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Indigenous and Latina Women & Children's Human
Rights News from the Americas |
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Latin
American Women, Children at Risk |
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Within Latin America - Machismo
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This Section last Updated November 27,
2005 |
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| Latin American women
and children of all races survive in a hostile social climate of severe
sexual harassment and sexual violence. These conditions expose women
and especially girl children to danger in the home, in their communities, in
their schools and in their workplaces.
The below articles & reports define the
scope of this ongoing crisis. |
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Latin America - A Debate About Machismo |
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Added
Nov. 26,
2005
México
November 25, 2005,
International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women
Gobierno federal discrimina a mujeres indígenas.
Mexico City -
"Our governments do not take indigenous
women into account," affirmed Genara Juárez Cruz before a meeting of
Mayan, Natwal, Otomí & Chinanteca women, gathered during the Third
Encounter of Indigenous Women.
Cruz, a Natwal who works with women in
Veracruz, denounced during the forum the discrimination that Native
women suffer from
the
authorities,
"who dismiss us," while Native men call women like her, who work for
the good of the people in their communities, so that they know and
exert their fundamental rights… "crazy people."
The encounter, celebrated for the
International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women,
focused on indigenous girls and
women, who are traditionally discriminated against by both the
larger Mexican society and also the machista (macho-ist - sexist)
social structures of their own communities.
- CimacNoticias.com
Mexico
Nov. 25, 2005 |
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Dr. Miguel De La Torre,
Hope College
This article explores the multidimensional aspects of intra-Hispanic
oppression by unmasking the socio-historical construction of
machismo. Usually, traditionally disenfranchised groups construct
well-defined categories as to who are the perpetrators and who are
the victims of injustices. All too often, we who are Hispanic
ethicists tend to identify oppressive structures of the dominant
Eurocentric culture while overlooking repression conducted within
our own community. I suggest that within the marginalized space of
the Latino/a community there exists intra-structures of oppression
along gender, race and class lines, creating the need for an ethical
initiative to move beyond, what Edward Said terms, "the rhetoric of
blame." Specifically, this article will present a paradigm called
machismo, which explicates intra-Hispanic oppression. The article
then employs this paradigm to the Cuban experience by examining
intra-Cuban sexism, racism and classism.
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Honduran Feminists Say
NO! toMachismo
In Latin
America concepts of masculinity are encapsulated in the word
"machismo." At its most extreme, writes the London-based Panos
Institute, an organization dedicated to stimulating debate on global
environment and development issues, machismo maintains a man's
superiority and dominance over women, granting him the right to do
as he pleases within and outside the family home and the authority
to restrict the freedom of his wife, sisters and daughters. Machos
subscribe to the saying: "Women are like shotguns; they should be
kept loaded [pregnant] and indoors."
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Creative Feminism -
Spain
Machismo...(macho-ism)
is a collection of laws, norms, attitudes and characteristics of men
whose finality, explicitly or implicitly, has been and is, is to
produce, maintain and perpetuate the enslavement and submission of
women on all levels: sexual, procreation, and in relation to work
and love.
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National
Compadres Network
It is commonly said that men, particularly men of color, tend to be
abusive, controlling and violent toward women and children. These
characteristics are often said to be typical of a patriarchal, or
"machismo," culture.
Jerry Tello, one of the founders of the National Compadres Network,
a group of professional Latino men who work to instill positive
values in young Latino men, disagrees.
He says that to be abusive is not an inherent attribute of
Chicano/Latino culture.
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Machismo was not
an Indigenous Tradition.
...Rosenbaum writes that in Maya society, man and woman had equally
important roles and neither was considered whole without the other.
Today, in this same part of the world, machismo - "the ideology that
places a high value on virility as a result of ‘conquering’ a large
number of women - is widespread in the region," writes Rosenbaum.
"Machismo shapes the region’s patriarchal system in specific ways,
placing women under the control of men who may eventually abandon
them."
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Machismo and HIV-AIDS
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AIDS Threatening Latin
American Youth
Dr. Peter Piot, executive director of UNAIDS, said: "Worldwide, more
than half of all people who become infected with the human
immunodeficiency virus (HIV) acquire the virus when they are under
25 years old. It is tragic that HIV should single out a youthful and
otherwise healthy population group. "But it is hardly a coincidence,
given the daily circumstances of many young people's lives. As we
have learned from two decades of experience with this epidemic, the
path of HIV is eased by poverty, lack of skills, violence and
harmful social norms such as machismo
and early sexual debut."...
..."HIV risk does not occur in a vacuum," Piot said.
"It is hard to overstate the HIV risk from machismo, a
Spanish-language word that has come into widespread use in other
languages too because it so neatly sums up the constellation of
risk-taking and often predatory behaviors with which young men are
expected to prove their masculinity in many parts of the world."
Piot said machismo puts these men's lives in danger from AIDS, and
endangers the lives of their female partners. |
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AIDS Hits the Americas'
Most Vulnerable Populations
...For anatomical reasons, women are
about four times more vulnerable than men are to sexually
transmitted diseases, including HIV. But their lower social and
economic status in many societies also increases their risks. And
nowhere, perhaps, is this more obvious than in Latin America and the
Caribbean where a culture of "machismo"
makes it acceptable for married men to have more than one sexual
partner. Women who speak out against their husbands' infidelity may
be beaten.
..."It's very much connected to
machismo
and the position of women in society," Hanquet said. "We have to
teach them they don't have to accept everything from a man. They
should be able to protect themselves." Many married women, and women
of childbearing age in the Americas are being infected -- a
situation which leads to the infection of newborns and to an
increase of AIDS orphans. |
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Listen, Learn, Live!
1999 World AIDS Campaign
* Sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of children, often associated
with poverty and dysfunctional families, open the door to major HIV
risks in Latin America and the Caribbean. Girls subjected to
sexual abuse in childhood are typically robbed of self-esteem and
control over their lives, increasing their risks of drug-taking and
commercial sex later on. In one country, 80% of children entering
the sex trade had been sexually abused, often by a relative.
Economic pressures in the region have forced an ever-increasing
number of people into absolute poverty. Domestic laborers are open
to sexual exploitation and assault by the males in the employer's
family. Sex tourism, often perceived as an Asian problem, is another
growing AIDS-related problem in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Preferred destinations for sex tourism with minors are Costa Rica
and the Dominican Republic, but increasingly Brazil, Honduras,
Guatemala, Haiti, Nicaragua and other countries are also being
cited.
*
Machismo
(the risk-taking and often predatory behaviours with which young men
are expected to prove their masculinity) typifies the role models
that are particularly dominant in countries of Latin America and the
Caribbean.
Machismo
puts lives in danger not least the lives of the young men
themselves. Young men are expected to demonstrate their virility
with early and frequent sex, and multiple partners.
Those who are not knowledgeable about sex cannot afford to admit
this and wind up running the consequent risks.
...The other side of the
machismo
coin is vulnerability for young women, who are expected to be
ignorant about their bodies and sexual matters, to defer to male
sexual demands and decision-making, even when they know their
partner may be infected through other relationships, and are often
emotionally and financially dependent on him. While for young men
the major HIV threat is from drug use and male-male sex, the threat
to young women is mainly through heterosexual transmission.
Macho
attitudes can help to sow the seeds of violence. While the prime
victims of male violence are other men, these acts rarely amplify
the HIV risk directly (exceptions include cases of rape in all-male
settings such as detention centers). However, women who are targets
of male violence (often at the hands of their husband/partner) are
put at risk of HIV...
...Machista
[macho-ist] values influence legislation on rape. In 14 Latin
American countries a man may legally rape his wife or fiancée and in
some countries including Argentina and Chile-a rapist need only
propose marriage to escape prosecution.
The scale of male-female violence is horrifying even with regard to
children. In Mexico, 7 out of 10 child victims of violence are
girls, and 60% of women dying a violent death were younger than 13.
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LibertadLatina
News /
Noticias
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Updated: Nov. 15, 2011
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Added: Nov. 15, 2011
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Greater Washington, DC USA
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Gangs
Enter New Territory With Sex
Trafficking
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Though most are known to deal with
drugs and weapons, a new FBI threat
assessment says street gangs have
been moving into some different
territory lately: human trafficking.
The FBI says gang members
increasingly are pushing women and
children into prostitution.
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The MS-13 gang got its start among
immigrants from El Salvador in the
1980s. Since then, the gang has
built operations in 42 states,
mostly out West and in the
Northeastern United States, where
members typically deal in drugs and
weapons.
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But in Fairfax County, Virginia, one
of the wealthiest places in the
country, authorities have brought
five cases in the past year that
focus on gang members who have
pushed women, sometimes very young
women, into prostitution.
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"We all know that human trafficking
is an issue around the world," says
Neil MacBride, the top federal
prosecutor in the area. "We hear
about child brothels in Thailand and
brick kilns in India, but it's
something that's in our own
backyard, and in the last year we've
seen street gangs starting to move
into sex trafficking."
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In Virginia, at least, the
consequences can be severe. Over the
past few weeks, one member of MS-13
nicknamed "Sniper" got sent to
prison for the rest of his life.
Another will spend 24 years behind
bars for compelling two teenage
girls to sell themselves for money.
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Usually, investigators say, gang
members charge between $30 and $50 a
visit, and the girls are forced into
prostitution 10 to 15 times a day.
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It's easy money for MS-13 —
thousands of dollars in a weekend,
with virtually no costs. Except for
alcohol and drugs to try to keep the
girls off-kilter.
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Often, the activity takes place at
construction sites, in the parking
lots of convenience stores and gas
stations.
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"Yeah, this last case we worked, the
victim was 12 years old," says John
Torres, who leads the Homeland
Security Investigations unit at the
Immigration and Customs Enforcement
office in Washington.
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He says the girl, a runaway,
approached MS-13 gang members at a
Halloween party. She was looking for
a place to stay. Within hours, she
was forced to work as a prostitute.
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"You have a gang that's taking
advantage of people that are in a
desperate situation, usually
runaways or someone that's looking
for help from the gang," Torres
says.
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Joshua Skule, who oversees the
violent crime branch of the criminal
division at the FBI's field office
in Washington, lists some reasons
for street gangs' move into sex
trafficking.
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"It is not like moving, or as risky
as moving narcotics. It is not as
risky as extorting business owners,"
he says. "And these victims really
have no way out."
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Skule says they're like modern
indentured servants. The 12-year-old
girl involved in one of the recent
sex trafficking cases is safe now,
authorities say. But she'll be
dealing with the physical and
emotional scars for many years.
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"When someone leaves, there's a lot
of shame and guilt associated with
the time they were there," says
Victoria Hougham, a social worker
who helps victims and survivors of
sex trafficking.
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"They may have physical injuries
which can impact, especially for
young women, their sexual and
reproductive health."
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Hougham works with
Polaris
Project,
a nonprofit that runs a 24-hour hot
line that helps connect victims of
human trafficking with police or
social services. She says survivors
of that kind of abuse do best when
they reconnect with their families
and get support from law
enforcement.
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Prosecutors in Virginia say they
expect to bring more sex trafficking
cases against gang members over the
next several months.
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Carrie Johnson
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All Things Considered
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National Public Radio
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Nov. 14, 2011
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Added: Nov. 14, 2011
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Congressional anti trafficking leader Rosi
Orozco eulogizes Interior Department leaders in the war against modern
slavery
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Mexico
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Mexico’s Secretary of the Interior José
Francisco Blake Mora and other officials recently died in a
tragic helicopter accident.
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Congressional deputy Rosi Orozco, president of
the Special Commission to Combat Human Trafficking in the
Chamber of Deputies
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Comunicado
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Con profunda tristeza me uno al dolor que
embarga a las familias de cada uno de los pasajeros que viajaban junto
con el Srio. de Gobernación
José Francisco Blake Mora,
en el trágico
accidente sucedido el día de ayer; Felipe de Jesús Zamora Castro,
subsecretario de Asuntos Jurídicos y Derechos Humanos [y otros]…,
quienes sirviendo a su Nación, perdieron su vida.
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Siempre estaremos agredecidos por el
apoyo del Srio. José Francisco Blake quien en funciones subió el tema
del delito de Trata de Personas al Consejo de Seguridad Nacional
equiparando así este delito con el de secuestro. En todo momento fue un
hombre dispuesto y determinado a luchar por tener un mejor país, una
mejor Nación, un mejor México para nacionales y extranjeros.
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Felipe de Jesús Zamora,
gran aliado en la
lucha contra la Trata de Personas, comprometido con la campaña de la ONU
en contra de este crimen, portando todos los días en la solapa de su
traje el símbolo del Corazón Azul, su pérdida para mí es irreparable.
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Press Release
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It is with deep sadness that I join with the
pain felt by the families of each of the passengers who were traveling
with Mexico’s Secretary of the Interior
José Francisco Blake Mora
during the tragic [helicopter] accident that happened yesterday...,
including Felipe de Jesús Zamora Castro, Secretary of Legal Affairs and
Human Rights at the Interior Department.
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We will always be thankful for the
support of Secretary Blake Mora, who raised the issue of human
trafficking before the National Security Council, where he equated
trafficking with crime of kidnapping [which is penalized much more
severely under Mexican law]. The Secretary was at all times a man
willing and determined to fight for a better country, a better nation, a
better Mexico for nationals and foreigners.
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[Another victim of the crash,
Undersecretary of the Interior for Judicial
Affairs and Human Rights] Felipe de Jesus Zamora was a great ally in the
fight against trafficking in persons. He was committed to [Mexico’s
collaboration with] the United Nations Blue Heart campaign against
trafficking, wearing therir blue heart pin on his lapel each and every
day. His loss is irreparable.
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I join the pain of all Mexicans, who
have lost brave servants of our nation. They defended the values which
make Mexico great through their day-to-day hard work and determination.
I sympathize with their beloved families, peers and colleagues.
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Attentively
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Atentamente
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Diputada Federal Rosi Orozco
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Nov. 11, 2011
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Added: Nov. 14, 2011
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Mexico
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Protest sign says "We need authorities
who will indeed protect us - not rapists."
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La CIDH admite el caso de 11 mujeres mexicanas
que acusan tortura sexual
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La Comisión Interamericana investigará una denuncia de violación de un
grupo mujeres en un operativo policial en San Salvador Atenco en 2006
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Según la documentación de organizaciones civiles, al menos 26 mujeres
fueron violadas, de las cuales, 11 acudieron ante la CIDH (Cuartoscuro
Archivo).
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La Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos (CIDH) admitió investigar
el caso de 11 mujeres mexicanas que aseguran que fueron víctimas de
tortura sexual durante una represión policial en 2006 en San Salvador
Atenco, en el Estado de México.
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Durante el 143° periodo ordinario de sesiones, la CIDH emitió un informe
para comenzar a investigar la petición 512-08 Mariana Selvas Gómez y
otros vs. México, interpuesta en abril de 2008 bajo el cargo de dilación
de justicia por la nula investigación en el caso.
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“Ni la Fiscalía Especial de Delitos Violentos Contra las Mujeres y Trata
de Personas (Fevimtra) ni la Procuraduría General de Justicia del Estado
de México (PGJEM) han realizado una adecuada investigación y ningún
policía, de los más de 2,500 agentes que intervinieron, ha sido
sancionado”, acusa el Centro de Derechos Humanos Miguel Agustín Pro
Juárez (Centro Prodh), que lleva el caso legal de las denunciantes.
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La Comisión investigará ahora si el Estado mexicano cometió violaciones
de derechos humanos y dará a conocer sus conclusiones en cuanto la parte
acusadora y el gobierno mexicano sean notificados sobre las mismas.
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La población de San Salvador de Atenco se movilizó en febrero y mayo de
2006 contra la expropiación de tierras en San Salvador Atenco para la
construcción de un nuevo aeropuerto internacional en el centro del país.
La protesta derivó en un enfrentamiento en el que participaron 2,500
policías de los tres órdenes de gobierno. Dos personas murieron y 207
fueron detenidas.
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Organizaciones civiles como el Centro Prodh denuncian que durante el
operativo del 3 y 4 de mayo de 2006, al menos 26 mujeres fueron víctimas
de tortura sexual; de las cuáles, 11 presentaron una querella ante la
CIDH.
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Estas mujeres denunciaron que los agentes las detuvieron por participar
en los disturbios y que en los vehículos donde eran trasladadas a un
penal sufrieron violencia sexual, física y verbal.
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Una de las denunciantes, Italia Méndez, escribió una carta en el quinto
aniversario del operativo en Atenco: "La tortura sexual ejercida contra
nosotras las mujeres en los operativos fue un hecho difícil de afrontar
y denunciar, dimensionar tal violencia contra nuestros cuerpos nos
resultaba desbordante, sin embargo, el mantenernos juntas y enfrentar al
Estado de forma colectiva nos permitió afrontar y desmontar el discurso
del poder en el cual nosotras debíamos sentir vergüenza y no podíamos
hacer nada con lo ocurrido”.
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En julio de 2010, la Suprema Corte de Justicia de la Nación (SCJN)
ordenó la liberación de 12 integrantes del Frente de Pueblos en Defensa
de la Tierra (FPDT), que estaban sentenciados a penas de entre 31 y 112
años de cárcel por el delito de secuestro equiparado tras haber
participado en la protesta.
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Un año antes, la Corte dictaminó que los policías que fueron parte del
operativo cometieron graves violaciones a las garantías individuales.
Hasta ahora, sólo uno ha sido consignado por actos libidinosos, pero no
fue encarcelado.
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La SCJN también deslindó responsabilidad al expresidente Vicente Fox y
al exgobernador del Estado de México, Enrique Peña Nieto.
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El exmandatario estatal dijo en 2008 que volvería a ordenar un operativo
similar en caso de que fuera necesario restablecer el orden y la paz
social. Sin embargo, un año después, reconoció que en el caso existe un
“alto grado de impunidad” en cuanto a violaciones y abusos cometidos por
los 2,500 policías que participaron, pero dijo que era “prácticamente
imposible saber quién las cometió”.
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Cinco años después de haber avalado el operativo, Enrique Peña Nieto es
el político mexicano mejor posicionado en las encuestas para los
comicios presidenciales de 2012.
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International Commission will investigate the case of 11 Mexican women
who charge sexual torture [at the hands of police]
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The Inter-American Commission for Human Rights (IACHR) has decided
to investigate
rape complaints filed by a group of women in regard to a police
operation that occurred in the city of San Salvador de Atenco in 2006.
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According to documentation assembled by nongovernmental organizations,
at least 26 women were raped at the time of the incident. Eleven of those victims have
pursued the case that will be considered by the IACHR.
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During its 143rd regular session, the Commission issued a report to
begin investigating
petition 512-08 - Mariana Selvas Gómez et al.,
Mexico, filed in April 2008 on allegations that justice was not served
because officials failed to investigate the case.
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"Neither the [federal] Special Prosecutor for Violent Crimes Against
Women and Trafficking in Persons (FEVIMTRA) nor the Attorney General of
the State of Mexico (PGJEM) conducted an adequate investigation, and
none of the more than 2,500 police officers involved [in the operation]
has been penalized,” declared a spokesperson for the Miguel Agustín Pro
Juárez Human Rights Center (PRODH Center), which provides legal
representation for the complainants.
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The Commission will now investigate whether the Mexican government
committed human rights violations and will publish its conclusions after
the complainants and the Mexican government are notified about them.
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The population of San Salvador Atenco had mobilized in February, and
then in May of 2006
in protest against the expropriation of land within the city that was to
be used for the construction of a new international airport. The protest
led to a confrontation and a response by more than 2,500 federal, state
and local police officers. Two people died and 207 were arrested.
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Civil society organizations such as the PRODH Center reported that during the
operation, which took place between May 3rd and 4th
of
2006, at least 26 women were subjected to sexual torture. Eleven of those
victims joined to bring the IACHR complaint.
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The women reported that officers had arrested them for participating in
the disturbances, and that they were sexually, physically and verbally
assaulted on the buses that transported them to jail.
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One of the complainants, Italia Méndez, wrote a letter on the fifth
anniversary of the operation in Atenco and stated: "The sexual torture
that was perpetrated against us as women was hard to face and denounce -
such violence [against] our bodies was overwhelming. Nonetheless, by
staying together and by confronting the state collectively, we were able
to dismantle the discourse that was [publicized] by those in power, a
discourse that said that we should feel ashamed and that we could not do
anything about what had happened."
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In July 2010, the Supreme Court of Justice (SCJN) ordered the release of
12 members of the Peoples' Front in Defense of the Land (FPDT), who had
been sentenced to between 31 and 112 years in prison for the crime of
kidnapping after participating in the protest.
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A year earlier, the Court ruled that the police officers who were part
of the operation committed serious violations of individual rights. So
far, only one officer has been prosecuted for lewd acts. He was not
jailed.
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The supreme court also exonerated [former] president Vicente Fox and the
former governor of Mexico state, Enrique Peña Nieto in regard to the
case.
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Peña Nieto said in 2008 that he would have ordered a similar operation
again in the event that it become necessary to restore order and social
peace. A year later, Peña Nieto acknowledged that there was a "high
degree of impunity" in regard to the violations and abuses committed by the
2,500 police officers involved, but said it was "practically impossible
to know who committed those acts".
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Five years after having [ordered and] supported the operation, Enrique
Peña Nieto holds the top position in polls leading up to the 2012
presidential race.
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Tania L. Montalvo
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CNNMéxico
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Nov. 09, 2011
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See also:
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Added: Nov. 14, 2011
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Mexico
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Raped, Beaten, Never Forgotten
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When the women left their homes that May morning in 2006, they never
imagined the horrific experience that lay ahead of them.
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During a police operation in response to protests by a local peasant
organization in San Salvador Atenco, more than 45 women were arrested
without explanation. Dozens of them were subjected to physical,
psychological and sexual violence by the police officers who arrested
them.
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In the case of one of the women, police officers pulled her hair, beat
her, and forced her into a state police vehicle with her shirt pulled
over her head. She was made to lie on top of other detainees, and during
the journey to the prison, police officers sexually assaulted her
repeatedly.
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Once at the "Santiaguito" prison near Toluca in Mexico State, the prison
doctors who examined many of the women failed to document all their
physical injuries or to gather evidence of the sexual abuse they had
suffered.
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More than four years later, these brave survivors are still waiting for
justice.
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None of the officials responsible for their abuse have been held
accountable. Federal authorities had conducted an investigation that
resulted in a list of 34 names of police officers who were suspected of
being responsible for the abuses, but the federal authorities concluded
that these individuals should be prosecuted at the state level.
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Almost no progress has been made in over a year. Now is the time to push
for real justice and remind the federal government of Mexico that it has
the ultimate responsibility to protect the human rights of its citizens,
and not to let this impunity continue...
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Amnesty International
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2011
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See Also:
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LibertadLatina
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Special Section
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Atenco
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Mexican Police
Rape and Assault
47
Women at
Street Protest
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Added: Nov. 14, 2011
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Mexico
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Lydia Cacho
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Detectan 17 casos de trata en la Riviera Maya
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Ante los hechos de explotación sexual se realizará una marcha pacífica
el próximo 12 de noviembre en la zona turística de Cancún
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El Centro Integral de Atención a la Mujer Maltratada (CIAM-Cancún)
documenta los casos de al menos 17 menores de edad, víctimas de una red
de tratantes de personas en la Riviera Maya, quienes vivían
originalmente en situación de calle y fueron captadas por tratantes que
las "engancharon" en el turismo sexual, comerciándolas sexualmente para
el consumo de turistas canadienses, italianos y norteamericanos,
principalmente.
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|
La organización, que brinda asesoría psicológica, emocional, jurídica y
alberga a mujeres víctimas de violencia, conocieron de los casos como
parte de la campaña "Yo no estoy en venta" que iniciaron en mayo pasado
para prevenir y combatir el delito de la Trata de Personas en sus
diversas modalidades, enfocada a adolescentes y jóvenes a quienes se
dota de herramientas para detectar el fenómeno, reconocer los signos de
alerta y, en su caso, denunciarlos a personas de su confianza.
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|
Como parte de dicha campaña se realizará una marcha pacífica el próximo
12 de noviembre en la zona turística de Cancún para lanzar como mensaje
al turismo y a la industria de que Cancún es paraíso, pero no para el
turismo sexual y que la niñez en Quintana Roo, no está en venta, anunció
este martes la presidenta del CIAM-Cancún, Lydia Cacho Ribeiro.
|
|
La activista reveló datos
preliminares sobre los casos detectados y el estudio que han conformado
para dibujar el perfil de los tratantes de personas que operan en Cancún
y en Playa del Carmen -municipios de Benito Juárez y Solidaridad- en
donde estas mafias que explotan comercialmente a menores de edad son
protegidas por cárteles de la droga, específicamente por Los Zetas y los
"Pelones".
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|
Del grupo de 17 víctimas halladas por CIAM, Cacho Ribeiro dijo que sus
edades oscilan entre los 13 y 16 años, que provienen de diferentes
entidades de la República Mexicana y que su común denominador estriba en
que la violencia doméstica que sufrieron en el hogar las hizo huir y
encontrar refugio en las calles…
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|
"Esta modalidad de víctimas de Trata, que se encuentran en situación de
calle está cobrando importancia en Cancún y Riviera Maya. Hemos sabido
por testimonios de las propias víctimas que mantienen relaciones
sexuales con policías, comerciantes, taxistas y chavos de calle a cambio
de comida, protección, favores o drogas y no exclusivamente por dinero.
|
|
"Luego son captadas por sujetos a los que ubican como ‘valedores' que
primero las protegen, con quienes entablan un vínculo emocional muy
fuerte, y quienes terminan explotándolas sexualmente o entregándolas a
tratantes profesionales", expresó.
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|
Estos ‘valedores' operan particularmente en la famosa Quintana Avenida,
localizada en Playa del Carmen y en playas aledañas a la zona. Y en
Cancún, en el Parque de las Palapas y en la zona de bares de la avenida
López Portillo.
|
|
La agrupación ha dividido en
tres al tipo de víctimas de Trata, detectados en Quintana Roo, durante
la campaña "Yo no estoy en Venta":
|
|
Infantes y adolescentes que viven con sus familias y son explotadas en
niveles socieconómicos altos, por amigos de la escuela y propietarios de
bares; quienes se reportan como desaparecidos o que huyeron de sus casas
y terminan dentro de una red local o internacional de Trata; y quienes
son traídas al estado por tratantes que manejan las rutas de tráfico de
migrantes indocumentados, principalmente de países como Guatemala, El
Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica y Paraguay.
|
|
Activists detect 17 cases of minor sex trafficking at Mexico’s Riviera
Maya resort
|
|
Given the facts of sexual exploitation, a peaceful march is planned for
November 12th in the resort city of Cancun
|
|
The Comprehensive Care Centre for Abused Women (CIAM-Cancún) has
announced that it has documented the cases of at least 17 underage
victims of sex trafficking networks in the Riviera Maya resort area. The
victims were homeless children who had been entrapped by a network of
traffickers who prostituted them for the consumption of sex tourists who
are principally from Canada, Italy and the United States.
|
|
CIAM, which provides emotional, psychological, legal and housing
assistance for women victims of violence, raised awareness of the 17
victims as part of its "I am not for sale" campaign. The effort began
last May to prevent and combat the crime of human trafficking in its
diverse forms. The campaign is aimed at teenagers and young adults who
will be educated to detect the phenomenon, to recognize the warning
signs and, where appropriate, report them to people they trust.
|
|
CIAM is organizing a peaceful march for November 12th in the resort city
of Cancun to launch its message to the tourism industry that Cancun is
a paradise, but not for sex tourism, and to declare that the children of
the state of Quintana Roo are not for sale, announced CIAM-Cancún’s
president, [journalist and activist] Lydia Cacho Ribeiro.
|
|
Cacho Ribeiro discussed preliminary data in regard to the cases detected
as well as deails about a study that CIAM has developed to determine
the profile of the human traffickers that are operating in Cancun and
Playa del Carmen - where the gangs who engage in the commercial sexual
exploitation of children (CSEC) are protected by the drug cartels, and
specifically Los Zetas and the "Pelones."
|
|
According to Cacho Ribeiro, the ages of the 17 victims found by CIAM are
between 13 and 16. They come from across Mexico. Their common
denominator is that they all suffered domestic violence at home that
drove them onto the streets.
|
|
"This type of victims of trafficking, who may be found to be living on
the streets, is becoming increasingly important in Cancun and Riviera
Maya. We have testimony from the victims who have declared that the have
sex with policemen, shopkeepers, taxi drivers and street kids in
exchange for food, protection, favors or drugs. It is not always an
exchange of money that is involved.
|
|
"Later, they are captured by subjects who pose as benefactors, who
protect them, and with whom they have a strong emotional bond, These
subjects end up exploiting the victim sexually, or they hand
the girl
over to professional traffickers,” said Cacho Ribeiro.
|
|
These 'protectors' are especially active in the famous Avenida Quintana
in Playa del Carmen, and along the beaches surrounding the area. In
Cancun, they operate in the Parque de las Palapas and in the bars along
the Avenida Lopez Portillo.
|
|
CIAM has categorized three types of victims of who have been detected in
Quintana Roo state during the I am not for Sale campaign: 1) children and
adolescents who are living with their families, who are exploited by
school friends and bar owners; 2) youth who are reported as missing or
who fled their homes and end up in a local or international [sex] trafficking
network; and 3) victims who are brought into the state by traffickers
who operate human smuggling routes that transport undocumented migrants
who are principally from the nations of Guatemala, El Salvador,
Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Paraguay.
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Adriana Varillas
|
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El Universal
|
|
Nov. 08, 2011
|
|
|
Added: Nov. 06, 2011
|
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Latin America
|
|
The Rise
of Femicide and Women in Drug
Trafficking
|
|
While men have predominantly run drug
trafficking organizations (DTOs),
women have participated in them since
the 1920s. Their role may have
appeared miniscule compared to that
of their male counterparts, but they
have played key roles such as drug
mules and bosses…
|
|
Indirect
Effects of Drug Trafficking
|
|
Government
crackdowns on drug cartels not only
affect women directly, impacting
those who may be working as bosses
or mules, but also indirectly
through a resulting increase [in]
prostitution and sex trafficking.
These industries present an
alternative when governments place
heightened scrutiny on DTOs.
According to the International
Organization for Migration, sex
trafficking alone can produce USD 16
billion a year in revenue in Latin
America. With such high profits,
they are obvious choices to mobilize
in the midst of increased government
control…
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|
Femicide
Emerges
|
|
The rise [in] the number of women in
prisons and the surge in their crime
rates are symptoms of a prominent
issue in Latin America, known as
femicide. Femicide refers to the
mass killings of women, and reflects
the excessive masculinity that is
associated with the drug industry…
[Drug crime is just one of many
causes of femicide in the region.]
Drug trafficking seems to heighten
the attitude that women are…
disposable... Although femicide
remains an issue for all of Latin
America, it has a greater presence
in parts of Central America. For
example, the [number] of murdered
women has tripled in four years,
from 2005-2009, in many Mexican
states from 3.7 to 11.1 per 100,000…
María
Virginia Díaz Méndez, of the Center
of Women’s Studies in Honduras,
states that, “Honduras comes in
second to Guatemala for the highest
femicide rate”. Despite growing
[rates of] femicide throughout the
region, it appears as though there
are little to no consequences for
committing such crimes…
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|
Andrea Mares
|
|
Council on Hemispheric Affairs
|
|
October 28, 2011
|
|
See also:
|
|
Added: Nov. 06, 2011
|
|
Latin America
|
|
Sex
Trafficking Now A $16 Billion
Business In Latin America
|
|
The trafficking of women and girls
for purposes of sexual exploitation
has become a $16-billion-a-year
business in Latin America, according
to figures from the International
Organization for Migration.
|
|
That amount "is almost half of what
is calculated is generated
worldwide" by sex trafficking, said
IOM's director for the Southern
Cone, Eugenio Ambrosi, in an
interview published Wednesday in the
Buenos Aires daily Pagina/12.
|
|
Prostitution, he said, "is vying for
second place with weapons
trafficking as the illegal business
that moves the most money after drug
trafficking."
|
|
Ambrosi lamented the fact that
trafficking in women has "the
advantage ... (that) the logistical
and investment (costs) are much
lower" than in other illicit
businesses, and he added that
"there's a connection" between drug
trafficking and people trafficking.
|
|
"Sometimes the victims ... are
recruited to traffic drugs," he
said.
|
|
"There's a very well organized
network, with the capacity to
recruit and use women everywhere to
satisfy the requirements of the
market," said Ambrosi, adding that
"something has to be done to go
after the customers…"
|
|
WUNRN
|
|
Dec. 02, 2008
|
|
|
Added: Nov. 06, 2011
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Remarks by Mexican anti-trafficking
leader Teresa Ulloa during her
acceptance of the 2011 Gleitsman
International Activist Award at the
Center for Public Leadership at
the Harvard Kennedy School
|
|
Mexico / Massachusetts, USA
|
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|
|
Programme from
the 2011 Gleitsman
International Activist Award
ceremony
|
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|
Palabras
De Teresa Ulloa al aceptar El Premio
Gleitsman 2011 al Activismo Social
Internacional
|
|
Buenas noches, quiero agradecer a
los miembros del Jurado y al Centro
para el Liderazgo Público de la
Escuela Kennedy de la Universidad de
Harvard por otorgarme el Premio
Gleitsman 2011 al Activismo Social
Internacional. También quiero
agradecer a cada una de las que me
nominaron, Corey, Norma, Dorchen y
Jan, todas ellas compañeras en
nuestra lucha y en la
CATW-Internacional, por confiar en
mí y por todo el trabajo que esta
nominación les representó.
|
|
Soy madre de una joven de 21 años,
que ha sido mi motivación y mayor
impulse para que haya dedicado mi
trabajo a contribuir a poner fin a
todas las formas de violencia contra
las mujeres, incluyendo la
sobre-sexualización y la explotación
sexual comercial de mujeres y niñas.
Yo sueño con que mi trabajo
contribuya para desarraigar la
normalización y la aceptación
cultural de la violencia contra las
mujeres para crear un mejor mundo
para todas ellas en todo el mundo.
|
|
He dedicado mi vida a luchar por los
derechos humanos, especialmente a
luchar contra la violencia hacia las
mujeres y las niñas, y, desde hace
veinte años, a combatir la trata de
mujeres, niñas y niños para la
explotación sexual. Durante 40 años,
he trabajado para empoderar y
defender a las mujeres para que
logren el acceso a sus derechos y he
representado a innumerables víctimas
de violencia sexual.
|
|
A menudo, he trabajado con un alto
riesgo personal y el de mi familia,
para erradicar la trata a lo largo
de América Latina y el Caribe,
especialmente en México, donde los
cárteles de las drogas ahora son los
actores principales de este delito.
|
|
En mi trabajo, he incluído un
enfoque holístico para crear las
condiciones legales, políticas y
sociales que permitan erradicar la
trata de personas. Uso mi
conocimiento y experiencia para
diseñar y poner en práctica campañas
y modelos de capacitación
innovadores para la prevención, la
protección y asistencia de las
víctimas, y para la persecución de
los tratantes y explotadores, para
capacitar a los agentes
institucionales encargados de hacer
respetar las leyes y para educar a
los jóvenes, entre otros.
|
|
Inspirada por nuestras Compañeras de
CATW-AP, diseñé un modelo dirigido a
hombres jóvenes para reducir la
demanda de sexo de paga. Este modelo
es el primero en su tipo para educar
a hombres jóvenes y niños sobre la
construcción de la masculinidad
tradicional y las consecuencias de
la demanda en el sexo de paga, que
además promueve una concepción
alternativa de la sexualidad
masculina basada en la igualdad de
derechos humanos. Este modelo se ha
aplicado en México, Argentina,
Ecuador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Perú,
Panamá, Chile, Colombia y la
República Dominicana.
|
|
Hoy, contamos con una red de cerca
de 400 organizaciones en 25 países
en la Región de Latinoamérica y el
Caribe, donde el avance del crimen
organizado y la trata de personas es
alarmante y la corrupción de las
instituciones gubernamentales y los
responsables de hacer respetar la
Ley es una constante. Cientos de
mujeres, niñas y niños se reportan
como desaparecidos y vivimos
continuamente con miedo. A través de
nuestro trabajo hemos rescatado más
de 899 mujeres, niñas y niños de la
trata interna e internacional con
propósitos de explotación sexual, a
través del Sistema Alerta Roja que
fundamos y operamos hace cinco años.
|
|
Sin embargo, todavia enfrentamos
muchos retos inmensos, que pueden
resumirse en:
|
|
La guerra y toda la violencia que
ella involucra contra las mujeres y
las niñas, en las actividades
militares y paramilitares:
violación, violencia sexual,
desplazamiento, muerte, hambre, el
abuso de poder al humillar a las
madres, esposas, hijas y hermanas de
los derrotados, los abusos sexuales
y la prostitución que promueven e
imponen los grupos armados, tanto
los regulares como los irregulares.
Queremos la paz sobre los intereses
económicos y políticos. Queremos el
imperio de la ley y de los derechos
humanos.
|
|
La discriminación de género, esa
discriminación que mata a miles de
niñas aún antes de que hayan nacido,
o aún cuando ya nacieron son
condenadas a la falta de
oportunidades, a la violencia de
género, a la explotación, a la mala
nutrición, a la marginación, a la
desigualdad, y a prácticas
tradicionales perjudiciales para sus
cuerpos y a su dignidad humana, como
el pago de las novias.
|
|
La pobreza y la extrema pobreza. La
feminización de la pobreza se ha
convertido en testigo de la
injusticia para un poco más de la
mitad de la población mundial.
Urgimos su abolición.
|
|
La violencia de género, esa
violencia que se ejerce contra las
mujeres y las niñas en los ámbitos
públicos y privados, en todas
partes. Las muejres y las niñas son
violadas cada día en sus hogares,
donde deberían tener garantizados
sus derechos a la vida, la su
integridad personal y a su
seguridad. Las mujeres y las niñas
son asesinadas cada día en medio de
la más absoluta impunidad. La
seguridad colectiva nunca será
posible si no se puede garantizar la
seguridad y la integridad de las
mujeres y las niñas.
|
|
Tenemos el derecho de ser una
prioridad en la agenda internacional
de cooperación, en los esfuerzos
para el desarrollo, y en la lucha
contra la pobreza, en los desastres
naturals, en la educación, en la
salud, en la protección de nuestros
derechos humanos, pero también en
los temas de seguridad nacional, en
la guerra y en la paz, en los
esfuerzos contra el terrorismo, y en
la lucha contra el crimen
organizado...
|
|
El Transcrito Completo
|
|
See also: English translation
|
|
Teresa
Ulloa speaks at the 2011 Gleitsman
Award for International Social
Activism
|
|
Good evening. I want to thank the
members of the jury and the Center
for Public Leadership at the Kennedy
School at Harvard University for
having awarded me the 2011 Gleitsman
Award for International Social
Activism. I also want to thank those
who nominated me, [Coalition Against
Trafficking (CATW) in Women
Executive Director] Norma [Ramos],
Corey, Dorchen and Jan, as well as
all of the sisters who are all
partners in our struggle at the
International CATW, for trusting me
and for all the work that this
nomination represents for them.
|
|
I am the mother of a 21-year-old
young woman, who has been the
greatest motivation causing me to
dedicate my work to helping to put
an end to all forms of violence
against women, including the
over-sexualization and commercial
sexual exploitation of women and
girls. I dream that my work
contributes to uprooting the
standardization and cultural
acceptance of violence against
women, resulting in a better world
for all women across the world.
|
|
I have dedicated my life to fighting
for human rights, especially to
combat violence against women and
girls, and, for twenty y ears, to
combating the trafficking of women
and children for sexual
exploitation. For 40 years I have
worked to empower and advocate for
women to allow them access to their
rights. I have represented
innumerable victims of sexual
violence.
|
|
Often, I have worked at high
personal risk to myself and my
family to eradicate trafficking
throughout Latin America and the
Caribbean, and especially in Mexico,
where drug cartels are now the main
actors in this crime.
|
|
I have included a holistic approach
in my work to create the legal,
political and social conditions that
will allow for the eradication of
human trafficking. Use my knowledge
and experience to design and
implement campaigns and innovative
training models for prevention,
protection and assistance for
victims, for the prosecution of
traffickers and exploiters, to train
the institutional actors responsible
for enforcing the laws and to
educate young people, among other
[activities].
|
|
Inspired by our sisters at the CATW,
I designed a model aimed at young
men to reduce the demand for paid
sex. This model is the first of its
kind to educate young men and boys
[that addresses] the construction of
traditional masculinity and the
impact of demand on paid sex. [The
approach] promotes an alternative
conception of male sexuality based
on and equality of [gender related]
human rights. This model has been
applied in Mexico, Argentina,
Ecuador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Peru,
Panama, Chile, Colombia and the
Dominican Republic.
|
|
Today, we have a network of nearly
400 organizations working in 25
countries in the Latin America and
the Caribbean, where the growth of
organized crime and human
trafficking is alarming and where
the corruption of government
institutions and those responsible
for enforcing Law is a constant
factor. Hundreds of women and
children are reported as missing and
we live in state of continuously
fear. Through the Red Alert system
that started
five
years ago, we have rescued more than
899 women and children victims of
domestic and international
trafficking for purposes of sexual
exploitation.
|
|
Nonetheless, we still face many
enormous challenges, when can be
summariezed as follows:
|
|
* Wars and all of the violence that
they create against women and girls,
in activities of military and
paramilitary groups: rape, sexual
violence, displacement, death,
hunger, abuse of power used to
humiliate the mothers, wives,
daughters and sisters of the
defeated, and the sexual abuse and
prostitution that is imposed by both
regular and irregular armed groups.
We want peace to prevail over
economic and political interests. We
want the rule of law and human
rights.
|
|
* Gender discrimination, which kills
thousands of girls even before they
are born, or that which, after they
are born condemns them to a lack of
opportunities, gender violence,
exploitation, poor nutrition,
marginalization, inequality, and
traditional practices that are
harmful to their bodies and to their
human dignity, such as payments for
brides.
|
|
* Poverty and extreme poverty. The
feminization of poverty has borne
witness to the injustices faced by a
little over half the world’s
population. We urge its abolition.
|
|
* Gender-based violence - violence
perpetrated against women and girls
in public and private spaces,
everywhere. Women and girls are
raped ev ery day in their own homes,
where they should be guaranteed
their rights to life, personal
integrity and security. Women and
girls are murdered every day in an
environment of the most absolute
impunity. Collective security will
never be possible if we can not
guarantee the security and integrity
of women and girls.
|
|
We have the right to be a priority
on the international agenda for
cooperation, in development efforts,
and in the fight against poverty, in
[relief efforts in regard to]
natural disasters, in education, in
healthcare, in the protection of our
human rights, as well as in regard
to national security issues, in war
and peace, in the efforts against
terrorism and in combating organized
crime...
|
|
Full
Transcript
|
|
Teresa Ulloa at Harvard University
|
|
Posted by Fundacion CEDAI-Centro de
Asistencia Integral
|
|
Nov. 01, 2011
|
|
|
Added: Nov. 06, 2011
|
|
Pop star Ricky Martin calls for the
end of child trafficking
|
|
El Mundo / The World
|
|
|
|
Ricky Martin |
|
|
Opinión:
Detengan el flagelo de la trata
infantil, pide Ricky Martin
|
|
Mi compromiso con la causa de
detener la explotación infantil
nació por una experiencia que me
hizo poner los pies en la tierra. En
2002, fui testigo de los horrores de
la trata de personas cuando
rescatamos a tres niñas temblorosas
que vivían en las calles pobres de
India. Prevenir que estas niñas
fueran víctimas de este horrendo
crimen fue un despertar personal.
|
|
Agradezco a la iniciativa Héroes de
CNN por permitir que Ricky Martin
Foundation comparta con otras
personas y las involucre en nuestro
compromiso por terminar con la
explotación de los niños por medio
de la trata de personas y la
esclavitud en el mundo moderno.
|
|
Eso fue hace más de una década.
Desde entonces, supe que mi
fundación debería arrojar una luz
sobre este tema tabú. La educación
ha sido nuestro pilar desde el
principio. En 2003, lanzamos People
for Children, nuestro proyecto
principal, para proporcionar
educación y soluciones a los
esfuerzos internacionales para
eliminar la trata infantil.
|
|
Este mercado sin escrúpulos —que
consiste en 27 millones de víctimas
en todo el mundo, de acuerdo con el
Informe de la Trata de Personas de
2011— genera hasta 32,000 millones
de dólares al año, una cantidad que
rivaliza con el tráfico de armas y
el narcotráfico. De estos 27
millones, la Unicef estima que cada
año 1.2 millones son niños que son
víctimas de la trata de personas
para trabajar como de mano de obra
forzada, en la industria del
comercio sexual, en la prostitución
y en otras formas de esclavitud.
|
|
Las estadísticas son impactantes.
Muchos las cuestionan porque los
crímenes se ocultan. Pero las cifras
no importan: prevenir la trata de
uno o de 200 niños le da validez a
nuestra misión.
|
|
Nadie debe ser explotado o privado
de su libertad...
|
|
Stop
the scourge of child trafficking
|
|
My commitment to the cause of
stopping the exploitation of
children was born from a humbling
experience. In 2002, I witnessed the
horrors of human trafficking as we
rescued three trembling girls living
on the impoverished streets of
India. Preventing these girls from
falling prey to this horrendous
crime was a personal awakening.
|
|
I thank CNN's Heroes initiative for
allowing the Ricky Martin Foundation
to share and engage others in our
commitment to end the exploitation
of children by human trafficking and
modern-day slavery.
|
|
That was more than a decade ago.
Since then, I knew my foundation
must shed a light on this taboo
subject. Education has been our
pillar from the outset. In 2004, we
launched People for Children, our
principal project, to provide
education and solutions for
international efforts to eliminate
child trafficking.
|
|
This unscrupulous market -- which
consists of 27 million victims
worldwide, according to the 2011
Trafficking in Persons Report --
generates up to $32 billion
annually, an amount rivaling that of
the trafficking of arms and drugs.
Of the 27 million, UNICEF estimates
that 1.2 million are children who
are trafficked every year to work as
forced labor, in the commercial sex
industry, in prostitution and in
other forms of slavery.
|
|
The statistics are staggering. Many
contest them because the crimes are
hidden. But numbers don't matter:
Preventing one or 200 children from
traffickers validates our mission.
|
|
No one should be exploited and
deprived of his or her freedom...
|
|
Ricky Martin
|
|
Special to CNN
|
|
Nov. 03, 2011
|
|
|
Added: Nov. 06, 2011
|
|
Bolivia
|
|
|
|
Bolivian Legislative
Deputy
Marianela Paco
|
|
|
Proponen penas duras por trata de
niños
|
|
El proyecto de Ley contra la Trata y
Tráfico de Personas planteará la
pena máxima (30 años de prisión)
para castigar la trata de niños,
niñas y adolescentes, informó la
diputada Marianela Paco (MAS).
|
|
“Hay
que establecer sanciones más duras
contra el delito de la trata de
niños, niñas y adolescentes con la
pena máxima, es decir, 30 años de
prisión”, afirmó.
|
|
El
proyecto integral, que es analizado
en la Comisión de Derechos Humanos
de la Asamblea Legislativa, señala
que el delito de trata “será
sancionado con 15 a 20 años de
prisión para el o la persona que por
cualquier medio (engaño, coacción,
amenaza o uso de la fuerza)
favorezca la trata de personas
dentro o fuera del país”.
|
|
El
documento define el delito de trata
de personas como la “captación,
transporte, traslado, acogida o
rapto de una persona con fines de
explotación laboral, sexual o la
extracción de órganos”. En tanto, el
tráfico de personas será penado con
una privación de libertad de cuatro
a ocho años.
|
|
Paco dijo que se espera que el
proyecto de ley sea tratado por la
Asamblea Legislativa hasta la
conclusión del periodo de sesiones
de esta gestión, para que el 2012 se
cuente con un instrumento legal que
establezca sanciones y penalidades
de privación de libertad para
quienes incurran en este tipo de
delitos.
|
|
Legislators propose harsh penalties
for child trafficking
|
|
According to Deputy Marianela Paco,
a legislator of the MAS party in
Bloivia’s Legislative Assembly, a
measure currently under
consideration - the Law against
Trafficking in Persons - will raise
the maximum penalty for trafficking
in children and adolescents to 30
years in prison.
|
|
Deputy Paco, "We need to establish
stronger sanctions against the crime
of trafficking in children and
adolescents with the maximum
penalty, that is, 30 years in
prison."
|
|
The bill, which is being discussed
by the Human Rights Commission of
the Legislative Assembly, calls for
the crime of trafficking "be
sentenced by from 15 to 20 years in
prison for a person who by any means
(deception, coercion, threat or use
of force) traffics in people either
inside or outside of Bolivia."
|
|
The proposed law also defines the
crime of human trafficking as the
"recruitment, transportation,
transfer, harboring or kidnapping of
a person for labor or sexual
exploitation, of for the removal of
organs…"
|
|
Deputy Paco said that she hopes the
bill will be addressed by the
Legislature during the current
session, so , that in 2012 we will
have an instrument that establishes
legal sanctions and penalties of
imprisonment for those who engage in
this type of crime.
|
|
Rolando Flores - La Paz
|
|
FMBolivia
|
|
Nov. 05, 2011
|
|
|
Added: Nov. 06, 2011
|
|
Mexico
|
|
|
|
Mexican Attorney General
Marisela Morales Ibáñez
|
|
|
PGR
designa nuevo responsable de la
SIEDO
|
|
Mexico, D.F.- La titular de la
Procuraduría General de la República
(PGR), Marisela Morales Ibáñez,
designó a José Cuitláhuac Martínez
como subprocurador de Investigación
Especializada en Delincuencia
Organizada (SIEDO).
|
|
Apenas en mayo pasado se había
designado a Patricia Bugarin como
titular de la SIEDO.
|
|
…Angélica Herrera Rivero en la
Fiscalía Especial para los Delitos
de Violencia Contra las Mujeres y
Trata de Personas (Fevimtra).
|
|
Los servidores públicos tienen la
encomienda de respaldar el trabajo
del gobierno de la República para
garantizar a la sociedad una
procuración de justicia sólida y
procedimientos penales efectivos y
expeditos…
|
|
La nueva titular de Fevimtra,
Angélica Herrera, ocupaba la
titularidad de la Unidad
Especializada en Investigación de
Tráfico de Menores, Indocumentados y
Órganos.
|
|
En su trayectoria profesional se ha
desempeñado en la Fiscalía
Especializada para la Atención de
Delitos Electorales y en la SIEDO.
|
|
Attorney General names new
leadership to organized crime and
gender violence / human trafficking
units
|
|
Mexico City - Mexican Attorney
General Marisela Morales Ibáñez has
named José Cuitláhuac Martinez
Assistant Attorney General for
Specialized Investigations into
Organized Crime (SIEDO). Cuitláhuac
Martinez replaces Patricia Bugarin,
who had been been appointed to the
post in May of 2011.
|
|
…Angelica Herrera Rivero was named
to take over the office of the
Special Prosecutor for Crimes of
Violence Against Women and
Trafficking in Persons (FEVIMTRA).
|
|
Public servants have the task of
supporting the work of the
government of the Republic to ensure
that society is provided with strong
law enforcement and effective and
expeditious criminal procedures …
|
|
The new head of FEVIMTRA, Angelica
Herrera, previously served as the
head of the Special Unit for
Investigations into Child
Trafficking, [crimes against the]
Undocumented and Organ trafficking.
|
|
Herrera had also worked in the past
ain the office of the Special
Prosecutor for Electoral Crimes, and
within SIEDO.
|
|
Miguel Cabildo
|
|
Proceso
|
|
Mexico
|
|
Nov. 01, 2011
|
|
|
Added: Nov. 06, 2011
|
|
Mexico, The United States
|
|
|
|
U.S. Ambassador to Mexico
Anthony Wayne (right) hosts
anti trafficking NGO
roundtable in Mexico City
|
|
|
EU
otorga a México 1.5 mdd para
combatir trata
|
|
U.S. Government provides $1.5
million for Mexican anti-trafficking
NGOs
|
|
La embajada de Estados Unidos en
México anunció que este mes serán
entregados 1.5 millones de dólares
en fondos, para apoyar a las
organizaciones mexicanas de la
sociedad civil que trabajan contra
la trata de personas.
|
|
La representación diplomática
informó que estos recursos
económicos se sumarán a los cinco
millones de dólares que su gobierno
ha otorgado desde 2009 para ese
mismo propósito.
|
|
En un encuentro con organizaciones
no gubernamentales, el embajador
Anthony Wayne señaló que si bien los
gobiernos de ambos lados de la
frontera están comprometidos con el
combate a la trata de personas,
estos no pueden terminar con el
problema sin la ayuda de la
sociedad.
|
|
Al participar en una mesa redonda
sobre el tema, el diplomático
estadounidense afirmó que la trata
de personas es un problema global,
que afecta a la gente en ambos lados
de la frontera entre México y
Estados Unidos.
|
|
"Los gobiernos de ambos países están
comprometidos a cooperar
estrechamente para reducir este
comercio criminal; sin embargo, los
gobiernos no pueden terminarlo
solos. Ese es el motivo por el cual
reuniones como ésta son vitales",
declaró según un comunicado de la
representación diplomática.
|
|
Destacó que para ser eficaces en ese
propósito se debe aprovechar la
experiencia y capacidades de actores
apasionados, como son las
organizaciones de la sociedad civil,
al tiempo que reiteró el compromiso
del gobierno para cooperar en el
combate a este problema.
|
|
"Mi embajada espera continuar
nuestra cooperación efectiva con
estos grupos, al igual que con el
gobierno de México, hasta que
podamos declarar que hemos ganado
esta pelea", recalcó.
|
|
La embajada de Estados Unidos en
México recordó que en el combate a
la trata de personas, "emplean una
estrategia integral de todo el
gobierno, con énfasis en prevención
y en atrapar y proceder legalmente
contra los criminales, y más
importante, en protección a las
víctimas de este crimen".
|
|
Indicó que para mantener esta
estrategia, el embajador Wayne ha
ordenado a todas las agencias y
oficinas de la representación
diplomática a cooperar con la meta
de terminar con la trata de
personas.
|
|
Además del apoyo a los grupos de la
sociedad civil, la embajada ofrece
capacitación para actores
gubernamentales y no
gubernamentales, trae expertos de
Estados Unidos, al tiempo que
coopera estrechamente en esfuerzos
de justicia para combatir y prevenir
la trata, concluyó.
|
|
El Universal
|
|
Mexico
|
|
Nov. 03, 2011
|
|
See also:
|
|
Added: Nov. 06, 2011
|
|
Mexico, The United States
|
|
|
|
U.S. Ambassador to Mexico
Anthony Wayne (center left)
meets with anti trafficking
NGO leaders
|
|
|
U.S.
Embassy Hosts Roundtable on
Prevention of Human Trafficking with
Mexican NGOs
|
|
Mexico City, November 3, 2011—The
U.S. Embassy in Mexico today held a
roundtable discussion with Mexican
non-governmental organizations who
are leading the fight against human
trafficking, including: Casa
Alianza, Fundacion Infantía,
Colectivo Nacional en Contra de la
Trata, Red Nacional de Refugios, and
Centro de Estudios e Investigación
en Desarollo y Asistencia Social
(CEIDAS).
Ambassador Anthony Wayne
chaired the discussion, which
covered public awareness, victim
protection, care for child victims
of trafficking, combating sexual
tourism, preventative education
programs and training, and other
topics.
|
|
“Human trafficking is a global
problem, one that affects people on
both sides of the U.S.-Mexico
border. The governments of both
countries are committed to
cooperating closely to curb this
criminal trade, however, governments
alone cannot wipe it out.
That is why meetings like
this one are so vital.” said
Ambassador Wayne. “In order to be
effective, this campaign must
leverage the expertise and
capabilities of passionate and
committed actors from civil society,
such as these organizations gathered
here today.
I was very interested to hear
the perspectives of these key NGOs
on both the problem and the actions
being taken to combat it. My embassy
looks forward to continuing our
effective cooperation with these
groups, as well as with the Mexican
government, until we can declare
this fight won.”
|
|
In addition to the $5 million
dollars in support the U.S. has
provided since 2009 to Mexican civil
society organizations working
against human trafficking, another
$1.2 million in U.S. funds to combat
trafficking in persons in Mexico is
being delivered this month.
In combating human
trafficking, the United States
employs a whole-of-government
approach, with an emphasis on
prevention, finding and prosecuting
perpetrators, and most importantly,
protecting the victims of this
crime. In keeping with this
approach, Ambassador Wayne has
directed all agencies and offices at
the embassy to cooperate, with the
goal of ending human trafficking in
mind. In addition to supporting
civil society groups, the embassy
provides training for both
governmental and non-governmental
actors, brings experts from the
United States to engage with their
Mexican counterparts, and engages in
close law enforcement cooperation to
combat and prevent this traffic.
|
|
U.S. Embassy in Mexico
|
|
Nov. 03, 2011
|
|
|
Added: Nov. 06, 2011
|
|
Texas, USA / Mexico
|
|
Hostage
house 'full of garbage'
|
|
Austin - The possibility of more
suspects -- some even posing as
victims -- is fueling a human
trafficking investigation for Austin
police. Earlier this week they
busted a ring at an east Austin home
on Johnny Morris Road, where at
least eight confirmed victims from
Mexico and Latin America were
imprisoned.
|
|
So far, police have arrested one
man, Fernando Salazar, for
aggravated assault with a deadly
weapon. However, they say more
charges, including kidnapping and
human trafficking could be ahead.
|
|
"Just sad that people could be
treated this way,” said Melanie
Wassell, as she entered the home's
kitchen and was hit with the stench
of soured food. "Well the house,
it's full of garbage. Food just
everywhere."
|
|
Wassell works for the man who owns
the house and a string of other
rental properties. Now she and her
crew are must make sure what
smugglers left behind gets cleaned
up.
|
|
Police said the captives were here
for days, some of them maybe even
weeks, including a 15-year-old. When
he was unable to pay, they
threatened to keep him at the house
to cook and clean for them.
|
|
"Dirty clothes,” Wassell pointed
out, walking into one of the tiny
bedrooms. “The hygiene, it's just,
it's awful what you see in here,
that anybody was made to live in
these kind of conditions."
|
|
Held at gun-point, the other
immigrants faced returning to the
Mexican border, where their captors
would kill them if there families
could not come up with the money.
|
|
One man left what appears to be a
loved one's number on the wall,
while cell phones remained scattered
around the darkened rooms where they
slept on only mattresses.
|
|
Wassell said she hates to think what
would have happened if one of those
family members hadn't tipped off
police.
|
|
"It's a horrible thing that people
could do that to other people,” she
said.
|
|
The owner of the home said the man
police arrested is not the person
who rented the home two months ago.
The renter passed a criminal
background check, and now the owner
is trying to figure out how this
happened.
|
|
KXAN
|
|
Oct. 20, 2011
|
|
|
Added: Nov. 03, 2011
|
|
Historic caravan of mothers of missing migrants crosses Mexico
|
|
Mexico / Central America
|
|
|
|
Members of the Mesoamerican Mothers
Movement show pictures of their disappeared loved ones during
the installation of an alter at the site of the 2010 Tamaulipas
massacre of 72 migrants. The event occured during the group's
Fall 2011 awareness raising caravan across Mexico.
|
|
From:
Caravana de madres de inmigrantes
centroamericanos desaparecidos llega a México
|
|
TeleSur
|
|
Nov. 03, 2011
|
|
|
|
During an earlier march through
southern Mexico, Salvadoran mothers gather to pray and leave
offerings and crosses for their family members who were abused,
kidnapped and murdered in the 'mugging and rape gauntlet' at
Mexico's southern border region known as 'La Arrocera' - the
Rice Cooker.
|
|
|
Madres de inmigrantes desaparecidos en
México crean equipo de “investigadoras”
|
|
Madres de inmigrantes desaparecidos en tránsito por nuestro país crearon
un equipo especial dedicado a labores ministeriales, encaminado a
obtener información sobre el paradero de las víctimas.
|
|
La idea es desarrollar labores que hasta ahora han sido olvidadas en la
Procuraduría General de la República o en las Procuradurías estatales.
|
|
Las “investigadoras” forman parte de las mamás que integran el
Movimiento Migrante Mesoamericano (MMM), el cual realiza desde el 30 de
octubre y hasta el 13 de noviembre una caravana de búsqueda de los hijos
por la ruta del Golfo de México, con paso por los estados de Tabasco,
Tamaulipas, Coahuila, San Luis Potosí, Querétaro, Ciudad de México,
Veracruz, Oaxaca y Chiapas.
|
|
La mayoría de ellas provienen de países como Guatemala, Honduras,
Nicaragua, El Salvador y Estados Unidos.
|
|
De acuerdo con el plan de trabajo divulgado por el Movimiento, las
actividades de investigación consistirán, además del intercambio de
información con los migrantes que se encuentran en ruta, “en pesquisas y
seguimiento de pistas para encontrar a los familiares…,
saber si viven o murieron o están privados de su libertad o en
situación de trata de personas”.
|
|
Y en “visitas a hospitales, prostíbulos, reclusorios, albergues de
indigentes y/o minusválidos y a cualquier lugar público en donde pudiera
hallarse algún dato”.
|
|
Esta labor es respaldada por organizaciones como Hermanos en el Camino,
Casa Belem del Migrante, Instituto Tamaulipeco para los Migrantes,
Pastoral Social Caritas, Casa de los Amigos, Cencos y Red Migrante, y
por instituciones como la CNDH y Amnistía Internacional.
|
|
Además de las indagatorias alternas, las madres tienen programados
plantones y exposiciones en las plazas públicas de lugares emblemáticos
del flujo migratorio, la implementación de un correo comunitario para
informar a otras familias sobre sus migrantes, así como ceremonias en
las vías del tren y en tumbas sin nombre en cementerios.
|
|
Uno de los eventos más importantes será el de hoy en San Fernando,
Tamaulipas, lugar de la masacre de 73 indocumentados el 23 de agosto de
2010.
|
|
“La idea es hacer un ritual en memoria de los asesinados, para
evidenciar el trato ilegal, inhumano y criminal que México dispensa a
los migrantes en tránsito, y denunciar y exigir cambios al gobierno
mexicano, que se ha conducido con complicidad, impunidad y se ha negado
a la reparación del daño de los afectados”, señala el MMM.
|
|
Caravan of mothers of migrants missing in
Mexico creates team of investigators
|
|
A group of mothers of Central American migrants
who have disappeared in Mexico have created a specialized team that is
dedicated to investigating the fates of their victimized loved ones.
|
|
The group’s goal is to take on the
responsibility of investigating cases that the office of the Attorney
General of the Republic has simply forgotten about.
|
|
The "investigators" are mothers from the
Mesoamerican Migrants Movement (MMM), which started a caravan across
Mexico on October 30th that will continue through November 13th of 2011.
The caravan is following the Gulf coast migration route in search of
their children. The caravan will cross the states of Chiapas, Oaxaca,
Veracruz, Tabasco, Coahuila, San Luis Potosi, Queretaro and Tamaulipas,
and will also enter Mexico City.
|
|
The majority of the marchers are from
Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador and the United States.
|
|
According to a work plan released by the group,
research activities will include exchanges of information with migrants
who are in transit, as well as the development and pursuit of leads with
the aim of recovering family members who may be either dead, or alive
and enslaved in a human trafficking situation.
|
|
The group added that they will be carrying out
search activities in hospitals, brothels, jails and prisons, migrant
shelters and at any other public environment where they can discover the
facts.
|
|
This work is supported by organizations such as
the Brothers on the Road migrant shelter, the Bethlehem Migrant House
shelter, the Tamaulipas Institute for Migrants, Pastoral Social
Charities, Casa de los Amigos, the Migrant Census and Network,
Friendship House, and by institutions like Mexico’s [national] Human
Rights Commission and Amnesty International.
|
|
In addition to their investigative work, the
mothers are planning to present workshops and information expositions in
public squares and at prominent landmarks along common migration routes.
The caravan will also institute a community mail system to allow
migrants to keep family members informed about their wellbeing, and will
hold ceremonies along rail lines [where migrants are often victimized]
and at unnamed graves located in cemeteries along the route.
|
|
One of the caravan’s most important events will
take place today in the city of San Fernando, in Tamaulipas state, where
the massacre of 73 undocumented migrants took place on August 23, 2010.
|
|
The Mesoamerican Migrant Movement declared
that, "The idea is to perform a ritual in memory of those who were
murdered, and to bear witness to the inhuman and criminal treatment that
Mexico dispenses to migrants who transit through its territory. We will
also denounce and demands changes from the Mexican Government, which has
to date has behaved with impunity as an accomplice [to this crisis], and
that denies reparations to those who were victimized as well.
|
|
Daniel Blancas Madrigal
|
|
La Crónica de Hoy
|
|
Nov. 02, 2011
|
|
|
Added: Nov. 03, 2011
|
|
Mexico /
California, USA
|
|
|
|
An underage girl stands waiting for the next john in the
Coahuila red light district of the city of Tijuana, in Baja
California state.
From a
YouTube video.
|
|
|
Riverside Girl Trapped
in Tijuana Child Sex Trade
|
|
The sex trade in Tijuana is closely linked to the region’s violent drug
cartels – sex trafficking of children is thought to be the third-highest
revenue generator for the cartels after the drug trade and gun smuggling
|
|
The illegal sex trade is a growing export from the U.S. to Mexico,
according to the State Human Rights Commission of Baja, California. The
commercial sexual exploitation of children rakes in an estimated $32
million a year, much of that from Americans seeking illegal sex across
the border, according to the commission.
|
|
Child prostitution in Tijuana is not a new problem. What may be less
known is that among the boys and girls being sexually exploited across
the border are youngsters from the United States.
|
|
I met one of these children – a teenage girl from Riverside-- on an
undercover reporting trip to “La Zona Norte” in the red light district
along Tijuana’s Coahuila Street, known as a hub of sex tourism.
|
|
Under the neon lights along Coahuila Street I quickly discovered
Americans among both the exploited and the exploiters.
|
|
One man I met, who described himself as a pimp, told me he grew up in
Merced [California].
|
|
He wasn’t shy and was quick to tell me that “everything is available
here,” even children.
|
|
The price for sex with a young girl -- $40.
|
|
“It’s cheap bud,” he said. “Sex is really cheap here.”
|
|
The illegal sex trade is a growing export from the U.S. to Mexico,
according to the State Human Rights Commission of Baja, California. The
commercial sexual exploitation of children rakes in an estimated $32
million a year, much of that from Americans seeking illegal sex across
the border, according to the commission.
|
|
“We know that this problem is not a local one,” said Francisco Cota, a
spokesman with the commission. “It’s a regional problem. It’s a
bi-national problem. If there is a demand here in Mexico. There’s going
to be demand in LA.”
|
|
I paid the fee and the pimp introduced me to a girl who went by the name
Najeri. She told me she was 16 and from Riverside.
|
|
I explained to her that I was a reporter working on a story about the
child sex trade, and she immediately told me, “It wasn’t something I
decided to do.”
|
|
She showed me the room where she’s forced to have sex, a tiny stall
barely big enough for a shoddy bed.
|
|
“It can be very…very scary,” she said. “A lot of the times those guys
are Americans.”
|
|
Najeri told me that as a child left largely on her own she started
“hanging out with the wrong crowd” and was flattered the attention and
companionship of men in the group. By the time she learned their true
intentions it was too late.
|
|
The sex trade in Tijuana is closely linked to the region’s violent drug
cartels – sex trafficking of children is thought to be the third-highest
revenue generator for the cartels after the drug trade and gun
smuggling, according to the commission.
|
|
Both boys and girls are among the children being sexually exploited,
according to the commission, an assertion Najeri said is true. The main
client base for the boys is American, she told me.
|
|
They are “coming here and paying with the American dollars, so it’s just
like gold to them,” she said. “There are a lot of guys coming from the
states that live in Vegas, live in Hollywood, live in Los Angeles,” she
said.
|
|
Najeri is afraid to run away. Her pimp, she said, has told her what
happens to the bodies of runaways.
|
|
“The morgue comes by the hospital and incinerates it before anybody can
be alerted that an American died,” she said. “That struck fear in my
heart.”
|
|
She continued: “I don’t have the power or the ability to do that,” she
said.
|
|
Then she told me: “There’s been times when I have been wishing that
somebody like you or some people come down, inquiring about it
|
|
At that moment I had the impulse to walk out and take Najeri with me.
But I knew from talking with human rights advocates and with Najeri
herself that doing so would put her life—and possibly mine-- at risk.
|
|
Going to the police could make matters worse, as many police offers are
in cahoots with the drug cartels, Cota said.
|
|
“Corruption is a huge problem in Mexico,” Cota said. “It's one of the
main reasons why this problem is growing."
|
|
Willful ignorance among the general population is fueling the growth of
the sex trade, Cota said.
|
|
“Not a lot of people know about it,” Cota said. “They either ignore it
or they just really don't want to know about it. They just think this
happens in Bangkok."
|
|
A state office was recently established to combat child sex slavery. The
first step is overcoming the culture of fear that makes it difficult to
even openly acknowledge the problem, said Araceli Legosa-Parra a
spokeswoman with the office.
|
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“We want to put out the information,” she said. “Most of the information
is not put out there because of fear.”
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Antonio Castelan
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NBC-LA
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Nov.
02, 2011
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See also:
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Mexico
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Added: May. 25, 2011
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Congressional deputy Rosi Orozco, president of
the Special Commission to Combat Human Trafficking in the
Chamber of Deputies
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Pide diputada Orozco cerrar callejón
Coahuila como sucedió con Manzanares en D.F.
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Tijuana sigue siendo un paraíso para la trata de
personas, y aunque afortunadamente ya empiezan a realizarse operativos,
se pide lo mismo que en el Distrito Federal, cerrar el Callejón
Coahuila, como ocurrió con el Manzanares, manifestó la diputada federal,
Rosi Orozco, presidenta de la Comisión Especial Contra la Trata de
Personas…
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Deputy Orozco calls for the shutting down of
Tijuana's La Coahuila red light district
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The city of Tijuana continues to be a paradise for human trafficking,
and although it is fortunate that anti-trafficking raids have begun,
Congressional Deputy Rosi Orozco (National Action Party - PAN / Mexico
City) has called for shutting down the Coahuila red light prostitution
tolerance zone here…
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Uni Radio Informa
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May 24, 2011
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See also:
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LibertadLatina
Note
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Young
women in prostitution in the La Coahuila red light district.
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From a
YouTube video
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More about La Coahuila
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Tijuana's La Coahuila red light district is an
extremely large prostitution zone, with at least 3,000 registered adult
prostitutes and several thousand additional unregistered adults and
children working in prostitution. During an April, 2007 visit to the
area with another anti-trafficking activist, I counted an estimated
1,000 women and girls in prostitution standing on the street in an area
that was approximately 10 blocks by 3 blocks in size.
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I observed that U.S. men seeking women and youth in prostitution simply
take a trolley ride from San Diego, California, or park in a lot on the
U.S. side of the border, and then cross into Mexico without having to
show identification to the Mexican border agents. They proceed to either
walk the 10 blocks to La Coahuila or take one of the dozens of cabs that
wait to route them to their business partners (the brothel owners).
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I met the two
women pictured above during my 2007 visit to the area.
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On the left is an indigenous young woman from Chiapas
state in southern Mexico. She was apparently addicted to drugs.
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The young lady on the right, who is an Afro-Mexican
woman from Acapulco, told me that she had been jilted by her boyfriend,
and was left with two young children to care for. She told me that she
could not cross the U.S. border carrying her children, so she decided to
‘work’ in La Coahuila.
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Although I
explained in detail the dangers of HIV/AIDS and other risks to this
young lady, she told me that she was doing the work that she wanted to
do, and that she would be back to work each and every day. She insisted
that she didn’t have a pimp, which I doubt is the case.
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End impunity now!
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Chuck Goolsby
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LibertadLatina
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May 25, 2011
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See also:
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Teresa Ulloa:
Tijuana is one huge brothel
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Added: Nov. 21, 2010
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Mexico
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Trata de niñas: servicio para los
ricos del norte
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Tijuana, un inmenso burdel: Teresa
Ulloa
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De norte a sur, persiste la
explotación sexual de menores en
México, donde turistas ricos del
norte pueden buscar a niñas hasta de
nueve años provenientes de una zona
rural.
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Ese es el panorama que ofreció esta
mañana Teresa Ulloa, quien en el
marco de los 16 Días de Activismo
contra la Violencia hacia las
Mujeres presentó el Informe Final de
Resultados, Rendición de Cuentas y
Transparencia sobre el Proyecto para
Prevenir la Explotación Comercial de
la Niñez en México...
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Underage girls are sex trafficked
for 'men with money' from the U.S.
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Tijuana is one huge brothel: Teresa
Ulloa
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The sexual exploitation of children
is a constant reality across Mexico,
from its north to its south. It is a
place where well-heeled tourists
from the U.S. can find rural girls
as young as nine-years-of-age
[available to be sexually
exploited].
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That is the scenario that was
offered by Teresa Ulloa, the
executive director of the
Coalition Against Trafficking in
Women for Latin America and and the
Caribbean. Ulloa
presented a report - The Results,
Accountability and Transparency of
the Project to Prevent the
Commercial Sexual Exploitation of
Children in Mexico, as part of the
events supporting the [global] 16
Days of Activism Against Violence
Against Women campaign.
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"Tijuana is a giant brothel, of
sorts, where you can find sex,
alcohol and drugs 365 days a year,"
said Ulloa, who has previously been
nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
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Moreover, she said, the
international bridge [at the border]
leads directly from [San Diego
County, USA] to Tijuana's brothel
district. "We were able to witness a
girl of eight or nine years-of-age,
in the red light district,
negotiating with a client who was
about 50 years old."
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Due to the existence of extreme
poverty and impunity, human
trafficking and sexual exploitation
in Mexico is a grave problem, added
Ulloa. "In Mexico, we see internal
trafficking." Girls are sent north
by their families from rural regions
across the country.
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The map
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The trafficking of girl children in
northern Mexico is targeted at U.S.
customers. In the South Mexican men
are the consumers. Along the Pacific
Coast, both European and U.S. men
are the customers. Along the Gulf
Coast, Mexican men are the
exploiters…
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Miriam Ruiz
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Cimac Women's News Agency
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A sample of
other important news stories
and commentaries
Added: Aug. 05, 2011
About sex trafficker's war against indigenous
children in Mexico
LibertadLatina
Commentary
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Indigenous women and children in Mexico |
During the over ten years that the
LibertadLatina
project has existed, our ongoing analysis of the
crisis of sexual abuse in the Americas has lead us to the conclusion that our
top priority should be to work to achieve an end to the rampant sex trafficking
and exploitation that perennially exists in Mexico. Although many crisis hot
spots call out for attention across Latin America and the Caribbean, working to see
reform come to Mexico appeared to be a critical first step to achieving major
change everywhere else in the region.
We believe that this analysis continues to be correct. We also recognize the fact that the
Dominican Republic, Argentina, Paraguay, Peru and Colombia are other emergency
zones of crisis. We plan to expand our coverage of these and other
issues as resources permit.
Mexico is uniquely situated among the nations of the Americas, and therefore
requires special attention from the global effort to end modern human slavery.
Mexico:
-
Is the world's largest Spanish speaking nation
-
Includes a long contiguous border with the U.S., thus making it a transit
point for both 500,000 voluntary (but vulnerable) migrants each year as well
as for victims of human slavery
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Has multi-billion dollar drug cartels that profit from Mexico's proximity to
the U.S. and that are today investing heavily in human slavery as a
secondary source of profits
-
Has a 30% indigenous population, as well as an Afro-Mexican minority, both
of whom are marginalized, exploited and are 'soft targets' who are now
actively being cajoled, and kidnapped by trafficking mafias into lives of
slavery and death
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Has conditions of impunity that make all impoverished Mexicans vulnerable to
sex and labor trafficking
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Has a child sex tourism 'industry' that attracts many thousands of U.S.,
European and Latin American men who exploit vulnerable, impoverished
children and youth with virtual impunity
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Is the source of the largest contingent of foreign victims of human slavery
who have been trafficked into the U.S.
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Has a large and highly educated middle class which includes thousands of women who
are active in the movement to enhance human rights in general and women's
rights in particular
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Has a growing anti-trafficking movement and a substantial women's rights
focused journalist network
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Has a politically influential faction of socially conservative men who
believe in the sexist tenants of machismo and who favor
maintaining the status quo that allows the open exploitation of poor Mexicans and
Latin American migrants to continue, thus requiring assistance from the
global movement against human exploitation to help local activists balance
the scales of justice and equality
For a number years
LibertadLatina's
commentaries have called upon Mexico's
government and the U.S. State Department to apply the pressure that is required
to begin to change conditions for the better. It appears that the global
community's efforts in this regard are beginning to have impact, yet a lifetime
of work remains to be done to end what we have characterized as a slow-moving
mass gender atrocity.
Recent developments in Mexico are for the most part encouraging.
These positive developments include:
The replacement of Chávez Chávez
with
Marisela
Morales Ibáñez as the nation’s first female attorney general
(Morales
Ibáñez
was recently honored by U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama and Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton)
Morales
Ibáñez’ reform-motivated purge of 174 officials and employees of the
attorney general’s office, including the recent resigna-tions of 21 federal
prosecutors
Morales
Ibáñez’ recent raid in Cuidad Juárez, that resulted in the arrests of 1,030
suspected human traffickers and the freeing of 20 underage girls
The recent appointment of Dilcya Garcia , a
former Mexico City prosecutor who achieved Mexico's first trafficking
convictions to the federal attorney general's office (Garcia
was recently honored by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for her
anti-trafficking work)
The July, 2010 replacement of Interior Secretary
Fernando Gómez Mont with José Francisco Blake Mora. (Secretary Gómez Mont
openly opposed the creation of strong federal anti-trafficking legislation.)
Success by President Calderón and the Congress
of the Republic in achieving the first steps to bringing about a
constitutional amendment to facilitate human trafficking prosecutions
Recent public statements by President Calderon
imploring the public to help in the fight against human trafficking
Some progress in advancing legislation in
Congress to reform the failed 2007 federal anti trafficking law, a reform
effort that has been lead by Deputy Rosi Orozco
The active collaboration of both the U.S.
Government and the United Nations Office eon Drugs and Crime in supporting
government efforts against trafficking
Taken together, the above actions amount to a truly watershed moment in Mexico’s
efforts to address modern human slavery. We applaud those who are working for reform,
while also recognizing that reform has its enemies within Congress, government
institutions, law enforcement and society.
Mexico’s key anti-trafficking leaders, including journalist and author
Lydia
Cacho, Teresa Ulloa (director of the Regional Coalition Against Trafficking in
Women for Latin America and the Caribbean -
CATW-LAC),
and Congresswoman
Rosi
Orozco of the ruling National Action Party (PAN) have all raised the alarm in
recent months to indicate that corrupt businessmen, politicians and law
enforcement authorities continue to pressure Mexican society to maintain a
status quo that permits the existence of rampant criminal impunity in relation to
the exploitation of women, children and men. The fact that
anti-trafficking activist
Lydia Cacho continues to face credible deaths threats on a regular basis and
must
live with armed guards for 24 hours a day is one sobering indicator of
this harsh reality.
The use of slavery for labor and sexual purposes has a solid 500 years of
existence in Mexico and much of the rest of Latin America. Indigenous peoples
have been the core group of victims of human exploitation from the time of the
Spanish conquest to the present. This is true in Mexico as well as in other
nations with large indigenous populations such as Guatemala, Bolivia, Peru and
Colombia. African descendants are also victims of exploitation - especially in
Colombia, and like indigenous peoples, they continue to lack recognition as
equal citizens.
These populations are therefore highly vulnerable to human trafficking and
exploitation due to the fact that the larger societies within which they live
feel no moral obligation to defend their rights. Criminal human traffickers and other
exploiters take advantage of these vulnerabilities to kidnap, rape, sex traffic
and labor traffic the poorest of the poor with little or no response from
national governments.
A society like Mexico - where even middle class housewives are accustomed to
treating their unpaid, early-teen indigenous girl house servants to labor
exploitation and verbal and physical violence
–
and where the men of the house may be sexually abusing that child – is going to
take a long time to adapt to an externally imposed world view that says that the
forms of exploitation that their conquistador ancestors brought to the region
are no longer valid. That change is not going to happen overnight, and it is not
going to be easy.
Mexico’s current efforts to reform are to be applauded. The global anti-trafficking
activist community and its supporters in government must, however remain vigilant and
demand that Mexico continue down the path toward ending its ancient traditions
of tolerated human exploitation. For that transformation to happen effectively,
indigenous and African descendant Mexicans must be provided a place at the
table of deliberations.
Although extending equality to these marginalized groups is a radical concept
within the context of Mexican society, we insist that both Mexico, the United
States State
Department (a major driver of
these reforms in Mexico) and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC - another
major driver in the current reforms) provide the social and political spaces
that will be required to allow the groups who face the most exposure to
exploitation to actually have representation in both official and NGO
deliberations about their fate at the hands of the billion dollar cartels and
mafias who today see them as raw material and 'easy pickings' to drive their
highly lucrative global slavery profit centers.
Without taking this basic step, we cannot raise Mexico’s rating on our
anti-trafficking report card.
Time is of the essence!
End impunity now!
Chuck Goolsby
LibertadLatina
Aug. 05, 2011
Updated Aug. 11,2011
Note: Our August 4/5,
2011 edition contains a
number of stories that
accurately describe the
nature of the
vulnerabilities that
indigenous children and
women face from modern
day sex
traffickers, pedophiles
and rapists.
See also:
Added: Aug. 1, 2010
An editorial by anti trafficking activist Lydia puts the
spotlight on abusive domestic work as a form of human slavery targeting, for the
most part, indigenous women and girls
Mexico
Esclavas en México
México, DF, - Cristina y Dora tenían 11 años cuando Domingo fue por ellas a la
Mixteca en Oaxaca. Don José Ernesto, un militar de la Capital, le encargó un par
de muchachitas para el trabajo del hogar. La madre pensó que si sus niñas
trabajaban con “gente decente” tendrían la posibilidad de una vida libre, de
estudiar y alimentarse, tres opciones que ella jamás podría darles por su
pobreza extrema.
Cristina y Dora vivieron en el sótano, oscuro y húmedo, con un baño improvisado
en una mansión construida durante el Porfiriato, cuyos jardines y ventanales
hablan de lujos y riqueza. Las niñas aprendieron a cocinar como al patrón le
gustaba. A lo largo de 40 años no tuvieron acceso a la escuela ni al seguro
social, una de las hermanas prohijó un bebé producto de la violación del hijo
del patrón. Les permitían salir unas horas algunos sábados, porque el domingo
había comidas familiares. Sólo tres veces en cuatro décadas les dieron
vacaciones, siendo adultas, para visitar a su madre enferma...
Slaves in Mexico
[About domestic labor slavery in Mexico]
Mexico City – Cristina and
Dora were 11-years-old when Domingo picked them up in the state of Oaxaca. José
Ernesto, a military man living in Mexico City, had sent Domingo to find a pair
of girls to do domestic work for him. The girls’ mother thought that if they had
an opportunity to work with “decent people,” they would have a chance to live a
free life, to study and to eat well. Those were three things that they she could
never give them in her condition of extreme poverty.
Cristina and Dora lived in the dark and humid basement of a
mansion built during the presidency of
Porfirio Díaz (1876
to 1910). Their space had an improvised bathroom. Outside
of the home, the mansion’s elaborate gardens and elegant windows presented an
image of wealth and luxury. The girls learned to cook for the tastes of their
employer.
It is now forty years later. Cristina and Dora never had access
to an education, nor do they have the right to social security payments when
they retire. One of the sisters had a child, who was the result of her being
raped by one of their employer’s sons.
They are allowed out of the house for a few hours on Saturdays.
On Sundays they had to prepare family meals for their patron (boss).
Today, some 800,000 domestic workers are registered in Mexico.
Ninety three percent of them don’t have access to health services. Seventy Nine
percent of them have not and will not receive benefits. Their average salary is
1,112 pesos($87.94) per month. More than 8% of these workers receive no pay at
all, because their employers think that giving them a place to sleep and eat is
payment enough.
Sixty percent of domestic workers in Mexico are
indigenous women and girls. They began this line of work, on average, at the age
of 13. These statistics do not include those women and children who lived
locked-up in conditions of extreme domestic slavery.
Mexico’s domestic workers are vulnerable to
sexual violence, unwanted pregnancies, exploitation, racism and being otherwise
poorly treated…
Recently, the European Parliament concluded that undocumented
migrant women face an increased risk of domestic labor slavery. In Mexico, the
majority of domestic slaves are Mexicans. Another 15% of these victims are
[undocumented] migrants from Guatemala and El Salvador. Their undocumented
status allows employers to prohibit their leaving the home, prohibit their
access to education or deny their right to have a life of their own. The same
dynamics happen to Latina women in the United States and Canada.
For centuries [middle and upper class white Mexican women] became
accustomed to looking at domestic labor slavery as something that ‘helps’
indigenous women and girls. We used the hypocritical excuse that we were lifting
them out of poverty by exploiting them. [They reality is that] millions of these
women and girls are subjected to work conditions that deny them access to
education, healthcare, and the enjoyment of a normal social life.
We (Mexico’s privileged) men and women share the responsibility
for perpetuating this form of slavery. We use contemptuous language to refer to
domestic workers. Like other forms of human trafficking, domestic labor slavery
is a product of our culture.
Domestic work is an indispensable form of labor that allows
millions of women to work. We should improve work conditions, formally recognize
it in our laws, and assure that in our homes, we are not engaging in
exploitation cloaked in the idea that we are rescuing [our domestic workers]
from poverty.
To wash, iron, cook and care for children is as dignified as any
other form of work. The best way for us to change the world is to start in own
homes.
“Plan B” is a column written by Lydia Cacho
that appears Mondays and Thursdays in CIMAC, El Universal and other newspapers
in Mexico.
Lydia Cacho
CIMAC Women's News Agency
July 27, 2010
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Added: Aug. 4, 2011
LibertadLatina
Commentary
We at
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/ Welcome
