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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 True Story of the
Sexual Exploitation
with Impunity of Latina
Immigrant Women and Children in
Washington, DC and its
Maryland and Virginia
Suburbs
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This
Section Last Updated: May 3, 2008 |
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A Focus on Washington, DC and
Montgomery County, Maryland
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A
crisis of rape with impunity and sexual slavery severely impacts the
lives of Latin American immigrant women and girls in Greater Washington,
DC |
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 This
section of
LibertadLatina.org
contains information
regarding the exploitation and
abuse of Latina immigrant women and children in
the Maryland suburbs of Washington, DC and
within the greater Washington, DC region.
These factual materials document
a human rights crisis that has
in the past been hidden from
public view by a combination of
anti-immigrant apathy and
hostility and by a code of
silence within the affected
Latino communities. The
most dire result of this
disturbing pattern of reactions
has been that Latin women,
children and men victims of
criminal abuse and civil law
violations have often been
ignored, underserved and
at-times they have been openly
intimidated by government
institutions that their taxes
pay for, institutions that
should defend them!
From the author's experiences in participating
in and hearing first, second and third person
case histories in this region for 24 years,
including over 65 case stories and taking 6
Latina cases before the local U.S. Equal
Employment Opportunities Commission (EEOC)
processor (now called the Montgomery County
Human Rights Office) and one Latina case
intervention before criminal court as a lay
advocate, it is clear that a problem exists.
Latina immigrant women and girls continue to be
sexually exploited largely because local
government agencies do not respond to this
crisis, and the perpetrators of criminal abuses
and civil sexual harassment law violations see
this and know that they can continue with
impunity. Other advocates (see social
worker's letter below) have come to the same
conclusion.
The children, women and men
victims of this illegal
exploitation deserve equal
protection under the law!
Let us all work together to make
that dream a reality soon!
Chuck Goolsby, September, 2003
- LibertadLatina
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Click on each topic to jump to it...
-
The
Challenges
of
Advocacy
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Sex
Trafficking
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Labor
Slavery
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Workplace
Sexual
Exploitation
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The
victimization
of
Latina
Children
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The Rape
of Adult
Latinas
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Youth
Gang
Violence
and
Sexual
Exploitation
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Hold
Government
Accountable
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Before
LibertadLatina,
Chuck
Goolsby's
Human
Rights
Newsletter
-
Discrimination
in
Healthcare
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About
the
Montgomery
County,
Maryland
Commission
for
Women
-
Federal
Immigration
Reform
and
Latina
Human
Rights
Links:
U.S.
Community
Exploitation
for coverage
of community
exploitation
issues
within the
U.S.
U.S.
Workplace
Exploitation
for
coverage
of
workplace
exploitation
issues
across the
United
States
All of our reports and
commentaries: 1994 to present
More
about / Mas
sobre
Chuck Goolsby
and
LibertadLatina.org
"I
stand with other men who have made a decision that enough is enough, and
have decided that the brutal men who act with impunity, subjecting women
and children to kidnapping, rape, torture, domestic violence, murder and
sex trafficking with impunity will not continue to get away with it. We
will stand up and take these guys on and defend the
innocent. Our grandmothers, living and gone, our mothers, our sisters and
daughters deserve more than the sexist apathy that currently plagues
many male attitudes about these severe forms of gender oppression..."
- Chuck Goolsby
LibertadLatina
Dec. 10,
2005
See also:
A
snapshot of the Latin music history of Washington, DC, by
Chuck Goolsby |
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During 1999 and 2000, previous to starting the
LibertadLatina.org
project,
Chuck Goolsby provided an e-mail based newsletter of
important community issues related to the right of
Latina women and children to live free from sexual
harassment, rape and enslavement.
Here is text from one
example...
Detailed
information
on Latin
Women
Worker/Harassment
& Other
Exploitation
Issues
(A copy of this e-mail was sent to the U.S. Justice Department, Civil
Rights Division on 12/02/1999.)
Excerpt...
E-Mail
Date: 12/02/99 10:04:28
Hello friends of human rights,
I wanted to present some background on the issue of sexual harassment
and the particular dynamics involved when the victims are Latin-American
Women and Girls.
At the local level, especially in Montgomery County, anti-immigrant and
anti-Latino sentiment blocks police, human relations commission and
social services staff from doing anything about these abuses.
I have documented over 50 cases since 1986, just from my
exposure to Latino workers in corporate and government office buildings
as I move around doing computer work.
This problem exists at severe levels in virtually every office
building, restaurant and hotel in the Washington, DC area.
The victim and potential victim community represent a form of
'underclass' who literally may be harassed, coerced, touched and raped,
while the perpetrators, be they Latino, White or Black, or foreign born
business owners and managers of other ethnicity's... can operate with
confidence that the victim community is too scared, and too pressured
socially (to keep
quiet) to cause any trouble for these criminal perpetrators.
As you likely know, Latino immigrants are afraid of government in
general, afraid of the police, and are afraid of bosses on the job.
They are forced to work harder than "Americans" who know their
rights, and they are used to the exploitation.
I hear this from Central American immigrants almost every time I meet
someone.
In fact I heard it yesterday in a building I just started working
in.
In addition to sexual harassment and assault, illegal retaliatory
reprimands and firings occur, wages are withheld (CASA of Maryland, in
Takoma Park [Maryland], has a list of over 400 Washington, DC area cases
documented where Latino workers have not been paid by employers),
workers are sometimes actually physically beaten by managers, and other
such outrages occur.
These events are normal in much of Latin America.
And government agencies, employers, human rights activists and community leaders have done virtually NOTHING to prevent or
respond to these issues.
Getting victims to come forward is going to require some intervention
from advocates like us.
In the past, very few victims have been willing to go through the
tedious, long duration hassle that bringing a case involves.
And those who have gone through the process have been virtually
spit upon time and again by the legal system.
I know this first hand because I've been there as de-facto legal
assistant and interpreter and negotiator many, many times.
The system will not listen to these victims...
- Chuck Goolsby
Dec. 02,
1999
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An Overview
Latina prostitution slavery exists
in almost every neighborhood in greater
Washington.
It
is well-known that many of
the women and girls involved are forced to
work against their will, and that the
traffickers transport in new groups of them to each
apartment-based brothel every two weeks from New York City,
New Jersey, Atlanta, and other major
prostitution markets.
Another source of women in
prostitution involves local Latina women and
girls who are subjected to severe sexual
harassment and rape by gang members and other
men. Some of these victims are pressured
into participating in prostitution, and others
actively choose what local Central American
Latinas call: "La vide facil" (the easy life).
Additional
Analysis
LibertadLatina's
Analysis of
the
Impunity and
Prostitution
in Langley
Park, MD,
Where
Brothels
Earn Many
Tens of
Thousands of
Dollars
Weekly.
Shut Down
Langley
Park's
Mega-Brothels!
Prostitution dynamics in the Langley Park Latin American immigrant
community
Excerpt #1...
In working class
barrios around Washington, DC such as Langley Park, prostitution
operations are commonplace. It is 'traditional' for many men to
‘use’ adult and underage prostitutes in Latin America, and especially in
Mexico and Central America where most Langley Park immigrants came from.
As an example, one Salvadoran friend, now an evangelical lay pastor,
told me that his father took him to a brothel to be with three
prostitutes, when he was 12 years old.
The fact that
these communities are also gender imbalanced, with many more men than
women being present, creates a large-scale demand for prostitution.
The exploding
criminal industry of sex trafficking provides the 'supply' - women and
underage girls, that the market demands. In this case, criminal
sex trafficking networks from Mexico, Los Angeles and New York City have
for years saturated the Washington, DC region with adult and underage
prostitutes working against their will. A 1994 Washington Post
story describes how such networks rotate prostitutes in and out of the
Washington, DC region from New York City. That pattern continues
to exist 11 years later in 2005.
In 2003 I had a
conversation with a local Latino personality who frequented Latin
American immigrant brothels in both Washington, DC and in the suburban
city of Gaithersburg, Maryland. He described the fact that young
women from Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Central America were
sent to Gaithersburg from New York City. The trafficking networks
involved ‘rotated’ these women out every two weeks. The source
noted that these women had told him that they were being ‘exploited’
[forced into prostitution].
During a Spring,
2005 trip to New York City to speak to the group Latinas United for Justice
at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, a Latina student who
formerly worked as a cabbie related to me how cab customers all over New
York constantly asked to be taken to the Latin American immigrant
brothels that she noted are “everywhere” in New York. The student
stated that all of the cabbies know about these brothels, and she knew
that the women ‘working’ in them were working against their will.
This New York source of women in prostitution slavery supplies at least
part of the demand for prostitutes in the greater Washington, DC region.
In addition to
forced prostitution, thousands of women and girls in the Latin American
immigrant communities of the greater Washington, DC region engage in
prostitution of their ‘own free will’ (arguably). It is perhaps
more accurate to state that women and teenage girls are forced to engage
in prostitution because:
·
They have grown up in sexist cultures where intimacy was
forced upon them as children, youth or young adults.
(An estimated 80% of child prostitutes in
many Latin American nations were sexually abused
at home before fleeing into a life of street
prostitution.)
·
A
'machismo' based environment instilled in them the concept that their intimacy
is a commodity, that is meant to be sold;
·
They
live in immigrant communities where they are constantly barraged with
unwanted, severe sexual harassment, and are propositioned on a daily
basis; something that some women and underage girls 'give in to.'
·
The
expansion of extremely violent Latin American immigrant gangs into
Langley Park and other communities in the region are creating
environments where women and underage girls are being subjected: to rape
with impunity; severe sexual harassment; pressure to join gangs, leading
to a gang-rape initiation; forced prostitution and coercive pressure on
women and girls to work in prostitution.
·
Immigrant women and girls who complain to the police, and want to press
charges for various levels of sexual assault and other forms of physical
aggression are often turned away by the indifference, anti-immigrant
hostility or bureaucratic rules of the law enforcement community.
·
Strictly enforced rules bar undocumented women and teens
(and especially mothers) from receiving public assistance, forcing them
into prostitution as their only means of survival.
This
factor is a critical point to understand during times of recession in
the United States. Thousands of Latina women literally face a
life without income due to a poor economy and increased
immigration enforcement! How can they and their children survive?
- Chuck Goolsby
LibertadLatina
Aug. 16, 2005
LibertadLatina
Commentary
Undocumented Women and Girls Who Are Caught
Between Increasing
Immigration Law Enforcement And Recession Face
Sexual Exploitation
Prostitution, quid-pro-quo work arrangements
and non-reporting of rape result from a bad
economy and tougher federal, state and local
immigration enforcement.
...Ms.
undocumented Latina finds herself with no
relief from
comprehensive immigration reform,
no green
card, no work permit, no job (especially in this recession), little understanding of
the details of federal, state and local laws, no protection from crime,
protection
that should be provided by police
forces that today may arrest and deport her, no way to feed herself and her children,
and no access to the social services that could help
to alleviate those desperate circumstances.
In that situation, Ms. Latina
will not report rape to police. She will not say "no!" to a
potential or current employer who says (in violation of the law) that
sex is the price she must pay for employment, and she may not say
"no!" to
a pimp or sex trafficker who offers her 'la vida facil' (the easy
life) as a prostitute.
If she goes home to Bolivia, Peru,
Nicaragua, Colombia, Mexico or the Dominican Republic, she will face
exactly the same conditions of life, except for the fact that she will
not be able to support her family...
- Chuck Goolsby
LibertadLatina
Mar 29, 2008
Shut Down
Langley
Park's
Mega-Brothels!
Prostitution dynamics in the Langley Park Latin American immigrant
community
Excerpt #2...
Mega-Brothels in Langley Park, Maryland
In 2004 a U.S.
federal law enforcement official informed me that, much to his surprise,
a Latin American immigrant brothel operation existed in Langley Park
that was raking in $60,000 per week. The agent stated that such
sums of money are usually earned only through large-scale illegal drug
operations.
At perhaps $30.00
per act of prostitution, the above figure breaks down to an estimated
2,000 acts of prostitution per week. That is the volume that just
one of perhaps several Latin American immigrant prostitution operations
is earning.
The agent had
called seeking resources for women victims of these brothel operations
who wanted to leave prostitution. I referred the caller to
Washington, DC's principal non-profit working in direct intervention for
the rescued victims of trafficking.
Given that Latino
prostitution operations are typically run by gangs, it would not be
surprising to find additional prostitution networks operating in Langley
Park on a large scale.
Do they transport
Puerto Rican, Dominican and Salvadoran women en-mass to and from New
York City, as brothel operations in nearby Gaithersburg, Maryland do?
Do they transport Mexican and Central American women en-mass to Langley
Park from Los Angeles, California, by way of gang connections there?
These are
questions that only U.S. law enforcement authorities are capable of
answering for the public.
Regardless of the
origins of the women and girls trapped in prostitution in Langley Park,
federal, state and local law enforcement have an obligation under both
criminal and moral law, to act to shut down these criminal enterprises
and rescue this large community of victims from prostitution.
A year after
being told of this giant Latina 'rape-factory' in Langley Park by a
federal agent, I have yet to see a news report or a prosecutor's
announcement stating that this major criminal enterprise has been shut
down, the victims have been rescued and the perpetrators have been given
a date to see a judge.
Federal
government officials in the current administration often talk about the
need to rescue and restore trafficking victims. Well, here, just
10 miles directly north of the U.S. Capitol Rotunda, is a good place to
start...
- Chuck Goolsby
LibertadLatina
Aug. 16, 2005
Additional
Sex
Trafficking News and
Analysis
from the
Washington,
DC Region
Added April 30, 2008
Washington, DC USA
Ricky Martin at the
April 29th Inter-
American Develop-
ment Bank (IADB)
event kicking-off the
"CALL AND LIVE"
campaign in
Washington, DC
El cantante Ricky Martin ha
decidido extender su lucha contra el tráfico de
personas a Estados Unidos, donde se calcula que hay
unas 20 mil personas [nuevas cada año] que son
retenidas o han sido desplazadas contra su voluntad.
El artista, que
desarrolla esta labor a través de la Ricky Martin
Foundation (RMF) , presentó hoy en Washington la
campaña "Llama y Vive"...
La campaña consta de
anuncios de radio, televisión y prensa escrita, en
los que el cantante promociona una línea telefónica
de información y asistencia contra el tráfico de
personas en la capital estado-unidense...
"Si estás lejos de casa
y te están explotando sexual o laboralmente, eres
víctima de trata" rezan los tres comerciales
dirigidos a la población latina...
"No están solos" dijo
Martin dirigiéndose a los latinos de Washington. "Vamos
a llamar a sus puertas si es necesario, para
preguntarles si necesitan nuestra ayuda"...
- EFE / El Universal
April 29, 2008
Ricky Martin campaigns against human trafficking [in
Washington, DC]
Latin heartthrob Ricky Martin is
using his star power to launch "Llama y Vive" or "Call and Live", a campaign to
prevent human trafficking from Latin America and also provide services for
victims.
"Call and Live" has already been
implemented in Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Peru, and Nicaragua. Now, it's
expanding to five more Latin American countries.
Martin has partnered with the
Inter-American Develop-ment Bank and Ayuda [a local Latino legal services
agency] to launch "Call and Live".
Ricky Martin on human trafficking
says: "My dream right now is all about seeing abolition, abolition of a new era,
abolition of what we call a modern day form of slavery which is human
trafficking and I'm not going to give up."
The campaign works to prevent human
trafficking from Latin America and provide protection services to Latino victims
in Washington, D.C. including offering a confidential victims' hotline...
- TimesNow.tv - with material from
Reuters
India
April 30, 2008
LibertadLatina
commentary:
The Llama y Vive / Call and Live kick-off event in Washington, DC on April 29,
2008 was an historic occasion and was well-attended. Human trafficking, in its many forms, has
long-existed in the Washington, DC region. Ten and twenty years ago when I
began seeking help from Latino agencies and the local press for exploited
Latinas, few people and organizations in a position to help answered the call.
The
LibertadLatina
project and this web site came into existence as a
result of those efforts, dating back to 1986, to bring assistance to the victim
community.
I salute Ricky Martin, his foundation, the Ayuda legal services agency, the
Washing-ton DC Office of Latino Affairs, other collaborating agencies and local
Latino media outlets for working to address the issues of human trafficking and
exploitation head on.
¡Mil gracias!
A thousand thanks!
The victim community awaits our serious and substantial efforts to help them!
- Chuck Goolsby
LibertadLatina
April 30, 2008
Added March 14, 2008
Virginia, USA
Immigration-Linked
Prostitution Cases Pose Challenge
[Woodbridge - South of Washington, DC
-] The business cards handed to men at a North
Woodbridge grocery store didn't say much. Just a first name, a cell
phone number
and the phrase Casa de Carne, or House of Meat.
But their simplicity
made clear the illicit purpose: sex.
Authorities say the
cards solicit customers for highly organized prostitution rings that cater to
Hispanic immigrants and chauffeur women from out of state. Although prostitution
crosses ethnic and racial lines, these immigration-related cases raise complex
questions about the interplay of local and federal law and are likely to pose
special challenges for Prince William County police in the push against illegal
immigration that began this week...
"A lot of girls
we've interviewed don't even know what city they are in or what state they're
in," said 1st Sgt. Daniel Hess, commander of a street crime unit that has
handled several of the prostitution cases...
"These detectives
who have this training now understand the nuances of immigration law and how we
can protect victims of human smuggling," Deane said. "The goal of these cases
really should be the people who are running these operations, the people who are
making the money."
In the prostitution
cases uncovered locally, law enforcement officials say women get about $30 for
15 minutes and are allowed to keep half of that.
"They are called las
treinteras," after treinta, the Spanish word for 30, said Dilcia Molina, a human
rights advocate. "In the world of sex work, they are usually the cheapest and
the poorest. They are the ones who are usually on the periphery."
-
Theresa Vargas
The
Washington Post
March 06, 2008
U.S. Department of Justice
Announces Human Trafficking Task Force in the
District of Columbia and Grants for Law
Enforcement to Fight Human Trafficking and
Assist Victims
Excerpt...
The D.C. Task Force on Trafficking in Persons, part of a broader push by
the Department of Justice and other federal agencies, concentrates the
resources of the Criminal and Civil Rights Divisions of the Department
of Justice, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia, the
FBI and the Metropolitan Police Department on the problem of human
trafficking in the District of Columbia.
The Task Force will work
closely with community organizations and support groups committed to
helping the victims of this crime. The Task Force effort is in
conjunction with Operation Innocence Lost, a program sponsored by the
FBI Crimes Against Children Division, the Child Exploitation and
Obscenity Section (CEOS) of the Criminal Division and the National
Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Innocence Lost,
announced in early 2003, is a nationwide initiative to focus on child
victims of interstate sex trafficking in the United States.
- The Washington Post
Nov. 23,
2004
About the
important work of
the Polaris
Project
See:
www.PolarisProject.org
Derek Ellerman,
Co-Executive
Director of Polaris
Project in
Washington, DC
Presents Testimony
to Congress on
Anti-Trafficking
Work and Polaris
Project's
Identification of
Numerous Latin and
Asian Network Run
Brothels Within
Blocks of the White
House in Washington,
DC.
(Link
to a U.S. Congress
web site is now
broken)
U.S.
House of
Representatives
July 8, 2004
From Derek
Ellerman's ground-
breaking interview
with National Public
Radio News
Excerpt...
Mr.
Derek Ellerman
(Co-Executive Director, Polaris Project):
This is what we call our war room.
This is the main room where our task force is based.
NPR's Libbie
Lewis: Derek Ellerman
is co-director of Polaris.
Mr. Ellerman: What we
have on the walls are maps of the greater DC area, and we have pins
that mark the locations of what we consider high-risk brothel
locations, where trafficking either does take place or where
we believe it may take place...
Mr. Ellerman: If you
look just in the area around the White House, we have probably 20
different locations in this radius stretching up to about Dupont
Circle and over just about to the Capitol. Most of the customers of
those brothels are people who work in the area. They're
professionals.
NPR's Libbie
Lewis: They work in
government?
Mr. Ellerman: Lots of
government officials. All the time we see men walking into the
brothels, sometimes even wearing their government tags. They'll walk
straight out of their offices, around the corner and in wearing
their government tags. We see people with diplomatic plates all the
time go in. And then people just from around will come into the
downtown area.
NPR's Libbie
Lewis: In the 18
months it has been in existence, Polaris says it's helped identify
victims in some state criminal cases, but no federal trafficking
cases yet. The DC police work with Polaris on a local task force on
human trafficking.
- National Public
Radio
All Things
Considered
June 13, 2004
LibertadLatina
commentary
Around 1982, when I was working as the conga drummer for one
of Washington, DC’s oldest Salsa bands, La
Orquesta de Tulio Arias, I ran into one of
these brothel operations in the Connecticut Ave
and ‘K’ Street area, the center of DC’s legal
and association industries.
Our band had been called to perform during a weekday happy
hour, at a small restaurant owned by a Colombian
man.
I arrived at the gig and observed
at least 20 women,
all white Americans,
all scantily clad or naked. The place was filled
with businessmen with drinks in their hands.
They seemed quite happy.
I concluded that the women were prostitutes. I immediately
picked up my drums, walked out, and went home.
My fellow band members
stayed to perform. They
later
told me that the police had raided the place
that night.
Apparently, what was happening in the
early 1980's continues today, on a larger
scale. Now it is Latina and Asian women who
predominate as the prostitutes.
- Chuck Goolsby
LibertadLatina
May 3, 2008
Note:
The criminal
networks
that traffic
young Latina
women to the
Washington,
DC suburbs
in Maryland
and Virginia
described in
the below
Washington
Post story
continue to
exist in
identical
form in the
year 2004.
Enslaved
Latin women
and girls
are moved in
and out of
Latino
neighborhood-based
brothels in
Gaithersburg,
Maryland,
Washington,
DC,
Arlington,
Virginia and
within the
other Latin
communities
of the
region. Little
has changed
since 1994
for women
and girls
exploited in
prostitution.
- Chuck
Goolsby
2004
String of Latino
Brothels Found in
Va., Md. Suburbs:
Police Say Women
Come from New York
A growing number of
brothels catering to
Latino men are
opening in the
Washington suburbs,
and police say a New
York prostitution
ring may be
responsible.
The brothels
mostly employ Latino
women from the New
York area, according
to investigators.
Court records
indicate that
virtually all charge
the same rates -- $
30 for 15 minutes of
sexual intercourse
-- and advertise
using the same kind
of business cards in
Spanish. They also
have the same
operating
procedures:
Prostitutes punch
playing cards or
score sheets to
tally each day's
customers. "Every
jurisdiction from
Arlington to
Montgomery County is
seeing the same
thing," said
Alexandria police
detective Harold
Duquette, a member
of the city's vice
squad, which is
investigating two of
the alleged
brothels.
-
Washington
Post - 09-21-1994
Slavery
Happens Here
Back on June
11 Colbert
I. King used
his op-ed
column to
discuss
violence
against
women, but
he
highlighted
only the tip
of a jagged
iceberg.
Violence
against
women in
Washington
takes many
ugly forms,
including
slavery and
forced
labor.
- Michelle
Clark
Opionion/Editorial
The
Washington
Post
October 13,
2002
-- Michele
Clark is
[a former]
co-director
of the
Protection Project
at the Johns
Hopkins
University
School of
Advanced
International
Studies
(SAIS).
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LibertadLatina.org
founder Chuck Goolsby conducted the rescue of
two Colombian women
domestic workers in Montgomery County, Maryland.
These women were subjected to virtual slavery and the
terrorized labor conditions described here below in this accurate
Washington Post article. Both women successfully started new lives
in the Washington, DC area and legalized their immigration status.
Among the experiences of the principal victim were: working from 6 AM
until Midnight every single day; cutting the grass of a huge yard (and
shoveling the huge driveway in Winter alone, by hand) while
simultaneously caring for three children, washing, cleaning and cooking
for a family of five; putting up with the all-day screams and verbal
insults of the wife in the diplomatic family; not being permitted to
ever leave the house alone; not being permitted to go anywhere on her
weekend time off unless she was accompanied...
- Chuck Goolsby
LibertadLatina
Around 2000
'Modern-Day Slavery'
Prompts Rescue Efforts
...For nearly two years, she had worked 80-hour weeks cooking, cleaning and
baby-sitting for an Ecuadoran official of the Organization of American
States. For that, her attorneys said, she was paid little more than $2
an hour. She had worked for the same family in Ecuador, but since
arriving, she said, her employer had taken her passport, she had no
money and she was afraid that if she left, she would lose her visa and
police would come for her.
Stories like hers are increasing among the thousands of women who are
recruited every year from impoverished countries as live-in domestic
help, according to law enforcement officials and advocacy groups. Now, a
growing number of organizations are reaching out to mistreated domestic
workers, helping them leave their employers and providing emergency
housing and legal advice...
-
Lena H. Sun
The Washington Post
2004-05-03 |
|
|
|
|
Working To Make
a Difference for Working Latina Women and
Girls
The work of
LibertadLatina.org
grew out of 2 decades of effort focused on
providing Latina and Latina Indigenous women and girls in
Montgomery County, Maryland (a suburb just north of
Washington, DC)... with advocacy against rape and
retaliatory firings (for not giving in to rape) that were
and are the daily reality in the low-wage workplace.
The abuses commonly encountered include those described
outrages in the Laurel, MD EEOC case (see below), and
included actual cases of rape and coerced sexual
exploitation. Latina and Indigenous women and girls in
the U.S. face an epidemic of rape in their workplaces and
communities.
The legal system does not now
effectively protect these women and children from criminal
sexual assault.
LibertadLatina.org's
work within the Washington, DC region has
documented the fact that the dynamics of historic patterns of
anti-female exploitation with impunity that target Latina and
Indigenous women and girls are merging with other, existing
forms of local criminal sexual predation in the U.S.,
subjecting immigrant women and children to open sexual assault
with impunity in low-wage workplaces and on the streets of their
communities.
The below employment abuse
cases document the sexual assault, coercion and severe
sexual harassment events that the I have witnessed
first-hand, second-hand and through third-hand stories from
dozens of immigrant women and girls since the 1980's.
Convincing abused
victims to come forward and pursue long-term
legal actions (cases typically take two years to
resolve) is difficult. Case duration
combines with justified immigrant women's
fear of the judicial system's possible
prejudices and fear of the known terror tactics
of their supervisors to often convince victims
to either keep quiet and submit to rape in the
workplace, or to face retaliatory reprimands,
demotions, shift changes and firings for not
submitting to the sexual demands of their
supervisors and managers. These events
occur every day in the U.S.
Latina immigrant women and
girl workers are typically unaware of the laws against
sexual harassment and sexual coercion on the books.
When
I distributed the translated version of the
Montgomery County Women's Commission's Sexual Harassment
brochure to Latina women workers in the mid 1990's, for
example, it was read with astonished surprise that such laws
existed in the United States. When I noted to
the Montgomery County Women's Commission during a May, 1994
presentation to them on these issues that... more brochures
needed to be printed, and that I could effectively
distribute them (I did Latin event promotions at the time),
several commission members shook their heads in disbelief
and my request was denied. That simple action still,
nine years later in 2003, needs to be taken in Montgomery
County, MD and across the U.S.
The effective communication
by advocates to Latina victims of their rights and abilities
to pursue criminal, civil and EEOC legal cases will be a
critical part of the education process needed to break the
code of silence surrounding these acts of blatant impunity
in the U.S. workplace.
Our first report on these issues - from 1994
In response to repeated failures to get the legal
and press establishment of Montgomery County and the
greater Washington, DC area to respond positively to
the urgent needs of Latina victims of workplace and
community sexual assault, I
wrote the below
report and have distributed it to many local police,
press and advocacy organizations during the past 9
years. -
Chuck
Goolsby
Montgomery
County,
MD
-- 1994
Charles M. Goolsby,
Jr.'s
1994 Report on the
Sexual Exploitation of
Latina immigrant Women
and Girls in Montgomery
County, Maryland
Excerpt...
...All
of
my
work
in
Latin-American
immigrant
victim-advocacy
has
resulted
from
victims
having
approached
me
seeking
help.
Repeatedly,
the
official
reaction
of
cleaning
contract
companies
working
within
Montgomery
County
to
my
polite
raising
of
these
issues
has
been
to
do
the
following:
1)
silence
any
discussion
of
these
issues
by
the
use
of
gross
intimidation
against
the
victims
and
myself,
2)
fire
or
force
the
victims
out,
and
3)
back-up
the
actions
of
the
perpetrators,
protecting
them
from
legal
trouble.
Latin-American
immigrant
women
have
thus
gotten
the
message
loud
and
clear
on
many
occasions
that
they
have
become
a
cheap,
disposable
resource
in
the
American
work-place,
underpaid,
overworked,
and
often
forced
into
sexual
submission
while
government
and
commerce
knowingly
turn
their
backs.
At
this
time
I
have
found
it
necessary
to
write
this
report.
Since
1988
I
have
formally
presented
this
information
to
many
persons-in-authority.
Time
after
time,
these
well-educated,
well-paid
officials
of
public
and
commercial
organizations
have
said
"SO
WHAT!"
This
report
is a
substitute
for
the
muffled
CRY
OF
RAPE
from
victims
who
are
tired
of
having
become
the
sexual
'cannon-fodder'
of
America...
-
Charles
M.
Goolsby,
Jr.
February,
1994
Added 02/19/
2005
Latina
Immigrant
Women
Domestic
Workers in
Montgomery
County,
Maryland
Plea to
Montgomery
County
Council for
an End to
Workplace
Exploitation.
Added
May
17,
2004
Latin
American
Immigrant
Women
Cleaning
Workers
Face
Sexual
Harassment,
Sexual
Coercion
and
Retaliatory
Firing
in
Arlington,
Virginia
Federal
Office
Building
(U.S.
National
Science
Foundation).
-
LibertadLatina.org
Gaithersburg,
Maryland
Latina_Assaulted
by
Manager
At
Major
Gaithersburg
Restaurant
08-31-2004
Rockville,
Maryland -
September,
2002
Latina
Female
Workers,
including
several
pregnant
women and
one elderly
woman, faced
repeated
violent acts
of physical
intimidation
and illegal
firings at
the Derwood
area Wendy's
Restaurant
in
Rockville,
Maryland
Laurel, Maryland
-- June, 2002
The below case from
Laurel, Maryland, a city on the Route !-95
corridor in Prince Georges County, just East of
Montgomery County, has defined in a formal legal
setting exactly the types of sexual coercion and
severe sexual harassment that the
I have
fought against in neighboring Montgomery County,
Maryland since the 1980s. Even pregnant
Latina women and girls are routinely pressured
for sexual favors by their managers and
supervisors in the low-wage workplace.
|
Workplace Rape:
Rockville, Maryland - Case
# 3:
"One of the complainants, having been fired
after putting up with daily unwanted
fondling, was, at the time, pregnant. She
was told to come back after the pregnancy
(when she could be exploited sexually)."
|
The U.S. Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission (EEOC) today
announced a $1 million settlement of a class
action lawsuit against Grace Culinary Systems,
Inc. and Townsend Culinary, Inc. alleging
egregious sexual harassment of 22 Hispanic women
at a food processing plant in Laurel, Maryland.
The suit charged the companies with routinely
subjecting the female workers, all recent
immigrants from Central America who spoke
limited English, to unwanted groping and
explicit requests for sexual favors by male
managers and co-workers over several years.
...The sexual harassment was
widespread with managers routinely subjecting women to groping and
crude and explicit requests for sexual favors over a period of
years. The harassers were managers and male co-workers...
|
One
woman
was
locked
in a
freezer
by her
supervisor
after
she
turned
down his
sexual
request.
Two
other
women
who were
pregnant
at the
time
were
pressured
for sex
and
subsequently
demoted
and
fired
following
their
refusal
to
comply
with the
advances.
Other women at the plant were
given menial or difficult work
assignments for rejecting requests for
sexual favors by plant managers.
|
- U.S.
Equal Employment
Oportunities Commission
, Laurel Maryland Case
Washington, DC
-- 1997-1998
Julia Chávez, a Bolivian
domestic worker employed
by an
Organiz-ation of
American States (OAS) official from
July 1997 through
October 1998, alleged in
a civil complaint that
her employer and his
wife required her to
work when she was sick
and, despite her
repeated requests for
medical treatment,
refused to take her to
see a doctor, telling
her that doctors were
expensive and the family
could not afford to pay
her medical bills.
Chávez also alleged in
her complaint that after
she told her employer
and his wife that she
was sexually abused and
raped by an acquaintance
of the family in August
1998, they denied her
medical treatment and a
forensic exam, though
Chávez allegedly
"exhibited . . . signs
of physical and
emotional trauma" and
"repeatedly explained to
them that she was very
sick and preferred to
die." Responding to her
complaint, Chávez'
employer and his wife
denied these allegations
and asserted "no
knowledge" of Chávez'
claim that she was
raped.
Human
Rights Watch
|
True
Cases from the Frontlines of Impunity
The below three
workplace sexual and physical abuse cases are
all 100% factual. The case narratives
speak for the victims, and they document the
voiceless cries of tens if not hundreds of
thousands of working women and girls across the
United States who face rape and coercion with
impunity largely because anti-immigrant
hostility and apathy from government
agencies allows it to happen,
That must change!
Only public awareness and public expressions of
outrage to elected officials, police
administrators and local prosecutors will lead
to improvement. Nothing else seems to
motivate change.
Deliberate Inaction was the official government
and corporate response in all of
these cases... |
|
 |
Workplace Rape with
Impunity
Rockville, Maryland
-
Case 1
A major
corporation working on defense and civilian
U.S. government contracts permits
quid-pro-quo sexual demands, sexual coercion
and retaliatory firings targeted at Latina
adult and underage
cleaning workers. |
|
Workplace Assault and Battery
with Impunity
Rockville, Maryland -
Case 2
A Nicaraguan
indigenous
woman
cleaning
worker was
slapped across the chest
and knocked to the floor by
her manager in
the Rockville offices
of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA).
The local Maryland
State's Attorney's Office repeatedly
pressured the victim to drop her insistence
on having her assailant prosecuted. |
|
Workplace Rape with
Impunity
Rockville, Maryland
- Case 3
About One
Central Plaza
Over a dozen
women were illegally fired for not giving in
to the sexual demands of three Latino
cleaning crew managers who forced women and
underage girls into quid-pro-quo sexual
relationships as a condition of retaining
their jobs.
Some women were forced to
commit acts of prostitution in this office
building housing Maryland state government &
other offices.
A medical
doctor who rented office space there filed a
formal complaint with the building owners
and stated that
he
was finding his
patient examining
tables
dirtied by sexual activity after-hours
(cleaning managers has keys to access the
offices they clean).
A pregnant woman was
severely sexually harassed, and was fired
and told to come back after her child was
born, when she could be sexually exploited.
The Montgomery County,
Maryland County Human Relations commission
in 1995 literally buried the officially
filed casework of this pregnant woman and
another victim.
A (now
former) Latina Washington Post reporter
refused to do a story. After
requesting first a copy and then the
original of a tape recoding of one of the
complainants defending herself from a 20
minute attempted sexual assault by one of
these assailants, the reporter intentionally
'lost' these tapes, which were investigatory
materials in the Human Relations Commission
case.
During one
phone conversations with this reporter, she
stated to me: "After all, you are
accusing these guys of felonies" - as if
there was something wrong with me exposing
this criminal sexual assault of Latina
women and underage youth. It was
obvious that her loyalties were with the
rapists.
This
reporter also told me that "The Washington
Post does not send reporters into dangerous
situations." I said then, as I say
now: If it is dangerous, then, is it not
news!!
I met with
a total of four Washington Post reporters
about this case. No story was ever
written.
I
mentioned this case a senior female
detective and sex crime investigators at the
Montgomery County Police Department, where I
worked part-time as a civilian computer
programmer.
Nothing
was ever done.
When I
called the cleaning company, they refused to
answer questions, and later apparently moved
and shut their phone off.
The dam
finally broke when a brave Mexican cleaning
woman rebelled against these three rapists,
yelled and screamed at them on the job, and
got enough people in positions of power to
be aware of these crimes to get the head
manager fired. The two assistant
managers, also perpe-trators, kept their
jobs. |
|
|
Using the Pen to Fight Back Against
Impunity
In response to repeated failures to get
the legal and press establishment of
Montgomery County and the greater
Washington, DC area to respond
positively to the urgent needs of Latina
victims of workplace and community
sexual assault, I
wrote the below report and distributed
it to many local police, press and
advocacy organizations during the past 9
years.
The organizations that have received
this report in-person from
me have
included:
-
Montgomery County Police Department
-
The
U.S. Department of Labor, Women's
Bureau staff and attendees at their
1995 Low Wage Workers Conference
-
he
Montgomery County Commission for
Women (1994).
-
The
report was sent by mail to the U.S.
Department of Justice, Worker
Exploitation Task Force in 1999.
LibertadLatina.org
is the evolution of that
1994 report over time. The issues
remain the same, and the severity of
this crisis is now worse than it was in
1994. Public pressure is still
needed to change the environment of
sexual exploitation with impunity facing
U.S. immigrant women and girls every
day.
-
Chuck Goolsby
September, 2003
|
Montgomery County, MD
-- 1994
Charles M.
Goolsby, Jr.'s
1994 Report on the Sexual Exploitation
of Latina immigrant Women and Girls in
Montgomery County, Maryland
Excerpt...
...All of
my work in Latin-American immigrant
victim-advocacy has resulted from
victims having approached me seeking
help. Repeatedly, the official reaction
of cleaning contract companies working
within Montgomery County to my polite
raising of these issues has been to do
the following: 1) silence any discussion
of these issues by the use of gross
intimidation against the victims and
myself, 2) fire or force the victims
out, and 3) back-up the actions of the
perpetrators, protecting them from legal
trouble.
Latin-American immigrant women have thus
gotten the message loud and clear on
many occasions that they have become a
cheap, disposable resource in the
American work-place, underpaid,
overworked, and often forced into sexual
submission while government and commerce
knowingly turn their backs.
At this
time I have found it necessary to write
this report. Since 1988 I have formally
presented this information to many
persons-in-authority. Time after time,
these well-educated, well-paid officials
of public and commercial organizations
have said "SO WHAT!" This report is a
substitute for the muffled CRY OF
RAPE from victims who are tired of
having become the sexual 'cannon-fodder'
of America...
- Charles M. Goolsby, Jr.
February, 1994
|
|
Presentation to the Commission for Women
A Letter from the Montgomery County, MD Women's
Commission
responds positively to Charles Goolsby, Jr.'s May
27, 1994 presentation before the Commission that
detailed many of of the
workplace abuse cases listed on the
LibertadLatina.org
web
site and specifically on this page).
My 1994 report on conditions
facing Latina immigrant women was well received.
Despite
over a decade of effort, both the abuse with
impunity faced by working Latina women and girls and
the apathy and inaction of police and judicial
authorities continue to be an ongoing horror in this
county.
|
|
|
|
Underage Latina girls face rape, coercion and severe
sexual harassment with impunity in the greater
Washington, DC area
See Also:
A
Police
Officer's
View of
Violence in
Langley
Park.
A Latina
Teen: "I
Can't
Go
Out...
Because
there are
Young People
Who Like to
Bother a
Young Girl.
Protection;
We Need
that."
Added Dec. 03, 2007
Virginia, USA
Centreville -
Mynor Andres Gonzalez Estrada, 23... was accused
of sexually assaulting four children at the
Centreville Regional Library.
In one incident, July 31, a
10-year-old Centreville girl told police she was
looking at books when a man squeezed her
buttocks.
Police said the child walked
away to another book aisle and saw the same man
exposing himself. She told her mother who called
the police. After investigation, police charged
Estrada with this incident and two others.
- Bonnie Hobbs
The Connection Newspaper
Nov. 27,
2007
Montgomery
County: Rapist
Stalks
Young
Teen
Girls
After
School
-
The
Washington Post
Nov. 24,
2004
Peruvian Dentist Dr David Fuster
Rapes a 15-Year-Old Patient
-
May 21, 2003
Officials, Activists Deplore Remark by
Montgomery [County] Judge: 'Takes Two to Tango' Called Ill-Advised
Maryland lawmakers and children's advocates joined
yesterday in criticizing a Montgomery County judge who said an 11-year-old girl
was partly to blame for a 23-year-old man sexually molesting her because the
girl invited him into her bedroom and "it takes two to tango."
Durke Thompson, a Circuit Court judge for six
years... ordered Vladimir Chacon-Bonilla, of Alexandria, [Virginia] to serve 18
months in the county jail for a second-degree sex offense. The judge suspended
the rest of a five-year state prison sentence and ordered Chacon-Bonilla to
serve three years of probation and get alcohol abuse treatment.
- The
Washington Post
January 6, 2000
Female Legislators Seek Probe of Md. Judge
- The Washington Post
February 3, 2000
Md. Judge Ready to 'Fight Back'
- The Washington Post
March 27, 2002
A
Washington,
DC-
Latina
Social
Worker and
Community
Center
Director's
Letter - 1999
EXCERPT
"Over the past two
years, I have been
observing a systemic
pattern of violence
committed against
girls and young
women in our
community. This
violence involves
the sexual
abuse/assault
against girls as
young as 10 years
old...
...There
have been incidents
of date rape, gang
rape, abductions,
drugging, threats
with firearms, etc.
The incidents are
just as you
described in
your
[Mr. Goolsby's below
NCMEC]
letter
and have been met
with the same level
of indifference and
dismissal of legal
(never mind moral)
responsibility on
the part of civil
institutions --
the police
department, public
schools, etc."
...While
some do say
this is
culturally
accepted
behavior,
the reality
is that many
families --
mothers and
fathers
alike -- are
enraged and
wanting to
pursue
prosecution
of the
perpetrators,
but they
find
themselves
without
recourse
when the
police won't
respond to
them, when
they fear
risking
their
personal
safety,
and/or when
their legal
status
(undocumented)
prevents
them from
believing
they have
rights or
legal
protection
in this
country.
Many girls
and young
women's
families are
threatened
and harassed
by the
perpetrators
when it
becomes
apparent
that the
family is
willing to
press
charges for
statutory
rape/child
sexual
abuse.
...The use
of
intimidation
and violence
to control
girls and
their
families
results in
the
following:
1)
parents/guardians
back off
from
pressing
charges, 2)
relatives do
not inform
the police
or others of
sightings of
girls and
young women
who have
been
officially
reported as
"missing
juveniles,"
and 3) the
victims of
sexual
violence
refuse to
participate
as "willing
witnesses"
in the
prosecution/trial
process.
- From a
letter by a
Latina
Social
Worker
and girl's
community
center
director
working with
young Latina
girls in
Washington,
DC's largest
Latino
neighborhood.
Gaithersburg,
Maryland
Our letter to The National
Center for Missing and Exploited Children
(NCMEC) about child abuse and exploitation in
Gaithersburg, MD, and past official inaction in
response. (The above social
worker's letter responds to this letter). The
NCMEC did refer this letter to the Gaithersburg city
government.
EXCERPT
In 1997 I reported the ongoing, daily sexual
harassment of an 11 year old Latin immigrant girl
from El Salvador by an adult man, to the
Gaithersburg City Police Department. The first
visits by a patrol officers on two occasions
involved (first visit) a [Gaithersburg City Police]
officer who didn't care at all and took no action;
and (second visit) [by one Gaithersburg, and one
Montgomery County officer] a lack of willingness to
follow up on the case when the harasser was found
not to be home (I served as translator for these two
officers). During the second incident, the officers
had me translate for a ROOMMATE of the harasser, and
never came back to talk to the harasser at all.
These two officers told me in a matter of fact way
that they could not respond to what the county
Police Academy had taught them (in cultural
sensitivity classes there) was just a part of Latino
culture.
The next year, 1998, I again approached the
Gaithersburg City Police Force to report that the
same adult man was now sexually involved with this
now 12 year old girl. The officer whom I spoke with
at the city's police station stated to me that "We
can't just pick him up, he might sue the city."
I demanded to know from this officer whether there
were laws against pedophilia and statutory rape in
Maryland or were there not? I had to assert myself
in the face of this apathy and disinterest, to the
apparent approval of the female clerk working at the
city's police station, where this conversation took
place.
- Chuck Goolsby
LibertadLatina
Dec. 05, 1999
Greater Washington,
DC
-- 2002
Report on the
recently formed
Child Sexual Abuse
Task Force in
Washington, DC.
The report addresses
the rampant sexual
abuse of children by
adults in
Washington, DC, the
daily sexual
exploitation of 12
year old Latina
girls by adult men,
cultural issues and
parental fear of the
law. (This
Task Force responds
in part to the
important efforts of
the Latina social
worker who authored
the above letter
about girl rape with
impunity in DC.)
From: WAMU-FM,
88.5 FM - American
University Radio (a
National Public
Radio station) -
Show: Metro
Connection
|
|
|
|
|
Added April 12, 2008
Maryland, USA
A Montgomery County man,
sentenced to two life sentences for rape Thursday,
posed as a police officer and preyed on the fears of
illegal immigrants, revealing what State’s Attorney
John McCarthy called a growing trend among
criminals.
John Robert Lay, 51, whose criminal history
stretches back more than 30 years, is already
serving time in a Virginia prison for sexually
assaulting an [undocumented] Hispanic woman in
Fairfax County in 2001. He was convicted of that
crime in 2006.
In both cases, prosecutors said, Lay played on the
fear of deportation held by many illegal immigrants
by flashing a fake police badge at his victims and
demanding identification.
When the women said they had none, he put them in
his car, brought them to secluded areas and forced
them to perform sexual acts...
“This is a pattern we’re seeing too often in our
community. … On a regular basis criminals are
targeting Hispanics, believing they can act with
impunity,” McCarthy said, encouraging witnesses and
crime victims, regardless of immigration status, to
step forward...
“Preying on vulnerable victims; targeting Latino
women is an aggravating factor, and so is
impersonating police,” [Judge David] Boynton said.
“You’re a lifelong criminal with offenses in every
walk of life and in every location you’ve been in …
this is to protect the community from you.”
- Freeman Klopott
The DC Examiner
April 11, 2008
Added March 14, 2008
Maryland, USA
Police are searching for a suspect who raped a woman
Monday morning near a stairwell in an apartment building.
The 44-year-old
woman was taking a walk around 11:30 p.m. Sunday when she was approached by the
male suspect who had a knife. The suspect led the woman to a lower stairwell
landing in an apartment building... and forcibly raped her...
The suspect is
described as a Hispanic male, 39 or 40 years old, 5’11” to 6’0” tall, weighing
approximately 220 pounds. He was wearing his black hair pulled back in a pony
tail...
-
WLJA TV
March 12, 2008
Arlington,
Virginia
Pleas in Sex-Crimes Case
A widely known Latino activist will spend a year in jail for the sexual battery
of four women under a plea agreement worked out last week in Arlington County
Circuit Court.
Marcos A. Capriles, 37, entered an Alford plea on five sex-related misdemeanor
charges in exchange for prosecutors' dropping rape, sodomy and other sexual
assault charges against him. Circuit Court Judge Benjamin Kendrick handed him a
one-year prison term for each charge, to be served concurrently. Capriles, a
Bolivian living in Arlington, will be deported after he serves his sentence.
Capriles, a former Spanish-language reporter and newspaper owner, was arrested
in April for the alleged rape of a 32-year-old Latino woman from Falls Church
who agreed to pose for photographs after seeking his help in preparing tax
returns...
-
The
Washington Post
March 12, 2008
Added
Aug.
16 2005
Langley Park
- The
State's
Largest
Latin
Community is
Besieged by
Violent
Crime
and
Severe
Sexual
Harassment.
Four Throats
Slashed and
One Hand
Nearly
Severed in 5
Day Period.
Women say they won't walk to the
store alone, and some won't leave their homes at night. They
won't wear short skirts, they say, because
the
men
will
ask
them,
"How
much?"
June
23,
2004
Rapes in
Montgomery
County,
Maryland
jumped
nearly 40
percent
in the first
three months
of this
year, but
the county
police
department
withheld
this
information
from the
public of
all but one
rape.
(Plus -
LibertadLatina
Commentary
on
Rape
with
impunity
in
Montgomery
County,
Maryland)
Gaithersburg,
Maryland -
August,
September
2003
Direct advocacy
assists Latina woman
victim of attempted
street sexual
assault in
Gaithersburg,
Maryland. One
of three assailants
was convicted.
- LibertadLatina |
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Extensive work needs to be done to educate local
officials, and to monitor police and judicial
actions to assure that Latinas receive equal
protection under the law.
Immigrant women and girls do not usually
receive such equal protections now. |
The crisis
described
here below
is what is
really
happening to
Latina women
and girls in
greater
Washington,
DC, the
capitol of
the United
States.
How do we,
as concerned
communities,
individuals,
immigrant
and victims
advocacy
organizations
and
government
agencies
effectively
address
these
blatant
violations
of the law?
Our work in
Montgomery
County,
Maryland and
the work of
the Latina
social
worker in
Washington,
DC, quoted
below,
identify the
fact that
Latina adult
and girl
victims of
sexual
assault and
abuse are
usually
underserved
by local law
enforcement.
The below
1999
statement by
the U.S.
Justice
Department
on
underserved
victims of
crime also
recognizes
this fact.
Extensive
education of
first
responders
and judicial
officers is
needed to
raise
awareness of
the "facts
on the
ground"
regarding
the impunity
with which
Latina
immigrant
girls and
women face
sexual
assault,
coercion and
harassment
from
perpetrators
who know
that the
criminal
justice
system will
often ignore
the pleas of
"Ms. Latina"
for equal
enforcement
of her legal
rights to
the simple
ownership
and sanctity
of her own
human
body.
We encourage
the public
to raise
these issues
with your
local
elected
officials,
police
departments
and
prosecutors.
When I began
direct, lay
victim
advocacy
before the
local
criminal
justice
system in
1988, no
victim
services
existed for
Latina
victims of
criminal
abuse.
In that
first case
(Workplace
Rape:
Rockville,
Maryland -
Case 2),
the
following
happened:
-
The
court
commissioner
who
received
the
criminal
complaint
from the
victim
(that I
had
translated)...
laughed
out loud
in front
of the
victim
when he
read the
complaint.
He said
"gee,
this guy
[the
perpetrator]
must
have had
a bad
day."
-
An
investigator
for the
Maryland
State's
Attorney's
office
for
Montgomery
County
repeatedly
called
me and
virtually
begged
me to
convince
the
Nicaraguan
victim
of a
physical
beating
by her
cleaning
company
supervisor
at a
local
federal
office
building
to...
not
press
charges
against
the
assailant.
-
No
victim
services
were
offered
whatsoever.
-
The
victim
felt
intimidated
by the
perpetrator
and
unsupported by
the
Maryland
State's
Attorney's
Office'
actions
in
trying
to get
her to
back out
of
insisting
upon the
prosecution
of her
physical
assailant.
-
As a
result
of these
actions
by the
Maryland
State's
Attorney's
Office,
the
victim
backed
down and
did not
appear
at the
trial.
-
In a
Montgomery
County,
Maryland
Human
Relations
Commission
hearing
(they
are the
local
processor
of U.S.
EEOC
cases),
during
which I
represented
the
interests
of the
victim
for 9
hours,
the
victim
and her
co-worker
eyewitness
could
not
convince
the
commissioners
that a
violation
of
worker
discrimination
law had
taken
place.
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The above
case
occurred in
1988.
The below
case
intervention
occurred in
late 2003.
Not much has
changed for
the better
in terms of
police
responses,
although the
Maryland
State's
Attorney's
Office did
process the
case
professionally,
while
continuing
to omit any
victim
services
whatsoever
for the
Latinas
involved in
these two
cases.
Why?
In my most
recent
intervention,
on August 4,
2003,
(Direct
advocacy
assists
Latina woman
victim of
attempted
street
sexual
assault),
the
following
happened:
-
Police
at the
scene of
an
attempted
sexual
assault
were not
at-first
interested
in
making
any
arrests
of the
three
perpetrators
of an
attempted
sexual
assault.
-
When the
victim
heard
this
from one
of the
responding
officers,
she
began
crying.
-
I later
presented
my
LibertadLatina
business
card to
several
officers.
At that
point,
and
after
bringing
the
shift
sergeant
to the
scene to
translate
for the
victim
(being
fluent
in
Spanish
I
translated
initially),
charges
were
filed,
but only
against
one of
the
three
assailants.
-
The one
charged
perpetrator
was
convicted
in
September,
2003 and
was
sentenced
to 15
days in
jail.
-
The
judge
asked
with
curiosity
during
the
trial
why only
one
suspect
was
arrested?
-
No
victim
services
were
ever
offered
to the
victim
whatsoever.
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These two
cases typify
the
experiences
of immigrant
women in
similar
cases that
I have been
involved
with in
Montgomery
County,
Maryland.
These
responses
from police
and
prosecutors
are also the
daily
experience
of most
Latin
American
immigrants
in the
Washington,
DC region.
The stories
told here
are just a
small
fraction of
the events
that I have
seen & heard
about over
the years.
My hat is
off to the
responding
officers for
their swift
response in
this case
and their
final
decision to
arrest at
least the
one most
aggressive
perpetrator,
who was
convicted of
second
degree
assault.
These
officers
have a
dangerous
job to do.
The
responsibility
for changing
how local
police
officers
respond to
Latina adult
and child
victims of
sexual
assault and
related
crimes lies
directly
with local
government
and police
department
executives.
They have a
moral and a
legal
responsibility
to address
these
issues. Officers
on the
street
cannot act
without the
local police
department
leadership
(in any
jurisdiction)
approving
the needed
changes in
provision of
policing
services to
women,
children and
also men in
the Latin
immigrant
community.
The
motivation
for doing
that should
go without
saying.
The judicial
system,
local school
systems,
social
services and
other
agencies who
interact
with Latina
immigrant
victims all
have the
same
responsibility
to treat
these women
and girls
with
equality and
fairness.
Certainly,
expressions
of concern
from the
public (we
the people)
are critical
to making
real change
happen.
It is up to
the general
public to
insist that
local
governments
and criminal
justice
systems
across the
U.S. address
these
issues.
Help us make
that change
happen!
Many Latina
immigrant
women in the
Washington,
DC region
face
attempted
kidnappings,
rapes and
worse at the
hands of
sexual
predators of
all
ethnicities
who know
that petite
Ms.
Latina
typically
feels
powerless to
respond by
seeking
legal
redress
against
criminal
impunity.
I still
remember a
20 year old
Salvadoran
woman
telling of
how she and
her husband
witnessed
the
kidnapping
from a bus
stop of a
Latina
immigrant
woman in
Prince
Georges
County,
Maryland, by
three
non-Latino
men.
This
kidnapped
Latina woman
was later
raped and
murdered by
her captors.
These
witnesses
refused to
testify for
fear of
retribution
and the
suspects
were not
convicted,
according to
the
Salvadoran
female
witness.
Let's all
work to
change this
tragic and
barbaric
reality in
the daily
lives of
immigrant
and all
other women
and children
now!
- Chuck
Goolsby
September,
2003
Former
Civilian
Office
Systems
Programmer
for the
Montgomery
County
Police
Department
from 1992 to
1995.
What does
the U.S.
Department
of Justice
Say?
The below
statement
directly
addresses
several
important
components
of the
above-defined
problem in
victim
services:
...COMPASSION
AND
SINCERITY
..."There is
no
substitute
for
compassion
as the
foundation,
and
sincerity as
its
expression,
for carrying
out victim
services
equally and
fairly.
Although it
is not
possible to
feel the
same
compassion
for all
victims,
providers
have the
responsibility
to provide
the same
compassionate
service to
every
victim.
Compassionate
and sincere
advocacy
knows no
borders.
The plight
of
undocumented
residents or
illegal
aliens, for
example,
involves
complex
issues of
personal
prejudices
and
international
politics.
Sentiments
among
Americans
regarding
the
clandestine
migration of
those who
seek a
better life
here, mostly
from Mexico
and Central
America,
range from
compassion
for the
safety and
dignity of
those
fleeing
poverty and
war to
border
vigilante
hunts and
savage
beatings.
Once in the
United
States,
undocumented
aliens
become easy
prey for
employment
exploitation,
consumer
fraud,
housing
discrimination,
and criminal
victimization
because
assistance
from
government
authorities
is attached
to the fear
of
deportation.
There is an
epidemic of
sexual
assaults,
for example
committed
upon
undocumented
Latinas.
Their
immigration
status,
however,
does not
mean that
they should
receive less
protection
under
America's
criminal
laws or less
right to
victim
services"...
From:
The United
States
Department
of Justice -
1999
The 1999
National
Victim
Assistance
Academy
Chapter 7 -
Responding
to
Underserved
Crime
Victims -
Respecting
Diversity
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Before
LibertadLatina.org:
Chuck Goolsby's
Email Dialog on the
Human Rights Issues
Facing Latinas in
the Washington, DC
Region
Using
e-mail to
begin a
local
community
dialog
about
the sexual
exploitation
of Latina
immigrant
women &
girls
in
greater
Washington,
DC
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Previous to the
LibertadLatina
project
I provided an e-mail based newsletter of
important community issues related to the right of
Latina women and children to live free from sexual
harassment, rape and enslavement.
The below
list contains some of the more important of these
e-mail conversations to people of consciousness in
the greater Washington, DC region and elsewhere. |
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Rockville,
Maryland
From Charles
Goolsby's
E-mail
Advocacy
Newsletters
09/29/1999 -
Discrimination
against
Latin Women
in Health
Care
An
Ecuadorian
indigenous
woman,
who was
about
40
years old,
was told by
two Latino
doctors in
Montgomery
County that
the lumps in
her breasts
were not
cancer, she
should not
worry about
it, and that
the lumps
were just
concentrations
of calcium.
This friend
was told the
same thing
in Ecuador
by another
doctor.
After being,
finally,
correctly
diagnosed as
indeed
having
Breast
Cancer,
Matilde died
about a year
and a half
ago.
Nobody ever
had to
answer for
the
injustice
that this
friend
faced.
Another
friend, from
Guatemala,
told me of
how a
sister-in-law
went to our
local
hospital,
Shady Grove
Adventist
Hospital...
She
was also an
Indigenous
woman. She
was having
sever
abdominal
pains.
She
was examined
and was told
to go home
and take
aspirin.
After being
taken by
ambulance to
another
local
hospital,
Holy
Cross
Hospital,
this woman
was told
that she had
a tubal
pregnancy,
and was
properly
treated.
(A male
relative of
this
Guatemalan
indigenous
woman also
went to
Shady Grove
Hospital
with stomach
pains, and
was
misdiagnosed
and sent
home.
I turned out
after
returning to
the hospital
later with
severe pain
that he had
appendicitis)
An
Ecuadorian
woman
took her
baby to
Shady Grove
Hospital and
the doctor
prescribed
the wrong
diaper rash
cream, which
another
pediatrician
recognized
as being
something
that
would actually
inflame the
baby's
diaper rash
condition.
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The Montgomery County Commission for Women must play
a strong advocacy role in ending immigrant women and
girl's exposure to impunity and, most importantly,
in ending the local criminal justice system's apathy
& hostility toward Latinas.
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In
May of
1994
I made
a 45 minute
presentation
to the
Montgomery
County
Women's
Commission
covering the
issues of
immigrant
women and
girl's
exploitation
in
Montgomery
County
communities
and
workplaces
that are
detailed on
LibertadLatina.org.
The author's
1994 Report
(35 pages)
was
distributed
to the 15 or
so assembled
commissioners
and was well
received.
In 2001 I again
contacted
the
Commission
and
encouraged
them to act
to resolve
these
issues.
The
Montgomery
County
government
web site
currently
highlights a
seminar
series that
the
Montgomery
County
Women's
Commission
has created
to increase
their
visibility
in response
to the
crisis
facing
immigrants
in this
county.
The below
statement is
from the
commission's
new, 2003
seminar
series for
immigrant
women.
LibertadLatina
commends the
Montgomery
County
Women's
Commission
for taking
this
important
step.
Much more
work needs
to be done,
because a
climate of
official
apathy and
hostility
continues to
affect how
immigrant
women are
served when
faced with
impunity.
During
recessions,
acts of
impunity
become
blatant as
jobless
women and
girls are
subjected to
sexual
quid-pro-quo
work
arrangements
with bosses,
and other
stressors
aggravate
community
based sexual
exploitation.
- Chuck Goolsby, September, 2003
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Montgomery County Women's Commission
401 N. Washington Street, Suite 100
Rockville, MD 20850
For information and to contribute your
comments, please call 240-777-8330.
"U.S. Census 2000 indicates that
Montgomery County has by far the largest
population, and percent, of foreign born
residents of any jurisdiction in
Maryland. The Maryland Department of
Planning reports that Montgomery
County's foreign born population
approaches 233,000 residents (26.7% of
the county's total population).
...It is often the immigrant woman who
faces the most serious challenges. All
too often, she is employed in low wage
jobs, with no benefits, little knowledge
of the laws protecting her rights as an
employee, and no access to that
information or to agencies that could
help.
...She may be afraid to seek help from
the police, health, or social services
agencies, should that become necessary,
and if she does seek help, language may
present still another barrier. Women in
these situations are far more vulnerable
to abuse, harassment, discrimination and
worse.
...The Commission for Women will host a
series of four seminars, offering the
experience, insights and recommendations
of experts on these issues."
2003 MCCW Latina Issues Seminar Series
Flyer
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A Letter from the Montgomery County, MD Women's
Commission
responds positively to Charles Goolsby, Jr.'s May
27, 1994 presentation before the Commission that
detailed many of of the cases listed on this page as
well as cases detailed on our
Workplace
Exploitation Page. |
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To
achieve
real
change,
your
voice
(no
matter
where
you
live)
needs to
be heard
by
government
officials.
Make
your
voice
heard.
Contact:
The
Montgomery
County
Executive
and the
County
Council
have
recently
signed a
resolution
rejecting
Maryland
Governor
Ehrlich's
recent
public
remarks
that
were
construed
as
hostile
to Latin
American
immigrant's
and
their
supposed
lack of
English
language
skills.
Maybe
they are
in a
mood
to
reform
anti-immigrant
abuses
here.
- Chuck
Goolsby
|
Excerpt...
Past
political
hostility
towards,
and
support
for
Latino
immigrants
in
Maryland
by
politicians...
On a
Baltimore
talk
radio
show,
[Maryland
Governor
Robert]
Ehrlich
voiced
his
opinion
that
immigrants
should
learn
English
and
adopt
American
culture.
“I
reject
the
idea
of
multicultural-ism.
Once
you
get
into
this
multiculturalism
crap,
this
bunk,
you
run
into
a
problem...."
According
to a
Takoma
Park
Gazette
article
on
May
12,
Ehrlich
refused
to
answer
calls
for
him
to
apologize
for
his
comments
and
continued
to
defend
his
position.
Meanwhile,
on
May
11,
the
Montgomery
County
Council
unanimously
voted
for
a
resolution
that
expressed
concern
about
Ehrlich’s
“ill-chosen
remarks"
and
suggested
that
he
apologize. |
Silver
Chips
May 13,
2004
County
Executive
Isiah
Leggett
Elected 2006...
and a
good guy!
Executive
Office
Building
101
Monroe
Street
Rockville,
MD 20850
Phone:
240-777-2500
Fax:
240-777-2517
Montgomery
County
Council
- 2008
Phil
Andrews
(District 3
| Democrat)
Roger
Berliner
(District 1
| Democrat)
Marc Elrich
(At Large |
Democrat)
Valerie
Ervin
(District 5
| Democrat)
Nancy
Floreen
(At Large |
Democrat)
Mike Knapp
(District 2
| Democrat)
George
Leventhal
(At Large |
Democrat)
Marilyn J.
Praisner
(District 4
| Democrat)
Duchy
Trachtenberg
(At Large |
Democrat)
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January
7,
2003
President
Bush
Proposes
Immigration
Reform
While
the
true
fairness
of
his
plan
has
yet
to
be
seen...
Thank
you
President
Bush
for
giving
global
coverage
and
mainstream
respect
to
the
plight
of
Latin@s
and
other
immigrants
who
face
the
severe
crime
&
workplace
exploitation
issues
that
we
struggle
daily
to
document,
organize
against
and
overcome.
We
encourage
law
enforcement
and
the
judiciary
across
the
U.S.
to
follow
the
President's
leadership
and
provide
real
and
equal
assistance
to
victims,
ending
the
crisis
in
immigrant
victimization
with
impunity
and
tepid
local
government
response
to
that
ongoing
emergency.
That tepid local government response to
the sexual, community and workplace
exploitation of immigrant women,
children and men is thoroughly described
on this page and in our
U.S. Latin immigrant crisis and
Workplace Latin Immigrant Crisis
sections.
We strongly encourage local governments
in the Washington, DC region and across
the United States to actively remove the
restrictions to access to the law
enforcement, judicial and civil legal
institutions that immigrant workers
desperately need access to (as president
Bush noted clearly in his January 7,
2004 address).
Local Washington, DC regional
communities such as Mount Pleasant in
DC, Gaithersburg, Maryland and others
have faced racially motivated terror and
institutional hostility long enough.
That hostility is described here below.
-
LibertadLatina.org
(See
our
additional
commentary
and
links
to
press
articles
in
regard
to
this
issue.)
Return
to
Index |
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LibertadLatina
News /
Noticias |
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Updated:
June 13, 2010
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Honduras
Venden niñas por edades
En San Pedro Sula hay unas 10 mil menores que son víctimas de abuso sexual y comercial
Apenas tiene 16 años y “Elena” ya ha tenido relaciones sexuales con diferentes hombres. La menor era prostituida por su padrastro, ahora lo hace por su cuenta.
Desde pequeña empezó a sufrir los maltratos del hombre que apenas esperó a que el cuerpo de ella comenzara a notarse el desarrollo para poder lucrarse.
La niña recuerda que tenía cerca de 12 años cuando su padrastro le dijo que llegarían unos amigos de visita y que tenía que ayudarle a su madre a atenderlos...
Un día, cuando estaba cerca de cumplir los 13 y mientras sus seis hermanos jugaban en la calle, su padrastro la dejó en casa con un amigo.
“Sólo me dijo que no tuviera miedo y que fuera cariñosa, ahora sé que pagaron por estar conmigo y en vez de que gane dinero él, mejor me lo agarro yo”, expresó la menor, que ahora se prostituye en las calles de la ciudad.
Ella logró huir de su casa, pero no del camino al que la orilló su padrastro...
El caso de “Elena” es más común de lo que parece. Sólo en San Pedro Sula hay cerca de 10 mil menores que son víctimas de abuso sexual y comercial, según información en poder de la Fiscalía de la Niñez. Las cifras recogen datos hasta 2008, por lo que las autoridades temen que el número hasta la fecha sea mucho más alarmante. El 98% de las estadísticas corresponde a niñas...
In the northern coastal city of San Pedro
Sula, 10,000 minors are subjected to sexual abuse and commercial
exploitation
Elena has just turned 16, but she has ‘been’ with many men. She
was first prostituted by her stepfather. Now she does it to make
money for herself.
From an early age Elena suffered abuse from her stepfather, who
just waited long enough for her to show signs of maturing before
he started profiting from selling her body.
Elena recalls that she was almost 12 when her stepfather told
her that some of his friends would be coming over to visit, and
that she had to help her mother to attend to his visitors.
At that time, Elena didn’t know that type of ‘attending’ she
would have to do for her stepfather’s friends. She imagined that
she would have to cook for them. Girls her age were expected to
help out with the housework.
One day, when she was close to her 13th birthday,
while her six brothers played in the street, her stepfather left
her in the house with one of his friends. Elena: “He told me not
to be afraid, and asked me to be affectionate with him. Now I
know that this man paid my stepfather to be with me. Instead of
making money for him, now I make it myself.”
Elena was able to escape from her home, but could not escape the
path in life that her stepfather has set her upon.
Cases like Elena’s occur more frequently than one would think.
Just in the city of San Pedro Sula, there are 10,000 minors who
are victims of sexual abuse, including the Commercial Sexual
Exploitation of Children (CSEC), according to data collected by
the special prosecutor for crimes against children. Their
statistics only cover a period through 2008, leaving the
authorities believing that today’s figures are likely much
higher. Some 98% of cases involve girls.
Special prosecutor for crimes against children coordinator
Thelma Martínez indicates that the figures are worrying, given
that an increasing number of these cases involve pimping and
human trafficking.
Martínez declared that these girls and adolescents are
manipulated and recruited by adults who profit from them through
prostitution. The victims are selected for the marketplace based
on the color of their skin, their age and their height.
The obstacle that prosecutors face in going after pimps is that
minors are not willing to testify against them.
Martínez: “Many girls are fearful. Others, unfortunately, have
gotten used to earning money this way, and prefer to say
nothing.”
Due to the increase in these types of cases, a special office
was created to attend to the complaints involving sexual abuse,
kidnapping, pimping, human trafficking and rape, which is the
most commonly reported crime.
According to the special prosecutor’s office, in the month of
May, 2010 alone, 30 child sexual abuse cases were processed.
Although child sexual abuse cases involve a criminal penalty of
from 5 to 10 years of prison time, the damage caused to the
victim is irreversible.
“The worst part of these cases is that the [perpetrator] is in
the same family nucleus. They are fathers, stepfathers, cousins
or others” added Martínez.
In addition to attending to the cases of children who are
victims of crime, the special prosecutor’s office also deals
with at-risk minors and juvenile criminal perpetrators. When
they receive a complaint, they sent the child to one of several
centers run by the Honduran Institute for Children and Families
– IHNFA, while the case is being resolved...
La Prensa - Honduras
June 09, 2010
New York, USA
Smugglers kidnap girl bound for Long Island
A Long Island mom is racing against time to find her teenage daughter -- who is being held captive by immigrant-smugglers threatening to kill her unless a ransom is paid.
"Mom, save me! Please help! They are going to kill me," 14-year-old Eloisa Lopez, who left Honduras more than a month ago, told her mom by phone on Tuesday.
The terrified girl somehow managed to take a cellphone from her captors and call her mom. But she had no clear idea where she was being held, sending her family scrambling for help.
The devastated mom had saved up her earnings as a housekeeper and paid "coyotes" $5,000 to bring the girl to the country nearly a month ago, Eloisa's sister told the Post.
But 10 days later, a smuggler brazenly demanded $7,000 more from the family in exchange for Eloisa's life.
It was cash they didn't have.
Then on Tuesday, Dania received the terrifying call.
"I think I'm in Houston, but I don't know where I am!" Eloisa cried over the phone, fearful that her captors would discover she was calling for help.
"Don't worry, we will save you no matter where you are," Dania told her daughter, before phoning cops.
A law enforcement source told The Post yesterday that "authorities are investigating a claim that may have implications of human trafficking."
Federal authorities have since taken over the case, and Department of Homeland Security agents yesterday went to the Lopez family's home in Woodbury.
"She was due back this week," Ingrid Lopez, 18, said of her sister. "This is horrible. My sister is in danger of losing her life. These coyotes don't care. They will kill you and leave you in the desert."
Ingrid would know. She was smuggled from Honduras to Long Island three years ago on a similarly dangerous journey.
The 18-year-old, now a student, often went without food and water and walked for three days straight.
She now fears her younger sister has met a far worse fate.
"She is so small and slight. She would not be able to defend herself against them," Ingrid said.
Eloisa's mom has been working long and hard to bring all five of her children into the country.
Two, including Ingrid, have been safely brought to Long Island. The youngest two live in Honduras with their grandmother.
"We never imagined this would happen. We just wanted to be reunited as a family," Ingrid Lopez said. "We feel helpless but we have faith in God everything will work out."
Kieran Crowley and Emily Ngo
The New York Post
June 10, 2010
New Jersey, USA
Man admits sexually abusing boy, 5, in Parsippany
An illegal immigrant from Guatemala faces up to 15 years in state prison on his guilty plea Monday to sexually abusing a 5-year-old boy in Parsippany over a six-month period.
Through a Spanish interpreter, Jorge Mario Hernandez, 26, admitted to state Superior Court Judge Thomas V. Manahan in Morristown to one count of aggravated sexual assault on the child between May 1 and Oct. 23, 2009.
Morris County Assistant Prosecutor LaJuan Tucker has recommended that Hernandez be sentenced to 15 years in state prison, with 85 percent or 12 years and nine months to be served before parole consideration. Defense lawyer Neill Hamilton said he would argue for 10 years.
Hernandez, who told the judge he was educated until the 6th grade in his native Guatemala, said he understood he was likely to be deported upon release from prison. Sentencing tentatively was set for July 9.
Hernandez was arrested in October after an unidentified witness contacted police to say that he or she saw Hernandez assaulting the boy. Upon being confronted, the witness told police, Hernandez dropped to his knees and begged for forgiveness. He said in court Monday only that he assaulted the child on more than one occasion; police had accused him of molesting the boy more than 30 times.
Before he is sentenced, Hernandez must be evaluated at the state's Adult Diagnostic and Treatment Center in Avenel to determine if he is a compulsive and repetitive sex offender who should be incarcerated there. According to the law, if he receives a sentence of more than seven years and is considered compulsive and repetitive, he still must serve a portion of his punishment in state prison before being transferred to Avenel.
Peggy Wright
The Daily Record
June 07, 2010
Pennsylvania, USA
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Jesus Marrero |
Man Charged with Child Sex Assault
A man from Scranton is accused of sexually assaulting a young boy over the course of a few months.
Jesus Marrero, 44, was arrested Wednesday. Police said he made a seven-year-old boy watch while he had sex with his girlfriend, then forced the boy to have sexual relations with him.
The boy was in Marrero's care at the time.
Police learned what happened when the boy told a school official.
WNEP-TV
June 10, 2010
Texas, USA
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Jose Arturo Lopez |
Former Teacher Charged With Indecency With a Child
El Paso County Sheriff's Officers arrest a former Fabens ISD teacher. Jose Arturo Lopez was arrested for an alleged incident that took place in December of 2008 involving a 15-year-old girl. At the time, Lopez was working at O'Donnell Elementary school as fifth-grade teacher. Lopez is charged with indecency with a child.
Oralia Ortega
KTSM
June 09, 2010
California, USA
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Pedro Hernandez |
Relative Caught In Girl's Sex Assault At San Francisco Elementary School
San Francisco - A 68-year-old man suspected of sexually assaulting his 8-year-old step-granddaughter at her San Francisco elementary school last week was arrested Thursday at a homeless shelter after reportedly being harbored by his children and altering his appearance, police said Friday.
San Francisco police arrested Pedro Hernandez, who allegedly assaulted the girl at Sanchez Elementary School in the Mission District around noon June 3, at a shelter at St. Bruno's Catholic Church in San Bruno Thursday night, police said.
Hernandez is expected to be arraigned Monday morning in San Francisco Superior Court on seven felony counts, according to district attorney's office spokeswoman Erica Derryck.
The charges include continuous sexual abuse of a child, sexual intercourse or sodomy with a child 10 years of age or younger, and oral copulation or sexual penetration with a child 10 years of age or younger. The last two charges are punishable by life in prison.
Three of Hernandez's adult children were also arrested Tuesday in connection with the alleged attack on the girl. Prosecutors filed charges against two of the children, but decided not to charge the third.
Marisol Lopez and Jesus Hernandez were arraigned in court Friday morning in on charges of being an accessory to the crime after the fact, according to Derryck. Both pleaded not guilty and were ordered held on $100,000 bail.
Police spokesman Officer Samson Chan said the children are believed to have helped their father get a motel room in Daly City after the alleged assault.
In addition, Hernandez shaved his moustache and cut his hair short in recent days, Chan said.
"He was actively trying to conceal himself," Chan said.
An investigation by the Police Department's Fugitive Recovery Team led police to the homeless shelter.
Following the alleged assault, police issued a $2 million warrant for his arrest and initiated a statewide and international search.
Police do not believe Hernandez was a member of the San Bruno church or that anyone at the shelter knew he was a fugitive, Chan said.
Hernandez has known the girl's family for several years and has lived with them on and off, according to police.
He had married the girl's grandmother but they are now separated, Chan said.
According to police, Hernandez arrived at the school to bring lunch to the girl and a female school district employee saw him "being overly affectionate toward the victim" and became suspicious.
The same employee then caught Hernandez allegedly sexually assaulting the girl in a secluded stairwell area inside the school and Hernandez ran away, police said. The woman called police.
Hernandez allegedly assaulted the girl in the stairwell multiple times and the acts were recorded on a video surveillance camera, police said.
CBS 5
June 11, 2010
Indiana, USA
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Roberto Vasquez |
A Chicago man convicted of child molesting in Elkhart County will be featured on the "America's Most Wanted" web page.
Roberto Vasquez, 54, was convicted last year. He was sentenced to 247 years behind bars for molesting a young girl from the time she was six until she was 12.
According to the America's Most Wanted website, Vasquez posed as a religious adviser in Elkhart to get into people's homes. He molested one girl from 1999 until 2006, when he was arrested.
On the day of his sentencing in 2009, Vasquez went into hiding and authorities have been looking for him ever since.
The Elkhart Police Department actually contacted “America’s Most Wanted”, hoping to get more publicity in the case on a national level.
“Just because of the severity of this crime; 9 different child molests charges of one child and it had been going on for six years, and the fact that he uses the “I'm a religious adviser” to get into him people’s homes. I mean, this family allowed him to live in their homes,” said Elkhart Police Lt. Ed Windbigler.
WNDU
June 02, 2010
Texas, USA
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Genny Granados |
Salvadoran immigrant gets 50 years for dumping baby in the thrash
On Thursday, in a Harris County courtroom, Genny Granados, 31, was sentenced to 50 years in prison for murder, after leaving her infant son in a Houston emergency room bathroom trash can.
According to prosecutors, sometime around midnight Feb. 9, 2008, Granados, who denied being pregnant, gave birth to a baby boy in an emergency room bathroom at Memorial Hermann Southwest Hospital.
She cut the umbilical cord herself, dumped the infant into the trash, and left.
A custodian later found the baby.
Doctors revived the infant, and placed him on life support. The baby was found to be brain-dead and died 11 days later.
At her arraignment, prosecutor Kelli Johnson said of Granados: “She has such little respect for human life that she tells no one, to my knowledge, that she was pregnant. She goes to the hospital, has a pair of scissors in her hand, and cuts her own umbilical cord and looks at her baby and throws it in the trash.”
Granados’ defense attorneys blamed hospital staff for the child’s death, saying they should have known that Granados gave birth in the restroom.
Granados is a legal U.S. resident who came to this country from El Salvador, and has two other children.
This sad case is reminiscent of another in which an illegal alien abandoned her baby in a dumpster in California.
In December 2009, the staff at Anaheim Medical Center became suspicious of the story given them by Juana Perez Valencia, 19, who though showing all of the signs, claimed she had not just given birth. Orange County deputies arrived and questioned her, eventually finding the corpse of her newborn daughter in the dumpster behind Sombrero’s restaurant, where Valencia worked as a waitress.
Apparently, Valencia gave birth to the girl in the restaurant’s bathroom, and allegedly placed the baby into a plastic bag, before tossing her into the dumpster.
An autopsy concluded that the baby had in fact, been born alive and healthy.
Deputy District Attorney Ebrahim Baytieh told the Orange County Register that the Mexican national had concealed her pregnancy, and was fully aware that she could have simply handed the baby over to authorities with no questions asked, but instead chose to let her die in a trash bin.
The Orange County District Attorney‘s Office issued the following statement: “The baby girl was born alive. Baby Doe weighed 6.3 pounds and was 17 inches long. The defendant is accused of murdering the baby, putting Baby Doe in a plastic bag, and throwing her body in a dumpster behind the restaurant.”
Valencia was charged with murder and currently sits in the Orange County Jail awaiting trial. If convicted, she faces a sentence of 25 years to life.
Dave Gibson
The Examiner
June 12, 2010
Ohio, USA
Police investigate the use of date rape drug at bar
A 31-year-old Grove City woman reported to Grove City Police that at 1:17 a.m. May 26 that she was the victim of rape while she was at a bar in the 3000 block of Southwest Boulevard. She told police that she believed someone slipped a date rape drug in her drink.
She woke up next to the trash receptacles behind the bar, bleeding copiously and complaining of internal pain. She told police that two to three men, one of whom had a scar above his right eye, raped her.
She told police she believed the men were Hispanic and mentioned a gang initiation. She also complained of confusion. The bartender reported seeing the woman in the company of a number of individuals during the course of the night.
One witness said she saw the victim vomiting and bleeding in the bathroom, but none of the bar patrons reported any awareness of a rape.
Columbus Local News
June 02, 2010
Southwest USA
U.S. Border Patrol Crime Blotter - May 27 - June 9, 2010
June 9, 2010 - Tucson Sector - Agents arrested an illegal alien from Honduras near Casa Grande, Arizona.
Records checks revealed the subject had a prior conviction for sexual abuse of a child under the age of 12 in the state of Kentucky and had previously been removed from the United States.
June 7, 2010 - El Centro Sector - Agents arrested an illegal alien from Mexico near Calexico, California.
Records checks revealed the subject is a convicted sex offender and had previously been removed from the United States.
June 7, 2010 - El Centro Sector - Agents arrested an illegal alien from Mexico near Ocotillo, California.
Records checks revealed the subject had a prior conviction for lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14 in the state of California and had previously been removed from the United States.
June 7, 2010 - Tucson Sector - Agents arrested an illegal alien from Mexico near Cowlic, Arizona. During processing, the subject admitted to being a Latin Kings gang member. Records checks revealed he had a prior conviction for statutory rape in the state of Georgia.
June 5, 2010 - Del Rio Sector - Agents arrested an illegal alien from Mexico near Eagle Pass, Texas.
Records checks revealed the subject had a prior conviction for indecency with a child with sexual contact in the state of Texas, and had previously been removed from the United States.
June 4, 2010 - Tucson Sector - Agents arrested an illegal alien from El Salvador near Naco, Arizona.
Records checks revealed the subject was a Mara Salvatrucha 13 (MS-13) gang member and had a prior conviction for possession/purchase of cocaine and spousal abuse. He had also previously been removed from the United States.
June 3, 2010 - Tucson Sector - Agents arrested an illegal alien from Mexico near Ajo, Arizona.
Records checks revealed the subject had a prior conviction for molestation of a child in the state of California and he had previously been removed from the United States.
June 2, 2010 - Del Rio Sector - Agents arrested an illegal alien from Mexico in Weatherford, Texas.
Records checks revealed the subject had a prior conviction for delivery of a controlled substance and an active arrest warrant for aggravated sexual assault on a child issued in the state of Texas. The subject had also been previously removed from the United States.
May 29, 2010 - Yuma Sector - Agents arrested an illegal alien from Mexico near Yuma, Arizona.
Records checks revealed the subject had an extensive criminal history, to include convictions for aggravated driving under the influence, assault and disorderly conduct. The subject was also a registered sex offender and had been previously removed from the United States.
May 29, 2010 - Tucson Sector - Agents arrested an illegal alien from Mexico near Casa Grande, Arizona.
Records checks revealed the subject had a prior conviction for rape in the state of Washington and had been previously removed from the United States.
May 29, 2010 - Tucson Sector - Agents arrested an illegal alien from Mexico near Douglas, Arizona.
Records checks revealed the subject had a prior conviction for lascivious acts and sexual penetration with foreign object of a minor in the state of California. The subject had also been previously removed from the United States.
May 27, 2010 - Laredo Sector - Agents assisted other Federal and local law enforcement officers in the arrest of an illegal alien from Mexico for kidnapping at a bus station near Laredo, Texas. The subject was en route to Mexico after kidnapping an 11-year-old female in the state of Illinois. The child was returned unharmed to proper authorities.
May 27, 2010 - Tucson Sector - Agents arrested an illegal alien from Mexico near Gila Bend, Arizona.
Records checks revealed the subject had a prior conviction for rape in the state of California and had been previously removed from the United States.
U.S. Border Patrol
June 9, 2010
Delaware, USA
New Castle Police Investigate Child's Abduction and Rape
Hockessin - New Castle County police are investigating a late night abduction and rape of a 9-year-old girl who accepted a ride from a stranger after she was inadvertently locked out of her home.
The investigation revealed that around 8:45 p.m. Wednesday, a family friend drove the victim to her home on the 500 block of Homestead Road in Alban Park home. After the friend drove away, the victim initially entered her building but was unable to get into her home as the door was locked. Police learned she then walked back outside to search for her sister and her parents.
While walking along Alban Drive, near the rear of the Canby Park Shopping Center, the victim was approached by an unknown man who was driving a four-door vehicle. The man offered the victim a ride and after some conversation, she accepted. The two drove out of the community and then to an undisclosed location in the city of Wilmington where the car was parked.
Police say the male suspect then sexually assaulted the victim before she was able get out of the car and run. A good Samaritan found the young girl walking in the area and took her to a nearby convenience store. The victim was able to reach a family member by phone who responded to the store, picked her up and then drove her home. She then disclosed the assault to her mother, who in turned called 911.
The suspect is described as an Asian or Hispanic male with short black hair. Anyone with information regarding this investigation is asked to contact the New Castle County Police Department at (302) 395-8110 (attention Detective Brian Faulkner) or visit
www.nccpd.com. Citizens may also provide a text tip at: 847411 (TIP411); begin your message with NCCPD and then type your message. Tipsters may also call Crime Stoppers at (800) TIP-3333.
Police say investigators do not have any evidence at this point to believe this case is related to the two recent abduction and rape crimes that are being investigated by the Delaware State Police.
Kye Parsons
WBOC
June 10, 2010
California, USA
Man Tries to Grab Child Walking to School
San Diego - A 14-year-old girls escaped from a kidnapping attempt Thursday morning in City Heights.
The girl told San Diego Police she was walking to school when a man walked out of an apartment complex at 4029 44th Street near University Avenue at about 7:15 a.m. He reportedly tried to grab her and started chasing her.
A passing school bus driver saw the girl appeared to be in trouble and called police.
Police describe the suspect as a Latino male, about 25 years old, 6 feet tall with a medium build, shaved head, wearing dark blue shorts and long white socks.
While the driver called police, the man fled. He was described as Hispanic, about 25 years old, 6 feet tall with a medium build and shaved head.
He had on dark blue Dickies shorts and long white socks.
San Diego 6
June 10, 2010
New Jersey, USA
Police Arrest Summit Man in Luring Case
Summit Police arrested Jose Gerardo Mazariedo, a 23 year old city resident, and charged him with two counts of third degree providing obscene materials to a minor and one count of second degree Child Luring on Monday, according to Detective Steve Zagorski.
This arrest, Zagorski emphasized, is not related to the May attempted luring on Linden Place.
On Saturday, the mother of a 14-year-old female reported to police that her daughter and three of her classmates had been followed home from school, every day for the past week, by an unidentified Hispanic male in his late 20s or early 30s who was operating a newer model Honda, color blue, Zagorski said.
At school dismissal time on June 7, the police set up surveillance around the victim's school and in the area of her walking route home. At around 3 p.m. police observed a 2010 Honda, which was being operated by Mazariedo, driving in the area under surveillance, Zagorski said.
The police stopped the vehicle and identified Mazariedo as the suspect from the June 7 complaint. Mazariedo was arrested after police uncovered additional evidence linking him to an additional victim, a 13-year-old female.
Mazariedo was committed to the Union County Jail in Elizabeth where he is being held in lieu of $200,000 bail.
Chief Robert C. Lucid commended the actions and skills of the two detectives assigned to the case, Sgt. Thomas Rich and Det. John Padilla, for "quickly securing the necessary information for these criminal charges before this individual could perpetrate a sexual assault. Without their diligence we may have had a very different story to tell."
Heather Collura
Summit Patch
June 08, 2010
Illinois, USA
Cops seek suspect in assault on Waukegan bike path
Waukegan police are asking for the public's help in locating a man suspected in the sexual assault last week of a woman near a bike path in the far northern suburb, officials said today.
Police said a 38-year-old woman was attacked at about 5 p.m. on June 4, on the Robert McClorey Bike Path just north of Montesano Avenue.
The woman was riding her bicycle on the path when she a man on another bicycle knocked her off of her bicycle and forced her in to a wooded area, officials said. The man assaulted her at knife point, police said.
After the attack the man left the area on his bicycle, traveling southbound on the path from Montesano Avenue.
The man is described as Hispanic, about 26-years-old, about 5 feet 9 inches tall, with a thin build and short black hair. The bicycle he was riding is described as a dark colored BMX style bicycle with foot pegs on the front wheel.
Police officials said they have a possible suspect identified and are "actively looking for him." Officials are asking anyone with any information about the incident to call detectives at (847)599-2608.
Carlos Sadovi
The Chicago Tribune / WGN
June 09, 2010
Virginia, USA
Short Pump jogger fights off attacker whose genitals were exposed
Henrico - Scary moments for a [city of] Short Pump woman who says she was attacked while on a morning jog near Lauderdale Drive and Park Terrace Drive. Tonight, police say they're treating this as an assault, and, exposure case, because when the woman tried to fight back, it turns out the man wasn't entirely covered up.
It's a crime that is as stunning, as it is unusual...in the upscale, private, and peaceful Wellesley neighborhood.
Police say a woman was on a mid-morning jog, when she saw a man walking toward her. She said, "Good morning". But police say the man, all of a sudden, shoved her backward. Police say the woman responded with a push of her own...only to notice the man's genitals were exposed.
"Kind of, just, you know...shocked. You don't really hear that kind of thing going on in our neighborhood," said Wellesley resident Sharon Sachdeva.
After the initial tussle, police say the man tried to run away, so the woman and a passerby chased him. Police say the man then got into a pickup truck, and drove out of sight.
Those who grew up in the area say it makes them think twice about their personal safety, which they usually don't have to do...
Henrico Police are looking for a person who fits this description: Hispanic male. Approximately 6' tall and 230 pounds, wearing white painter-style pants and a dingy white t-shirt. Police say he was driving a pickup truck. If you have information that can help, call Henrico Police at 501-5000 or Crime Stoppers at 780-1000.
WWBT
June 10, 2010
California, USA
Woman fights off suspect in attack at San Jose storage facility
Police are searching for a man who attempted to sexually assault and rob a woman in a rented unit of a San Jose storage facility this afternoon.
The woman managed to fight off her assailant in the attack at about 4:30 p.m. at Public Storage in the 900 block of Felipe Avenue, police spokesman Dirk Parsons said.
He said the victim had entered her storage unit when an unknown man came up behind her, hit her with his elbow and attempted to lift her skirt.
The woman fought him off, but the suspect then threatened to steal her car. Parsons said the victim was holding keys to her Mercedes and that the suspect tried to grab them.
The victim, however, resisted and the suspect ran out the door of the storage unit, shutting it behind him, according to Parsons. The woman managed to quickly escape the unit, but the suspect then grabbed her.
Parsons said the victim again resisted and the suspect ran to his vehicle and drove off.
The victim was taken to a local hospital to be treated for minor injuries.
Police described the suspect as a Hispanic man in his 30s, about 5 feet 6 inches tall and 170 pounds. He was wearing a blue hooded sweatshirt, and a blue shirt and pants. A security camera at the business showed him driving away in a small Honda or similar vehicle, Parsons said.
Parson said the suspect could face charges of assault with attempt to commit rape, assault with a deadly weapon and attempted robbery.
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Anyone with information regarding the case is asked to call police at (408) 277-4102. To remain anonymous, call Crime Stoppers at (408) 947-STOP.
Bay City News Service
June 02, 2010
The United States
Female Migrants Charge Sexual Abuse in
Detention
New York
- In the wake of allegations that a male guard at a central
Texas detention facility sexually assaulted female detainees on
their way to being deported, immigrant advocacy groups say
stronger oversight and accountability is urgently needed to
prevent further abuse of female detainees.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), part of the
Department of Homeland Security (DHS), said last week that the
guard has been fired. It added that Corrections Corporation of
America, the private prison company that manages the Hutto
facility, has been placed on probation pending the
investigation's outcome. The consequences of probation were not
immediately clear.
ICE said
that several women who were held at Hutto facility in Taylor,
Texas, were groped while being patted down and at least one was
propositioned for sex.
"We
understand that this employee was able to commit these alleged
crimes because ICE-mandated transport policies and procedures
were not followed," David Sanders, DHS's contracting officer,
said in a letter to Corrections Corporation of America obtained
by The Associated Press.
ICE has
ordered Corrections Corporation of America to take corrective
actions. Among them is forbidding male guards from being alone
with female detainees.
"Hutto is
not an isolated incident," Jacki Esposito of Detention Watch
Network, a coalition of organizations that monitors ICE
treatment of detainees, told IPS. "Allegations of sexual assault
have plagued other facilities where immigrants are being held by
the federal government." ...
William
Fisher
Inter Press Service (IPS)
June 07, 2010
Maryland, USA
Baltimore, Maryland - U.S. District
Judge Richard D. Bennett sentenced Jose Jhonson
Hernandez-Ramos, age 34, a Honduran national
living in Baltimore, today to 87 months in
prison followed by lifetime supervised release
for interstate travel to have sex with a minor.
Judge Bennett also ordered that Hernandez-Ramos
be removed from the United States by U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement after he has
completed his sentence.
The sentence was announced by
United States Attorney for the District of
Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein; Special Agent in
Charge William Winter of U.S. Immigration and
Customs Enforcement; Baltimore Police
Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III; and
Baltimore City State’s Attorney Patricia C.
Jessamy.
According to Hernandez-Ramos’
plea agreement, Hernandez-Ramos met the victim
in California, when she was 14 years old, and
they began to have a sexual relationship in May
2008. After the victim turned 15 years old, Jose
Jhonson Hernandez- Ramos brought her from
California to Baltimore in December 2008, where
they continued a sexual relationship until
August 4, 2009.
This case was brought as part of
Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative
to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual
exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by
the Department of Justice. Led by United States
Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division's
Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS),
Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state
and local resources to better locate, apprehend
and prosecute individuals who exploit children
via the internet, as well as to identify and
rescue victims. For more information about
Project Safe Childhood, please visit
projectsafechildhood.gov
United States Attorney Rod J.
Rosenstein commended Baltimore Child Abuse
Center Executive Director Adam Rosenberg and his
staff, for their assistance in this
investigation and thanked Assistant U.S.
Attorney Bonnie S. Greenberg, who prosecuted the
case.
The Maryland Human Trafficking Task Force
June 07, 2010
Maryland, USA
Illegal immigrant pleads to sex abuse of 6-year-old boy
Man faces between 15 and 30 years in prison, deportation for crimes
An illegal immigrant caught on video sexually assaulting a 6-year-old boy has pleaded guilty to exploiting a child to make child pornography.
The arrest of 25-five-year-old Maynor Quintanilla-Leon occurred after someone found a videotape in a Hyattsville trash bin that showed Quintanilla-Leon sexually abusing a male child, according to charging documents.
Quintanilla-Leon faces between 15 and 30 years in prison, and will be deported after he serves his time, prosecutors said.
"Mr. Quintanilla-Leon's despicable acts committed on a 6-year-old boy cry out for a long period of incarceration," Prince George's Police Chief Roberto Hylton said.
On July 8, 2009, authorities were tipped off about the attack after someone turned over a video tape that had been found with a VCR in a trash bin.
The tape lasts 47 minutes and depicts acts of sadistic violence, charging documents said. During the video, the child refers to his assailant as "Maynor."
Three days later, a witness spotted the man on the videotape in Hyattsville and contacted police. Police identified the man as Quintanilla-Leon, but because they did not have a victim they did not immediately arrest him, police said.
Detectives were able to find the boy in the video by going back to the previous addresses where Quintanilla-Leon had lived. Quintanilla-Leon had rented a home near where the boy lived. The child told police that Quintanilla-Leon abused him 20 times.
Quintanilla-Leon had fled to Texas, but U.S. Marshals captured him in Houston on July 29.
In Greenbelt's district court on Friday, Quintanilla-Leon admitted to sexually assaulting the boy twice. He did not admit to videotaping the assault, but admitted to throwing away the videotape in the trash near his brother's house.
Scott McCabe
The Washington Examiner
June 06, 2010
California, USA
Manhunt for man who attacked 14-year-old in Kensington
San Diego - Police are looking for a man who tried to rape a 14-year-old girl in Kensington.
The girl says she was walking along on 41st Street near Monroe Avenue at about 9:30 p.m. Sunday when the man threw her to the ground and tore off her undergarments.
A nearby neighbor apparently heard the girl's screams and attempted to apprehend the suspect, but he got away.
The suspect is described as a Latino male in his 30s with a goatee and tattoo on his right forearm. He was last seen wearing a dark colored hooded sweatshirt and shorts.
CBS 8
June 07, 2010
New York, USA
Police Seek Suspects In Central Park Sexual Assault
Police released surveillance video that shows three men believed to be suspects in the sexual assault of a woman in Central Park early Sunday morning. The victim, 23, was near the crosstown bus stop at East 86th Street and Fifth Avenue around 3 a.m. when, according to the Daily News, "The men offered to walk her through the park." Police Commissioner Kelly said, "She was taken into Central Park, where she was attacked."
The News also reports, "Two of the men pushed her to the ground, while the third exposed himself. She was sexually assaulted, hit on the head and robbed, the source said." The men allegedly told her they were smoking marijuana with PCP. The woman was able to run out of the park, half naked, onto Fifth Avenue where a cab driver saw her, gave her a shirt and called 911.
Upon learning about the attack, one 24-year-old told the News, "I always walk this way at night, but no way I'm doing that now." And WABC 7 has descriptions of the suspects: "Suspect #1: Hispanic man, 5'5" tall, with a dark colored Yankee baseball cap, dark colored patterned shirt and khaki shorts; Suspect #2: Hispanic man, 5'5" tall, with a red Yankee cap, red shirt and black shorts; Suspect #3: Hispanic man, 5'5" tall, with a light blue baseball cap, light blue shirt and khaki pants." People with information are urged to call Crime Stoppers (800-577-TIPS), log onto the Crimes Stoppers website or texting 274637 (CRIMES) with TIP577.
Gothamist
June 07, 2010
Colorado, USA
Fort Collins police arrest suspect in attempted kidnapping
Luis Garcia-Gonzales, 24, of Greeley, was taken into custody at 10:47 p.m. Saturday after a Greeley police officer noticed the vehicle he was driving matched the description of a vehicle Fort Collins police believed was tied to Thursday's attempted kidnapping incident.
Garcia-Gonzales was originally arrested for driving under restraint, but after an interview with a Fort Collins police detective, he was arrested on suspicion of felony attempted second-degree kidnapping and felony menacing.
Police began searching for a suspect after a 21-year-old woman reported that she was riding her bike northbound about 6:30 a.m. Thursday on Shields Street near Hill Pond Road when she noticed a man near an older white station wagon trying to get her attention.
According to police, the man was described as being Hispanic, in his mid-20s with a shaved head or very short hair, about 5-foot-7 and about 200 or 250 pounds.
The woman said the unknown man obstructed her path as she rode along the sidewalk and she stopped thinking he needed assistance.
"It was then that she saw the man had a knife in his hand. She attempted to flee, fell to the ground and two passing motorists stopped to assist," police said in a press release last week. "The suspect fled northbound on Shields Street in his vehicle. The victim was not injured."
Coloradan.com
June 07, 2010
Mexico
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young child labors in a melon field
Photo: El Universal |
En México, 3.6 millones de niños son explotados
La mayoría de niños, mujeres, adolescentes que laboran en malas condiciones y sin la posibilidad de asistir a la escuela provienen de contextos de pobreza, derivada de la falta de oportunidades educativas
La presidenta de la Comisión Especial de Lucha Contra la Trata de Personas, la panista Rosi Orozco (PAN), informó que con base en datos del Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía, en México hay 3.6 millones de niños trabajadores entre cinco y 17 años en condiciones de explotación.
"El Instituto estima que en México hay 3.6 millones de niños trabajadores entre cinco y 17 años trabajando en malas condiciones, sin la posibilidad de asistir a la escuela y buscar un mejor futuro", dijo.
Aseguró que la trata de personas es un delito con un impacto social complejo, cuya principal característica es convertir a las personas en mercancías que se intercambian en mercados clandestinos nacionales e internacionales, que laboran al amparo de la impunidad que les brindan las autoridades.
Orozco dijo que se deben combatir las raíces que propician el fenómeno de la trata de personas, pues la mayoría de niños, mujeres, adolescentes víctimas de ese delito provienen de contextos de pobreza, derivada de la falta de oportunidades educativas y laborales.
In Mexico, 3.6 million children are exploited
The majority of girls, boys and adolescents who labor
in abusive situations, with no hope of being able to attend school, live in
poverty that is also caused by a lack of educational opportunities.
National Actional Party (PAN) Congressional deputy Rosi Orozco, who is the
president of the Special Commission to Fight Human Trafficking in the Chamber of
Deputies, has announced the results of a statistical analysis on conditions
facing working children, conducted by the National Institute for Statistics and
Geography (INEG).
Deputy Orozco: The INEG estimates that in Mexico, 3.6 million minors between the ages of
5 and 17 work in [deplorable] labor conditions, and are unable to attend school
or seek a better future for themselves.
Orozco added that human trafficking is a crime that has a complicated impact on
society. Its principal characteristic is that it converts people into
merchandise, who are then bought and sold in national and international
clandestine marketplaces with the assistance of the impunity that is offered by corrupt authorities.
The deputy added that human trafficking should be fought from the roots up. They
majority of children, adolescents and women who are victims of these crimes come
from backgrounds of poverty, which itself derives from a lack of educational and
labor opportunities.
Andrea Merlos y Juan Arvizu
El Universal
June 02, 2010
Texas, USA
Human trafficking decried as "a horrible problem" in Texas
Austin - In the 2008 film thriller Taken, two American girls on a pleasure trip to France are kidnapped from their apartment and thrown into a brutal world of modern-day slavery and forced prostitution.
On Thursday, Texas lawmakers heard grim real-life episodes of human trafficking as law enforcement officials described a burgeoning criminal enterprise that has spread across Texas and other states.
Bexar County District Attorney Susan Reed told of one case in which a homeless teenage girl was abducted from a parking lot and spirited away to a strip club in Corpus Christi.
Capt. Rick Cruz of the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, a participant of a task force operation in Houston, said officers rescued nearly 100 girls from "basically forced slavery" in the break-up of a trafficking ring in Houston in 2005.
Victims are often told that their families will be killed or injured if they try to contact someone on the outside, Cruz said.
Dallas police Lt. Thon Overstreet opened testimony at a legislative hearing by revealing a coordinated law enforcement strike at three locations in the Metroplex on Thursday to arrest suspects in a human trafficking network in North Texas. Overstreet declined to divulge certain details or locations because the operation had not been completed...
"It's a horrible problem," said Rep. Paula Pierson, D-Arlington, a member of the state House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee, citing estimates that more than a half-million young people -- boys as well as girls -- have been kidnapped and forced into prostitution. Pierson said human trafficking often surges around "big events," such as the Super Bowl at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington on Feb. 6.
Overstreet, interviewed after the hearing, said members of a North Texas task force on human smuggling are mapping strategy to combat it as the Super Bowl approaches. The game is expected to draw legions of visitors to North Texas...
Growing problem
During the joint hearing of the Criminal Jurisprudence and the Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence committees, lawmakers heard testimony that human trafficking rings have grown in sophistication and technological skill, often using the Internet to lure victims or conduct business. There are also strong indications that Mexican drug cartels are increasingly moving into human trafficking to expand their illicit profits.
"It's grown dramatically, and I don't think we've even scratched the surface on a lot of these organizations," Overstreet said.
Asked by Rep. Dan Branch, R-Dallas, to rank where law enforcement stands against human trafficking organizations on a scale of one to 10, Overstreet responded, "two or three, right now."
Overstreet clutched a rolled-up chart that he said detailed the operations of
[a] human smuggling ring targeted by [a recent] raid.
The criminal network has ties in Nigeria, Colombia and Mexico, operates in more than 20 U.S. cities, and boasts $12 million in physical assets and more than $6 million cash, he said...
Dave Montgomery
The Star-Telegram
June 03, 2010
The Americas
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