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Indigenous & Latina Women & Children's Human
Rights News from the Americas |
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Indigenous Women, Children at Risk |
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This Section Last Updated
June 08, 2009 |
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Centuries of Abuses Continue Today |
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 Indigenous
women and children living in the United States have
experienced sexual violence with impunity for hundreds
of years. Today they face a rate of rape that is
3.5 times higher than the U.S. national average.
In 82% of such rapes, the assailant is white American. |
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Issues: |
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See also:
School Exploitation
Forced Sterilization
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Latest News
Últimas Noticias
Latest
News
Navajo Nation
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(The Navajo woman
pictured is not a known victim
related to this story.) |
Sexual Assault Among Navajo Nation
Dear Editor, this letter is based on
upon my experiences volunteering with San Juan Catholic Charities
and assisting with homeless female sexually assaulted victims in San
Juan County and McKinley County [New Mexico]...
Victims of sexual
assault face many obstacles that hinder the process of healing and
overcoming the trauma of being victimized. No wonder they have no
faith in the justice system and feel that they are re-victimized by
society...
...My
investigation of sexual assault cases on the Navajo Reservation has
led me to believe that we should re-educate our people. One
suggestion is to have Rehabilitation and Treatment Programs include
a lesson on the historical background of the multi-generational
trauma that natives have endured at the hands of the majority
culture. In addition, clients should reflect on their own family
history and find proactive ways in dealing with their pain and
suffering.
Another suggestion
is to educate the public about the growing epidemic of violence
against Native American women and make the public aware of the lack
of funding that is widespread across the reservation, which leads to
inadequate levels of services such as, shelters in need of repair,
no counseling services for sexual assault victims, and low priority
status on most sexual assault cases within the justice system.
Another suggestion
is to address and educate men about historical context of sexual
assault among Native American women. In addition, Indian health care
providers, school officials, tribal law officials, chapter house
officials, and service providers need to create curriculum that
includes what it means to be a masculine in ways that honor women,
reflect healthy traditional community values, and how sexual
violence has been condoned in rural communities...
Naomipine
Letter to the
Editor
Indian
Country Today
May 27, 2009
Unites States
Native Women Receive Protection
The
Tribal Law and Order Act of 2008, designed to lower
sexual violence against American Indian and Alaskan
Native women, was introduced July 23 by the Senate of
Indian Affairs Committee. The bill would enable tribal
police to enforce violations of federal laws on Indian
lands and offer them greater access to criminal history
information.
Amnesty
International, which in a 2007 report found the rate of
rape and other sexual violence for this population of
women 2.5 times higher than that for other U.S. women,
hailed the bill.
On July
17, the committee also held a hearing on the
implementation of the Adam Walsh Act for tracking sex
offenders, which the U.S. Congress passed in 2006
without tribal consultation. The law requires tribal
governments to include all convictions for qualifying
sex offenses in their registries and register offenders
in the places where they live and work. Those that don’t
comply will automatically cede jurisdiction to the
state, reported the
www.indianz.com July
11, 2008.
The
majority of tribes that are now working to create their
own tracking systems face a 2009 deadline. The National
Congress of American Indians has said that tribes that
opt to implement the Adam Walsh Act should have the same
rights and access to criminal databases as U.S. states.
-
Besa Luci
WomensNews
July
26, 2008
LibertadLatina
note:
Native women and children in the United States have long
been subjected to impunity. Today it is criminal
sexual assault that is the most glaring example of the
second class status that indigenous people continue to
hold in this country.
The statistics from the U.S. Department of Justice show
that Native women in the U.S. have a 3.5 times higher
rate of exposure to sexual assault than other groups of
women (Amnesty International states the rate is 2.5
times higher). During recent years, Native
reservations, which are governed by tribal police
departments and by U.S. federal law, have been virtually
ignored. Most rape cases that could have been
pursued by federal prosecutors were never acted upon.
As Congress had written the law, and as the President
has enforced it through the U.S. Department of Justice,
the typically white, non-resident rapists who stalk
women on U.S. reservations can only receive a ONE YEAR
jail sentence for rape.
It has also been especially troubling to the Native
community that 5 of the 8 federal prosecutors who were
fired by former U.S. Attorney General Gonzalez had
focused their efforts on increasing the prosecution and
conviction rates for rapists on Native reservations.
We at sincerely hope that the Tribal Law and Order Act
of 2008 repairs these errors in equal protection under
the law as it applies to Native women and their undue
exposure to gender violence.
-
Chuck Goolsby
Afro Creek Catawba
LibertadLatina
July
30, 2008
Added July 26, 2007
Native America
Fired
Nevada U.S. attorney had doubled prosecution rate in
cases affecting Native Americans
After 11 years as
an assistant U.S. attorney in Reno, where most of
the cases from federal crimes on Nevada's 27 Indian
reservations were handled and where he had
prosecuted many of them, Daniel Bogden became the
U.S. attorney for Nevada and made American Indian
issues a priority...
Then in late 2006, the
Justice Department abruptly fired eight U.S.
attorneys. Bogden was one of five among the eight
who had taken a leadership role on DOJ's
sub-committee on Native issues...
Arlan Melendez, vice
president of the Inter-Tribal Council of Nevada:
''When you see the Justice Department isn't really
interested in Indian country, and then you see them
fire U.S. attorneys who are taking an interest in
Indian country, you formulate your opinions from
that.''
- Indian Country Today
July 20, 2007
Added July 14, 2007
Native America
U.S. Justice
Department turns its back on rape with impunity on
Native reservations
U.S. Attorney
firings targeted effective prosecutors of rape on
the reservation
Impact of 2006 Adam
Walsh Act on tribes also discussed
Crime-victim
advocates from Indian country have focused attention
on the pandemic of rape on Indian lands by whites
and other perpetrators. One in three Indian women
will be raped, and more than 70 percent of the
rapists are not Indian.
At the National Congress of American Indians'
mid-year conference in June [2007], Native women who
have worked for decades to end sexual violence on
Indian lands [discussed] the need for tribal
follow-up on the Adam Walsh Act and other subjects.
The meeting was attended by Margaret Chiara, who was
one of the eight U.S. Attorneys fired by the Bush
administration. Of those eight, she was one of the
five who served on the U.S. Attorneys' subcommittee
for Native issues.
Chiara said her office had increased prosecutions of
these kinds of violent crimes and others on the
reservations in her western Michigan district by 85
percent by dedicating an attorney and one staff to
prosecutions of these cases.
Paul Charlton, the fired U.S. Attorney from Arizona,
said one of two reasons Justice told him he was
being fired was because he'd called on the FBI to
tape confessions. Charlton later said an FBI
policy against taping confessions harms the
prosecution rates of Indian child molestations
because molesters' confessions are often critical to
these cases.
Majel-Dixon and other Native women leaders say that
sexual predators target Indian lands because they
know that their chances of getting investigated and
prosecuted are slim. If these cases are prosecuted,
it is most likely by a tribal court which, under
federal law, can only impose a one-year sentence
even for the most violent rape by a repeat offender.
Native leaders say white rapists travel from
reservation to reservation offending...
''The joke is the perpetrators have severe laws they
face in the non-Indian world,'' Majel-Dixon said.
''But with the help of the attorneys general, the
president and Congress, we ended up with a one-year
imprisonment no matter what you did.''
- Indian Country Today
July 06, 2007
Added June 24, 2007
Native America
Indigenous women
from across the Americas attended a May 2007 meeting of the
United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues
to spotlight the unique violence that targets
indigenous women.
''It's in the border zones [between indigenous and
outside communities] where everything that you
can imagine happens,'' said Ana Maria Garcia Lacayo,
of the Asociacion de Comunidades Indigenas
[Association of Indigenous
Communities] in
Bolivia. ''There is trafficking in boys and girls.
Women come out of the farm fields and return sick
with venereal disease.''
Charon Asetoyer, Comanche, and director of the
Native American Women's Health Education Resource
Center in Lake Andes, South Dakota... ''In the U.S. alone,
there are over 550 federally recognized tribes
[among others]... We
have to think about [violence in] those borders…
where [white]… truckers, ranchers, miners come on Friday
night to hoot and holler. It is in those places
where men come off the oil rigs, looking for
companionship, and not in a good way.''
Garcia Lacayo said that some [nations] have public
and church officials actively participating [in the
exploitation] or
looking the other way when it comes to indigenous
women. Indigenous women, she said, are deemed exotic
merchandise for some sexual predators. In the United
States, where 85 percent of predators are
non-Indian, rape of Native women… may be a crime for
which law enforcement and court practices have given
offenders little reason to expect to pay for it.
During a panel discussion at the United Nations on
May 18, some Native women from the United States
disclosed in quiet dignity that they were raped as
children and raped and beaten as women. ''I've
been raped and beaten countless times,'' one woman
said. The pain of
the beautiful women sent a chill through the
institutional room.
The history of widespread violence against
indigenous women is rooted in colonial cultures,
said Peggy Bird, Kewa-Santo Domingo, who works in
the Native Women's Advocacy Center. ''Sometimes I
look at my grand-daughter and wonder what happened to
us,'' Bird said. But then she knows what happened.
''The Spanish traded over 500 women and children to
get a bell for their church. They traded them into
sexual slavery, but these things we don't talk
about.''
Today, Garcia Lacayo said that indigenous girls in
Bolivia and Argentina are ''stolen, forced to drink
alcohol, imprisoned, beaten and made prostitutes so
they can pay rent every day on the room where they
are imprisoned.
Tonya Gonnella Frichner, Onondaga, said that she
wanted to look closely at the sexual violence
against indigenous women next year when she takes
office as the newly elected North American
representative to the U.N. Permanent Forum on
Indigenous Issues.
-
Kara Briggs
I ndian Country Today
June 14, 2007
LibertadLatina
notes:
The above
article summary represents the views-of and the
mission-of
Libertad-Latina...
to end impunity now, especially in regard to the
deliberate race-based targeting of Native women and
children for sexual violence while society's moral
leadership, in government, church and community,
intentionally look the other way, following 500
years of colonial 'tradition.'
What madness is this? Enough is enough!!
-
Chuck Goolsby LibertadLatina
June 24, 2007
See also:
Added May 28, 2007
Native Americas
Sexual violence
against indigenous women is discussed at the United
Nations
-
Indian Country
May 18,
2007
Twelve-year-old
virgin Mexican girls, for example, are sold to
brothels in Spain for $25,000, but if a
beautiful young Indigenous girl is being sold, that
raises the price even more because she is [exotic].'
-
Teresa Ulloa Latin American and
Caribbean director of the Coalition Against
Trafficking in Women (CATW)
-
La Crónica de Hoy
México
Oct. 20, 2005
Indigenous
children & women are especially targeted due to
their race for rape, kidnapping and sex trafficking
with impunity by the thousands, throughout the
Americas. That has been a reality for 500 years
throughout all of the Americas.
Nobody
in state authority is going to put out any effort to
search for, much-less rescue indigenous [or
Afro-Latina] girls and women in crisis.
Society's racism accepts the actions of rapists and
traffickers.
Until we address the impact that race and poverty
have in this crisis, our efforts to stop the
epidemic of sex trafficking and exploitation will
fail.
-
Chuck Goolsby LibertadLatina
Oct. 21, 2005
Defending
'Little Brown Maria' in the Brothel
- Chuck Goolsby
LibertadLatina
March 8, 2005
Racism
and Sex Trafficking
Patricia Hyne
2002
LibertadLatina:
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.
Added June 24, 2007
Native South Dakota
Lower Brule - A
field hearing of the U.S. House Resources Committee
was held here on June 1, 2007 to collect information
from law enforce-ment, tribal leaders and from
women's organiza-tions about violence against women,
the result of an Amnesty International report on the
subject that recently became public.
Georgia Little Shield, director of the Pretty Bird
Woman House shelter on [the] Standing Rock
[reservation]:
''Sixty-one women were sexually assaulted in one
week on Standing Rock. When women go to
the [off-reservation] city jail for help [by
requesting to be locked-up], that is desperate.''
''We have been saying this for some time, but when
Amnesty Inter-national publicized the report, people
started to listen,'' said Cecelia Fire Thunder,
former president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe and now a
director at Cangleska, a battered women's shelter
and program.
-
Indian Country Today
June 18, 2007
See also:
Amnesty International
Report:
Maze of
Injustice - The Failure to Protect Indigenous Women
from Sexual Violence in the USA
From the report:
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In 2003 a Native American woman accepted a
ride home from two white men who raped and
beat her and then threw her off a bridge…The
case went to trial in a state court but the
jurors were unable to agree on whether the
suspects were guilty. A juror who was asked
why replied: "She was just another drunk
Indian." |
- Amnesty International
April 24,
2007
No más violencia
sexual contra las mujeres indígenas en Estados
Unidos
- Amnesty International
April 24,
2007
Added July
24, 2005
Native Women Leaders Call for
Continued Funding and Stronger Options for Prosecuting
Non-Indian Assailants in Indian Country as Part
of the Violence Against Women Act Reauthorization |
July
01, 2005
Cherokee
Feminist Author Andrea Smith
Writes
Conquest: Sexual Violence and
American Indian Genocide, a
Comprehensive Analysis of the Ongoing 'Colonial'
Sexual Violence Facing Indigenous Women.
The
Dynamics of U.S. Racism, Boarding School Sexual
Violence, Rape, Domestic Violence and Strategies
Solutions are Discussed.
(Description, Reviews, and an Audio Interview with the
Author by Southend Press.)
NCAI spearheads effort to stop
violence against women
Washington,
DC - Native women are the most victimized group
in the country. Indian women are raped and sexually
assaulted more than double the number of times of women
of other races. The violent crime rate for American
Indian females during a 1992 to 1996 Department of
Justice study was 98 per 1,000 compared to 40 per 1,000
among white females or 56 per 1,000 among black females.
Indian
Country Today
Dec.
29, 2003
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From:
Five hundred years of Indigenous Resistance
Between
1965-71, an estimated 1 million women in Brazil had been
sterilized [45]. In Puerto Rico, 34% of all women of
child-bearing age had been sterilized by 1965 [46].
Between 1963-65, more than 40,000 women in Colombia had
been sterilized [47]...
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More about the forced sterilization of indigenous women
and girls across the Americas.
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About the deliberate sexual assault of indigenous
and Latina girls in boarding, reservation and community
schools across the Americas.
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2000 - Kevin Gover, Assistant Secretary-Indian
Affairs Department of the Interior, apologizes for past
BIA abuses against indigneous U.S. children [rampant
rape, torture and cultural brainwashing in the boarding
school system].
...This agency forbade the
speaking of Indian languages, prohibited the conduct of
traditional religious activities, outlawed traditional
government, and made Indian people ashamed of who they
were. Worst of all, the Bureau of Indian Affairs
committed these acts against the children entrusted to
its boarding schools, brutalizing them emotionally,
psychologically, physically, and spiritually. Even in
this era of self -determination, when the Bureau of
Indian Affairs is at long last serving as an advocate
for Indian people in an atmosphere of mutual respect,
the legacy of these misdeeds haunts us. The trauma of
shame, fear and anger has passed from one generation to
the next, and manifests itself in the rampant
alcoholism, drug abuse, and domestic violence that
plague Indian country.
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Lakota (Sioux) sue Catholic Church for Boarding School
Rape
...Sonny One Star says he
learned not to cry or scream when he was beaten and
sexually assaulted at his Roman Catholic boarding school
on the Rosebud Sioux Indian Reservation.
Four decades later, he says it is time for a different
approach.
"Today, I'm ready for retaliation," said One Star, a
leader on the reservation.
He and five other Sioux are suing the federal government
for $25 billion on behalf of perhaps thousands of
students allegedly abused at Indian boarding schools
around the country. They hope to have the case certified
as a class-action.
"The nuns and the priests -- the ones who are still living
-- I just want to let them know I'm coming after them,"
said One Star, 46, who attended the St. Francis Mission
school, one of the three Catholic schools named in the
lawsuit. "It was fun for them back then, but I want to
get justice. I want to get even."
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October 10, 2002,
V-Day, the global movement to stop violence against
women and girls, formally announced today the launch of
its Indian Country Project
and the appointment of
Native American activist Suzanne Blue Star Boy as
Director of the Project. V-Day has developed the Indian
Country Project to prioritize raising consciousness,
awareness and money around the issues facing Native
American women in the United States and First Nations
women in Canada at a time when violence against women
and girls in Indian Country is at epidemic proportions.
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the rate
of incidence (of rape or sexual assault) is 3.5 times
higher than any other race in the United States. The
rate* continues to rise while Indian women and girls
remain invisible as an at risk population.
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April 12,
2002
...Under the crime of rape,
Natives were more likely to be victimized with 15.9
percent reporting incidents; mixed races, Whites, and
African-Americans experienced incidents at 8.1, 7.7, and
7.4 percent respectively. Asian/Pacific islanders had a
rate of 3.8 percent. When one pauses to think that
statistically more than 1 in 6 Natives will report a
rape in their lifetimes, the statistic becomes even more
disturbing.
...In cases of rape and/or
sexual assault, the rate per 1000 is 7 among Natives,
and 3 per 1000 among blacks and 2 per 1000 for Whites.
In cases or rape against a Native woman, 82% of the
time, the offender is white.
From:
Violent victimization among Native Americans -Most crimes against Natives are
perpetrated by Whites - Native American Press/Ojibwe News - April 12, 2002
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PREVALENCE OF VIOLENCE IN INDIAN COUNTRY
The average annual violent crime rate among
American Indians is approximately 2.5 times higher than the national
rate. Rates of violence in every age group are higher among American
Indians than that of all races.
The average annual rate of rape and sexual assault among American Indians
is 3.5 times higher than for all races.
At least 70% of the violent victimization experienced by American Indians
is committed by persons not of the same race. - American Indians and
Crime, Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Justice Department
"Native advocates across
the country are expressing a growing consensus that rape
is a far too common experience for native women. It's
equally clear that tribal, state and federal
institutions that have a responsibility to respond have
not prioritized the issue."
Karen Artichoker (Oglala) - Director, Sacred Circle
Sexual Assault in Indian Country - Confronting Sexual
Violence
- by the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, a
project of the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape,
Funded by the U.S. Centers of Desease Control
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The Rape of indigenous girls in U.S. boarding schools
While researching Native-American issues at the
undergraduate library of the University of Maryland - College Park, I
found an article regarding this 'code of silence' in the nation's
largest Native-American newspaper, Wessaja, published by the
Native-American Historical Society in San Francisco, Ca. This article
mentioned the work of a well known Lakota (Sioux) psychiatrist, who had
taken a team of Native-women to a boarding school for junior high school
girls from far-away reservations. It was located in a 'White' town in
the upper northwestern U.S. This doctor's team concluded that 80 of the
120 students had been raped by [white] town locals, who took advantage
of the fact that Native-American victims of abuse, especially women and
teen-aged girls, would not speak to law enforcement authorities
regarding their victimization. Within this article the local Sheriff
expressed the hope that some of the girls would come forward. None had
at that time. The team of Native-women had been the key to bringing this
story out.
From Charles M. Goolsby, Jr.'s 1994 report:The
Sexual and Economic Exploitation of Latina immigrant Women and Girls in
Montgomery County, MD - Chapter 4.
See also our
Canadian section in regard to the rape of thousands of
indigenous (first-nations) girls and boys in Canadian government and
church run boarding schools.
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The historical Context of this
Issue
| The
Conquest and Internment of the Navajo Nation
...In 1863-64,
General Carleton and his subordinate, Colonel Kit Carson, invaded the
Navajo land, especially those concentrated in the Canyon de Chelly area.
Crops were burned, innocents were murdered, women were raped and general
chaos was rained upon these noble people simply because, like the Santee
Sioux, they demanded from Lincoln what they had been promised; their
land and to be left alone. General Carleton, believing there was gold to
be found in the area, stated: "This war, will be pursued against
you if it takes years until you cease to exist or move."
Again, there was no protest of this policy from Lincoln, his Commander
in Chief.
The Navajo were forced to march over 300 miles to Bosque Redondo in
eastern New Mexico. Over 200 Navajos died on this march and, eventually,
over 2,000 perished before a treaty was signed in 1868. While at Bosque
Redondo, the Navajo suffered the vilest conditions; bitter water, no
firewood and impossible growing conditions for crops. The soldiers and
the Mexican guards subjected the women to rape and humiliating
treatment. Children born at this "concentration camp" were lucky to
survive their first few months of life...
[Women and girls at this internment camp were required to trade sex with
soldiers and guards in exchange for enough corn meal to feed their
families on a given day. This system resulted in a syphilis
epidemic among both exploited women and girls as well as among
soldiers.]
From:
http://www.unitednativeamerica.com/issues/lincoln.html |
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LibertadLatina
News /
Noticias |
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Updated:
June 13, 2010
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Honduras
Venden niñas por edades
En San Pedro Sula hay unas 10 mil menores que son víctimas de abuso sexual y comercial
Apenas tiene 16 años y “Elena” ya ha tenido relaciones sexuales con diferentes hombres. La menor era prostituida por su padrastro, ahora lo hace por su cuenta.
Desde pequeña empezó a sufrir los maltratos del hombre que apenas esperó a que el cuerpo de ella comenzara a notarse el desarrollo para poder lucrarse.
La niña recuerda que tenía cerca de 12 años cuando su padrastro le dijo que llegarían unos amigos de visita y que tenía que ayudarle a su madre a atenderlos...
Un día, cuando estaba cerca de cumplir los 13 y mientras sus seis hermanos jugaban en la calle, su padrastro la dejó en casa con un amigo.
“Sólo me dijo que no tuviera miedo y que fuera cariñosa, ahora sé que pagaron por estar conmigo y en vez de que gane dinero él, mejor me lo agarro yo”, expresó la menor, que ahora se prostituye en las calles de la ciudad.
Ella logró huir de su casa, pero no del camino al que la orilló su padrastro...
El caso de “Elena” es más común de lo que parece. Sólo en San Pedro Sula hay cerca de 10 mil menores que son víctimas de abuso sexual y comercial, según información en poder de la Fiscalía de la Niñez. Las cifras recogen datos hasta 2008, por lo que las autoridades temen que el número hasta la fecha sea mucho más alarmante. El 98% de las estadísticas corresponde a niñas...
In the northern coastal city of San Pedro
Sula, 10,000 minors are subjected to sexual abuse and commercial
exploitation
Elena has just turned 16, but she has ‘been’ with many men. She
was first prostituted by her stepfather. Now she does it to make
money for herself.
From an early age Elena suffered abuse from her stepfather, who
just waited long enough for her to show signs of maturing before
he started profiting from selling her body.
Elena recalls that she was almost 12 when her stepfather told
her that some of his friends would be coming over to visit, and
that she had to help her mother to attend to his visitors.
At that time, Elena didn’t know that type of ‘attending’ she
would have to do for her stepfather’s friends. She imagined that
she would have to cook for them. Girls her age were expected to
help out with the housework.
One day, when she was close to her 13th birthday,
while her six brothers played in the street, her stepfather left
her in the house with one of his friends. Elena: “He told me not
to be afraid, and asked me to be affectionate with him. Now I
know that this man paid my stepfather to be with me. Instead of
making money for him, now I make it myself.”
Elena was able to escape from her home, but could not escape the
path in life that her stepfather has set her upon.
Cases like Elena’s occur more frequently than one would think.
Just in the city of San Pedro Sula, there are 10,000 minors who
are victims of sexual abuse, including the Commercial Sexual
Exploitation of Children (CSEC), according to data collected by
the special prosecutor for crimes against children. Their
statistics only cover a period through 2008, leaving the
authorities believing that today’s figures are likely much
higher. Some 98% of cases involve girls.
Special prosecutor for crimes against children coordinator
Thelma Martínez indicates that the figures are worrying, given
that an increasing number of these cases involve pimping and
human trafficking.
Martínez declared that these girls and adolescents are
manipulated and recruited by adults who profit from them through
prostitution. The victims are selected for the marketplace based
on the color of their skin, their age and their height.
The obstacle that prosecutors face in going after pimps is that
minors are not willing to testify against them.
Martínez: “Many girls are fearful. Others, unfortunately, have
gotten used to earning money this way, and prefer to say
nothing.”
Due to the increase in these types of cases, a special office
was created to attend to the complaints involving sexual abuse,
kidnapping, pimping, human trafficking and rape, which is the
most commonly reported crime.
According to the special prosecutor’s office, in the month of
May, 2010 alone, 30 child sexual abuse cases were processed.
Although child sexual abuse cases involve a criminal penalty of
from 5 to 10 years of prison time, the damage caused to the
victim is irreversible.
“The worst part of these cases is that the [perpetrator] is in
the same family nucleus. They are fathers, stepfathers, cousins
or others” added Martínez.
In addition to attending to the cases of children who are
victims of crime, the special prosecutor’s office also deals
with at-risk minors and juvenile criminal perpetrators. When
they receive a complaint, they sent the child to one of several
centers run by the Honduran Institute for Children and Families
– IHNFA, while the case is being resolved...
La Prensa - Honduras
June 09, 2010
New York, USA
Smugglers kidnap girl bound for Long Island
A Long Island mom is racing against time to find her teenage daughter -- who is being held captive by immigrant-smugglers threatening to kill her unless a ransom is paid.
"Mom, save me! Please help! They are going to kill me," 14-year-old Eloisa Lopez, who left Honduras more than a month ago, told her mom by phone on Tuesday.
The terrified girl somehow managed to take a cellphone from her captors and call her mom. But she had no clear idea where she was being held, sending her family scrambling for help.
The devastated mom had saved up her earnings as a housekeeper and paid "coyotes" $5,000 to bring the girl to the country nearly a month ago, Eloisa's sister told the Post.
But 10 days later, a smuggler brazenly demanded $7,000 more from the family in exchange for Eloisa's life.
It was cash they didn't have.
Then on Tuesday, Dania received the terrifying call.
"I think I'm in Houston, but I don't know where I am!" Eloisa cried over the phone, fearful that her captors would discover she was calling for help.
"Don't worry, we will save you no matter where you are," Dania told her daughter, before phoning cops.
A law enforcement source told The Post yesterday that "authorities are investigating a claim that may have implications of human trafficking."
Federal authorities have since taken over the case, and Department of Homeland Security agents yesterday went to the Lopez family's home in Woodbury.
"She was due back this week," Ingrid Lopez, 18, said of her sister. "This is horrible. My sister is in danger of losing her life. These coyotes don't care. They will kill you and leave you in the desert."
Ingrid would know. She was smuggled from Honduras to Long Island three years ago on a similarly dangerous journey.
The 18-year-old, now a student, often went without food and water and walked for three days straight.
She now fears her younger sister has met a far worse fate.
"She is so small and slight. She would not be able to defend herself against them," Ingrid said.
Eloisa's mom has been working long and hard to bring all five of her children into the country.
Two, including Ingrid, have been safely brought to Long Island. The youngest two live in Honduras with their grandmother.
"We never imagined this would happen. We just wanted to be reunited as a family," Ingrid Lopez said. "We feel helpless but we have faith in God everything will work out."
Kieran Crowley and Emily Ngo
The New York Post
June 10, 2010
New Jersey, USA
Man admits sexually abusing boy, 5, in Parsippany
An illegal immigrant from Guatemala faces up to 15 years in state prison on his guilty plea Monday to sexually abusing a 5-year-old boy in Parsippany over a six-month period.
Through a Spanish interpreter, Jorge Mario Hernandez, 26, admitted to state Superior Court Judge Thomas V. Manahan in Morristown to one count of aggravated sexual assault on the child between May 1 and Oct. 23, 2009.
Morris County Assistant Prosecutor LaJuan Tucker has recommended that Hernandez be sentenced to 15 years in state prison, with 85 percent or 12 years and nine months to be served before parole consideration. Defense lawyer Neill Hamilton said he would argue for 10 years.
Hernandez, who told the judge he was educated until the 6th grade in his native Guatemala, said he understood he was likely to be deported upon release from prison. Sentencing tentatively was set for July 9.
Hernandez was arrested in October after an unidentified witness contacted police to say that he or she saw Hernandez assaulting the boy. Upon being confronted, the witness told police, Hernandez dropped to his knees and begged for forgiveness. He said in court Monday only that he assaulted the child on more than one occasion; police had accused him of molesting the boy more than 30 times.
Before he is sentenced, Hernandez must be evaluated at the state's Adult Diagnostic and Treatment Center in Avenel to determine if he is a compulsive and repetitive sex offender who should be incarcerated there. According to the law, if he receives a sentence of more than seven years and is considered compulsive and repetitive, he still must serve a portion of his punishment in state prison before being transferred to Avenel.
Peggy Wright
The Daily Record
June 07, 2010
Pennsylvania, USA
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Jesus Marrero |
Man Charged with Child Sex Assault
A man from Scranton is accused of sexually assaulting a young boy over the course of a few months.
Jesus Marrero, 44, was arrested Wednesday. Police said he made a seven-year-old boy watch while he had sex with his girlfriend, then forced the boy to have sexual relations with him.
The boy was in Marrero's care at the time.
Police learned what happened when the boy told a school official.
WNEP-TV
June 10, 2010
Texas, USA
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Jose Arturo Lopez |
Former Teacher Charged With Indecency With a Child
El Paso County Sheriff's Officers arrest a former Fabens ISD teacher. Jose Arturo Lopez was arrested for an alleged incident that took place in December of 2008 involving a 15-year-old girl. At the time, Lopez was working at O'Donnell Elementary school as fifth-grade teacher. Lopez is charged with indecency with a child.
Oralia Ortega
KTSM
June 09, 2010
California, USA
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Pedro Hernandez |
Relative Caught In Girl's Sex Assault At San Francisco Elementary School
San Francisco - A 68-year-old man suspected of sexually assaulting his 8-year-old step-granddaughter at her San Francisco elementary school last week was arrested Thursday at a homeless shelter after reportedly being harbored by his children and altering his appearance, police said Friday.
San Francisco police arrested Pedro Hernandez, who allegedly assaulted the girl at Sanchez Elementary School in the Mission District around noon June 3, at a shelter at St. Bruno's Catholic Church in San Bruno Thursday night, police said.
Hernandez is expected to be arraigned Monday morning in San Francisco Superior Court on seven felony counts, according to district attorney's office spokeswoman Erica Derryck.
The charges include continuous sexual abuse of a child, sexual intercourse or sodomy with a child 10 years of age or younger, and oral copulation or sexual penetration with a child 10 years of age or younger. The last two charges are punishable by life in prison.
Three of Hernandez's adult children were also arrested Tuesday in connection with the alleged attack on the girl. Prosecutors filed charges against two of the children, but decided not to charge the third.
Marisol Lopez and Jesus Hernandez were arraigned in court Friday morning in on charges of being an accessory to the crime after the fact, according to Derryck. Both pleaded not guilty and were ordered held on $100,000 bail.
Police spokesman Officer Samson Chan said the children are believed to have helped their father get a motel room in Daly City after the alleged assault.
In addition, Hernandez shaved his moustache and cut his hair short in recent days, Chan said.
"He was actively trying to conceal himself," Chan said.
An investigation by the Police Department's Fugitive Recovery Team led police to the homeless shelter.
Following the alleged assault, police issued a $2 million warrant for his arrest and initiated a statewide and international search.
Police do not believe Hernandez was a member of the San Bruno church or that anyone at the shelter knew he was a fugitive, Chan said.
Hernandez has known the girl's family for several years and has lived with them on and off, according to police.
He had married the girl's grandmother but they are now separated, Chan said.
According to police, Hernandez arrived at the school to bring lunch to the girl and a female school district employee saw him "being overly affectionate toward the victim" and became suspicious.
The same employee then caught Hernandez allegedly sexually assaulting the girl in a secluded stairwell area inside the school and Hernandez ran away, police said. The woman called police.
Hernandez allegedly assaulted the girl in the stairwell multiple times and the acts were recorded on a video surveillance camera, police said.
CBS 5
June 11, 2010
Indiana, USA
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Roberto Vasquez |
A Chicago man convicted of child molesting in Elkhart County will be featured on the "America's Most Wanted" web page.
Roberto Vasquez, 54, was convicted last year. He was sentenced to 247 years behind bars for molesting a young girl from the time she was six until she was 12.
According to the America's Most Wanted website, Vasquez posed as a religious adviser in Elkhart to get into people's homes. He molested one girl from 1999 until 2006, when he was arrested.
On the day of his sentencing in 2009, Vasquez went into hiding and authorities have been looking for him ever since.
The Elkhart Police Department actually contacted “America’s Most Wanted”, hoping to get more publicity in the case on a national level.
“Just because of the severity of this crime; 9 different child molests charges of one child and it had been going on for six years, and the fact that he uses the “I'm a religious adviser” to get into him people’s homes. I mean, this family allowed him to live in their homes,” said Elkhart Police Lt. Ed Windbigler.
WNDU
June 02, 2010
Texas, USA
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Genny Granados |
Salvadoran immigrant gets 50 years for dumping baby in the thrash
On Thursday, in a Harris County courtroom, Genny Granados, 31, was sentenced to 50 years in prison for murder, after leaving her infant son in a Houston emergency room bathroom trash can.
According to prosecutors, sometime around midnight Feb. 9, 2008, Granados, who denied being pregnant, gave birth to a baby boy in an emergency room bathroom at Memorial Hermann Southwest Hospital.
She cut the umbilical cord herself, dumped the infant into the trash, and left.
A custodian later found the baby.
Doctors revived the infant, and placed him on life support. The baby was found to be brain-dead and died 11 days later.
At her arraignment, prosecutor Kelli Johnson said of Granados: “She has such little respect for human life that she tells no one, to my knowledge, that she was pregnant. She goes to the hospital, has a pair of scissors in her hand, and cuts her own umbilical cord and looks at her baby and throws it in the trash.”
Granados’ defense attorneys blamed hospital staff for the child’s death, saying they should have known that Granados gave birth in the restroom.
Granados is a legal U.S. resident who came to this country from El Salvador, and has two other children.
This sad case is reminiscent of another in which an illegal alien abandoned her baby in a dumpster in California.
In December 2009, the staff at Anaheim Medical Center became suspicious of the story given them by Juana Perez Valencia, 19, who though showing all of the signs, claimed she had not just given birth. Orange County deputies arrived and questioned her, eventually finding the corpse of her newborn daughter in the dumpster behind Sombrero’s restaurant, where Valencia worked as a waitress.
Apparently, Valencia gave birth to the girl in the restaurant’s bathroom, and allegedly placed the baby into a plastic bag, before tossing her into the dumpster.
An autopsy concluded that the baby had in fact, been born alive and healthy.
Deputy District Attorney Ebrahim Baytieh told the Orange County Register that the Mexican national had concealed her pregnancy, and was fully aware that she could have simply handed the baby over to authorities with no questions asked, but instead chose to let her die in a trash bin.
The Orange County District Attorney‘s Office issued the following statement: “The baby girl was born alive. Baby Doe weighed 6.3 pounds and was 17 inches long. The defendant is accused of murdering the baby, putting Baby Doe in a plastic bag, and throwing her body in a dumpster behind the restaurant.”
Valencia was charged with murder and currently sits in the Orange County Jail awaiting trial. If convicted, she faces a sentence of 25 years to life.
Dave Gibson
The Examiner
June 12, 2010
Ohio, USA
Police investigate the use of date rape drug at bar
A 31-year-old Grove City woman reported to Grove City Police that at 1:17 a.m. May 26 that she was the victim of rape while she was at a bar in the 3000 block of Southwest Boulevard. She told police that she believed someone slipped a date rape drug in her drink.
She woke up next to the trash receptacles behind the bar, bleeding copiously and complaining of internal pain. She told police that two to three men, one of whom had a scar above his right eye, raped her.
She told police she believed the men were Hispanic and mentioned a gang initiation. She also complained of confusion. The bartender reported seeing the woman in the company of a number of individuals during the course of the night.
One witness said she saw the victim vomiting and bleeding in the bathroom, but none of the bar patrons reported any awareness of a rape.
Columbus Local News
June 02, 2010
Southwest USA
U.S. Border Patrol Crime Blotter - May 27 - June 9, 2010
June 9, 2010 - Tucson Sector - Agents arrested an illegal alien from Honduras near Casa Grande, Arizona.
Records checks revealed the subject had a prior conviction for sexual abuse of a child under the age of 12 in the state of Kentucky and had previously been removed from the United States.
June 7, 2010 - El Centro Sector - Agents arrested an illegal alien from Mexico near Calexico, California.
Records checks revealed the subject is a convicted sex offender and had previously been removed from the United States.
June 7, 2010 - El Centro Sector - Agents arrested an illegal alien from Mexico near Ocotillo, California.
Records checks revealed the subject had a prior conviction for lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14 in the state of California and had previously been removed from the United States.
June 7, 2010 - Tucson Sector - Agents arrested an illegal alien from Mexico near Cowlic, Arizona. During processing, the subject admitted to being a Latin Kings gang member. Records checks revealed he had a prior conviction for statutory rape in the state of Georgia.
June 5, 2010 - Del Rio Sector - Agents arrested an illegal alien from Mexico near Eagle Pass, Texas.
Records checks revealed the subject had a prior conviction for indecency with a child with sexual contact in the state of Texas, and had previously been removed from the United States.
June 4, 2010 - Tucson Sector - Agents arrested an illegal alien from El Salvador near Naco, Arizona.
Records checks revealed the subject was a Mara Salvatrucha 13 (MS-13) gang member and had a prior conviction for possession/purchase of cocaine and spousal abuse. He had also previously been removed from the United States.
June 3, 2010 - Tucson Sector - Agents arrested an illegal alien from Mexico near Ajo, Arizona.
Records checks revealed the subject had a prior conviction for molestation of a child in the state of California and he had previously been removed from the United States.
June 2, 2010 - Del Rio Sector - Agents arrested an illegal alien from Mexico in Weatherford, Texas.
Records checks revealed the subject had a prior conviction for delivery of a controlled substance and an active arrest warrant for aggravated sexual assault on a child issued in the state of Texas. The subject had also been previously removed from the United States.
May 29, 2010 - Yuma Sector - Agents arrested an illegal alien from Mexico near Yuma, Arizona.
Records checks revealed the subject had an extensive criminal history, to include convictions for aggravated driving under the influence, assault and disorderly conduct. The subject was also a registered sex offender and had been previously removed from the United States.
May 29, 2010 - Tucson Sector - Agents arrested an illegal alien from Mexico near Casa Grande, Arizona.
Records checks revealed the subject had a prior conviction for rape in the state of Washington and had been previously removed from the United States.
May 29, 2010 - Tucson Sector - Agents arrested an illegal alien from Mexico near Douglas, Arizona.
Records checks revealed the subject had a prior conviction for lascivious acts and sexual penetration with foreign object of a minor in the state of California. The subject had also been previously removed from the United States.
May 27, 2010 - Laredo Sector - Agents assisted other Federal and local law enforcement officers in the arrest of an illegal alien from Mexico for kidnapping at a bus station near Laredo, Texas. The subject was en route to Mexico after kidnapping an 11-year-old female in the state of Illinois. The child was returned unharmed to proper authorities.
May 27, 2010 - Tucson Sector - Agents arrested an illegal alien from Mexico near Gila Bend, Arizona.
Records checks revealed the subject had a prior conviction for rape in the state of California and had been previously removed from the United States.
U.S. Border Patrol
June 9, 2010
Delaware, USA
New Castle Police Investigate Child's Abduction and Rape
Hockessin - New Castle County police are investigating a late night abduction and rape of a 9-year-old girl who accepted a ride from a stranger after she was inadvertently locked out of her home.
The investigation revealed that around 8:45 p.m. Wednesday, a family friend drove the victim to her home on the 500 block of Homestead Road in Alban Park home. After the friend drove away, the victim initially entered her building but was unable to get into her home as the door was locked. Police learned she then walked back outside to search for her sister and her parents.
While walking along Alban Drive, near the rear of the Canby Park Shopping Center, the victim was approached by an unknown man who was driving a four-door vehicle. The man offered the victim a ride and after some conversation, she accepted. The two drove out of the community and then to an undisclosed location in the city of Wilmington where the car was parked.
Police say the male suspect then sexually assaulted the victim before she was able get out of the car and run. A good Samaritan found the young girl walking in the area and took her to a nearby convenience store. The victim was able to reach a family member by phone who responded to the store, picked her up and then drove her home. She then disclosed the assault to her mother, who in turned called 911.
The suspect is described as an Asian or Hispanic male with short black hair. Anyone with information regarding this investigation is asked to contact the New Castle County Police Department at (302) 395-8110 (attention Detective Brian Faulkner) or visit
www.nccpd.com. Citizens may also provide a text tip at: 847411 (TIP411); begin your message with NCCPD and then type your message. Tipsters may also call Crime Stoppers at (800) TIP-3333.
Police say investigators do not have any evidence at this point to believe this case is related to the two recent abduction and rape crimes that are being investigated by the Delaware State Police.
Kye Parsons
WBOC
June 10, 2010
California, USA
Man Tries to Grab Child Walking to School
San Diego - A 14-year-old girls escaped from a kidnapping attempt Thursday morning in City Heights.
The girl told San Diego Police she was walking to school when a man walked out of an apartment complex at 4029 44th Street near University Avenue at about 7:15 a.m. He reportedly tried to grab her and started chasing her.
A passing school bus driver saw the girl appeared to be in trouble and called police.
Police describe the suspect as a Latino male, about 25 years old, 6 feet tall with a medium build, shaved head, wearing dark blue shorts and long white socks.
While the driver called police, the man fled. He was described as Hispanic, about 25 years old, 6 feet tall with a medium build and shaved head.
He had on dark blue Dickies shorts and long white socks.
San Diego 6
June 10, 2010
New Jersey, USA
Police Arrest Summit Man in Luring Case
Summit Police arrested Jose Gerardo Mazariedo, a 23 year old city resident, and charged him with two counts of third degree providing obscene materials to a minor and one count of second degree Child Luring on Monday, according to Detective Steve Zagorski.
This arrest, Zagorski emphasized, is not related to the May attempted luring on Linden Place.
On Saturday, the mother of a 14-year-old female reported to police that her daughter and three of her classmates had been followed home from school, every day for the past week, by an unidentified Hispanic male in his late 20s or early 30s who was operating a newer model Honda, color blue, Zagorski said.
At school dismissal time on June 7, the police set up surveillance around the victim's school and in the area of her walking route home. At around 3 p.m. police observed a 2010 Honda, which was being operated by Mazariedo, driving in the area under surveillance, Zagorski said.
The police stopped the vehicle and identified Mazariedo as the suspect from the June 7 complaint. Mazariedo was arrested after police uncovered additional evidence linking him to an additional victim, a 13-year-old female.
Mazariedo was committed to the Union County Jail in Elizabeth where he is being held in lieu of $200,000 bail.
Chief Robert C. Lucid commended the actions and skills of the two detectives assigned to the case, Sgt. Thomas Rich and Det. John Padilla, for "quickly securing the necessary information for these criminal charges before this individual could perpetrate a sexual assault. Without their diligence we may have had a very different story to tell."
Heather Collura
Summit Patch
June 08, 2010
Illinois, USA
Cops seek suspect in assault on Waukegan bike path
Waukegan police are asking for the public's help in locating a man suspected in the sexual assault last week of a woman near a bike path in the far northern suburb, officials said today.
Police said a 38-year-old woman was attacked at about 5 p.m. on June 4, on the Robert McClorey Bike Path just north of Montesano Avenue.
The woman was riding her bicycle on the path when she a man on another bicycle knocked her off of her bicycle and forced her in to a wooded area, officials said. The man assaulted her at knife point, police said.
After the attack the man left the area on his bicycle, traveling southbound on the path from Montesano Avenue.
The man is described as Hispanic, about 26-years-old, about 5 feet 9 inches tall, with a thin build and short black hair. The bicycle he was riding is described as a dark colored BMX style bicycle with foot pegs on the front wheel.
Police officials said they have a possible suspect identified and are "actively looking for him." Officials are asking anyone with any information about the incident to call detectives at (847)599-2608.
Carlos Sadovi
The Chicago Tribune / WGN
June 09, 2010
Virginia, USA
Short Pump jogger fights off attacker whose genitals were exposed
Henrico - Scary moments for a [city of] Short Pump woman who says she was attacked while on a morning jog near Lauderdale Drive and Park Terrace Drive. Tonight, police say they're treating this as an assault, and, exposure case, because when the woman tried to fight back, it turns out the man wasn't entirely covered up.
It's a crime that is as stunning, as it is unusual...in the upscale, private, and peaceful Wellesley neighborhood.
Police say a woman was on a mid-morning jog, when she saw a man walking toward her. She said, "Good morning". But police say the man, all of a sudden, shoved her backward. Police say the woman responded with a push of her own...only to notice the man's genitals were exposed.
"Kind of, just, you know...shocked. You don't really hear that kind of thing going on in our neighborhood," said Wellesley resident Sharon Sachdeva.
After the initial tussle, police say the man tried to run away, so the woman and a passerby chased him. Police say the man then got into a pickup truck, and drove out of sight.
Those who grew up in the area say it makes them think twice about their personal safety, which they usually don't have to do...
Henrico Police are looking for a person who fits this description: Hispanic male. Approximately 6' tall and 230 pounds, wearing white painter-style pants and a dingy white t-shirt. Police say he was driving a pickup truck. If you have information that can help, call Henrico Police at 501-5000 or Crime Stoppers at 780-1000.
WWBT
June 10, 2010
California, USA
Woman fights off suspect in attack at San Jose storage facility
Police are searching for a man who attempted to sexually assault and rob a woman in a rented unit of a San Jose storage facility this afternoon.
The woman managed to fight off her assailant in the attack at about 4:30 p.m. at Public Storage in the 900 block of Felipe Avenue, police spokesman Dirk Parsons said.
He said the victim had entered her storage unit when an unknown man came up behind her, hit her with his elbow and attempted to lift her skirt.
The woman fought him off, but the suspect then threatened to steal her car. Parsons said the victim was holding keys to her Mercedes and that the suspect tried to grab them.
The victim, however, resisted and the suspect ran out the door of the storage unit, shutting it behind him, according to Parsons. The woman managed to quickly escape the unit, but the suspect then grabbed her.
Parsons said the victim again resisted and the suspect ran to his vehicle and drove off.
The victim was taken to a local hospital to be treated for minor injuries.
Police described the suspect as a Hispanic man in his 30s, about 5 feet 6 inches tall and 170 pounds. He was wearing a blue hooded sweatshirt, and a blue shirt and pants. A security camera at the business showed him driving away in a small Honda or similar vehicle, Parsons said.
Parson said the suspect could face charges of assault with attempt to commit rape, assault with a deadly weapon and attempted robbery.
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Anyone with information regarding the case is asked to call police at (408) 277-4102. To remain anonymous, call Crime Stoppers at (408) 947-STOP.
Bay City News Service
June 02, 2010
The United States
Female Migrants Charge Sexual Abuse in
Detention
New York
- In the wake of allegations that a male guard at a central
Texas detention facility sexually assaulted female detainees on
their way to being deported, immigrant advocacy groups say
stronger oversight and accountability is urgently needed to
prevent further abuse of female detainees.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), part of the
Department of Homeland Security (DHS), said last week that the
guard has been fired. It added that Corrections Corporation of
America, the private prison company that manages the Hutto
facility, has been placed on probation pending the
investigation's outcome. The consequences of probation were not
immediately clear.
ICE said
that several women who were held at Hutto facility in Taylor,
Texas, were groped while being patted down and at least one was
propositioned for sex.
"We
understand that this employee was able to commit these alleged
crimes because ICE-mandated transport policies and procedures
were not followed," David Sanders, DHS's contracting officer,
said in a letter to Corrections Corporation of America obtained
by The Associated Press.
ICE has
ordered Corrections Corporation of America to take corrective
actions. Among them is forbidding male guards from being alone
with female detainees.
"Hutto is
not an isolated incident," Jacki Esposito of Detention Watch
Network, a coalition of organizations that monitors ICE
treatment of detainees, told IPS. "Allegations of sexual assault
have plagued other facilities where immigrants are being held by
the federal government." ...
William
Fisher
Inter Press Service (IPS)
June 07, 2010
Maryland, USA
Baltimore, Maryland - U.S. District
Judge Richard D. Bennett sentenced Jose Jhonson
Hernandez-Ramos, age 34, a Honduran national
living in Baltimore, today to 87 months in
prison followed by lifetime supervised release
for interstate travel to have sex with a minor.
Judge Bennett also ordered that Hernandez-Ramos
be removed from the United States by U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement after he has
completed his sentence.
The sentence was announced by
United States Attorney for the District of
Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein; Special Agent in
Charge William Winter of U.S. Immigration and
Customs Enforcement; Baltimore Police
Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III; and
Baltimore City State’s Attorney Patricia C.
Jessamy.
According to Hernandez-Ramos’
plea agreement, Hernandez-Ramos met the victim
in California, when she was 14 years old, and
they began to have a sexual relationship in May
2008. After the victim turned 15 years old, Jose
Jhonson Hernandez- Ramos brought her from
California to Baltimore in December 2008, where
they continued a sexual relationship until
August 4, 2009.
This case was brought as part of
Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative
to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual
exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by
the Department of Justice. Led by United States
Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division's
Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS),
Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state
and local resources to better locate, apprehend
and prosecute individuals who exploit children
via the internet, as well as to identify and
rescue victims. For more information about
Project Safe Childhood, please visit
projectsafechildhood.gov
United States Attorney Rod J.
Rosenstein commended Baltimore Child Abuse
Center Executive Director Adam Rosenberg and his
staff, for their assistance in this
investigation and thanked Assistant U.S.
Attorney Bonnie S. Greenberg, who prosecuted the
case.
The Maryland Human Trafficking Task Force
June 07, 2010
Maryland, USA
Illegal immigrant pleads to sex abuse of 6-year-old boy
Man faces between 15 and 30 years in prison, deportation for crimes
An illegal immigrant caught on video sexually assaulting a 6-year-old boy has pleaded guilty to exploiting a child to make child pornography.
The arrest of 25-five-year-old Maynor Quintanilla-Leon occurred after someone found a videotape in a Hyattsville trash bin that showed Quintanilla-Leon sexually abusing a male child, according to charging documents.
Quintanilla-Leon faces between 15 and 30 years in prison, and will be deported after he serves his time, prosecutors said.
"Mr. Quintanilla-Leon's despicable acts committed on a 6-year-old boy cry out for a long period of incarceration," Prince George's Police Chief Roberto Hylton said.
On July 8, 2009, authorities were tipped off about the attack after someone turned over a video tape that had been found with a VCR in a trash bin.
The tape lasts 47 minutes and depicts acts of sadistic violence, charging documents said. During the video, the child refers to his assailant as "Maynor."
Three days later, a witness spotted the man on the videotape in Hyattsville and contacted police. Police identified the man as Quintanilla-Leon, but because they did not have a victim they did not immediately arrest him, police said.
Detectives were able to find the boy in the video by going back to the previous addresses where Quintanilla-Leon had lived. Quintanilla-Leon had rented a home near where the boy lived. The child told police that Quintanilla-Leon abused him 20 times.
Quintanilla-Leon had fled to Texas, but U.S. Marshals captured him in Houston on July 29.
In Greenbelt's district court on Friday, Quintanilla-Leon admitted to sexually assaulting the boy twice. He did not admit to videotaping the assault, but admitted to throwing away the videotape in the trash near his brother's house.
Scott McCabe
The Washington Examiner
June 06, 2010
California, USA
Manhunt for man who attacked 14-year-old in Kensington
San Diego - Police are looking for a man who tried to rape a 14-year-old girl in Kensington.
The girl says she was walking along on 41st Street near Monroe Avenue at about 9:30 p.m. Sunday when the man threw her to the ground and tore off her undergarments.
A nearby neighbor apparently heard the girl's screams and attempted to apprehend the suspect, but he got away.
The suspect is described as a Latino male in his 30s with a goatee and tattoo on his right forearm. He was last seen wearing a dark colored hooded sweatshirt and shorts.
CBS 8
June 07, 2010
New York, USA
Police Seek Suspects In Central Park Sexual Assault
Police released surveillance video that shows three men believed to be suspects in the sexual assault of a woman in Central Park early Sunday morning. The victim, 23, was near the crosstown bus stop at East 86th Street and Fifth Avenue around 3 a.m. when, according to the Daily News, "The men offered to walk her through the park." Police Commissioner Kelly said, "She was taken into Central Park, where she was attacked."
The News also reports, "Two of the men pushed her to the ground, while the third exposed himself. She was sexually assaulted, hit on the head and robbed, the source said." The men allegedly told her they were smoking marijuana with PCP. The woman was able to run out of the park, half naked, onto Fifth Avenue where a cab driver saw her, gave her a shirt and called 911.
Upon learning about the attack, one 24-year-old told the News, "I always walk this way at night, but no way I'm doing that now." And WABC 7 has descriptions of the suspects: "Suspect #1: Hispanic man, 5'5" tall, with a dark colored Yankee baseball cap, dark colored patterned shirt and khaki shorts; Suspect #2: Hispanic man, 5'5" tall, with a red Yankee cap, red shirt and black shorts; Suspect #3: Hispanic man, 5'5" tall, with a light blue baseball cap, light blue shirt and khaki pants." People with information are urged to call Crime Stoppers (800-577-TIPS), log onto the Crimes Stoppers website or texting 274637 (CRIMES) with TIP577.
Gothamist
June 07, 2010
Colorado, USA
Fort Collins police arrest suspect in attempted kidnapping
Luis Garcia-Gonzales, 24, of Greeley, was taken into custody at 10:47 p.m. Saturday after a Greeley police officer noticed the vehicle he was driving matched the description of a vehicle Fort Collins police believed was tied to Thursday's attempted kidnapping incident.
Garcia-Gonzales was originally arrested for driving under restraint, but after an interview with a Fort Collins police detective, he was arrested on suspicion of felony attempted second-degree kidnapping and felony menacing.
Police began searching for a suspect after a 21-year-old woman reported that she was riding her bike northbound about 6:30 a.m. Thursday on Shields Street near Hill Pond Road when she noticed a man near an older white station wagon trying to get her attention.
According to police, the man was described as being Hispanic, in his mid-20s with a shaved head or very short hair, about 5-foot-7 and about 200 or 250 pounds.
The woman said the unknown man obstructed her path as she rode along the sidewalk and she stopped thinking he needed assistance.
"It was then that she saw the man had a knife in his hand. She attempted to flee, fell to the ground and two passing motorists stopped to assist," police said in a press release last week. "The suspect fled northbound on Shields Street in his vehicle. The victim was not injured."
Coloradan.com
June 07, 2010
Mexico
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A
young child labors in a melon field
Photo: El Universal |
En México, 3.6 millones de niños son explotados
La mayoría de niños, mujeres, adolescentes que laboran en malas condiciones y sin la posibilidad de asistir a la escuela provienen de contextos de pobreza, derivada de la falta de oportunidades educativas
La presidenta de la Comisión Especial de Lucha Contra la Trata de Personas, la panista Rosi Orozco (PAN), informó que con base en datos del Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía, en México hay 3.6 millones de niños trabajadores entre cinco y 17 años en condiciones de explotación.
"El Instituto estima que en México hay 3.6 millones de niños trabajadores entre cinco y 17 años trabajando en malas condiciones, sin la posibilidad de asistir a la escuela y buscar un mejor futuro", dijo.
Aseguró que la trata de personas es un delito con un impacto social complejo, cuya principal característica es convertir a las personas en mercancías que se intercambian en mercados clandestinos nacionales e internacionales, que laboran al amparo de la impunidad que les brindan las autoridades.
Orozco dijo que se deben combatir las raíces que propician el fenómeno de la trata de personas, pues la mayoría de niños, mujeres, adolescentes víctimas de ese delito provienen de contextos de pobreza, derivada de la falta de oportunidades educativas y laborales.
In Mexico, 3.6 million children are exploited
The majority of girls, boys and adolescents who labor
in abusive situations, with no hope of being able to attend school, live in
poverty that is also caused by a lack of educational opportunities.
National Actional Party (PAN) Congressional deputy Rosi Orozco, who is the
president of the Special Commission to Fight Human Trafficking in the Chamber of
Deputies, has announced the results of a statistical analysis on conditions
facing working children, conducted by the National Institute for Statistics and
Geography (INEG).
Deputy Orozco: The INEG estimates that in Mexico, 3.6 million minors between the ages of
5 and 17 work in [deplorable] labor conditions, and are unable to attend school
or seek a better future for themselves.
Orozco added that human trafficking is a crime that has a complicated impact on
society. Its principal characteristic is that it converts people into
merchandise, who are then bought and sold in national and international
clandestine marketplaces with the assistance of the impunity that is offered by corrupt authorities.
The deputy added that human trafficking should be fought from the roots up. They
majority of children, adolescents and women who are victims of these crimes come
from backgrounds of poverty, which itself derives from a lack of educational and
labor opportunities.
Andrea Merlos y Juan Arvizu
El Universal
June 02, 2010
Texas, USA
Human trafficking decried as "a horrible problem" in Texas
Austin - In the 2008 film thriller Taken, two American girls on a pleasure trip to France are kidnapped from their apartment and thrown into a brutal world of modern-day slavery and forced prostitution.
On Thursday, Texas lawmakers heard grim real-life episodes of human trafficking as law enforcement officials described a burgeoning criminal enterprise that has spread across Texas and other states.
Bexar County District Attorney Susan Reed told of one case in which a homeless teenage girl was abducted from a parking lot and spirited away to a strip club in Corpus Christi.
Capt. Rick Cruz of the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, a participant of a task force operation in Houston, said officers rescued nearly 100 girls from "basically forced slavery" in the break-up of a trafficking ring in Houston in 2005.
Victims are often told that their families will be killed or injured if they try to contact someone on the outside, Cruz said.
Dallas police Lt. Thon Overstreet opened testimony at a legislative hearing by revealing a coordinated law enforcement strike at three locations in the Metroplex on Thursday to arrest suspects in a human trafficking network in North Texas. Overstreet declined to divulge certain details or locations because the operation had not been completed...
"It's a horrible problem," said Rep. Paula Pierson, D-Arlington, a member of the state House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee, citing estimates that more than a half-million young people -- boys as well as girls -- have been kidnapped and forced into prostitution. Pierson said human trafficking often surges around "big events," such as the Super Bowl at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington on Feb. 6.
Overstreet, interviewed after the hearing, said members of a North Texas task force on human smuggling are mapping strategy to combat it as the Super Bowl approaches. The game is expected to draw legions of visitors to North Texas...
Growing problem
During the joint hearing of the Criminal Jurisprudence and the Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence committees, lawmakers heard testimony that human trafficking rings have grown in sophistication and technological skill, often using the Internet to lure victims or conduct business. There are also strong indications that Mexican drug cartels are increasingly moving into human trafficking to expand their illicit profits.
"It's grown dramatically, and I don't think we've even scratched the surface on a lot of these organizations," Overstreet said.
Asked by Rep. Dan Branch, R-Dallas, to rank where law enforcement stands against human trafficking organizations on a scale of one to 10, Overstreet responded, "two or three, right now."
Overstreet clutched a rolled-up chart that he said detailed the operations of
[a] human smuggling ring targeted by [a recent] raid.
The criminal network has ties in Nigeria, Colombia and Mexico, operates in more than 20 U.S. cities, and boasts $12 million in physical assets and more than $6 million cash, he said...
Dave Montgomery
The Star-Telegram
June 03, 2010
The Americas
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Isabel Allende |
Author Isabel Allende to visit New Orleans, hoping to draw attention to modern-day problem of human trafficking
Chilean writer Isabel Allende is no stranger to the rough currents of history. A cousin of Chilean President Salvador Allende, she was forced to flee her native country in the mid-1970s after a military coup overthrew his government. She lived for many years in Venezuela but now is a U.S. citizen, making her home in California with her second husband and extended family.
The author of 18 books -- fiction, memoirs and novels for young adults -- Allende's literary focus is primarily on families and interpersonal relationships, with an emphasis on the lives of women. While fluent in English, she writes in Spanish; her works are then translated into English. Her wildly successful first novel, "The House of the Spirits, " a complex, multigenerational saga set in Latin America, remains for many readers her most important work.
Her new novel, "Island Beneath the Sea, " coming 28 years and 16 books later, echoes in many ways her earliest. The story follows the complicated, often troubled intertwining of several families as they move from Saint Domingue (now Haiti) to New Orleans during the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
The rich history of her settings exerted a natural attraction for Allende...
Allende writes, "The legacy of slavery is like an open wound. In the United States we are only beginning to deal with it. Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 but it took 100 years for the Civil Rights movement to empower the blacks. To this day, they suffer from discrimination, racism and inequality.
"Unfortunately, in Haiti there are around 300,000 slave children, given away by their families because they can't feed them. It's a system that supposedly ensures that the children will be fed and sheltered, but in reality they are exploited as house servants and brutally abused; they don't receive education of any kind, no one cares for them."
The Isabel Allende Foundation, created in 1996 to honor the memory of her daughter Paula, who died in her late 20s, is focused on "social and economic justice" as well as "empowerment and protection" for women and girls.
The author connects the story of Zarite's journey from enslavement to freedom to contemporary concerns. She writes, "I hope that Zarité's story draws attention to the plight of modern slaves. Today there are 27 million slaves counted. Who knows how many more have not been counted? Some are victims of slave trafficking, but most are enslaved by debt bondage, kidnapping in war zones (child soldiers, for example), exploited under inhuman conditions in mines, fishing industry, sweatshops, agriculture, etc. Slavery is illegal and no country admits that it happens within its borders, yet there is slavery everywhere, even in the U.S. (Google 'Free the Slaves'). Before, slaves were an investment, and therefore valuable. Today slaves are so cheap that they are disposable, they have no voice; they are invisible.
"My foundation supports several grass-roots programs that empower women and girls in the U.S. and other countries. We do some work with clinics in Haiti. We also support programs that rescue women and girls from slavery in sex traffic and in bonded servitude."
...
Marigny Dupuy
The New Orleans Times-Picayune
May 13, 2010
The Americas
Tackle immigration problems at economic roots, bishops say
Washington, DC - Bishops of the United States, Canada, Central America and the Caribbean called on their governments to address the economic root causes of migration and seek policies that will help create jobs for people in their homelands.
During a regional consultation on migration held at the headquarters of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops June 2-4, Bishop John C. Wester of Salt Lake City and bishops from Canada, Haiti and Latin America spoke with reporters about some of the issues being discussed at the meeting.
Addressing economic root causes of migration "in our mind, is the lasting and humane solution to the challenge of illegal immigration," said Bishop Wester, chairman of the USCCB Committee on Migration, in a statement he read at the June 3 news conference.
"Second, we believe that all governments, not only the U.S., should look at their immigration laws and reform them in a manner which respects basic human rights," Bishop Wester continued. The nations of the hemisphere also must "redouble their efforts against the scourge of human trafficking," he said.
He noted that in a globalized world, where capital, communications and goods are readily exchanged, the movement of labor has not been regularized, and the impact of globalization on human beings has not been acknowledged or addressed...
Guatemalan Bishop Alvaro Ramazzini Imeri said, for example, that the poor of his country have not benefited from the Central American Free Trade Agreement, known as CAFTA, which it ratified three years ago.
"The level of poverty in Guatemala is increasing," he said...
In an interview with Catholic News Service, Bishop Ramazzini said Guatemala is reeling from the twin effects in less than a week of a volcanic eruption near the capital, Guatemala City, that coated streets and farms with inches of ash and the inundation of much of the country with up to 3 feet of rain by Tropical Storm Agatha. The two have destroyed many farmers' entire production for the season, he said. That jeopardizes their income as well as the source of affordable food for Guatemalans, he said.
At the news conference, Bishop Rafael Romo Munoz of Tijuana, Mexico, chairman of the Mexican bishops' migration commission, said his country is becoming a collection of semi-abandoned small towns as working-age teens and men have gone to the United States to be able to provide for women, children and elderly people left behind...
Participants included more than two dozen bishops from the United States, Canada, Haiti, Mexico and Central America and other representatives of national bishops' conferences, including the migration program director for the Cuban bishops.
Patricia Zapor
Catholic News Service / U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
June 04, 2010
Costa Rica
Menor llegó violada y forense la manoseó
Cuando estaba en valoración médica, Cartago
A pesar de que estaba acostumbrado a ver y tocar mujeres desnudas, el irresistible cuerpo de una joven menor de edad lo llevó a la tentación.
Un médico forense del Poder Judicial de Cartago, de apellidos Durán Ramírez, fue detenido por sus propios compañeros de trabajo porque al parecer abusó sexualmente de una menor de edad, quien fue víctima de una violación.
La muchacha llegó a los Tribunales de Cartago para una valoración médica, por lo cual fue atendida por el funcionario, quien además del examen de rutina llevó sus manos más lejos y aparentemente le tocó las partes íntimas.
El incidente se produjo en setiembre de 2009, pero la afectada no interpuso la denuncia hasta la semana pasada...
A child sexual abuse victim is victimized again by a
forensic examiner
Despite the fact that a forensic medical examiner (last names
Durán Ramírez) was accustomed to examining unclothed women, he proceeded to
sexually abuse an underage sexual assault victim who he was assigned to examine.
The victim came to the judicial center of the city of Cartago for a medical
examination, which was conducted by
Durán Ramírez. After the exam, the doctor touched the victim's intimate areas.
The incident happened in September of 2009, but the victim did not file a
complaint until last week.
Surprised by the case, the forensic medical examiner's office immediately opened
an investigation.
In the hallways of the local judicial center, the accusations were not taken
seriously, given that the 38-year-old was well liked, and was considered to be
very professional by his colleagues.
After his arrest, the local prosecutor interrogated
Durán Ramírez, and recommend pre-trial detention. He was charged with the crime
of sexually abusing a minor.
Despite the prosecutor's recommendation in the case, the Cartago Criminal Court
ordered bail and a restraining order that does not allow
Durán Ramírez to approach the victim, or the Cartago Legal Medical Office, for a
period of three months...
Danny León González
Diario Extra
June 02, 2010
Virginia, USA
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Hugo Antonio Callejas |
Salvadoran immigrant sentenced to prison for pursuing 13-year-old Virginia girl
On May 26, Loudoun County Judge James Chamblin sentenced Hugo Antonio Callejas, 43, to seven years in prison for soliciting a 13-year-old Leesburg girl for sex. Callejas originally approached the girl at a lemonade stand she set up on Memorial Day 2009, trying to raise money for the Relay for Life charity.
Callejas, who was found guilty in January, was working in the girl’s neighborhood and visited the lemonade stand three times in one day. During his last visit, he gave the girl his phone number and told her she was beautiful.
The girl’s friend, told her parents, who called the police.
Loudoun County Sheriff’s investigator, Shannon Cumberledge, then called Callejas, pretending to be the 13-year-old girl.
She and Callejas had 11 conversations over a two-day period. Some of the recorded calls were played during his trial.
Callejas could be heard saying: “You’re beautiful, and I love you.”
During other phone calls, he talked about kissing and touching the teenager, and how he would like to see her without any underwear.
Callejas said: “If you want to touch a lot, I’ll touch a lot. If you want to touch a little bit, I’ll touch you a little bit.”
The investigator agreed to meet Callejas at a community swimming pool. When he showed up, Loudoun County Sheriff’s deputies too him into custody.
Initially, Callejas denied the allegations, telling detectives that he only gave the teenager his number so that he could buy more cookies and lemonade from her. However, once confronted with the taped phone conversations, Callejas admitted to his actions.
Callejas came to this country from El Salvador, eventually becoming a U.S. citizen. He is married with three children.
Dave Gibson
The Examiner
June 05, 2010
Deleware, USA
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Gino Alfonso Laflora |
North Carolina Man Charged With Raping Deleware Teen
Frederica, Deleware - Delaware State Police have charged a North Carolina man with sexually assaulting a teenage girl.
Gino Alfonso Laflora, of Fayetteville, North Carolina, is facing several charges in connection to the alleged incident on May 16.
According to investigators, Laflora was visiting family in Kent County, Delaware when the assault occurred. The victim told police that the assault occurred near an open lot between Willow Drive and Maple Drive in Frederica.
The victim said she knew the suspect from a friend in the neighborhood. She said she was alone with Laflora in his car when the assault happened.
Laflora surrendered to authorities on June 3. He has been charged with Rape and Unlawful Imprisonment.
Laflora is being held on $52,000 bail pending a preliminary hearing.
CBS 3
June 05, 2010
Oregon, USA
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Hernan Hernandez Vera |
High school student charged with sexual assault on graduation day
An Eastern Oregon high school senior who planned to attend his own graduation today, instead is in jail, facing felony sexual assault charges.
The Bellingham Herald reports that 19-year-old Hernan Hernandez Vera was charged with first-degree sodomy, rape and sexual abuse.
The sexual assault was reported around 11:30 p.m. Tuesday by staff at Good Shepherd Hospital.
Deputies learned the victim had been assaulted earlier in the day in Irrigon and around 1 a.m. Wednesday tracked Vera down at his home.
Vera, an Irrigon High senior, was jailed on suspicion of three counts of first-degree sodomy.
Kimberly A.C. Wilson
The Oregonian
June 04, 2010
Mexico
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Mexican congressional deputy Rosi Orozco, president of the Special
Commission to Fight Human Trafficking in the Chamber of Deputies |
México, número uno en pornografía infantil
Este fenómeno tiende a incrementarse más.
Ciudad de México.- El país ocupa el primer lugar en apertura de páginas web de pornografía infantil, y tiende a incrementarse más de 5% la distribución de videos de imágenes de abuso a recién nacidos, afirmó la diputada Rosi Orozco, presidenta de la Comisión Especial de Lucha contra la Trata de Personas.
La legisladora dijo que las denuncias telefónicas por delitos de pornografía infantil aumentaron 200% entre el 2008 y el 2009, y que otro problema radica en el uso de internet para la comercialización y funcionamiento de redes de trata de niños y niñas y de explotación sexual comercial...
Mexico is Number 1 in Child Pornography
The problem is continuing to grow
Mexico City - Mexico occupies first place [globally] in access of child
pornography by way of the Internet. The problem includes a [recent] 5% increase
in the distribution of obscene photos of recently born babies, according to
Mexican congressional deputy Rosi Orozco, president of the Special Commission to
Fight Human Trafficking in the Chamber of Deputies.
Deputy Orozco stated that phoned-in complaints about child pornography increased
200% between 2008 and 2009. She noted that another Internet-based aspect of the
problem involves the fact that child sex trafficking networks in Mexico are
using the Web to commercialize and operate their illicit businesses.
She warned that currently, no [anti-pornography] filters exist for cell phone
users who browse the Web, which is concerning, given that 75.6 million cell
phone users exist in Mexico, 29% of those have Internet access, and 55% of youth
between the ages of 12 and 18 use those services.
In response to this problem, Deputy Orozco has presented a non-binding
resolution calling upon the nation's state legislatures to reform their penal
codes to include crimes that involve public and private telecommunications
[networks].
Deputy Orozco also stated that the top criminal activities that take place on
the Internet involve, in order of importance: 1) fraud; 2) threats; and 3) child
pornography.
The Deputy concluded by noting that 11 million computers have Internet access in
Mexico. Some 55% of them are installed in homes, which represents 3.5 computers
for every 10 households. Thirty nine percent of the nation's 23 million
computer-based Internet users are between the ages of 12 and 18.
El Manana
May 14, 2010
New York, USA
Mayor Bloomberg and Deputy Mayor Robles-Roman launch new public education campaign to end human trafficking
“Let’s Call an End to Human Trafficking” Campaign Encourages New Yorkers To “See It. Know It. Report It.”
Press Release (excerpt)
New York City - Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, Deputy Mayor Carol A. Robles-Roman and Chief Advisor for Policy and Strategic Planning John Feinblatt today launched a new public-education campaign to raise awareness about human trafficking and encourage New Yorkers to report potential trafficking situations. The multi-media campaign called “Let’s Call an End to Human Trafficking,” features silhouettes of everyday people who may be affected by trafficking. Human trafficking is a horrible crime that involves the recruiting, transporting, selling, or buying of people for the purpose of various forms of exploitation. These victims are often controlled through force, fraud, or coercion. The print advertisements in English and Spanish, created by Grey New York, in partnership with the Somaly Mam Foundation and the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City, will appear on bus shelters in the five boroughs from May 20 – June 13. As part of the new campaign, the City’s new anti-trafficking website, which can be found on
www.nyc.gov, was also launched to provide more information about the plight of human trafficking...
“Human Trafficking is happening here, but we don’t know it because we don’t see it,” said Alice Ericsson, Executive Creative Director of Grey New York. “If we want New Yorkers to see the problem, we have to put it in plain view. And, in plain language. The silhouettes will tell the stories of human trafficking that can happen right here in our own town.” ...
The Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs will also help to disseminate information and materials to vulnerable communities in the city, and bring broader awareness about human trafficking and where to go for help. Outreach to community and faith- based organizations serving immigrants as well as ethnic media will reinforce these efforts...
If you are a victim of human trafficking or would like to report a tip regarding suspected human trafficking, call 911. If you would like more information about human trafficking or would like to learn about how you can help, call 311 or visit
nyc.gov/ humantrafficking...
Mayor Michael Bloomberg
May 20, 2010
Washington State, USA
Crime Spree in Washington State
One woman is dead and two others were raped recently and police say each crime was committed by a different illegal immigrant. One of the sexual assaults happened just hours before the Seattle city council passed an ordinance boycotting Arizona over its new immigration law.
Gregorio Luna Luna had a history of beating up his live-in girlfriend Griselda Ocampo Meza. He was also in the U.S. illegally. On May 1,
[2010] Luna Luna was deported to Mexico. Three weeks later Meza was murdered in her apartment in a violent knife attack.
Franklin County prosecutors say Luna Luna slipped past the border again and killed Meza in front of their five year old son. He's in the county jail awaiting trial.
A suspected rapist in Edmonds, Washington has been deported at least 4 times according to Snohomish County prosecutors. Jose Lopez Madrigal has been charged with raping a woman next to a dumpster behind a Safeway store. A witness to the attack alerted police and Madrigal was taken into custody.
An illegal immigrant just convicted of his possible 3rd strike in Whatcom county- a rape of a homeless woman- has been deported to Mexico five times.
Dan Springer
Fox News
June 01, 2010
Texas, USA
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Joe Chavez |
Former TABC officer indicted on sexual assault charges
Bastrop - A former Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission officer was indicted by a Bastrop County grand jury on Tuesday on charges of sexual assault of a child.
During a TABC undercover investigation of alcohol sales in May 2009, 41-year-old Joe Chavez allegedly sexually assaulted a 16-year-old girl hired to assist in the sting.
Investigators say that the incident took place in Chavez's state-issued vehicle immediately after the sting. He also reportedly texted explicit photos of himself to the teen a day before the operation.
He was arrested on Friday by investigators with the Office of the Attorney General.
Prior to being stationed in Bastrop, Chavez was a TABC officer in Waco from June 2004 to August 2005.
Chavez is charged with two counts of Sexual Assault of a Child and one count each of online solicitation of a minor, abuse of official capacity and official oppression.
Louis Ojeda Jr.
KXXV
June 01, 2010
Mexico / The United States
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Mexican congressional deputy
Cora Pinedo Alonso, of the New Alliance Party, speaks
with reporters as she calls for the nation's current
federal anti-trafficking law to be enforced at the
federal level (it currently is limited to being enforced
by states in most circumstances. |
Segundo proveedor de EU de víctimas de trata
Entre 16 mil y 20 mil niños y niñas son víctimas de explotación sexual cada año en México, lo que convierte al país en la segunda nación que más víctimas de trata provee a Estados Unidos, superado únicamente por Tailandia, afirmó la diputada, Cora Pinedo Alonso, del Partido Nueva Alianza.
La también secretaria de la Mesa Directiva de la Cámara baja precisó que el municipio de Tapachula, Chiapas, es el lugar donde se realiza la mayor venta de mujeres, niñas y niños con fines de trata.
Muchos de esos menores son "redistribuidos" a los estados de Oaxaca, Michoacán, Guerrero, Jalisco, Nayarit, Sinaloa y el Distrito Federal, señaló con base a estudios de la organización internacional End Child Prostitution Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes (ECPAT).
Mexico is the second largest provider of human trafficking
victims to the United States
Between 16 and 20 thousand boys and girls are victims of sexual exploitation in
Mexico each year. As a result, Mexico has become the second largest provider of
human trafficking victims to the United States, according to congressional
deputy Cora Pinedo Alonso of the New Alliance Party.
Pinedo Alonso, who is the secretary of the governing council in the Chamber of
Deputies, also stated that Mexico's southern border city of Tapachula,
located in Chiapas state, is the largest center for the sale of women, girls and
boys for purposes of human trafficking in the nation.
Many of child victims are "redistributed" to the states of Oaxaca, Michoacán, Guerrero, Jalisco, Nayarit and Sinaloa, as well as to Mexico City.
Pinedo Alonso based her statements on a research study conducted [in 2007] by the organization End Child Prostitution Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes (ECPAT).
In response to this situation,
Pinedo Alonso has presented a non-binding resolution that has been submitted to the
Second Permanent Commission
of Congress (37 members of the Senate and Chamber of Deputies who conduct
congressional business when Congress is not in session) for consideration. The resolution calls
for the creation of stricter measures than now exist to investigate trafficking
crimes and to punish those responsible.
The resolution calls upon the
director of the National Institute of Migration (INM) to assign staff to
supervise and evaluate anti-trafficking activities on Mexico's southern border,
and specifically in the city of Tapachula, with reports on conditions there to
be sent to Congress.
According the the ECPAT study, Central American adolescents, the
majority of whom are minors, "are prostituted in 1, 552 bars and
brothels in Chiapas, and also in other cities and towns along the nation's
southern border [with Guatemala
and
Belize.]"
Pinedo Alonso added that in 50% of these cases, the victims are Guatemalans. [Salvadorans, Hondurans and Nicaraguans
are also victims]. The victims are usually between
the ages of 8 and 14. "They are sold by traffickers [to brothels] for $200
dollars each," Pinedo Alonso denounced.
Joining in the call for action, Chiapas state governor Juan Sabines has asked
for working groups to be created that coordinate the work of non-governmental
organizations, state agencies, the Chiapas state Human Rights Commission and
the state's office of the Special Prosecutor for Crimes of Violence Against
Women and Human Trafficking. The goal of the working groups would be to evaluate
the effectiveness of policies implemented to fight human trafficking.
Governor Sabines also called for an analysis to be conducted to track actions
taken in regard to cases of human trafficking that involve both Mexican and
Central American girls, boys and adolescents, and to document the number of
prosecutions pursued.
Governor Sabines: "We wish to express our indignation and complete repudiation
of these criminal practices. We energetically condemn
those public servants who, through acts of omission or commission, have been
complicit in collaborating with human trafficking networks. We call upon
the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government to join forces
[to combat these crimes]."
Cronica
May 31, 2010
See also:
Central America and Mexico
María de Jesús Silva,
Jackeline's mother
Trata de
blancas en Centroamérica
For
non-governmental organizations, the child
kidnapping and sex trafficking case of
11-year-old Jackeline Jirón Silva fom
Nicaragua is emblematic, as the case shows
clearly how the third most profitable
criminal enterprise in the world operates.
...Jackeline has been forced to work in
brothels all over Central America. Her
pimps now have her in
Tapachula, in Chiapas
state [near Mexico's southern border with
Guatemala].
María de Jesús Silva [Jackeline's mother,
who searched all over 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 themselves 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."
Mexico - The Hot Spot
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 globally.
Ana Salvadó: "It is the neck in the bottle,
because many children attempt to migrate
from Central America [and South America] to
the United States, and they never get past
[southern] Mexico, where they are sold by
pimps and sometimes are returned to Central
America."
A study by the international organization
ECPAT (End Child Prostitution, Child
Pornography and Trafficking of Children for
Sexual Purposes)... reveals that over 21,000
Central Americans, with the majority being
children, are prostituted in 1,552 bars and
brothels in Tapachula, Mexico (near the
Guatemala border).
Traffickers sell these children to
Tapachula's pimps for $200 each.
Prostitution in cities like Tapachula
operates openly. Contralínea Magazine has
documented the fact that traffickers work
with corrupt federal and local officials in
exchange for bribes or as direct
participants in the criminal networks...
According to ECPAT's report "Ending Child
Prostitution, Child Pornography and
Trafficking of Children for Sexual
Purposes," from Tapachula, where these
children are sold, the victims are
transported to the Mexican cities of Oaxaca,
Michoacán, Guerrero, Jalisco, Nayarit,
Sinaloa and Mexico City.
More that 50% of these child victims are
from [indigenous] Guatemala. The rest are
Salvadorans, Hondurans and Nicaraguans. They
range in age from eight to
fourteen-years-old.
-
Ana Lilia
Pérez
Revista Contralínea
Oct. 22, 2007
See also:
LibertadLatina
Note
About the numbers used
to discuss minors involved in sex
trafficking in Mexico
We reiterate our belief that the official
Mexican Government estimates in regard to
the numbers of underage sexual exploitation
victims is unbelievably low. The above
article about child sex trafficking in the
southern border city of Tapachula states
that an estimated 10,000 underage victims
are prostituted in that city alone.
As we noted in our March 1, 2010 essay -
Lead, Follow or Get Out of the Way:
|
A note
about the figures quoted to
describe the number of child
sexual exploitation victims in
Mexico...
Widely
quoted 'official' figures state
that between 16,000 and 20,000
underage victims of sex
trafficking exist in Mexico.
We believe that, if the United
States acknowledges that 200,000
to 300,000 underage children and
youth are caught-up in the
commercial sexual exploitation
of children - CSEC, at any one
time, based on a population of
310 million, (a figure of
between .00064 and .00096
percent of the population), then
the equivalent numbers for
Mexico would be between 68,000
and 102,000 child and youth
victims of CSEC for its
estimated 107 million in
population.
Given Mexico's vastly greater
level of poverty, legalization
of adult prostitution, and given
that southern Mexico alone is
known to be the largest zone in
the world for CSEC, with 10,000
children
being prostituted just
in the
city of Tapachula (according to
ECPAT figures), then the
total number of underage
children and youth caught-up in
prostitution in Mexico is most
likely not anywhere near the
16,000 to 20,000 figure that was
first released in a particular
research study from more than
five years ago and continues to
be so widely used.
- Chuck
Goolsby
LibertadLatina
March 01,
2010
|
June 01,
2010
See Also:
Mexico
Víctimas del tráfico
de personas, 5 millones de mujeres y niñas
en América Latina
De esa
cifra, más de 500 mil casos ocurren en
México, señalan especialistas.
Five million victims
of Human Trafficking Exist in Latin America
Saltillo, Coahuila state -
Teresa Ulloa Ziaurriz, the director of the
Coalition Against Trafficking in Women's
Latin American / Caribbean regional office,
announced this past Monday that more than
five million women and girls are currently
victims of human trafficking in Latin
America and the Caribbean.
During a forum on successful
treatment approaches for trafficking victims
held by the Women's Institute of Coahuila,
Ulloa Ziaurriz stated that 500,000 of these
cases exist in Mexico, where women and girls
are trafficked for sexual exploitation,
pornography and the illegal harvesting of
human organs.
Ulloa Ziaurriz said that
human trafficking is the second largest
criminal industry in the world today, a fact
that has given rise to the existence of a
very large number of trafficking networks
who operate with the complicity of both
[corrupt] government officials and business
owners.
Mexico is a country of
origin, transit and also destination for
trafficked persons. Of 500,000 victims in
Mexico, 87% are subjected to commercial
sexual exploitation.
Ulloa Ziaurriz pointed out
that locally in Coahuila state, the nation's
human trafficking problem shows up in the
form of child prostitution in cities such as
Ciudad Acuña as well as other population
centers along Mexico's border with the
United States.
- Notimex /
La Jornada Online
Mexico City
Dec. 12, 2007
See Also:
Mexico
Presenta diputada Cora Pinedo Alonso iniciativa de ley para tipificar trata de personas como delito federal
MEXICO, D.F., - Palacio Legislativo 23 de Febrero de 2010./Notilegis.- La vicecoordinadora de Nueva Alianza, Cora Pinedo Alonso, propuso tipificar la trata de personas como un delito federal y modificar la denominación de la Ley para Prevenir y Sancionar la Trata de Personas, para elevarla a rango federal, ya que actualmente sólo puede ser aplicada por las autoridades federales bajo cuatro supuestos...
Congressional deputy Cora Pinedo Alonso presents an
initiate to require the national anti-trafficking law to be enforced at the
fedeal level.
Congressional deputy Cora Pinedo Alonso, who is the vice-coordinator of the New
Alliance Party in the Chamber of Deputies, has called for the nation's current
anti-trafficking law, the Law to Prevent and Punish Human Trafficking, to be
changed, to allow its enforcement at the federal level. Currently [states
enforce the law]. Federal authorities may only enforce its provisions under four
circumstances. First, if the human trafficking crime was committed outside of
Mexico, federal action may be taken. Second, when the trafficking crime is
perpetrated within Mexico, but is intended to have an impact outside of Mexico,
federal agents may also act. Third, federal action may be taken when the
criminal act falls within Article 50, Section I, Subsection 'b) a j)' of the
Organic Law of the Power of Judicial Power of the Federation. Fourth, when the
criminal act is a violation of the Federal Law Against Organized Criminal
Delinquency.
Deputy Pinedo Alonso stated that currently, [the federal law differs
significantly from the anti-trafficking laws enacted in the majority of states.
Therefore, the federal law should be changed to allow for the uniform
application of anti-trafficking law across the nation, and especially in regard
to the application of criminal penalties.
Deputy Pinedo Alonso referred to the United Nations human trafficking study
Human Trafficking: A Global Panorama. The study identifies 127 countries of
origin, 98 transit nations and 137 destination nations in regard to victims of
human trafficking. Mexico is ranked very high among the countries of origin
listed in the report. Mexico is rate in 28th place among nations where
traffickers entrap victims, and is in 5th among nations in Latin America.
Deputy Pinedo Alonso's initiative proposes to reform Article 73 of the
Constitution, and will update Article 3 of the Law to Prevent and Punish Human
Trafficking. It has been referred to the Chamber's Commission on Constitutional
Law for review.
Notilegis
Feb. 23, 2010
Note: Mexico's federal system does not impose federal legal
jurisdiction on the federated entities (Mexico's 31 states and Mexico City) for
federal criminal laws that are passed as 'general laws.' The
Law to Prevent and Punish Human Trafficking is a general law. -
LL
Note:
Deputy Pinedo Alonso's initiative has been superseded by a more recent proposal,
submitted by the ruling National Action Party, to update the now ineffective Law
to Prevent and Punish Human Trafficking. Earlier in 2010, Mexico's Interior
Secretary,
Fernando Gómez Mont, expressed his adamant
opposition to federalizing anti-trafficking law. - LL
Brazil
Descubren red trafico personas en Amazonia Brasileña
Autoridades brasileñas informaron que organizaciones dedicadas al tráfico de personas se instalaron en la región amazónica por donde decenas de haitianos ingresan al país tras el terremoto ocurrido en el país caribeño en enero.
"Coyotes braileños" (traficantes de inmigrantes) cobran 600 dólares por introducir a cada haitiano en el estado de Acre, indicaron fuentes de la Policía Federal.
"El destino preferido en Brasil es Assis Brasil (localidad fronteriza con Perú) desde donde continúan camino hacia otras regiones del país" dijo el comisario Flaveio Avelar, jefe de la delegación de Migraciones de la Policía Federal en Acre.
El número de inmigrantes haitianos llegados a Brasil se incrementó tras el terremoto que devastó a ese país en enero pasado y dejó más de 200 mil víctimas fatales.
La legislación brasileña establece que los inmigrantes sin papeles sean deportados a su país de origen, pero las autoridades decidieron hacer una excepción con los haitianos.
"Se trata de una cuestión humanitaria, ellos dejaron su país debido al terremoto y podrán permanecer en Brasil como refugiados" explicó el comisario Avelar, consultado por el diario Correio Braziliense.
A human smuggling network is discovered in the Brazilian
Amazon
Brazilian authorities have announced that human smuggling networks have
established themselves in the Brazilian Amazon. These groups have smuggled
dozens of Haitians into Brazil through the Assis Brazil area on the Peruvian
border. Brazilian coyotes have charged Haitians $600 to bring Haitians to the
Brazilian state of Acre, from which they travel to other regions of Brazil. The
smuggling of Haitians has increased significantly since the January, 2010
earthquake.
Although Brazilian law calls for the deportation of undocumented immigrants, the
government has announced that Haitian migrants will be allowed to stay as
refugees,
"It is a humanitarian issue. They left Haiti due to the earthquake, and they may
remain in Brazil as refugees," explained the federal immigration police's
commissioner in the state of Acre, Flaveio Avelar.
Ansa (Italy)
May 31, 2010
Mexico / Brazil
Mexican officials arrest German citizen wanted in Brazil on human trafficking charges
Mexico City - Mexican authorities have arrested a German citizen wanted in Brazil on human trafficking charges.
Mexico's Public Safety Department says Dieter Erhard Fritzchen Stieleke was arrested while waiting to board a flight to Germany out of the resort city of Cancun.
The department says Stieleke was handed over to Interpol for extradition to Brazil. A statement released Wednesday gives no details on the human trafficking charges against Stieleke. He was arrested Sunday.
The German Embassy did not return phone calls seeking comment. The Brazilian Embassy declined to comment.
The Associated Press (Canadian Press)
May 26, 2010
Mexico
|
 |
|
A photo of Valentina Rosendo Cantú from earlier in her life |
Carta abierta de apoyo para Valentina Rosendo Cantú
Valentina:
El día de hoy, cuando se lleva a cabo la audiencia en la Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos, el equipo de la CMDPDH queremos enviarte un mensaje con nuestro profundo respeto y apoyo.
Sabemos que has asumido, junto con las organizaciones que te acompañan en esta lucha, la tarea de denunciar las violaciones a los derechos humanos cometidas por el Ejército Mexicano, en particular la violencia sexual como una forma de tortura. Por tu voz hablan decenas de mujeres que han sufrido la violencia del Estado, pero no han tenido acceso a denunciar. Al mismo tiempo, también nos sentimos representadas las organizaciones de la sociedad civil que trabajamos por el respeto de los Derechos Humanos y por una sociedad libre y democrática.
Asimismo, estamos conscientes de que esta denuncia y todo el proceso de defensa en su conjunto, ha significado una enorme carga para ti y que en este camino has enfrentado amenazas, contra ti y tus seres queridos, que buscan hacerte desistir. Sin embargo, te has mantenido firme en la búsqueda de justicia, reivindicando tu dignidad de mujer indígena, y la de cientos de comunidades que han sido afectadas en su tejido social por la militarización.
Por todo esto, recibe hoy nuestro abrazo solidario y nuestro compromiso de seguir, inspirados en tu ejemplo, en esta lucha.
Atentamente,
El equipo de la Comisión Mexicana de Defensa y Promoción de los Derechos Humanos A.C.
An open letter to
Valentina Rosendo Cantú
Valentina,
On this day, the day when your case will be presented before the Inter-American
Court of Human Rights, we of the Mexican Commission for the Defense and
Promotion of Human Rights wish to send you this message expressing our profound
respect and solidarity.
We know that you have taken on, together with the organizations who are
assisting you in this struggle, the task of denouncing the violations of human
rights that have been committed by the Mexican Army, and in particular the use
of sexual violence as a form of torture. Your voice speaks for dozens of women
who have suffered violence perpetrated by the State, but do not have access to a
forum to denounce these crimes. At the same time, we who work for human rights
organizations, who seek to achieve a fee and democratic society, feel well
represented by you.
We are aware that your case, and all of the efforts in your defense, have
amounted to being a huge burden for you. We know that you have faced threats
against yourself and your family, that are designed to force you drop your case.
Nonetheless, you have remained steadfast in your search for justice, vindicating
your dignity as an indigenous woman, as well as that of hundreds of communities
whose social fabric has been affected by [domestic] militarization.
For all of these reasons, today we ask you to accept our hug of solidarity and
our commitment to continue, inspired by your example, in this struggle.
Sincerely,
The
staff of the
Mexican Commission for the Defense and Promotion of Human Rights (CMDPDH)
CIMAC Women's News Agency
May 28, 2010
|
 |
|
Tlapaneca
Indigenous human rights activist Obtilia Eugenio Manuel denounces
death threats against herself, her family and Indigenous rape
victims
Inés Fernández Ortega and Valentina
Rosendo Cantú - who were raped by soldiers in 2002.
Photo: March 24, 2010 - Cronica |
 |
|
Tlapaneca
Indigenous victim Inés Fernández Ortega |
Exigen Cese de Agresiones Contra
Tlapaneca Violada por Militares
Lanzan activistas campaña contra la impunidad
militar
Defensoras y defensores de derechos humanos exigieron hoy
al Estado mexicano que cesen las agresiones y amenazas contra Inés Fernández
Ortega, indígena tlapaneca violada sexualmente por militares en 2002, y quien
ante la falta de justicia, se presentará en una audiencia pública en la sede de
la Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos (CoIDH) en Lima, Perú, el próximo 15
de abril...
Activists Demand an End to the
Harassment of Indigenous Woman Who Was Raped by Soldiers
Human Rights Defenders Launch
Campaign Against Military Impunity
Human rights activists have today demanded that the Mexican
Government cease and desist from its campaign of aggression and threats directed
against Inés Fernández Ortega, a Tlapaneca Indigenous women who was the victim
of rape perpetrated by Mexican servicemen in 2002. Due to the inability to
receive due process within Mexico, Fernández Ortega's case will be presented to
the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) on April 15th, 2010.
During a press conference held by Amnesty International and
the Tlachinollan Mountain Human Rights Center, activists announced their new
campaign "Break Down the Walls of Impunity!" The project aims to develop a
network of solidarity and add voices to the outcries for justice in the cases of
both Fernández Ortega and also Valentina Rosendo Cantú, another Tlapaneca woman
who was also raped by soldiers in 2002.
Vidulfo Rosales Sierra, a lawyer working in the
Tlachinollan region stated that both Fernández Ortega and Rosendo Cantú began
their efforts to find justice 8 years ago. Not only did they suffer rejection,
discrimination and stigmatization in their own communities after they were
raped, but the government conducted an ineffective investigation.
Because of the government's reaction to their plight, the
victims hope that the IACHR finds the Mexican state guilty in the case of
Fernández Ortega. Rosendo Cantú's case will be presented before the IACHR on May
27th and 28th of 2010.
Rosales Sierra declared that the military leaves women
[victims] completely defenseless. They put women's security and lives at risk
when they attempt to seek justice...
On October 30, 2008, the Commission issued their findings
[in the case of Fernández Ortega]. The Mexican state was informed on November 7,
2008 that the Commission regarded the State as being responsible for the
violations of the integrity of the victim. Due to a refusal by Mexico to
implement the Commission's [legally binding] recommendations, the case was
forwarded to the IACHR.
During the press conference, Indigenous human rights
activist Obtilia Eugenio Manuel stated that, after May 7th, 2009, when the IACHR
accepted the case de Fernández Ortega, she (Eugenio Manuel) and her family
became the victims of threats. The threats doubled in December of 2009, when the
IACHR notified the Mexican state of the specific date of its hearing of the
case.
Because of this history of threats, a well-founded fear
exists that victims Inés Fernández Ortega and Valentina Rosendo Cantú, or their
legal representatives could face some type of violence. Obtilia Eugenio Manuel
emphasized that they will continue their struggle for human rights. She hopes
that the IACHR hearing will demonstrate that lack of responsible action by the
Mexican state to protect human rights.
Anayeli García Martínez
CIMAC Women's News Agency
April 06, 2010
See also:
Mexico
This is your war on drugs
...On 16th February 2002, Valentina Rosendo Cantú was washing her clothes in a stream near her home in Caxitepec, Mexico, when six soldiers approached. Seemingly too busy for pleasantries, the men started barking questions at her: Who was she? Where was she from? Had she seen the people they were looking for? Did she recognize the names on the list they thrust in front of her?
Her answers weren’t good enough, so one soldier pulled a gun and threatened to shoot. Another punched her so hard that she passed out. When she came to, two men tore off her underwear and raped her, one after the other. She was sixteen years old.
It took several months for Valentina to find a doctor willing to treat her; her nearest hospital turned her away because they didn’t want any trouble from the military. The next nearest, which she walked for eight hours to reach, examined her but offered no medicine. Only after legal action was threatened did she finally receive the gynecological care she needed.
At the time of writing, no criminal prosecution has ever been brought against these men and no one has been formally disciplined by a military which has perpetually dragged its feet over investigations. Some 7 years later, she still hasn’t found justice.
This case is just one of many allegations of human rights abuses leveled at the Mexican military in pursuit of an expensive, bloody and failed war on drugs. As well as rape, the allegations include enforced disappearance, torture, arbitrary detention and unlawful killing. And it’s all being bankrolled by the United States of America...
This is your war on drugs
August 13, 2009
Georgia, USA
|
 |
|
Samuel Sanchez |
Man Charged in Cherokee County Sex Assault
Cherokee County deputies say a Woodstock man is behind bars after allegedly breaking into a mobile home and crawling into bed with a woman he didn’t know as she slept with her 1-year-old son.
Deputies say 22-year-old Samuel Sanchez broke into a mobile home off of Dupree Road in Woodstock on Friday morning. They say 19-year-old Bridget Gonzalez was asleep in her bed with her son when the suspect came into the room and got in bed with them. Then, he attempted to sexually assault her, investigators say.
Gonzalez told FOX 5 she thought the man was her boyfriend, but soon realized it was a stranger instead. She says she and her son don’t know Sanchez.
After Gonzalez realized the man wasn’t her boyfriend, she screamed and he ran out of the house. But, much to her surprise, she says he came back.
Sanchez was later picked up while walking along Dupree Road. They say when they spotted him, he began running, but deputies were able to catch up to him.
According to deputies, Sanchez told them he wanted to see someone he knows who lives at the home, so he just went inside.
Sanchez is charged with sexual battery, criminal attempt to rape, and burglary. He is being held without bond at the Cherokee County Adult Detention Center.
Fox 5 Atlanta
May 28, 2010
Mexico
|
 |
|
Valentina Rosendo Cantú |
Niega Estado mexicano violación de Valentina Rosendo Cantú
Argumenta ante la CoIDH falta de “pruebas fehacientes”
San José, Costa Rica - Durante la audiencia de la Corte Interamericana de
Derechos Humanos (CoIDH) sobre el caso de Valentina Rosendo Cantú, el Estado
mexicano insistió categóricamente que “no existen pruebas fehacientes de la
presunta violación sexual”, por lo cual pidió a este tribunal internacional tome
en cuenta este elemento a la hora de emitir su sentencia.
Si bien es cierto que la integración de la investigación de los hechos ocurridos
el 16 de febrero de 2002 no se hizo de manera eficaz y eficiente, no se puede
responsabilizar al Estado mexicano por tortura y tampoco por violar el derecho a
la salud y al debido proceso de Valentina, así lo dijo Armando Vivanco
Castellanos, director de Democracia y Derechos Humanos de la Secretaría de
Relaciones Exteriores (SRE)...
Después de esta audiencia, tanto la defensa de Valentina como el Estado mexicano
deberán entregar sus alegatos finales por escrito, de acuerdo con la CoIDH el
próximo 28 de junio y advirtió que no habrá prórroga.
Mexico’s government denies the fact of the rape of
Valentina Rosendo Cantú
Mexican state argues that no compelling proof of the
rape exists
San Jose, Costa Rica – During a hearing held by the Inter-American Court of
Human Rights (IACHR) in regard to the case of indigenous rape victim Valentina
Rosendo Cantú, the Mexican State declared categorically that no compelling proof
exists to show that the rape occurred. Mexico asked that the Court take this
into consideration when deliberating their decision.
Armando Vivanco Castellanos, director of Democracy and Human Rights in the
Secretary of External Relations (SRE), argued part of Mexico’s case before the
Court. He declared that Mexico cannot be held responsible if the investigation
into the events of February 16, 2002 was not efficient and effective, and that
the State also cannot be held responsible for the torture and violation of the
right to health and a lack of access to the proper [judicial] process.
Full English Translation to follow.
Anayeli García Martínez
CIMAC
May 27, 2010
See also:
Mexico
Raped with impunity - Inés Fernández Ortega and Valentina Rosendo Cantú
...Inés Fernández Ortega and Valentina Rosendo Cantú are still waiting for
justice. The two women, who belong to the Tlapaneca Indigenous community, were
raped by members of the Mexican army in February and March 2002 respectively in
the state of Guerrero, Mexico.
Inés Fernández Ortega, who speaks little Spanish, was reportedly raped on 22
March 2002. Soldiers entered her home to interrogate her about some meat they
claimed had been stolen. When she did not answer their questions, they raped
her. Valentina Rosendo Cantú, then aged 17, was approached on 16 February 2002
by soldiers near her home, who questioned her about the activities of some
"hooded men" (a reference to armed opposition groups). When she replied that she
did not know any, she was threatened and two of the soldiers raped her.
The Mexican authorities claim that both women have failed to co-operate with the
military investigation. However, the fact that both cases remain under military
jurisdiction places the women at serious risk of reprisals. The women are
required to go into the barracks to ratify their complaints before the military
prosecutor. There, they may face a real risk of intimidation.
The women have shown great courage in speaking out, demanding that their cases
be transferred to the civilian authorities. Amnesty International supports their
demands as the military justice system lacks the impartiality and independence
to properly investigate such cases. The Inter-American Commission on Human
Rights is now investigating the Mexican government’s failure to ensure effective
access to justice for both women.
Amnesty International
March 8, 2007
North Carolina, USA
He Did the Right Thing; Now He Faces Deportation
Charlotte - Just like the police tell you to do, Abel Moreno called 911 when a
man began assaulting his girlfriend. Before the end of the year, he could be
deported to Mexico for his trouble.
Moreno, 29, of Charlotte made the call Dec. 29 because, he alleged, a Charlotte
police officer was trying to fondle his girlfriend after a traffic stop. The
officer ordered Moreno to drop the call and arrested him and his girlfriend for
resisting arrest.
Several things then happened. Five other women came forward to allege that the
officer, identified as Marcus Jackson, now 26, had tried to molest them, too.
Moreno was released after investigators debunked the resisting arrest charge. So
was his girlfriend.
Jackson was fired and faces 11 counts of sexual battery, extortion and
interfering with emergency communication. Police Chief Rodney Monroe admitted
that Jackson should never have been hired in the first place because of previous
charges related to a restraining order filed by an ex-girlfriend. The local 911
system is under review because Moreno’s call wasn’t acted upon.
And Abel Moreno now has a six-month deadline to show why he shouldn’t be
deported, even though police acknowledge that his 911 call was crucial to their
uncovering a dirty cop, and even though they agree that he shouldn’t have been
arrested...
A judge granted Moreno a six-month deferment on his deportation because he is a
witness in the criminal investigation. But that reprieve runs out in November.
Moreno’s attorney, Rob Heroy, said he was confident Moreno would eventually be
granted a so-called U visa, which allows illegal immigrants who are victims or
witnesses in criminal investigations to stay in the country for up to four
years. But only 10,000 such visas are available in any year, and while that
process works its way through the system, Moreno remains in limbo.
“Now I’m unemployed,” Moreno said, speaking in Spanish through an interpreter.
“I don’t have any money, not even for rent, not even for my phone — anything.
... The truth is I’m scared.” ...
MSNBC
May 26, 2010
See also:
Abel Moreno Might Get Deported After Reporting
Police Groped His Girlfriend
Cindy Casares
Guanabee.com
May 26, 2010
New York, USA
Rape Victim's Mother Arrives In U.S. To Claim Body
The mother of the Chinese immigrant who died after being brutally beaten and
raped in a Queens alley arrived yesterday. The Daily News reports, "Sobbing
inconsolably as she stepped off a plane at Newark Airport, the mother was too
distraught to speak of her daughter, Yu Yao, 23, who was raped and fatally
beaten in Queens by a pipe-wielding madman. Escorted through the airport
terminal by relatives, the heartbroken mother collapsed into a chair and laid
her head in a cousin's lap."
Yao, who had arrived in NYC two months ago on a student visa, was taken off life
support on Friday, after being struck with a metal pipe and then sexually
assaulted in Flushing on Sunday May 16. According to the Queens DA's office, she
suffered a "fractured skull, bleeding on the brain and trauma to the vagina."
While one witness's call to the police enabled the arrest of suspect Carlos
Salazar Cruz, Assemblywoman Grace Meng said other people witnessed the attack
but did not do anything.
NY1 reports that community activists held an anti-violence vigil at the attack
site on 41st Road, urging residents to report violent acts. Community Prevention
Alternatives' Martha Florez-Vazquez said, "I feel that it's important to send
out a message to the community that it takes a village and that it's up to our
neighbors to prevent crime.” One resident added, "I'm very concerned... no one
should be beaten to death the way this young lady was."
Jen Chung
Gothamist
May 25, 2010
Arizona, USA
|
 |
|
Kyleigh Ann Sousa |
Woman dragged by car during robbery dies
Tempe - A young woman who was run over and dragged by a car during a robbery in
Tempe early Wednesday morning has died.
The incident happened shortly before 2 a.m. in the area of Apache Boulevard and
Mill Avenue near the Arizona State University campus.
The victim has been identified as Kyleigh Ann Sousa, a 21-year-old Arizona State
University student. She died of her injuries Wednesday night.
According to police, a man approached Sousa outside of a hotel and grabbed her
purse. He then tried to drive away.
Sousa held on to her purse. She was dragged by the suspect's car.
The suspect is described as a heavyset Hispanic man. The car he was driving is a
newer model Chrysler 300.
Police and Sousa's parents are asking for the public's help in finding the
suspect.
Anybody who has information about the incident should call the Tempe Police
Department at 480-350-8311 or Silent Witness 480-WITNESS (480-948-6377).
Catherine Holland
Fox 11
May 27, 2010
Pennsylvania, USA
|
 |
|
Omar Shariff Cash |
Cash guilty of murder and rape
Jurors must now sentence Omar Shariff Cash to life in prison or death by lethal
injection.
After hearing two weeks of testimony that one prosecutor likened to the musings
of a horror writer, a Bucks County jury in Doylestown Thursday found Omar
Shariff Cash guilty on all counts, including first- and second-degree murder,
rape, kidnapping, robbery, theft and other crimes...
The 43-year-old woman [victim] told the jury that Cash laughed as he forced her
to perform oral sex at gunpoint, then turned up the volume on the car radio and
swayed to hip-hop music after leaving her boyfriend, Edgar Rosas-Gutierrez, dead
alongside a Bensalem exit ramp.
In the front row of the courtroom, the rape victim wept softly as the verdict
was read. A native of Brazil who doesn't speak English, she listened to the
verdict with the help of a Portuguese interpreter.
Rosas-Gutierrez's family also had interpreters to help them understand the
verdict. They passed around a box of tissues and cried as each "guilty" was
announced...
Prosecutors Marc Furber and Maureen Flannery-Spang laid out a convincing case
against Cash...
The prosecution said Cash was on the run from Philadelphia police when he
carjacked the victims as they left Jalapeno Joes, a northeast Philadelphia
nightclub round 3:30 a.m. on May 11, 2008.
Cash forced Rosas-Gutierrez to drive into Bucks, and trained a gun on his head
while he raped the woman in the back seat.
Cash told Rosas-Gutierrez to pull over on the Street Road exit ramp from
northbound Route 1, the woman told the jury. While she screamed his name from
one of the passenger seats, Rosas-Gutierrez was marched up a steep embankment by
the killer and shot in the back of the head.
The woman testified that Cash raped her again at an abandoned office complex
immediately after the slaying, and then brought her to the Comfort Inn in
Lawrenceville, N.J., where the sexual assaults continued.
Unable to communicate with hotel staff, the woman finally made a break for it
when Cash brought her back down to the hotel lobby for breakfast. Footage of her
dashing through the lobby and vaulting a four-foot check-in counter was shown to
the jury...
Furber called Rosas-Gutierrez and the woman "the perfect victims." He said that
once Cash looked through their belongings and learned they were both illegal
immigrants, he believed that they wouldn't be missed...
Laurie Mason Schroeder
Bucks County Courier Times
May 28, 2010
Georgia, USA
Police: Lilburn Middle student hit with bleach-filled balloon
A 14-year-old Lilburn Middle School student was struck by a bleach-filled water
balloon Wednesday afternoon, police said, sending him to the hospital with burns
to both eyes and putting a traumatic damper on what have should been a joyous
start to summer vacation.
Just after leaving his last day of school, the student was walking down the
sidewalk on the 4000 block of Lawrenceville Highway, Lilburn Police spokesman
Capt. Bruce Hedley said.
A water balloon filled with bleach was thrown from a moving vehicle, Hedley
said, striking him in the face at around 4:40 p.m.
“From time to time, especially on the last day of school, you see pranks, and
maybe a water balloon is just having fun,” Hedley said. “But to see one that is
filled with bleach is beyond comprehension ... A kid leaving school for the last
day for what could have been a perfect summer, this is just crazy to me.”
The child was transported to Gwinnett Medical Center and was treated for severe
trauma to his face and burns to both eyes. He has since been released and is
“resting comfortably” at his mother’s Norcross home, Hedley said.
“He was in bad shape, but aware of his surroundings (during a visit Wednesday
night),” Hedley said.
Witnesses have reported that the suspects were three Hispanic males driving a
gray minivan with a black stripe down the lower portion of the vehicle...
Anyone with information regarding the whereabouts of the van or the identity of
the suspects is asked to call 770-921-2211.
Tyler Estep
The Gwinnett Daily Post
May 27, 2010
Texas, USA
|
 |
|
Danny Mariel Suarez |
Man accused of sexual assault of a 12-year-old
WACO - A man was arrested Tuesday on accusations he sexually assaulted a child.
Officers reportedly began an investigation after they were notified in April
that a 12-year-old girl had told a school counselor she had been sexually
assaulted.
After the investigation, officers arrested Danny Mariel Suarez, 35, of Waco, in
connection with the alleged assault which reportedly occurred on multiple
occasions.
Suarez is charged with Aggravated Sexual Assault and bond has been set at
$250,000.
Louis Ojeda Jr.
KXXV
May 26, 2010
California, USA
Police suspect 2 men tried to pull girl into car
The Hollister Police Department is searching for two men suspected of trying to
force a 17-year-old Hollister girl into a car Wednesday night near the 1500
block of San Juan Road.
Just after 7 p.m., the teenager was walking to a relative's house near the Plaza
156 gas station before police allege that two men inside a black Volkswagen Bug
pulled alongside the girl and grabbed her arm, trying to force her inside the
car.
The men whistled and spoke Spanish to her as they grabbed her, according to
police.
The girl wrestled of their grasp and took off running to her relative's house,
police spokesman Sgt. David Westrick said. The car did not follow her.
"Once she was able to break free of the suspects, she ran and never looked
back," Westrick said.
The girl didn't know in what direction the car took off after she had left,
Westrick said.
The suspects are described as two Hispanic men in their 40s. The passenger wore
a black hooded jacket and sunglasses. The girl had no other identifying
information about the driver.
The Volkswagen Bug is described as an older model with a loud engine and rusted
black paint.
The police department is still searching for more information, Westrick said.
"We are trying to get this handled as soon as possible," Westrick said. "We have
as many detectives working on it as we can."
Anyone with more information is urged to call the Hollister Police Department at
630-4330. People who wish to remain anonymous can call WeTIP at (800) 58-CRIME.
Connor Ramey
Freelance News
May 28, 2010
California, USA / Jamaica
|
 |
|
Herbert Morrison |
Illegal Immigrant a Suspect in Continuous Molestation of Santa Maria Girl Police
say the child was victimized over nine years
In April, the Santa Maria Police Department began investigating the
sexual-assault case involving a minor female. [Herbert] Morrison was arrested in
May, but charges were not filed at that time because of insufficient evidence.
However, evidence gathered in recent weeks led to the issuance of a warrant for
the arrest of Morrison, who was being held in a federal detention facility in
Los Angeles pending deportation for being in the country illegally after a
previous deportation.
He was picked up at the detention facility, transferred back to Santa Maria and
booked into jail.
He faces charges of continuous sexual molestation of a child under 14 years old,
sexual battery, aggravated sexual assault, rape by force or duress, lewd acts
with a child under 14 years old, convicted felon in possession of a firearm,
convicted felon in possession of ammunition.
Bail was set at $500,000.
Police have not released how the suspect knew the victim.
Michelle Nelson
Noozhawk
May 26, 2010
See also:
California, USA
Undocumented immigrant can't bail out of jail, officials say
An undocumented immigrant and previously deported felon from Jamaica whose
anticipated deportation has been put on hold because he is facing new criminal
charges in Santa Barbara County, is not able to bail out of jail.
Herbert Morrison, 49, who had been living in Santa Maria, was picked up Tuesday
from a federal detention facility in Los Angeles where he was being held pending
deportation for being in the country illegally. He was arrested on suspicion of
various charges including continual sexual molestation of a child under 14 years
old, sexual battery and rape by force or duress, according to Santa Maria
police.
Morrison was booked into county jail with bail set at $500,000.
However, Lt. Dan Ast said that Morrison is not able to bail out of jail because
of an immigration hold, and he will eventually once again face deportation.
"If we allowed him to be deported without filing the charges, he could
potentially re-enter the country at some later time after arriving back in
Jamaica and continue to victimize people in this country," Ast said. "Or, he
could stay in Jamaica and potentially victimize others there without ever facing
justice."
The Lompoc Record
May 27, 2010
Texas, USA
Man Accused of Kidnapping, Attempted Sexual Assault of a Child
Houston - An accused child predator was behind bars Tuesday, charged with the
kidnapping and attempted sexual assault of a 7-year-old girl.
According to investigators, Al D. Checo lured the child into his green Dodge
pickup while she was walking home from school in the 9300 block of Pagewood Ln.
on Friday. He then drove her to his apartment nearby, forced her to watch
pornographic images and tried to sexually assault her, but stopped short of the
act.
"It could have been the first time for him to do something like this and he was
testing the waters, could have been were something might have spooked him. We
don't really don't know exactly yet," said Officer John Colburn with HPD's
Juvenile Sex Crime Division.
Checo, 32, held the child at his apartment for several hours before dropping her
off near where she was abducted, police said.
According to officials, Checo warned the child not to tell anyone what happened,
but she went home and told her mother and was able to identify her abductor.
Checo is charged with aggravated kidnapping and attempted aggravated sexual
assault of a child. He was being held Tuesday without bond.
KIAH
May 25, 2010
California, USA
SFPD searching for girl, 12, reported missing
San Francisco police are asking for the public's assistance in locating a
12-year-old girl reported missing.
Police said Mireya Zapata was last seen Thursday morning when she went to
school. At about 2:50 p.m., she sent a text message to her mother, saying she
was at a bus stop and on her way home.
However, Zapata, who goes to school in the Sunset District and lives downtown,
never showed up at her home, police said. The girl exchanged text messages with
her mother over the next several hours, but did not text a secret code letting
the mother know she was OK upon request, according to police.
At about 7 p.m., Zapata's mother received a text message reading, "Don't look
for me no more," and when her mother asked why, the response read, "Just don't,"
police said.
Police spokesman Officer Boaz Mariles said Zapata does not have a history of
running away and she is considered to be at risk. Police are actively searching
for the girl and ask anyone with information regarding her whereabouts to call
police at (415) 553-1071.
"It's a continuous search, meaning there are officers assigned strictly to
this,'' Mariles said.
Zapata is described as a light-skinned Hispanic girl, 5 feet 3 inches, 140
pounds with brown eyes and brown hair. She was last seen wearing a white hooded
sweatshirt, blue jeans, black and white Nike shoes and had a white backpack.
BCN
May 27, 2010
Indiana, USA
Suspect faces string of sex assault charges
4 alleged victims range in age from 11 to 49
Luis Alberto Gonzales was armed with a BB gun when he targeted numerous Hispanic
women and girls for sexual assaults on Indianapolis' Westside, prosecutors say.
But he didn't even bother to cover his face -- and that lack of a disguise
enabled police to arrest Gonzales last weekend. One victim from months ago
spotted him sleeping in his red truck in an apartment court off West 30th Street
near Moller Road, according to court documents filed Thursday in Marion Superior
Court.
Still more alleged victims have come forward after seeing Gonzales' mug shot in
media reports...
So far, he faces charges in connection with four victims ranging in age from 11
to 49. He is in the Marion County Jail with a combined bond set at $700,000.
Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi said his office was still readying charges
representing two more victims, including one younger than 18; police were
investigating allegations by three others.
That could make for nine victims, with convictions bringing up to hundreds of
years in prison.
"Mr. Gonzales has essentially been preying on Hispanic
adults and children since at least January 2010," Brizzi said. "He was going
back to the same area. It seems he was unafraid about being arrested or caught."
The lead charges on the four cases that have been filed are Class A felony child
molesting of an 11-year-old girl; Class A felony rape of a 40-year-old woman;
Class A felony criminal deviate conduct against a 49-year-old woman; and Class D
felony sexual battery against a 23-year-old woman...
Jon Murray
IndyStar.com
May 28, 2010
Nevada, USA
|
 |
|
Joel Eliazar Ortega |
Illegal immigrant sentenced in Reno rape of paralyzed woman
A life in prison term was imposed Wednesday upon a married father of one who
dragged a paralyzed woman out of her wheelchair, raped her, and then left her
lying nude in an alley.
The woman, who suffers from cerebral palsy, had been in a shopping center Oct.
30 in the 3300 block of North McCarran Boulevard when Joel Eliazar Ortega, 30,
led her behind a business and attacked her. Soon after, Reno police officers
responding to a call that Ortega was battering his wife in their nearby
apartment, recognized Ortega as fitting the description of the suspect. He was
arrested after the victim identified him.
Chief Deputy District Attorney Bruce Hahn described the
crime as among the most ghastly sexual assaults he’s ever seen.
“She was dragged from her wheelchair, her clothes taken off, sexually assaulted
and then left lying in an alley,” said Washoe District Judge Patrick Flanagan.
“I have listened to you carefully, and you said ‘things happen’ and you get in
trouble based on your behavior and doctors say you can’t take care of your
daughter.
“You are a danger,” Flanagan said. “...you are lucky there is only one life
sentence I can impose in this case.”
In rendering a sentence of life against Ortega, Flannagan said he would be
eligible for parole after serving at least 10 years in prison. Ortega is also an
illegal immigrant who also must face immigration charges.
“You will be deported at the earliest opportunity and will never return to this
country again, except lawfully,” Flanagan said.
Ortega had apologized for the crime and said “I need help.”
His public defender, John Malone, said Ortega has been receiving treatment at
the state’s mental hospital for several years. He blamed the rape on Ortega not
taking his psychiatric medicines and drinking alcohol.
Ortega pleaded guilty to the rape, and was also convicted of domestic violence,
related to when police responded to his apartment after the assault.
The victim was not present in court, although her father was and said he was too
emotional to speak about the incident.
Jaclyn O'Malley
RGJ.com
May 26, 2010
Virginia, USA
|
 |
|
Arturo F. Lopez |
Henrico judge sends rape charge to grand jury
A woman testified at a preliminary hearing in a Henrico County court today that
her foster son sexually assaulted her at knifepoint and threatened to kill her
and her husband.
Arturo F. Lopez, 18, had been living with a foster family in the Interstate
64-Staples Mill Road area since sometime late last year, according to Henrico
police. He was charged with rape in the April 9 incident and appeared at a
preliminary hearing in General District Court this morning.
At the hearing, the judge certified the rape charge to a grand jury, which will
hear the case on July 12. He faces life in prison if convicted.
Lopez came to the Richmond area sometime last year. His attorney said he was a
homeless immigrant from Mexico and has no family in the U.S. Lopez was placed in
the home by the Richmond Department of Social Services, because Spanish is
spoken in the home.
Bill Mckelway
The Richmond Times Dispatch
May 27, 2010
Pennsylvania
|
 |
|
Officer Jose Manuel Santiago
Photo |
Pennsylvania Cop Charged With Sex Offenses
A southeastern Pennsylvania police officer is charged with
hundreds of sex-offense counts including rape, incest, statutory sexual
assault and endangering the welfare of children.
Chester County prosecutors say 54-year-old Kennett Square police Officer Jose
Manuel Santiago was arrested Thursday at his home in Newark, Del.
Assistant District Attorney Kimberly Callahan says Santiago had sexual
encounters with three juveniles under the age of 14 between 1991 and 2000.
Borough officials say Santiago joined the department in 1998. He had been on
disability leave since December 2008 and is now suspended without pay.
Santiago is in New Castle County prison awaiting extradition to Pennsylvania.
His phone number is unlisted and it was not clear if he had an attorney.
MyFoxPhilly
May 28, 2010
Indiana, USA
|
 |
|
Luis Gonzales |
Alleged rapists' victims afraid to tell
Indianapolis - Prosecutors expect to file more charges against a man suspected
of molesting and raping as many as nine women and girls on the northwest side.
Police say 27-year old Luis Gonzales was a serial rapist - preying solely on
Hispanic victims for at least five months.
Police say investigating this case was challenging. They didn't begin to put the
pieces together until an 11-year-old girl reported being assaulted in May. But
the first known attack occurred five months before that.
It was a January evening at about 10:00 at the La Joya apartments on the
northwest side of Indianapolis. A 23-year-old woman walked into her building
carrying bags and her baby. She says an attacker waited - pretending to be
talking on his cell phone. After she went in the building, she says he grabbed
and groped her in the stairwell.
An affidavit states she was holding her baby tightly during the attack, and the
infant began to cry. At that point her attacker ran away.
But no police report was filed. Detectives believe for the next five months,
Luis Gonzales terrorized, molested, and raped as many as nine Hispanic women and
girls in west side apartment complexes. The youngest known victim is 11-years
old.
Asked why the public wasn't made aware of a serial rapist, IMPD officer Lt. Jeff
Duhamell responded, "The lack of reporting from some of our victims, and
probably the language barrier and maybe some of them were afraid to come forward
because they may be in our country illegally."
Marion County prosecutor Carl Brizzi believes there are likely more victims out
there, and at a press conference on Thursday, he had a clear message to victims.
"There is absolutely no threat of immigration and customs enforcement, ICE, of
us reporting that documentation status as a result of reporting a crime," Brizzi
said.
Luis Gonzales has ties to Indianapolis. The probable cause affidavit states he
graduated from Lawrence North High School and has lived in the city for six
years. He's being held on a $100,000 bond, and has declined our request for an
interview.
WISH TV
May 28, 2010
California, USA
Teen Assaulted In Arroyo Grande
Arroyo Grande, CA -- Police arrested a parolee who allegedly assaulted a teen
yesterday afternoon. This happened at about 4:30 in the area near Arroyo Grande
Community Hospital and Arroyo Grande High School. Authorities received several
reports by phone that a girl was thrown to the ground near the hospital. Many
later calls told officers that within minutes several witnesses chased the
suspect, 23-year-old Fernando Frias, and cornered him in the back of a home on
Cerro Vista Circle.
Meanwhile, according to the Tribune, officers found the 17-year-old victim, near
the Fair Oaks bridge with injuries to her head and face. They arrested Frias who
is currently on parole. Frias was booked into the San Luis Obispo County Jail on
suspicion of kidnapping, assault with a deadly weapon and violating the terms of
his parole.
King Harris
KVEC
May 27. 2010
Oregon, USA
|
 |
|
Ismael Recinos-Velasquez |
Reward Offered for Sex Assault Suspect
Crime Stoppers and the Washington County Sheriff's office are offering a $1,000
reward for information leading to the arrest of a man wante for sexual assault.
Investigators say Ismael Recinos-Velasquez, who may also go by Jose Perez-Perez,
or the name 'Carlos', sexually abused his girlfriend's 14-year old daughter and
another 12-year old girl.
A warrant was issued for Recinos-Velasquez's arrest on May 13th. He's wanted on
charges of first-degree rape and sodomy, along with numerous other charges.
Recinos-Velasquez is 5' 3" tall and 140 pounds. If you see him, call Crime
Stoppers at 503-823-4357, go online to crimestoppers oforegon.com, or text
message to 823HELP.
Chris Brown
KXL
May 27, 2010
California, USA
Police seek man accused of the assault and attempted kidnap of his ex-girlfriend
Pasadena - Police are searching for a 53-year-old man who allegedly beat and
tried to kidnap his ex-girlfriend Thursday afternoon.
At about 1:07 p.m. a 45-year-old female Hispanic, of Temple City, was waiting at
a bus stop in the 200 block of South Lake Avenue when the man allegedly grabbed
her by the hair and began striking her, Pasadena Police Lt. Chris Russ said.
The victim suffered minor bruising to her face and arms and also complained of
back pain, he said.
After a struggle, the man dragged her through a nearby parking lot and attempted
to force her into his 2000 Honda Odyssey, but he fled on foot after several
passersby came to her assistance, Russ said.
The man is described as a 5-foot-6-inch male Hispanic weighing 186 pounds.
The Pasadena Star News
May 28, 2010
Texas, USA
Midland Police Searching for Suspect Wanted for Inappropriate Conduct
Midland Police are trying to track down a man who has a problem keeping his
hands to himself.
A suspect is wanted for inappropriate conduct.
The man in question is Hispanic, who apparently goes around touching women in
stores.
He reportedly rubs or bumps into them, making it seem like an accident.
If this has happened to you in an offensive manner or if you have any
information, call Midland Police or CrimeStoppers at 649-TIPS.
NewsWest 9
May 28, 2010
Southwest USA
U.S. Border Patrol Weekly Blotter: May 20 - May 26
Excerpt
May 26, 2010 - Tucson Sector - Border Patrol agents
arrested an illegal alien from Mexico near Amado, Arizona. Records checks
revealed the subject had prior convictions for rape, the sale of marijuana,
domestic violence, and possession of a controlled substance. The subject had
also been previously removed from the United States.
May 25, 2010 - El Centro Sector - Border Patrol
agents arrested an illegal alien from Mexico near Calexico, California. Records
checks revealed the subject was a convicted sex offender in the state of
California, and had been previously removed from the United States.
May 25, 2010 - El Paso Sector - Border Patrol
agents arrested an illegal alien from Mexico near El Paso, Texas. Records checks
revealed the subject had prior convictions for rape with threat in the state of
California, assault with intent to cause serious injury/sexual abuse in the
state of New York, and had been previously removed from the United States.
May 22, 2010 - El Paso Sector - Border Patrol
agents arrested an illegal alien from Mexico near El Paso, Texas. Records checks
revealed the subject had a prior conviction for fondling, and lewd and
lascivious acts against a child in the state of Florida. The subject had also
been previously removed from the United States.
May 21, 2010 - Tucson Sector - Border Patrol agents
arrested an illegal alien from Mexico near Sells, Arizona. Records checks
revealed the subject had a prior conviction for lascivious acts with a child /
false imprisonment with violence in the state of California. The subject had
also been previously removed from the United States.
May 20, 2010 - Tucson Sector - Border Patrol agents
arrested an illegal alien from Mexico near Arivaca, Arizona. Record checks
revealed the subject had prior convictions for aggravated child molestation and
felony sodomy in the state of Georgia. The subject had also been previously
removed from the United States.
U.S. Border Patrol
May 26, 2010
Illinoid, USA
|
 |
|
Jennifer Hurtado |
11-Year-Old Girl Missing With 22-Year-Old Paramour
An 11-year-old girl is missing from her Brighton Park neighborhood home, and police say she may have disappeared with a much-older man she calls her boyfriend.
Jennifer Hurtado is missing... She was last seen wearing a yellow shirt with the word "Shields" in purple lettering.
She was also wearing blue jeans, black slip-on shoes and was with her 22-year-old "paramour" Jose "Carlos" Contrerras, the release said.
She is described as 4 feet 8 inches tall, 100 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes, according to the release, which said the two may be heading for Mexico or North Carolina.
Anyone with information should contact the Chicago Police Wentworth Area Special Victims Unit, at (312) 747-8385.
CBS
May 26, 2010
See also:
Illinois, USA / Mexico
Police seek girl, 11, who vanished from Southwest Side with man
A missing persons alert has been issued for an 11-year-old girl who has gone missing from the Southwest Side and may be heading to Mexico or North Carolina with her 22-year-old boyfriend, police said.
Jennifer Hurtado, 11, is missing... according to release from police News Affairs. She was last seen wearing a yellow shirt with purple lettering that said, “Shields” that was worn over a black t-shirt.
She was wearing blue jeans, black slip-on shoes and was with her 22-year-old boyfriend Jose “Carlos” Contrerras, the release said.
She is described as 4-foot-8, 100 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes, according to the release, which said the two may be heading for Mexico or North Carolina.
Anyone with information should contact Wentworth Area detectives are (312) 747-8385.
The Chicago Sun TImes
May 26, 2010
0
The Americas
|
 |
|
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton |
40th Washington Conference on the Americas
Remarks of U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
Council of the Americas was pleased to hold its 40th Washington Conference on the Americas. For 40 years, the Washington Conference on the Americas has been honored to host presidents of the United States, foreign heads of state, U.S. cabinet officials, ministers from the region, and congressional leaders...
As the opening speaker at the 40th Annual Washington Conference, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton talked about the primacy of hemispheric issues on the Obama administration’s agenda. She... stressed three priority areas for cooperation between the United States and Latin America: trade and energy partnerships, public security, and inequality and immigration...
[An] area of concern stressed by the secretary was public security... She referred to the “barbarism” of organized crime syndicates, comment[ed] on Washington’s support for Plan Colombia and the Merida Initiative, but also urged for “smarter, more effective strategies.”
...Clinton referred to the twin issues of inequity and immigration. “We don’t have the poorest people in the world in Latin America, with the exception of Haiti, but we have the most inequity,” said the secretary. “Therefore we need to have a partnership between the public and private sector to address this.” In particular, she spoke of the need to increase tax revenues in the region. “We can take a lot of joy in the positive GDP growth, but income disparity continues to grow,” she said, noting it is “a source of social and political instability” that feeds criminal activity. “We have to do a better job.”
...
|
 |
|
U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis
|
Remarks of
Hilda Solis, U.S. Secretary of Labor
One of [U.S. Labor Secretary] Secretary Solis’ main concerns is the 12.5 percent unemployment rate among the Latino population. Latinos-who Solis termed the “new entrepreneurs”-are the fastest growing demographic in the U.S. and will account for over 25 percent of the population by 2050. This population, however, accounted for only 5 percent of the 3.6 million STEM (science, technology, education, and math) jobs in 2008. Solis and the Department of Labor are focusing on creating more of these jobs for Latinos as STEM fields are the future of innovation and competitiveness.
Latino workforce development also extends to training workers in the renewable energy sector and to breaking down the barriers between employers and employees.
The Department of Labor has launched a multilingual help line as a resource for workers that have been unfairly treated on the job and is focusing on bringing to light “good business practices” that help to prevent on-the-job injuries. Just recently Secretary Solis and Mexican Ambassador to the United States Arturo Sarukhán signed a declaration reaffirming their joint commitment to work collaboratively on informing Mexican workers about their labor rights. She hopes to extend this type of agreement to El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, and other Latin American countries...
Prepared by Jason Marczak and Carin Zissis
Americas Society
May 12, 2010
The Americas
|
 |
|
OAS Secretary General José Miguel Insulza |
OAS Secretary General Takes Office for Second Term
The Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), José Miguel Insulza, today...
[took] office for his second term at a special session of the Permanent
Council...
Reelected by acclamation for the period 2010-2015 in an election held March 24, Insulza
described in a speech this morning delivered in the Hall of the Americas the
main goals for his new term, reiterating the convictions that will guide his
leadership...
Among the successes of his first term, the top OAS official mentioned the effective role of the Organization in nearly a dozen political crises in the continent, as well as the observation of more than fifty electoral processes, asserting that “nobody can in good faith affirm that the OAS in these years has failed in having, in all of these events, a conciliatory and unifying attitude.” In this context, Insulza renewed his commitment to what he called “the three basic pillars of OAS activity: democracy and human rights, integral development and multidimensional security, and the aspects most relevant to the people of the continent.”
With respect to the new five-year period that now begins, Secretary General Insulza reiterated his wish to have “a genuinely multilateral OAS, built by all of us jointly on the basis of common principles,” and he traced five lines of work for his new mandate: to develop a broad, modern and inclusive multilateralism; to increase support for democratic governance by promoting areas such as respect for the rule of law and institutions; to improve the balance between the tasks of democracy building and those of promoting integral development; to continue prioritizing subjects relative to public security, drug trafficking, money laundering, organized crime, arms trafficking and human trafficking; to give greater momentum to the subject of gender at the OAS...
Organization of American States
May 24, 201
Paraguay
|
 |
|
The triple frontier region, where
Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil meet, is a major child
and adult sex trafficking marketplace with many
thousands of victims. |
Todos
los casos deben ser remitidos a Asuncion para su investigacion
Impunidad hace florecer el trafico de personas en las Tres Fronteras
El tráfico de personas en la zona de las Tres Fronteras sigue siendo un negocio
floreciente debido a la impunidad reinante. En el sistema judicial del Alto
Paraná no existen datos de que algún caso haya sido elevado a juicio, buscando
castigar a los culpables de este delito. El Ministerio Público se convirtió en
una especie de “frezeer’’ para los hechos denunciados sobre la trata de
personas. Ever Ovelar, fiscal adjunto.
Varios son los esquemas que operan en la zona para el tráfico de personas. Casi
siempre integran el sistema las agencias de viaje que camuflan el envío de
jóvenes a otros países como excursionistas. En el décimo departamento no existe
una unidad fiscal especializada en el tema, pese a que los casos aumentan
considerablemente. Los antecedentes algunas veces son remitidos a la unidad
especializada en el tema a cargo de la fiscal Teresa Martínez, de Asunción. La
fiscal estuvo en esta zona y dijo que al menos tres agencias de turismo locales
están en la mira por vincularse supuestamente al tráfico de personas.
No quiso dar el nombre de las firmas para no entorpecer las investigaciones que
casi no han avanzado en los últimos 30 días. En Ciudad del Este y Presidente
Franco son donde más abundan personas que reclutan a jóvenes especialmente para
llevarlos a otros países, de preferencia europeos siendo las mujeres las
preferidas. Varias de ellas son obligadas a prostituirse y son mantenidas en
régimen de esclavitud, mientras otros deben trabajar en viviendas en régimen
inhumano.
El silencio de las víctimas y sus familiares contribuyen a que los traficantes
sigan operando normalmente en esta región fronteriza. Pero la inacción de los
organismos públicos contribuyen más para que se de esta situación. El Minis-terio
Público de Ciudad del Este se convirtió en una especie de “frezeer’’ para los
casos de trata de personas, pues al menos son 20 carpetas fiscales las que nunca
fueron investigadas. No existen antecedentes en el Poder Judicial de la zona de
que algún caso haya sido llevado a juicio oral y público...
All human trafficking cases should be referred to federal
agencies in the capital city of Asuncion
Impunity allows human trafficking to flourish in the triple frontier (Paraguay,
Argentina and Brazil) region.
(English Translation to follow)
Diario Vanguardia
May 26, 2010
US Fights Human Slavery in Major Cities
People from Latin America, Asia trafficked to the US for sex, labor
In almost every major city in the United States, advocates say victims of human slavery are exploited everyday.
"Human trafficking is a very serious problem in the United States," says Bradley Myles of the Polaris Project, an organization that fights human trafficking.
According to Myles, some of the victims are forced to work in the homes of the wealthy and at restaurants. Many others, especially women, are forced into prostitution.
"We know from our very own eyes that it's happening. We're not kind of hearing it third hand. We've been inside those places. We work with those women."
The Polaris Project operates a human trafficking hotline. Calls come in from around the country.
"So we're getting calls from Texas. We're getting calls from California. We're getting calls from New York, Florida and DC is one of those top five cities where we're getting calls," says Myles.
Deborah Sigmund, founder of the advocacy group, Innocents at Risk, says most of the victims of human trafficking come from economically depressed countries and are lured to the U.S. with promises of a better life.
"They want to think that they can come to America and have a great job so it's very easy to fool them," she says.
According to the experts, some of the victims are forced to sell sex from brothels disguised as massage parlors.
Tim Whittman of the Federal Bureau of Investigation is an expert on human trafficking in the U.S.
"The number one foreign country is Mexico," says Tim Whittman, an expert on human trafficking with the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). "Approximately 20 percent of our cases involve victims from Mexico."
The nation's capital is not immune to the problem. In Washington, the Polaris Project sees sex trafficking victims who are U.S. citizens, and women from South Korea, China and Latin America.
A study by The Human Smuggling and Trafficking Center finds nearly 83 percent of suspected human trafficking incidents involve sex trafficking. Advocates say other types of human slavery include people being forced to work as domestic servants and in agriculture. The FBI says the smugglers often threaten their victims and make it difficult for them to pay off their debts...
Elizabeth Lee
Voice of America News
May 24, 2010
Indiana, USA
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Luis Gonzales |
Sexual assault suspect may be linked to 7 attacks
Indianapolis - Police have arrested a suspect in the sexual assault of a young girl.
Luis Gonzales, 27, was taken into custody Saturday evening after an IMPD officer found him sleeping in a pick-up truck on Hillsboro Drive. A woman told police she recognized Gonzales from an incident a month or two ago when he attempted to fondle her. The woman told her father, who called police.
Police say Gonzales sexually assaulted an 11-year-old girl at her west side apartment complex on May 13. Investigators identified the suspect in that assault as a Hispanic male, who left the scene in a red Nissan pick-up truck, like the one Gonzales was in when police apprehended him Saturday.
Metro police detectives say Gonzales is a prime suspect in at least two confirmed assault cases. He was found in possession of a BB gun described in the other attacks, as well as other possible evidence belonging to his victims. He is being held on felony charges of child molesting and criminal confinement.
Monday, police described Gonzales as a dangerous predator, saying he may be linked to as many as seven attacks on girls.
"He is almost like an addict. He has to have sex all the time," said IMPD Lt. Jeff Duhamell.
One of the other attacks happened to a 13-year-old girl in the Covered Bridge Apartments on Georgetown Road. The victim remained reluctant to even report the attack until IMPD Officer Candi Perry, a Spanish translator for the department, intervened. That's when the 11-year-old girl in the May 13 attack came forward, too.
"Right now, we definitely have him on admitting two child molestation cases," said Lt. Duhamell.
Sex crime detectives suspect Gonzales in a May 7 sexual assault on a 23-year-old woman. The attack happened at the West Lake Apartments near Rockville Road.
WTHR
May 24, 2010
Georgia, USA
Man gets 35 years for sexually assaulting child
A DeKalb man will spend the next 35 years in prison after being convicted of raping and infecting a child with a sexually transmitted disease.
Omar Luna-Fraide, 22, of Doraville, was convicted Wednesday on one count of rape; two counts of child molestation; two counts of aggravated child molestation; and one count of false imprisonment, said Orzy Theus, spokesman for the DeKalb County District Attorney’s Office.
Fraide was accused of assaulting the child on multiple days in 2009, Theus said. He also infected the child with a sexually transmitted disease, Theus said.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
May 21, 2010
Guatemala, The United States
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Esperanza Arreaga, age 62,
lost two small daughters and 14 other family members
when they were murdered by Guatemalan soldiers in the massacre of Las Dos Erres.
In
this picture,
Arreaga looks at the
remains of massacre victims uncovered by forensic archeologists.
Photo: Larry Kaplow - GlobalPost |
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Ramiro Cristales, then age 5, witnessed Guatemalan special forces
soldiers murder his family and rape and murder the 10 and
12-year-old girls from his village of Las Dos Erres, in 1982.
From a
video statement by Ramiro Cristales, and a
collage of photos, by GlobalPost. |
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Ramiro Cristales, after he was abducted at age 5 by the Guatemalan soldiers who murdered his
family |
U.S. rounds up Guatemalans accused of war crimes
Washington - U.S. federal agents are today closing in on four former Guatemalan soldiers accused of taking part in a 1982 massacre, which one law enforcement official called "the most shocking modern-day war crime American authorities have ever investigated."
One former soldier alleged to have taken part in the massacre of 251 villagers
in the rural Guatemalan hamlet of Las Dos Erres is already in custody in Texas.
Another former soldier in Florida and two more in California are under active
investigation.
Law enforcement officials close to the case acknowledged the four men are part
of a probe by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency into immigration
violations aimed at rounding up suspects named in a recently revived, landmark
human rights case in Guatemala. If found in violation of U.S. immigration laws,
the men would likely face deportation to Guatemala and a possible prosecution
there for war crimes.
For years these men, who are all accused of serving in a notoriously brutal
Guatemalan military unit, have lived in America, blending in to communities in
Florida, California and Texas. One is a popular karate teacher. One is a cook.
The man in custody is a day laborer who had allegedly abducted and then adopted
a boy who was orphaned in the slaughter 28 years ago.
That boy, Ramiro Cristales, who was 5 years old at the time, is now a key
witness in the case in Guatemala against the former soldiers and against the man
who raised him.
In an exclusive interview with GlobalPost, Cristales, one of only two known
survivors of the massacre, saw his entire family murdered. He said he was
frustrated it has taken so long for the men to be brought to justice. But he
said he hoped U.S. and Guatemalan officials might work together to make that
happen.
"They have to do something... The only thing I ask is justice," said Cristales,
who is now hiding in an undisclosed location.
One former soldier alleged to have taken part in the massacre of 251 villagers in the rural Guatemalan hamlet of Las Dos Erres is already in custody in Texas. Another former soldier in Florida and two more in California are under active investigation.
Law enforcement officials close to the case acknowledged the four men are part of a probe by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency into immigration violations aimed at rounding up suspects named in a recently revived, landmark human rights case in Guatemala. If found in violation of U.S. immigration laws, the men would likely face deportation to Guatemala and a possible prosecution there for war crimes.
For years these men, who are all accused of serving in a notoriously brutal Guatemalan military unit, have lived in America, blending in to communities in Florida, California and Texas. One is a popular karate teacher. One is a cook. The man in custody is a day laborer who had allegedly abducted and then adopted a boy who was orphaned in the slaughter 28 years ago.
That boy, Ramiro Cristales, who was 5 years old at the time, is now a key witness in the case in Guatemala against the former soldiers and against the man who raised him.
In an exclusive interview with GlobalPost, Cristales, one of only two known survivors of the massacre, saw his entire family murdered. He said he was frustrated it has taken so long for the men to be brought to justice. But he said he hoped U.S. and Guatemalan officials might work together to make that happen.
"They have to do something... The only thing I ask is justice," said Cristales, who is now hiding in an undisclosed location.
The massacre in Las Dos Erres, where a total of 251 men, women and children were killed, is widely considered one of the darkest chapters of Guatemala's 36-year civil war that claimed some 200,000 lives, and in which the U.S. military played a shadowy role.
One month after allegedly raping young girls and women during the massacre, one of the men under investigation, Pedro Pimentel Rios, began work as an instructor at the School of the Americas, the Pentagon-run training school for Latin American militaries, then located in Panama...
Because the alleged crimes occurred before the passage of war crimes laws in the United States, prosecutors are not legally permitted to charge the men under any of those laws. This limitation in U.S. law has long frustrated federal prosecutors, who have only... been able to denaturalize and deport even suspected Nazi war criminals living in the United States.
U.S. officials began their investigation after the Inter-American Court on Human Rights decided last year that Guatemala's 1996 amnesty agreement does not apply to serious human rights violations, including the massacre at Las Dos Erres. Officials at Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Justice who monitor cases involving foreign-born human rights abusers decided to see if any of the accused killers were living in the United States...
U.S. involvement
Human rights groups have long criticized the involvement of the American government and military in Guatemala. The Las Dos Erres case reveals several connections between the two countries.
The U.S. government knew the Guatemalan army was probably responsible for the massacre at Las Dos Erres, yet the School of the Americas began to welcome new instructors and students from the army only days after the killings...
In the 1970s, President Jimmy Carter had introduced a ban on cooperating with the Guatemalan military. But President Ronald Reagan lifted the ban and the School of the Americas began admitting Guatemalan soldiers, including Rios, one of the alleged perpetrators of the massacre...
Just as the massacres were intensifying, Reagan re-established military and political cooperation with the Guatemalan government. Reagan saw
[Guatemalan president Efrain] Rios Montt as a useful ally against leftist guerrillas and maintained friendly relations in the face of evidence that Rios Montt's government was responsible for increasing numbers of civilian massacres. (In July 1982, Amnesty International published a report listing more than 50 massacres of non-combatant civilians by the military.)
On Dec. 4, 1982, when the massacres in the Guatemalan countryside were fully under way, Reagan met with Rios Montt. Reagan publicly described Rios Montt as "a man of great personal integrity…[who] wants to improve the quality of life for all Guatemalans and to promote social justice." Reagan said that Rios Montt had received a "bum rap" from human rights groups.
It was an inauspicious day to make such a show of support. On the same day Reagan spoke, the 17 members of the Kaibiles
[counter-insurgency rangers] squad arrived at a military base near Las Dos Erres. On Dec. 7, the massacre started. Over the following two days, the men are alleged to have killed 251 residents of Las Dos Erres. "Everything that moved had to be killed," one of the soldiers later wrote in a sworn statement.
Last month archaeologists began exhuming the mass grave and DNA testing is now underway to confirm the identities of those killed.
"I lost everything"
The Kaibiles tortured the men first. They then began throwing children alive into the village well. Women were shot or beaten to death with a sledgehammer and then thrown in. Men were then shot and dumped on top. One of the Kaibiles abducted a 5-year-old boy
[Ramiro Cristales]. Another boy escaped. They may be the only surviving witnesses...
Matt McAllester
Minnpost.com
May 06, 2010
LibertadLatina
Commentary
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Chuck
Goolsby |
Genocide, Femicide and Human
Trafficking in Guatemala
All Grew From the Same Roots of Wartime Impunity
The genocide suffered by the indigenous Mayan majority
population of Guatemala during the 1980s took place with the complicity of the U.S.
Government, especially during the administration of President Ronald Reagan.
Some 200,000 innocent civilians, including 50,000 women, were murdered by government military forces
during the civil conflict. The nation's Supreme Court has officially declared that 200,000
orphans resulted from the war.
While the International Court in the Hague and other international
judicial bodies have aggressively prosecuted, or at least charged suspects
in the genocidal mass murders in Bosnia, Sudan and other equally notorious
circumstances, the
largest act of ethnic cleansing and genocide in the modern history of the
Americas, which was carried out by pro-U.S. government forces during the Guatemalan Civil War, has until recently been off limits to
effective prosecution.
We thank the Inter-American Court of Human Rights for
laying the legal groundwork for permitting renewed judicial action in regard to important cases such as that
of
the
Las Dos Erres Massacre. Many other massacres and
individual murders have yet
to be investigated.
In all, some 440 Mayan villages, located mostly in Guatemala's
northwestern highlands region, were completely destroyed by Guatemalan soldiers
during a brutal scorched earth campaign of ethnic cleansing that hid behind a
cloak of supposedly justifiable cold war counter insurgency.
Guatemala's military was supported in this endeavor with military strategy, training and equipment supplied by the United States,
Argentina and Israel.
The perpetrators of mass murder in Guatemala thought that they would have a
lifetime of protection in regard to their crimes, because past conservative U.S.
presidential administrations lead them to believe that was the case. Thanks to the changing
political and legal landscape in the Americas, serious prosecutions of these
criminals may, finally, occur.
In the early and mid 1980s I and many other activists in Washington,
DC and across the Americas worked hard to publish and broadcast news about the
ongoing massacres of innocents in Guatemala. We also protested in front of Congress and organized to
do everything we could to save the
lives of Guatemalans from the murderous hands of these cruel perpetrators.
Today in 2010, Guatemala's postwar culture has the highest rate of
'femicide' murders in
all of the Americas. Thousands of women have been murdered during the past
several years with almost total impunity. The rate of femicide murders, (which
are crimes that typically include acts of
rape, torture, mutilation and dismemberment -echoing the behavior of military
forces during the civil war), is ten times higher than the rate of gender-based
murders in Mexico's infamous Ciudad Juarez..
These femicides, and Guatemala's inability to investigate the rape/
torture killings of so many women and girls, as well as that nation's serious problems
with mass sex trafficking currently, are all direct outgrowths of the
impunity that the world community ALLOWED to exist in Guatemala during the
1970s, 80s and 90s. Effectively, these crimes were never prosecuted because past
conservative U.S. administrations were both passively and actively complicit, and the world community
of nations simply stood silently by and watched these horrific events
unfold with impunity.
A nexus with the anti-trafficking movement
During the early 2000's, I joined the anti human trafficking
listserv (email-based private forum) of Dr. Donna Hughes, who was then, and is
today, Professor and Eleanor M. and Oscar M. Carlson
Endowed Chair of the Women's Studies Program at the University of Rhode Island.
Dr. Hughes is one of the original pioneers of the modern U.S. movement against
human trafficking, and she deserves all of the honors that she has received over
the years for those important efforts.
Dr. Hughes' listserv, which was made up of many notable names in the
anti-slavery movement across the globe, including names that many followers of
the movement today would recognize, totaled about
400 members. Simultaneous to her work with this listserv, Dr. Hughes was also
writing for the conservative National Review Online.
The majority of U.S. listserv participants were conservative
women. I
educated that online community of professionals and activists about the dynamics of the
Latin American crisis in human trafficking at a time when few were aware of the
issues.
As part of that work, I discussed the mass rapes and murders of innocent Mayan
indigenous women and girls (among others) during the Guatemalan Civil War
(almost all Mayan women and girls of any age, among other victims, were targeted
for rape by soldiers and civilian paramilitary guards during the war). I also
discussed Mayan Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Dr. Rigoberta Menchu, who fled into the
jungle to avoid becoming another victim of a government massacre. Several of Dr. Menchu's relatives died at the hands of soldiers.
Conservative members
of the listserv became so infuriated with my simple and truthful educational
postings that several of them quit the listserv. Dr. Hughes told me by phone,
almost apologetically, that she had to ban me from participating to prevent her
conservative followers from leaving.
In an earlier email conversation, Dr. Hughes had
rationalized the human rights abuses in Guatemala by stating that some victims
supported communist insurgency.
What Mayans actually supported was building a
future for themselves that was free from the 500 years of peonage (slavery) that
Spanish descendants had subjected them to.
During this online debate, an anti-trafficking activist from the Salvation Army
wrote-in to emphasize that the group was not denying the events that took place in
Guatemala (although only she expressed that view, not the other listserv members).
U.S. Conservatives had long supported the efforts of former President
Ronald Reagan and others to back often brutal right wing dictators in Latin America. Any
mention of the mass murders of Guatemalan innocents, including women and
children,
was considered to be an unacceptable topic of public conversation.
In late 1995, for example,
former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich denounced
then-Democratic Representative Robert G. Torricelli, who, like
Speaker Gingrich, was a member of
the House Intelligence Committee, for having publicly exposed information about
the atrocities in Guatemala, followed by a demand for congressional hearings.
Speaker Gingrich also demanded that the Public
Broadcasting Service (PBS) not air a documentary on the massacres of Mayan
peoples in the Guatemalan Civil War. He only relented and allowed the program to
be broadcast after his demand for adding 'alternative views' to the program's
content were agreed to by PBS.
How do you provide an alternative view about multiple acts of
racially motivated mass murder being perpetrated against innocent children, women and men
with impunity?
This truthful account of one part of the history of the Guatemalan Genocide
also sheds light on aspects of the modern U.S. response to the human trafficking
crisis in Latin America.
The U.S. based anti-trafficking movement is a unique social space where
conservatives, liberals and others (and I am 'other') may join in common
purpose to save human lives. Unfortunately, politics has often been played with the issue of Latin American human
trafficking.
In the early 2000s, conservatives such as Dr. Donna Hughes and her followers shunned any
discussion of the important gender related human rights issues (specifically,
the Guatemalan Genocide) that were closely
associated with the modern human slavery issue in Latin America.
During the
administration of former U.S. President George W. Bush, I was
present at two separate major public speeches given by the first
and second directors of the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons
at the U.S. Department of State - Ambassador John R. Miller, and
Ambassador Mark P. Lagon. Latin America’s human trafficking crisis
was never mentioned during those presentations, despite what we know
today, that Latin American human trafficking generates an estimated
$16 billion per year, perhaps half of all world income from human
slavery.
When, on May 27, 1994,
I gave a presentation on Latina women and exploitation to
the Montgomery County, Maryland Commission for Women, I mentioned the
mass rapes and murders of women in the Guatemalan conflict, several conservative
women commission members shook their heads and declared that the genocide never happened.
In response,
a Cherokee indigenous woman commission member, and a Panamanian woman
physician who was also a member both acknowledged the fact of the Guatemalan
genocide, and also recognized the other issues that I had raised for their consideration
(the workplace sexual exploitation of Latina immigrant women).
An intentional failure to acknowledge the problem of Latin American
human trafficking during the administration of President George
W. Bush (as a byproduct of conservative politics) effectively allowed the region's billion dollar cartels and other criminal elements free reign to
grow their now $16 billion per year human slavery 'industry' (IOM
figure) without any visible U.S. opposition.
On the other end of the political spectrum, some liberals, including, perhaps,
influential members of the administration
of President Barack Obama, also politicize human trafficking, from a leftist
perspective.
It does not add to Obama administration Latin America strategy to have a highly
visible public discussion of human trafficking and the mass rape and enslavement of
women and girls in Mexico, when such visibility would raise
doubt in Congress, and among the public, as to the value of continued funding of the war on
drug traffickers, given that Mexican soldiers deployed in the conflict have been
the culprits in many rapes and
murders of indigenous women with total impunity.
Open discussion of the severe levels of human trafficking and the brutal sexual
exploitation of women perpetrated by some Latino men in Latin America,
and in U.S. community settings, is also an uncomfortable topic
for progressives as they market Comprehensive Immigration Reform to the people
and Congress of the United States.
That concern does not justify remaining silent about the growing humanitarian
emergency of mass gender atrocities that is taking place in Mexico, throughout
the rest of Latin America and, increasingly, in U.S. Latino immigrant population
centers.
Progressives who favor the legalization of prostitution also apparently have
strong influence in the Obama Administration, which perhaps leads to a diminished focus on
sex trafficking while labor trafficking takes center stage in U.S.
anti-trafficking efforts.
By justifying the genocide of Mayan indigenous peoples during the
Guatemalan Civil War (a mentality that is consistent with excusing the mass murder of
U.S. indigenous peoples in the past), U.S. conservatives, together with their allies in
Guatemala, succeeded in setting-up the circumstances that lead not only to the anti-Mayan
genocide, but also set off the 'firestorm' of the largest ongoing crisis of mass
murders of women in the Americas, today's Guatemalan femicide.
A similar conservative-lead
environment of social and govern-mental tolerance for mass gender atrocities
also exists in neighboring Mexico.
We assert that the lack of willingness of the
U.S. government and of some U.S. NGOs to fully engage the issue of human trafficking in Latin
America (where half of the world's estimated $32 billion of human trafficking
apparently takes place) during the George W. Bush administration and beyond had
its roots in conservative unwillingness to acknowledge the serious human
consequences of their past support for murderous dictators such as Guatemalan president Efrain Rios Montt.
To be clear, U.S. conservatives cannot declare their opposition
to modern day human trafficking and slavery on the one hand, and on the other,
declare that the genocide in Guatemala, or Mexico's current repression of
women's rights (and until recently, intentional inaction on human trafficking) all
orchestrated by the ruling conservative National Action party (PAN), are justifiable expressions of
modern conservatism.
You cannot have it both ways.
The left, which has often been indifferent to the issue of human
trafficking, bears a similar responsibility for condoning inaction... because
human trafficking is, for some of them, a round peg that will not fit into the square
holes of their political ideologies.
Shame on those who politicize human trafficking, be they from the
right or the left!
The victims, and those who are at-risk, await our effective and hurried
efforts to protect and rescue them.
Public servants, put the politics aside, and get to work! There is no time to waste.
End impunity now!
Chuck Goolsby
LibertadLatina
May 23/24/27, 2010
See also:
Guatemala
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