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Indigenous and Latina Women & Children's Human
Rights News from the Americas |
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Latina and Indigenous Women & Children at Risk |
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School-Based Sexual Exploitation of
Latina and Indigenous Children and Youth
in Canada, the United States and across
Latin America
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A crisis of school-based rape with impunity and
severe sexual harassment has in the past, and does
now impact the lives of thousands of indigenous and
Latin girls and boys in Canada, the United States
and in Latin America. |
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LibertadLatina.org
focuses on the severe sexual harassment
and brazen sexual assault with impunity faced by
Latin and indigenous school children across the
Americas.
Latest News
Ireland
Thousands raped in
Ireland's Christian Brothers schools
Abuse report:
Victim of priest says ‘too little, too
late’
Horrific child abuse report is published
A fiercely debated, nine-year investigation into
Ireland's Roman Catholic-run institutions says
priests and nuns terrorised thousands of boys
and girls in workhouse-style schools for decades
— and government inspectors failed to stop the
chronic beatings, rapes and humiliation.
High Court Justice Sean Ryan today unveiled the
2,600-page final report of Ireland's Commission
to Inquire Into Child Abuse, which is based on
testimony from thousands of former students and
officials from more than 250 church-run
institutions.
More than 30,000 children deemed to be petty
thieves, truants or from dysfunctional families
— a category that often included unmarried
mothers — were sent to Ireland's austere network
of industrial schools, reformatories, orphanages
and hostels from the 1930s until the last
church-run facilities shut in the 1990s.
The report found that molestation and rape were
"endemic" in boys' facilities, chiefly run by
the Christian Brothers order, and supervisors
pursued policies that increased the danger.
Girls supervised by orders of nuns, chiefly the
Sisters of Mercy, suffered much less sexual
abuse but frequent assaults and humiliation
designed to make them feel worthless.
The Belfast Telegraph
Belfast, Ireland
May 20, 2009
LibertadLatina
Commentary
As a member of the indigenous community
in North America, I am motivated by the
recently released High Court report on
mass rapes being proven to have been
endemic in Ireland's Catholic-run
boarding schools... to say: Now will
you (people of the world) believe us!
The indigenous children of the United
States and Canada faced systemic rape
and other physical tortures in the
system of boarding schools that were
designed, so the story went, to separate
Native children from the "heathen ways
of their ancestors." Obviously, that
statement got the situation exactly
backwards.
End
impunity now!
Chuck Goolsby
LibertadLatina
May 21, 2009
Native America
Soul Wound: The
Legacy of Native American Schools.
...Virtually imprisoned in the schools,
children experienced a devastating
litany of abuses, from forced
assimilation and grueling labor to
widespread sexual and physical abuse.
Scholars and activists have only begun
to analyze what Joseph Gone (a Gros
Ventre), a psychology professor at the
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, calls
"the cumulative effects of these
historical experiences across gender and
generation upon tribal communities
today..."
Andrea Smith
(Cherokee) is interim coordinator for
the Boarding School Healing Project and
a Bunche Fellow coordinating AIUSA's
[Amnesty International USA] research
project on Sexual Violence and American
Indian women.
Andrea Smith, for
Amnesty Now
Summer 2003
Canada
Indigenous Children
Canada's system of forced-attendance boarding
schools for indigenous children, that existed
through the 1970's, has resulted in over 90,000
survivors of a system of intentional physical
torture and sexual assault.
Canadian government and church institutions have
openly admitted their guilt and have apologized,
while facing 1,700 class- action lawsuits.
As one byproduct, 90% of prostituted
Canadian children are Native.
The
above link is to our Canadian section, which
covers the extensively documented crisis of
school rape faced by indigenous (First Nations)
children for close to 100 years.
From:
Soul Wound: The legacy of [Canadian and
U.S.] Native American Schools.
A 2001 report by
the Truth Commission into Genocide in Canada
documents the responsibility of the Roman
Catholic Church, the United Church of Canada,
the Anglican Church of Canada, and the federal
government in the deaths of more than 50,000
Native children in the Canadian residential
school system.
The
report says church officials killed children by
beating, poisoning, electric shock, starvation,
prolonged exposure to sub-zero cold while naked,
and medical experimentation, including the
removal of organs and radiation exposure. In
1928 Alberta passed legislation allowing school
officials to forcibly sterilize Native girls;
British Columbia followed suit in 1933. There is
no accurate toll of forced sterilizations
because hospital staff destroyed records in 1995
after police launched an investigation. But
according to the testimony of a nurse in
Alberta, doctors sterilized entire groups of
Native children when they reached puberty. The
report also says that Canadian clergy, police,
and business and government officials “rented
out” children from residential schools to
pedophile rings.
The consequences of
sexual abuse can be devastating. “Of the first
29 men who publicly disclosed sexual abuse in
Canadian residential schools, 22 committed
suicide,” says Gerry Oleman, a counselor to
residential school survivors in British
Columbia.
The United
States
Indigenous Children
Soul Wound: The legacy of Native American
Schools
Mass sexual assault
against indigenous children also occurred in
United States residential schools through the
1980's. "...Rampant sexual abuse at [U.S.]
reservation schools continued until the end of
the 1980s..."
...Rampant sexual
abuse at reservation schools continued until the
end of the 1980s, in part because of pre-1990
loopholes in state and federal law mandating the
reporting of allegations of child sexual abuse.
In 1987 the FBI found evidence that John Boone,
a teacher at the BIA-run Hopi day school in
Arizona, had sexually abused as many as 142 boys
from 1979 until his arrest in 1987. The
principal failed to investigate a single abuse
allegation. Boone, one of several BIA
schoolteachers caught molesting children on
reservations in the late 1980s, was convicted of
child abuse, and he received a life sentence.
Acting BIA chief William Ragsdale admitted that
the agency had not been sufficiently responsive
to allegations of sexual abuse, and he
apologized to the Hopi tribe and others whose
children BIA employees had abused.
The effects of the
widespread sexual abuse in the schools continue
to ricochet through Native communities today.
“We know that experiences of such violence are
clearly correlated with posttraumatic reactions
including social and psychological disruptions
and breakdowns,” says Gone.
Lakota (Sioux) sue Catholic Church for Boarding School Rape
...Sonny One Star says he learned not to
cry or scream when he was beaten and sexually assaulted at his Roman
Catholic boarding school on the Rosebud Sioux Indian Reservation.
Four decades later, he says it is time for a different approach.
"Today, I'm ready for retaliation," said One Star, a leader on the
reservation.
He and five other Sioux are suing the federal government for $25 billion
on behalf of perhaps thousands of students allegedly abused at Indian
boarding schools around the country. They hope to have the case
certified as a class-action.
"The nuns and the priests -- the ones who are still living -- I just want
to let them know I'm coming after them," said One Star, 46, who attended
the St. Francis Mission school, one of the three Catholic schools named
in the lawsuit. "It was fun for them back then, but I want to get
justice. I want to get even."
Mr. Gary Frischer was in
Pine Ridge this week. Frischer is a Multi-District Litigation
Consultant. Mr. Frischer said that Attorney Jeffrey Herman, who has
previously and successfully sued the Catholic Church, is representing
hundreds of Lakota who have been sexually, mentally and physically
abused.
"It's about the alleged stripping of the Lakota Culture from many children
who attended Catholic schools in the past," Frischer said. "And the
federal lawsuit will be filed in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, on 17 March
[2003]."
PIERRE -- Six members of Sioux tribes have filed a lawsuit seeking $25
billion in damages from the federal government for the alleged mental,
physical and sexual abuse of students at Indian boarding schools
nationwide.
...The lawsuit was started with the allegations of former students from
South Dakota. But it also will involve accusations at boarding schools
in Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, Minnesota and California, said
Jeffrey Herman of Hollywood, Fla., the lead attorney in the case.
The six allege they were beaten and sometimes sexually assaulted by
priests or nuns who ran the boarding schools.
..."I was witness to a lot of these things. I was beaten myself in the
middle of the night. I was tortured in the middle of the night. When I
saw one of my relatives being sexually abused, I tried to run, and I was
caught," Zephier said Thursday at a news conference in Los Angeles.
"They would whip us with boards and sometimes with straps," he said.
His sister, Adele Zephier, cried when she described her time at St.
Paul's. "I was molested there by a priest and watched other girls," she
said, and then broke down crying.
The Rape of indigenous
girls in U.S. boarding schools
From Charles M. Goolsby, Jr.'s 1994 report:
The Sexual and Economic Exploitation of Latina immigrant Women and Girls
in Montgomery County, MD - Chapter 4.
While researching Native-American issues at the
undergraduate library of the University of Maryland - College Park, I
found an article regarding this 'code of silence' in the nation's
largest Native-American newspaper, Wassaja, published by the
Native-American Historical Society in San Francisco, Ca. This article
mentioned the work of a well known Lakota (Sioux) psychiatrist, who had
taken a team of Native-women to a boarding school for junior high school
girls from far-away reservations. It was located in a 'White' town in
the upper northwestern U.S. This doctor's team concluded that 80 of the
120 students had been raped by [white] town locals, who took advantage
of the fact that Native-American victims of abuse, especially women and
teen-aged girls, would not speak to law enforcement authorities
regarding their victimization. Within this article the local Sheriff
expressed the hope that some of the girls would come forward. None had
at that time. The team of Native-women had been the key to bringing this
story out.
Latina Children in the United States
Over 38 million Latin Americans live in the
United States today in 2004. The sexual
harassment and other forms of sexual
exploitation affecting Latina teenagers is thus
a significant problem in this country.
...Latina
girls reported most likely to stop attending
school activities and sports in order to
avoid sexual harassment...
July 4, 2002 -"Compared
with whites and blacks, Hispanic children are
much more likely to..." "attempt suicide if
they're a girl..." - From a recent report on
Latino children's health issues.
More detail on the crisis of community-based
sexual harassment and sexual assault facing
Latina girls may be found on our
U.S. community exploitation issues page.
Ecuador
,,,In Guayaquil [Ecuador's largest city],
approximately 25% of young girls suffered
various forms of sexual abuse at school, and
8.1% were raped by their own teachers.
-
UNICEF
Convergence
These decades-old patterns of impunity in anti-
indigenous and anti-Latina child sexual assault
within schools (and communities) match closely
what is happening today to Latina and
indigenous girls and boys across the
Americas.
Currently, children are subjected to rape with
impunity and severe sexual harassment with
little effective law enforcement response.
These abuses together with domestic physical and
sexual violence push many of these young girls
into early, un-equal marriages with adult men,
pushes them into street prostitution from ages
as young as 10, and pushes these children into
the hands of ruthless sex trafficking gangs.
In any given capitol in Latin America, 5 to 10
thousand or more girls have been forced in this
way into street homelessness, or have been
forced into the hands of pimps and sex
trafficking gangs.
This dynamic of the social abandonment of girl
children may be seen especially on the
Mexico-U.S. border in places like
the San Diego, California child rape camps.
Latina girls in the
Washington, DC region (see below
article) and across the United States also face
these open forms of exploitation.
Only activist political pressure by the public
will move institutions away from past
apathy and complacency in their reactions to
these abuses of our children.
Why does little Ms. Maria in school (see
below article) get less attention than
other child victims of these crimes?
- LibertadLatina.org
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Efforts
to Build
Effective
Responses
to the
Sexual
Victimization
of
Latina
Immigrant
Children
and
Youth
with
Impunity
in
Montgomery
County,
Maryland
and
Washington,
DC. |
| |
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Underage
Latina
girls
face
rape,
coercion
and
severe
sexual
harassment
with
impunity
in the
greater
Washington,
DC area |
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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.
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
Listen
Need
RealAudio
Player? |
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LibertadLatina
News /
Noticias
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Updated: Nov. 15, 2011
|
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Latest
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Added: Nov. 15, 2011
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Greater Washington, DC USA
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Gangs
Enter New Territory With Sex
Trafficking
|
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Though most are known to deal with
drugs and weapons, a new FBI threat
assessment says street gangs have
been moving into some different
territory lately: human trafficking.
The FBI says gang members
increasingly are pushing women and
children into prostitution.
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The MS-13 gang got its start among
immigrants from El Salvador in the
1980s. Since then, the gang has
built operations in 42 states,
mostly out West and in the
Northeastern United States, where
members typically deal in drugs and
weapons.
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But in Fairfax County, Virginia, one
of the wealthiest places in the
country, authorities have brought
five cases in the past year that
focus on gang members who have
pushed women, sometimes very young
women, into prostitution.
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"We all know that human trafficking
is an issue around the world," says
Neil MacBride, the top federal
prosecutor in the area. "We hear
about child brothels in Thailand and
brick kilns in India, but it's
something that's in our own
backyard, and in the last year we've
seen street gangs starting to move
into sex trafficking."
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In Virginia, at least, the
consequences can be severe. Over the
past few weeks, one member of MS-13
nicknamed "Sniper" got sent to
prison for the rest of his life.
Another will spend 24 years behind
bars for compelling two teenage
girls to sell themselves for money.
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Usually, investigators say, gang
members charge between $30 and $50 a
visit, and the girls are forced into
prostitution 10 to 15 times a day.
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It's easy money for MS-13 —
thousands of dollars in a weekend,
with virtually no costs. Except for
alcohol and drugs to try to keep the
girls off-kilter.
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Often, the activity takes place at
construction sites, in the parking
lots of convenience stores and gas
stations.
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"Yeah, this last case we worked, the
victim was 12 years old," says John
Torres, who leads the Homeland
Security Investigations unit at the
Immigration and Customs Enforcement
office in Washington.
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He says the girl, a runaway,
approached MS-13 gang members at a
Halloween party. She was looking for
a place to stay. Within hours, she
was forced to work as a prostitute.
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"You have a gang that's taking
advantage of people that are in a
desperate situation, usually
runaways or someone that's looking
for help from the gang," Torres
says.
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Joshua Skule, who oversees the
violent crime branch of the criminal
division at the FBI's field office
in Washington, lists some reasons
for street gangs' move into sex
trafficking.
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"It is not like moving, or as risky
as moving narcotics. It is not as
risky as extorting business owners,"
he says. "And these victims really
have no way out."
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Skule says they're like modern
indentured servants. The 12-year-old
girl involved in one of the recent
sex trafficking cases is safe now,
authorities say. But she'll be
dealing with the physical and
emotional scars for many years.
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"When someone leaves, there's a lot
of shame and guilt associated with
the time they were there," says
Victoria Hougham, a social worker
who helps victims and survivors of
sex trafficking.
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"They may have physical injuries
which can impact, especially for
young women, their sexual and
reproductive health."
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Hougham works with
Polaris
Project,
a nonprofit that runs a 24-hour hot
line that helps connect victims of
human trafficking with police or
social services. She says survivors
of that kind of abuse do best when
they reconnect with their families
and get support from law
enforcement.
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Prosecutors in Virginia say they
expect to bring more sex trafficking
cases against gang members over the
next several months.
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Carrie Johnson
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All Things Considered
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National Public Radio
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Nov. 14, 2011
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Added: Nov. 14, 2011
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Congressional anti trafficking leader Rosi
Orozco eulogizes Interior Department leaders in the war against modern
slavery
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Mexico
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Mexico’s Secretary of the Interior José
Francisco Blake Mora and other officials recently died in a
tragic helicopter accident.
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Congressional deputy Rosi Orozco, president of
the Special Commission to Combat Human Trafficking in the
Chamber of Deputies
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Comunicado
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Con profunda tristeza me uno al dolor que
embarga a las familias de cada uno de los pasajeros que viajaban junto
con el Srio. de Gobernación
José Francisco Blake Mora,
en el trágico
accidente sucedido el día de ayer; Felipe de Jesús Zamora Castro,
subsecretario de Asuntos Jurídicos y Derechos Humanos [y otros]…,
quienes sirviendo a su Nación, perdieron su vida.
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Siempre estaremos agredecidos por el
apoyo del Srio. José Francisco Blake quien en funciones subió el tema
del delito de Trata de Personas al Consejo de Seguridad Nacional
equiparando así este delito con el de secuestro. En todo momento fue un
hombre dispuesto y determinado a luchar por tener un mejor país, una
mejor Nación, un mejor México para nacionales y extranjeros.
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Felipe de Jesús Zamora,
gran aliado en la
lucha contra la Trata de Personas, comprometido con la campaña de la ONU
en contra de este crimen, portando todos los días en la solapa de su
traje el símbolo del Corazón Azul, su pérdida para mí es irreparable.
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Press Release
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It is with deep sadness that I join with the
pain felt by the families of each of the passengers who were traveling
with Mexico’s Secretary of the Interior
José Francisco Blake Mora
during the tragic [helicopter] accident that happened yesterday...,
including Felipe de Jesús Zamora Castro, Secretary of Legal Affairs and
Human Rights at the Interior Department.
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We will always be thankful for the
support of Secretary Blake Mora, who raised the issue of human
trafficking before the National Security Council, where he equated
trafficking with crime of kidnapping [which is penalized much more
severely under Mexican law]. The Secretary was at all times a man
willing and determined to fight for a better country, a better nation, a
better Mexico for nationals and foreigners.
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[Another victim of the crash,
Undersecretary of the Interior for Judicial
Affairs and Human Rights] Felipe de Jesus Zamora was a great ally in the
fight against trafficking in persons. He was committed to [Mexico’s
collaboration with] the United Nations Blue Heart campaign against
trafficking, wearing therir blue heart pin on his lapel each and every
day. His loss is irreparable.
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I join the pain of all Mexicans, who
have lost brave servants of our nation. They defended the values which
make Mexico great through their day-to-day hard work and determination.
I sympathize with their beloved families, peers and colleagues.
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Attentively
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Atentamente
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Diputada Federal Rosi Orozco
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Nov. 11, 2011
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Added: Nov. 14, 2011
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Mexico
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Protest sign says "We need authorities
who will indeed protect us - not rapists."
|
|
|
La CIDH admite el caso de 11 mujeres mexicanas
que acusan tortura sexual
|
|
La Comisión Interamericana investigará una denuncia de violación de un
grupo mujeres en un operativo policial en San Salvador Atenco en 2006
|
|
Según la documentación de organizaciones civiles, al menos 26 mujeres
fueron violadas, de las cuales, 11 acudieron ante la CIDH (Cuartoscuro
Archivo).
|
|
La Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos (CIDH) admitió investigar
el caso de 11 mujeres mexicanas que aseguran que fueron víctimas de
tortura sexual durante una represión policial en 2006 en San Salvador
Atenco, en el Estado de México.
|
|
Durante el 143° periodo ordinario de sesiones, la CIDH emitió un informe
para comenzar a investigar la petición 512-08 Mariana Selvas Gómez y
otros vs. México, interpuesta en abril de 2008 bajo el cargo de dilación
de justicia por la nula investigación en el caso.
|
|
“Ni la Fiscalía Especial de Delitos Violentos Contra las Mujeres y Trata
de Personas (Fevimtra) ni la Procuraduría General de Justicia del Estado
de México (PGJEM) han realizado una adecuada investigación y ningún
policía, de los más de 2,500 agentes que intervinieron, ha sido
sancionado”, acusa el Centro de Derechos Humanos Miguel Agustín Pro
Juárez (Centro Prodh), que lleva el caso legal de las denunciantes.
|
|
La Comisión investigará ahora si el Estado mexicano cometió violaciones
de derechos humanos y dará a conocer sus conclusiones en cuanto la parte
acusadora y el gobierno mexicano sean notificados sobre las mismas.
|
|
La población de San Salvador de Atenco se movilizó en febrero y mayo de
2006 contra la expropiación de tierras en San Salvador Atenco para la
construcción de un nuevo aeropuerto internacional en el centro del país.
La protesta derivó en un enfrentamiento en el que participaron 2,500
policías de los tres órdenes de gobierno. Dos personas murieron y 207
fueron detenidas.
|
|
Organizaciones civiles como el Centro Prodh denuncian que durante el
operativo del 3 y 4 de mayo de 2006, al menos 26 mujeres fueron víctimas
de tortura sexual; de las cuáles, 11 presentaron una querella ante la
CIDH.
|
|
Estas mujeres denunciaron que los agentes las detuvieron por participar
en los disturbios y que en los vehículos donde eran trasladadas a un
penal sufrieron violencia sexual, física y verbal.
|
|
Una de las denunciantes, Italia Méndez, escribió una carta en el quinto
aniversario del operativo en Atenco: "La tortura sexual ejercida contra
nosotras las mujeres en los operativos fue un hecho difícil de afrontar
y denunciar, dimensionar tal violencia contra nuestros cuerpos nos
resultaba desbordante, sin embargo, el mantenernos juntas y enfrentar al
Estado de forma colectiva nos permitió afrontar y desmontar el discurso
del poder en el cual nosotras debíamos sentir vergüenza y no podíamos
hacer nada con lo ocurrido”.
|
|
En julio de 2010, la Suprema Corte de Justicia de la Nación (SCJN)
ordenó la liberación de 12 integrantes del Frente de Pueblos en Defensa
de la Tierra (FPDT), que estaban sentenciados a penas de entre 31 y 112
años de cárcel por el delito de secuestro equiparado tras haber
participado en la protesta.
|
|
Un año antes, la Corte dictaminó que los policías que fueron parte del
operativo cometieron graves violaciones a las garantías individuales.
Hasta ahora, sólo uno ha sido consignado por actos libidinosos, pero no
fue encarcelado.
|
|
La SCJN también deslindó responsabilidad al expresidente Vicente Fox y
al exgobernador del Estado de México, Enrique Peña Nieto.
|
|
El exmandatario estatal dijo en 2008 que volvería a ordenar un operativo
similar en caso de que fuera necesario restablecer el orden y la paz
social. Sin embargo, un año después, reconoció que en el caso existe un
“alto grado de impunidad” en cuanto a violaciones y abusos cometidos por
los 2,500 policías que participaron, pero dijo que era “prácticamente
imposible saber quién las cometió”.
|
|
Cinco años después de haber avalado el operativo, Enrique Peña Nieto es
el político mexicano mejor posicionado en las encuestas para los
comicios presidenciales de 2012.
|
|
International Commission will investigate the case of 11 Mexican women
who charge sexual torture [at the hands of police]
|
|
The Inter-American Commission for Human Rights (IACHR) has decided
to investigate
rape complaints filed by a group of women in regard to a police
operation that occurred in the city of San Salvador de Atenco in 2006.
|
|
According to documentation assembled by nongovernmental organizations,
at least 26 women were raped at the time of the incident. Eleven of those victims have
pursued the case that will be considered by the IACHR.
|
|
During its 143rd regular session, the Commission issued a report to
begin investigating
petition 512-08 - Mariana Selvas Gómez et al.,
Mexico, filed in April 2008 on allegations that justice was not served
because officials failed to investigate the case.
|
|
"Neither the [federal] Special Prosecutor for Violent Crimes Against
Women and Trafficking in Persons (FEVIMTRA) nor the Attorney General of
the State of Mexico (PGJEM) conducted an adequate investigation, and
none of the more than 2,500 police officers involved [in the operation]
has been penalized,” declared a spokesperson for the Miguel Agustín Pro
Juárez Human Rights Center (PRODH Center), which provides legal
representation for the complainants.
|
|
The Commission will now investigate whether the Mexican government
committed human rights violations and will publish its conclusions after
the complainants and the Mexican government are notified about them.
|
|
The population of San Salvador Atenco had mobilized in February, and
then in May of 2006
in protest against the expropriation of land within the city that was to
be used for the construction of a new international airport. The protest
led to a confrontation and a response by more than 2,500 federal, state
and local police officers. Two people died and 207 were arrested.
|
|
Civil society organizations such as the PRODH Center reported that during the
operation, which took place between May 3rd and 4th
of
2006, at least 26 women were subjected to sexual torture. Eleven of those
victims joined to bring the IACHR complaint.
|
|
The women reported that officers had arrested them for participating in
the disturbances, and that they were sexually, physically and verbally
assaulted on the buses that transported them to jail.
|
|
One of the complainants, Italia Méndez, wrote a letter on the fifth
anniversary of the operation in Atenco and stated: "The sexual torture
that was perpetrated against us as women was hard to face and denounce -
such violence [against] our bodies was overwhelming. Nonetheless, by
staying together and by confronting the state collectively, we were able
to dismantle the discourse that was [publicized] by those in power, a
discourse that said that we should feel ashamed and that we could not do
anything about what had happened."
|
|
In July 2010, the Supreme Court of Justice (SCJN) ordered the release of
12 members of the Peoples' Front in Defense of the Land (FPDT), who had
been sentenced to between 31 and 112 years in prison for the crime of
kidnapping after participating in the protest.
|
|
A year earlier, the Court ruled that the police officers who were part
of the operation committed serious violations of individual rights. So
far, only one officer has been prosecuted for lewd acts. He was not
jailed.
|
|
The supreme court also exonerated [former] president Vicente Fox and the
former governor of Mexico state, Enrique Peña Nieto in regard to the
case.
|
|
Peña Nieto said in 2008 that he would have ordered a similar operation
again in the event that it become necessary to restore order and social
peace. A year later, Peña Nieto acknowledged that there was a "high
degree of impunity" in regard to the violations and abuses committed by the
2,500 police officers involved, but said it was "practically impossible
to know who committed those acts".
|
|
Five years after having [ordered and] supported the operation, Enrique
Peña Nieto holds the top position in polls leading up to the 2012
presidential race.
|
|
Tania L. Montalvo
|
|
CNNMéxico
|
|
Nov. 09, 2011
|
|
See also:
|
|
Added: Nov. 14, 2011
|
|
Mexico
|
|
Raped, Beaten, Never Forgotten
|
|
When the women left their homes that May morning in 2006, they never
imagined the horrific experience that lay ahead of them.
|
|
During a police operation in response to protests by a local peasant
organization in San Salvador Atenco, more than 45 women were arrested
without explanation. Dozens of them were subjected to physical,
psychological and sexual violence by the police officers who arrested
them.
|
|
In the case of one of the women, police officers pulled her hair, beat
her, and forced her into a state police vehicle with her shirt pulled
over her head. She was made to lie on top of other detainees, and during
the journey to the prison, police officers sexually assaulted her
repeatedly.
|
|
Once at the "Santiaguito" prison near Toluca in Mexico State, the prison
doctors who examined many of the women failed to document all their
physical injuries or to gather evidence of the sexual abuse they had
suffered.
|
|
More than four years later, these brave survivors are still waiting for
justice.
|
|
None of the officials responsible for their abuse have been held
accountable. Federal authorities had conducted an investigation that
resulted in a list of 34 names of police officers who were suspected of
being responsible for the abuses, but the federal authorities concluded
that these individuals should be prosecuted at the state level.
|
|
Almost no progress has been made in over a year. Now is the time to push
for real justice and remind the federal government of Mexico that it has
the ultimate responsibility to protect the human rights of its citizens,
and not to let this impunity continue...
|
|
Amnesty International
|
|
2011
|
|
See Also:
|
|
LibertadLatina
|
|
Special Section
|
|
Atenco
|
|
|
|
Mexican Police
Rape and Assault
47
Women at
Street Protest
|
|
|
Added: Nov. 14, 2011
|
|
Mexico
|
|
|
|
Lydia Cacho
|
|
|
Detectan 17 casos de trata en la Riviera Maya
|
|
Ante los hechos de explotación sexual se realizará una marcha pacífica
el próximo 12 de noviembre en la zona turística de Cancún
|
|
El Centro Integral de Atención a la Mujer Maltratada (CIAM-Cancún)
documenta los casos de al menos 17 menores de edad, víctimas de una red
de tratantes de personas en la Riviera Maya, quienes vivían
originalmente en situación de calle y fueron captadas por tratantes que
las "engancharon" en el turismo sexual, comerciándolas sexualmente para
el consumo de turistas canadienses, italianos y norteamericanos,
principalmente.
|
|
La organización, que brinda asesoría psicológica, emocional, jurídica y
alberga a mujeres víctimas de violencia, conocieron de los casos como
parte de la campaña "Yo no estoy en venta" que iniciaron en mayo pasado
para prevenir y combatir el delito de la Trata de Personas en sus
diversas modalidades, enfocada a adolescentes y jóvenes a quienes se
dota de herramientas para detectar el fenómeno, reconocer los signos de
alerta y, en su caso, denunciarlos a personas de su confianza.
|
|
Como parte de dicha campaña se realizará una marcha pacífica el próximo
12 de noviembre en la zona turística de Cancún para lanzar como mensaje
al turismo y a la industria de que Cancún es paraíso, pero no para el
turismo sexual y que la niñez en Quintana Roo, no está en venta, anunció
este martes la presidenta del CIAM-Cancún, Lydia Cacho Ribeiro.
|
|
La activista reveló datos
preliminares sobre los casos detectados y el estudio que han conformado
para dibujar el perfil de los tratantes de personas que operan en Cancún
y en Playa del Carmen -municipios de Benito Juárez y Solidaridad- en
donde estas mafias que explotan comercialmente a menores de edad son
protegidas por cárteles de la droga, específicamente por Los Zetas y los
"Pelones".
|
|
Del grupo de 17 víctimas halladas por CIAM, Cacho Ribeiro dijo que sus
edades oscilan entre los 13 y 16 años, que provienen de diferentes
entidades de la República Mexicana y que su común denominador estriba en
que la violencia doméstica que sufrieron en el hogar las hizo huir y
encontrar refugio en las calles…
|
|
"Esta modalidad de víctimas de Trata, que se encuentran en situación de
calle está cobrando importancia en Cancún y Riviera Maya. Hemos sabido
por testimonios de las propias víctimas que mantienen relaciones
sexuales con policías, comerciantes, taxistas y chavos de calle a cambio
de comida, protección, favores o drogas y no exclusivamente por dinero.
|
|
"Luego son captadas por sujetos a los que ubican como ‘valedores' que
primero las protegen, con quienes entablan un vínculo emocional muy
fuerte, y quienes terminan explotándolas sexualmente o entregándolas a
tratantes profesionales", expresó.
|
|
Estos ‘valedores' operan particularmente en la famosa Quintana Avenida,
localizada en Playa del Carmen y en playas aledañas a la zona. Y en
Cancún, en el Parque de las Palapas y en la zona de bares de la avenida
López Portillo.
|
|
La agrupación ha dividido en
tres al tipo de víctimas de Trata, detectados en Quintana Roo, durante
la campaña "Yo no estoy en Venta":
|
|
Infantes y adolescentes que viven con sus familias y son explotadas en
niveles socieconómicos altos, por amigos de la escuela y propietarios de
bares; quienes se reportan como desaparecidos o que huyeron de sus casas
y terminan dentro de una red local o internacional de Trata; y quienes
son traídas al estado por tratantes que manejan las rutas de tráfico de
migrantes indocumentados, principalmente de países como Guatemala, El
Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica y Paraguay.
|
|
Activists detect 17 cases of minor sex trafficking at Mexico’s Riviera
Maya resort
|
|
Given the facts of sexual exploitation, a peaceful march is planned for
November 12th in the resort city of Cancun
|
|
The Comprehensive Care Centre for Abused Women (CIAM-Cancún) has
announced that it has documented the cases of at least 17 underage
victims of sex trafficking networks in the Riviera Maya resort area. The
victims were homeless children who had been entrapped by a network of
traffickers who prostituted them for the consumption of sex tourists who
are principally from Canada, Italy and the United States.
|
|
CIAM, which provides emotional, psychological, legal and housing
assistance for women victims of violence, raised awareness of the 17
victims as part of its "I am not for sale" campaign. The effort began
last May to prevent and combat the crime of human trafficking in its
diverse forms. The campaign is aimed at teenagers and young adults who
will be educated to detect the phenomenon, to recognize the warning
signs and, where appropriate, report them to people they trust.
|
|
CIAM is organizing a peaceful march for November 12th in the resort city
of Cancun to launch its message to the tourism industry that Cancun is
a paradise, but not for sex tourism, and to declare that the children of
the state of Quintana Roo are not for sale, announced CIAM-Cancún’s
president, [journalist and activist] Lydia Cacho Ribeiro.
|
|
Cacho Ribeiro discussed preliminary data in regard to the cases detected
as well as deails about a study that CIAM has developed to determine
the profile of the human traffickers that are operating in Cancun and
Playa del Carmen - where the gangs who engage in the commercial sexual
exploitation of children (CSEC) are protected by the drug cartels, and
specifically Los Zetas and the "Pelones."
|
|
According to Cacho Ribeiro, the ages of the 17 victims found by CIAM are
between 13 and 16. They come from across Mexico. Their common
denominator is that they all suffered domestic violence at home that
drove them onto the streets.
|
|
"This type of victims of trafficking, who may be found to be living on
the streets, is becoming increasingly important in Cancun and Riviera
Maya. We have testimony from the victims who have declared that the have
sex with policemen, shopkeepers, taxi drivers and street kids in
exchange for food, protection, favors or drugs. It is not always an
exchange of money that is involved.
|
|
"Later, they are captured by subjects who pose as benefactors, who
protect them, and with whom they have a strong emotional bond, These
subjects end up exploiting the victim sexually, or they hand
the girl
over to professional traffickers,” said Cacho Ribeiro.
|
|
These 'protectors' are especially active in the famous Avenida Quintana
in Playa del Carmen, and along the beaches surrounding the area. In
Cancun, they operate in the Parque de las Palapas and in the bars along
the Avenida Lopez Portillo.
|
|
CIAM has categorized three types of victims of who have been detected in
Quintana Roo state during the I am not for Sale campaign: 1) children and
adolescents who are living with their families, who are exploited by
school friends and bar owners; 2) youth who are reported as missing or
who fled their homes and end up in a local or international [sex] trafficking
network; and 3) victims who are brought into the state by traffickers
who operate human smuggling routes that transport undocumented migrants
who are principally from the nations of Guatemala, El Salvador,
Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Paraguay.
|
|
Adriana Varillas
|
|
El Universal
|
|
Nov. 08, 2011
|
|
|
Added: Nov. 06, 2011
|
|
Latin America
|
|
The Rise
of Femicide and Women in Drug
Trafficking
|
|
While men have predominantly run drug
trafficking organizations (DTOs),
women have participated in them since
the 1920s. Their role may have
appeared miniscule compared to that
of their male counterparts, but they
have played key roles such as drug
mules and bosses…
|
|
Indirect
Effects of Drug Trafficking
|
|
Government
crackdowns on drug cartels not only
affect women directly, impacting
those who may be working as bosses
or mules, but also indirectly
through a resulting increase [in]
prostitution and sex trafficking.
These industries present an
alternative when governments place
heightened scrutiny on DTOs.
According to the International
Organization for Migration, sex
trafficking alone can produce USD 16
billion a year in revenue in Latin
America. With such high profits,
they are obvious choices to mobilize
in the midst of increased government
control…
|
|
Femicide
Emerges
|
|
The rise [in] the number of women in
prisons and the surge in their crime
rates are symptoms of a prominent
issue in Latin America, known as
femicide. Femicide refers to the
mass killings of women, and reflects
the excessive masculinity that is
associated with the drug industry…
[Drug crime is just one of many
causes of femicide in the region.]
Drug trafficking seems to heighten
the attitude that women are…
disposable... Although femicide
remains an issue for all of Latin
America, it has a greater presence
in parts of Central America. For
example, the [number] of murdered
women has tripled in four years,
from 2005-2009, in many Mexican
states from 3.7 to 11.1 per 100,000…
María
Virginia Díaz Méndez, of the Center
of Women’s Studies in Honduras,
states that, “Honduras comes in
second to Guatemala for the highest
femicide rate”. Despite growing
[rates of] femicide throughout the
region, it appears as though there
are little to no consequences for
committing such crimes…
|
|
Andrea Mares
|
|
Council on Hemispheric Affairs
|
|
October 28, 2011
|
|
See also:
|
|
Added: Nov. 06, 2011
|
|
Latin America
|
|
Sex
Trafficking Now A $16 Billion
Business In Latin America
|
|
The trafficking of women and girls
for purposes of sexual exploitation
has become a $16-billion-a-year
business in Latin America, according
to figures from the International
Organization for Migration.
|
|
That amount "is almost half of what
is calculated is generated
worldwide" by sex trafficking, said
IOM's director for the Southern
Cone, Eugenio Ambrosi, in an
interview published Wednesday in the
Buenos Aires daily Pagina/12.
|
|
Prostitution, he said, "is vying for
second place with weapons
trafficking as the illegal business
that moves the most money after drug
trafficking."
|
|
Ambrosi lamented the fact that
trafficking in women has "the
advantage ... (that) the logistical
and investment (costs) are much
lower" than in other illicit
businesses, and he added that
"there's a connection" between drug
trafficking and people trafficking.
|
|
"Sometimes the victims ... are
recruited to traffic drugs," he
said.
|
|
"There's a very well organized
network, with the capacity to
recruit and use women everywhere to
satisfy the requirements of the
market," said Ambrosi, adding that
"something has to be done to go
after the customers…"
|
|
WUNRN
|
|
Dec. 02, 2008
|
|
|
Added: Nov. 06, 2011
|
|
Remarks by Mexican anti-trafficking
leader Teresa Ulloa during her
acceptance of the 2011 Gleitsman
International Activist Award at the
Center for Public Leadership at
the Harvard Kennedy School
|
|
Mexico / Massachusetts, USA
|
|
|
|
Programme from
the 2011 Gleitsman
International Activist Award
ceremony
|
|
|
Palabras
De Teresa Ulloa al aceptar El Premio
Gleitsman 2011 al Activismo Social
Internacional
|
|
Buenas noches, quiero agradecer a
los miembros del Jurado y al Centro
para el Liderazgo Público de la
Escuela Kennedy de la Universidad de
Harvard por otorgarme el Premio
Gleitsman 2011 al Activismo Social
Internacional. También quiero
agradecer a cada una de las que me
nominaron, Corey, Norma, Dorchen y
Jan, todas ellas compañeras en
nuestra lucha y en la
CATW-Internacional, por confiar en
mí y por todo el trabajo que esta
nominación les representó.
|
|
Soy madre de una joven de 21 años,
que ha sido mi motivación y mayor
impulse para que haya dedicado mi
trabajo a contribuir a poner fin a
todas las formas de violencia contra
las mujeres, incluyendo la
sobre-sexualización y la explotación
sexual comercial de mujeres y niñas.
Yo sueño con que mi trabajo
contribuya para desarraigar la
normalización y la aceptación
cultural de la violencia contra las
mujeres para crear un mejor mundo
para todas ellas en todo el mundo.
|
|
He dedicado mi vida a luchar por los
derechos humanos, especialmente a
luchar contra la violencia hacia las
mujeres y las niñas, y, desde hace
veinte años, a combatir la trata de
mujeres, niñas y niños para la
explotación sexual. Durante 40 años,
he trabajado para empoderar y
defender a las mujeres para que
logren el acceso a sus derechos y he
representado a innumerables víctimas
de violencia sexual.
|
|
A menudo, he trabajado con un alto
riesgo personal y el de mi familia,
para erradicar la trata a lo largo
de América Latina y el Caribe,
especialmente en México, donde los
cárteles de las drogas ahora son los
actores principales de este delito.
|
|
En mi trabajo, he incluído un
enfoque holístico para crear las
condiciones legales, políticas y
sociales que permitan erradicar la
trata de personas. Uso mi
conocimiento y experiencia para
diseñar y poner en práctica campañas
y modelos de capacitación
innovadores para la prevención, la
protección y asistencia de las
víctimas, y para la persecución de
los tratantes y explotadores, para
capacitar a los agentes
institucionales encargados de hacer
respetar las leyes y para educar a
los jóvenes, entre otros.
|
|
Inspirada por nuestras Compañeras de
CATW-AP, diseñé un modelo dirigido a
hombres jóvenes para reducir la
demanda de sexo de paga. Este modelo
es el primero en su tipo para educar
a hombres jóvenes y niños sobre la
construcción de la masculinidad
tradicional y las consecuencias de
la demanda en el sexo de paga, que
además promueve una concepción
alternativa de la sexualidad
masculina basada en la igualdad de
derechos humanos. Este modelo se ha
aplicado en México, Argentina,
Ecuador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Perú,
Panamá, Chile, Colombia y la
República Dominicana.
|
|
Hoy, contamos con una red de cerca
de 400 organizaciones en 25 países
en la Región de Latinoamérica y el
Caribe, donde el avance del crimen
organizado y la trata de personas es
alarmante y la corrupción de las
instituciones gubernamentales y los
responsables de hacer respetar la
Ley es una constante. Cientos de
mujeres, niñas y niños se reportan
como desaparecidos y vivimos
continuamente con miedo. A través de
nuestro trabajo hemos rescatado más
de 899 mujeres, niñas y niños de la
trata interna e internacional con
propósitos de explotación sexual, a
través del Sistema Alerta Roja que
fundamos y operamos hace cinco años.
|
|
Sin embargo, todavia enfrentamos
muchos retos inmensos, que pueden
resumirse en:
|
|
La guerra y toda la violencia que
ella involucra contra las mujeres y
las niñas, en las actividades
militares y paramilitares:
violación, violencia sexual,
desplazamiento, muerte, hambre, el
abuso de poder al humillar a las
madres, esposas, hijas y hermanas de
los derrotados, los abusos sexuales
y la prostitución que promueven e
imponen los grupos armados, tanto
los regulares como los irregulares.
Queremos la paz sobre los intereses
económicos y políticos. Queremos el
imperio de la ley y de los derechos
humanos.
|
|
La discriminación de género, esa
discriminación que mata a miles de
niñas aún antes de que hayan nacido,
o aún cuando ya nacieron son
condenadas a la falta de
oportunidades, a la violencia de
género, a la explotación, a la mala
nutrición, a la marginación, a la
desigualdad, y a prácticas
tradicionales perjudiciales para sus
cuerpos y a su dignidad humana, como
el pago de las novias.
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La pobreza y la extrema pobreza. La
feminización de la pobreza se ha
convertido en testigo de la
injusticia para un poco más de la
mitad de la población mundial.
Urgimos su abolición.
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La violencia de género, esa
violencia que se ejerce contra las
mujeres y las niñas en los ámbitos
públicos y privados, en todas
partes. Las muejres y las niñas son
violadas cada día en sus hogares,
donde deberían tener garantizados
sus derechos a la vida, la su
integridad personal y a su
seguridad. Las mujeres y las niñas
son asesinadas cada día en medio de
la más absoluta impunidad. La
seguridad colectiva nunca será
posible si no se puede garantizar la
seguridad y la integridad de las
mujeres y las niñas.
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Tenemos el derecho de ser una
prioridad en la agenda internacional
de cooperación, en los esfuerzos
para el desarrollo, y en la lucha
contra la pobreza, en los desastres
naturals, en la educación, en la
salud, en la protección de nuestros
derechos humanos, pero también en
los temas de seguridad nacional, en
la guerra y en la paz, en los
esfuerzos contra el terrorismo, y en
la lucha contra el crimen
organizado...
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El Transcrito Completo
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See also: English translation
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Teresa
Ulloa speaks at the 2011 Gleitsman
Award for International Social
Activism
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Good evening. I want to thank the
members of the jury and the Center
for Public Leadership at the Kennedy
School at Harvard University for
having awarded me the 2011 Gleitsman
Award for International Social
Activism. I also want to thank those
who nominated me, [Coalition Against
Trafficking (CATW) in Women
Executive Director] Norma [Ramos],
Corey, Dorchen and Jan, as well as
all of the sisters who are all
partners in our struggle at the
International CATW, for trusting me
and for all the work that this
nomination represents for them.
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I am the mother of a 21-year-old
young woman, who has been the
greatest motivation causing me to
dedicate my work to helping to put
an end to all forms of violence
against women, including the
over-sexualization and commercial
sexual exploitation of women and
girls. I dream that my work
contributes to uprooting the
standardization and cultural
acceptance of violence against
women, resulting in a better world
for all women across the world.
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I have dedicated my life to fighting
for human rights, especially to
combat violence against women and
girls, and, for twenty y ears, to
combating the trafficking of women
and children for sexual
exploitation. For 40 years I have
worked to empower and advocate for
women to allow them access to their
rights. I have represented
innumerable victims of sexual
violence.
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Often, I have worked at high
personal risk to myself and my
family to eradicate trafficking
throughout Latin America and the
Caribbean, and especially in Mexico,
where drug cartels are now the main
actors in this crime.
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I have included a holistic approach
in my work to create the legal,
political and social conditions that
will allow for the eradication of
human trafficking. Use my knowledge
and experience to design and
implement campaigns and innovative
training models for prevention,
protection and assistance for
victims, for the prosecution of
traffickers and exploiters, to train
the institutional actors responsible
for enforcing the laws and to
educate young people, among other
[activities].
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Inspired by our sisters at the CATW,
I designed a model aimed at young
men to reduce the demand for paid
sex. This model is the first of its
kind to educate young men and boys
[that addresses] the construction of
traditional masculinity and the
impact of demand on paid sex. [The
approach] promotes an alternative
conception of male sexuality based
on and equality of [gender related]
human rights. This model has been
applied in Mexico, Argentina,
Ecuador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Peru,
Panama, Chile, Colombia and the
Dominican Republic.
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Today, we have a network of nearly
400 organizations working in 25
countries in the Latin America and
the Caribbean, where the growth of
organized crime and human
trafficking is alarming and where
the corruption of government
institutions and those responsible
for enforcing Law is a constant
factor. Hundreds of women and
children are reported as missing and
we live in state of continuously
fear. Through the Red Alert system
that started
five
years ago, we have rescued more than
899 women and children victims of
domestic and international
trafficking for purposes of sexual
exploitation.
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Nonetheless, we still face many
enormous challenges, when can be
summariezed as follows:
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* Wars and all of the violence that
they create against women and girls,
in activities of military and
paramilitary groups: rape, sexual
violence, displacement, death,
hunger, abuse of power used to
humiliate the mothers, wives,
daughters and sisters of the
defeated, and the sexual abuse and
prostitution that is imposed by both
regular and irregular armed groups.
We want peace to prevail over
economic and political interests. We
want the rule of law and human
rights.
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* Gender discrimination, which kills
thousands of girls even before they
are born, or that which, after they
are born condemns them to a lack of
opportunities, gender violence,
exploitation, poor nutrition,
marginalization, inequality, and
traditional practices that are
harmful to their bodies and to their
human dignity, such as payments for
brides.
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* Poverty and extreme poverty. The
feminization of poverty has borne
witness to the injustices faced by a
little over half the world’s
population. We urge its abolition.
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* Gender-based violence - violence
perpetrated against women and girls
in public and private spaces,
everywhere. Women and girls are
raped ev ery day in their own homes,
where they should be guaranteed
their rights to life, personal
integrity and security. Women and
girls are murdered every day in an
environment of the most absolute
impunity. Collective security will
never be possible if we can not
guarantee the security and integrity
of women and girls.
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We have the right to be a priority
on the international agenda for
cooperation, in development efforts,
and in the fight against poverty, in
[relief efforts in regard to]
natural disasters, in education, in
healthcare, in the protection of our
human rights, as well as in regard
to national security issues, in war
and peace, in the efforts against
terrorism and in combating organized
crime...
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Full
Transcript
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Teresa Ulloa at Harvard University
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Posted by Fundacion CEDAI-Centro de
Asistencia Integral
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Nov. 01, 2011
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Added: Nov. 06, 2011
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Pop star Ricky Martin calls for the
end of child trafficking
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El Mundo / The World
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Ricky Martin |
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Opinión:
Detengan el flagelo de la trata
infantil, pide Ricky Martin
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Mi compromiso con la causa de
detener la explotación infantil
nació por una experiencia que me
hizo poner los pies en la tierra. En
2002, fui testigo de los horrores de
la trata de personas cuando
rescatamos a tres niñas temblorosas
que vivían en las calles pobres de
India. Prevenir que estas niñas
fueran víctimas de este horrendo
crimen fue un despertar personal.
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Agradezco a la iniciativa Héroes de
CNN por permitir que Ricky Martin
Foundation comparta con otras
personas y las involucre en nuestro
compromiso por terminar con la
explotación de los niños por medio
de la trata de personas y la
esclavitud en el mundo moderno.
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Eso fue hace más de una década.
Desde entonces, supe que mi
fundación debería arrojar una luz
sobre este tema tabú. La educación
ha sido nuestro pilar desde el
principio. En 2003, lanzamos People
for Children, nuestro proyecto
principal, para proporcionar
educación y soluciones a los
esfuerzos internacionales para
eliminar la trata infantil.
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Este mercado sin escrúpulos —que
consiste en 27 millones de víctimas
en todo el mundo, de acuerdo con el
Informe de la Trata de Personas de
2011— genera hasta 32,000 millones
de dólares al año, una cantidad que
rivaliza con el tráfico de armas y
el narcotráfico. De estos 27
millones, la Unicef estima que cada
año 1.2 millones son niños que son
víctimas de la trata de personas
para trabajar como de mano de obra
forzada, en la industria del
comercio sexual, en la prostitución
y en otras formas de esclavitud.
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Las estadísticas son impactantes.
Muchos las cuestionan porque los
crímenes se ocultan. Pero las cifras
no importan: prevenir la trata de
uno o de 200 niños le da validez a
nuestra misión.
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Nadie debe ser explotado o privado
de su libertad...
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Stop
the scourge of child trafficking
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My commitment to the cause of
stopping the exploitation of
children was born from a humbling
experience. In 2002, I witnessed the
horrors of human trafficking as we
rescued three trembling girls living
on the impoverished streets of
India. Preventing these girls from
falling prey to this horrendous
crime was a personal awakening.
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I thank CNN's Heroes initiative for
allowing the Ricky Martin Foundation
to share and engage others in our
commitment to end the exploitation
of children by human trafficking and
modern-day slavery.
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That was more than a decade ago.
Since then, I knew my foundation
must shed a light on this taboo
subject. Education has been our
pillar from the outset. In 2004, we
launched People for Children, our
principal project, to provide
education and solutions for
international efforts to eliminate
child trafficking.
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This unscrupulous market -- which
consists of 27 million victims
worldwide, according to the 2011
Trafficking in Persons Report --
generates up to $32 billion
annually, an amount rivaling that of
the trafficking of arms and drugs.
Of the 27 million, UNICEF estimates
that 1.2 million are children who
are trafficked every year to work as
forced labor, in the commercial sex
industry, in prostitution and in
other forms of slavery.
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The statistics are staggering. Many
contest them because the crimes are
hidden. But numbers don't matter:
Preventing one or 200 children from
traffickers validates our mission.
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No one should be exploited and
deprived of his or her freedom...
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Ricky Martin
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Special to CNN
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Nov. 03, 2011
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Added: Nov. 06, 2011
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Bolivia
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Bolivian Legislative
Deputy
Marianela Paco
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Proponen penas duras por trata de
niños
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El proyecto de Ley contra la Trata y
Tráfico de Personas planteará la
pena máxima (30 años de prisión)
para castigar la trata de niños,
niñas y adolescentes, informó la
diputada Marianela Paco (MAS).
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“Hay
que establecer sanciones más duras
contra el delito de la trata de
niños, niñas y adolescentes con la
pena máxima, es decir, 30 años de
prisión”, afirmó.
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El
proyecto integral, que es analizado
en la Comisión de Derechos Humanos
de la Asamblea Legislativa, señala
que el delito de trata “será
sancionado con 15 a 20 años de
prisión para el o la persona que por
cualquier medio (engaño, coacción,
amenaza o uso de la fuerza)
favorezca la trata de personas
dentro o fuera del país”.
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El
documento define el delito de trata
de personas como la “captación,
transporte, traslado, acogida o
rapto de una persona con fines de
explotación laboral, sexual o la
extracción de órganos”. En tanto, el
tráfico de personas será penado con
una privación de libertad de cuatro
a ocho años.
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Paco dijo que se espera que el
proyecto de ley sea tratado por la
Asamblea Legislativa hasta la
conclusión del periodo de sesiones
de esta gestión, para que el 2012 se
cuente con un instrumento legal que
establezca sanciones y penalidades
de privación de libertad para
quienes incurran en este tipo de
delitos.
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Legislators propose harsh penalties
for child trafficking
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According to Deputy Marianela Paco,
a legislator of the MAS party in
Bloivia’s Legislative Assembly, a
measure currently under
consideration - the Law against
Trafficking in Persons - will raise
the maximum penalty for trafficking
in children and adolescents to 30
years in prison.
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Deputy Paco, "We need to establish
stronger sanctions against the crime
of trafficking in children and
adolescents with the maximum
penalty, that is, 30 years in
prison."
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The bill, which is being discussed
by the Human Rights Commission of
the Legislative Assembly, calls for
the crime of trafficking "be
sentenced by from 15 to 20 years in
prison for a person who by any means
(deception, coercion, threat or use
of force) traffics in people either
inside or outside of Bolivia."
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The proposed law also defines the
crime of human trafficking as the
"recruitment, transportation,
transfer, harboring or kidnapping of
a person for labor or sexual
exploitation, of for the removal of
organs…"
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Deputy Paco said that she hopes the
bill will be addressed by the
Legislature during the current
session, so , that in 2012 we will
have an instrument that establishes
legal sanctions and penalties of
imprisonment for those who engage in
this type of crime.
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Rolando Flores - La Paz
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FMBolivia
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Nov. 05, 2011
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Added: Nov. 06, 2011
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Mexico
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Mexican Attorney General
Marisela Morales Ibáñez
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PGR
designa nuevo responsable de la
SIEDO
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Mexico, D.F.- La titular de la
Procuraduría General de la República
(PGR), Marisela Morales Ibáñez,
designó a José Cuitláhuac Martínez
como subprocurador de Investigación
Especializada en Delincuencia
Organizada (SIEDO).
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Apenas en mayo pasado se había
designado a Patricia Bugarin como
titular de la SIEDO.
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…Angélica Herrera Rivero en la
Fiscalía Especial para los Delitos
de Violencia Contra las Mujeres y
Trata de Personas (Fevimtra).
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Los servidores públicos tienen la
encomienda de respaldar el trabajo
del gobierno de la República para
garantizar a la sociedad una
procuración de justicia sólida y
procedimientos penales efectivos y
expeditos…
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La nueva titular de Fevimtra,
Angélica Herrera, ocupaba la
titularidad de la Unidad
Especializada en Investigación de
Tráfico de Menores, Indocumentados y
Órganos.
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En su trayectoria profesional se ha
desempeñado en la Fiscalía
Especializada para la Atención de
Delitos Electorales y en la SIEDO.
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Attorney General names new
leadership to organized crime and
gender violence / human trafficking
units
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Mexico City - Mexican Attorney
General Marisela Morales Ibáñez has
named José Cuitláhuac Martinez
Assistant Attorney General for
Specialized Investigations into
Organized Crime (SIEDO). Cuitláhuac
Martinez replaces Patricia Bugarin,
who had been been appointed to the
post in May of 2011.
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…Angelica Herrera Rivero was named
to take over the office of the
Special Prosecutor for Crimes of
Violence Against Women and
Trafficking in Persons (FEVIMTRA).
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Public servants have the task of
supporting the work of the
government of the Republic to ensure
that society is provided with strong
law enforcement and effective and
expeditious criminal procedures …
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The new head of FEVIMTRA, Angelica
Herrera, previously served as the
head of the Special Unit for
Investigations into Child
Trafficking, [crimes against the]
Undocumented and Organ trafficking.
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Herrera had also worked in the past
ain the office of the Special
Prosecutor for Electoral Crimes, and
within SIEDO.
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Miguel Cabildo
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Proceso
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Mexico
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Nov. 01, 2011
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Added: Nov. 06, 2011
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Mexico, The United States
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U.S. Ambassador to Mexico
Anthony Wayne (right) hosts
anti trafficking NGO
roundtable in Mexico City
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EU
otorga a México 1.5 mdd para
combatir trata
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U.S. Government provides $1.5
million for Mexican anti-trafficking
NGOs
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La embajada de Estados Unidos en
México anunció que este mes serán
entregados 1.5 millones de dólares
en fondos, para apoyar a las
organizaciones mexicanas de la
sociedad civil que trabajan contra
la trata de personas.
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La representación diplomática
informó que estos recursos
económicos se sumarán a los cinco
millones de dólares que su gobierno
ha otorgado desde 2009 para ese
mismo propósito.
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En un encuentro con organizaciones
no gubernamentales, el embajador
Anthony Wayne señaló que si bien los
gobiernos de ambos lados de la
frontera están comprometidos con el
combate a la trata de personas,
estos no pueden terminar con el
problema sin la ayuda de la
sociedad.
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Al participar en una mesa redonda
sobre el tema, el diplomático
estadounidense afirmó que la trata
de personas es un problema global,
que afecta a la gente en ambos lados
de la frontera entre México y
Estados Unidos.
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"Los gobiernos de ambos países están
comprometidos a cooperar
estrechamente para reducir este
comercio criminal; sin embargo, los
gobiernos no pueden terminarlo
solos. Ese es el motivo por el cual
reuniones como ésta son vitales",
declaró según un comunicado de la
representación diplomática.
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Destacó que para ser eficaces en ese
propósito se debe aprovechar la
experiencia y capacidades de actores
apasionados, como son las
organizaciones de la sociedad civil,
al tiempo que reiteró el compromiso
del gobierno para cooperar en el
combate a este problema.
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"Mi embajada espera continuar
nuestra cooperación efectiva con
estos grupos, al igual que con el
gobierno de México, hasta que
podamos declarar que hemos ganado
esta pelea", recalcó.
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La embajada de Estados Unidos en
México recordó que en el combate a
la trata de personas, "emplean una
estrategia integral de todo el
gobierno, con énfasis en prevención
y en atrapar y proceder legalmente
contra los criminales, y más
importante, en protección a las
víctimas de este crimen".
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Indicó que para mantener esta
estrategia, el embajador Wayne ha
ordenado a todas las agencias y
oficinas de la representación
diplomática a cooperar con la meta
de terminar con la trata de
personas.
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Además del apoyo a los grupos de la
sociedad civil, la embajada ofrece
capacitación para actores
gubernamentales y no
gubernamentales, trae expertos de
Estados Unidos, al tiempo que
coopera estrechamente en esfuerzos
de justicia para combatir y prevenir
la trata, concluyó.
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El Universal
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Mexico
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Nov. 03, 2011
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See also:
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Added: Nov. 06, 2011
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Mexico, The United States
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U.S. Ambassador to Mexico
Anthony Wayne (center left)
meets with anti trafficking
NGO leaders
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U.S.
Embassy Hosts Roundtable on
Prevention of Human Trafficking with
Mexican NGOs
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Mexico City, November 3, 2011—The
U.S. Embassy in Mexico today held a
roundtable discussion with Mexican
non-governmental organizations who
are leading the fight against human
trafficking, including: Casa
Alianza, Fundacion Infantía,
Colectivo Nacional en Contra de la
Trata, Red Nacional de Refugios, and
Centro de Estudios e Investigación
en Desarollo y Asistencia Social
(CEIDAS).
Ambassador Anthony Wayne
chaired the discussion, which
covered public awareness, victim
protection, care for child victims
of trafficking, combating sexual
tourism, preventative education
programs and training, and other
topics.
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“Human trafficking is a global
problem, one that affects people on
both sides of the U.S.-Mexico
border. The governments of both
countries are committed to
cooperating closely to curb this
criminal trade, however, governments
alone cannot wipe it out.
That is why meetings like
this one are so vital.” said
Ambassador Wayne. “In order to be
effective, this campaign must
leverage the expertise and
capabilities of passionate and
committed actors from civil society,
such as these organizations gathered
here today.
I was very interested to hear
the perspectives of these key NGOs
on both the problem and the actions
being taken to combat it. My embassy
looks forward to continuing our
effective cooperation with these
groups, as well as with the Mexican
government, until we can declare
this fight won.”
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In addition to the $5 million
dollars in support the U.S. has
provided since 2009 to Mexican civil
society organizations working
against human trafficking, another
$1.2 million in U.S. funds to combat
trafficking in persons in Mexico is
being delivered this month.
In combating human
trafficking, the United States
employs a whole-of-government
approach, with an emphasis on
prevention, finding and prosecuting
perpetrators, and most importantly,
protecting the victims of this
crime. In keeping with this
approach, Ambassador Wayne has
directed all agencies and offices at
the embassy to cooperate, with the
goal of ending human trafficking in
mind. In addition to supporting
civil society groups, the embassy
provides training for both
governmental and non-governmental
actors, brings experts from the
United States to engage with their
Mexican counterparts, and engages in
close law enforcement cooperation to
combat and prevent this traffic.
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U.S. Embassy in Mexico
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Nov. 03, 2011
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Added: Nov. 06, 2011
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Texas, USA / Mexico
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Hostage
house 'full of garbage'
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Austin - The possibility of more
suspects -- some even posing as
victims -- is fueling a human
trafficking investigation for Austin
police. Earlier this week they
busted a ring at an east Austin home
on Johnny Morris Road, where at
least eight confirmed victims from
Mexico and Latin America were
imprisoned.
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So far, police have arrested one
man, Fernando Salazar, for
aggravated assault with a deadly
weapon. However, they say more
charges, including kidnapping and
human trafficking could be ahead.
|
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"Just sad that people could be
treated this way,” said Melanie
Wassell, as she entered the home's
kitchen and was hit with the stench
of soured food. "Well the house,
it's full of garbage. Food just
everywhere."
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Wassell works for the man who owns
the house and a string of other
rental properties. Now she and her
crew are must make sure what
smugglers left behind gets cleaned
up.
|
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Police said the captives were here
for days, some of them maybe even
weeks, including a 15-year-old. When
he was unable to pay, they
threatened to keep him at the house
to cook and clean for them.
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"Dirty clothes,” Wassell pointed
out, walking into one of the tiny
bedrooms. “The hygiene, it's just,
it's awful what you see in here,
that anybody was made to live in
these kind of conditions."
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Held at gun-point, the other
immigrants faced returning to the
Mexican border, where their captors
would kill them if there families
could not come up with the money.
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One man left what appears to be a
loved one's number on the wall,
while cell phones remained scattered
around the darkened rooms where they
slept on only mattresses.
|
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Wassell said she hates to think what
would have happened if one of those
family members hadn't tipped off
police.
|
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"It's a horrible thing that people
could do that to other people,” she
said.
|
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The owner of the home said the man
police arrested is not the person
who rented the home two months ago.
The renter passed a criminal
background check, and now the owner
is trying to figure out how this
happened.
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KXAN
|
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Oct. 20, 2011
|
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Added: Nov. 03, 2011
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Historic caravan of mothers of missing migrants crosses Mexico
|
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Mexico / Central America
|
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|
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Members of the Mesoamerican Mothers
Movement show pictures of their disappeared loved ones during
the installation of an alter at the site of the 2010 Tamaulipas
massacre of 72 migrants. The event occured during the group's
Fall 2011 awareness raising caravan across Mexico.
|
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From:
Caravana de madres de inmigrantes
centroamericanos desaparecidos llega a México
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TeleSur
|
|
Nov. 03, 2011
|
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During an earlier march through
southern Mexico, Salvadoran mothers gather to pray and leave
offerings and crosses for their family members who were abused,
kidnapped and murdered in the 'mugging and rape gauntlet' at
Mexico's southern border region known as 'La Arrocera' - the
Rice Cooker.
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Madres de inmigrantes desaparecidos en
México crean equipo de “investigadoras”
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Madres de inmigrantes desaparecidos en tránsito por nuestro país crearon
un equipo especial dedicado a labores ministeriales, encaminado a
obtener información sobre el paradero de las víctimas.
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La idea es desarrollar labores que hasta ahora han sido olvidadas en la
Procuraduría General de la República o en las Procuradurías estatales.
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Las “investigadoras” forman parte de las mamás que integran el
Movimiento Migrante Mesoamericano (MMM), el cual realiza desde el 30 de
octubre y hasta el 13 de noviembre una caravana de búsqueda de los hijos
por la ruta del Golfo de México, con paso por los estados de Tabasco,
Tamaulipas, Coahuila, San Luis Potosí, Querétaro, Ciudad de México,
Veracruz, Oaxaca y Chiapas.
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La mayoría de ellas provienen de países como Guatemala, Honduras,
Nicaragua, El Salvador y Estados Unidos.
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De acuerdo con el plan de trabajo divulgado por el Movimiento, las
actividades de investigación consistirán, además del intercambio de
información con los migrantes que se encuentran en ruta, “en pesquisas y
seguimiento de pistas para encontrar a los familiares…,
saber si viven o murieron o están privados de su libertad o en
situación de trata de personas”.
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Y en “visitas a hospitales, prostíbulos, reclusorios, albergues de
indigentes y/o minusválidos y a cualquier lugar público en donde pudiera
hallarse algún dato”.
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Esta labor es respaldada por organizaciones como Hermanos en el Camino,
Casa Belem del Migrante, Instituto Tamaulipeco para los Migrantes,
Pastoral Social Caritas, Casa de los Amigos, Cencos y Red Migrante, y
por instituciones como la CNDH y Amnistía Internacional.
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Además de las indagatorias alternas, las madres tienen programados
plantones y exposiciones en las plazas públicas de lugares emblemáticos
del flujo migratorio, la implementación de un correo comunitario para
informar a otras familias sobre sus migrantes, así como ceremonias en
las vías del tren y en tumbas sin nombre en cementerios.
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Uno de los eventos más importantes será el de hoy en San Fernando,
Tamaulipas, lugar de la masacre de 73 indocumentados el 23 de agosto de
2010.
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“La idea es hacer un ritual en memoria de los asesinados, para
evidenciar el trato ilegal, inhumano y criminal que México dispensa a
los migrantes en tránsito, y denunciar y exigir cambios al gobierno
mexicano, que se ha conducido con complicidad, impunidad y se ha negado
a la reparación del daño de los afectados”, señala el MMM.
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Caravan of mothers of migrants missing in
Mexico creates team of investigators
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A group of mothers of Central American migrants
who have disappeared in Mexico have created a specialized team that is
dedicated to investigating the fates of their victimized loved ones.
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The group’s goal is to take on the
responsibility of investigating cases that the office of the Attorney
General of the Republic has simply forgotten about.
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The "investigators" are mothers from the
Mesoamerican Migrants Movement (MMM), which started a caravan across
Mexico on October 30th that will continue through November 13th of 2011.
The caravan is following the Gulf coast migration route in search of
their children. The caravan will cross the states of Chiapas, Oaxaca,
Veracruz, Tabasco, Coahuila, San Luis Potosi, Queretaro and Tamaulipas,
and will also enter Mexico City.
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The majority of the marchers are from
Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador and the United States.
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According to a work plan released by the group,
research activities will include exchanges of information with migrants
who are in transit, as well as the development and pursuit of leads with
the aim of recovering family members who may be either dead, or alive
and enslaved in a human trafficking situation.
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The group added that they will be carrying out
search activities in hospitals, brothels, jails and prisons, migrant
shelters and at any other public environment where they can discover the
facts.
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This work is supported by organizations such as
the Brothers on the Road migrant shelter, the Bethlehem Migrant House
shelter, the Tamaulipas Institute for Migrants, Pastoral Social
Charities, Casa de los Amigos, the Migrant Census and Network,
Friendship House, and by institutions like Mexico’s [national] Human
Rights Commission and Amnesty International.
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In addition to their investigative work, the
mothers are planning to present workshops and information expositions in
public squares and at prominent landmarks along common migration routes.
The caravan will also institute a community mail system to allow
migrants to keep family members informed about their wellbeing, and will
hold ceremonies along rail lines [where migrants are often victimized]
and at unnamed graves located in cemeteries along the route.
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One of the caravan’s most important events will
take place today in the city of San Fernando, in Tamaulipas state, where
the massacre of 73 undocumented migrants took place on August 23, 2010.
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The Mesoamerican Migrant Movement declared
that, "The idea is to perform a ritual in memory of those who were
murdered, and to bear witness to the inhuman and criminal treatment that
Mexico dispenses to migrants who transit through its territory. We will
also denounce and demands changes from the Mexican Government, which has
to date has behaved with impunity as an accomplice [to this crisis], and
that denies reparations to those who were victimized as well.
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Daniel Blancas Madrigal
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La Crónica de Hoy
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Nov. 02, 2011
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Added: Nov. 03, 2011
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Mexico /
California, USA
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An underage girl stands waiting for the next john in the
Coahuila red light district of the city of Tijuana, in Baja
California state.
From a
YouTube video.
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Riverside Girl Trapped
in Tijuana Child Sex Trade
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The sex trade in Tijuana is closely linked to the region’s violent drug
cartels – sex trafficking of children is thought to be the third-highest
revenue generator for the cartels after the drug trade and gun smuggling
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The illegal sex trade is a growing export from the U.S. to Mexico,
according to the State Human Rights Commission of Baja, California. The
commercial sexual exploitation of children rakes in an estimated $32
million a year, much of that from Americans seeking illegal sex across
the border, according to the commission.
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Child prostitution in Tijuana is not a new problem. What may be less
known is that among the boys and girls being sexually exploited across
the border are youngsters from the United States.
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I met one of these children – a teenage girl from Riverside-- on an
undercover reporting trip to “La Zona Norte” in the red light district
along Tijuana’s Coahuila Street, known as a hub of sex tourism.
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Under the neon lights along Coahuila Street I quickly discovered
Americans among both the exploited and the exploiters.
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One man I met, who described himself as a pimp, told me he grew up in
Merced [California].
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He wasn’t shy and was quick to tell me that “everything is available
here,” even children.
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The price for sex with a young girl -- $40.
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“It’s cheap bud,” he said. “Sex is really cheap here.”
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The illegal sex trade is a growing export from the U.S. to Mexico,
according to the State Human Rights Commission of Baja, California. The
commercial sexual exploitation of children rakes in an estimated $32
million a year, much of that from Americans seeking illegal sex across
the border, according to the commission.
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“We know that this problem is not a local one,” said Francisco Cota, a
spokesman with the commission. “It’s a regional problem. It’s a
bi-national problem. If there is a demand here in Mexico. There’s going
to be demand in LA.”
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I paid the fee and the pimp introduced me to a girl who went by the name
Najeri. She told me she was 16 and from Riverside.
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I explained to her that I was a reporter working on a story about the
child sex trade, and she immediately told me, “It wasn’t something I
decided to do.”
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She showed me the room where she’s forced to have sex, a tiny stall
barely big enough for a shoddy bed.
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“It can be very…very scary,” she said. “A lot of the times those guys
are Americans.”
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Najeri told me that as a child left largely on her own she started
“hanging out with the wrong crowd” and was flattered the attention and
companionship of men in the group. By the time she learned their true
intentions it was too late.
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The sex trade in Tijuana is closely linked to the region’s violent drug
cartels – sex trafficking of children is thought to be the third-highest
revenue generator for the cartels after the drug trade and gun
smuggling, according to the commission.
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Both boys and girls are among the children being sexually exploited,
according to the commission, an assertion Najeri said is true. The main
client base for the boys is American, she told me.
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They are “coming here and paying with the American dollars, so it’s just
like gold to them,” she said. “There are a lot of guys coming from the
states that live in Vegas, live in Hollywood, live in Los Angeles,” she
said.
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Najeri is afraid to run away. Her pimp, she said, has told her what
happens to the bodies of runaways.
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“The morgue comes by the hospital and incinerates it before anybody can
be alerted that an American died,” she said. “That struck fear in my
heart.”
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She continued: “I don’t have the power or the ability to do that,” she
said.
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Then she told me: “There’s been times when I have been wishing that
somebody like you or some people come down, inquiring about it
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At that moment I had the impulse to walk out and take Najeri with me.
But I knew from talking with human rights advocates and with Najeri
herself that doing so would put her life—and possibly mine-- at risk.
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Going to the police could make matters worse, as many police offers are
in cahoots with the drug cartels, Cota said.
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“Corruption is a huge problem in Mexico,” Cota said. “It's one of the
main reasons why this problem is growing."
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Willful ignorance among the general population is fueling the growth of
the sex trade, Cota said.
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“Not a lot of people know about it,” Cota said. “They either ignore it
or they just really don't want to know about it. They just think this
happens in Bangkok."
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A state office was recently established to combat child sex slavery. The
first step is overcoming the culture of fear that makes it difficult to
even openly acknowledge the problem, said Araceli Legosa-Parra a
spokeswoman with the office.
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“We want to put out the information,” she said. “Most of the information
is not put out there because of fear.”
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Antonio Castelan
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NBC-LA
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Nov.
02, 2011
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See also:
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Mexico
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Added: May. 25, 2011
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Congressional deputy Rosi Orozco, president of
the Special Commission to Combat Human Trafficking in the
Chamber of Deputies
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Pide diputada Orozco cerrar callejón
Coahuila como sucedió con Manzanares en D.F.
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Tijuana sigue siendo un paraíso para la trata de
personas, y aunque afortunadamente ya empiezan a realizarse operativos,
se pide lo mismo que en el Distrito Federal, cerrar el Callejón
Coahuila, como ocurrió con el Manzanares, manifestó la diputada federal,
Rosi Orozco, presidenta de la Comisión Especial Contra la Trata de
Personas…
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Deputy Orozco calls for the shutting down of
Tijuana's La Coahuila red light district
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The city of Tijuana continues to be a paradise for human trafficking,
and although it is fortunate that anti-trafficking raids have begun,
Congressional Deputy Rosi Orozco (National Action Party - PAN / Mexico
City) has called for shutting down the Coahuila red light prostitution
tolerance zone here…
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Uni Radio Informa
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May 24, 2011
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See also:
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LibertadLatina
Note
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Young
women in prostitution in the La Coahuila red light district.
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From a
YouTube video
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More about La Coahuila
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Tijuana's La Coahuila red light district is an
extremely large prostitution zone, with at least 3,000 registered adult
prostitutes and several thousand additional unregistered adults and
children working in prostitution. During an April, 2007 visit to the
area with another anti-trafficking activist, I counted an estimated
1,000 women and girls in prostitution standing on the street in an area
that was approximately 10 blocks by 3 blocks in size.
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I observed that U.S. men seeking women and youth in prostitution simply
take a trolley ride from San Diego, California, or park in a lot on the
U.S. side of the border, and then cross into Mexico without having to
show identification to the Mexican border agents. They proceed to either
walk the 10 blocks to La Coahuila or take one of the dozens of cabs that
wait to route them to their business partners (the brothel owners).
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I met the two
women pictured above during my 2007 visit to the area.
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On the left is an indigenous young woman from Chiapas
state in southern Mexico. She was apparently addicted to drugs.
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The young lady on the right, who is an Afro-Mexican
woman from Acapulco, told me that she had been jilted by her boyfriend,
and was left with two young children to care for. She told me that she
could not cross the U.S. border carrying her children, so she decided to
‘work’ in La Coahuila.
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Although I
explained in detail the dangers of HIV/AIDS and other risks to this
young lady, she told me that she was doing the work that she wanted to
do, and that she would be back to work each and every day. She insisted
that she didn’t have a pimp, which I doubt is the case.
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End impunity now!
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Chuck Goolsby
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LibertadLatina
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May 25, 2011
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See also:
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Teresa Ulloa:
Tijuana is one huge brothel
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Added: Nov. 21, 2010
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Mexico
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Trata de niñas: servicio para los
ricos del norte
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Tijuana, un inmenso burdel: Teresa
Ulloa
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De norte a sur, persiste la
explotación sexual de menores en
México, donde turistas ricos del
norte pueden buscar a niñas hasta de
nueve años provenientes de una zona
rural.
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Ese es el panorama que ofreció esta
mañana Teresa Ulloa, quien en el
marco de los 16 Días de Activismo
contra la Violencia hacia las
Mujeres presentó el Informe Final de
Resultados, Rendición de Cuentas y
Transparencia sobre el Proyecto para
Prevenir la Explotación Comercial de
la Niñez en México...
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Underage girls are sex trafficked
for 'men with money' from the U.S.
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Tijuana is one huge brothel: Teresa
Ulloa
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The sexual exploitation of children
is a constant reality across Mexico,
from its north to its south. It is a
place where well-heeled tourists
from the U.S. can find rural girls
as young as nine-years-of-age
[available to be sexually
exploited].
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That is the scenario that was
offered by Teresa Ulloa, the
executive director of the
Coalition Against Trafficking in
Women for Latin America and and the
Caribbean. Ulloa
presented a report - The Results,
Accountability and Transparency of
the Project to Prevent the
Commercial Sexual Exploitation of
Children in Mexico, as part of the
events supporting the [global] 16
Days of Activism Against Violence
Against Women campaign.
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"Tijuana is a giant brothel, of
sorts, where you can find sex,
alcohol and drugs 365 days a year,"
said Ulloa, who has previously been
nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
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Moreover, she said, the
international bridge [at the border]
leads directly from [San Diego
County, USA] to Tijuana's brothel
district. "We were able to witness a
girl of eight or nine years-of-age,
in the red light district,
negotiating with a client who was
about 50 years old."
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Due to the existence of extreme
poverty and impunity, human
trafficking and sexual exploitation
in Mexico is a grave problem, added
Ulloa. "In Mexico, we see internal
trafficking." Girls are sent north
by their families from rural regions
across the country.
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The map
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The trafficking of girl children in
northern Mexico is targeted at U.S.
customers. In the South Mexican men
are the consumers. Along the Pacific
Coast, both European and U.S. men
are the customers. Along the Gulf
Coast, Mexican men are the
exploiters…
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Miriam Ruiz
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Cimac Women's News Agency
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/ Welcome
