Una banda de trata de personas, incluyendo menores de edad, fue desarticulada en Puebla, centro de México, dijo la Procuraduría General de Justicia del Estado (PGJE).

La banda operaba en San Pedro Cholula, una población del estado de Puebla.

Agentes del Ministerio Público y Policía Ministerial de la entidad aseguraron a 11 integrantes de una célula delictiva, que operaba en el bar "Las Vías del Amor" .

Los detenidos fueron identificados como Salvador Anatolio Ramírez Cortés, de 60 años de edad, dueño del lugar; Salvador Ramírez Sosa, de 23 años, hijo del dueño, y Edna Ruth González, de 41 años, encargada del bar.

La PGJE dijo que además fueron arrestadas Carmen Cajica Rodríguez de 33 años, Javier Sánchez Morales, de 33 años; Leonel Mena Sánchez, de 30, y Héctor Manuel Becerra Fernández, de 56 años.

Human Trafficking Ring is Broken Up in Puebla

A human trafficking gang that included underage members has been disbanded in the state of Puebla, according to the state Attorney General's office.

The gang operated in the town San Pedro Cholula, in Puebla.

Police agents from the Public Ministry and the Ministerial Police detained 11 subjects who ran the ring from the the bar "Las Vías del Amor" (the paths of love).

Those arrested include Salvador Anatolio Ramírez Cortés, age 60, the bar's owner, Salvador Ramírez Sosa, 23, the bar owner's son, and Edna Ruth González, 41, who was in charge of the bar.

The Attorney General's office also mentioned the arrests of: Carmen Cajica Rodríguez, age 33; Javier Sánchez Morales, age 33; Leonel Mena Sánchez, age 30; and Héctor Manuel Becerra Fernández, age 56.

La Junta de Coordinación Política de la Cámara de Diputados exhortó a la Comisión Intersecretarial para Prevenir y Sancionar la Trata de Personas (conformada por instituciones del gobierno federal) a integrar un acervo especializado que contenga un banco de información particular sobre la trata de personas...

Congress Seeks to Create a National Human Trafficking Database

Zacatecas, Zac., 8 de marzo. El embajador de Estados Unidos en México, Carlos Pascual, aseguró que el gobierno de Washington está preocupado por tres problemas sociales relacionados con el narcotráfico y el crimen organizado que ocurren en este país:

La trata de personas, sobre todo de mujeres jóvenes y adolescentes; el alto porcentaje de “muchachos” que en muchas ciudades han desertado de sus escuelas hasta en 70 por ciento y luego caen en el uso de drogas, y en tercer lugar, la “batalla” que estos jóvenes libran todos los días “por el control de una esquina...

U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Expresses Concern About Human Trafficking, Drug Addiction and Violence

During an event held in Zacatecas city in Zacatecas state to celebrate International Women’s Day, U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Carlos Pascual has expressed his concern about three social problems with ties to narcotics trafficking and violence that occur in Mexico.

The problems mentioned were: 1) Human trafficking, and especially that which affects women and youth; 2) the high levels of school dropouts - which reach up to 70% of students in some regions – that drives youth drug addiction; and 3) the street battles that these youth unleash every day in their efforts “to control a street corner.”

Ambassador Pascual: “We can’t allow these youth to become the model for the future. We have to find a way to rescue those who have already fallen.”

The Ambassador added that is important that we support drug rehabilitation programs for addicts, as well as job creation and the taking back of public spaces.

Ambassador Pascual went on to note that “we are also responsible, and therefore we are doing everything possible to reduce the demand for drugs” in the U.S., by means of a federal prevention and rehabilitation program funded at 5.6 billion dollars.

Pascual said that the U.S. is doing what is possible to reduce the flow of arms and dollars, which crime networks send to Mexico from the U.S.

Ambassador Pascual also discussed immigration reform, noting that the Obama Administration will continue to seek to pass a comprehensive immigration reform package that will benefit the more than 12 million Mexicans who reside in the U.S. He added that understanding migration is a priority, because what it signifies for the future of both sides of the border.

The United Nations estimates that more than 250,000 people from Latin America are forced into labor as a result of human trafficking at any given time.

Though the extent of trafficking in Costa Rica is not known, the country has been recognized as both a feeder country and a destination for forced labor. A March, 2009 report issued by the United States said that Costa Rica fell short of the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking.

Girls from Nicaragua, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Colombia, Russia and Eastern Europe have been identified here as victims of forced prostitution. Officials are also aware of trafficking going the other way. According to the United States, Costa Rica needs to intensify efforts to investigate and prosecute trafficking offenses and improve data collection regarding trafficking crimes, among other changes.

To help Costa Rica meet minimum benchmarks, the United States government announced Monday that it would be backing two initiatives with a collective $350,000 grant.

“Make no mistake, human trafficking is a real example of modern-day slavery,” said U.S. Ambassador Anne Andrew. “That is why the United States Government is intent on supporting the fight against human trafficking.”

Part of the grant will go to Fundación Rahab to promote prevention as well as protection of adults and adolescents who are victims of trafficking. The other piece will go to the country's Judicial Investigation Police (OIJ) to improve investigation and response to forced labor.

“Trafficking of persons is a phenomenon that has no place in the 21st century; not in Costa Rica, not in the U.S. and not in our world,” Andrew continued. “It is our duty as human beings to fight against this evil.”

According to Andrew, Costa Rica has taken steps towards addressing the problem by changing some of its laws and improving the tools used to fight illicit trafficking. She said that traffickers frequently recruit people through fraudulent advertisements, promising legitimate jobs as models, hostesses, or work in the agricultural industry. When they accept, they find themselves trapped in jobs in a foreign country.

One way Public Security Minister Janina DelVecchio plans to confront the issue of trafficking is by “putting police where we have people” so that cases of forced labor are better detected.

An illegal immigrant charged with sexually molesting a child in the Bay Area was arrested near Calexico after trying to sneak back in the United States from Mexico, authorities said Tuesday.

The man was arrested Sunday nine miles west of Calexico with four other immigrants who had entered the U.S. illegally, the Department of Homeland Security said. His name and age were not released.

A records check by federal officers showed that the man was wanted on an outstanding warrant in Marin County on a charge of a lewd and lascivious act with a child under 14, the department said.

The man was being held by the Imperial County Sheriff's Department pending extradition to Marin County, according to the department. The four others were processed and returned to Mexico.

Try as he might, alleged drug and prostitution ringleader Jose David Castillo couldn't keep Montgomery County authorities and his own children in the dark.

Castillo, 36, gave it his best shot, though, cops say. He and his cohorts set up a shrine with spiritual symbols - including the Santa Muerte, or angel of death - to ward off law enforcement in the hope that investigators wouldn't notice the two brothels and the cocaine-trafficking operation he ran in Norristown, authorities said.

But when Montgomery County investigators finally entered his home on Green Street with a search warrant last May, after a year of surveillance and investigation, one detective had a question for his daughter: "What does your father do for a living?"

"All I know is that he had a whorehouse," the girl answered, according to an affidavit of probable cause. When detectives asked her what her father said about the place, she answered: "Just rumors around town . . . My friends would tell me that he was selling women," the affidavit said.

Castillo, known by his underlings as "Gordo," or "fat guy," and four other defendants were charged yesterday with corrupt organizations, prostitution and drug and related offenses.

The others charged were Victor Castillo (J.D. Castillo's brother) Alfredo Hernandez Garcia, Louis Manuel Gonzalez-Sosa and Eduardo Lalo Guzman-Hernandez. All are Mexican nationals in the country illegally. Castillo has been arrested twice, once in California and once in Norristown, and has been deported twice to Mexico...

One brothel and the house that served as base for the cocaine operation were across the street from Gotwall's Elementary School, the affidavit said...

Three women who allegedly were working as prostitutes when the warrants were served are in protective custody of the Department of Homeland Security and have been cooperating with investigators.

"The women were brought to the United States illegally, and they were brought in with promises of a better life, promises of employment," District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman said at a news conference. Instead, she said, they were forced into prostitution "and physically beaten if they did not comply."

They were threatened with abandonment in the United States or, worse, "they would be taken back to Mexico to be killed so they could not be able to share this information with authorities," Ferman said.

Such women would work for Castillo for one week in Norristown while always being watched by one of his men, according to the affidavit.

"The operation here was part of a circuit of prostitutes who were routinely routed from Mexico to New York into New Jersey, Philadelphia and the Norristown area," Ferman said...

México.- Por unanimidad el pleno de la Cámara de Diputados exhortó a las procuradurías General de la República y General de Justicia del Estado de Quintana Roo a implementar un operativo de seguridad para evitar la fuga del pederasta Jean Succar Kuri, cuando éste sea trasladado al centro penitenciario de Cancún.

La Cámara de Diputados también solicitó la intervención de la Secretaría de Seguridad Pública, para que a través de la dirección general de traslados de reos y seguridad penitenciaria adopte las medidas necesarias para impedir que el pederasta pudiera ser liberado durante el viaje a la prisión local…

Lower Chamber of Congress Unanimously Calls for Special Security Measures to Prevent Child Pornographer Jean Succar Kuri's Escape from Prison

Mexico City - The Chamber of Deputies (lower house) of Congress has unanimously passed a non-binding resolution that requests that the Attorney General of the state of Quintana Roo mount a security operation to insure that convicted millionaire child pornographer Jean Succar Kuri does not escape during his upcoming transfer from a maximum security prison to a minimum security jail in Cancún.

The Chamber of Deputies also requested the intervention of the federal Secretary of Public Security, through its directorate for prisoner transfers and security, asking that they take all possible precautions to prevent any escape attempt by Succar Kuri.

The vote on the non-binding resolution was held with a sense of urgency and obvious determination. It was supported by all political parties. The resolution was presented by National Action Party (PAN) congressional deputy Rosi Orozco, who is Chair of the newly formed Special Commission to Fight Human Trafficking in the Chamber of Deputies.

The resolution also calls upon federal agencies and state governments to redouble their efforts to eradicate and prevent child sexual exploitation, and asks that they find and prosecute more cases like that of pedophile Jean Succar Kuri.

From the Chamber of Deputies all of Mexico's political parties attacked pedophilia and stood in favor of defending the rights of Mexican children.

Nonetheless, Emilio Serrano, a deputy from the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) asked the Chamber why they were 'tearing their clothes up' about this issue, given that the same institution, Congress, had previously protected pedophiles and human rights violators. He recalled the case of Puebla state governor Mario Marín, and his collusion with millionaire businessman Kamel Nacif, who himself is linked to Succar Kuri.

[See the below link to the Lydia Cacho case for additional context to this statement. - LL]

México, DF.- Diputadas integrantes del Comité del Centro de Estudios para el Adelanto de las Mujeres y la Equidad de Género (CCEAMEG), coincidieron en la necesidad de crear nuevas estrategias de desarrollo en favor de las mujeres del país, y en particular de las indígenas y rurales.

Durante la instalación del Comité, las legisladoras convinieron en impulsar la igualdad tanto en las diferentes instituciones de gobierno, como en las políticas públicas y en los distintos ámbitos de la sociedad...

Congressional Leaders Push for Social Changes to Resolve the Problem of Mexico's Culture of Machismo

Congress creates a committee, and the Center for Studies for the Advancement of Women

Women congressional deputies from several political parties, who are members of the newly created Committee for the Center for Studies for the Advancement of Women and Gender Equality (CCEAMEG), are in agreement that new, pro-women development strategies must be created in Mexico, and these efforts must focus in particular on the problems of Indigenous and rural women.

During the Committee's inaugural ceremony, women legislators convened to promote gender equality both within government institutions and among the many sectors of society.

In response to the constant expansion of poverty that affects women, the inequality and the lack of access to basic needs such as education, healthcare and development, among other forms of discrimination which women endure in Mexico, the LIX (59th) Legislature of the Chamber of Deputies has created the CCEAMEG Center.

The Center will be the first of its kind in Latin America. It is founded on the principles declared at the Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing, China in 1995. The Beijing Declaration requires all of the world's governments to implement mechanisms to guarantee solutions to gender inequality.

New Alliance Party deputy Elsa María Martínez Peña stated that the work of the Committee and the Center should contribute to consolidating a gender based perspective in regard to the legislative process. It should involve a scientific, analystical and political vision about the interrelationships of women and men that proposes to eliminate the causes of gender oppression.

Labor Party deputy Jaime Cárdenas García added that the problem of a culture of machismo in Mexico cannot be resolved through laws alone. "Changes in our culture and our economic model must also take place."

CEAMEG director Maria de los Ángeles Corte Ríos said that on March 10, 2010, the Chamber of Deputies with present a forum, "Advances and Setbacks in Human Rights for Women."

In April 2009, in a Charlottesville, VA courtroom, Circuit Judge Edward L. Hogshire sentenced Jeremias Chagala-Mil for the repeated rape of a local middle-school girl. Last November, he pleaded guilty to the crime, and admitted that he had sex with her many times.

In April 2008, the girl’s mother discovered what he was doing with her daughter and reported him to police. Since his arrest, he has expressed his desire to marry the 7th grader.

The 32-year-old Mexican national has continued to defend his actions to police, by maintaining that his behavior would not be a crime, and actually quite common throughout his own country.

Charlottesville Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Claude Worrell said of Chagala-Mil: “He said this young girl, who was 12 at the time, looked like she was sexually mature to him. He said in Mexico, any girl who looks sexually mature is fair game to have sex with.”

While Hogshire sentenced Chagala-Mil to 30 years in prison, he suspended all but six of those years. After completing his prison sentence, he will be deported back to Mexico. Unfortunately, the claims that Chagala-Mil makes about Mexico are true.

Another example of this attitude can be found in Mexican national Diego Lopez-Mendez, who pled guilty in 2006 to sexually assaulting a 10 year old West Virginia girl. Through an interpreter, he told the court: "In the pueblo where I grew up girls are usually married by 13 years old….I was unaware of the nature of the offense or that it was a bad crime."

The crime of kidnapping a woman for the purpose of rape and marriage against her will, or "rapto" as it is known in Mexico is actually seen as a minor crime and rarely prosecuted. ...A Mexican legislator actually even called the practice "romantic."

While rape is a serious crime in the United States, many Mexican nationals cannot understand why they are prosecuted on this side of the border. Often, a small payment of $10 to $20 to the victim's family will settle the matter back in Mexico.

Of course, it is also common for all charges to be dropped against the accused rapist, if he offers to marry his victim in front of the judge, even if the girl refuses, the court acknowledges that he has made the offer.

But perhaps, the most troubling and telling reason behind the growing epidemic of child molestation at the hands of Mexican illegal aliens, is the fact the age of sexual consent throughout much of Mexico is 12...

In addition to Mexico City, the age of consent is 12 years old in 19 Mexican states...

The abuse of a Lowell student at the hands of her bus driver was caught on videotape, police said.

Gian Carlos Mirabel, 22, of Lawrence, was arrested late Sunday night and arraigned on two counts of forcible child rape.

An employee of the North Reading Transportation Bus Co. was reviewing security footage of a bus that was involved in a minor accident on Feb. 25. While reviewing the footage, the employee observed suspicious activity between the defendant and a student on the bus, officials said.

"The time that (the driver) was stating that the accidents happened, there was a student on the bus and this child should have been at school," North Reading Transportation President John McCarthy said. "There was enough questions to what was going on that we couldn't answer..."

The victim, in 7th grade at the time, first met the defendant in the spring of 2009 when he was assigned to bus route, police said. In the fall of 2009, when the victim was in the 8th grade, the defendant allegedly began to ask the victim to remain on the bus after he dropped the other students off.

The victim told police that she did not want to be on the bus with the defendant and he physically prevented her from leaving the bus at least once. Officials said Mirabel told the victim not to tell anyone about the alleged encounters...

San Jose - Authorities in the South Bay Wednesday night were investigating three separate incidents of sexual battery that happened within about two hours of each other near San Jose State University earlier in the day, a police spokesman said.

San Jose police Officer Jermaine Thomas said it appears all three victims are females who attend the university.

The first incident happened shortly after 9 a.m. at North Eighth and St. James streets.

"The subject approached the victim from behind, hugged her and touched her inappropriately," Thomas said.

He said similar incidents happened at about 11:05 a.m. at East San Carlos and South 12th streets and at 11:13 a.m. in the 400 block of East San Fernando Street.

The suspect in all the incidents was described as a Hispanic man, 20 to 30 years old and 5 feet 8 inches tall. He is clean-shaven with short hair and was wearing a black jacket.

Authorities issued a warning Wednesday for women on or near the campus to watch out for the groping suspect. Officers said sexual battery is a serious offense and they were determined to find the man responsible.

Las y los legisladores expusieron dos casos ejemplares que nos permiten entender lo que en realidad sucede en los juzgados de este país

Las y los diputados del PRD, PAN y PT, se pronunciaron en el Congreso para solicitar una supervisión detallada de las actuaciones de jueces que estén a cargo de casos de pornografía y explotación sexual de menores de edad. Llamó la atención el silencio del PRI y del Verde. Está claro que éste es un tema que indigna y enoja a cualquiera que sea incapaz de disfrutar con los abusos de infantes. Justo por eso resulta vital recordar que México ha avanzado en este tema y debe seguir haciéndolo. Las y los legisladores expusieron dos casos ejemplares que nos permiten entender lo que en realidad sucede en los juzgados de este país.

Watch Those Judges

Members of Congress have proposed a closer look at two cases that allow us to understand exactly what goes on in our nation's courtrooms.

Congressional deputies from the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), the National Action Party (PAN) and the Labor Party (PT) have called for a detailed review of the actions of judges in two cases involving child pornography and the sexual exploitation of children. The absence of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and the Ecological Green Party (Verde) in this announcement was notable.

It is clear that these topics outrage all who are incapable of abusing children. For that very fact it is important to note that Mexico is making progress in regard to this issues, and it should continue its efforts to change.

The criminal case against Father Rafael Muñiz demonstrated how the public prosecutor's office in Veracruz state engaged in a mediocre effort to formulate charges against the priest. Later, a federal judge asked the Veracruz court to improve its legal arguments. But the local court ignored the law and allowed Father Muñiz to be freed on bail. Two days after his recent release from jail, he was making crosses from ashes to celebrate his freedom.

Although the truth is that Father Muñiz is only free on bond and his case is being reviewed, he is enjoying the fruits of a judicial decision that has resulted from ignorance, fumbling and pressure from the Archdiocese of Veracruz. Judge Martín has taken no specialized training in child sexual exploitation. He therefore continues to make judicial decisions as if this were the year 2000, when Mexico didn't have the precise legal instruments and judicial arguments that exist today, which  permit serious sentences to be handed down.

In the case of [millionaire accused child pornographer] Jean Succar Kuri, the self-confessed "pedophile of Cancun," he was never charged with child sex trafficking, because he was extradited from the United States on charges of child pornography and the corruption of minors. It has been six years since Succar Kuri was arrested in Arizona. His many attorneys, despite not having done a spectacular job in defending him, have won a victory recently in the fact that Succar Kuri will be transferred from a [maximum security] federal prison to a local [minimum security] jail in his home town city of Cancún. According to authorities, Succar Kuri was one of the planners of a prisoner escape by 103 inmates in 2006.

The magistrate in the case made it clear that federal prosecutors had a responsibility to submit a request for revocation of the judicial order that will send Kuri to a local jail in Cancún, and instead, the prosecutors had submitted an appeal of the judge's order. This is equivalent to saying that a given person went to the hospital for a kidney translation and was offered a liver transplant. As yet we don't know if the prosecutor in this case made an intentional error. It is incompre-hensible that such an error could occur when this case is being scrutinized by the U.S. Justice Department, which had extradited Succar Kuri under an agreement that President Calderón's government would bring him to justice.

Succar Kuri will arrive in Cancún this week. His return to this city will be watched by many.

Judge Martin is also being closely watched. This week we will find out whether Father Muñiz received special treatment. It is clear that there is an urgent need in Mexico to train judges and prosecutors on the law as it applies to sex trafficking cases.

To feel outrage at these developments is essential, but it is not a sufficient response. Only through professional training and oversight of the judiciary will we be able to eliminate the ignorant excuses and the faulty interpretations of the law that allow corruption into the process.

The message that we send out to the millions of boys and girls who are exploited each year must be clear: child pornography is a crime, and the judiciary will protect children.

Kingston - Jamaica's Chief Justice, Hon. Zaila McCalla O.J., has commended efforts being made by stakeholders, at various levels of the society, to combat human trafficking in Jamaica.

Speaking at a two-day workshop hosted by the Ministry of Health at the Mona Visitors' Lodge and Conference Centre, University of the West Indies (UWI),

St. Andrew, Mrs. McCalla cited the efforts and input of the legislature, judiciary, security forces, human rights activists, women's groups and faith-based organizations.

She alluded to a "fairly recent disclosure" in a human trafficking report prepared by the United States State Department, which lists Jamaica at an "unacceptable"' Tier 2 level on its watch list.

She pointed out that this signaled that it is felt by the authorities there, that Jamaica has not fully complied fully with the minimum standards. She said that, on the contrary, Jamaica had made "significant efforts" to deal with the problem.

Citing that the existing laws in any country to punish perpetrators of the crime is necessary for the cultivation of a social conscience in that society, the Chief Justice highlighted the Trafficking in Persons (Prevention, Suppression and Punishment) Act, legislated in 2007, as a direct effort to stamp out human trafficking.

"So far, the courts have been working to ensure that the objectives of the Act are complied with, and we will continue to do so in an effort to prevent and stamp out this style of criminal activity. The existence of legislation in Jamaica to confront the problem is a significant step on which we should continue to build," she stated...

Columbia - ...Tucked away in a trailer park just a few miles outside the Columbia city limits was the center of South Carolina's first human trafficking case.

Inside was a child, smuggled into the US, then trafficked to a pimp and forced to service dozens of men a day in the Midlands.

"I told my agents, I said, 'We're going to treat this little girl like she's our daughter and we're going to hunt this little girl down and get her out of this trailer,'" said Ken Burkhart, an agent from Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Burkhart got a call from Mexican authorities in February 2007 about a 14-year-old runaway who called her sister in Mexico for help and gave a vague description of the trailer on Sharpe Road.

ICE agents put the trailer under surveillance. On Feb. 27, 2007, the agents moved in.

"Wasn't really seeing anything and with a minor being involved, I didn't want to wait much longer, so we made the decision to simply knock on the door. When I knocked on the door the 14-year-old answered the door," said Burkhart. "I was shocked. I didn't expect that, I expected anybody else but my girl to answer that door."

Unaware of who was inside, Burkhart knew he had to act fast.

"I told her we had been in contact with her sister and shook her hand and just gently led her right out of the door and I had several agents, along with officers from the Richland County Sheriff's Office who assisted, and just kind of passed her right over to those agents," said Burkhart.

It took days, Burkhart says, before the girl agents called "AR" could trust them.

"They have been trained not to trust law enforcement, that we're the bad guys, that we're really not there to help them, so initially AR would tell me that everything was fine, she was okay; she was in no danger," said Burkhart.

When she opened up, AR told investigators she was smuggled in from Mexico in July 2006 by Jesus Perez-Laguna.

Perez-Laguna ran a sex trafficking ring in Charlotte where he pimped AR and several other girls out around the area for several weeks, pocketing the money the girls made.

AR told investigators she was then traded out to Guatalupe Reyes-Rivera, also known as Mama Martina, who lived in Columbia.

"She actually liked her because she didn't beat her like the man in Charlotte did," said Burkhart.

AR told investigators a third pimp, Ciro Bustos-Rosales, pimped her out at Columbia's Mauldin Village Apartments on Mauldin Avenue, a few miles away from Columbia College. The girl was forced to have sex with dozens of men a day...

Both Perez-Laguna and Bostos-Rosales pleaded guilty in 2007. Perez-Laguna is serving a 14-year sentence, Bostos-Rosales is serving five-and-a-half years.

The penalties for trafficking carry up to life in federal prison, and in some cases, qualifies for the death penalty.

Mexico City - Federal police in central Mexico have captured a man wanted by the FBI for allegedly trafficking women and minors for prostitution in the United States.

The Attorney General's Office says police acting on an anonymous tip captured Mexican suspect Gerardo Salazar on a highway in the central state of Tlaxcala.

The office says Salazar is being held for attempted bribery and possible extradition to face the U.S. charges. It said in a statement Monday that when police stopped Salazar, he offered them a house and a car to let him go.

The FBI alleges Gerardo Salazar used beatings, threats and deception to force Mexican women and girls to work as prostitutes in the Houston, Texas, area in 2004 and 2005.

A 39-year-old Valley man who authorities say stalked and raped six young girls in Chandler agreed Monday to a prison sentence of 168½ years as part of a plea agreement.

Santana Batiz-Aceves, dubbed the "Chandler Rapist," was charged with 47 counts, including child molestation, sexual conduct with a minor, kidnapping, aggravated assault and burglary. Police say he attacked girls from June 2006 to November 2007.

Batiz-Aceves pleaded guilty to 12 counts, including attempted sexual conduct with a minor and molestation. Sentencing is scheduled for April 2 before Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Kristin Hoffman.

The case left the city on edge for two years and received significant media attention. On April 9, Judge Theresa A. Sanders denied Batiz-Aceves' request to have the trial moved out of Maricopa County...

Originally from Sinaloa, Mexico, Batiz-Aceves began living in the United States illegally in 1988 and lived in Sacramento for nearly 16 years, where he worked for a construction company.

Three of the victims were students at Andersen Junior High School, police said.

In all but one of the cases, police believe, the rapist followed the victims for weeks, targeting single-parent homes.

In the incidents, the rapist studied the parent's routine, developed a quick escape route and then struck, police said.

Dallas - A jury in Dallas has ordered 68 years in prison for a man convicted of sexual assault in an attack on a 12-year-old girl as he pretended to be a doctor.

Jesus Garza testified Monday, during the penalty phase, that the girl and her mother had lied about the allegations.

Prosecutors say the woman in June took her daughter, who has a skin condition, to Garza's Grand Prairie apartment for an examination. Garza allegedly had claimed he had a clinic that was being painted.

The mother says she could not see what the 64-year-old Garza was doing because he covered the girl, whose name was not made public as a sexual assault victim, was doing to her.

Three adult women testified that they also were molested by Garza when they sought treatment from him.

The Henderson County Sheriff’s Office arrested a man for having sex with a girl for 8 years since she was only 10 years old.

Luis Antonio Cruz, 42, of Howard Gap Road in Hendersonville was charged with four counts of second-degree rape, two counts of attempted second-degree sex offense, indecent liberties with a child and one count of felony child abuse, all of which are felonies.

“Mr. Cruz was identified by our 287(g) unit as being in the country legally, but not a citizen,” Sheriff Rick Davis said. “Persons in this category, after completion of a sentence, are deported as an aggravated felon and returned to their country of origin.”

Cruz was processed at the Henderson County Detention Center where he was placed under a $280,000 secured bond.

"Enter at Your Own Risk" - A Study From Ontario, Canada

Fear of Being Fired Discourages Women Migrant Workers from Reporting Rape and Other Abuses

Mexico City - Hundreds of Mexican women who are participating in the Mexico-Canada Temporary Agricultural Worker's Program (PTAT) face harsh working conditions in Canada. In addition to job insecurity and a lack of access to health services, these women suffer violence, and above all sexual assault, which they don't report for fear of losing their jobs.

Thee were the conclusions reached by Canadian sociologist Dr. Jenna L. Hennebry in her 2008 to 2009 research study of labor conditions for migrant workers in Ontario province, titled, Enter at Your Own Risk: Mexican Migrant Agricultural Workers in Canada. Dr. Hennebry recently presented the results of her investigation at the Institute for Social Investigation at the Autonomous National University of Mexico (UNAM).

Dr. Hennebry based her work on interviews with 600 migrants. Some ninety percent of Canadian agricultural migrant workers come from Mexico, 7% are from Jamaica, and the remaining three percent are from Guatemala and Honduras. Migrant workers average 7 years on the job in Canada.

Of the 5,000 Mexican workers in the PTAT program, 400 are women...

...Canadian [farm managers] subject these workers to violence, and above all, to sexual assault. However, male migrant coworkers are the most frequent perpetrators of rape against women workers.

Many Canadian farm operators believe that migrant women workers are easier to control than men. In the PTAT program, farm managers can select the sex of the workers that they desire to work on their farms.

Women interviewed for the study stated that "If they [sexual assault victims] call the police, those authorities will take action. The problem is that they fear loosing their jobs if they speak up."

According to Adela Rico Arreola, a 43-year-old Mexican migrant worker, women women who report rape face a risk of loosing their jobs not only from their Canadian employer, but from the Mexico. Rico Arreola: "If you complain to a Mexican Consul in Canada about having been raped, he will tell you: 'Put up with it if you want to work. Because there are many people in line in Mexico waiting to come here.'"

If migrants complain about sexual assault to the Mexican Secretariat of Labor and Social Forecasting, which is the government agency that arranges employment for workers in the PTAT program, their response is: "Well, you won't be going back [to

Canada]."

Full English Translation

Según datos del gobierno haitiano, en el último tiempo ha crecido la violencia contra las mujeres en los campamentos, ha habido un aumento en las violaciones y la prostitución es en muchas ocasiones el único medio para obtener comida.

According to information from the Haitian government, violence against women has grown in the camps, there has been a rise in rapes, and prostitution is often the sole means of obtaining food...

CIM President Wanda Jones thanked the Secretary General for his quick response after the January 12 earthquake, “committing the OAS, taking its resources and working with other organizations for the reconstruction of Haiti...”

La Organización de los Estados Americanos (OEA) inauguró hoy el Año Interamericano de la Mujer con una mesa redonda presidida por el Secretario General de la Organización de los Estados Americanos (OEA), José Miguel Insulza, y la Presidenta de la Comisión Interamericana de Mujeres (CIM), Wanda Jones, en la sede principal del organismo en Washington, DC.

El Secretario General reconoció “el orgullo que tiene la OEA de iniciar oficialmente el Año Interamericano de la Mujer con la presencia de un grupo tan distinguido que representa las luchas, los logros y los obstáculos que enfrentan las mujeres de nuestro continente en su trayecto a la representación y la incidencia política”.

“Aún hay obstáculos que vencer, estereotipos que eliminar, injusticias que corregir, marcos jurídicos que modernizar y aplicar, lenguajes sexistas que eliminar. Las mujeres políticas del Hemisferio y la OEA emprenderán un nuevo camino de colaboración para eliminar las dificultades que persisten en la lucha por los derechos y la igualdad de las mujeres. Cuentan ustedes con la OEA para lograrlo”, finalizó.

Por su parte, la Presidenta de la CIM aseguró que, a pesar de los avances en materia de igualdad en todo el continente, aún existen problemas. “Sabemos que el acceso real al poder y a la toma de decisiones en este país y en muchos otros es limitado. Si bien la mayoría de los países aquí representados han firmado los convenios que permiten que la mujer acceda al poder, seguimos enfrentadas a obstáculos en todos los ámbitos”...

The Organization of American States (OAS) today inaugurated the Inter-American Year of Women with a round table presided by OAS Secretary General José Miguel Insulza and the President of the Inter-American Commission of Women (CIM), Wanda Jones, at OAS headquarters in Washington, DC.

The Secretary General noted “the pride the OAS has in officially beginning the Inter-American Year of Women with the presence of so distinguished a group that represents the battles, the achievements and obstacles that women in our continent face in their trajectory toward political representation and influence.”

“There are still obstacles to overcome, stereotypes to eliminate, injustices to correct, judicial frameworks to modernize and implement, sexist language to eliminate. Political women of the Hemisphere and the OAS will undertake a new road of collaboration to eliminate the difficulties that persist in the fight for the rights and equality of women. You can count on the OAS for support,” he concluded.

For her part, the President of the CIM asserted that despite the progress achieved throughout the continent on the subject of equality, certain problems persist. “We know that access to real power and decision making in this country and in many others is limited. While a majority of countries represented here have signed agreements that allow women access to power, we continue to face obstacles in all spheres.” ...

Los temas de la agenda incluyeron medidas concretas para fortalecer la cooperación jurídica y judicial en las Américas; promoción de herramientas para fortalecer la asistencia mutua en materia penal y de extradición; medidas contra el delito cibernético; asistencia y protección a victimas y testigos; políticas penitenciarias y carcelarias y cooperación hemisférica en materia de investigación forense, la lucha contra de la trata de personas y en pro del derecho de la familia y la niñez...

While Texas already has several task forces related to human trafficking that are funded by the U.S. Justice Department, the new task force will connect investigations and intelligence throughout the state, officials said...

Major destination

Texas is considered a major destination for victims of domestic and international human trafficking. In 2008, 38 percent of all calls to the National Human Trafficking Resource Center hot line were dialed in Texas, according to statistics...

Victims' rights workers have called for more safe houses and increased public awareness. A common misperception is that victims are always forced into the sex trade. But, advocates say, more than half are forced into other types of labor, so clues about their situation are often ignored...

Rep. Paula Pierson, D-Arlington, who attended the conference, said abuse, particularly of women and children, has gone on for "years and years." 

"We can't just bury our heads in the sand and pretend it does not go on," she said. "We have to take a stand and stop it."

A massive earthquake has hit the coast of Chile, killing dozens of people, flattening buildings and triggering a tsunami.

The 8.8-magnitude quake, the country’s largest in 25 years, shook the capital Santiago for a minute and half at 3:34am (6:34am GMT) today.

A tsunami warning has been extended across 53 countries, including most of Central and South America and as far as Australia, Hawaii and Antarctica.

The wave has already caused serious damage to the sparsely populated Juan Fernandez islands, off the Santiago coast, and is now travelling across the ocean at several hundred km per hour.

The death toll in Chile has reached 78 and is still rising according to President Michelle Bachelet, who has declared a “state of catastrophe” in the country.

Calling for calm from an emergency response centre, the outgoing president said: “We have had a huge earthquake, with some aftershocks.

“Despite this, the system is functioning. People should remain calm. We’re doing everything we can with all the forces we have. Any information we will share immediately.”

With a confluence of climate and non-climate drivers, the ubiquitous presence of land degradation, and an irregular geographical population and land distribution, Mexico stands out as an exemplary potential hotspot for environmentally-induced migration in Latin America. Its adjacency to the United States has in part facilitated international migration as a viable coping strategy.... There has been a growing out-migration of environmentally induced migrants from the arid northern region, already estimated by the mid 1990s at 900,000 per year. When Washington decides to include environmentally motivated migration as a factor in its migratory policy, it might first address it in regards to Mexico, due to the latter’s status as the largest immigration feeder country into the United States. This may set a precedent for how the issue is approached in the rest of the Western hemisphere.

...The Mexican government’s unequal response in terms of hurricane relief may also have played a part in accelerating out-migration. Indeed, while authorities responded quickly and effectively to Hurricane Wilma that hit the Maya Riviera and its tourist attractions in October 2005, they provided practically no assistance to the impoverished victims of Hurricane Stan, which devastated [Mayan majority] Chiapas less than a month later...

...Environmentally-induced migrants, and in particular those abruptly uprooted from their homes due to sudden natural disasters, are “at greater risk of sexual exploitation, human trafficking and sexual and gender-based violence” than settled populations...

...Climate change will also certainly induce greater female out-migration. [In Environmentally induced migration and displacement: a 21st Century Challenge, a report by the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly, Tina] Acketoft reports that “while lone women migrants will face similar challenges to their male counterparts in finding employment, affordable housing, and accessing social services, they are in addition more likely to face difficulties due to gender-based discrimination.” This holds especially true in Latin America, where patriarchalism is still strongly prevalent.

Attendees at Congressional Anti-Trafficking Conference Proposed Penalizing Exploiters and Consumers

[English translation to follow]

México, DF.- La falta de homogeneidad legislativa penal, para castigar el delito de trata, tanto a nivel federal como estatal, profundiza el riesgo de mayor impunidad. A pesar de que en 25 estados del país tienen contemplado ese delito, esas diferencias hacen que desde la Ley se abra la puerta a la impunidad, coincidieron las y los participantes del Foro de Análisis sobre la Legislación Penal en Materia de Trata de Personas...

Para Rodolfo Casillas, especialista en el tema y maestro en historia por El Colegio de México, los estados que ya modificaron sus códigos penales apelaron a una gran diversidad de elementos lo que da como resultado una variedad en las conductas sancionables, en los medios comisivos, en los fines y en consecuencia en el régimen de sanciones...

México forma parte de la Convención de las Naciones Unidas contra la Delincuencia Organizada Transnacional (Convención de Palermo) y de sus tres protocolos: Protocolo para prevenir, reprimir y sancionar la trata de personas, especialmente mujeres y niñas; Protocolo contra el tráfico ilícito de migrantes por tierra, mar y aire; y el Protocolo contra la fabricación y el tráfico ilícitos de armas de fuego, sus piezas y componentes y municiones.

Casillas, señaló que pareciera que al ser México país de origen tránsito y destino de flujos internacionales de personas, mercancías y productos prohibidos, fuera justificante para que sociedad e instituciones podamos presentar excusas por el actuar contradictorio, ineficiente e insatisfactorio al aplicar políticas públicas de corto alcance.

Varias y varios de los ponentes coincidieron en que esta heterogeneidad en los marcos jurídicos ha permitido que los tratantes queden libres y que la impunidad se imponga ante el sufrimiento y el dolor de las víctimas, además de que crea desconfianza en las instituciones y en consecuencia, la falta de denuncia.

Sara Irene Herrerías Guerra, titular de la Fiscalía para los Delitos de Violencia contra la Mujer y Trata de Personas de la Procuraduria General de la República (PGR), externó que es necesario un marco jurídico que permita trabajar en los aspectos de atención a víctimas, políticas públicas y persecución de delitos.

“Hay algunos problemas como el de acreditar el tipo penal no sólo en la cuestión de la ley para prevenir, sino los tipos penales específicos. Se tiene que hacer un análisis jurídico que, “nos permita que no se recalifiquen las conductas delictivas, que se dé menos espacio a la corrupción y que en general todos los actores estemos en un mismo sentido combatiendo este delito”...

A pesar de que especialistas y legisladores demostraron con cifras el efecto de la trata de personas en el país, el secretario de Gobernación, Fernando Gómez Mont, aseguró que antes de pensar en federalizar el delito “hay que visibilizar la tragedia”...

Invitado a participar en el foro de análisis sobre la legislación penal contra la trata de personas, Gómez Mont afirmó que ese delito tiene su origen en el machismo, la pobreza y la violencia familiar, y se construye sobre lo más débil de los seres humanos...

Interior Secretary Mont Lays Bare His Opposition to Federalizing Mexico's Anti-Trafficking Legislation

Secretary Mont ignores PAN Congressional Deputy Rosi Orozco's Call For Immediate Actions To Help Victims

During the Feb. 23^rd and 24^th, 2010 congressionally sponsored Forum for Analysis and Discussion in Regard to Criminal Law to Control Human Trafficking, Mexico’s Interior Secretary, Fernando Gómez Mont, cautioned that, before consideration is given to the idea of passing federalized human trafficking crime legislation, “we must visualize this tragedy.”

The Fifth Inspector General of the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH), Fernando Batista, lamented that only 25 of 31 states in Mexico have passed legislation enacting criminal statues to address human trafficking. Batista noted that because of legal deficiencies in the existing state laws, only 1.7 percent of those who are responsible for trafficking crimes are exposed to the risk of prosecution. An even smaller percentage face a risk of being sentenced to prison if they are convicted.

Batista said that this stands in stark contrast with the fact that the sexual exploitation of adults and children is the third most profitable criminal enterprise in the world, after drug and arms trafficking.

National Action Party (PAN) deputy Rosi Orozco, Chair of the Special Commission to Fight Human Trafficking, recently formed in the Chamber of Deputies [lower House], declared that although a national anti-trafficking law has been in effect in Mexico since [late] 2007, “only one person has been sent to prison for trafficking offenses.”

Interior Secretary Mont, who was invited to appear at the anti trafficking forum, acknowledged that human trafficking in Mexico has its origins in machismo, poverty and family violence. He added that trafficking builds itself upon the backs of the most vulnerable.

Among the solutions that were presented at the forum was the idea of federalizing anti-trafficking law, to resolve the problem of inconsistency that plagues existing state criminal laws to control trafficking. In response to this proposal, Interior Secretary Mont expressed his opposition to the idea. He suggested that alternatives should be considered, such as involving educational, law enforcement and social service institutions in an effort to “detect the spaces in which this monstrous activity exists.”

Deputy Orozco proposed that, at present, at the very least, the federal government should open an emergency telephone hotline where kidnapped children and their families can call to seek help or file a complaint. Secretary Mont had no response to this proposal.

During the forum Deputy Orozco also stated that the sexual exploitation of women and children is the third most profitable illicit business for organized crime globally. She noted that in Mexico, government officials are involved in human trafficking activities. Deputy Orozco: “This crime involves the worst forms of slavery that have existed in the history of humanity.”

Deputy Orozco said that, according to national and international research reports, an estimated 16,000 to 20,000 minors are subjected to [commercial] sexual exploitation of children [CSEC]. Within that group, 80% of the victims are children between the ages of 10 and 14.

Fernando Gómez Mont, Mexico's Interior Secretary, spoke during the recent Forum for Analysis and Discussion in Regard to Criminal Law to Control Human Trafficking, hosted by the newly formed Special Commission for the Fight Against Human Trafficking of the House of Deputies in Congress. Secretary Mont said that he recognizes that [the government of] Mexico is organizing itself to fight human trafficking at an agonizingly slow pace. He offered his viewpoint, that efforts to combat trafficking should focus on creating prevention mechanisms, and not increased 'action' [law enforcement efforts]. The Secretary added that the roots of this problem in Mexican society involve the dynamics of family violence, machismo and extreme poverty.

Secretary Mont: "These are the factors that are the root of the surge in trafficking. For that reason, he said, we must develop a truly effective approach to prevention. We cannot stop fighting to resolve these aspects of the problem."

Secretary Mont continued by proposing that the educational and social service systems should be involved in the attack on these evils, and they should be used to detect the spaces in society where these monstrous activities exist.

All of us, declared the Secretary, should work to find the path out of this crisis in the most rational manner possible. We need to recognize that structural problems [in our society] must be addressed.

Mont: "The slow pace of the of consolidating the political will [to address this problem] is agonizing, but it is possible for us to visualize that at some point our society will reach an awakening, a point when we become aware of our conscience. At that point, empathy [for the victims] will take effect.

National Action Party (PAN) Deputy Rosi Orozco, Chair of the Special Commission, declared that the impact of improved laws, better equipment, specially trained law enforcement and sensitized and aware prosecutors will amount to nothing if the judges who are responsible for sentencing those who are convicted of these crimes do not use the correct criteria, to avoid impunity in these cases.

Deputy Orozco added that an estimated 16,000 to 20,000 children, [mostly]  between the ages of 10 and 14, have fallen prey to human trafficking networks in Mexico.

Silver Spring - Montgomery County (web | news) police have arrested two men in connection with the rape of an 11-year-old girl Tuesday evening in Silver Spring.

The victim told police she was walking near the intersection of Piney Branch Road and Carroll Avenue Tuesday afternoon when two men began yelling at her in Spanish. The victim, who doesn't understand Spanish, walked away. About four hours later, around 8 p.m., the girl was playing in a park near Quebec Terrace when the same two men approached the girl, police said. They grabbed her by the arm and forced her to go to an apartment in the 8700 block of Carroll Avenue, where they both raped her, police said. She was released afterwards and immediately told her mother, who called police.

"And based on the information she provided and the location and description of the ...men and some of the contents in the apartment, the officers went right to the apartment, found the two guys in the apartment, locked them up," said police spokesman Corporal Dan Friz.

The officers arrested 31-year-old Melquicide H. Sorto and 20-year-old Marcos R. Torres-Enriquez. Both were charged with second-degree rape and are being held on $1 million bond.

Cpl. Friz added that the girl confirmed the men in custody were the ones who attacked her.

"It renders one speechless," Corporal Friz said of the crime. "It's completely unnecessary. It's horrid. You just shake your head."

Neighbors were also stunned.

"Well, I mean, it's scary," said Peter Chan. "I got a 9-year-old, too. That's crazy."

ABC 7's Brad Bell visited the home where the crime took place. He saw several people inside. A man answered the door of the house said he was ignorant of the crime and the accused.

"You don't know 'em?" ABC 7's Brad Bell asked. "I don't know, man," the man replied. "You live here, they live here but you don't know 'em?" Brad asked.

The case has been referred to federal immigration authorities to find out the immigration status of the defendants and, sources say, police will explore a possible link to gang activity...

Both defendants were charged with second-degree rape and are being held on $1 million bond.