México. D.F.- "Puebla, junto con Tlaxcala, es de los peores estados en materia de trata de personas; las mafias de estas dos entidades están muy unidas y pasan de un territorio a otro conforme les conviene. Realmente son dos estados muy preocupantes para México y muy vergonzosos a nivel internacional", asentó la presidenta de la Comisión Especial de Lucha contra la Trata de Personas, la diputada Rosi Orozco.

La legisladora recalcó que "en estas dos entidades, hasta hoy, no ha habido voluntad para combatir la trata de personas y prueba de ello es que ni en Puebla ni en Tlaxcala no hay ninguna persona sentenciada por ese delito", pese a que los delincuentes dedicados a este tipo de ilícito transitan contantemente de una entidad a otra, dijo a e-consulta.

México. D.F. “Que el Procurador General de Justicia de Tlaxcala -en el gobierno entrante- no sea amigo de los padrotes, ni sea de las personas que disfrutan visitando los antros y que tampoco esté coludido con las bandas de trata de personas”, pidió al gobernador electo de Tlaxcala, Marino González Zarur, la presidenta de la Comisión Especial de Lucha contra la Trata de Personas, en la Cámara baja, Rosi Orozco.

Decepcionada porque el actual gobierno panista de Tlaxcala no ha realizado acciones suficientes para combatir la trata de personas en la entidad, la también diputada federal del PAN ya tiene puesta su esperanza y la de las víctimas, en el trabajo que realice el gobierno priísta entrante y particularmente en los próximos funcionarios encargados de impartir justicia en territorio tlaxcalteca...

Antes de que culmine este año, se espera que la Cámara de Diputados apruebe la iniciativa de Ley General para Prevenir, Combatir y Sancionar la Trata de Personas, que establece mecanismos de protección a las víctimas de este delito, a fin de que aún cuando ellas manifiesten consentimiento a su explotación sexual, o laboral, se considere un delito.

En entrevista, Rosi Orozco, presidenta de la Comisión Especial de Lucha contra la Trata de Personas, de la Cámara de Diputados, informó que este proyecto de Ley, que abrogaría la legislación actual, incluye 11 iniciativas en contra de la trata de personas de cuatro grupos parlamentarios, por lo que confían en que se apruebe a más tardar en diciembre próximo.

La trata de personas es el nombre que organismos internacionales, gobiernos y organizaciones no gubernamentales han acuñado para denominar las formas de esclavitud del siglo XXI; es un atentado a la libertad y dignidad de las personas que se prolonga en el tiempo y lucra con voluntades y vidas ajenas, que mediante el abuso y la tortura, degrada a sus víctimas de la condición humana. En lo individual, tiene un impacto devastador sobre las y los afectados, y en lo social perjudica al bienestar de las familias, de las comunidades y la seguridad de los países que la padecen.

Las mujeres, niñas, niños y adolescentes utilizados para la trata enfrentan factores de vulnerabilidad que los exponen a ser víctimas de este delito, entre los que destacan: pobreza, falta de oportunidades económicas, bajo nivel educativo, desempleo, desamparo, falta de registro de nacimiento, desastres naturales, conflictos armados, todo esto es aprovechado por la demanda de explotación sexual y de mano de obra barata.

El Fondo de Naciones Unidas para la Infancia (UNICEF) estima que cada año 1.2 millones de niños son víctimas de este flagelo y, de acuerdo con cifras de la Organización de las Naciones Unidas (ONU), al menos 27 millones de personas en todo el mundo han sido víctimas de explotación laboral, sexual o comercial en los últimos 25 años...

María Elena Álvarez de Vicencio, the Executive Secretary of Mexico’s federal National Women’s Institute – InMujeres, makes the case for passage of new federal anti-trafficking legislation.

English translation to follow

León.- El caso de la mujer indígena que fue traída desde Guerrero a León bajo engaños y fue explotada laboralmente como empleada doméstica durante un mes y medio en el fraccionamiento Campestre ya fue denunciado a las autoridades como un delito de trata de personas. Esperan la resolución de la Procuraduría en esta semana...

He was on the run for almost a year but sex trafficking suspect Benito Vargas is now behind bars south of the border.

Mexican officials caught up with Vargas and alerted American officials.

The San Juan Police Department had been tracking Vargas since raiding his home back in December 2009.

Vargas is being charged with aggravated assault and human trafficking.

He allegedly brought the 14-year-old girl to the United States promising her a better life.

But instead, police say he made her his own personal slave.

"They made her clean the house, babysit, cook for them, and so forth," San Juan Police Sgt. Rudy Luna said. "At the same time she was being sexually assaulted by Benito."

Police said Vargas is being held in Mexico and they expect hime back in the United States within 30 days.

Harlingen - Last December, a 16-year-old native of Jalisco, Mexico, escaped through the window of a San Juan home, running away from the people she said beat, raped and starved her after helping smuggle her across the border.

She later told San Juan investigators that Benito Vargas, 23, raped her on multiple occasions, sometimes while another person stood nearby mocking the young girl as she pleaded for help, police said at the time.

Officers raided the home soon after the teen’s escape, searching for Vargas. But he had already fled and police suspected he had gone to Jalisco to threaten the girl’s family there. In January, San Juan police named Vargas one of their 10 most wanted fugitives, sought on a charge of aggravated sexual assault.

Mexican authorities finally caught up to Vargas earlier this month in Tequila, Mexico, and, with the help of U.S. Marshals, extradited him to Southern California on Oct. 14, San Juan Police Chief Juan Gonzalez confirmed this past week. Vargas will soon be transferred back to Hidalgo County, where Gonzalez said he expects the suspect to face charges of human trafficking.

The case, Gonzalez said, serves as a stark reminder of the untold number of immigrants cruelly exploited by human trafficking, some of whom are taken advantage of, he said, even before they cross the U.S.-Mexico border.

This past week Gonzalez met with representatives from other law enforcement agencies, legal aid organizations and social service agencies from all over the Rio Grande Valley at the U.S. Border Patrol station in Harlingen, the first major meeting of what organizers hope will become a local coalition to combat human trafficking.

Gonzalez aims to help other local police departments learn how to better spot and identify potential human trafficking victims, unknown numbers of whom slip through the cracks or go unreported, he said.

Experts estimate that nearly one out of every five victims of human trafficking in the country pass through the Texas-Mexico border.

“I think there’s a high probability that there are a lot more victims of human trafficking than we know about. A big issue is that many of them won’t come forward because they’re terrified,” Gonzalez said...

The girl is now living a life almost unrecognizable from what she went through almost a year ago... the girl is now active in sports and is quickly picking up English.

“She’s doing so well…She’s exactly where she needs to be...”

Treenton, New Jersey - A landmark U.S. law against human trafficking and sexual exploitation marked its tenth anniversary on Thursday, but lawmakers and individuals said that despite progress, more needs to be done to help victims, many of whom are women and girls.

On the steps of New Jersey's State House, New Jersey Congressman Chris Smith, Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno, members of the New Jersey Statewide Human Trafficking Task Force, spoke alongside women with their own experience in the modern human slave trade about the gains made since the enactment of the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000, or Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA).

"In the past decade, we have seen progress on a number of anti-trafficking fronts," said Smith. "With a combination of encouragement, persuasion and sustained pressure via sanctions imposed by the United States, countries around the world have created or amended over 210 laws to combat human trafficking and in the past two years alone an estimated 80,000 victims have been identified and assisted worldwide..."

While rising violence on the U.S.-Mexico border plays in the news almost daily, it was the personal experiences of four students at St. Mary's University that prompted the school to take a deeper look at the subject.

Accounts of students from Brownsville, Eagle Pass, Laredo and El Paso, written last spring, eventually helped persuade university leaders to present a three-day conference on border violence that concludes today.

“That was the beginning of one of the most remarkable teaching experiences I've had here. Those students educated me and the rest of us,” said William Israel, a graduate professor who moderated one of the Wednesday panels.

Among the subjects explored by a range of experts were human trafficking, the intimidation of the Mexican media, spillover violence in South Texas and the church's response to border violence.

An underlying theme of the conference, which already has been attended by more than 1,000 students, is their responsibility to get involved in tackling the many complex problems stemming from drug-related violence.

“We're trying to empower our students so that they can take action and make a difference, and the first step is for them to become educated and to understand,” said faculty coordinator Leona Pallansch, a political science professor.

After a Wednesday afternoon session on human trafficking in which local experts spoke candidly about the problem in San Antonio and neighboring communities, some students said they'd found a new perspective.

“We go through our everyday lives not realizing this is happening. It's a form of slavery,” said William Gonzaba, 20, a junior English major.

“It's a real eye-opener to learn that this type of thing is still going on, particularly in the city we live in. It's amazing,” he said.

Ana Ramon, 21, a political science and philosophy major, said the problem of human trafficking often is overlooked because of its close association with illegal immigration.

“The panel really gave us an insider perspective. It gave me the opportunity to look at it realistically,” she said. “While it's often associated with the sex industry, it's such a wide-ranging problem that people don't want to touch it.”

San Antonio Express-News Editor Robert Rivard spoke about the chilling effects of narco violence on the press in Mexico, where at least 27 reporters have been murdered since President Felipe Calderón took office in 2006.

The result, he said, is self-censorship by the mainstream press and the emergence of alternative media, principally Blog del Narco, a website that often is the only source for accurate news about narco violence...

Hemet police are searching for a man suspected of kidnapping, raping and stabbing a 17-year-old girl.

The victim, who lived out of town, was visiting friends and family when the man pulled up next to her in a pickup truck on Florida Ave. and Lyon St. around 2 p.m. Sunday, according to Hemet police Lt. Duane Wisehart.

The man offered to give her a ride and then drove the girl to an unincorporated area of Valle Vista where he raped her in the truck, Wisehart said.

When the girl fought back, the suspect stabbed her and pushed her out of the truck.

A neighbor later found the wounded girl and called for help.

Police do not believe the girl knew her attacker. The suspect is described as a man in his 30s, about 5 feet 4 inches tall, 160 pounds, clean shaven with short, slicked-black hair. The girl told police he spoke English with a thick Spanish accent.

Waco - A man convicted of indecency with a child and aggravated sexual assault skipped his trial on Wednesday, October 27th, and his sentencing on Thursday, October 28th.

41-year-old Felix Alvarez is convicted of two counts of aggravated sexual assault and three counts of indecency with a child with a seven-year-old girl back in 2005 and 2006.

A friend of Alvarez testified on Wednesday that he dropped Alvarez off alongside I-35 and that Alvarez caught a bus to Mexico. He is believed to have made a run back to his home in El Salvador.

The judge in the case forfeited the $150,000 bond on Alvarez, but the court isn't allowed to collect it until July of next year.

Alvarez's attorney Phil Martinez is hoping within that time frame U.S. Marshals catch his client. If that doesn't happen, the attorney could not only pay for his client's transportation back to McLennan County, but also the $150,000 bail amount he signed for.

Alvarez's attorney wasn't visibly worried when we asked about his being responsible for covering that big bond.

"Yeah you're on the hook for it, but like I said there are procedures and things you got to jump through so we'll see how it plays out," Martinez said.

Prosecutor Beth Tobin says it's one of the most awkward trials she's done in her 21 years.

"You just don't have that same energy or the same momentum as if there's somebody there. It's just a missing person, and misses some of the dynamic. But we went ahead and put on our case the same way," Tobin said.

The jury did pass down their sentence of 130 years Thursday, but whether or not Alvarez serves those terms concurrently or if they'll be stacked won't be determined until he's physically brought in front of a judge.

On Friday, Roberto Recendes, 42, pleaded guilty to the 2002 brutal rape of a 94-year-old woman at an assisted living facility in Palo Alto, California. Because of the plea agreement, the Mexican national faces a 17-year prison sentence.

According to the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office, Recendes admitted to one count of sexual penetration by force and to one count of elder abuse. SC District Attorney’s spokeswoman Amy Cornell said that the illegal alien also admitted to an allegation that he inflicted great bodily injury upon the victim.

Around 3:00 a.m., on May 10, 2002, Recendes entered the elderly woman’s apartment at Palo Alto Commons, through an unlocked patio door. She tried to fend-off the rapist, scratching her attacker and ripping off his gold chain and watch, which he left at the scene and were later instrumental in his conviction.

In December 2007, Recendes was arrested in Mexico and after several months, he was extradited to the U.S.

The woman, has since died, never having seen her attacker brought to justice.

U.S. marshals are searching for Carlos Brizuela-Montano, 22, who was arrested on June 18, 2009, in Montgomery County, Maryland and charged with second-degree rape and sexual abuse of a minor. Despite the serious charges, the Salvadoran national was simply allowed to pay $7,500 in bond, and quickly left the area.

In January 2010, Montgomery County police issued an arrest warrant for Brizuela-Montano and the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force is now actively looking for him.

According to the U.S. Marshals Service, the fugitive in both Silver Spring, and Laurel, MD, as well as in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Brizuela-Montano is 5-feet-2 tall, weighs 140 pounds. He is a laborer with a background in asphalt work.

Anyone with any information on the whereabouts of Carlos Brizuela-Montano should call the U.S. Marshals' Fugitive Task Force at 301-489-1717...

Se llama Ángel Luna, en la última década ha recuperado a 30 jovencitas de manos de sus captores; con este acto solidario ha impedido que estas mujeres sean prostituidas en el DF

“Chucho”, “Pedro Navajas”, “El Compa” y “El Chulo” fueron entrenados para esclavizar mujeres. En seis meses y antes de cumplir 18 años aprendieron a seducir, engañar, manipular, ordenar, traficar con humanos, extorsionar y comercializar con los cuerpos de las mujeres, a quienes consideran “mercancía”.

Las enseñanzas, como ellos las denominan, las aprendieron de una persona a la que llaman padrino, un hombre con experiencia en explotar sexualmente a niñas, adolescentes y mujeres mexicanas en el país y el extranjero.

Los cuatro argumentan que se hicieron “padrotes” para salir de la pobreza. “Antes me dedicaba a vender paletas de sol a sol. Me iba más o menos porque cuando llovía nada más me mojaba y no ganaba ni un quinto y tenía que mantener a mi familia, mi esposa y mis dos nenitas. En esos tiempos me acuerdo que varias veces llegué a golpearme la cabeza en el carrito de paletas y me ponía a pensar: ¡Dios mío, qué hago para salir de esta pinche situación! Hasta que decidí y fui a buscar a unos compas de La Meca para que me echaran la mano… sin su apoyo seguiría jodido”, dice “El Chulo”...

The central Mexican state of Tlaxcala [a known hub of sex trafficking] has been turned into a "university" for traffickers in Women

Ángel Luna, an indigenous community activist, has rescued 30 young women and girls from sex trafficking during the past decade in Tlaxcala.

Authorities and organizations have detected a great many sex traffickers in the region; The pimps speak openly about their techniques of exploitation

“The violence is extreme, to the extent that women are forced to place a sponge soaked in vinegar in their vaginas after having been forced to have sex with customers 20 to 30 times per day, during 12 to 15 hour shifts without a break."

His name is Ángel Luna. During last decade he has rescued 30 young girls from the hands of their captors. Luna has thus prevented these girls from being prostituted in Mexico City.

Four men who go by the nicknames Chucho, Pedro Navajas, El Compa and El Chula, were trained to enslave women. Before their 18^th birthdays, each of them had spent a six month period learning to seduce, entrap, manipulate, dominate, extort, and commercially traffic in the bodies of women, whom they consider to be ‘merchandise.’

Their lessons, as they were called, were learned from a person whom they called the godfather, a man with experience in sexually exploiting children, adolescents and women both in Mexico and abroad.

These four men explain that they became pimps to escape from poverty. “Before, I dedicated myself to selling sweets on the street from sunup to sundown. I came out so-so. When it rained all I did was get wet, and I didn’t earn a penny to support my family, my wife and my two little girls. During those times I remember that several times I hit my head on my vending cart and I thought to myself, My God, what can I do to get out of this situation? It was then that I decided to seek out some of my friends in the La Meca neighborhood for help. Without their help, I would still be in the pits.”

La Meca, located in the city of Tenancingo in Tlaxcala state, has become a type of ‘university’ for those who want to get involved in the sex trafficking business. La Meca has 10,000 residents. According to anthropologist Oscar Montiel Torres, author de la investigation “Human Trafficking, Pimps, Initiation and Modus Operandi, half of those who live in La Meca are sex traffickers.

Montiel studied sex trafficking from the perspective of the exploiters. He interviewed pimps and his interviewees revealed the details of their operations. Given that sex trafficking is an extreme form of violence against women, Montiel has felt since the beginning of his investigation that Mexico’s federal government should declare a gender alert under the provisions of the [federal] General Law Providing Women with Access to a Life Without Violence. According to the law, a gender alert should be issued when crimes against the lives, liberty, integrity and security of women disturb social peace within a determined territory and the public has demanded action; or, when a similar set of circumstances impedes the exercise by women of their human rights...

The Friar Julián Garcés Human Rights Center in Tlaxcala estimates that 20,000 girls and boys are sexually exploited in Mexico. From January of 2009 through July of 2010, the Friar Julián Garcés Center has detected 21 cases of human trafficking in Mexico, and they have categorized Tlaxcala as a point of origin, transit and exploitation of victims of human trafficking.

The victims come from the states of Tlaxcala, Puebla, Morelos, Chiapas, Veracruz, Tabasco, Oaxaca, Guerrero, Nuevo León, Guanajuato, Hidalgo and Michoacán, as well as from Mexico City. Other victims, who had been promised jobs in the United States, and who were enslaved to pay off their coyote smuggling debts, originate from El Salvador and Guatemala.

The victims are exploited in Mexico City, Tlaxcala, Tijuana, Puebla, Chiapas, Tamaulipas, Morelos, and in U.S. cities, including Houston, Miami, Atlanta, New York as well as other cities in the states of Alabama, [North and] South Carolina and Florida. The 21 cases identified by the Friar Julián Garcés Center involved a total of 136 victims, of whom 33 were between the ages of 12 and 17.

According to the Friar Julián Garcés Center’s report, the victims of human trafficking face physical violence. If they refuse to prostitute themselves they are beaten and psychologically abused to force them to submit. Pimps threaten them and their families with death, and kidnap their children. “The violence is extreme, to the extent that women are forced to place a sponge soaked in vinegar in their vaginas after having been forced to have sex with customers 20 to 30 times per day, during 12 to 15 hour shifts without a break."

Those traffickers who have been identified are from the cities of Tenancingo, San Pablo del Monte, Papalotla, Zacatelco, Ayometla y San Luis Teolocholco in the state of Tlaxcala.

Dilcya Samantha García, the assistant State’s Attorney for Attention for Victims for Mexico City, states that they have jailed 80 men from Tlaxcala state for human trafficking crimes. The state Attorney General’s office in Tlaxcala received 57 complaints involving possible human trafficking crimes between 2006 and 2008. Forty of those cases resulted in preliminary investigations…

Hélene Le Golf, the human trafficking coordinator for the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Mexico states, ‘Once a trafficker convinces a victim, they begin to look for a place to exploit them. These may include hotels, bars, cantinas, street corners and red light districts. Once in the traffickers hands, it is very difficult for her to free herself, for many reasons, but mostly due to fear.’

The traffickers reinforce the dependency and submission of their victims by maintaining them in extreme conditions of survival until the victim comes to believe that their security depends entirely upon their captors. Their situation is made even more dependent due to the weakened physical condition that comes from working continuously without rest, and from drug abuse, noted Le Golf.

We cannot forget, says Mayra Rojas, the director of the organization Common Infancy, that the party that is principally responsible for this situation is the state. Our governments have not had the desire or the will to provide better opportunities to their people, resulting in persons [in conditions of poverty] who therefore become either exploiters or victims of exploitation.

In one example, the police in Plainfield, New Jersey reported a raid upon a sex slave house described as a “19th-Century slave ship, with rancid, doorless bathrooms; bare, putrid mattresses; and a stash of penicillin, morning-after pills, and misoprostol, an antiulcer medication that can induce abortion.” Women are placed into such brothels on both sides of the border and subjected to multiple sexual acts a day, living in fear that if they do not comply with their captor’s demands they, or their family, will be killed. Women and girls trafficked into the United States are thus dispersed across the country, making this an issue that is much more than just a border problem.

The position of women in Mexican society has contributed to the growth of human trafficking rings, leaving them extremely vulnerable to the abuse of cartels and trafficking coyotes... Without the support from their government less than one percent of rape cases lead to any sort of conviction... Women who become the victims of sexual violence often choose to remain silent...

Unfortunately, Calderón’s attack on drug cartels has left few resources to combat human trafficking. Mexico has tried to address the issue through legal changes to combat trafficking as recently as 2007, when “federal legislation to prohibit all forms of drug trafficking” was passed. Nonetheless, according to the U.S. Department of State’s Trafficking of Persons Report 2010, “some local officials tolerate and are sometimes complicit in trafficking, impeding the implementation of anti-trafficking statutes.” This limits the law and at times makes it completely ineffective in combating the issue. Last year, according to the same government report, the federal government in Mexico investigated only 48 cases of human trafficking. Only one trafficking ring was apprehended and the leader still remains at large...

...As human trafficking becomes a growing problem shared by Mexico and the U.S., it becomes the responsibility of both governments to properly address the issue. Due to both countries’ stance on immigration policy, the current violence taking over the country, and the insubordination of women’s status in Mexico, female trafficking has become the loophole in cartel’s moneymaking abilities... Calderón, as well as other leaders in Latin America, must start attacking the cartels’ human trafficking activities to help combat the growth of this industry. The United States also has a responsibility to help those that become labeled as “victims” of human trafficking. ...The United States needs to assert [its] role as a guiding light in the Western hemisphere and aid victims who are not being helped by their own government.

En declaraciones a Radio Onda Azul, el jefe de la Oficina de Participación Ciudadana (OPC) de la Policía Nacional del Perú – Puno, Capitán Jaime Sarmiento Mesa, indicó que el problema de la trata de personas, es un flagelo que se viene incrementando día a día, no sólo en la región Puno sino a nivel nacional.

Refirió que tanto niños, como adolescentes son captados, por personas inescrupulosas quienes en algunos casos se aprovechan de las necesidades de los jóvenes; y en otros casos son los jóvenes quienes se exponen por pasar malos momentos, dentro del núcleo familiar.

Estas declaraciones las hizo precisamente en el marco del Seminario denominado “Trata de personas” dirigido e estudiantes de los niveles primarios y secundarios de la ciudad de Puno, en coordinación con la DEMUNA, la Municipalidad Provincial de Puno, Facultad de Trabajo Social de la Universidad Nacional del Altiplano, Fiscalía de Prevención del delito y la Policía Nacional, evento que tiene la finalidad de atenuar este problema.

Concerning increasing in human trafficking are taking place in Peru's Puno region

Speaking to Radio Onda Azul, the head of the Office of Citizen Participation (OPC) of the National Police of Peru in the Puno region, Captain Jaime Sarmiento Mesa, said the problem of human trafficking is a scourge that has been increasing day by day, not just in Puno, but across the nation as well.

He said that both children and adolescents are captured by unscrupulous people who sometimes take advantage of their needs. In other cases young people face abuse within the nuclear family.

These statements were made specifically in the context of the seminar entitled "Human Trafficking" presented for students in primary and secondary schools in the city of Puno. The trafficking prevention event was coordinated between DEMUNA (The Municipal [Level] Office for the Defense of Children's Rights), the Provincial Municipality of Puno, the faculty of the School of Social Work at the National of the Altiplano, the Special Prosecutor for Crime Prevention and the National Police.

Ante la amenaza que representa el crimen organizado para los migrantes, los gobiernos del continente —desde Canadá hasta Argentina—, analizan la necesidad de homologar el delito de trata de personas para poder juzgar a estas redes transnacionales bajo un mismo esquema legal, que impida que los casos queden impunes sin importar el territorio en el que se perpetran ilícitos conexos a este fenómeno, como el secuestro y la extorsión.

Este es uno de los temas que se negociaron ayer en el marco de la Reunión Ministerial sobre Delincuencia Organizada Transnacional y Seguridad de los Migrantes —que tuvo como sede la Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores—, a fin de contar con un plan de acción conjunto para impedir que se repitan tragedias como el asesinato de los 72 indocumentados en San Fernando, Tamaulipas.

Al inaugurar el encuentro, el secretario de Gobernación, Franciso Blake, dijo que “el secuestro y extorsión de migrantes por parte de la delincuencia organizada transnacional nos demandan a todos los países de la región de origen, tránsito y desti-no a hacer un frente común para enfrentar de manera enérgica a los grupos criminales”...

Officials seek to stop human trafficking in Latin America

About the recent Americas-wide Ministerial Meeting on Transnational Organized Crime and Security for Immigrants

Full English translation to follow

La Policía Federal detuvo en la ciudad de México a una mujer que presuntamente incurrió en el delito de trata de personas, al obligar a su sobrina menor de edad a sostener relaciones sexuales para pagarle a un "pollero" el haberlas trasladado a Estados Unidos.

En un comunicado la Secretaría de Seguridad Pública (SSP) federal, dio a conocer la aprehensión de Beatriz Hernández Hernández, de 33 años de edad, quien fue puesta a disposición del juez federal que ordenó su captura...

Federal police detain woman accused of human trafficking

Full English translation to follow

A former U.S. Marine was convicted Friday of abducting and raping a University of Maryland graduate student who he then left for dead in a secluded, wooded area on a cold February morning.

Jorge Torrez, 21, also was found guilty of attacking the woman's friend, and of trying to kidnap another woman at gunpoint a few weeks earlier, prosecutors said. The Arlington County Circuit Court jury recommended that the judge sentence Torrez to five life sentences plus 168 years in prison.

Torrez approached the 23-year-old woman and a friend who were returning to Arlington after a Saturday night out in February, according to testimony. He forced them inside the friend's home, and bound them using electrical cords from a vacuum cleaner and an iron.

Torrez eventually forced the 23-year-old woman into his SUV and drove around, stopping to rape her. They ended up in a remote area of Prince William County, where Torrez pulled the woman's scarf around her neck until she blacked out. She awoke face down in the snow, cold, wet and scared.

During the trial, jurors heard evidence that included the fact the rape victim's DNA was found on Torrez's clothes, and her student ID card and earring was found in his SUV.

Torrez, a former Marine who was living at Henderson Hall on Fort Myer at the time of the attacks, was discharged in April. He is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 10 in the Virginia cases.

Jerry Hobbs was headed to his mother's home in Texas this afternoon after a judge dismissed charges that he fatally stabbed his 8-year-old daughter and her 9-year-old friend five years ago.

JoAnn Hobbs said she spoke briefly with her son after he was released from the Lake County Jail, where he has spent the last five years and three months awaiting trial for the murders of Laura Hobbs and Krystal Tobias.

"He's doing wonderful. He's up in spirits." she said from her home in Wichita Falls, Texas...

Hobbs, 39, had been in custody since shortly after he called police in May 2005 to tell them he had found the bodies of his daughter and her friend in a Zion park. Hobbs confessed, but later said he was coerced. He has pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutors say DNA from the crime scene matches another man. That man used to live in Zion but is now in custody in Virginia after being charged in two attacks on women there...

...Jorge Torrez... has been identified by a relative as the Virginia jail inmate whose DNA matches that taken from one of the Zion victims. Authorities have not named Torrez, who is being held in Virginia for his arrest in a separate case and has not been charged in the Zion killings...

The University of Michigan Law School is working with a law school in Mexico to take on human trafficking.

The law school has received a $300,000 grant from the U.S. Department of State to establish a human trafficking clinic at the Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas, Unidad Académica de Derecho, a law school located in north central Mexico. The Mexican clinic is an offshoot of the human trafficking clinic that Michigan launched in 2009, which was the first of its kind in the United States.

"The part that I'm excited about is that here in the U.S., we can do a lot as far as assisting prosecutors and victims of trafficking," said Bridgette Carr, who directs the Michigan clinic. "What we can't work on as much is prevention, because we're sitting here in Ann Arbor. The goal is to not have clients."

Human trafficking involves the recruitment, transportation and harboring of people for forced labor, servitude or slavery. Agriculture, spas and massage parlors, hotels and prostitution are just a few industries that have been connected to human trafficking.

One of the goals of the Mexican clinic, which will represent a partnership between the two law schools and a local nongovernmental organization called Centro de los Derechos del Migrante (Center for Migrant Rights), is to educate people about human trafficking. Although it will officially be part of the Mexican law school, the Michigan law school will help set up the clinic.

"This is really an opportunity to see how we can most effectively advocate for these clients on a transnational basis," Carr said.

The partnership between the two clinics is a real innovation, said center founder and executive director Rachel Micah-Jones. "Students will provide quality legal representation to vulnerable migrant communities whose legal needs often cross borders," she said. "In doing so, students will develop the skills to be transnational advocates in this new economy."

In the year that the Ann Arbor-based clinic has been running, students have assisted clients who were forced to work in hair braiding salons, restaurants and in the commercial sex industry. The clinic's 15 students are part lawyer, part caseworker. They assist victims of human trafficking in criminal and immigration proceedings, but also help them obtain services such as federal money to attend college, Carr said...

The Justice Department grant will fund the project for two years.

El Distrito Federal va a la cabeza en la lucha contra la trata de personas en el país, pues ha dado pasos importantes como los últimos rescates de mujeres y niñas de hoteles donde eran explotadas sexualmente, reconoció Teresa Ulloa.

La directora regional de la Coalición Contra el Tráfico de Mujeres y Niñas para América Latina y el Caribe (CATWLAC, por sus siglas en inglés) afirmó en entrevista que la ciudad de México también cuenta con un plan que integra políticas públicas en la materia.

La activista, nominada al Premio de Derechos Humanos de las Naciones Unidas 2005 y al Premio de Derechos Humanos del gobierno de Suiza, indicó que en los últimos tres años la capital del país ha mostrado un esfuerzo y se ha preocupado más por atacar la trata de personas...

Mexico City's government leads the way in Mexico's fight against human trafficking

According to Teresa Ulloa, director of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women and Girls for Latin America and the Caribbean, the local government of Mexico City has taken the initiative to become the nation's leader in taking action to combat modern human slavery. In recent months, city police and prosecutors have raided a number of hotels that were fronts for sex trafficking rings that exploited women and girls.

During an interview Ulloa said that Mexico City has also developed an integrated plan of action to address the problem of trafficking. She added that during the past three years, the city's leaders have shown that they are willing to aggressively confront traffickers. City prosecutors have committed to bringing trafficking cases to court. However, [the attitudes of] judges continue to be a major obstacle to their success.

Ulloa added that Mexico City is a major transit and distribution center for trafficked women and girls. Sex tourism exists, but is completely clandestine. Sexual services are sold in 'packages' on the Internet.
The trafficking law that was passed by the Legislative Assembly of the Federal District [Mexico City] has flaws, and is not consistent with international protocols against human trafficking, especially in the area of criminal prosecution, said Ulloa. It is seen as being of limited effectiveness because of these flaws.
Ulloa declared that both Mexico City and Mexico as a whole have yet to come to understand that human trafficking involves a multi-faceted set of crimes that express themselves in diverse ways.

Ulloa noted that human trafficking networks in Mexico are moving fast to adapt to change, and are always one step ahead of society's attempts to implement policies and actions to combat them.

The Mexico City government has made tremendous efforts to fight trafficking, said Ulloa, but they have been hampered in their efforts at prosecution by inadequate laws. Nonetheless, city prosecutors has won four convictions against trafficking defendants, while the federal government has achieved only one conviction at the national level.

Mexico City's trafficking law "is not very good, it requires modification, but in general it has allowed authorities to rescue women and girls, and it is being enforced by officials who are motivated to combat trafficking" said Ulloa.

Ulloa stated that, at the federal level, a need exists to establish effective, integrated strategies in regard to prevention, victim assistance and the prosecution of traffickers. She warned that Mexico is just one step away from becoming a child sex trafficking center at the level of Thailand.

Ulloa concluded by observing that sex trafficking in Mexico has now displaced narcotrafficking in profitability for criminal organizations, and is fighting for first place with illicit arms trafficking. At the same time, she emphasized, poverty and impunity have become the best allies of traffickers in women and girls.