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Indigenous & Latina Women & Children's Human
Rights News from the Americas |
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Latina Women & Children at Risk |
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The Acteal Massacre - December 22,
1997
Acteal, Chiapas State, Mexico
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This Page was Last Updated on
August 28, 2009 |
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45 Mayan
Children, Women and Men Were Ruthlessly Murdered
While Attending Church, for Supporting the Goals
of the Mayan Freedom Movement |
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A Crime Against Humanity in
Modern Mexico |
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This section of
LibertadLatina.org
contains information regarding the intentional use
of murder by pro-government forces to suppress
the legitimate demands for self determination
presented by the Mayan indigenous peoples of
Chiapas, Mexico to the national government.
|
About
the
Acteal
Massacre
-
December
22,
1997
Photos
from the funeral of victims of the
Acteal
Massacre
that occurred on December 22, 1997
On December 22, 1997
paramilitary (state-trained and state-funded
pro-governing party civil defense) forces
surrounded a Catholic chapel in the pacifist
Tsotsil Mayan community of Acteal, Chiapas
state, Mexico. During a period of several
hours, this armed force, with the apparent
consent of local Mexican Army units stationed
not far away, proceeded to surround Acteal's
chapel, and shot to death those inside, and as
many of those who escaped as they could find.
A number of residents survived the massacre.
Those murdered on that day included 15 children,
21 women (four of them pregnant) and 9 men.
Últimas Noticias
Latest
News
Added:
August 28, 2009
 |
|
Mayan
Indigenous women resist a Mexican Army incursion into their
community near the time of the 1997 Acteal Massacre |
Mexico
Acteal assassins released from prison
In an unprecedented ruling on Wednesday
that overturned a lower court on legalistic rather than
constitutional grounds, the Supreme Court released 20 prisoners
serving time for the infamous Acteal massacre in which
paramilitaries gunned down 45 indigenous members of Las Abejas, a
pacifist group, on December 22, 1997. At least 30 additional
paramilitary members will be released in coming days as Justices
complete paperwork.
In its 4-1 decision, the Supreme Court
ignored eye witness evidence from survivors, focusing instead on
mismanagement of the investigation by the Federal Attorney General
and fabrication of evidence by presiding judges. “This tribunal is
not absolving anyone of guilt,” claimed Justice Jose Ramon Cossio.
“We determined that the complainants did not receive due process,
which is not equivalent to a pronouncement of innocence.”
However, dozens of paramilitary members,
many who confessed to their crimes, are now free, and some have
threatened to return to seek revenge against survivors of the
massacre who testified against them. Human rights groups universally
criticized the decision on three grounds: confessed assassins were
released from prison, eye witnesses are now in danger, and the
intellectual authors of the massacre have never been brought to
justice.
Religious leaders
affiliated with both the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and
the [ruling] National Action Party (PAN) [of President Felipe
Calderón] organized the legal defense of the paramilitaries
under the Center for Economic Research and Teaching (CIDE). CIDE is
suing the Fray Bartolome Human Rights Center, community leaders from
Mitziton, and Hermann Bellinghausen, reporter from La Jornada, for
defamation of character. The religious leaders are affiliated with
the Eagle’s Wings and the Army of God, evangelical groups who claim
as members the paramilitaries who carried out the Acteal massacre.
Mexico
Solidarity
Network
News
for
August
3-16,
2009
See
also:
Mexico's
top
court
orders
the
release
of
20
men
convicted
in
1997
Chiapas
massacre
Mexico
City
-
Mexico's
Supreme
Court
ordered
freedom
for
20
men
convicted
in
the
1997
massacre
of
45
Indian
villagers
in
southern
Chiapas
state
and
new
trials
for
six
more,
ruling
Wednesday
that
prosecutors
used
illegally
obtained
evidence.
The
bloodshed
in
the
village
of
Acteal
was
the
worst
single
instance
of
violence
during
the
conflict
in
Chiapas,
which
began
when
the
Zapatista
rebels
staged
a
brief
armed
uprising
in
early
1994
to
demand
more
rights
for
Indians.
Paramilitaries
with
alleged
ties
to
government
figures
attacked
a
prayer
meeting
of
Roman
Catholic
activists
who
sympathized
with
the
rebels.
Over
several
hours
on
Dec.
22,
1997,
the
assailants
killed
45
people,
including
children
as
young
as 2
months
old...
Antonio
Arias,
who
was
wounded
in
the
attack,
called
the
ruling
unfair
and
warned
there
could
be
unrest
in
Acteal
if
those
released
return
there.
"We
feel
a
lot
of
pain
in
our
hearts
because
we
think
it's
unfair
that
after
almost
12
years
these
people
are
being
freed
when
we
know
they
are
responsible
because
we
saw
them,"
Arias
said
in
the
nearby
city
of
San
Cristobal
de
las
Casas,
where
members
of
his
community
gathered
to
pray
for
the
continued
imprisonment
of
those
convicted
in
the
massacre.
...Victims'
families
say
the
massacre
resulted
from
a
bid
to
crush
the
Zapatistas,
with
state
officials
providing
weapons
and
paramilitary
training
for
the
attack...
Olga
R.
Rodriguez
The
Associated
Press
Aug.
12,
2009
Acteal:
Comunicado
de
Comunidad
Las
Abejas
Las
“pruebas
verdaderas
que
son
nuestros
testimonios
que
los
vimos
asesinar…”,
declaran
los
sobrevivientes
de
Acteal.
Ante
las
versiones
que
se
han
empezado
a
difundir
en
algunos
medios
de
comunicación
de
que
la
Suprema
Corte
de
Justicia
de
la
Nación
está
a
punto
de
emitir
una
sentencia
que
permitirá
poner
en
libertad
a 40
de
los
paramilitares
responsables
de
la
masacre
de
Acteal
del
22
de
Diciembre
de
1997,
queremos
declarar
lo
siguiente:
Nosotros
y
nosotras
somos
los
integrantes
de
la
Sociedad
Civil
Las
Abejas,
del
Municipio
de
San
Pedro
Chenalhó,
Chiapas
y
con
sede
en
la
Tierra
Sagrada
de
Acteal
de
ese
mismo
municipio.
...Con
el
apoyo
de
la
sociedad
civil
nacional
e
internacional
presionamos
al
gobierno
para
que
castigara
a
los
responsables
de
la
Masacre
de
nuestros
hermanos.
La
primera
detención
de
un
grupo
de
autores
materiales
se
dio
el
mismo
día
en
que
sepultamos
a
nuestros
seres
queridos
ante
los
ojos
de
miles
de
testigos.
Como
una
provocación
los
asesinos
se
paseaban
enfrente
de
los
sobrevivientes
en
un
camión
de
la
presidencia
municipal
de
Chenalhó,
cuando
todavía
estaba
fresca
la
sangre
de
los
mártires.
Ahora
dicen
los
licenciados
defensores
de
los
presos
que
esos
paramilitares
deben
quedar
libres
porque
cuando
obligamos
a
las
autoridades
a
que
los
detuvieran
no
había
una
orden
de
aprehensión.
Y
así
como
ése
son
sus
argumentos
para
liberarlos...
Acteal:
Statement
from
Las
Abejas
Community
on
the
release
of
paramilitaries
...In
1997,
[Mexican
government]
armed
paramilitary
groups
appeared
in
Chenalhó.
Through
force
they
demanded
that
all
the
communities
help
them
buy
weapons
and
attack
the
Zapatistas.
If
we
didn’t
accept
taking
up
arms
against
the
government
would
we
possibly
accept
taking
them
up
against
our
own
indigenous
brothers
and
sisters?
We
refused
to
support
the
armed
paramilitary
groups
that
we
saw
clearly
had
the
support
of
the
government
to
get
weapons,
to
be
trained
and
to
take
violent
actions.
We
were
loyal
to
our
principles
in
spite
of
the
threats
and
when
we
refused
to
support
them,
the
paramilitaries
kidnapped
us,
ran
us
out
of
our
communities,
robbed
our
harvests,
took
our
belongings
and
burned
our
houses.
Because
of
this
we
became
displaced,
but
we
remained
loyal
to
our
principles
of
peace
and
non-violence.
It
was
while
we
were
displaced
that
the
paramilitary
attacked
on
December
22,
1997
and
the
Acteal
Massacre
occurred,
where
45
of
our
brothers
and
sisters
died
while
praying
and
fasting
for
peace...
Today,
five
months
from
the
twelfth
anniversary
of
the
murder
of
our
brothers
and
sisters
we
were
informed
with
great
sadness
and
indignation
that
the
government
is
going
to
free
40
of
these
paramilitaries
through
a
Supreme
Court
of
Justice
decree,
that
more
appropriately
should
be
called
the
Supreme
Court
of
Injustice.
Faced
with
this
news
we
declare
the
following:
1)
It’s
not
true,
as
many
media
outlets
are
saying,
that
the
Supreme
Court
decree
is a
step
towards
achieving
justice
for
Acteal.
Rather
it’s
a
step
back
from
the
little
that
has
been
achieved.
It’s
a
step
forward
for
impunity.
2)
They
are
saying
that
the
PGR
[Federal
Attorney
General’s
Office]
fabricated
evidence
against
the
prisoners
and
that
what
the
Supreme
Court
is
doing
is
just
because
there
is
no
true
evidence
of
the
paramilitaries’
guilt.
This
is
not
true
either.
There
is
and
there
has
always
been
real
evidence
which
is
our
testimony
of
who
we
saw
do
the
killing
and
we
know
the
paramilitaries.
But
the
government
(the
Attorney
General
and
the
judges)
has
weakened
our
evidence.
They
created
holes
in
the
case
so
that
when
this
moment
arrived
the
paramilitaries
would
be
able
to
get
out
through
these
holes
with
the
help
of
their
lawyers
and
Supreme
Court
judges.
It’s
the
same
thing
they
do
so
that
the
narcos
go
free.
The
Supreme
Court
is
not
correcting
the
work
of
the
PGR
as
they
say.
It
is
completing
the
work
they
started
so
that
the
accomplices
of
the
government
can
remain
free.
3)
They
say
that
we
haven’t
presented
proof
of
the
guilt
of
the
paramilitaries.
This
is
not
true
either.
We’ve
presented
proof
not
once
but
many
times.
And
11
years
after
the
murders
in
Acteal
they
continue
calling
on
us
to
present
our
statements,
because
they
tell
the
judge
or
the
public
ministry
that
something
is
missing
from
the
previous
time.
To
the
lawyers
from
CIDE
we
say
that
their
clients
are
not
the
only
victims
of
corruption
in
the
justice
system.
They
have
had
those
witnesses
who
saw
their
loved
ones
die
repeat
time
and
again
the
terrible
story
with
all
the
pain
it
causes
their
hearts.
And
in
the
end
they
say:
“we
need
you
to
tell
us
again
because
the
judge
ordered
a
renewal
of
the
proceedings.”
We
know
that
this
is
called
“psychological
torture.”
4)
The
communities
of
Chenalhó
are
ill
at
ease
because
for
days
rumors
have
been
circulating
that
when
their
friends
get
out
the
paramilitaries
who
have
been
free
this
whole
time
are
going
to
get
those
who
sent
their
friends
to
jail.
We
hold
the
Supreme
Court
and
all
their
accomplices,
from
Mr.
Aguilar
Camín,
the
CIDE
lawyers
and
the
government
of
Felipe
Calderón
responsible
if
the
return
of
these
40
paramilitaries
brings
violence
back
to
our
municipality.
We
hold
them
responsible
for
the
lives
of
the
witnesses
and
any
criminal
act
that
these
paramilitaries
who
they
say
are
innocent
commit.
5)
We
call
on
the
country’s
highest
authorities
to
reflect
on
what
they
are
doing.
If
organizations
such
as
Las
Abejas
Civil
Society,
who
reject
violence
as a
means
to
defend
our
rights,
tell
them
that
the
justice
system
and
state
institutions
are
completely
on
the
side
of
the
government
accomplices,
then,
what
path
does
that
leave
us?
What
hope
do
the
Mexican
people
have?
The
government
says
that
it
is
against
violence
but
daily
we
see
how
it
is
the
first
to
promote
it.
6)
In
spite
of
this,
we,
the
members
of
Las
Abejas
Civil
Society
declare
that
we
are
not
going
to
take
down
our
flag
of
peace
and
justice.
We
are
going
to
continue
fighting
in a
non-violent
way.
But
we
don’t
have
any
faith
in
the
government.
Our
faith
is
in
the
solidarity
of
civil
society,
in
the
blood
of
our
martyrs
which
gives
us
strength
to
not
abandon
the
struggle
and
in
our
god
who
is
not
deaf
to
the
clamor
of
the
poor
and
oppressed.
Yours
faithfully,
The
Voice
of
Las
Abejas
Civil
Society
For
the
Board
of
Directors:
Sebastián
Pérez
Vázquez,
President
Pedro
Jiménez
Arias,
Vice
President
Francisco
Gómez
Pérez,
Treasurer
Francisco
Pérez
Gómez,
Deputy
Treasurer
Translated
by
Scott
Campbell
Las
Abejas
[The
Bees]
Civil
Society
Organization
Sacred
Land
of
the
Acteal
Martyrs,
Chiapas,
Mexico
August
9,
2009
Added Dec. 28,
2006
Mexico
Luego de 9 años,
crean Fiscalía Especial para Acteal
After nine years, the government of the state of
Chiapas has finally appointed a special prosecutor
to investigate the December 22, 1997 massacre of 45
Tzotzil Mayan civilians, who were mostly women,
including pregnant women, and children as young as 2
months old.
Thirty civilians (Mayans supporting the PRI party),
15 civil servants and 11 state policeman had
previously been sentenced for their roles in the
crime.
- CIMAC Noticias
News for Women
Mexico City
Dec. 27, 2006
|
A
Short
History
of
the
Mayan
Freedom
Movement
and
the
Armed
Conflict
in
Chiapas,
Mexico
-
From
a DC
Committee
of
Indigenous
Solidarity
Brochure
-
Fall,
1999
On
January 1st, 1994, poor Indian Peoples in Chiapas rose up not “in arms”
but with their bodies and who during the dark night before the dawn of a
new day occupied 7 towns in the Chiapas highlands including its capitol
city of San Cristobal de las Casas without firing a shot!...
The
Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) astounded thousands of
unbelieving Mexicans and inspired tens of thousands around the world,
including many indigenous tribes throughout the Americas...
The
auspicious date of January 1, 1994 was intentionally selected by the
EZLN because on that day the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
was imposed upon Mexico. ...NAFTA included the US demand that
Mexico remove the Ejidos from Article 27 of the Mexican Constitution.
Ejidos are communal farmlands set apart for the Indians for their
survival crops. Transnational corporations now want those lands to
exploit (mine) subsoil resources...
...Since February 9, 1995, the Mexican Army and Government have been
carrying out a low-intensity war against the [Mayan] Zapatistas.
This warfare is directed primarily against the 1,111 indigenous
communities in Chiapas who are Zapatista sympathizers.
...A
huge escalation in the use of state security forces and PRI [Mexico's
dominant political party]-allied paramilitary [government paid and armed
civil patrol] groups has caused terrible suffering. Pro-Zapatista
towns have faced harassment, the rape of women, beatings, expulsions,
murders, and the stealing of grain and farm tools.
This
repression escalated significantly in the Summer and Fall of 1997,
culminating in the Acteal Massacre on December 22, 1997 in which 45
Indian women, children and men were killed in addition to 21 severely
wounded, most of whom were children. This criminal act was
perpetrated by 60 local poor Indians recruited by local PRI officials
and armed with AK-47 automatic rifles. At the time (and presently)
over 70,000 Mexican Army troops and hundreds of state security agents
occupied Chiapas...
|
|
From a Investigation by the EZLN into
the
Circumstances
of
the
Acteal
Massacre
12-26-1997
(Four
Days
After
the
Massacre).
...Fifth - The
paramilitary commando unit that carried out the massacre was transported
in vehicles which are property of the PRI [Mexico's then-ruling
political party] municipal president of Chenalhó and his staff.
Sixth - All members of the aggressor
group wore dark-colored uniforms.
Seventh - The vehicles, as well as
the armament, uniforms, and equipment of the aggressors was obtained
with money provided by the federal government--specifically, by the
Department of Social Development (Sedesol).
Eighth - The paramilitaries executed
the wounded they found and cut open the wombs of pregnant women with
machetes.
Ninth - Once the attack was over,
agents of the Chiapas state Public Security Police took up the task of
collecting the bodies and "disappearing them" inside a cave and at the
bottom of a ravine.
Some conclusions from the above are:
1 - This was not a religious
conflict, as both murderers and victims were of the Catholic faith.
2 - This was not an ethnic conflict,
as both the dead and those who killed them were indigenous Tzotziles [a
Mayan sub-tribe].
3 - This was not a battle (as the
federal and state governments have tried to present it). The dead were
unarmed, the attackers had high-powered weapons. There was no armed
clash. It was, simply and plainly, an execution.
4 - The objective was to finish
everyone off, to not leave accusatory witnesses and to "clean the
evidence". The government's plan was for the deed not to fall into the
domain of public knowledge. The authorities first denied the massacre,
then minimized it, and now they want to confuse public opinion regarding
the true motive of the crime... |
|
December
22, 2005 Commemoration
Miles indígenas recuerdan en misa
VIII aniversario matanza Acteal
México, 22 dic 2005 (EFE)
Alrededor de
dos mil
personas
recordaron
hoy en una
misa el
octavo
aniversario
de la
masacre en
Acteal, una
comunidad
del estado
sureño de
Chiapas,
donde fueron
asesinados
45
indígenas,
en su
mayoría
mujeres y
niños.
Approximately 2,000
Mayan indigenous people gathered at a mass to
remember the 45 indigneous victims of a massacre in
Acteal, Chiapas state, on December 21st, 1997.EFE
News Service
Centro
de Derechos
Humanos Fray
Bartolome de
las Casas.
(Friar
Bartolome de
las Casas
Human Rights
Center.)
Caso
Acteal
(The
Case of Acteal)
Reiteran:
Ruiz Ferro, culpable de la matanza de Acteal
(Ruiz
Ferro is guilty of organizing the Acteal Massacre.)
A
ocho años de la matanza de Acteal, aún no hay
justicia.(Eight
years after the Acteal Massacre, and still, there is
no justice.)
|
December
22,
2004
Commemoration
Relatives of victims of the Acteal massacre
carry
photos and pray during a memorial at their burial
site in Acteal, Chiapas, Mexico, Wednesday, Dec. 22,
2004. Residents of the community are commemorating
the Acteal massacre in which paramilitaries killed
45 people, mostly women and children. (Associated
Press Photo/Hugo Santiz)
December
22,
2004
Acteal Massacre
Commemorated in Chiapas, Mexico
(Associated
Press) |
|
| |
|
RESISTING IMPUNITY
This web page provides
a brief history of the Acteal massacre in
pictures and links to news articles and other
reports.
Several years ago
the author had the opportunity to meet three
small children, victims of the Acteal Massacre.
All three children had been shot during the
massacre and left for dead.
One girl, Zoraida, became blind after being shot
in the head.
The children came to Washington, DC for medical
treatment at the Georgetown University Hospital.
These victims are no different than the victims
of thousands of similar massacres and other acts
of impunity that indigenous people have endured
during the past 500 years. Armed violence
continues to govern relations between states and
indigenous peoples in several regions of Latin
America.
|
Americas:
Indigenous People at High Risk
"Intimidation, harassment and violent attacks
against indigenous communities are frequent
occurrences in countries including Honduras,
Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala, Mexico and
Venezuela"...
From a News
Release Issued by the International Secretariat
of Amnesty International - Aug. 9, 2001
|
This report in being presented on the seventh
anniversary of the Acteal Massacre. May
the deceased victims rest in peace. May
the survivors achieve justice for this outrage.
Seven years after
the event, no trial has ever brought the known
perpetrators of the Acteal massacre to justice.
We demand
justice for the victims of the Acteal
massacre!
Chuck Goolsby,
December 23, 2004
- LibertadLatina
|
|
| |
|
How
things
were
(and
are)
in
Mayan
Lands...
January 17,
1998
"Ellas,
pequeñas, diminutas, armadas con esos brazos, con
esas manos, los detuvieron en X'oyep"
"These
women, small of stature, armed only with those arms,
with those hands, detained the Army incursion into
the Mayan town of X'oyep.
La
Jornada
Newspaper,
Mexico D.F.
Foto/Photo:
Pedro
Valtierra
Mujeres
refugiadas en el campamento de X'oyep, impidiendo el
acceso a militares dentro de la comunidad.
-
Global Exchange
Women
war refugees in the camp of X'oyep, blocking the
military from entering their community.
Mujeres de La Galeana
corren a los soldados de su comunidad. -
Global Exchange
Mayan women from La
Galeana town chase Mexican Army soldiers from their
community.
View
a
Larger
Image
of
this
Picture
Mujeres de Amador Hernandez
defiendan
a su
comunidad
durante
una
ocupación
militar
en
Agosto
1999.
Mayan
women
from
Amador
Hernandez
town
resist
Mexican
Army
occupation
in
August,
1999.
(The
Mayan
women
wear
masks
to
prevent
their
being
targeted
by
military
and
paramilitary
forces.)
Links about
the Acteal
Massacre
Survivors of Mexico's Acteal massacre still
looking for justice
December
22, 2003
(c)
Associated
Press
|
TUXTLA
GUTIERREZ,
Mexico,
Dec 22,
2003 --
Survivors
of a
massacre
on
Zapatista
sympathizers
in
southern
Mexico
six
years
ago said
Monday
that
authorities
have
failed
to
pursue
those
believed
to have
organized
and
carried
out the
attack.
"We have
spent
2,190
days
waiting
for
justice,
but we
still
haven't
received
a
complete
response,"
said
Roberto
Perez
Santis,
spokesman
for the
survivors
of the
Acteal
massacre
on Dec.
22,
1997.
Paramilitaries
with
close
ties to
government
figures
attacked
a prayer
meeting
of Roman
Catholic
activists
who
sympathized
with
many
Zapatista
goals
but not
their
methods.
Over
several
hours,
the
assailants
killed
45
people,
including
children
as young
as 2
months
old, in
the tiny
settlement
of
Acteal
in
southern
Chiapas
state.
Perez
said
police
still
have not
carried
out
arrest
warrants
against
those
believed
to be
responsible,
and he
criticized
authorities
for
refusing
to
question
then-governor
of the
state,
Julio
Cesar
Ruiz,
and
then-Mexican
Interior
Secretary
Emilio
Chuayffet,
current
congressional
leader
for the
opposition
Institutional
Revolutionary
Party,
or
PRI... |
11/28/2000
Para-Military
Repression & Impunity in Chiapas, Mexico
|
Rights
Action
[formerly
Guatemala
Partners]
supports the
"Chiapas
Network of
Community
Human Rights
Defenders"
(Red de
Defensores
Comunitarios
por Los
Derechos
Humanos) and
"Proyecto
169" that
are working
to denounce
and end
systematic
impoverishment
and
repression
against
Mayan
campesinos
in Chiapas,
Mexico. |
12/24/2001
Acteal
Honors its Victims & Continues its Struggle
for Justice & Survival - indymedia.org
2000
2000 Acteal
Commemoration Photos
July 1998
Chiapas state, in
southern Mexico.
|
Since
1994,
there
are 684
documented
assaults
on women
and
girls,
including
over
300
rapes
mainly
by
government
forces.
"Before
the
massacre
at
Acteal
those
who
organize
the
Priistas
[government
forces]
told us:
'The
daughters
of
Zapatistas
will be
raped.
First
the
wives,
then the
daughters.'"
The
whole
community
of
Taniperlas
has been
threatened
with
rape if
the men
who
escaped
military
attack
do not
return. |
December 18,
1998
The Acteal
Massacre - One Year On and Still No Justice
- Amnesty International
June, 1998
A La
Ofensiva:
Intesificada
Ocupación Militar a Seis Meses de la Masacre
de Acteal - Una investigación especial
reportada por Global Exchange
On The
Offensive:
Intensified
Military
Occupation
in Chiapas
Six Months
Since the
Massacre at
Acteal
- A special
investigative
report by
Global
Exchange
April 29,
1998
Tucson
Weekly: Wall Street's Latest War
March 13,
1998
Acteal
Attack Well Planned - Associated Press
(c) 1998
Associated Press
|
BY JOHN
RICE
Associated
Press
Writer
MEXICO
CITY - A
pro-government
vigilante
group
plotted
an
attack
on the
hamlet
of
Acteal
for more
than two
months
before
gunning
down 45
people
there,
the
federal
attorney
general’s
office
reported
Thursday.
In a
preliminary
report
on the
massacre
in the
southern
state of
Chiapas,
the
agency
said
some
state
police
officers
apparently
helped
the
attackers
by
transporting
automatic
weapons
in
police
vehicles.
The new
report
indicates
the
conspiracy
to carry
out the
massacre
was
broader
and more
longstanding
then
officials
had
previously
reported.
More
than 150
arrest
orders
have
been
issued
in
connection
with the
Dec. 22
slayings
in
Acteal,
according
to the
report
read at
a news
conference
by
Deputy
Attorney
General
Jose
Luis
Ramos
Rivera... |
February 22,
1998
La matanza
de Acteal, reflejo de violencia y la
impunidad que aún perduran en México
por Joel
Solomon «*»,
publicado en
Proceso
No. 1112, el
22 de febrero de 1998
December
1997-January
1998
|
The massacre
victims were
members of
"las Abejas"
- a pacifist
Christian
movement
working to
improve the
plight of
Mayans in
Chiapas,
Mexico.
This is the
organization's
first
declaration,
made just
after the
massacre in
Acteal. |
December
1997-January
1998
Photos from
Some of the First Protests Against the
Massacre at Acteal |
|
|
| |
|
December,
2004
COMMENTARY
Compañeros
y
compañeras,
Once
again,
the
annual
holiday
festivities
are
upon
us.
It
is a
special
time
for
many
-
time
for
family,
for
reconciliation,
for
renewal,
and
for
joyful
celebrations
within
our
communities.
Sadly,
it
is
no
longer
any
of
this
for
45
members
of a
small
Tsotsil
[Mayan]
community
in
Acteal,
Chiapas.
It
is
not
now
nor
will
it
ever
be
thus
for
those
45
brothers
and
sisters
who
seven
years
ago
were
cut
down
in
the
midst
of
their
communal
prayers
for
peace.
It
will
never
again
be a
time
for
such
festivity
for
those
ripped
from
their
families
by
the
bullets
of
those
cowardly
assassins.
There
is
no
more
time
left
for
those
15
children,
no
more
time
for
those
21
women,
four
of
them
pregnant,
no
more
time
for
the
9
men.
Nor
will
it
ever
be
the
same
for
their
families
who
mourn
their
unbearable
loss
now,
and
who
will
continue
for
the
rest
of
their
lives
to
grieve
over
the
emptiness
left
by
the
absence
of
their
beloved
brothers,
sisters,
sons,
daughters,
mothers,
fathers,
grandmothers
and
grandfathers.
How
many
still
suffer
for
such
blind
and
murderous
brutality,
for
such
beastly
hatred,
for
so
much
denial
of
one
simple
dream
that
promises
us
that
another
world
is
possible
- Is
this
dream
so
dangerous
as
to
make
it
necessary
to
murder
entire
communities
in
order
to
extinguish
it?
Who
are
those
so
terrified
of
this
dream?
Those,
who
on
that
December
day,
seized
the
lives
of
women,
men
and
children
with
such
total
impunity,
will
one
day
be
required
to
answer
these
and
many
more
questions.
They
and
their
masters,
their
governors,
their
imperialist
lords
will
be
required
to
answer.
We
must
assure
ourselves
of
this
truth.
One
day
soon
justice
will
be
done.
And
for
so
much
barbaric
inhumanity,
for
so
much
crime
against
the
people's
dignity,
for
so
much
injustice
against
the
basic
rights
of
humans,
we
all
suffer.
If
we
think
this
through,
and
search
the
depth
of
our
hearts,
we
discover
that
we
all
suffer
because
of
this.
We
are,
after
all,
them,
and
they
are
us.
We
are
one
in
the
past,
in
the
present
and
forever;
sharing
victories,
failures,
dreams,
love
and
struggle;
life
and,
too
often,
also
untimely
death
at
the
hands
of
assassins.
Some
of
us
pay
with
our
lives
for
demanding
our
right
to
dream,
to
love,
and
to
pray
for
peace.
Let
us
never
forget
those
men
and
those
women
who
died
for
those
rights.
For
them,
so
cruelly
massacred
at
Acteal
on
December
22,
1997,
and
for
many
more
stricken
by
hatred
and
for
so
much
more
suffering
let
us
cry.
For
they
have
earned
our
tears,
companeros
and
companeras.
Without
shame
nor
fear
let
us
cry
together.
Not
out
of
terror
nor
because
of
weakness,
but
rather
because
of
strength
itself.
Let
us
cry
out
in
hunger
for
justice.
Let
us
cry
out
for
the
struggle
that
catches
fire
in
every
loving
tear
that
believes
in
all
that
can
be
possible.
Let
us
cry
lest
we
forget,
so
that
we
can
go
on
dreaming,
and
go
on
struggling.
We
owe
this
much
to
the
fallen.
Forever
live
their
memory!
Long
live
the
struggle
for
the
dignity
of
the
people,
for
humanity
and
against
neoliberalism!
Committee
of
Indigenous
Solidarity
(CIS)
-DC
Zapatistas
Also
by
CIS:
A
Short
History
of
the
Mayan
Freedom
Movement
and
the
Armed
Conflict
in
Chiapas,
Mexico
- DC
CIS
|
|
| |
|
Who
Are
the
Martyrs
of
Acteal?
Lucia Mendez Capote, 13
Vicente Mendez Capote, 5
Manuel Santiz Culebra, 57
Alonso Vazquez Gomez, 46
Loida Ruiz Gomez, 21 years-11 months-28 days
Victorio Vazquez Gomez, 22
Graciela Gomez Hernandez, 3
Guadalupe Gomez Hernandez, 2
Roselia Gomez Hernandez, 5
Miguel Perez Jimenez, 40
Antonia Vazquez Luna, 27
Rosa Vazquez Luna, 14
Veronica Vazquez Luna, 20
Margarita Vazquez Luna, 3 years-2 months
Juana Vazquez Luna, 8 months
Ignacio Pukuj Luna, (adult: unknown age)
Micaela Pukuj Luna, 67
Alejandro Perez Luna, 16
 (snapshot, Alejandro at work)
Juana Perez Luna, 9
Silvia Perez Luna, 6
Maria Luna Mendez, 44
Nanuela Paciencia Moreno, 35
Maria Perez Oyalte, 42
Margarita Mendez Paciencia, 23
Daniel Gomez Perez, 24
Susana Jimenez Perez, 17
Josefa Vazquez Perez, 27
Maria Capote Perez, 16
Martha Capote Perez,12
Micaela Vazquez Perez, 9
Juana Gomez Perez, 61
Juan Carlos Luna Perez, 1 year-11 months-27 days
Antonia Vazquez Perez, 30
Lorenzo Gomez Perez, 46
Sebastian Gomez Perez, 9
Daniel Gomez Perez, 24
Juana Perez Perez, 33
Rosa Perez Perez, 33
Marcela Luna Ruiz, 35
Maria Gomez Ruiz, 23
Catarina Luna Ruiz, 31
Marcela Capote Ruiz, 29
Marcela Capote Vazquez, 15
Paulina Hernandez Vazquez, 22
Juana Luna Vazquez, 45
|
|
|
| |
|
Related
Indigenous
Issues
Indexes
|
More
Articles
About
Chiapas
Mexico
LibertadLatina.org's
Indigenous
Latin
America
Index
|
Indigenous Americas - "In
situations of armed conflict, abuse against
indigenous or other minority group girls and
women tends to be particularly cruel. In
periods of armed conflict in Latin America,
violence against women - especially rape -
has been rampant..."
"In Guatemala, political violence
left 150,000 [mostly Mayan] dead and 50,000 disappeared during
the 1980s, as well as 200,000 orphans, 40,000 widows, and
between 400,000 and one million displaced."
..."In many parts of the world,
rape is being used as a weapon of war to terrorize the civil
population. In Mexico, during the first years of conflict in
Chiapas, 50 rape cases against indigenous women were reported."
From:
UNICEF and the AIDS Information Exchange Newsletter
Note: Chiapas, Mexico and
Mayan Guatemala are one continuous region.
|
About this
Crisis - The
indigenous
of Latin
America -
Index - El
Salvador
The El Mozote Massacre (El Salvador):
The women were disposed of next. "First they
picked out the young girls and took them
away to the hills," where they were raped
before being killed, Amaya reported. "Then
they picked out the old women and took them
to Israel Marquez's house on the square. We
heard the shots there."
The children died last. "An order arrived
from a Lt. Caceres to Lt. Ortega to go ahead
and kill the children too," Amaya observed.
"A soldier said 'Lieutenant, somebody here
says he won't kill children.' 'Who's the
sonofabitch who said that?' the lieutenant
answered. 'I am going to kill him.' I could
hear them shouting from where I was
crouching in the tree." |
About this
Crisis - The
indigenous
of Latin
America -
Index - Peru
About this
Crisis - The
indigenous
of Latin
America -
Index -
Guatemala
|
El
Rio
Negro
(The
Mayan
Community
of Black
River,
Guatemala)
Massacre
"The
soldiers
and the
(paramilitary
civil
defense)
patrollers
started
grabbing
the
girls
and
raping
us,"
recalls
Ana, one
of a
handful
of
survivors
of the
massacre.
"Only
two
soldiers
raped me
because
my
grandmother
was
there to
defend
me. All
the
girls
were
raped."
In
total,
177
women
and
children
died
that
day. The
village,
one of
the most
far
flung of
Rabinal
municipality
in Baja
Verapaz
province
[Guatemala],
disappeared.
|
The
Indigenous
Crisis
within
Canada
The
indigenous
of the
United
States |
Other
Related
Issues
in
the
Americas
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
LibertadLatina
News /
Noticias |
|
|
|
Updated:
July 27, 2010
|
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Últimas Noticias
Latest News
Guatemala, The United States
U.S. Senator John Kerry Urges TPS Visas for Guatemalans
A recent spate of natural disasters along with high crime rates in Guatemala prompted U.S. Senator John Kerry (D-MA), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, to write to President Barrack Obama on July 15 requesting Temporary Protected Status for Guatemalan citizens living in the United States. Kerry argues that Guatemalans are not able to return to safety in their country, as “their most basic human needs cannot be met.”
Americas Quarterly
July 21, 2010
Arizona, USA
Does Illegal Immigration Lead to More Crime?
Undocumented Immigrants Make up 7 Percent of Arizona's Population, but 15 Percent of the Prison Population
Arizona's new immigration law empowers police to ask anyone they suspect of being in the country illegally for ID. The Obama administration calls it unconstitutional.
Thursday, Justice Department lawyers asked a federal judge in Phoenix to block the law before it takes effect next Thursday. Those in favor of the law say illegal immigration leads to more crime. But does it?
In Pima County, Arizona, sheriff's deputies patrol for people crossing the border illegally from Mexico.
"We are encountering folks who have warrants out for their arrests, deported felons," said Sgt. Robert Krygier.
It's a fact of life here that frightens and infuriates many Arizonans.
CBS News correspondent Bill Whitaker reports supporters of the new law point to the recent murder of rancher Robert Krentz. Investigators say his killer snuck in from Mexico. Arizona governor Jan Brewer says Mexican drug cartel-style violence is crossing the border too.
"Our law enforcement agencies have found bodies in the desert, either buried or just lying out there, that have been beheaded," Gov. Brewer said.
In Pima County, Sheriff Clarence Dupnik said not only is there no evidence of beheadings, but "the border is more secure now that it's ever been."
Murder? Burglaries? Rape? The major crimes? Up or down on the border?
"They're down," Dupnik said. "Violence in the cities is down."
According to the FBI, that's true across the southern border this decade. In San Diego violent crime is down 17 percent. In El Paso, Texas violent crime down 36 percent - it sits right across from Juarez, Mexico, one of the deadliest cities on earth. In Phoenix major crime has dropped 10 percent from 2000 to 2009.
West along the border in Nogales, Arizona, Chris Ciruli said it's a "safe environment."
...
Protestors for and against the law are outside the court. Inside court, the judge said she is skeptical that the law is constitutional. She's expected to rule within days...
CBS News
July 22, 2010
Arizona, USA
|
 |
|
Mayor Phil Gordon of Phoenix, Arizona speaks at Harvard
University - Feb, 05, 2010
Photo:
Matthew W. Hutchins |
Phoenix mayor paints disturbing picture of immigrant experience
[Latino]
Mayor Phil Gordon of Phoenix, speaking at Harvard Law School on February 5th, said that the steady flow of illegal immigrants into his city has created a crisis situation that is extremely dangerous for local law enforcement and a devastating drain on the city's budget. Although by statistical measures Phoenix is one of the safest cities in the United States, it has experienced a wave of kidnapping and violent crimes that have challenged its law enforcement capacity.
The problem, said Mayor Gordon, is the violent behavior of the "coyotes" involved in human trafficking operations across the nearby Mexican border and who regularly kidnap, torture, rape and kill those who do not comply with their extortion, sometimes forcing captives to dig their own graves while awaiting either freedom or death.
According to Gordon,
over 20,000 people, including women and children, have been rescued by Phoenix police over the last three years from "drop houses" where dozens or even hundreds are held captive or even tortured, sometimes in the midst of ordinary suburban neighborhoods…
Gordon said that the fight against the coyotes' organized crime has forced the city to hire over 600 additional police officers, many to replace the 100 full-time officers assigned to federal task forces investigating violent criminals and 50 officers embedded undercover in federal operations. The cost to Phoenix of employing these 150 officers, over $15 million dollars a year, is not reimbursed by the federal government and threatens to force reductions in city services like libraries and after school programs…
Matthew W. Hutchins
The Harvard Law Record
Feb. 12, 2010
Honduras
Honduran Leader Nathan Pravia Dies After Lifetime Defending Miskito Indians
Honduran Leader Nathan Pravia Dies After Lifetime Defending Miskito Indians
Tegucigalpa - The leader of the Miskito Indians, Nathan Pravia, who fought on behalf of the native peoples of Honduras, died Saturday in Tegucigalpa following a breakdown in his health, family members said. He was 62.
Pravia, a native of Puerto Lempira in Gracias a Dios province on the Nicaraguan border, dedicated many years of his life to the cause of his country’s Miskito communities, traditionally all but forgotten by the government.
As a defender of human rights, he led several battles to gain the Miskitos of Honduras access to the land.
He also reported on and condemned the plight of Miskito divers who earn their living catching lobsters, many of whom have been left paraplegic or have died from injuries incurred during their labors deep in Caribbean waters.
On several occasions he slammed in the local press the rampant drug trafficking going on in the La Mosquitia region, chiefly involving cocaine from South American countries.
Pravia was president of the Honduras Native Peoples Confederation and a delegate for his country to indigenous organizations in Latin America and Central America.
In the cultural realm he leaves a collection of articles and other notes on Miskito culture that will soon be published, his daughter Yuwan, a student of journalism at the National Autonomous University of Honduras, said.
The president of the Community Ethnic Development Organization, or Odeco, Celeo Alvarez, lamented Pravia’s passing and praised his struggles on behalf of Indian peoples and their rights.
The Latin American Herald Tribune
July 25, 2010
Massachusetts & New Jersey, USA
|
 |
|
Edilzar “Eddie” Mazariegos |
Suspect in rape of girl in Massachusetts captured on farm
Mannington Township, New Jersey - Authorities late Saturday night captured a man here who is wanted for the alleged rape of a 4-year-old girl in Massachusetts.
Earlier Saturday, Edilzar “Eddie” Mazariegos, 22, managed to escape through crop fields after officers closed in on him on a property on Haines Neck Road.
Lt. Robert DiGregorio of the Carneys Point Police Department confirmed the arrest of Mazariegos shortly before 10 p.m. Saturday.
He was found on a farm on Haines Neck Road here not far from where he was seen earlier in the day.
DiGregorio said local farmers helped play a critical role in the capture of Mazariegos.
The sighting of Mazariegos, who is facing charges of aggravated sexual assault in the alleged attack in Springfield, Mass., earlier this month, prompted a six-hour search earlier Saturday...
According to television station CBS 3 of Springfield, Massachusetts, the alleged attack on the four-year-old took place in a house where the girl lived with her mother, a farmworker, and others.
The girl’s mother, a Guatemalan immigrant, told the television station that alleged sexual assault on her daughter occurred in early July while she was working picking blueberries and her daughter had been left in the care of others living at the house, including Mazariegos.
The woman said her daughter told her of the alleged assault when her mother returned from the fields. The girl was taken to an area hospital for treatment, the television station said.
Bill Gallo Jr.
NJ.com
July 24, 2010
Washington state, USA
Man charged with raping 12-year-old girl
Yakima - A Toppenish man accused of raping a 12-year-old neighbor girl he accosted on her way to summer school was arraigned Thursday in Yakima County Superior Court.
Jose Jesus Velazquez-Palomino, a 23-year-old farm worker, is charged with second-degree rape of a child and unlawful imprisonment.
Authorities allege Velazquez accosted the girl moments after she left home for summer school July 7.
The girl told police Velazquez forced her into his home, where he sexually assaulted her. She escaped to the Safehaven Community Center while he was taking a shower afterward.
The case also ensnared Velazquez's four roommates, who were arrested after police investigating the assault call discovered 26 marijuana plants on the property.
Velazquez remains lodged in the Yakima County Jail on a no-bail immigration hold, as do his roommates.
The Yakima Herald
July 22, 2010
California, USA
|
 |
|
Norma Lopez |
Body found in Moreno Valley near area where girl, 17, vanished
A partially decomposed body was found in a desolate, grassy field in Moreno Valley on Tuesday afternoon, just two miles from where a 17-year-old girl disappeared last week on her walk home from summer school.
Riverside County Sheriff's Department officials said they have not determined if the remains are those of Norma Lopez, who authorities believe was abducted Thursday, triggering a massive search throughout central Riverside County.
A local resident doing yard work found the body around 3 p.m. about a mile south of the 60 Freeway, just off Theodore Street, on the eastern outskirts of the city in an area surrounded by wheat fields, horse ranches and jagged hills. The remains, which have yet to be identified as male or female, were found in the tall grass and near a line of trees but were not otherwise concealed, said Sgt. Joe Borja, a Sheriff's Department spokesman.
"I know you're all interested in finding out whether this is Norma Lopez or not, and honestly we do not know," Borja told reporters gathered several hundred yards from the crime scene. "No matter which way it is, it's still a tragic event. There's someone out in the field who is dead." ...
Norma was reported missing about 12:30 p.m. Thursday by her older sister, Sonja, after she failed to return home from summer school. She was out of class at Valley View High School by 10 a.m. and had plans to meet her older sister and another friend, authorities said.
Investigators said they found some of Norma's belongings, and signs of a struggle, in a vacant field along Cottonwood Avenue. They are also looking for the driver and passengers of a newer-model green SUV seen near the dirt field at the time of her disappearance.
After the body was found, deputies roped off the area and waited for coroner's officials to arrive and examine the remains. FBI investigators, assisting the Sheriff's Department in the case, also went to the scene.
"It could take as short as one day to a week to determine who that person is," Borja said...
Authorities urged anyone with information about the case to call (877) 242-4345,
or
e-mail [the Riverside Sheriff's office].
Phil Willon
Los Angeles Times
July 21, 2010
Mexico
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Chamber of Deputies Special Commission to
Fight Human Trafficking president Deputy Rosi Orozco |
Piden penalizar pornografia en Internet
La presidenta de la Comision Especial contra la Trata de Personas en la Camara de Diputados, Rosi Orozco pidio penalizar el consumo, intercambio y almacenamiento de pornografia infantil por Internet.
Agrego que debido a los vacios legales aunado a la rapidez con que evolucionan las tecnologias de la informacion, este delito se ha incrementado de manera alarmante en el pais.
En entrevista, la legisladora del Partido Accion Nacional (PAN) senalo que la pornografia infantil es el tercer delito mas comun en Internet despues fraude y las amenazas.
Explico que Mexico ocupa el primer lugar en apertura de paginas web de pornografia infantil, y tiende a incrementarse mas de cinco por ciento la distribucion de videos de imagenes de abuso a recien nacidos.
Por ello, considero que se debe incorporar a las redes de telecomunicacion en las legislaciones y penalizar el consumo, almacenamiento e intercambio de pornografia infantil.
"Porque hoy estas lagunas facilitan que los pederastas y quienes comercian con ella escapen a la justicia", sostuvo.
Orozco comento que a traves de reformas al articulo 202 del Codigo Penal Federal, mismas que analiza la Comision de Justicia, se busca inhibir y evitar el almacenamiento, arrendamiento y compra de material que contenga pornografia infantil.
En ese contexto, subrayo la importancia de que se castigue con penas de siete a 12 anos de prision y de 800 a dos mil dias de multa, a quien para obtener un beneficio de cualquier indole o con animo de lucro o sin el, produzca, distribuya o venda material pornografico.
Rosi Orozco calls for increased penalties for Internet
Child Pornography
National Action Party (PAN) congressional deputy Rosi Orozco, who is the
president of the Special Commission to Fight Human Trafficking in the Chamber of
Deputies (lower house of Congress), has called for legislative action to
increase penalties for those who commit the crimes of consuming, exchanging and
selling child pornography via the Internet.
Deputy Orozco explained that, due to gaps in current legislation, caused in-part
by the pace of changes in information technology, these crimes have increased in
an alarming manner across Mexico. Orozco added that child porn related crimes
are the third largest category of criminal activity on the Internet after fraud
and threats.
Deputy Orozco noted that Mexico holds first place globally in the number of
accesses to child pornography web sites. [Authorities have also registered] a
recent 5% increase in the distribution of pornographic videos of recently born
babies.
Due to these conditions, Deputy Orozco has called upon Congress to pass
legislation that includes communications networks, and that controls the
consumption, exchange and sale of child pornography via the web.
Orozco: "Because of the gaps that continue to exist in our laws, pedophiles and
those who commercialize [child pornography] escape justice."
Deputy Orozco seeks to bring about changes to Article 202 of the Federal Penal
Code, which is currently being reviewed by the Commission on Justice in the
Chamber of Deputies. She added that the proposed legislation will seek criminal
penalties of 12 years in prison and 800 to 1,000 days of salary [typically
minimum wage salaray is used to define these types of fines], for anyone
associated with the production, distribution or sale of illicit pornography.
Notimex
July 01, 2010
New York, USA
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U.S.
Ambassador Luis CdeBaca (second from left) and other
presenters at UN / Brandeis conference |
Hidden in Plain Sight: The News Media's Role in Exposing Human Trafficking
The Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism at Brandeis University cosponsored a first-ever United Nations panel discussion about how the news media is exposing and explaining modern slavery and human trafficking -- and how to do it better. Below are the transcript and video from that conference, held at the United Nations headquarters in New York City on June 16 and co-sponsored by the United States Mission to the United Nations and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
Take a look as some leading media-makers and policymakers debate coverage of human trafficking. What hinders good reporting on human trafficking? What do journalists fear when they report on slaves and slavery? Why cover the subject in the first place? What are the common reporting mistakes and missteps that can do more harm than good to trafficking victims, and to government, NGO, and individual efforts to end the traffic of persons for others' profit and pleasure?
Among the main points: Panelists urged reporters and editors to avoid salacious details and splashy, "sexy" headlines that can prevent a more nuanced examination of trafficked persons' lives and experiences.
Journalists lamented the lack of solid data, noting that the available statistics are contradictory, unreliable, insufficient, and often skewed by ideology.
As an example, the two officials on the panel -- Ambassador Luis CdeBaca, head of the U.S. Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, and Under-Secretary-General Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime -- disagreed on the number of rescued trafficking victims. Costa thought the number was likely less than half CdeBaca's estimate (from the International Labour Organization) of 50,000 victims rescued worldwide...
Read the transcript
The Huffington Post
July 15, 2010
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Chuck Goolsby |
LibertadLatina
Note:
In response to the above article by the Huffington Post, on the topic of press
coverage of the issue of human trafficking, we would like to point out that the
LibertadLatina
project came into existence because of a lack of interest
and/or willingness on the part of many (but not all) reporters and editors in
the press, and also on the part of government agencies and academics, to
acknowledge and target the rampant sexual violence faced by Latina and
indigenous women and children across both Latin America and the Latin Diaspora
in the Untied States, Canada, and in other advanced economies such as those of
western Europe and Japan.
Ten years after starting
LibertadLatina,
more substantial press coverage is taking place. However, the crisis of ongoing
mass gender atrocities that plague Latin America, including human trafficking,
community based sexual violence, a gender hostile living environment and
government and social complicity (and especially in regard to the region's
completely ignored indigenous and African descended victims - who are especially
targeted for victimization), continue to be largely ignored or intentionally
untouched by the press, official government action, academic investigation and
NGO effort.
Therefore we persist in broadcasting the message that the crisis in Latin
America and its Diaspora cannot and will not be ignored.
End impunity now!
Chuck Goolsby
LibertadLatina
July 21, 2010
Maryland, USA
Montgomery County Man Sentenced to 37 Years in Prison in Sex Trafficking Conspiracy
Underage Girls Drugged and Threatened
Baltimore - U.S. District Judge Alexander Williams, Jr. sentenced Lloyd Mack Royal, III, a/k/a “Blyss,” “B,” and “Furious,” age 29, of Gaithersburg, Maryland, to 37 years in prison followed by 10 years supervised release for conspiracy to commit sex trafficking; sex trafficking of a minor; sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion; possession of a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence; conspiracy to distribute drugs; and distribution of drugs to persons under 21, related to a scheme to prostitute three minor females. Judge Williams also ordered that after his release from prison Royal must register as a sex offender where he lives, works, or goes to school. Royal was convicted at trial on March 25, 2010.
The sentence was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein; Assistant Attorney General Thomas E. Perez of the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division; Special Agent in Charge Richard A. McFeely of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; and Chief J. Thomas Manger of the Montgomery County Police Department.
“Maryland’s human trafficking task force follows a policy of zero tolerance for child prostitution,” said U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein. “Anyone who pays for or profits from sex with children should understand that we are standing by to send them to federal prison.”
“The defendant violently preyed upon some of the most vulnerable members of our society,” said Assistant Attorney General Perez. “He sought out troubled young girls and through physical violence, drugs, guns, and lies, coerced them into prostitution for his own benefit. The Department of Justice will continue to vigorously prosecute these cases.”
According to testimony at the two week trial, from April to May 2007 Royal and his co-conspirators coerced a minor girl to engage in sex for pay. In addition, witnesses testified that Royal: coerced two additional minors to engage in sex, for which he was paid; threatened to harm the girls and their families; struck the girls; and held one of the girls at gun point. In order to assert his authority over the girls, Royal would forbid them from contacting certain individuals and forced them to kiss his pinky ring. Royal drove the girls to hotels in Gaithersburg, Maryland, or caused them to be transported from Maryland to the District of Columbia, to have them engage in sex.
On several occasions, testimony showed that Royal gave the girls illegal drugs before forcing them to engage in sex with him in order to test the girls’ sexual aptitude. Royal and his co-defendants provided the girls with cocaine, “dippers” or “ciga-wets” (cigarettes dipped in phencyclidine liquid known as PCP), marijuana and alcohol before coercing them to engage in sex with customers, and sometimes sold cocaine to customers. Witnesses testified that Royal gave the girls instructions on pricing for different sexual acts and instructed the girls to lie about their ages.
Paul Raymond Green, a/k/a “PJ,” age 25, of Washington, D.C., and Angela Samantha Bentolila, age 27, were sentenced to 52 months and 15 months in prison, respectively, for their roles in the sex trafficking conspiracy.
The case was investigated by the Maryland Human Trafficking Task Force formed in 2007 to discover and rescue victims of human trafficking while identifying and prosecuting offenders. Members include federal, state, and local law enforcement, as well as victim service providers and local community members. For more information,
see the
Maryland Human Trafficking Task Force, web site.
United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein and Assistant Attorney General Thomas E. Perez commended former Assistant United States Attorney Solette A. Magnelli and Trial Attorney James Felte, of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit, who prosecuted the case.
United States Attorney's Office
District of Maryland
July 19, 2010
New Jersey, USA
Sentencing for N.J. man found guilty in human trafficking case is delayed
Newark - A judge has postponed the case of a Togolese citizen living in New Jersey who was due to be sentenced today for his role in the smuggling of girls and young women who were forced to work at hair braiding salons.
Geoffry Kouevi was found guilty in August of visa fraud.
U.S. District Judge Jose Linares says additional documents are needed to settle a dispute over how much prison time Kouevi should get.
Prosecutors say at least 20 people were brought from Togo using fraudulent visas and forced to work for no pay.
Lassissi Afolabi was sentenced in July to more than 24 years in prison after pleading guilty to conspiring with his ex-wife and her son to commit forced labor.
Afolabi's ex-wife faces sentencing in September. Her son received a 55-month prison term.
The Associated Press
July 20, 2010
California, USA, Mexico
Boy left behind with body of dead sister; family flees
Arrest warrants have been issued for a Southern California couple who may have fled to Mexico after abandoning their 4-year-old nephew with the battered body of his 3-year-old sister.
A relative found the 4-year-old boy sleeping in one room of a home in southwest Bakersfield; the body of his sister, identified as Serenity Julia Gandara, was found on the floor of another room, police said. The two children had been living with Alberto Garcia and Carla Torres Garcia, both 26, whom authorizes believe may have crossed the border into Mexico along with their own three children after Serenity's death.
Bakersfield Police Sgt. Mary DeGeare said arrest warrants were issued, charging the couple with murder and felony child abandonment. They also face federal charges for unlawful flight.
DeGeare said investigators believe the couple was already in Mexico when Torres called her sister to inform her of the death.
DeGeare said the two children exhibted signs of abuse.
"Both of these children had injuries, old and new," she said. "They had scars and marks in various stages of healing, including recent injuries."
The death and abandonment surprised neighbors, who described the couple as caring and preoccupied with the well-being of their children.
"I never saw any cruelty there to any of those children," neighbor Patty Clemons told ABCNews.com. "I feel it must have been an accident."
Police said Serenity had trauma to her head and torso, and that both she and her brother had injuries that were still healing. An autopsy was performed on Monday but the exact cause of death was pending. The boy, whose name was not released, was placed in foster care.
The children were apparently being adopted by the couple. Alberto Garcia did auto body work, which enabled him to stay home with the children and do repair jobs outside, according to neighbors. Carla Garcia cleaned homes.
"The guy was very nice and always very happy," said another neighbor, who asked not to be identified by name. "You wonder why this happened. They were very nice people."
Neighbors said Carla Garcia called her sister Sunday morning and asked her to come to the home in southwest Bakersfield. The sister found Serenity's body on the floor in one room while her brother slept in another room. The Garcias and their three young children – ages 4 to 10 – were gone. Maria Garcia, the maternal grandmother of the foster children, told television staton KGET in Bakersfield that she had warned a child protective services social worker about abuse in the Garcia household but nothing was done. "I told her many times something happened with these kids," Maria Garcia told the station.
The two children belonged to Alberto Garcia's sister, but he and Carla were in the process of adopting them, according to neighbors.
Clemons said she never witnessed the abuse although Serenity and her brother were rarely seen outside. "I never saw cruelty to any of those children," she said. "Now all these people are coming out of the woodwork saying these children were abused. I never saw it but I don't know what happened behind closed doors."
Clemons said the Garcia and Torres were pleasant neighbors who sometimes stopped by with plates of Mexican food. Alberto Garcia occasionally rode the younger children on a red wagon when he picked his children up from school. "They always made sure all the children got ice cream," Clemons said. "The children were always well dressed. She worked all day cleaning and then came home and always cooked for the family. I used to tell them you guys need some time for yourselves."
The FBI was assisting in the investigation. The family vehicle was described as a white Ford Eddie Bauer Expedition, license plate 5FLC681.
Ray Sanchez
ABC News
July 20, 2010
Texas, USA
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Steven Perez |
Man Accused Of Sexually Abusing Baby
Steven Perez, 24, was arrested in Galena Park Thursday on a charge of super sexual abuse of a child.
Investigators said the attack happened while the 1-year-old's mother was in the shower at a southeast Houston home in May.
A warrant for Perez's arrest was issued this week. Detectives said he was arrested at his new girlfriend's home.
KPRC
July 16, 2010
New Jersey, USA
Lakewood man pleads guilty to sexually abusing 8 girls
Toms River - A Lakewood man is facing up to 60 years in prison after admitting that he sexually abused eight children, between the ages of 4 and 9, said Ocean County Prosecutor Marlene Lynch Ford.
Cirilo Cholula Maranchel, 19, of Woehr Avenue pleaded guilty to six counts of aggravated sexual assault on six children, and two counts of sexual assault on two more children, Ford said.
The abuse took place between January and June of 2009, when the defendant was 17 and 18. Although Maranchel was a minor when he committed the offenses, he was prosecuted as an adult, Ford said in a prepared statement.
Maranchel entered his guilty plea Wednesday before Superior Court Judge Wendel E. Daniels.
The defendant admitted acts of sexual penetration — digital as well as sexual intercourse — with six of the victims, who were between the ages of 6 and 9, said Senior Assistant Ocean County Prosecutor Laura Pierro. He admitted molesting another child in front of yet another child who was 4, Pierro said.
All of the victims are girls who are known to the defendant, Ford said.
The abuse was revealed after one victim, age 6, came forward to her parents, who contacted Lakewood police on June 13, 2009, Ford said.
That girl told investigators she had witnessed other children being sexually assaulted by Maranchel, leading them to seven other victims, Pierro said.
Ford said the special victims unit of her office worked with Lakewood Detective Leroy Marshall and other Lakewood officers to identify the other victims and arrest Maranchel.
"The young victims of these crimes have been courageous in cooperating in this investigation," Ford said.
Ford said the arrest of Maranchel, an illegal immigrant, followed an intensive investigation and hunt for him.
"At the time of his arrest, it appeared the defendant was attempting to board public transportation and escape criminal responsibility for his actions," she said.
Maranchel faces a minimum of 20 years in prison and a maximum of 60 years when he is sentenced following an evaluation at the state Corrections Department's Adult Diagnostic and Treatment Center in Avenel, Ford said. He will be held at the Ocean County Jail until then, with his bail set at $2 million.
Maranchel will be deported to his native Mexico after he serves his prison term, the prosecutor said.
Kathleen Hopkins
APP.com
July 08, 2010
California, USA
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David Mosqueda |
Sun Valley man accused of raping 4-year-old girl
A Sun Valley man was arrested today on suspicion of sexually assaulting a 4-year-old California girl nearly a month ago.
David Mosqueda, 22, was booked about 4 p.m. into the Washoe County Jail on charges of sexual Assault of a child under the age of 16 and lewdness with a child under the age of 14 and held on $27,500 bail, Deputy Armando Avina said in a news release.
On June 21, deputies answering a domestic disturbance report found Mosqueda had locked himself in a bathroom with a knife and had self-inflicted injuries to his neck, wrist and stomach region. After an investigation, Mosqueda, a previously convicted sex offender, was taken into custody, Avina said.
RGJ
July 14, 2010
Massachusetts, USA
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Edilzar Mazariegos |
Illegal alien sought in rape of 4-year-old girl
Springfield Police Dept.Police in Springfield, MA, are looking for an illegal alien from Guatemala, who they say brutally raped a 4-year-old girl on Saturday.
Springfield Police Sgt. John M. Delaney told reporters the suspect, Edilzar Mazariegos is wanted on a charge of aggravated rape of a child with force.
The tiny victim, whose name is being withheld, was found by her mother, after returning from work, crying and bleeding. She rushed her daughter to Mercy Medical Center, but because of the “severe trauma” she suffered, she was transferred to Baystate Medical Center, where she remains in serious condition.
Another illegal alien, Angel Santizo, 20, who was babysitting the girl at time of the rape, has been charged with of permitting serious bodily injury on a child while being a caretaker.
Sgt. Delaney said: “He was the caretaker of this child while somebody else there raped her.”
Immigration and Customs Enforcement has placed a hold on Santizo, who is also from Guatemala.
Mazariegos (aka Edy Gonzales), is described as 5 feet, 3 inches tall with a stocky build. He is driving a blue Dodge Durango with two white racing stripes on the hood and roof, with a South Carolina license plate of FSX-544.
Mazariegos is employed as a farm worker in Connecticut. He is known to have ties in West Palm Beach, FL, as well as in Massachusetts.
Anyone with information on the whereabouts of Mazariegos is asked to call the police Special Victims Unit at (413) 787-6352.
Dave Gibson
The Examiner
July 06, 2010
Massachusetts, USA
Illegal alien charged with child rape
One man is under arrest, accused of raping his 4-year old family member. The little girl is now hospitalized at Baystate Medical Center with what police describe to be serious but non life-threatening injuries.
Detective Mike Chapin told 22News the victim was sexually assaulted at her home at 693 Carew Street sometime Saturday evening.
The girl's mother called police and arrested 19-year old Angel Santizo at the home without incident. Santizo is an illegal immigrant from Guatemala. He is being held and will be arraigned Tuesday.
U.S. Department of Immigration and Customs has been notified, since the suspect is an illegal alien.
Police are looking for a second suspect in connection with the crime.
Anthony DiLorenzo
WWLP
July 04, 2010
Texas, USA
Police: Illegal Immigrants Raped 14-Year-Old Texas Girl at July 4th Party
A pair of illegal immigrants raped a 14-year-old Texas girl at July 4th party in Texas, where the teen was later found sitting naked in a bathtub, police said.
The victim told police that she went to an Independence Day party with her cousin in Horseshoe Bay, Tex., about 40 miles northwest of Austin, where she was left in a room with Anibal Escobar, 19, and Anael Martinez, 22, MyFoxAustin reported.
The two Honduran natives, who told police they are in the U.S. illegally, made advances at the victim and then raped her, she told police. The victim’s cousin discovered her in the bathtub and brought her home.
Escobar and Martinez were arrested early in the morning on July 9 and face felony charges of aggravated sexual assault, MyFoxAustin reported. Local investigators contacted Texas Rangers to assist in their investigation and translate, as none of the witnesses at the party or the suspects spoke English.
Fox News
July 13, 2010
Nevada, USA
‘Beauty and the Beast’ sticker leads to arrest in sex assaults
A 27-year-old man who police say assaulted five women in his car in the past two months was arrested Tuesday night during a traffic stop in the western Las Vegas Valley. Police said a “Beauty and the Beast” sticker on his car that was described by the alleged victims helped them nab the man.
Antonio Farias was booked into the Clark County Detention Center in connection with two counts of attempted sexual assault and two counts of first-degree kidnapping tied to five sexual assaults, the first of which allegedly occurred May 9.
Police said Farias approached women at bus stops in the area of Flamingo Road and Arville Street. Some of the women got into his car voluntarily and others were threatened and forced inside, authorities said.
He appeared friendly to gain their trust and would drive them to different areas in western and northern parts of the valley to sexually assault them, police said.
Police Lt. Christopher Carroll said at a news conference Thursday that officers were able to link Farias to the assaults during a traffic stop at Valley View Boulevard and Viking Road on Tuesday night. He said officers stopped the vehicle and noticed a “Beauty and the Beast” Disney sticker on the car's dashboard, which some of the alleged sexual assault victims had described.
Carroll said Farias also matched descriptions given by victims. He said Farias is currently facing charges in four cases, but additional charges are possible.
“In our discussions with him, we’re more confident that other people are out there,” Carroll said...
Tiffany Gibson
The La Vegas Sun
July 15, 2010
Argentina
Cardinal Bergoglio denounces sexual slavery
“This city is too much,” said the Cardinal Primate of Argentina, Archbishop Jorge Bergoglio of Buenos Aires, who denounced the South American republic’s capital city as a “meat grinder that destroys the lives of these people and breaks their dignity.”
Moreover, said the prelate during a Sunday July 11 homily in the Constitucion neighborhood of Buenos Aires, there are “mafias” that have turned the city into a “slave workshop” dedicated to “human trafficking.” He reflected on the mafias as criminal organizations that “corrupt and destroy, including with drugs, and later throw people to the side of the road.” The mafias control “dens of slavery” that operate openly, having bribed the police and other authorities in one of the largest cities of the Americas.
“Please,” said the clergyman to his listeners, “let us not wash our hands, since otherwise we become accomplices in slavery!”
In May 2010, Nancy Miño, a Paraguayan woman who worked with Argentina’s Federal Police corps, provided testimony that the police in charge of controlling human trafficking and vice were receiving payoffs from the owners of brothels. Prostitution is legal in Argentina, for the most part. However, pimping and the profiting from prostitution is illegal and ostensibly controlled. For its part, the Federal Police has denied Miño’s claims and says that she is currently on medical leave for the treatment of a mental disorder.
Martin Barillas is a former U.S .diplomat, who also worked as a democracy advocate and election observer in Latin America.
Martin Barillas
Spero News
July 13, 2010
Peru
Niega Perú justicia a mujeres víctimas de esterilización forzada
Recibe CIDH demanda de 2 casos emblemáticos en gobierno de Fujimori
La Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos (CIDH), recibió una demanda contra el Estado peruano, interpuesta por la negación del acceso a la justicia para mujeres víctimas de esterilizaciones forzadas, durante el gobierno de Alberto Fujimori.
La organización feminista “Estudio para la Defensa y los Derechos de la Mujer” (Demus), informó en un comunicado que el 11 de junio pasado, presentó la demanda ante la CIDH, con dos casos de esterilización forzada, calificados como emblemáticos, porque revelan lo ocurrido a más de 200 mil peruanas, en su mayoría pobres de zonas rurales y urbano marginales en los años 90.
Información proporcionada a Cimacnoticias por Mariela Jara, integrante de la organización peruana, precisó que lejos de que el gobierno hiciera justicia y reparara los daños ocasionados a las mujeres, dejó impune el delito, que se considera de lesa humanidad.
Una investigación presentada en 2002, por organizaciones defensoras de los derechos humanos de las mujeres en el país revela que entre 1996 y 2000, se realizaron 215 mil 227 ligaduras de trompas y 16 mil vasectomías.
Diana Portal, abogada del caso señaló que acudieron al sistema regional de protección de derechos humanos, ya que ante la instancia nacional, se agotaron los recursos para obtener justicia.
“Es fundamental que el Estado peruano reconozca su responsabilidad internacional, al haber violado de manera sistemática y generalizada los derechos reproductivos de miles de mujeres peruanas, que termine la impunidad, y que las víctimas reciban una reparación integral por los daños irreversibles sufridos”.
Los casos presentados ante la CIDH son el de una mujer que murió en julio de 1997, a consecuencia de la operación realizada en el hospital de Piura, a donde llegó tras el incesante acoso del personal de salud.
Así como el de una mujer migrante andina quechuahablante de la zona periférica del distrito La Molina, que fue convencida de practicarse una ligadura de trompas a la que finalmente se negó al observar el abundante sangrado en otra paciente. Fue entonces llevada a la fuerza a la sala de operaciones del hospital Hipólito Unanue y amarrada para proceder con la intervención...
Peru denies justice to [hundreds of thousands of
indigenous] victims of forced sterilization
The Inter American Human Rights Commission has received two cases that are
emblematic of the abuses faced by women under the rule of former president
Alberto Fujimori...
Gladis Torres Ruiz
CIMAC Women's News Agency
July 16, 2010
Mexico
Urge ombudsman para combatir trata
El presidente de la Comisión Nacional de los Derechos Humanos, Raúl Plascencia Villanueva, llamó a todos los sectores sociales y a los tres niveles de gobierno a conjuntar esfuerzos para combatir y castigar la trata de personas.
El ombudsman nacional denunció que la falta de armonización legislativa en el sistema jurídico mexicano amplía la brecha de impunidad y dificulta la acción coordinada de las autoridades encargadas de la seguridad pública y la procuración de justicia.
Otro obstáculo para combatir ese flagelo, que alcanza proporciones alarmantes en algunas partes del país, es la carencia de instrumentos y políticas públicas para dar protección y asistencia adecuada a las víctimas.
Ello debido a que la reparación del daño a que tienen derecho las personas afectadas no llega, porque no resulta fácil denunciar al tratante, ni luchar contra las inercias legales, dijo.
De acuerdo con un comunicado del organismo, Plascencia Villanueva destacó, durante la instalación del Comité Regional contra la Trata de Personas Zona Occidente (Colima, Jalisco y Nayarit), que la erradicación de ese delito plantea muchos retos y sólo en un marco de colaboración se podrá avanzar en el tema...
Human Rights Ombudsman Calls for More Effective
Legislation to Combat Human Trafficking
Raúl Plascencia Villanueva, president of Mexico's National Human Rights
Commission, has called upon all sectors of society and government to join forces
to improve the nation's efforts to fight human trafficking. Plascencia
Villanueva denounced the lack of synchronization between various state laws,
stating that the lack of a homogenous legal framework nationwide is leaving the
door open for impunity, buy, for example, making the coordination of interstate
law enforcement efforts exceedingly difficult [states jurisdiction predominates
over federal law in the case of the current national anti-trafficking law].
An additional obstacle to effective efforts to halt human slavery, which is
reaching alarming proportions, is the lack of adequate services provided to
victims...
Notimex / El Universal
July 14, 2010
Massachusetts, USA
Springfield police search for suspected rapist of 4-year-old girl
Springfield – Investigators continue to search for a man suspected of raping and assaulting a 4-year-old girl on Saturday.
Although detectives with Special Crimes Unit initially charged Angel Santizo, 20, of 693 Carew St., with the rape, they now believe that a second man was responsible, Sgt. John M. Delaney said.
“He was the caretaker of this child while somebody else there raped her,” Sgt. John M. Delaney said of Santizo. “We are looking for the guy that did.”
Santizo’s charges have been amended to permitting serious bodily injury on a child while being a caretaker, Delaney, aide to Police Commissioner William J. Fitchet, said.
The U.S. Department of Immigration and Customs has also put a detention order on Santizo, who is from Guatemala, police said.
Delaney said the girl, who required surgery, remains at Baystate Medical Center.
Police have to release any information regarding the second suspect.
George Graham
The Republican
July 06, 2010
Texas & Arizona, USA
Man Wanted In Child Rape In Juarez Arrested In Phoenix
El paso, Texas - Detectives say a man wanted for the rape of a child has been deported to Mexico after being arrested in Phoenix, according to ABC-15 in Phoenix.
Miguel Manuel Hernandez-Beltran, 29, was arrested in Phoenix last month and deported to Mexico on June 28. He allegedly molested his 7-year old nephew approximately fifteen times in 2005 in Juarez, according to the US Marshals Office.
Shortly after law Mexican law enforcement became aware of the alleged molestation, authorities believe Hernandez-Beltran entered the United States illegally near El Paso and eventually traveled to Phoenix.
"Persons wanted for crimes in Mexico cannot find a safe haven in the United States," United States Marshal David Gonzales said in the ABC-15 report. "The United States Marshals Service places a high priority on arresting those accused of sex crimes, particularly cases involving children. By two federal agencies working together, an accused child predator was arrested which now allows him to face justice."
KVIA
July 9, 2010
Ohio, USA
Man accused in rape of young girl indicted
Lebanon - A Texas man in jail with a $1 million bond was indicted on rape charges.
The Warren County grand jury on Friday, July 2, returned indictments for rape, attempted rape and abduction against Armando Bautista Hernandez, 27, of Houston, Texas.
Hernandez is accused of raping a 16-year-old female at the Red Roof Inn in Deerfield Twp. on June 4.
The prosecutor’s office also asked the grand jurors to consider kidnapping charges, but they returned a “no bill” verdict, meaning they didn’t think there was sufficient evidence to prove the charge. Kidnapping is a first-degree felony, abduction is a third-degree felony.
Hernandez’s attorney Tim McKenna asked for a lower bond, saying the high bond would be appropriate if he stood charged with a special felony or murder. He said his client has a family back in Texas and he was here working on a water tower project.
If found guilty on all charges, Hernandez faces 46 years in prison. Because there is an Immigration and Customs Enforcement holder on Hernandez, Assistant Prosecutor Matt Nolan said it is likely he would be deported following legal proceedings or if he is convicted and serves time in prison..
Denise G. Callahan
The Dayton Daily News
July 06, 2010
Europe, Latin America, Africa
United Nations: Human traffickers make $3 billion a year in Europe
Mardrid, Spain -Traffickers who subject women and children to prostitution and forced labor are engaged in one of Europe's most lucrative crimes — a euro2.5 billion a year, modern-day slave trade whose victims are growing by 50 percent annually, a United Nations agency said Tuesday.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime estimated that more than 140,000 people are currently controlled by organized gangs. Many victims are tricked into leaving lives of poverty in eastern Europe, Africa and Latin America with bogus promises of work.
"Europeans believe that slavery was abolished centuries ago. But look around — slaves are in our midst," UNODC executive director Antonio Maria Costa said in a statement accompanying the report.
Costa said one big problem is that governments in industrialized countries have only recently passed tougher laws to crack down on trafficking in people.
"It is a very recent recognition of a very old problem," Costa said later to the Associated Press, adding that arrests and convictions of traffickers are rare. "I could count them on one hand."
Worldwide, his agency estimated several million people have fallen victim to traffickers.
American actress Mira Sorvino, who serves as a goodwill ambassador for the UN agency, said she met in Madrid with women who have been rescued from trafficking gangs in Spain and their stories were heartbreaking.
One Romanian woman was beaten so badly while being smuggled to Spain that her ribs were broken. Despite the injury, she still had to service clients in a roadside brothel while she recovered, Sorvino said.
Another woman, from Nigeria, was fooled into traveling to Spain with a promise of work so she could support her daughter back home. After traveling to Spain in the cargo hold of a ship, and seeing several travel mates die along the way, the woman learned there was no work waiting for her. She ended up as a prostitute and was told she had a euro50,000 debt to pay off.
People back in Nigeria who had promised to care for her daughter instead had a chilling new message.
"If you do not pay, we will kill your daughter," Sorvino quoted the woman as recalling.
And when the woman called home periodically to speak to her daughter, traffickers would beat the little girl while the mother listened. As the Nigerian told her story, Sorvino said, "she cried a little. I cried a lot."
The UN report said that 51 percent of victims in Europe come from the Balkan countries or the former Soviet Union, with another 13 percent coming from Latin America, 7 percent from Central Europe and 5 percent from Africa.
Damiel Woolls
The Associated Press
June 30, 2010
Massachusetts, USA
Accused Serial Child Rapist Behind Bars
Accused Rapist May Have Attacked Dozens Of Kids
The I-TEAM has discovered that a man sitting in the Worcester County Jail may be one of the worst child rapists in the state.
Chief Correspondent Joe Shortsleeve has been digging and he says it's a shocking case shrouded in mystery.
His name is Juan Nazario. The 33-year-old Leominster man was arraigned in Leominster District Court last month on two counts of child rape. But it's what police found inside his apartment on Pleasant Place in downtown Leominster that now has investigators county-wide very concerned.
More victims may be out there
Court documents obtained by the I-TEAM indicate Nazario recorded his "assaults via a video camera" and that photographic evidence along with a detailed personal diary clearly indicates there were far more than two victims.
In fact, sources tell the I-TEAM that the Worcester County District Attorney's Office now believes perhaps dozens of children were raped by Juan Nazario over the past 15 years.
As many as 20 investigators are now working this shocking case. District Attorney Joe Early spoke exclusively to the I-TEAM and was asked by Shortsleeve if there were multiple victims.
"It may bring us there. Yes. I am not at liberty to say how many victims there are, but I can tell you we have got a lot of people working on this right now, and we want to get it right," Early said.
WBZ
July 23, 2009
Virginia, USA
Marine Charged in Second Arlington Attack
Arlington County police have charged a Marine in connection with the abduction and rape of a woman who was left badly injured in Prince William County on February 27.
Jorge 'George' Torrez, 21, had previously been charged in connection with a similar attack on Feb. 10.
In the Feb. 27 incident, two women walking in the Ballston area where abducted at gunpoint. One victim was taken to Prince William County where she was attacked.
Torrez was indicted on 14 charges regarding this incident, including abduction with intent to defile, rape, forcible sodomy, robbery, and six counts of the use of a firearm in the commission of a felony.
Torrez remains in custody at the Arlington County Detention Center. The trial for this case is currently set to begin on July 26, 2010.
Markham Evans
WJLA
June 25, 2010
Wisconsin, USA
New London Man Arrested for Alleged Sexual Assault
Police in Menasha arrest a 23-year-old New London man for allegedly having sex with a 13-year-old girl.
Authorities say it happened Tuesday morning inside a vehicle parked on Coldspring Road at Schlidt Park. A detective with the Town of Menasha Police Department was making rounds at the park when he noticed a van parked in the rear parking lot.
The detective went up to the vehicle and noticed 2 people engaged in a sexual act in the backseat. After making contact, the detective identified the 2 occupants as Jose Muniz and a 13-year-old female.
Police indicate the suspect and the teen met on a social networking site and had been seeing each other for several months. Muniz is currently in the Winnebago County Jail facing a felony charge of second-degree sexual assault of a child.
WTAQ
June 24, 2010
New Jersey, USA
Hunterdon police search for man who physically assaulted jogger in N.J. park
West Amwell Township - An unknown man assaulted a Lambertville woman as she jogged along the Delaware and Raritan Canal State Park towpath, but the victim was able to fend off her attacker, authorities said.
The 47-year-old was treated and released from an area hospital following the attack that occurred between 8 and 8:15 p.m. Thursday, said Dan Hurley, chief of detectives and spokesman for the Hunterdon County Prosecutor’s Office. "Her actions in defending herself were heroic and may have saved her life and prevented additional crimes from occurring to her," he said today.
The woman was jogging along the West Amwell Township portion of the towpath when the man dragged her into a wooded area. No weapon was used, but the victim suffered numerous injuries, Hurley said.
The attacker is described as a Hispanic male, between 5-feet, 6-inches, and 5-feet, 8-inches tall and between 140 and 160 pounds. He was 20 to 30 years old, had olive skin and brown, flat-top style hair and was wearing a dark polo shirt, Hurley said. It is believed the suspect was sitting on a bench as the victim passed. He fled the scene by running south along the towpath...
Jennifer Golson
The Star-Ledger
July 02, 2010
Otas historias importantes de...
Other important stories from...
2009 and 2010
Texas, USA
Texas Supreme Court: Kids in Prostitution Are Victims, Not Criminals
The case of a 13-year-old girl who was prosecuted for prostitution (while her 32-year-old pimp got away) in Texas was decided by the Texas supreme court this week. And they've said categorically that children in the commercial sex industry aren't criminals, they're victims of child sex trafficking. This decision is significant not only for the children of Texas, but for kids around the country as more and more states may begin to see child prostitution for what it is: a crime against children.
On the one hand, declaring that children in prostitution are victims as opposed to criminals sounds like a no-brainer. Every state has an age of sexual consent that prohibits children of a certain age from consenting to sex. Why should the fact that a financial transaction is involved suddenly make children and young teens able to consent to sex? But Texas, like almost all states, never provided an age limit on the crime of prostitution. So it was legally possible for a 13-year-old to be a victim of the crime of statutory rape, but a perpetrator of the crime of prostitution -- both for the same act!
The Texas Supreme Court decision is poised to change that -- not just in Texas, but across the country. The ruling sets an important precedent by stating that children in the commercial sex industry are victims of a crime and should be treated as such. Will other states take this ruling and use it in their own cases, aiming to protect children from sexual exploitation? Will this lead a new movement to decriminalize minors in prostitution while placing the onus for their abuse on their pimps and the men who buy them? Only time will tell.
If this does mark the beginning of a new trend, then one thing is abundantly clear: we need some place to put these girls. One of the major reasons the Texas 13-year-old was prosecuted in the first place was the D.A. argued that jail was safer than the streets, and in juvenile detention she'd have access to social services she couldn't get elsewhere. And the sad thing is in many areas, the only safe place off the streets is juvenile detention. But locking up victims (aside from being wrong) can traumatize them even more. So if we as a country follow Texas's lead and say teens in prostitution are victims, then we need to build them shelters and safe houses, not jails...
Amanda Kloer
Change.org
June 24, 2010
|
Texas, USA
Loophole closed for illegal immigrants accused of serious crimes
They are accused child rapists, drug dealers and thieves. And because of major reforms in the justice system
- spurred by a News 8 investigation - those people now face prosecution.
As recently as November, because of a loophole in the law, many would have simply been set free without ever going to trial.
Until it was fixed, the loophole allowed for the deportation of accused criminals
- and a breakdown in the justice system.
We introduced you to "Sylvia" back in November. While she is an American citizen, her husband, Jose Salvador Tinajero, is Mexican.
He had just been deported instead of prosecuted for molesting her two children.
"There is no justice," Sylvia said last year, "especially for my girls, my family. There is none."
Today, she is simply overwhelmed at the progress that's been made.
News 8 first broke the story that more than 1,000 illegal immigrants who were charged with serious crimes like murder had been deported before their cases ever went to trial.
Many were bused back to Mexico and simply set free across the border.
In November, we spoke to Sgt. Ernesto Fierro, an investigator for the Dallas County District Attorney's office. At the time, little was being done to fix the problem, and Fierro said he was "furious" about it.
Buena Valentin is a Mexican citizen charged with raping his girlfriend's seven-year-old daughter. After the attack on the girl
- and her sister - they immediately ran to church for help.
"She looked really bad. Very bad," said Eleuterio Cabrera of Templo de Dios. "She was crying. The girls were very, very, very bad. It was horrible."
What was the problem?
After an arrest, the district attorney's office was usually not notified until a case had been in the system for several weeks. In that gap of time, the accused paid his bond.
Then - because the suspect was in the U.S. illegally - he was turned over to ICE, Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The job of that agency is to deport, regardless of pending charges.
Now, however, because of News 8 reports, those holes in the system are all plugged, and Sgt. Ernesto Fierro has a new, full-time assignment: Keeping people like Buena Valentin in jail.
"I feel great; I feel really good," Fierro said. "I feel like I've really done something here."
And the 90 crime suspects in Fierro's book will remain incarcerated in the Dallas County jail until their cases are settled.
"Many of them would've been on the bus back to their home country," Fierro said, without the changes to the system.
Two big fixes are:
* A mandatory $100,000 bond for anyone who is a flight risk due to possible deportation. In some cases, that's a 20-fold increase.
* Improved communication and cooperation between Dallas County and ICE.
"I appreciate you guys highlighting," said Nuria Prendes, the top ICE agent in Dallas. "If we're not made aware of things, there's no way we can fix them." ...
Federal officials say one in four felony defendants are in the U.S. illegally. News 8 has attempted to find out how many are deported before trial, but no government agency tracks the issue, and privacy rules have impeded our efforts to learn more.
Still, there is strong evidence the loophole does exists nationwide. We found cases in Florida, Massachusetts and New York...
Davis Schechter
WFAA
June 23, 2010
See also:
Texas, USA
Hundreds in Dallas County
Deported Before Their Trials
Hundreds of defendants awaiting trial for violent
crimes in Dallas County have been deported by
federal immigration officials and then set free in
their home countries.
The practice goes back to at least 1991 and includes
the release of murder, kidnapping and child rape
suspects. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
officials say they're required to deport illegal
immigrants quickly but are now in talks with local
agencies who are trying to resolve the problem...
One survey of prosecutors shows that since 1991 in
Dallas County, nearly 1,000 illegal immigrants have
not stood trial after being accused of felonies.
That number also counts cases in which a wanted
person fled before being arrested, but does not
include all Dallas County cases - just ones that
prosecutors judged to be of the highest priority.
Those who post bail and agree to then be sent home
are taking advantage of the system to escape
justice, said Terri Moore, top assistant to District
Attorney Craig Watkins...
Officials from the DA's office, the Dallas County
Sheriff's Department and ICE met this week to
discuss the problem. No quick fixes were found, but
they plan to meet again, officials said...
The agency's policies led to
the deportation of one defendant, Jose Rico, who
returned to Mexico before he could stand trial in
the rape of two girls in separate incidents. DNA
connected him to both sexual assaults, court records
show.
Both girls, ages 12 and 14,
were bound with clear duct tape. The attacker told
one of the girls: "I have a gun. I will kill you."
Rico, 34, posted his $125,000
bond and was deported in August...
In Dallas County, judges this week took a step
toward decreasing the chances that someone in the
country illegally will post bond and be deported
before trial. Judges began setting the bail at
$100,000 per charge if a defendant is in the country
illegally.
Under the new system, the bail for Rico, the child
rape suspect, probably would have been $200,000...
Jennifer Emily
Dallas News
Nov. 14, 2009
See also:
Dallas Police Identify Suspect
in 2 Child Rapes
Dallas police today released the identity of the man
believed to be responsible for raping two children
in northeast Dallas.
He
was identified as Jose Rico, 33, an illegal
immigrant, police said.
Rico
was being held in the Dallas County jail on charges
of aggravated sexual assault and burglary of a
habitation.
He
is also under an immigration hold...
In
both assaults, the victims -- girls between 12 and
14 -- were home alone when a man entered through an
unlocked doors. Both girls were bound before they
were raped.
[During] the
Oct. 16 assault the attacker... entered the home
while the girl and an 11-month-old baby were alone.
The
man confronted the girl as she was coming out of a
bathroom, pushed her back in and turned off the
lights. He threatened to hurt the baby if she
screamed.
[During] the
Jan. 30 attack... a man with a similar description
bound and raped a girl while she was home alone.
Dan X. McGraw
The Dallas Morning News
March 26, 2009 |
The World, Latin America
|
 |
|
Latin America in the global crime big
picture
* Latin America exports $38 billion
annually in cocaine to the U.S., while exporting $34
billion to Europe
* The region generates $6.6 billion
by smuggling 3 million migrants annually into the
U.S. and Canada
Note that much of Latin America's
drug trade profits are used to finance human
trafficking operations.
By comparison, the world's second
largest organized criminal enterprise - heroin
trafficking from Afghanistan, generates $33 billion
in annual sales to Europe and Asia.
In other words, the impunity of human
trafficking is not ending any time soon in Latin
America. - LL |
UN warns of gangs’ global muscle
International crime networks now enjoy such an extensive reach that the gangs behind them must be regarded as a significant economic power, says a United Nations report.
In one of the most comprehensive analyses undertaken of transnational criminal activity, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime has calculated that the illicit trade in a range of commodities – including drugs, people, arms, fake goods and stolen natural resources – has an annual value of roughly $130
billion.
The report shows how transnational crime continues to be dominated by the trade in cocaine and heroin, a business whose product is worth about $105
billion
a year...
Cocaine trafficking from the Andean region to North America, a business with an annual value of $38
billion
at destination, is the biggest sector in the illegal narcotics trade. The export of cocaine from the Andean region to Europe is worth about $34
billion
a year.
However, the UNODC believes that the North American cocaine market is shrinking because of lower demand and greater law enforcement. It says this has generated a turf war among trafficking gangs, particularly in Mexico, and prompted them to forge new drug routes...
The second-biggest sector in international organized crime is people-trafficking.
The trade in women for sexual exploitation is now worth about $3
billion a year. Much of the trade involves trafficking people from Africa and the Balkans to other parts of Europe, where about 140,000 women are being manipulated by gangs at any one time.
The illegal smuggling of economic migrants is worth about $6.6
billion
a year to those who run the trade, according to the report.
The dominant illegal migrant flow is across the southern border of the US, with about
3 million Latin Americans illegally moving to North America each year. Flows from Africa to Europe are far smaller, with about 55,000 migrants smuggled into Europe in 2008...
James Blitz
The Financial Times Limited
June 17, 2010
See also:
"La delincuencia organizada se ha globalizado
convirtiéndose
en una amenaza para la seguridad"
En un nuevo informe de la UNODC se expone cómo, mediante la
violencia y los sobornos,
los mercados internacionales de la delincuencia han pasado a ser grandes centros
de poder
"Organized Crime Has Globalized and Turned
into a Security Threat"
A new UNODC report shows how, using violence and
bribes, international criminal markets have become major centres
of power
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)
June 17, 2010
Mexico
Delitos impunes, a pesar de que la CIDH pidió enviarlos a la vía civil
Suma justicia militar 5 casos de violación a mujeres indígenas
México, D.F. - Desde hace nueve años, la Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos (CIDH) recomendó al Estado mexicano que fuera la justicia civil quien investigara la violación sexual ejercida por militares en perjuicio de tres mujeres indígenas, no obstante, hoy dicha recomendación no se ha cumplido y a ella se han sumado dos casos similares en la jurisprudencia militar.
El 4 de abril de 2001, fue la primera vez que la CIDH exhortó al gobierno mexicano trasladar a la Procuraduría General de la República (PGR) un caso de violación sexual ejercida por soldados, esto con el objetivo de juzgar con mayor efectividad a los miembros de las fuerzas armadas que incurrieran en violaciones contra los derechos humanos.
Dicha recomendación del organismo internacional fue por el caso de Ana, Beatriz y Celia González Pérez (nombres ficticios), de tres indígenas tzeltales, que el 4 de junio de 1994 fueron detenidas en un retén militar, instalado tras el levantamiento del Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (EZLN) en Chiapas.
Cabe recordar que las hermanas González Pérez y su madre, Delia Pérez de González fueron interrogadas y privadas de su libertad durante dos horas. En tanto, las tres hermanas fueron golpeadas y violadas en reiteradas ocasiones por los militares. Después de lo ocurrido, el 30 de junio de 1994, las jóvenes agredidas -de 20, 18 y 16 años de edad- presentaron una denuncia ante el Ministerio Público Federal.
Sin Justicia Expedita
Sin embargo, el 2 de septiembre de 1994, el expediente de dicha denuncia fue trasladado a la Procuraduría General de Justicia Militar, quién dos años después, en febrero de 1996, decidió archivar el expediente con el argumento de: “la falta de comparecencia de las víctimas a declarar nuevamente y a someterse a pericias ginecológicas”.
Cabe mencionar que el 17 de septiembre de ese año, la defensa de las víctimas presentó un amparo para evitar que la justicia militar investigara el caso, pero éste fue negado.
Este hecho permitió que el caso permaneciera en la impunidad, ya que a decir de la defensa de las tres indígenas, era inaceptable la pretensión de que estas mujeres, que fueron torturadas por miembros de la institución castrense, se sintieran seguras declarando (por tercera vez) ante este organismo...
A pesar de estas declaraciones y de que han transcurrido 16 años, la investigación permanece en la justicia militar y en la impunidad.
Rapes of civilian indigenous women remain in impunity
despite the demands of the Inter-American Human Rights Commission that Mexico
move the cases to civilian courts
The case of the 1994 beatings and rapes of three Tzeltal Mayan indigenous
sisters, who were then ages 16, 18 and 20, and are known by their pseudonyms of Ana, Beatriz y Celia González Pérez, remains
in impunity 16 years after the fact. Mexican President Felipe Calderón's policies
have never allowed civilian jurisdiction in this case, nor in the cases of two other
indigenous rape victims, who have also faced impunity (and ongoing intimidation
for having sought to bring criminal complaints against soldiers).
Despite the fact that the Inter-American Human Rights Commission has, since
2001, called upon Mexico to allow its civilian criminal justice system to take
over cases involving soldiers attacking Mexican civilians, President Calderón
has ignored these pleas.
Anayeli García Martínez
CIMAC Noticias Women's News Agency
June 14, 2010
See also:
|
 |
|
CIMAC Noticias' collection
of over 300 news articles on the rape of (mostly
indigenous) women with impunity by soldiers in
Mexico
(in Spanish) |
Cuba
Cuba denounces US criticism on human trafficking
Havana - Cuba reacted angrily... to its inclusion on a U.S. list of countries that could be sanctioned for failing to fight human and child trafficking, calling it a "shameful slander" and part of Washington's efforts to justify its trade embargo.
Cuba is one of 13 countries put on notice... that they are not complying with the minimum international standards to eliminate the trade in human beings and sexual slavery, and could face U.S. penalties.
Compiled by President Barack Obama's administration, the list also includes Iran, North Korea, and Myanmar. Another 58 countries were placed on a "watch list" that could lead to sanctions unless their records improve.
Cuba was singled out for allegedly not doing enough to prevent the trafficking of children who work as prostitutes on the island, mostly serving foreign tourists. It also said some Cuban doctors have complained that the government leases out their services to foreign countries as a way of canceling Cuba's debt.
"Cuba categorically rejects these allegations as false and disrespectful," Josefina Vidal Ferreiro, director of the Cuban Foreign Ministry's North American affairs office, said in a statement sent to the foreign news media Tuesday.
She said the allegations are all the more offensive because the communist government has concentrated its limited resources on protecting women and the young, providing far more for the most vulnerable members of society than most nations in the region.
While Cubans receive low wages, the island offers free education through college, free health care and heavily subsidized housing and transportation. Crime rates and drug usage are extremely low in a country where the state maintains near total control.
"These shameful slanders profoundly hurt the Cuban people. In Cuba, there is no
sexual abuse against minors
[well, that certainly is an exaggeration -
LL],
but rather an exemplary effort to protect children, young people and women,"
Vidal Ferreiro said. She said Cuban laws "put us among the countries in the
region with the most advanced norms and mechanisms for the prevention of abuse."
...
The latest report notes that Cuban laws against trafficking appear stringent, but that the country has not provided enough evidence to show they are being enforced.
Interestingly, the report does not concentrate on Cubans seeking to emigrate to the United States, a diaspora
which has meant vast profits for traffickers, who can charge thousands of
dollars for illicit transportation to the U.S., often through Mexico...
Vidal Ferreiro said Cuba's inclusion on the trafficking list is political.
"It can only be explained by the desperate need that the U.S. government has to justify, under whatever pretext, the persistence of its cruel blockade, which has been overwhelmingly rejected by the international community."
Cuba was not the only country in the region to react strongly to the report.
Guyana, which received slightly better marks than Cuba, said the report hurts its friendship with the United States. The Dominican Republic is also included on the list
[and richly deserved to be there -
LL]. The country's official in charge of monitoring human trafficking, Frank Soto, called the list "a lie with no merit."
Paul haven
The Associated Press
June 15, 2010
Colorado, USA
Woman molested at 7-11 in Colorado Springs
Colorado Springs police are warning residents about a sexual assault that happened this weekend at the 7-11 store at 3306 E. Fountain Blvd.
A 17-year-old girl was standing with some friends while filling their car at about 4:40 p.m. Saturday when a large green van pulled up behind the car.
The victim said a Hispanic man, age 30-40, made some small talk with her and then molested her.
The man was described as 5-feet-7-inches tall, heavy and wearing black Dickies shorts and a gray or white tanktop shirt.
The van was large and had red "For Sale" signs on the side and the rear windows.
James Amos
KOAA
June 22, 2010
The World
|
 |
|
2010 report from
the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) |
UN: Organized crime spans planet, involves big economies - Summary
New York/Vienna - International mafias with their enormous power in money and weapons have sent and marketed illicit goods across and in all continents, affecting the world's biggest economies, the first UN report on transnational crime said Thursday.
Europe has become one of the destinations, with an estimated 140,000 victims of sexual exploitation generating gross annual income of 3 billion dollars to human traffickers, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime
(UNODC) said in the report The Globalization of Crime.
Major human trafficking routes flow from Africa to Europe and from Latin America to the United States.
"Worldwide there are millions of modern slaves traded at a price not higher in real terms than centuries ago," said UNODC executive director Antonia Maria Costa who presented the report in New York.
"Transnational crime has become a threat to peace and development, even to the sovereignty of nations," Costa said. "Criminals use weapons and violence, but also money and bribes to buy elections, politicians and power."
...
UNODC warned that transnational crime threatens to derail security especially in poor countries that already suffer from conflicts.
"Crime is fuelling corruption, infiltrating business and politics, and hindering development," Costa said.
He pointed to drug cartels that spread violence in Central America, the Caribbean and West Africa, as well as to cooperation between insurgents and criminals in Southeast Asia and Northern and Central Africa.
The UNODC said governments should try fighting criminal markets rather than crime syndicates, by stopping money laundering and informal transfer systems...
Two main routes for smuggling migrants are from Africa to Europe and from Latin American to the US. Up to 3 million migrants are smuggled from Latin America to the US every year, providing more than 6 billion dollars to smugglers.
The heroin market in North America has declined because of lower demand and more effective law enforcement. But it triggered a turf war among gangs, particularly in Mexico, for new drugs trafficking routes.
Afghanistan produces opium and Colombia coca, but the drug profits are made at their destination rich countries. Afghan heroin is sold for an estimated 55 billion dollars around the world, but Afghan farmers, traders and insurgents probably receive only about 2.3 billion dollars...
Earth Times
June 17, 2010
See also:
International criminal markets have become major centres
of power, UNODC report shows
The UN Office on Drugs and Crime
June 17, 2010
Guyana
The US human trafficking report is defective
US human trafficking policy is a product of religious leaders,
neo-conservatives, and abolitionist feminists. It was Michael Horowitz from the
Hudson Institute who set up a coalition of evangelicals to advocate for the
legislation that became the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA); the
legislation received approval from the US House of Representatives by a 371-1
vote, and by the US Senate by 95-0 vote, and was signed into law by President
Clinton on October 28, 2000.
The TVPA’s aims are to prevent human trafficking overseas, protecting the
victims of traffickers, and prosecuting traffickers. A singular dimension of
TVPA has to do with the US’s demands on overseas countries to enact preventive
measures against sex trafficking.
This TVPA as a matter of policy requires the State Department to
effect an annual assessment of other countries’ anti-trafficking efforts, and to
evaluate each country on the basis of its procedures undertaken to combat
trafficking. For this reason, the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in
Persons with the State Department executes its work through a mandate from
Congress to produce annual Trafficking in Persons (TIPS) reports that ranks each
country’s progress to end trafficking.
The US keeps awarding itself a Tier 1 status, meaning it is
making sufficient efforts to end trafficking; countries that do not do well in
US judgment are labeled Tier 2 or Tier 3.Tier 3 countries could receive
sanctions from the US.
If you look carefully, you will see that Tier 3 countries are
countries that may be more concerned about paying no mind to this US program,
rather than their efforts to end trafficking. Some recent Tier 3 countries are
Cuba, North Korea, Venezuela, Indonesia, India, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain,
Lebanon, Sudan, Qatar, Turkey, etc. These are countries not comfortable with US
imperialism, where Enloe (2000) argued that the US sets itself up as “a model to
be emulated” and [performs] the role of “global policeman.”
Trends in Organized Crime (2006) noted that the US State
Department’s justifications for its ranking awards to countries that do not
satisfy minimum standards to end human trafficking, are deficient, and the State
Department’s report is applied patchily to establish government-wide
anti-trafficking programs and projects.
Some of the minimum standards are subjective, and the report
fails to delineate how these standards were applied, reducing the report’s
integrity. For instance, country narratives for Tier 1 countries do not make
clear compliance with the second minimum standard pertaining to approved
penalties for sex-trafficking crimes.
The US itself has to address domestically the problem of about
200,000 children at risk for human trafficking each year, and it would serve
that country well to effect some house cleaning there, as that problem has begun
to fester. And instead of sitting in judgment over other countries’ issues on
trafficking, there may be better outcomes if all the affected countries worked
in unison to stamp out this evil trade.
Yours
faithfully,
Prem Misir
Letter to the editor
Stabroek News
June 17, 2010
Added: Jun. 22, 2010
Cuba,
The Americas
We present a continuing dialog on the
perennial inclusion of Cuba in the worst rating categories in
the annual U.S. Trafficking in Persons Report
Cuba,
The Americas
Added: Jun. 22, 2010
Response to the 2007 TIP Report
 |
|
Rosa Miriam Elizalde
|
Crime or Punishment in Cuba
Myths about the sex trade
[A Cuban activist's analysis in
response to the
2007
U.S. Trafficking in Persons report's
allegations of child sex trafficking in Cuba]
"...The... report... avoids to mention that
before the 1959 triumph of Revolution, Cuba had a population of
about 6 million and was known as the "North American brothel in
the Caribbean." Some 100,000 women worked either directly or
indirectly on prostitution due to poverty, discrimi-nation or the
absence of jobs. The Revolution educated them and offered them
employment."
In... the “2007 Trafficking in Persons Report," Cuba and
Venezuela head-up the U.S. State Department’s black list. The
annual verdict - it has been issued now since 2001 - repeats
practically the same arguments already used for seven years. It
reiterates that both women and children are "internally
trafficked" for sexual exploitation and that the country,
[is] an
important destination...
In the Cuban case, it is not in the social or the individual
levels where this myth “woman = prostitute” reveals itself more
clearly, but in the international news media. Cuba has lived the
unusual experience of a political manipulation of the drama of
prostitution that has become the center of an international
campaign presenting Cubans, all of them, as potential saleable
objects. “You will feel watched by hundreds of approachable
women,” starts an article in Man magazine...
By linking the reemergence of prostitution in Cuba with the
measures enacted to strengthen [the] economy they are actually trying
to demonstrate the unfeasibility of the Cuban social project.
...It [the existence of prostitution] is offered-up as
the highest evidence of the political disintegration of the
Cuban system, the return to a type of trade that had disappeared
in the initial decades of the Revolution. “This campaign intends
to present the increasing number of tourists in the country as a
wave of sex-starved males that will find their desires fulfilled
in an island plunged into poverty, with women selling their
bodies for their daily bread," as a Spanish journalist who
took part in a debate on the topic in the magazine Cambio 16
stated.
The attempt at [highlighting this part of the economy continues
to grow] thanks to the sex
market... There have even been those who have
rashly awarded Cuba the credential of “erotic imperialist” when
trying to explain the signs of economic recovery in a blockaded
country. In this type of analysis, of course, the image of Cuban
prostitutes is presented out of context. Since, as a rule, the
phenomenon is seen superficially and tendentious information is
offered, foreigners imagine that these prostitutes are not
essentially different from those who sell themselves in
bordellos and streets in their cities and that form part of a
highly organized and lucrative business, all this quite far from
Cuban reality.
"Whether directly or indirectly, what is being sold as an image
is the possibility of subduing the Cuban nation."
As a mathematical formula [that runs in an endless loop], the equation
“woman = prostitute = Cuba” has ended up as a new version of the
myth maintaining that all women are whores: it is the
stigmatized identity of a country and the tropical version of
the failure of socialism.
Whether directly or indirectly, what is
being sold as an image is the possibility of subduing the Cuban
nation. That “all women are approachable” does not only mean
that you can buy sexuality and power over another human being –
and, by extension, take control of a country for a period of
time established beforehand – but that you can avail yourself of
their intimacy, [that place] in human beings, no matter where
they are from, where the link with shame and taboo runs deep. ..
Rosa Miriam Elizalde
Translated by María Teresa Ortega
July 27, 2007
See also:
Cuba
Response to the 2010 TIP Report
Reconoce UNICEF ejemplo de Cuba en protección a la infancia
Es el cuento de nunca acabar. Autoridades estadounidenses ya no
saben de cuál gajo colgarse en su enfermizo empeño contra Cuba.
La mala nueva es ahora la aparición de la lsla entre los peores
países del globo en cuanto al tráfico de personas, según informe
elaborado por el Departamento de Estado en relación con el tema…
Paradojas: hace apenas cinco días, en La Habana, Juan José
Ortiz, representante del Fondo de Naciones Unidas para la
Infancia (UNICEF) ofreció declaraciones en las cuales resaltó:
"En el planeta, millones de menores sufren la falta de
escolarización y de vacunación contra enfermedades prevenibles,
además de ser víctimas de explotación laboral y sexual en las
redes internacionales de prostitución, ninguno es cubano"...
UNICEF recognizes Cuba as a leader in
childhood protection
The story never ends. U.S. authorities no longer know from which
hook to hang in the ongoing campaign against Cuba.
The newest story to come out is that Cuba appears as one of the
worst nations on earth in regard to human trafficking, according
the [2010 Trafficking in Persons report of the] U.S. Department
of State.
Cuba did not hesitate to respond. Josefina Vidal,
director for North America for the Cuban Chancellery responded
to the 2010 TIP report by declaring the allegations to be “false
and disrespectful.”
Paradoxically, five days ago, Juan Jose Ortiz, a representative
of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), made the
following statement: “Across the world, millions of minors
suffer from a lack of access to education and vaccines to
protect against preventable diseases, in addition to being
victims of international sexual and labor exploitation networks.
None of these children are Cuban."
During recent years Cuba has achieved important, positive
progress in regard to protecting children, a fact which has
transformed Cuba into the Latin American nation with the highest
quality of life for girls and boys.
An age-old saying in Cuba goes: “Tell me what you accuse me of,
and I will show you what you, yourself are lacking.” This fits
like a ring on a finger in the case of the allegations made
against Cuba.
The U.S. leads in statistics regarding all forms of trafficking,
immigration. Drug use, murders, mafias, wars, etcetera…
The [allegations of child trafficking made against Cuba] show
the blindness of certain authorities in the Obama
Administration. They have never visited Cuba, and they have
apparently never read UNICEF’s reports in regard to conditions
for children here.
Continuing with the statement of conditions in Cuba by UNICEF’s
Juan Jose Ortiz, he says: “quantitatively and qualitatively, we
can say that the
Convention on the Rights of the Child is applied very well
in Cuba."
In Ortiz’ opinion, this state of affairs has come about through
the collaboration between the Cuban Government and UNICEF,
making Cuba a shining example for children rights for the rest
of Latin America.
Everything is not perfect. Nothing exists in simple, black and
white tones. Shades of grey do exist. As one poet stated it:
“none of use live in a perfect society.” But to say that
children in Cuba are subjected to the degrading business of
human trafficking and child prostitution is a repugnant form of
political aggression.
Cuba is not a rich country, but it does not interfere in
the “persistent effort to guarantee protections for children,”
which is, according to UNICEF, a state of affairs made possible by
[the actions of] Cuba’s
government.”
Children in
Cuba may lack financial resources, but there is no lack of love
and good will to support them…
Marcos Alfonso
Radio Guantanamo
June 16, 2010
See also:
Added: Jun. 21, 2010
Cuba,
The Americas
LibertadLatina
Commentary
Response to the 2010 TIP Report
|
|
|
Chuck Goolsby |
We do not take a position on the political situation in Cuba, beyond
acknowledging that Democracy must come, some day, to that island nation. In
addition, we are not communists, socialists or any other 'ist' that can be
negatively labeled.
As a musician specializing in, among other things, Afro-Cuban folkloric music
(Rumba) for the past 32 years, I have had many Cuban friends, of all ages, races and political
leanings. As one of Cuba's best African folklorist's, a man named Hector, told
me when he came to Washington, DC after the
1980 Mariel Boatlift exodus of
refugees: "The lack of political freedom in Cuba was terrible, but the fact
that all of your needs were met - education, food, housing and
healthcare - was a good thing."
In regard to the rights of children and human trafficking, we find that the
recent report from Cuba's
Radio Guantanamo (see the above article), and also UNICEF official
Juan Jose Ortiz's recent comments on Cuba's treatment of children, ring much closer to the truth than the
allegations contained in the 2010
U.S. State Department's assessment, which declares that Cuba deserves a "Tier 3" (the
lowest) rating for supposedly
refusing to address the issue of human trafficking.
Before the Cuban revolution in 1958, Cuba was literally the top sex
tourism destination for U.S. citizens in the Americas. After the revolution, prostitution was
banned and former prostitutes were given job training, an approach that would
have been considered unthinkable in any other Latin American nation at the time,
despite the continent-wide epidemic of prostitution that then plagued (and still
plagues) the region.
After the victory of Castro's forces in 1958, one of his first acts was to allow
Afro-Cubans to attend public beaches (a practice banned under the dictator
Batista). We note with horror that Mexican police had been known to clear
Acapulco's beaches of
Afro-Mexican children and adults - also with
the goal of 'pleasing' U.S. tourists, as recently as
a decade ago.
In
1975, I recall seeing a mainstream television news story about Fidel Castro
declaring that women would be given equal rights in Cuba.
At the time, this policy change caused enraged men to flock to Cuba's streets en-mass to protest.
Yet equality became official policy. By contrast, women did not even win the
right to vote in Mexico until 1953.
In 1991, a very high level official in the U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services (the director of an HHS region) had a very long conversation with me about the human rights of children in
Latin America. What this official said to me was that Cuba was the only nation in
Latin America that properly cared for all of its children. He added that hunger,
lack of access to medical care, lack of access to education and other maladies
that plague all other Latin American nations are non-existent in Cuba. This
official's assessment from 1991 is compatible with UNICEF's recent (2010)
comments on the positive, pro-children efforts that are clearly visible
throughout Cuba.
In addition, African descendents, who are 60% of Cuba's current population, are
given access to equal education and, even if poor, can look forward to attending
excellent medical schools if they qualify academically and so desire. You
will not find that state of affairs anywhere else in the Americas.
The
Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM) in Havana, has graduated more than
7,000 doctors from Latin America and nations around the world, often via
scholarships. One family friend, whose son's medical practice partner in Colombia is
Afro-Colombian, noted that Colombia's racist medical schools refuse to admit even ONE
Afro-Colombian student. This perfectly qualified physician therefore received
his training in Cuba. This friend went on to state that the Colombian Navy
refused to admit any Afro Colombians to training for its officer corps.
In Cuba, the social drivers that create the conditions necessary to expose
children to mass human trafficking simply do not exist.
By contrast, millions of indigenous children in Mexico are forced to work for a
living while facing unspeakable racial hatred focused against them by the
nation's Spanish descendents. It is well documented that indigenous and African
descendant children in Mexico are forced to go to schools with dirt floors and
often without bathroom facilities (a public health factor that was widely
discussed in the context of the 2009 Swine Flu outbreak). Tens of thousands of
poor indigenous girls in the 12 to 14-years-of-age range must work, with no
access to schooling, as domestic servants for middle and upper class Mexican
households. Only a few of these children are actually paid, and many of them are
routinely raped with impunity by the homeowner and/or his sons.
In addition, some 3,000 to 4,000 indigenous children and youth
have been kidnapped with complete impunity by Japanese Yakuza mafias and their
accomplices in Mexico, and have been sent to Japan to be enslaved as Geisha prostitutes,
while neither Mexico nor Japan have ever lifted even one little finger to help these innocent victims
of serial rape until death.
Activists in Mexico admit that the federal government does little to stop human
trafficking, and police agents are complicit in a large number of trafficking crimes.
None of these critical human rights issues are visibly active on Mexico's national agenda, even
now that the United Nations Blue Heart Campaign against human trafficking has
begun a ground breaking effort to combat human slavery in that nation.
It has been a concern of ours for years that the U.S. State Department
Trafficking in Persons Report has
repeatedly rated Cuba as the worst location in the Americas for human
trafficking (which is a stretch, at best), while virtually ignoring the easily
demonstrable pandemic of mass enslavement of poor women and
children in Mexico, Argentina, the Dominican Republic and other major source
countries for victims.
Does prostitution and adult sex tourism exist in Cuba? Yes. Is Cuba's problem
with human trafficking anywhere near as bad as it is in Mexico? No. Not by a long
shot.
Cuba was always targeted for low ratings in the TIP report when President George
W. Bush was in office. It was understood by many that this was political payback.
If Cuba deserves a Tier 3 rating, then Mexico and Argentina deserve a Tier 4
rating (of course, tier 4 does not actually exist).
If Mexico is a gleaming example of a nation that is doing good work, and better
work than Cuba to stop child sex trafficking, then our nation's assessment techniques
are flawed and inaccurate, and are therefore in BIG trouble.
...Just keeping the discussion honest.
End impunity now!
Chuck Goolsby
LibertadLatina
June 21/22/23, 2010
See also:
UNICEF's background report on conditions
Cuba
See also:
Press response to the 2010 TIP Report
Ambassador CdeBaca on 10th Annual
Trafficking in Persons Report
CdeBaca answers questions on modern
slavery, sex and labor trafficking
Question [from a reporter]: Thank
you.
Ambassador CdeBaca: Yes.
Question: Yes. Back on the case of
Cuba, I’m wondering what actually is the justification for the -
I mean, I read a little bit, but it sounds - it seems like the
U.S. might be open to charges of political ranking. I’m just
trying to get why Cuba is on Tier 3.
Ambassador CdeBaca: Well, I think
that one of the things that we see for Cuba is that there is no
law against this practice. There’s some other laws that could be
cobbled together perhaps in order to prosecute a trafficker, but
there’s no evidence that that has actually been done. I think
one of the things that we also look at there is, again, the age
of legal prostitution. Again, children are – can legally be in
prostitution at ages 16 and 17.
[We note that the age of sexual consent in
Mexico continues to be age 12 in the majority of states, a fact
the fuels a massive child sex trafficking industry who's
regulation is not even hinted at by Mexico's government. Police
do not enforce any laws against 12-year-olds being involved in
prostitution in Mexico because these girls and boys are of legal
age to consent to sex.
Yet
that fact did not place Mexico in a Tier 3 ranking,
contradicting Ambassador CdeBaca's rationale for singling out
Cuba (where he states that 16 and 17-year-olds, who are of the
age of consent in Cuba, engage in prostitution).
Most Latin
American nations have ages of consent in the 12 to 15-years-of-age
range, and their prostitution 'industries' reflect that fact. -
LL]
Ambassador CdeBaca: We also see the lack of human trafficking protections and no
training for the police, prosecutors, or social workers on what
to do if one sees a human trafficking situation. So in a country
where not only do you have a – such a large tourist industry,
other countries in the region that draw tourists from the same
places as Cuba, have large child sex tourism problems, and are
working to address those, we don’t see the same activity in
Cuba. So it’s a multifaceted approach as far as why they would
end up on Tier 3.
U.S. Department of State
June 14, 2010
[We note that Latin American
and Caribbean nations other than Cuba, where child sex tourism is rampant,
have few if any of the extensive protections that are available in Cuba that guarantee
children shelter, food and a good education.
The result is that young
people in these other nations easily fall victim to sexual exploitation. Cuba
maintains a high level of support for children despite the fact that, as the UNICEF web page
on Cuba
notes, the U.S. trade embargo has had the effect of raising infant
mortality rates. -
LL]
Cuba
Another view of the Cuban reality
Havana Has The Air of a Brothel...
...Havana has the air of a brothel at times, particularly if you pass through Monte Street where it meets Cienfuegos. Young women in their flashy - if a little faded - clothes offer their "merchandise," especially after night falls and the spandex doesn't look quite as baggy nor the circles under their eyes quite as dark. These are the ones who can't compete with those who can snag a manager or a tourist to take them to a hotel and offer them, the next morning, a breakfast that comes with milk. These are the ones who don't wear perfume and who finish their work in the cramped quarters of a solar or even on the landing under the stairs. They traffic in groans, exchanging spasms for money.
These men and women - merchants of desire - avoid tripping over the uniformed police who guard the area. Falling into their hands can mean a night in a cell or, for those in the city illegally, deportation to your home province. Everything can be "resolved" if the officer accepts the hint of a probing thigh and agrees to withhold an official warning in exchange for a few minutes of privacy. Some officers return regularly to take their cut, in money or in services, that allows these nocturnal beings to continue taking up their positions on the corner. A woman who refuses the exchange can find herself in a prostitute reeducation camp, while the men might be charged with the crime of pre-criminal dangerousness.
And so the cycle of sex for money comes full circle, in a city where honest work is a museum relic and the needs bring many to position their bodies and swing their hips in hopes of an offer.
Yoani Sanchez - Award-Winning Cuban Blogger
The Huffington Post
April 26, 2010
See also:
Cuba
Response to the 2008 TIP Report
Cuba Rejects Its Inclusion on US List of Countries Not Fighting Human Trafficking
Cuba on Sunday rejected U.S. claims that it does not do enough to combat human trafficking, saying that Washington "has a lot to learn" about life on the island.
U.S. authorities "are unfamiliar with and distort" Cuban reality, the Foreign Relations Ministry said in a written response to the U.S. State Department's annual "Trafficking in Persons Report," released Wednesday. The report tracks human trafficking for the sex trade, coerced labor and the recruitment of child soldiers, outlining efforts to fight it, including prosecution, sentencing and programs to help victims.
Listing Cuba among the world's worst offenders, the report said poor women and
children on the island are often forced into prostitution by family members. But
it also noted that human trafficking cannot be properly measured in Cuba, given
the government's refusal to cooperate with independent observers. Cuba said it
maintains a "firm" policy against human trafficking and prostitution and noted
that its communist system provides for the basic needs of all citizens...
"Cuba does not see any value in the State Department's report," the Foreign Ministry's statement said. "The government of the United States has a lot to do in its own country to combat the rampant phenomenon there of prostitution, sexual exploitation, forced labor and the trafficking of people."
"The government of the United States has a lot to learn about Cuba and is not in a position to judge anyone," it said.
The International Herald Tribune
June 13, 2008
See also:
Cuba, The World
Sixty-second General Assembly - Thematic Debate on Human Trafficking
The representative of Cuba said that, since industrialized countries were the main destination for human trafficking, and their actions increased the demand for women and child sex workers, a credible United Nations anti-trafficking strategy should advance a more just international economic order that would put a stop to inequalities.
The United Nations General Assembly
June 03, 2008
See also:
Venezuela
Response to the 2006 TIP Report
Venezuela's Record in Combating Human Trafficking
Since 2000 the U.S. State Department has issued a yearly report on the status of trafficking in persons (TIP) throughout the world. In June 2006 the Office to Combat and Monitor the Trafficking of Persons, the State Department body responsible for studying TIP and issuing the report, characterized Venezuela as an egregious human trafficker and designated it a Tier 3 nation, subject to economic sanctions. The TIP Report claims that Venezuela “does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so.”[1] This ruling, for the second year in a row, sits in stark contrast to the facts surrounding Venezuela’s human trafficking record.
Is Venezuela's tier 3 designation politically motivated?
According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) many countries with many more human trafficking violations than Venezuela have been assigned Tier 1 or Tier 2 status while others with less serious records receive Tier 3. Michael Shifter of the Inter-American Dialogue notes in an opinion piece published in the New York Times that “in the State Department’s 2003 Human Trafficking report Venezuela did not even appear among the five worst offenders in the Western Hemisphere” and that “the Bush administration has not provided compelling and persuasive evidence that warrants singling out one country.”
Mexico serves as a case in point.
In the 2006 TIP Report Mexico is described in far worse terms than Venezuela and even noted as “a source, transit, and destination country for persons trafficked for sexual exploitation and labor.” In contrast to Venezuela’s record, the government of Mexico has repeatedly refused to gather official data on human trafficking within its borders and keeps no law enforcement statistics on trafficking investigations, arrests, prosecutions, or convictions. Even more disturbing, “there are no shelters or related services that specifically aid trafficking victims” in Mexico. Despite these dismal results, Mexico was assigned a Tier 2 designation for the third consecutive year. Washington justifies this designation in the Report by noting a “future commitment” from the Mexican government to undertake efforts in prosecution, protection, and prevention. Venezuela on the other hand has pro-actively addressed all of these areas.
In a statement regarding the State Department’s Human Rights Report issued in early 2005 the Deputy Director of the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) Kimberly Stanton noted “political considerations are evident in some of the findings… The credibility of the reports depends on consistent, objective analysis. This year the U.S. government policy priorities are affecting the evaluation of the data in some cases.”
VenInfo.org
2006
See Also:
The reality is that
Mexico fares much worse than Cuba or
Venezuela in regard to the treatment of its
self-created mega-crisis of child and adult trafficking
Mexico
Víctimas del tráfico
de personas, 5 millones de mujeres y niñas
en América Latina
De esa
cifra, más de 500 mil casos ocurren en
México, señalan especialistas.
Five million victims
of Human Trafficking Exist in Latin America
Saltillo, Coahuila state -
Teresa Ulloa Ziaurriz, the director of the
Coalition Against Trafficking in Women's
Latin American / Caribbean regional office,
announced this past Monday that more than
five million women and girls are currently
victims of human trafficking in Latin
America and the Caribbean.
During a forum on successful
treatment approaches for trafficking victims
held by the Women's Institute of Coahuila,
Ulloa Ziaurriz stated that
500,000 of these
cases exist in Mexico, where women and girls
are trafficked for sexual exploitation,
pornography and the illegal harvesting of
human organs...
Mexico is a country of
origin, transit and also destination for
trafficked persons. Of 500,000 victims in
Mexico, 87% are subjected to commercial
sexual exploitation.
Ulloa Ziaurriz pointed out
that locally in Coahuila state, the nation's
human trafficking problem shows up in the
form of child prostitution in cities such as
Ciudad Acuña as well as other population
centers along Mexico's border with the
United States.
- Notimex /
La Jornada Online
Mexico City
Dec. 12, 2007
See also:
Added March 23, 2008
Mexico
Un millón de menores
latinoamericanos atrapados por redes de prostitución
Former Special
Prosecutor for Violent Crimes Against
Women - Alicia Elena Perez Duarte:
|
At least one million children across Latin
America have been entrapped by child
prostitution and pornography networks.
[In many cases in Mexico] these child
victims are offered to businessmen
and politicians. |
Full story (in
English)
See also:
Added Oct. 28, 2007
Central America and Mexico
Trata de blancas
en Centroamérica
For
non-governmental organizations, the child kidnapping
and sex trafficking case of 11-year-old Jackeline
Jirón Silva fom Nicaragua is emblematic, as it
shows clearly how the third most profitable criminal
enterprise in the world operates.
...Jackeline has been forced to work in brothels all
over Central America. Her pimps now have her in
Tapachula, in Chiapas state [near Mexico's southern
border with Guatemala].
María de Jesús Silva [Jackeline's mother, who
searched all over Central America and southern
Mexico for her daughter]: "I saw things that I never
imagined existed... The brothels are full of
children, sold by traffickers and abandoned by their
parents. I saw them prostitute themselves and wished
that any one of them would have been my daughter. I
settled for caressing the hair of these girls, and I
imagined that in the 'next' brothel, I was going to
find my daughter. Everything that I have suffered
through is nothing compared to what my girl is going
through."
...According to Ana Salvadó, executive director for
Mexico, Latin America and the Caribbean for
Save the Children:
"the panorama for childhood in Latin America is
growing more bleak over time, and child trafficking
is growing rapidly in each of these countries..."
…Save the Children has
identified the border region between Guatemala and
Mexico as being the largest hot spot for the
commercial sexual exploitation of children in the
entire world. Ana Salvadó: "It is a
bottleneck, because many children attempt to migrate
from Central [and South] America to the United
States, and they never get past [southern] Mexico…
…A study by the international organization
ECPAT…
made public three weeks ago in Guatemala City,
reveals that over 21,000
Central Americans, mostly children, are prostituted
in 1,552 bars and brothels in Tapachula, Mexico…
Traffickers sell these child victims to Tapachula's
pimps for $200 each.
More that 50% of these children are from
[indigenous] Guatemala. The rest are Salvadorans,
Hondurans and Nicaraguans.
They range in age from eight to fourteen-years-old.
...In 2006, the
International
Labor Organization conducted a survey of
adult attitudes in Mexico, Central America and South
America, where it is quite easy [for men] to engage
in sexual relations with children.
|
Some 65% of
respondents stated that they don't see any
problem, and they don't feel any sort of
conflict or fear in regard to having sex
with boy and girl children, and "they don't
feel that there is anything wrong with doing
it." |
...Mexico has been converted into a paradise for
pimps and a living hell for thousands of Central
American girl children like Jackeline Jirón Silva,
whose captors have prostituted her during the past
32 months. It is known that during half of that
time, Jackeline has been held in the southern
Mexican state of Chiapas.
-
Ana Lilia Pérez
Revista Contralínea
Oct. 22, 2007
| | |
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