He is being held on
$7,500 bail at the Westchester County jail in
Valhalla, pending a hearing in village court
Thursday. Federal authorities have also issued a
detainer warrant, considering him a fugitive
because he entered the country illegally from
Guatemala in 2001, O'Reilly said.
He was arrested
after crossing the Mexican border into Texas,
but failed to appear for a follow-up court date.
- Shawn Cohen
The Journal News
May 9, 2008
Mexico
Violación a migrantes
centroamericanas en territorio mexicano
Bad News: The Rape of Central American Migrant
Women in Mexico
There are no exact figures
regarding the number of Central American migrant
women who have been raped after they cross into
Mexico through its southern border, seeking to
reach the United States. They remain quiet from
shame, and from the fear that comes from knowing
that to report rape in Mexico could result in
their arrest and deportation...
Martha Villareal,
spokesperson for the central region for the
Migration Forum, recently held a press
conference to denounce the rape of migrant
women, who for cultural reasons are dehumanized,
and are left highly vulnerable to sexual assault.
Villareal regards
the rape of Central American migrant women as a
hidden crisis, because these women do not report the
crime, there is really no process for them to do
so, and if they do manage to file a complaint,
the criminal justice system does nothing about
it.
Villareal stated that the most notable groups of
rapists include police officers, soldiers and gang
members. When migrants travel by walking in
groups, the women tend to fall behind. When they
do, they are attached by criminals and also by
the authorities....
Family members and fellow travelers also expose
migrant women to rape.
Martha Villareal:
|
"Women report to us the fact that their
own families utilize them to avoid
violence from officials committing acts
of corruption, and from gangs who rob
them. If a gang demands money and the
family has none, they tell the gang:
"Here is my daughter. 'Use her' and let
us pass." |
...The Migration Forum estimates that 80% of
migrating Central American women have their rights violated as they
cross Mexico.
In view of this
crisis, Martha Villareal believes that Mexico's
federal government must take a number of steps
to protect migrant women, including efforts to
place controls on the immigration inspection
process, and the organization of law enforcement
efforts to protect migrants.
Related human rights
issues affecting southeastern Mexico include the
separation of mothers from their children during
migration, human trafficking, and rampant sexual
exploitation faced by the many domestic workers
in the region.
/ Welcome
