Indigenous & Latina Women & Children's Human
Rights News from the Americas
Sobre Doctora Laura Bozzo
This section last Updated October 5, 2005
About Dr. Laura Bozzo of Peru
Latin
America's leading women and children's human rights activist,
attorney Dr. Laura Bozzo has recently ended 3 years under house
arrest in Peru. Dr. Bozzo's show "Laura in the Americas"
is seen daily by tens of millions of viewers across the globe.
Laura en America
is effectively the TV version of our web site, and we at
LibertadLatina
find in Laura
encouragement to persist in the struggle to defend women and
children from sexual and physical abuse and rape with
impunity.
Born in Lima, Peru of
Italian Parents, Dr. Laura Bozzo began her professional
career by studying law in Lima. She received a
doctorate in Law, as well as a doctorate in political
science. Over a period of many years, she was a
professor of constitutional law, the theory of the state,
criminal law and evolution of political ideas in diverse
universities in Lima.
When named as director of the
National Institute of Culture, Laura organized contests to
promote the defense-of and conservation-of her country's
cultural heritage and edited a series of articles regarding
cultural legislation.
In 1993 she was elected
councilwoman of the municipality of metropolitan Lima
[Peru's capital city]. Laura directed social services
programs such as "A Glass of Milk" and "Community
Cafeterias" where she identified herself as an advocate for
her country's poor women.
As a councilwoman she was
invited to participate in a television program on Channel
11, which was then owned by the mayor of Lima. The
mayor proposed that Laura host a nighttime talk show.
Dr. Bozzo later managed a show on culture at the same
station.
In 1996, Genaro Delgado
Parker proposed that Dr. Bozzo conduct a 'reality show' in
Panamericana Television, where she hosted the show
'Intimacies,' which went on the air in March, 1997.
During the first months on the air, the show earned
significant ratings, earning a Midday slot.
After her first season, Laura
received a proposal from José Francisco Crousillat, owner of
América Televisión, to host LAURA EN AMÉRICA. From the
first episode of this show broadcast in 1998 until today,
her show has earned first place in the ratings. One
survey has determined that 5 of every 6 televisions in Peru
tune in to Laura en America.
In 1999 LAURA EN AMÉRICA
began being broadcast to Bolivia, Paraguay, Colombia, Chile
and Ecuador. Laura enjoys great credibility and is
considered to be the primary defender of women's rights in
Peru. She received hundreds of letter from admirers
who seek her advise and assistance, as well giving thanks
for her efforts and her empathy.
As part of her social work, Laura founded the Family
Solidarity Association in 1998. This foundation was
established not only to assist persons who's cases have
appeared on her show, but also to assist those in need in
other Spanish speaking countries and environs. During
the last year, the association has served more than 9,000
individuals and has given its support to 1,000 nutritional
programs. The press has called Laura the "Eva Perón of
Peru."
"Tengo una invitación que me han
hecho para estar en Nueva York en el desfile de Colombia el 29
de julio donde me han nombrado madrina internacional", dijo
Bozzo en una teleconferencia desde Lima, Perú.
La conductora del programa "Laura" dijo también que tiene el
"compromiso" de viajar a México con la cadena Televisa "cuando
salga de acá".
"I have an invitation to go to
New York, in the Colombia's parade on July 29, I have been named
International guest" said Bozzo during a teleconference from
Lima, Peru.
The host of the program "Laura" said she has the "commitment" of
traveling to Mexico with Televisa.
...The Laura en America show and
LibertadLatina
compliment each other. In effect,
LibertadLatina
is the Internet version of Dr. Bozzo's show, and vice-versa.
Many viewers of the Laura en America Show visit
LibertadLatina
and write affectionate letters for "Laura." We
always post
Laura’s fan letters.
Thanks to the efforts of Dr. Bozzo,
LibertadLatina and sister
organizations in the Americas, women of all races and all classes have
new-found, powerful voices against impunity. Women and girls in
even the most remote regions of the Spanish speaking world can watch
Laura's show and put gender equality into practice in their personal
lives. The women’s rights, anti-domestic violence and
anti-exploitation movements across the Americas are greatly strengthened
by Dr. Bozzo’s work.
Dr. Bozzo is a true pioneer in the woman and children’s human rights
movement!
Chuck Goolsby
Fundador y
Coordinador (Founder and Coordinator)
LibertadLatina
International Women's
Day
March 8, 2005
LibertadLatina
Commentary
- April 23, 2005
LibertadLatina
applauds Dr. Laura Bozzo's continuing work to find creative
ways to express the gravity of the crisis in women
and children's human rights in Latina America.
Dr. Bozzo's TV show is giving voice to victims of
sexual violence in a way that exists nowhere else in
the Latin American world. Dr. Bozzo's show
accomplishes this feat while remaining fast-paced,
interesting and up-beat. The show is very
popular. New and repeat episodes are shown in
two popular daily time slots.
We
especially thank Dr. Bozzo for presenting, during
early 2005, many dozens of cases of women and
girls who face rape with impunity in the home, in
their communities and in their workplaces.
In
a number of recent shows, children, youth and adult
women who had been raped by adult men in either
their home, community or workplace (or in their
mother's domestic workplace) spoke up bravely to
denounce their abusers. It is impressive that
the Laura en America show is able to have
victims of utterly terrible cases of sexual assault
come to the show and stand up bravely to their
assailants. It is equally amazing that the men
(and sometimes women) perpetrators of rape, child
trafficking and physical violence are equally
willing to stand up and justify their criminal
actions with what they feel is a clear conscience.
The
extreme emotions involved in both sexual violence
and in regard to infidelity (another major theme of
the show) often provoke angry outburst of violence
by women and girls against (mostly male)
perpetrators.
The
unique use of hidden video cameras, set up in
collaboration with women and child victims of sexual
and other domestic violence, provides the undeniable
evidence of criminal action that proves to the
entire world, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that
women and children in Latin America face violent
impunity as a very common experience of daily life.
Several programs shown during mid-April, 2005 were
especially powerful.
...To see a stepfather deny raping his young
underage stepdaughter, and then to see video tape of
this man throwing the girl on a bed and ripping her
cloths off violently just before raping here was
shocking beyond words. The man had previously
denied the accusation.
...To see the poignant story of a young boy who, as
the hidden video shows, was constantly beaten by his
mother's live-in boyfriend of 4 months, and to hear
from the boy himself how this man had attempted to
rape him when he came home one night drunk, opened
the eyes of this boy's mother to the fact that her
new boyfriend was in fact a monster. Hidden
Video footage showed this man beating both the
boy and his mother.
In
the two cases related above, the perpetrators of
these acts of sexual and physical violence against
children were taken from the set of the show
straight to jail, accompanied by a Lima city
prosecutor.
The
author can remember several cases of impunity facing
Latina women and girls in the Washington, DC region,
where the availability of a remote video camera
would have been invaluable to proving the abuses
were occurring in the workplace. Without such
video tape, criminal perpetrators know that they
will remain safe. Without video, that case
becomes a one-against-one situation of "his word
against your word."
We
also applaud the several cases covered recently
discussing the fact that divorced men and
ex-boyfriends demand sex from their ex-mates as a
condition for providing even minimal financial
assistance to these women, and to these men's own
now father-less children.
The
recurring theme heard in almost all of Dr. Bozzo's
shows is that poor women and also underage children
in Peru face ongoing sexual violence, and society
has neither an economic nor a law enforcement
'safety net' nor much desire to protect victims
from men who act with impunity. Many women and
girls exist in a 'gender hostile hiving
environment' where they are expected to exchange
sex for food, money, a place to stay, and/or (in the
case of male employers or mother's employer)... a
job.
In
this gender hostile living environment, which exists
for all over Latin America and also exists in
immigrant communities in the United States, the line
between prostitution, trafficking and basic survival
can become very blurred. Large numbers of
women and underage girls have testified openly that
they must exchange sexual favors (outside of love)
to survive in a culture where sexism has left them
undereducated and unable to earn sufficient money to
reduce their reliance on the men who exploit them
with impunity.
Male
exploiters believe in machismo's tenet that women are
literally inferior to men. Machismo also teaches men
that all women and girls in their social sphere, and any
woman on the street, may legitimately become targets of
their sexual harassment & assault. Such men treat the
exploitation of poor women and girls as a game, and thus
become serial abusers, seeking out multiple victims.
The Laura en America show clearly shows how these common
patterns of oppression work against the interests of women &
girls in Peru.
For women
and children today and in the future, the right to live free
of impunity will depend largely on the actions and voices of
individuals who are willing to have the guts to say: STOP
- ENOUGH! - BASTA YA!
Dr.
Laura Bozzo is a shining example of that spirit of
moral purpose. All of us can follow that
example, speak up and also make a real difference in
the lives of women and children facing exploitation.
Thank you Dr. Bozzo for denouncing these ongoing
acts of atrocity against women, children, and
sometimes men, carried out by men who grew up
believing that they are literally superior to women
and that they have a birth-right to "sexual
privileges" from any woman and girl who comes under
their control in their household, on the street, in
schools and in the workplace.
We
support Dr. Bozzo's efforts to bring real change and
positive alternatives to women and children facing
impunity in daily life. We hope that our work
follows her humble and untiring example.
Chuck Goolsby
Fundador y
Coordinador (Founder and Coordinator)
LibertadLatina
April 23, 2005
In Peru:
75%
of all women are raped before their 15th birthday.
Statistics reproduced from "SEMILLAS PARA EL CAMBIO" [Seeds of
Change] - a publication of the Centro de Ayuda a Victimas de
Violacion (Center for Rape Victims) Department of Health, San Juan,
Puerto Rico, 1992.
Girls, Age 9 to
14, Disappeared in Peru.
"We work without
funds, supported only by enthusiastic volunteerism.
In Peru, as in many Latin American Countries, the
conditions of sexual exploitation and child labor
are very serious issues. These conditions
motivate child abductions, creating a situation
requiring a response from the entire world."
soy su
fanatica no.1 y yo quiero mandarle muchos saludos y
bendiciones. Mi hija de 3 anos es su fanatica tambien le
gusta la cancion del programa ,
Nosotros
siempre vemos su programa. Usted es una persona que mando
dios para ayudar a estas personas usted es un
angel
espero que algun dia venga a Texas para hacer un programa.
Aqui tambien hay personas que tienen historias verdaderas y
tristes que contar.
Estoy
contenta por escribirle , tu amiga naty sanchez de Mcallen
Texas .
I am a
46 yr old Cuban-American female, who has been in the
United States since the age of 7. I am employed
with the State of Delaware and I am a caseworker for a
family agency. Many of my families are Latin
American, and Domestic Violence, Sexual and Physical
Abuse, and Substance Abuse are present in many of the
families. Many of the families feel that these
things are the norm in their families because that is
all they have ever known. I have been told by many
that " everyone in Mexico " and " Guatemala " feel that
violence and abuse are ok, and " it is the way of
life". I try to educate my families about violence and
abuse, and the effects that it has on the children, and
watching Laura has confirmed to me that these issues are
not the norm nor acceptable in many of these
countries.
Laura is
a strong, passionate, caring, nurturing woman, and a
great model for Latin American people. May GOD
continue to Bless her!
August 8, 2005
Dra.Laura Bozzo, usted es un senora, madre
ayudante, exepcional, espero que la vida le de
lo mejor, por que yo se que hay tantos angeles
en su guardia que siempre la van a proteger, que
dios la bendiga, y ojala yo pudiera ayudar a
tanta gente como ayuda usted, desde texas
artemisa hopper, god bless you.
Micha
August 3, 2005
Laura is
a fascinating woman. It is difficult to keep up with
her without perfect Spanish. I enjoy her program and
appreciate her effort to improve the lives of so
many people. It made me so happy that she got out of
the house arrest situation.
Donny
July, 31 2005
Querida doctora Laura Bozzo
la razon de esta carta es que mi abuelita es fan
numero 1 de usted i pues yo
quisiera
que ella la conociera en persona a usted pues es muy
dificil porque ella vive en guaymas y llo en verdad
quisiera que se conosieran pues ella esta muy
enfermita
Atentamente
Katya Dennise Dominguez Sevilla
July 27, 2005
Laura,
Le felicito por
su fortaleza y por su integridad y estoy muy contenta por
que ya esta libre en mi casa no se pierde ni un dia de
ver su programa somos muy fanaticos suyo
bueno que dios la bendiga al igual que su familia
Xiomara
July 25, 2005
Buena suerte!
Un ser como la Sra. LAURA BOZZO, merece
solo cosas buenas, hace mucho tiempo tuve la oportunidad
de oirla, y es un Angel. Por eso pido a Dios la ilumine
siempre. Y muchas cosas lindas para ella.
Esther
June 8, 2005
Gente como usted hace la
diferencia en este mundo.
Querida Laura Bozzo.
Señora Laura, me da mucho gusto saber que haiga
personas como usted que hacen la diferencia en
la vida de otros seres humanos. Tambien
reconozco que todo esto se hace realidad gracias
al apoyo de toda la produccion de la cadena de
telemundo. Muy bien muchachos!! Cada vez que
miro el programa, le agradezco a Dios por lo que
tengo y por lo que me ha dado. Dios me ha
enseñado que los tiempos de la vida no son ni
malos ni tampoco buenos, que mientras haiga
guerras y suframos de violentos impactos y
sufrimientos, esta no va ser una leccion facil
de aprender. Adelante, que su conocimiento y su
generosidad sigan venciendo en la vida.
Con todos mis respetos.
Marlen Velazquez
May 24, 2005
DEAR LAURA, I WOULD LIKE
TO SAY THAT YOU REALLY
MAKE PEOPLE STOP AND THINK FOR A
MOMENT ON HOW ONE IS BEING
TREATED/ HUMILIATED WITHOUT EVEN
REALLIZING IT.
I REALLY LOVE YOUR SHOW IT
WAS THE BEST TIMES MY MOTHER AND
I SHARED IN FRONT OF THE T.V.
BEFORE SHE PAST AWAY 1 1/2 YEARS
AGO. SHE LOVED WHAT YOU DO
FOR YOUR PEOPLE!!! AND SO DO
WE!!
HERE IN EL PASO, TX. I
GOT ALL MY NEIGHBORHOOD TO
WATCH YOUR SHOW CAUSE I WOULD
TALK SO MUCH ABOUT THE
SITUATIONS AND BUSTS HAD IN YOUR
VIDEOS WITH ALL THOSE LYARS!!
I LOVE IT. IT IS SO INTERESTING.
KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK AND MAY
GOD GIVE YOU THE STRENGTH TO
CONTINUE TO DO SUCH A GOOD JOB
IN HELPING PEOPLE AND BEING SO
STRONG. BY THE WAY WE ALL
THINK YOU ARE SO PRETTY AND I
LOVE THE WAY YOU DRESS.
YOU LOOK ALOT PRETTIER AND
YOUNGER WITH YOUR HAIR SORT OF
LONG, NOT TOO SHORT, BUT ANY
WAYS IT'S YOU THAT COUNTS!!!
GOD BLESS YOU AND YOUR
FAMILY.
M. Negrete
March 22, 2005
Querida Laura,
Quisiera pidirle un
favor. bueno yo soy mexicana tengo 16 anos meenacanta su show. bueno vivo en
california pero e visto muchas cosas feas en ciudad juarez mexico que
matan a las mujeres jovenes y las violan y matan para ser vidois pornograficos y
venderlos en europa. Nuestro govierno no hace nada al respeto. Pero
a la mejor usted nos puede ayudar. Porfavor yo se que estados unidos quiso
ayudar pero nuestro govierno no quiso. Pero si nos juntamos si podemos.
Porfavor usted siempre ayuda la jente porfavor ayudenos. Aunque no soy de
Ciudad Juarez soy de Michoacan Mexico creada en los estados unidos. Me
importa lo que les pasa a mi jente latina. Como dicen los Latinos unidos
jamas seran bencidos.
Sinceramente
Carmen E.
March 2, 2005
Dear
Dr. Laura,
I
love to watch your program and I love to see you help
people. My mom cries for you everyday. Every time she sees
your show she cries because of the kind things you do for
people. She admires you and your simplicity, and she loves
the person that you are. My name is Andre, 13, and my mom is
Maria. We live in Connecticut. My mom is Portuguese and I
was born in America along with my older brother and sister.
I hope that these words will reach you so that you know that
we are your fans, and we support you. I would like to meet
you one day. Thank you very much for everything that you do.
We love you.
Love,
Maria, Andre, Paul, and Erica
February 23, 2005
Querida Laura,
Hace mucho tiempo que queria
escribirle para felicitarla por su programa
porque usted es una buena cuidadana y siempre se
preocupa por los demas. Yo se que eso algun dia
Dios lo va a tomar en cuenta y usted tendra su
recompensa. Yo siempre veo el programa com mi
tres hijas y mi hijo y quisiera que ellas
abrieran los ojos para que se den cuenta de
todas las cosas que pasan en el mundo y que
nunca le llegue a pasar a ninguna de ellas.
En el programa de hoy
(Febrero 23, 2005) Ese caso me impacto mucho
porque como usted dice nunca se puede confiar en
nadie y me gusto con la fuerza que usted dijo
"No me importa si me dan tres o cinco anos mas
pero voy a seguir denunciando lo malo y la
corruption de la gente".
Yo siempre ha pensado que es
injusto que una persona que ayuda tanto a la
gente este en esa situacion de arresto
domicilario.Yo espero que algun dia se haga
justicia a usted
porque Dios es justo y las cosas son hasta un
dia. Que Dios y la Virgen la acompanen siempre y
derramen muchas bendiciones en uted y su
familia. Somos siempre sus fieles admiradoras.
Esperamos conocerla algun dia. Saludo a
Christian.
Desde el Bronx, New York
*Brijida Reyes
*Stephanie
*Rocio
*Carolina
*Luis
February 23, 2005
QUERIDA,LAURA,
YO SE QUE A USTED LA
CRITICAN MUCHO.POR ESNSENNAR LA POVRESA DEL
PERU.PERO TAMBIEN SE QUE EL PERU ES MUY HERMOSO
Y MODERNO.SOLO QUIERO QUE LA GENTE CROMPRNDA LA
MAGNITUD DE SU PROGRAMA.ES USTED UNA PERSONA
EXTRAUDINARIA Y DE BUEN CORAZON.PARA MI USTED YA
TIENE UNA ESTRELLA EN EL CIELO Y POR ESO DIOS LA
VA A GRATIFICAR.TENGA FE USTED SABE QUE LA FE
MUEVE MONTANAS.Y SU MONTANA PRONTO VA A
DESAPARECER/
ME LLAMO CRISTINA Y VIVO EN PHOENIX ESTADO
DE ARIZONA
USA.
QUE DIOS LA CUIDE
SIEMPRE
February 8, 2005
Dear laura,
Iam una señora con
educacion. Solo quiero decirle que la admiro y
la respeto mucho. Le pido mucho a Dios que la
ayude y que el personalmente le haga
justicia..No pierda la fe, Dios nunca llega
tarde. Dios le bendiga siempre. Vivo en San
antonio, Texas.
Cariños.Paula
January 28, 2005
Querida Laura,
Hola! me llamo Julymar y vivo en
Pennsylvania. Yo me concidero tu fan # 1...
Queria escribirle para que supiera
que aca en Pennsylvania todos los hispanos estamos con
ud. y confiamos en que saldra libre muy pronto. Dios la
bendiga y que muy pronto salga libre pues ud. se merece
la libertad y muchas cosas mas!
JANUARY 15, 2005
QUERIDA LAURA.
ME LLAMO
ROBERTO ALMAGUER Y VIVO EN LOS ANGELES, CA. SOY CUBANO
DE NACIMIENTO Y VINE PARA ACA DESPUES DE MUCHO VIAJAR
POR EL MUNDO BALIANDO PARA EL BALLET NACIONAL DE CUBA,
DEL CUAL FUI BAILARIN SOLISTA, Y LO CUAL TAMBIEN ME DIO
LA OPRTUNIDAD DE VIAJAR A TU PAIS , POR EL CUAL SIENTO
PROFUNDO RESPETO. ALLI GANE MEDALLA DE ORO EN UN
CONCURSO INTERNACIONAL DE BALLET EN 1989.
EN FIN,
QUE ME DA MUCHO GUSTO AL MENOS EXPREZAR ESTAS PALABRAS
AUNQUE NUNCA LLEGUEN A TI.
TE ADMIRO
PROFUNDAMENTE POR MUCHAS COSAS.
ME IMAGINO
QUE PODRIA DECIR MUCHO,Y NO SE SI ALGUNA VEZ PODRE DE
ALGUNA MANERA DECIRTELO PERSONALMENTE.
SIN
EMBARGO, DEBO DECIR QUE ME SIENTO A VER LA TV HISPANA Y
A PESAR DE SENTIRME DECEPCIONADO DE LA TV EN GENERAL
HISPANA Y NO HISPANA, EL PODER OBSERVAR TUS PROGRAMAS ME
LLENA DE ALEGRIA.
LOS TEMAS
QUE SE TOCAN EN TU DIARIO LUCHAR POR EL BIEN DE LOS
CIUDADANOS DE TU PAIS, LA CONSTANTE LUCHA POR LA
EDUCACION DE LAS MASAS, Y EL FERVOR FEMINISTA QUE IMPONE
TU EDUCATIVO PROGRAMA,SON LA MEDICINA QUE NUESTRA GENTE
TANTO NECESITA.
EN NUESTRA
AMERICA LATINA, EL MACHISMO HA LLEGADO A NIVELES TAN
ALTOS QUE PARECE QUE NOS HAYAMOS QUEDADO CONGELADOS EN
EL TIEMPO.
TENDRIAMOS
QUE PASARNOS HORAS HABLANDO DE ESTE TEMA.
SIN
EMBARGO PIENSO QUE UNA DOSIS AL DIA DE ESTA EDUCACION ES
ALGO QUE HOY DIA NO TIENE PRECIO.
TE
ARADEZCO EN NOMBRE DE AMERICA LATINA.QUE SE SEPA QUE EN
TODO EL MUNDO HAY PROBLEMAS SOCIALES, PERO AQUELLOS QUE
SIEMPRE LUCHAN POR LOS DERECHOS SERAN SIEMPRE PRESENTES
Y SEGUIRAN SIENDO "LIBRES" A LA VISTA DE LOS DEMAS.
CON TODO MI RESPETO Y
ADMIRACION.
SINCERAMENTE:
ROBERTO ALMAGUER
January 15, 2005
Saludos de mi para Laura
Hola Laurita. Como estas mi nombre es
Veronica yo en este momento vivo en USA.
Yo siempre veo tu programa y
es mas desde Peru. Cuando yo vivi alla en
Lima siempre trate de ir a tu programa pero no
me dejaban entrar por que habia un monton de
gente pero en fin espero que ahora puedas
recibir este mensaje. Yo tengo 21 años.
Soy de Hyo y vivi toda mi secundaria en Lima con
mi hermana cuando mi mamá se vino aqui para
poderme traer en el futuro. Mi papá casi
toda una vida se hizo desentendido de mi y de
mis hermanos. Bueno es por eso que cuando
llegue vine con la meta de salir adelante para
ayudar a mis hermanos y a mi mamá, pero por
circuntancias de la vida y mis problemas conoci
a un muchacho el es Boliviano y me enamore de
el. Ahora ya nos casamos y tengo una nena
muy preciosa de apenas dos meses... pero a todo
esto Laurita me da mucho remordimiento y rabia
de no poder hacer por mis hermanos lo que
supuestamente vine hacer aqui ahora.
Tengo una hermana en especial
que me gustaria que la pudieras ayudar de
cualquier forma mi hermana Ena es madre soltera
ella siempre vio por mi se dejo de llevar un pan
a la boca por darme a mi. Ahora ella no
tiene apoyo de nadie y ella tiene dos niños
hermosos de los cuales me siento muy orgullosa
,Laura nisiquiera tenemos una casa propia
viviamos en la casa de mi hermana todo por culpa
del desgraciado de mi papá... Laurita
quisiera que me regreses este mensaje para
contarte mas a detalle basicamente por que te
estoy pidiendo tu ayuda por favor te lo ruego.
No te pido dinero pero se que hay otras maneras
de las tu me puedes ayudar. Gracias.
Veronica
January 7, 2005
Querida Doctora Bozzo,
Desde Montana, EEUU, te deseo mucha
suerte en tu lucha por la libertad y la exposición
de la verdad. Todos que ven tu programa saben que
eres una persona de mucha integredad con un fuerte
sentido de la diferencia entre el bueno y el malo; estos
rasgos te van a liberar, porque siempre triunfa el
bueno.
Gracias por ayudar a la gente, y
también por educar al mundo que pasa en otras partes del
mundo. Ojalá que toda la gente aquí con 3 platos
de comida todos los días y una casa caliente pudiera ver
el programa; seguramente agradecerían mejor su
situación.
También quiero agradecerte por haber
controlado mejor la situación de violencia en tu
programa; nunca se debe permitir y has respondido con
más empleados de control.
Muchas gracias, mucha suerte y te deseo
un Próspero Año Nuevo.
Caroline de Montana
Diciembre/December 19, 2004
Ms. Laura Bozzo, Corazon de Oro...
I am writing from the state of
Colorado and a lot of families here admire you and we think
you are a remarkable woman, with a Heart of Gold. I've seen
other talk shows in the Latin community but have never seen
anyone help as many people as you are helping. You go above
and beyond the call of duty by all you do for people from
helping with counseling, schooling, treatments, vehicles,
and housing. You are an amazing woman. You are strong and
full of love and compassion for people. You are such a
blessing in this world.
Unlike other
talk shows you are truly there to help people, not just to
benefit from them for publicity or money. May God bless you
Laura, and I pray that all your problems be resolved soon,
and you be safe with your family. I can imagine how
stressful it is for you everyday, but yet you still have so
much compassion and a smile for everyone you help.
Thank you Laura for all your kindness and help. May god one
day give you all the blessing back that you keep giving to
people with your heart of gold. If you get to read this
Laura please know lots of people in the US are behind you
and support you, keep standing strong.
A friend in Colorado,
Melissa Franco
PO Box 254
Broomfiled, CO 80038
Estimados aficionados,
Si usted quiere escribir una carta de
sentimientos positivos para Dra. Laura Bozzo para
www.LibertadLatina.org,
escribenos al siguiente e-mail:
Chuck@LibertadLatina.org
Presentaremos a su carta en esta pagina, con
tal de que hay espacio.
- Chuck Goolsby
LibertadLatina
no esta afiliado con Dra. Laura Bozzo o con la red de
television de NBC/Telemundo.
¿Quieres
contactar a Laura? ¿Tienes un caso que quieras compartir con
ella?
Telemundo Network has made a big
investment in improving the marketing, the on stage
set design and the 'star stature' of Dr. Laura
Bozzo, which she well deserves.
Dr. Bozzo's one hour show is so
popular that new and rebroadcast shows are run twice
daily in the U.S. Telemundo market.
All of these facts help Laura's
advocacy work, which while focused on the conditions
facing women and children in Peru, are also meant to
give voice to people across the Americas, especially
for those who live in the many regions where no
strong voice for justice has risen up to say
¡NO!
to impunity and
¡Yes!
to the sanctity of the family, the sanctity of
children and women's rights and racial equality
(nowhere else on Spanish language TV do Afro-Latin
and Indigenous-Latin persons get treated with true
equality and respect. On Laura's show, ALL
persons are provided a platform to express their
true, heartfelt sentiments, typically borne of their
harsh, lifelong experiences with sexual oppression
in daily life).
Keep up the great work!
- Chuck Goolsby
LibertadLatina
Dec. 23 2004
Diciembre/December 22, 2004
We at LibertadLatina.org wish to thank
Dr. Laura Bozzo for her untiring, dedicated work for women
and children facing oppression. The number number of
recent, well articulated and well documented (filmed) events
of child and adult sexual exploitation openly discussed on
her show have been powerful testimony to the severe
exploitation faced by children and women in Peru and across
all of Latin America.
Dr. Bozzo's forceful and persistent
moral and legal objections to acts of impunity (on the part
of men and women) have done more than anything else
in the popular media in Spanish, to expose impunity.
Without Dr. Bozzo's pioneering work,
strongly supported by the Telemundo Network (an NBC
subsidiary), our movement to end the sexual oppression with
impunity of women, childrren and men in the Americas would
not be advancing at the pace that is is today. Dr.
Bozzo's reinforces the efforts of human rights advocates
across the Spanish speaking world, reminding them that they
are not alone in fighting the tremendous and increasing tide
of impunity, sexual violence and trafficking that all of our
communities are faced with today.
As Dr. Bozzo states in her current,
Christmas 2004 season's greeting,
"¡Deseo
amor, justicia
y peace...
para todos!"
"I wish love,
justice
and peace...
for all!"
We wish to express the
same sentiment!
Thank you, Laura
Bozzo!
- Chuck Goolsby
LibertadLatina
Dec. 15, 2004
Diciembre/December 15, 2004
On December 14,
2004 Telemundo news reported that a sister and
nephew of Dr. Laura Bozzo had been kidnapped in
Peru. Dr. Bozzo's sister was freed by the
kidnappers, but her nephew is still being held.
We all wish
for a safe return of Dr. Bozzo's family member.
(Dr. Bozzo was placed under house arrest
by a Peruvian judge in 2002.)
El magistrado
indicó en su resolución que persisten los
motivos procesales por los que se ordenó la
medida restrictiva de libertad, ante el
peligro de que Bozzo evada la acción de la
justicia o las investigaciones se vean
perturbadas.
Mas Noticias
sobre / More News about - Doctora Laura Bozzo
Latin America's
Leading Women's Rights Advocate Lawyer Dr. Laura
Bozzo Airs Legal Defense in the International Press.
(More English language articles will be
forthcoming.)
La polémica conductora
de "reality shows," Laura Bozzo, dijo el lunes
que había denunciado al Estado peruano ante la
Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos
(CIDH) de la OEA por el arresto domiciliario que
cumple en Lima durante casi 27 meses.
24 Horas Libre Peru - 10-05-2004
Decepcionada por el
sistema anticorrupción peruano, la presentadora
de televisión, Laura Bozzo, acusada de presunto
peculado y asociación para delinquir, espera
encontrar justicia en las Cortes
Internacionales.
"Alejandro Toledo es
mi primer testigo, porque si a él he perjudicado
que vaya al juicio oral y diga en qué lo he
perjudicado. Él y Lucrecia Orozco son mis
principales testigos", indicó la conductora de
televisión, Laura Bozzo.
La Sala
Anticorrupción "C" -que preside la vocal Denisse
Baca- rechazó el nuevo pedido de libertad que
presentó Laura Bozzo al considerar que no
hay nuevos elementos que permitan variar su
situación procesal.
La animadora de
televisión, Laura Bozzo, será juzgada
públicamente el próximo 19 de noviembre en la
Base Naval del Callao, por sus presuntos
vínculos con el ex asesor presidencial,
Vladimiro Montesinos.
September,
2003 comments of a
LibertadLatina.org
reader:
E-mail feedback: "From a Salvadoran Woman to the World"
HOLA AMIGOS:
En mi concepto de mujer vengo atraves de uds hacerle
un llamado al Presidente del Peru para que deje ya de amolar a la
Abogada
Laura Bozzo, porque es el el unico responsable de su captura quien
no desea que
ella este libre porque tiene rencias con lo de la nina que no
queria reconocer y
que reconocio .
Basta ya Senor Presidente del Peru una Latina se lo esta pidiendo.
Basta yaaaaaaaaaaaaaa,dejela en paz que trabaje por los pobres
esa mujer es
valiosa para el peru ya no la jodan mas.
Pobrecita Laura de peru yo si te apoyo.
Al fin y al cabo si Laura
hubiese recibido algun dinero no fue para ella sino
para sus obras sociales que son muchisimas y de eso debiera de
estar
agradecido Toledo.
basta ya saquen a Laura
LIBERELA TOLEDO.
Hello friends:
From my perspective as a woman, I would like to use this forum
to call upon the president of Peru to leave attorney Dr. Laura
Bozzo in peace, because he is the only one responsible for her
detention, who doesn't want to see her released, because he is
angry about the girl [Laura Bozzo's TV interview with Mr.
Toledo's daughter outside his marriage]. That's Enough,
Mr. President of Peru. This Latina is asking you do this
[for Dr. Bozzo].
Enough Nowwwwwww, leave her in peace so that she can continue to
work for the poor. She is a valiant woman for Peru.
Don't play with her any more! Poor Laura of Peru, I indeed
will help you [stand up for you].
Finally, if Dr. Bozzo did receive some money [from now
discredited Fujimori secret service operatives], the money was
not for her, but to finance her social work, which President
Toledo should be thankful for. That's enough, let Laura
go!
Free her, Toledo!
Spanish to English
translation - Chuck Goolsby
Other recent comments from a male reader: "We love you, Laura!"
International Talk
Show Host Dr. Laura Bozzo Faces Arrest in Peru for Alleged Association with
Jailed Fujimori Security Chief Vladimiro Montesinos
LibertadLatina
Commentary
August 18, 2002
In early August of
2002, Peruvian attorney Dr. Laura Bozzo, an internationally known talk show
host, was detained by Peruvian authorities for her alleged associations with
the security chief of ex-president Alberto Fujimori, Vladimiro Montesinos.
Dr. Bozzo denies the charges. Dr. Bozzo's daily TV show, seen by
millions of the Spanish language Telemundo network, is a groundbreaking
platform for the first-ever public discussion of women and girl-children and
their experiences with oppression, rape, domestic violence and unfaithful
love.
In 2001
LibertadLatina
posted the
following commentary on Dr. Laura Bozzo. We at
LibertadLatina
continue to
support Dr. Bozzo and her creative and pioneering contributions to
turning the negative tide regarding the oppression with impunity of
women and children in Peru and in the entire Spanish speaking world.
Be strong, Laura!
The internationally broadcast Peruvian TV talk show "Laura in America"
is breaking new ground in the coverage of the widespread sexual
exploitation and physical abuse faced by women and young girls at home
and in the workplace.
The
international Spanish Language program "Laura en America,"
originates in Peru and is broadcast via the Telemundo network.
Similar in format to many American daytime talk shows, Laura en
America dares to break with the code of silence on sexual
exploitation issues affecting Peruvian women. Each day lawyer and
talk show host Laura Bozzo features several women who have survived
abuse or rape from their husbands, boyfriends or bosses. Women
tell their stories, and the alleged abuser is brought onto the set of
the live show to be questioned and, often, to be shown film of their own
misdeeds. The women abused by these men are given a chance to
confront the accused, and the show allows a good deal more violence from
the victims than would be permitted even on America's Jerry Springer
Show.
Unlike the
Springer Show, Laura in America is serious, and is providing a
groundbreaking forum for the open and heated discussion of sexual
exploitation issues affecting Latin American women. In addition to
seeking out women from everyday life to assist via her show, Laura Bozzo
is active in other venues, bringing assistance to exploited women in
need.
On Tuesday,
May 22, 2001, Laura en America covered the issue of the sexual
exploitation of young, poor women who work in office jobs in Peru.
In two separate cases, multiple victims of bosses who demanded sex, and
then raped the women workers, were confronted by the victims in the
presence of the accused men's surprised spouses. One victim
appeared on the show at 4 months into her pregnancy. She became
pregnant after her boss gave her a date rape drug, and she woke up in a
hotel room with him, having been raped against her will. The other
man featured had also raped his female workers with the use of force.
The previous
day, May 21st, Laura en America featured several Peruvian women
who were routinely savagely beaten by their husbands, and who had
numerous scars everywhere on their bodies. One husband had thrown
his wife off of a second story balcony in their apartment. The
husband showed no remorse, a common reaction from the men confronted on
this show. This abuser complained to the show host that his wife
didn't have his permission to come to the Laura in America
show.
Another
recent show of Laura en America had victims who secretly video
taped their husbands beating them mercilessly in their homes and
threatening to kill them. The city prosecutor arrested these men
immediately after the talk show ended.
We at
LibertadLatina
want to thank
Laura Bozzo for exposing the truth in such an open and powerful way.
Laura's work is pioneering, and, like its competitor, the
Cristina Show on the Univision Network, she is doing the much
needed work of confronting criminal impunity in the form of rape,
physical and psychological violence and the degradation of women in
Peruvian society. A society where an estimated 75% of girl
children are raped before their 15th birthday, and where an estimated
80% of men beat their wives. Laura Bozzo is saving lives and
building a brighter future for all women and children in the Spanish
speaking world.
Laura en America is effectively the TV version of our web site, and
we at
LibertadLatina
find in Laura
encouragement to persist in the struggle to defend women and children
from sexual and physical abuse and rape with impunity, a centuries-old
problem that in the year 2001 is growing explosively and is merging with
the scourges of cartel-backed criminal sex trafficking and the HIV/AIDS
epidemic. There is no
justification for the abuse of women and children, nor for continuing to
treat women and children as inferior and sometimes disposable human
beings who simply exist to please men.
LibertadLatina
especially thanks Laura Bozzo for breaking the code of silence that allows
the exploitation of women to continue as if it were something sacred,
which it sure is not. Silence is also violence!
A Spanish language
description of the Laura en America show, and Laura Bozzo's photo are
available at:
http://www.telemundo.com
Telemundo is
broadcast via cable in most regions of the United States, and is carried
worldwide to other Spanish speaking TV markets.
We at
LibertadLatina
join with humanity in expressing our complete outrage at the leaders
of the coup d'etat in Honduras. The leaders of the coup were not
justified in kidnapping the democratically elected president of the
nation and sending him into exile. The United Nations General
Assembly, the Organization of American States and U.S. President
Barak Obama, among many leaders of nations in the Americas, have all
joined in demanding that President
José Manuel Zelaya Rosales be returned to power.
Although the coup was approved by Honduran Supreme
Court and Congress, this only shows that the nation's democratic
institutions are weak. In Colombia, for example, President Álvaro
Uribe, a conservative, is seeking, just as did President Zelaya in
Honduras, to change the constitution to eliminate the current limits
on the number of terms that a president may serve. Yet nobody is
trying to overthrow Uribe for have proposed such an idea. The fact
that President Zelaya had set-up a popular referendum, to allow the
voters to decide the issue, was apparently too much democracy for
the coup plotters, so they pounced on Zelaya and raped democracy in
the process.
The independent press, including Feminist Radio
International Endeavor (FIRE), CIMAC Noticias in Mexico City, and
Indymedia Chiapas, have provided excellent coverage of the true
story that is taking place inside Honduras. Some of the key stories
are reprinted here.
The coup leaders have declared a state of siege, have
targeted human rights activists, and have used rifle fire to attack
unarmed protesters who are simply outraged that these cowards have
resorted to taking power by force.
Coups were a common power-grabbing tactic in Latin
America in the late 1900s. The region has since made significant
progress in moving towards democracy. This coup is just one of many
indicators that democracy is not a 'done deal' in all nations of the
Americas.
The conservative coup plotters will, consistent with
the emergent anti women's rights movement represented elsewhere in
Latin America (with whom they are apparently allied), not bode well
for women's equality.
We applaud the activism that we are seeing from brave
women and men in the face of this military repression. Just as
happened during the popular uprisings against dictators across Latin
America in the 1980s and 1990s, the coup leaders in Honduras are
using the tactics of the 'dirty wars' that lead to the murders and
rapes of tens of thousands of innocent civilians in Guatemala, El
Salvador, Nicaragua, Chile, Argentina, Mexico and other nations of
Latin America.
Video from a number of sources shows the terrorism
with impunity that the coup's military supporters are using on
innocent protesters.
It is an act of cowardice for the current Honduran
coup government to block CCN in Spanish, block the Internet, and
place Honduras in a stage of siege with a suspension of all
individual liberties. Given the repression that just occurred in the
aftermath of presidential elections in Iran, the world community has
very little tolerance for such illegal behavior in Honduras.
Coup leaders, return President Zelaya to his elected
position.
Nobody elected you.
Your corrupt government is not wanted and it will not
stand!
End impunity now!
Chuck Goolsby
LibertadLatina
July 3, 2009
Added:
July 03, 2009
Honduras
Banner:
"Feminists in Resistance; Coup
leaders get out!
Lideresa pro-vida,
designada canciller por golpistas
Ante el Estado de
Emergencia en Honduras, feministas y luchadoras sociales lanzaron un
llamado a la comunidad internacional para que pronuncien una condena
más enérgica contra lo que denominaron gobierno usurpador; “nos
están disparando, golpeando, violentando todos nuestros derechos”,
denunciaron…
A female pro-life
leader has been appointed foreign affairs chancellor by the usurpers
In the face of the state of siege that has been declared in
Honduras, feminists and social activists have launched an appeal to
the international community to deliver a strong condemnation against
what they termed a usurper government. They state that: “We are
being shot, beaten, and they are violating all of our rights.”
In a telephone
interview with CIMAC Noticias, Hilda Rivera, coordinator of the
Center for Women's Rights in Honduras, said that support from Latin
America and the global community is urgently needed. Yesterday, the
National Congress of Honduras approved a State of Emergency,
temporarily suspending individual liberties...
"...We are urging
more pressure from the world community, because the situation is
becoming more violent here” says Rivera.
"Policemen and
soldiers are shooting and beating us. It is urgent that the
government not be given additional time [to consider ultimatums to
step down]. We have put up with four days of bullets, beatings and
rain. There is a general tiredness in the population. Nonetheless,
the violence is increasing, so we are standing up to fight.”
Rivera stated that
the coup is a serious setback for the entire society, and
particularly for women, who’s rights were already restricted. With
this coup, the problem is magnified...
Until now, "within
the feminist movement we have not anticipated everything that may
happen, but we are clear in our understanding that, with this ‘law
of the strongest,’ we can be detained, they can raid our offices and
homes, and we cannot assemble. It is of grave concern to us that we
have important issues on our agenda that are threatened by the coup,
such as the legalization of emergency contraception." ...
A central concern
for Rivera is the safety of human rights defenders. “The government
has already begun to ‘hunt’ various organization leaders by raiding
their houses and arresting them." The coup plotters know that
women do not falter in our struggle. There is a danger that
repression against feminist leaders may follow.
As an example that
the coup government is not interested in defending the rights of
women, Rivera cites the naming of the founder of
Provida [Pro Life] in Honduras as Foreign Affairs Chancellor.
Eco-feminist Daysi
Flores told Feminist International Radio (RIF) that the people are
afraid and outraged. They cannot come out of their homes. But, says
Flores, feminist resistance has been declared. Women’s rights are
going to continue to progress, and we are going to continue the
struggle.
A Las Organizaciones Internacionales, Cooperación Internacional,
Organismos de Derechos Humanos y a lLos Estados del Mundo
El día domingo 28
de Junio, el Presidente de la República José Manuel Zelaya Rosales,
fue agredido, secuestrado y enviado a la República de Costa Rica en
el avión presidencial, custodiado por cuerpos militares argumentando
que había violado la Constitución de la República por implementar
una consulta popular mediante una encuesta de opinión, donde se
consultara al pueblo si estaba de acuerdo o no que el 29 de
noviembre se colocara una cuarta urna para proponer una Asamblea
Nacional Constituyente, que tuviese como objetivo elaborar una nueva
Constitución con la plena participación ciudadana de los diferentes
actores sociales del país…
To International Organizations, International Development Agencies,
Human Rights Institutions And To The States Of The World:
On Sunday, June 28,
2009 the democratically elected President of the Republic of
Honduras, José Manuel Zelaya Rosales, was assaulted, abducted and
sent to the Republic of Costa Rica in the presidential plane guarded
by the military...
The people are
peacefully expressing their rejection of the coup d’etat, demanding
the immediate reinstatement of President Zelaya, and a return to the
Rule of Law...
Given these
egregious series of events, we request the support of international
development agencies and the international community to demand the
reinstatement of the Rule of Law, to demand an end to the
prosecution of the members of the cabinet of President Manuel Zelaya
Rosales and leaders of social movements and the media, and an end to
all types of brutal violence and to prevent the imposition of
fascism in our country.
Most Honduran
citizens advocate for peace, solidarity and the respect of human
rights. We emphatically denounce the complicity shown in these
events by the Human Rights Commissioner of Honduras, Dr. Ramón
Custodio, before the regional and international human rights
organizations and the international community.
June 29, 2009
Tegucigalpa,
Honduras
Signed:
Centro
De Estudios De La Mujer Honduras (Cem-H) - The Women's Studies
Center
Centro
De Derechos De Mujeres (Cdm) - The Center for Women's Rights
Centro
De Estudios Y Accion Para El Desarrollo De Honduras (Cesadeh) -
The Center for Development Studies and Action of Honduras
Red De
Mujeres Jovenes (Redmuj) - The Young Women's Network
Acciones
Para El Desarrollo Poblacional (Adp) - Action for Population
Development
Red De Mujeres Adultas (Redmucr) -
The Adult Women's Network
Colectivo De Mujeres Universitarias (Cofemun)
- The Collective of University Women
Marcha Mundial De Las Mujeres, Comité
Nacional - Honduras Global Women's March - Honduras
Articulaciones Feminista De Redes
Locales - Articulation of Local Feminist Networks
Comisión De Mujer Pobladora
Articulaciones Feminista De Redes Locales - - Rural Women's
Commission - Articulation of Local Feminist Networks
Movimiento De Mujeres Socialistas, Las
Lolas - The Socialist Women's Movement, The Lolas
Convergencia De Mujeres De Honduras
Iniciativa Centroamericana De Seguimiento A Cairo Y Beijing - The
Honduran Convergence of the Central American Initiative to Follow-up
on Cairo and Beijing
Feministas Independientes -
Independent Feminists
Published by Feminist International Radio Endeavor (FIRE)
Berta Cazares, candidata independiente a
la presidencia
México DF - Vivimos en Honduras una
insurrección popular, un levantamiento
con la decidida participación de las
mujeres, en contra de las fuerzas
armadas y el grupo oligárquico que
derrocó al presidente democráticamente
electo Manuel Zelaya, pero el costo es
alto y la situación de la población
civil, incluida la niñez, es crítica, la
vida cotidiana está alterada y la brutal
represión tiene como blanco principal a
la juventud…
An interview with Berta Cazares, independent candidate for
president
Honduras is living through a popular uprising, one that is being carried
out with the wholehearted participation of women against the armed
forces and the oligarchic group which overthrew democratically
elected President Manuel Zelaya. The cost has been high, and the situation
for civilians, including children, is critical. Everyday life has
changed, and the brutal repression is targeting our youth.
Bertha
Cazares Flores, an independent candidate for president of Honduras and
the
national leader of the Popular and Indigenous Organizations of
Honduras, described the
situation in Honduras in a phone interview with CIMAC Noticias, three days after the military high command,
most of Congress and the Supreme Court overthrew the President and
his Cabinet…
Hundreds have been injured in the country, especially young people,
said
Cazares.
In the 'Progress City' (Ciudad Progreso) area, the repression was especially brutal,
perhaps because that area has historically been a center for social
struggles...
In
rural and indigenous areas of Honduras the situation is quite critical,
including in
[the town of] San Francisco de Ocaña, where, during the 1980s, the
Army used machine guns against the civilian population. "That's
where the resources should go, to see what is really happening there," Cazares says.
Cazares
added that the people continue to defy the siege, the curfew and the
ban on travel. There are military checkpoints throughout the
country. Hundreds of people from rural areas, teachers and
indigenous people, are moving toward to the capital...
Thursday
CIMAC: What
should we expect on Thursday, the day announced by Manuel Zelaya for
his
return to Honduras?
[The planned return date for President Zelaya has been pushed back
to Saturday since this story was written.
-
LL]
Cazares: We
call upon social movements and organizations that defend
international human rights to come to Honduras in delegations, to
support the civilian population...
We hope
that [Mayan Guatemalan Nobel Peace Prize laureate] Rigoberta Menchú,
along with other personalities such as Mirna Anaya, a judge on
the Supreme Court of El Salvador, and [Argentinean 1980 Nobel Peace
Prize leareate]
Adolfo Perez Esquivel will
arrive [to support President Zelaya].
Meanwhile, Berta is preparing - with an arrest warrant against her
and the knowledge that "assassination is a terrible thing in
Honduras" - for progress to be made today, Wednesday, when civic
organizations will protest against the coup at an army cordon, just three
blocks from the house that she one day hopes to govern from.
Radio Progreso, pese a ser acallada por
los militares golpistas, confirmó en una de sus transmisiones
clandestinas que varios batallones de las Fuerzas Armadas de
Honduras, desde el lunes han roto con los golpistas y el gobierno de
facto, y han anunciado que permanecerán al margen de la represión al
pueblo de su país...
Honduran Army Battalions
Reject Repressing the Population
Honduran station Radio Progreso, despite
being shut-down by the coup leaders, has confirmed in one of its
clandestine transmissions that a number of battalions of the Armed
Forces of Honduras have, since Monday, June 29th, broken with the
organizers of the coup d'etat and the de facto government. They have
announced that they will remain on the sidelines of the
repression...
Radio La Primerísima
Managua, Nicaragua
June 30, 2009
Added:
July 1, 2009
Chile
President
Michelle Bachelet of Chile, during a
June 23, 2009 visit
with U.S. President Barak Obama
La presidenta de
Chile, Michelle Bachelet, removió al jefe de la policia de
investigaciones (civil), Arturo Herrera, tras una serie de denuncias
de corrupción, incluida una que involucró a policías con una red de
prostitución infantile…
Hace una semana, en
el aniversario 76 de la policía de investigaciones, Herrera lamentó
la relevancia dada por medios de difusión al caso de prostitución
infantil que involucró a un grupo de policías activos.
Bachelet Removes Police Chief
The
president of Chile, Michelle Bachelet, has removed the chief of the
Investigations Police, Arturo Herrera, after a series of allegations
of corruption, including a case in which police officers were
allegedly involved with a child prostitution network.
Herrera
resigned the post three months before his scheduled retirement. He
did so after a telephone conversation with the president, held while
she was visiting Mexico.
Upon
her return to Chile the president accepted the resignation and
appointed as his replacement Marco Antonio Vasquez, now police chief
in the region of Bío Bío, 500 kilometers south of Santiago…
A week
ago, during the 76th anniversary of the Investigations
Police agency, Herrera lamented the importance that the media had
given to a case of child prostitution involving a group of police
officers.
A former registered
nurse was sentenced Wednesday to five years in prison for engaging
in what was the first and so far only federal sex-trafficking case
in San Antonio.
Brent Andrew
Stephens, 41, who surrendered his nursing license amid the criminal
case, pleaded guilty in March to conspiracy to harbor aliens for
financial gain and conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking by force,
fraud and coercion…
Stephens admitted
that he and his business partner, Timothy Gereb, planned to use
young Mexican women as escorts and in a massage parlor in May 2007.
The two paid
Stephens' personal assistant, Maria de Jesus “Jessica” Ochoa; her
sister, Consuelo Pilar Ochoa; and their mother, Isabel, to recruit
and smuggle females from Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, to San Antonio.
The Ochoas smuggled
three victims, including two minors, and took them to Stephens. The
victims were given alcohol, threatened at gunpoint by Gereb and
warned not to return to Mexico, court documents state…
The victims told
agents that once they arrived in San Antonio, they were told they
would have to work as prostitutes for five years to pay the $3,000
smuggling fees…
Gereb, 50, was
sentenced earlier to 10 years in prison. Isabel Ochoa, 60, received
time served. Consuelo Ochoa, 34, was sentenced to 18 months for the
sex-trafficking case and 39 months for a separate drug case. Maria
Ochoa, 32, got 12 months and one day and is now out of jail.
"We're light years
ahead of other communities," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Douglas
Molloy, who's prosecuted 20 slavery and human trafficking cases
throughout Southwest Florida over the past decade, freeing 50
victims. "Because of our united community efforts, we're in a place
most areas aspire to."
Those efforts
include a two-man team at the Lee County Sheriff's Office, a
multi-agency task force and a new command center at Florida Gulf
Coast University: The Esperanza Project.
"What's happening
at FGCU is electric - just electric," Molloy said.
One of a scant
handful of university-based human trafficking research centers in
the country, it opened eight months ago with $100,000 in seed money
from a federal anti-trafficking grant given to the Lee County
Sheriff's Office.
The center's name
means "hope" in Spanish. It's also the pseudonym of the 11-year-old
girl whose enslavement in Cape Coral became a galvanizing force as
Lee county's first high-profile victim.
In 2005, the girl
was discovered in Cape Coral, pregnant and bleeding. Born in
Guatemala, she was sold to a man who brought her here and forced her
into sexual and domestic slavery. She was repeatedly raped and
beaten during her two-year captivity. Molloy eventually sent her
captors to federal prison.
Her case sparked a
wave of questions and self-examination among law enforcement and
residents alike.
In short order, the
Sanibel chapter of Zonta International, a service group, made human
trafficking its signature cause.
The U.S. Department
of Justice awarded the Lee County Sheriff's Office a $450,000,
three-year grant to combat human trafficking.
By the end of 2005,
Molloy said authorities were working on more trafficking cases in
Southwest Florida than many entire state sees in a year…
"(The U.S.) spends
about about $23 million on this annually - that's not much at
all,"... "Estimates are there are about 17,000 [new] foreign-born
trafficking victims alone [each and every year] and 17,000 homicide
victims, and yet we solve 70 percent of the homicides and 1 percent
of trafficking cases." ...
The man in the No.
1 human trafficking job in Washington is Luis C. de Baca. The new
ambassador-at-large to monitor and combat trafficking in persons at
the State Department promises trafficking will be a priority of the
new administration as well - especially, of Secretary of State
Hilary Clinton...
Amy Bennett Williams
www.News-Press.com
June 28, 2009
Added:
June 30, 2009
Mexico
Mexican Congressional Deputy
Maricela Contreras
speaks out about defects in trafficking law's
regulations
México - La
presidenta de la Comisión de Equidad y Género de la Cámara de
Diputados, Maricela Contreras, denunció que bandas organizadas
coludidas con autoridades cometen la mayoría de los secuestros
contra migrantes en las zonas fronterizas.
Señaló que según el
Informe Especial sobre los casos de secuestro contra migrantes se
documentaron nueve mil 758 personas privadas de su libertad, y de
ese total en nueve mil 194 casos el delito fue cometido por ese tipo
de organizaciones criminales...
According to the
Special Report, 9,758 persons were deprived of their liberty
In 9,194 cases,
the offense was committed by criminal organizations
The president of
the Commission on Equality and Gender of the Chamber of Deputies,
Maricela Contreras has reported that Mexican authorities have
colluded with organized gangs to commit the majority of kidnappings
targeting migrants in border regions.
Deputy Contreras
noted that a special report on cases of kidnappings against migrants
documented the fact that 9,758 people had been deprived of their
liberty, and that in 9,194 of these cases, organized crime was the
perpetrator...
The report states
that migrants who enter Mexico are subjected to extortion, robbery,
kidnapping, illegal searches, beatings, chases, being thrown off of
moving trains, rape, threats, psychological pressure and even
murder.
Contreras pointed
out that the assailants most often mentioned by victims are elements
of the Federal Preventive Police, military personnel and agents of
the National Institute for
Migration.
Data reported by
the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (CEPAL)
indicates that along the southern border of Mexico, 70 per cent of
migrants are victims of violence. Some 60 percent of migrants suffer
some form of sexual abuse, including rape.
The CEPAL report
also emphasizes that the United States border with Mexico is also a
very dangerous region, where women migrants become victims of sexual
violence, forced prostitution, human trafficking and murder.
Deputy Contreras
denounced these human rights violations and called upon Mexican
society to not tolerate inefficiencies, incompetence and
complicity by govern-ment officials, behaviors that threaten the
lives and integrity of thousands of men and women who cross the
borders into Mexico...
Some 20,000 of the
140,000 illegal migrants en route to the United States who travel
through
Mexico to find work and a better life are kidnapped each year
and subjected to rape, torture and murder, crimes that usually go
unpunished due to the corruption of the authorities, fear of
reprisals and distrust of authorities, according to Mexico’s
independent National Human Rights Commission.
Mexico City – More than 1,600
migrants, above all Central Americans en route to the United
States to find work, are kidnapped monthly and subjected to
humiliations that usually go unpunished due to the corruption of
the authorities, Mexico’s independent National Human Rights
Commission reported.
“The kidnapping of migrants has
become a continuous practice of worrying dimensions, generally
unpunished and with characteristics of extreme cruelty,”
commission chairman Jose Luis Soberanes said Monday at the
presentation of the report.
Between September
2008 and February 2009, the commission registered a total of 198
separate cases of mass kidnappings of migrants involving 9,758
victims...
Mexican Congressional Deputy
Maricela Contreras,
chairwoman of the national commission to combat
trafficking, speaks out about defects in the federal
regulations published by President Calderón that weaken
the nation's first federal anti-trafficking law
Señala diputada que Segob no incluyó fiscalía en el reglamento
La Comisión de
Equidad y Género de la Cámara de Diputados lamentó que a pesar de
que se han detectado redes de delincuencia organizada dedicadas a la
trata de personas en el país, el programa nacional de combate contra
este delito no podrá operar sino hasta 2011 debido a que no se ha
instalado la comisión encargada de su elaboración y no cuenta con
una partida presupuestal específica...
The Interior Department failed to include a role for the
special prosecutor for trafficking's office in the law’s published
regulations
The regulations as written will tie the hands of the
anti-trafficking law’s enforcement provisions until 2011
The
Commission on Equality and Gender of the Chamber of Deputies (the
lower house of Congress) regrets the fact that despite having
identified organized crime networks involved in human trafficking in
the country, the national program to combat this crime cannot begin
operating until 2011. The [unexpected] delay is due to the fact that
the commission responsible for standing-up these efforts does not
yet have a line item in the federal budget, and therefore it has not
been created.
Deputy
Maricela Contreras of the Revolutionary Democratic Party (PRD)
and chairwoman of the anti-trafficking commission, noted that
another failure of the Department of the Interior (SEGOB)
in drafting the required federal regulations that will activate the
2008 anti-trafficking law is the fact that SEGOB did not create a role
for the office of the Special Prosecutor for Crimes of Violence
Against Women and Trafficking (FEVIMTRA) [an office of the Attorney
General of the Republic] as one of the institutions responsible
for combating trafficking...
Contreras, as part of her analysis of the official anti-trafficking
regulations published on February 27, 2009 in the Official Gazette,
added that
the targeting of organized crime is also absent from the regulations.
"This situation is serious, because the regulations do not recognize
that the problem [of trafficking] originates with various forms of
criminal organizations, from disorganized bands that are just
starting up to the more highly structured trafficking networks and
mafias," says Contreras...
The
Joint Committee of Congress has made an appeal to President Calderón’s legal counsel requesting that the Executive
open the
official regulations for revision [to repair the many defects
within]. Presidential deputy legal counsel Javier Sanchez Arriaga
responded to Congress by stating that changing the regulations was a
responsibility of the Interior Department (Segob). [And thus, nothing
was ever done to improve the regulations -
LL]
The current regulations have no minimum
standards, nor do they integrate the work of
key federal agencies
Mexico City – Mexico City congressional
deputy Maricela Contreras, president of the
Commission on Equality and Gender of the
Chamber of Deputies, has declared that a
re-writing of the published Federal
Regulations that enable the 2008 Law to
Prevent and Punish Trafficking in Personsis urgently needed,
given that there is an indifference
and unwillingness on the part of the federal
government
to stop this crime wave, [of human
trafficking - in defiance of the will of
Congress].
...Contreras, who had called for the
declaration, stated that "the published
rules were delivered late [after a 9 month
delay following the law’s passage, and after
four warning to President Calderón from
Congress -LL],
they are 'plain,' and they contain
omissions. The rules don’t provide any tools
to combat or prevent trafficking, much less
any provisions for the care of the victims,
who are mostly girls and women. For these
reasons, President Calderón should have the
rules revised, because in their current
state, they aren’t worth anything."
Lea nuestra sección
sobre la lucha de varios congresistas y defensoras
de los derechos humanos para lograr obligar que el
Presidente Felipe Calderón
publica un reglamiento fuerte respladar a la nueva
ley: Prevenir y Sancionar la Trata de
Personas, de 2008, que hasta ahora es sigue
siendo una ley sin fuerzas.
Read our special section
about the brave work of advocates and congressional
leaders in Mexico to break-through the barriers of
impunity and achieve truly effective federal
regulations that will enforce the original
congress-ional intent of Mexico's 2008
Law to
Prevent and Punish Trafficking in Persons.
A Canadian suspected of heading a North
American pedophilia ring has been arrested in Mexico in
possession of four million photographs and videos of children
shown naked or striking suggestive poses.
The suspect, Arthur Lelland Sayer, "was
caught red-handed at his home in Tijuana, Baja California (close to
the US border) with a large number of photos and videos that were
stored on over a dozen hard drives", Mexico City's public prosecutor
said in a statement on Thursday.
A Mexican police investigation is
ongoing to dismantle a major child pornography network and to "find
evidence that it is active in the three North American countries:
Mexico, the United States and Canada."
The crime ring was discovered by the
"cyber police" of Mexico's Public Safety Ministry, which arrested
the Canadian on Sunday along with agents from FEVIMTRA, a special
unit that combats human trafficking.
Agence France-Presse (AFP)
June
27, 2009
Added:
June 28, 2009
Cecilia Romero, head of Mexico's national
immigration service, says that sex tourism and pedophile
networks are "inevitable."
President Calderón, the Human Rights
Crisis at Mexico's Southern Border is Unacceptable
Our current series of articles covering the human rights emergency
facing women and girl migrants at Mexico's southern border responds
directly to the recent comments of Cecilia Romero, head of Mexico's
national immigration service (the
National Institute for Migration - INM). Director Romero stated in a
press interview with El Universal, a major Mexico City daily paper, that human
trafficking is "inevitable", and that, "the
existence of the smuggling of migrants, human trafficking, pedophile
networks, and the kidnappings and violence that affect thousands of
migrants are only "evils of mankind"
that Mexico cannot eradicate.
We strongly disagree with Director Romero and others in the
leadership of Mexico's National Action Party, who habitually dismiss critical women's
rights issues, including the femicide murders in Ciudad Juarez, as being the
inevitable, and 'normal' results of male human behavior.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
The citizens of Mexico, Mexico's Congress and the international
community need to hold the government of President Felipe Calderón accountable
for his allowing unending mass gender atrocities to occur on Mexico's southern
border with Guatemala and Belize.
In this hell-on-earth, an estimated 450 to 600 migrant women are
sexually assaulted each day, according to the International Organization for
Migration. Police response is almost non-existent. At times,
police are complicit in this criminal violence.
Mexico's southern border is also the largest zone on earth for
the commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC), according to Save the
Children.
As Father
Luis Nieto states in the below article about Salvadoran mothers who must come to
Mexico's border to grieve for their raped and murdered daughters,
"We cannot keep quiet, we cannot be complicit in this."
We strongly agree with that sentiment. Silence is also violence.
The federal government of Mexico is not ignorant of this ongoing
catastrophe. The United Nations, the International Organization for Migration,
Save the Children, elements of the Catholic Church, the National Human Rights
Commission (CNDH) and many members of Congress have, for the last several years,
demanded action to end these atrocities.
Although INM director Cecilia Romero promised in February of 2007 that she
would "entirely
eliminate this terrible situation," no visible action
has been taken to do so as of June of 2009, 16 months after Romero made that
promise.
With the current economic slowdown and the expansion of
global
criminal sex trafficking operations, the rapes,
kidnappings and sexual enslavement of innocent migrants on that border is increasing with no end in sight.
As the United States Congress prepares to send over $400 million
dollars in largely military aid to Mexico as part of the Merida Initiative to
combat the drug cartels, we insist that human rights conditions be placed on
those and other U.S. foreign aid funds that are headed to Mexico.
Mexico must close down the mass rape, kidnapping, murder and
child sex trafficking gauntlet that exists with total impunity on its southern border.
We also want to see the estimated 4,000 mostly Mayan indigenous
children kidnapped from this region and sold to brothels in Tokyo, and also the
uncounted thousands of other indigenous child victims who have been sold to brothels in New York and
Madrid rescued, repatriated and then truly cared for.
Do you need money, President Calderón, to get these things done?
Or is a misogynist, 'socially conservative' ideology that is resurgent in Mexico, and that has
as its strongest voice the PAN political party, the real problem here?
Esta barbarie no será perdonado por
Dios!
This barbarity will not be pardoned by God!
If Mexico does not have control over this part of its own
territory, or if, as appears to actually be the case, the PAN's socially
conservative agenda won't allow it to defend innocent and vulnerable women and
children in crisis, consistent with their apathetic reaction to the femicide
murders in Ciudad Juarez, then perhaps an international force organized by the
Organization of American States, or by the United Nations needs to step-up to
the plate, offer to help Mexico, and take control of the situation.
This crisis in Mexico is the best example in the Americas of why
a new Global Plan of Action, as proposed by
Ecuadorian Minister
of Justice and Human Rights (Attorney
General)
Néstor Arbito
Chicaand diplomats gathered at the United Nations on May 13, 2009, is
needed to get around this impasse.
Somehow, the fact that the
government of Mexico is a signatory to the
Palermo Protocol, and the fact that
Mexico passed its 2009 U.S. Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report
evaluation with a relatively positive Level 2 Rating (as we also acknowledge State's strong
critique of corruption in Mexico), misses the point.
New and out-of-the box strategies are needed to oblige Mexico to
fulfill its international obligations to end this mass gender atrocity
once and for all.
It is not an impossible task.
The status quo today is... unacceptable!
End impunity
now!
Chuck Goolsby
LibertadLatina
June 28, 2009
Added:
June 28, 2009
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 guantlet' at Mexico's southern border
region known as
'La Arrocera' - the Rice Cooker.
El 80 porciento de los abusos cometidos contra los inmigrantes se
cometen en esta zona de Huixtla, Chiapas
Huixtla, Chiapas -
Los parientes de indocumentados fallecidos y desaparecidos visitaron
"La Arrocera" , un pequeño tramo de escasos cuatro kilómetros que
los indocumentados utilizan para evadir la caseta migratoria El
hueyate, en Huixtla...
Salvadoran mothers
leave offerings for their murdered children at
"The Rice Cooker"
80 percent of abuses against migrants occur in this area near the
city of Huixtla, Chiapas
Huixtla, Chiapas - relatives of deceased and missing undocumented
migrants visited "La Arrocera," a four kilometer long rural trail that
north-bound Central and South American migrants use to bypass the Hueyate immigration
station in the city of Huixtla, Chiapas.
Under strict
security arrangements and with the support of Mexico's National
Commission on Human Rights (CNDH), members of the Committee of
Families of Deceased and Missing Migrants toured the area of "the
Rice Cooker" near Huixtla, a municipality in the state of Chiapas,
where dozens of men and women have been assaulted, raped and
murdered.
"The Rice
Cooker" is a
[rural] migrant trail where 80 percent of the assaults and homicides
in the region are committed, according to testimony gathered by the
Catholic Church and human rights organizations.
Even police will not
enter this zone unless they have several officers armed with
high-powered weapons.
Father
Luis Angel Nieto prayed for eternal rest for all of those
migrants who lost their lives here in their attempt to reach "the
American Dream."
For the second time
during the trip, Father
Luis Nieto demanded that the Mexican authorities combat these
crimes, that for several years have sewn pain and fear.
"We cannot keep
quiet, we cannot be complicit in this," he said.
After prayer, the
Salvadorans planted dozens of crosses in memory of those who lost
their lives here and who were never identified.
During the
emotional ceremony, the mothers and fathers could not contain their
tears. The sadness and pain invaded their faces. Most knew the
true meaning of "the Rice Cooker".
Calderon’s
“two-faced” policy combines police, the military, gangs, and Los
Zetas [ex-military, who are now 'hit men' for the drug cartels] to fulfill US
mandate to deter Central American migration
...
Wall
of Violence
“Migrants don’t have
rights in Mexico,” says Father Heyman Vazquez Medina, founder of El
Hogar de la Misericordia. “It’s ok to beat them, extort money from
them, rob them, sexually abuse them, murder them, and nothing
happens.
Central American
migrants’
legal security guarantees appear to
be repeatedly and permanently violated by individuals and groups of
people who rely on the protection, consent, tolerance, or
acquiescence of the State and who have the power of weapons,
money, police protection, corruption, and impunity. They have put a
price on the head of each migrant.”
Migrant shelter
staffers say those who abuse migrants operate with absolute
impunity... [Father Alejandro Solalinde
Guerra, the southern coordinator of the Catholic Church’s Human
Mobility Mission Migrants program]
recalls one case where a woman was kidnapped from one of the
shelters he oversees. Solalinde remained in contact with her family
throughout the ordeal. When she finally turned up in the United
States, she said that the group that kidnapped her forced her to
make several [pornographic movies]. When they finally brought her to
the US-Mexico border, they made her family pay thousands of dollars
in ransom. Solalinde offered to fly her back south and pay all of
her expenses if she filed a complaint with the government. The woman
refused, saying she never wanted to set foot in Mexico ever again.
Even when migrants
or human rights organizations do file complaints, they almost never
result in arrests or convictions. Solalinde says that almost every
time he calls the police because migrants have identified and
located their attackers, he can’t find a police force that will
arrest the suspects. They all say they don’t have jurisdiction in
immigration affairs...
...[Mercedes
Osuna of La Semilla del Sur, a Chiapas-based organization that works
primarily on indigenous issues]
explains that [after crossing into Mexico, to avoid a migration
station on the highway north], undocumented migrants must walk a
roundabout route through an area called la Arrocera. La Arrocera is
teeming with violent criminals who mug [and rape and kidnap]
migrants as they pass through. Osuna spoke with some migrants who
recently passed through la Arrocera. They told her that in la
Arrocera they saw uniformed Chiapas state police in marked vehicles
pick up and drop off people who mugged migrants. In la Arrocera, the
muggers are painfully thorough: migrants complained to Osuna of
being stripped searched. The assailants even checked their victims’
anuses and vaginas for hidden valuables.
Police don’t just
offer rides to assailants; they often are the assailants...
**
The “Wall of Violence” is fierce: El Hogar de la Misericordia [a
migrant shelter] estimates that 80% of all migrants who pass through
Chiapas state have been assaulted during their travels.
Approximately 30% of the women who come to El Hogar de la
Misericordia report being sexually assaulted in la Arrocera,
Chiapas, which is only one of many stops along the migrants’ route.
Fermina Rodriguez of the Fray [Friar] Matias de Cordova Human Rights
Center, which monitors human rights on Mexico’s southern border,
says, “When you talk to women, they consider rape to be part of the
price they pay to migrate.” ...
Panama is not
only seen as a tax haven, but also a sexual paradise for tourists
where everything is available for the right price
Every country has a seedy side and Panama is no
exception. Like many other places in the world the sex industry is
thriving and attracting visitors.
For many
tourists that is one of Panama’s attractions. The so called
“gentlemen’s clubs” offer not only beautiful women willing to do
anything for the right price, but also the promise of forbidden
pleasures.
Technically
speaking sexual tourism is a crime, however there are Internet sites
where the would be traveler will not only have all the their
traveling arrangement taken care of, but also they throw into the
package a lovely companion of whatever sex and age depending on the
client’s preference...
Prostitution is
a big business and organized crime gangs regularly bring women from
Colombia, the Dominican Republic and other countries to work in the
sex industry.
They bring the
girls under false pretences promising them work. In reality the
human traffickers take away their passports and use them as
prostitutes in nightclubs and bars.
They are scared
and lonely, in a foreign country, with nowhere to run to. They are
terrified of the human traders and too afraid to go to the police
because they know they are going to be deported...
Perhaps the
worst part of the sex industry is the commercial sexual exploitation
of children through on-line pornography and actual prostitution.
The Public
Ministry is currently investigating 40 cases involving commercial
sexual exploitation of children and pornography...
Marijulia
Pujol Lloyd
Panama
Star
06-04-2009
Added:
June 27, 2009
Mexico
Senators José Luis Máximo
García Zalvidea (left) and Rubén Velázquez,
Senators Lázaro Mazón (left) and
Francisco Javier Castellón Fonseca
Legisladores del
PRD pidieron la comparecencia de Cecilia Romero Castillo,
comisionada del Instituto Nacional de Migración (INM), por el caso
de mujeres sin papeles de Centroamérica prostituidas...
Legislators call
upon the Joint Committee of Congress to call immigration (INM)
director Cecilia Romero in to appear and explain apparent
involvement of INM agents
in
Yucatánsex trafficking
network
Congressional
lawmakers from the Party of the Democratic Revolution [one of
Mexico’s three main political parties] have called for Cecilia
Romero Castillo, commissioner of the National Institute for
Migration (INM) to appear before Congress to explain the situation
of a case in which undocumented Central American women where
prostituted in [the state of Yucatán, with the alleged involvement
of immigration agents in criminal activity].
PRD legislators
want Romero to report on the performance of INM immigration officers
in the areas of human rights, and especially in the state of Yucatán,
“where a network dedicated to trafficking in persons and sexual
exploitation of women" [involving INM officers] has been discovered.
The PRD
congressional members have also asked the Standing Committee of
Congress to request that the Attorney General’s Special Prosecutor
for Crimes of Violence Against Women and Trafficking in Persons
(FEVIMTRA) investigate and take action against agents in the INM’s
Yucatán office for their involvement in human trafficking and sexual
exploitation.
The Standing
Committee was also asked to request from the National Commission on
Human Rights that it open an investigation into the case, and assist
the foreign national victims who have filed criminal complaints in
the case.
Jorge Ramos and
Ricardo Gomez
El Universal
Mexico City
June 17 2009
Added:
June 27, 2009
Colombia
The 11 month police
operation was code named for this well known
Colombian novel
Un grupo de 20
investigadores de la Policía de Infancia y Adolescencia de Medellín
adelantó toda la investigación, que se inició en julio del año
pasado. Una joven de 18 años denunció su caso.
"Una amiga me dijo
que le estaban ofreciendo un trabajo en Bogotá y que nos iban a
pagar 300 o 400 mil pesos. Cuando nos presentamos nos subieron a un
bus, pero para el Urabá. Luego nos recogieron en un taxi, nos
quitaron los papeles y nos llevaron a una casa de citas. Allá un
señor nos dijo que ya sabíamos a qué íbamos, hasta que la ley nos
encontró como a los cinco días"...
A group of 20 police investigators from the Children and Adolescents
unit in the city of Medellin developed the entire investigation,
which began in July of 2008. An 18-year-old youth originally
reported to network to authorities.
"A
friend told me that she had been offered a job in [the capital city
of] Bogotá
that would pay 300 to 400 pesos [between $140 and $185 US dollars].
When we reported for work we were told to board a bus, but it was
bound for the city of Urabá. Then our employers picked us up in a
taxi, they took our identification and took us to a brothel. There,
a man told us that we knew what we were going to have to do. We were
rescued by the police 5 days later.” ...
The authorities arrested 69 people, including 17 women. Police
remain on the trail of another 28 suspects.
There were so many similar complaints from victims that
investigators had concluded that they were not dealing with two or
three people who induced women into prostitution, but a powerful
network. One that trafficked women from Medellin not only to other
cities in Antioquia department [state], but also to the capital,
Bogota , and to Cucuta, Cartagena, Santa Marta and towns in the
Magdalena Medio [the eastern-most region of Antioquia]. There are
also indications that the network had contacts abroad to traffic
women to Aruba and Venezuela...
"Send me another one like her and we will call the account even"
Police
intercepted communications between members of the network. They were
able to establish that eight people, which they called ‘The
Commission,’ sold women for amounts ranging from 30,000 to a million
Colombian pesos [between $14 and $467 US dollars].
One
intercepted communicated from a customer of the network [a brothel
owner] to a member of the ‘Commission stated: "You sent me a woman
for 30,000 pesos, but she was very ugly. Send me another one like
her and we’ll call the account even.” ...
After
the operation, code named 'Candida
Eréndida' [Innocent
Eréndira, a novel by famed Colombian Nobel
Literature Prize winner Gabriel
García Márquez],police
distributed leaflets in the city of Medellin to
warn the public not to be taken in by these networks.
Police
continue to investigate the network’s
links abroad.
Suchiate, Chiapas.
- Leticia, como miles de púberes y jóvenes en el submundo de la
explotación sexual infantil en México, sobrevive entre ebrios, en
esta zona de 700 kilómetros de frontera con Guatemala y Belice.
Tenía 12 años
cuando llegó sola a Chiapas por primera vez, con la ilusión de
continuar viaje y cruzar la frontera estadounidense en busca de un
mejor futuro. Ahora, en su sexto intento, trabaja en una cantina de
la zona. Apenas ha cumplido 14 años de edad...
Leticia at age 14: a life drinking, gangs and police
Second and last part
Suchiate, Chiapas state - Leticia, like many pre-teen and teenage
youth living in the underworld of child sexual exploitation in
Mexico, survives between bouts of heavy drinking here along Mexico’s 700 kilometer border with
Guatemala and Belize.
Leticia was
12-years-old when she came alone to Chiapas for the first time, with
the illusion of being able to reach and then cross the U.S. border
in search of a better future. Now, after her sixth attempt, she
works in a cantina (bar) in the area. She has just turned 14...
Unlike many of her
fellow teen prostitutes, Leticia did not have to sell her virginity,
a ‘service’ that customers are charged between $2,000 and $3,500
for. "I wanted to marry my boyfriend, but he abandoned me when he
learned that I was pregnant. I had an abortion at two months out of
disappointment," said Leticia, expressing with her child’s eyes a
false maturity that shows even more her clearly her helpless...
Leticia says that
many customers not only want to have sex, but they also want to
photograph her or record her on videotape or on cell phones in
exchange for an additional amount of money...
...The
Chiapas State’s Attorney has, during 2009, dismantled three gangs
dedicated to the sexual exploitation of minors in the cities of
Tapachula, Tuxtla Gutierrez and Rayón. At least 14 detainees facing
charges for procuring, criminal association and assault, among other
charges.
The children and
underage youth freed from these gangs had been forced to work in
sexual slavery for more than 12 hours each day. They had to bring
their enslavers $2,000 during that period. In exchange, they were
given one plate of rice and beans to eat. These facts are just the
tip of an ominous iceberg...
We at
LibertadLatina once again applaud the
detailed, consistent and high quality reporting that CIMAC Noticias
in Mexico has provided on the critical issues affecting women and
girls in Mexico and across Latin America.
The global humanitarian organization Save the Children has
identified Mexico's southern border with Guatemala and Belize as
being the largest zone for the commercial sexual exploitation of
children (CSEC) in the entire world. We have long recognized this
fact, and accurate reporting in the Spanish language press, from
CIMAC and also mainstream Mexican newspapers has provided a window
into this nightmare.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) office in
Tapachula, Chiapas has estimated that between 450 to 600 women and girl
migrants who cross the border into southern Mexico are raped each
and every day, with little or no law enforcement reaction in response.
In Tapachula, a prostitution 'mega-center' in Chiapas state, over 50% of the 20,000
females working in prostitution are underage girls and youth who
have been forced by others or by economic necessity to accept a life
of sexual exploitation. Some 50% of them are from the Mayan majority
nation of Guatemala.
Chiapas, being a state located on this lawless border, is the only government entity
in the world that is not actually a nation to have established a direct relationship with
the United Nations to address human trafficking. This region's
crisis is indeed an emergency that requires the focused attention from the
world community.
President Felipe Calderón of Mexico has been less than enthusiastic
about fighting human trafficking, given his year-long effort to foot drag
on efforts to publish effective regulations to enable the nation's
first anti-trafficking law.
Now, Cecilia Romero, head of Mexico's immigration service (the
National Institute for Migration - INM), has stated that human
trafficking is "inevitable", and added that, "the
existence of the smuggling of migrants, human trafficking, pedophile
networks, and the kidnappings and violence that affect thousands of
migrants are only "evils of mankind"
that Mexico cannot eradicate.
Women and children's rights and immigrant rights groups in Mexico
have been under-standably outraged by these comments. We join with
them in denouncing such a hands-off and dismissive approach to confronting the mass
gender atrocity of sexual exploitation and violence with impunity
that is now taking place across Mexico.
We remain especially concerned that Cecilia Romero, a former
congressional deputy, senator and
a long-time
activist and official in the National Action Party (PAN)
since 1982, is, through
her statements about the 'inevitability' of sex trafficking,
effectively justifying such criminal sexual exploitation and the lack of
a Mexican federal response to that illegal enterprise. This policy
position is consistent with many other
statements and actions from
the socially conservative PAN, that actively seek to diminish the
independence and basic individual human rights of women.
It thus remains the responsibility of the international community to
address these issues in collaboration, and in solidarity with the
many elements of Mexican society who desire to be liberated from
this Taliban-like mass movement to repress the basic humanity of women and girls.
Members of Congress, and activists in organizations such as the
Teresa Ulloa's Mexico City based Latin America and Caribbean branch
of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, as well as brave
reporters like Lydia Cacho (who has been unjustly jailed and still faces
death threats for her activism), and news agencies such as CIMAC
Noticias (who's offices have been ransacked in the past for their
reporting on sexual exploitation), all deserve the support of the
international community, and they deserve our help.
We especially laud Teresa Ulloa and CIMAC Noticias for standing up
to denounce the exploitation of indigenous women and girls, who are
the primary target of many traffickers and rapists.
Let's give the advocates for women and girl's human rights in Mexico
the help that they need now, while there is still time to avert
an even more well organized war against women and girls than the one
that is happening today!
Mexico City - Mexico's head
of migration [Cecilia Romero Castillo] on
Tuesday pledged to improve the agency's
detention centers in response to criticism
that Mexico fails to give Central American
immigrants the same respect it demands for
its own citizens in the United States....
The Mexican government has
acknowledged that many officials are bribed
by human smugglers. Migrants face abuse from
corrupt police as well as
violent gangs who wait on the southern
border to rob and assault them.
The government-funded
National Human Rights Commission, U.N. human
rights officials and other non-governmental
organiza-tions say they have documented
abuses.
The migration depart-ment's plan aims "to
entirely eliminate this terrible situation,"
Romero told a news conference.
[Yet as of June, 2009 they have failed to
act on this promise -
LL.]
Answering U.S. concerns,
President Felipe Calderon also has promised
to strengthen security on Mexico's southern
border to stop the tide of illegal migrants
- the majority of whom use Mexico as a way
station to the United States...
In January [2007], Mexico
detained more than 10,000 illegal migrants,
and
expects that number to increase to 205,000
by the end of [2007],
according to a report by the migration
department....
24 mil niñas y niños prostituidos u obligados a la pornografía
Primera de dos partes
Suchiate, Chiapas - Leticia es una niña centroamericana de 14 años,
sin documentos, a quien prostituyen en una cantina de este municipio
fronterizo con Guatemala.
Han pasado casi dos
años desde que dejó su país natal para migrar rumbo a Estados
Unidos. A pesar de las duras condiciones en que vive para lograr su
objetivo, no deja de intentarlo. Sabe que la deportación es casi
segura, según sus propias palabras, pero ni eso la detiene en su
idea de cruzar la frontera, alternativa que encontró ante la miseria
y el incierto futuro en su lugar de origen...
24,000 boys and girls forced into prostitution or pornography across
Mexico
First of two parts
Suchiate, Chiapas state – Leticia is a 14-year-old undocumented
Central American girl who is being prostituted in a Cantina (bar) in
this town on the Guatemalan border.
It has
been almost two years since Leticia left her native country to
migrate to the United States. Despite the harsh conditions she has
had to live through in order to achieve that goal, she will not give
up. She knows that her deportation from Mexico is almost certain, as
she herself says. But she will not be detained in her effort to
reach the U.S. border, seeking to find an alternative to the misery
and uncertain future that she faced in her homeland.
Leticia’s situation is no different than that of hundreds of
children who have been trapped by this border region’s commercial
sex networks, who have offered their victims “a way to make fast
money.”
They
are victims of exploitation of the international networks of
traffickers who grab them either before or after they cross the
border at the Suchiate River or along clandestine smuggling paths
that exist all along the border with Guatemala. Advocacy
organizations who fight on their behalf refer to them as “sex
slaves...”
The
director of the Movimiento Ciudadano de la Frontera Sur (Southern
Frontier Citizen’s Movement), Juan José González, notes that the
phenomenon of prostitution in the region has increased alarmingly.
These are not isolated cases, he says.
On the
streets, and in bars, clubs, schools and outside of shopping centers
in cities such as Suchiate, Tapachula, Cacahoatán, Tuxtla Chico and
Huixtla, it is common to find women [and girls] of different ages
engaged in prostitution...
For
now, while Leticia continues to be a victim of sexual exploitation,
the director of Mexico’s National Institute for Migration (INM),
Cecilia Romero, has recently told the newspaper El Universal that
the existence of smuggling of migrants, human trafficking, pedophile
networks, and the kidnappings and violence that affect thousands of
migrants are only "evils of mankind"
that Mexico cannot eradicate.
Joaquín Aguilar Méndez,
right, a former altar boy, has sued the Rev. Nicolás
Aguilar, shown in photo at left. (From a web site that
takes an opposing position in the case of
Nicolás Aguilar - in Spanish).
México DF.-
Integrantes de la Red de Sobrevivientes de Abusos por Sacerdotes
(SNAP, por sus siglas en inglés) interpusieron una demanda contra
las arquidiócesis de Los Ángeles, California, y de Tehuacán, Puebla,
querella que involucra a los cardenales Roger Mahony y Norberto
Rivera, respectivamente, informa la Agencia NotieSe.
El ciudadano,
identificado como Juan Doe (“Juan Nadie”), abusado sexualmente en
1988 por el sacerdote mexicano Nicolás Aguilar, acusa a esas
instancias eclesiales y al Departamento de Educación de California
de negligencia en la protección a su persona, puesto que Aguilar
trabajó como profesor después de ser transferido de Tehuacán a Los
Ángeles por el entonces obispo local, Norberto Rivera...
Mexico City
- A victims’ group said Thursday that it was filing a new lawsuit in
Los Angeles, California, against Mexican and U.S. church officials
accused of sheltering a suspected pedophile priest.
The lawsuit accuses
Mexico City Cardinal Norberto Rivera of conspiring with Roman
Catholic officials in the United States to shelter Nicolas Aguilar,
a Mexican priest wanted in California for 19 felony counts of
committing lewd acts on a child.
This is the third
lawsuit filed by the group,
Survivor’s Network of Those Abused by Priests,
or SNAP, against the Catholic Church for allegedly protecting
Aguilar. Two previous lawsuits filed in Los Angeles against the
Mexican cardinal by Mexican citizens were dismissed in 2007.
This time, however,
the unnamed plaintiff is a U.S. citizen.
“In this case it
was a North American boy molested in North American territory,” said
Jose Bonilla, a lawyer for SNAP.
Bonilla said he was
“practically 100 percent sure” that the plaintiff, identified only
as John Doe, would have his day in court. “But it’s going to be a
long process,” he said.
In addition to
Cardinal Rivera, the lawsuit charges the archdiocese of Tehuacan in
the Mexican state of Puebla, where Rivera worked at the time, the
archdiocese of Los Angeles and the California Department of
Education with failing to protect the plaintiff from Rev. Aguilar.
Foreign Correspondency
June 18, 2009
Added:
June 24, 2009
Colombia
Stella Cardenas, director of Fundacion
Renacer (the Rebirth Foundation)
Bogotá.- La muerte
de Yesid Torres, de apenas 15 años, conmovió a los habitantes de
Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, donde la explotación sexual va en
aumento. El menor de edad falleció a consecuencia de una sobredosis
de cocaína que consumió en el apartamento del italiano Paolo
Pravisani, pederasta de 72 años, quien lo había contratado para
proveerle servicios sexuales, informó la agencia Semlac…
New Sanctions on Child Pornography and Sexual Tourism in Colombia
are Insufficient
Bogota
.- The death of Yesid Torres, a boy who had just turned 15, shocked
the people of the city of Cartagena de Indias, where sexual
exploitation is increasing. The youth died from an overdose of
cocaine consumed in the apartment of Italian Paolo Pravisani, a 72
year old pedophile who had contracted Torres to provide sexual
services.
In
response to increasing levels of sexual exploitation, Colombian
lawmakers passed a law on June 10, 2009 that applies new penalties,
including a 20 year prison term for those who engage in producing
child pornography. The law also makes child sex tourism a crime.
The
legislation provides for prison sentences of 4 to 8 years for
persons who promote child sex tourism, without the possibility of
parole. The length of the sentence may be increased by half when the
victim is under 12 years of age.
Stella
Cardenas, director of Fundacion Renacer (the Rebirth Foundation),
notes that although the penalty for promoting child sex tourism
under the new law is higher than the 3 year sentence available under
the old law, the length of sentence is still too low. She adds that
the law fails to address cases of aggressors who sexually exploit
youth between the ages of 14 and 18 who have consented to engage in
[commercial] sex, often due to economic hardship.
Luz Stella es la directora y fundadora de la
Fundación Renacer, una organización que trabaja con niños y niñas
víctimas de explotación sexual y ha atendido a lo largo de su
historia a más de quince mil niños de Bogotá, Cartagena y
Barranquilla. Desde 1988, su propósito fundamental ha sido combatir
la explotación sexual infantil y acompañar a las personas explotadas
sexualmente en su recuperación y realización personal...
Stella Cárdenas is
building new institutional protections against child prostitution
and pornography in Colombia by persuading the government to extend
the mandate of its ministry charged with protection of children, the
Ministry of Family Welfare... Stella and her Fundación Renacer
("Rebirth Foundation") contributed substantially to the passage of
Law 360. This law, passed in 1997, for the first time assigned
penalties–fines or jail sentences–for anyone who draws children into
prostitution...
Para la comisionada del Instituto Nacional de Migración, Cecilia
Romero, el turismo sexual, tráfico de personas, comercio de mujeres,
redes de pederastia, plagio y violencia contra miles de migrantes
son “males de la humanidad” que México no puede erradicar...
Mexico’s Immigration Chief: Sex Tourism is
Inevitable
According to Cecilia Romero, the commissioner of Mexico’s National
Migration Institute (immigration service), sex tourism, human
trafficking, female commercial sex work, pedophile networks, and the
kidnappings and violence that victimize thousands of migrants
[crossing Mexico to get to the U.S.] are
"evils of mankind" that
Mexico cannot eradicate.
Even if
such practices have triggered: 1) harsh reports [about Mexico] from the
U.S. Department of State and Mexico’s National Human Rights
Commission (CNDH);
2) complaints by foreign victims about their forced prostitution
and sex trafficking; and 3) complaints from [undocumented] Cuban
migrants who have been extorted for thousands of dollars in their quest to get
to Florida, Romero concludes that all of these problems have existed
since the origins of migration...
[Commenting on strong criticism of the INM and repeated calls for her
resignation,] Romero
argues that the National Migration Institute has implemented a
'purification' effort which has caused a number of problems to emerge
into the public spotlight.
The
immigration director noted that since her team arrived as part
of President Felipe Calderón’s government, she has accomplished
much, but she is also aware that those achievements will never be enough
[to solve the problems that exist].
Romero
said that the vast majority of complaints that have been submitted
[about official corruption] originate from within the INM itself. So far about 300 immigration officers have been reprimanded or removed.
"This shows that we are making progress, although I will never be
satisfied in our war against organized crime."
Romero
adds that when there is discussion about immigrants, the finger is
always pointed at the INM. But, she says, the criminal networks have state police, corrections officers and also immigration agents
on their payrolls. We are investigating and pursuing them. Romero
insists that her agency is taking action to get to the bottom of the
problem of corruption.
Jose Gerardo Mejia
El Universal
June 20 2009
LibertadLatina Commentary
We appreciate the fact that
Cecilia Romero, the commissioner of Mexico’s National Migration
Institute, is a rare federal agency
director who is willing to be honest in expressing the Felipe Calderón Administration's
lack of interest in treating the mass gender atrocity of adult and
child sexual exploitation in that nation as a serious crisis requiring an
urgent response.
According to the traditional beliefs of Roman feudalism
that still prevail in Mexico, such behavior is, as
Director Romero says, simply "inevitable."
The hidden follow-on to that statement is: "If it is
inevitable, why do anything to fight it?"
So a nation like Mexico
ends up doing only the minimum necessary to placate the U.S. State
Department's Trafficking in Persons Office with the objective of
receiving a
reasonably good rating in the annual TIP report.
In other words, Romero is saying: Victims, don't
hold your breath as you wait for help. That help is not forthcoming from
President Calderón's federal government.
That is not a good enough answer!
Commissioner Romero's statement is consistent with
the lack of action that the Mexican public sees from its federal
government in regard to addressing modern human slavery and other
forms of violence against women.
We are especially concerned that this policy
position, stating that mass sexual violence and slavery is
inevitable, is consistent with other positions taken on women's
human rights issues
by President Calderón's National Action Party (PAN),
such as stating that the women who have been kidnapped, tortured,
raped and murdered by the hundreds in Ciudad Juarez caused their own
deaths because they wore immodest clothing and walked in bad parts
of town.
Bogotá - Las
cifras sobre turismo sexual en Colombia son alarmantes. Vender el
cuerpo a clientes que llegan de todas partes del mundo, se ha
convertido en uno de los mejores negocios en el país, siendo Cali
una de las primeras ciudades en la lista...
Sex tourism is increasing on a daily basis
Bogota - The figures on sexual tourism in
Colombia are alarming. To sell your body to customers who arrive
from all over the world has become one of the best businesses in the
nation, with Cali being the city at the top of the list.
According to a report of the Rebirth
Foundation (Foundation Renacer), in the past two years the
phenomenon has grown 53% in Cali, the capital of Valle del Cauca
department [state]. Minors form the majority of those involved in
the business.
The most appealing magnets for foreign
tourists who come to our nation are the bodies of girls between 12
and 14 years [who are sold to them in prostitution]. This business
generates huge profits for the mafia. Although 202 cases have been
documented during the past 24 months, these incidents have been reported
neither to the police for minors nor to the SIJIN (the Judicial
Investigations and Intelligence Service).
elpaisvallenato.com
June 21, 2009
LibertadLatina Commentary
Colombia may indeed be a leader in efforts to combat modern human
trafficking. In the U.S. State Department's 2009 Trafficking in
Persons (TIP) report, Colombia received a 'Tier 1' rating, the
highest possible, to reward their efforts against human trafficking.
Yet Colombia's government and certain social elements contribute to
a large number of human rights abuses, especially those that
victimize Afro-Colombians in Indigenous peoples, who face
wanton murder, rape and displacement by the military
and
right wing paramilitary forces hell bent on stealing their land and
conducting their own perverted version of 'social cleansing.' Leftist guerillas are not innocent
either.
These abuses, including the forced conscription of underage
girls and accompanying sexual abuse perpetrated by illegal armed groups on both sides of the conflict
contribute to an environment where mass human trafficking is made
possible.
With an estimated 70,000 victims of human trafficking being created
annually, Colombia is right up there with Brazil, the Dominican
Republic and Argentina as one of the major nations involved in the illegal
trafficking of women and children for sexual exploitation.
We recommend that an index of trafficking behavior in these nations
that is separate from the annual TIP report be developed to assess
the true story 'on the ground' in the nations of the Americas.
Currently, the TIP rating system does not reflect the true intensity of the
problem.
End impunity
now!
Chuck Goolsby
LibertadLatina
June 23, 2009
Added:
June 21, 2009
Colombia - The United States
María is
keeping her identity hidden, for fear of reprisals.
Bogota - A
mixture of rage, impotence and terror is evident behind the sadness
in María’s eyes. It’s been five months since she escaped from her
captors in the United States, where she was taken under a false job
contract, and she still can’t shake off her fear…
According to the
available data, some 70,000 people fall victim to human trafficking
every year in Colombia, which ranks third in the number of victims
in Latin America, behind the Dominican Republic and Brazil.
…Statistics only
partially reflect the magnitude of the crime, because many of the
victims refuse to go to the police for fear traffickers will carry
out their threats, or that they will be shunned by their community,
or simply because they don’t realize just how severely their rights
have been violated…
…People do fall
for the bogus offers because they are in dire need of an opportunity
for a better life. That was what happened to María, a 40-year old
woman originally from the central province of Tolima, who was living
on the outskirts of Bogotá when she was captured by members of a
trafficking mafia.
She admitted to
IPS that she’s still scared her captors will find her or come after
her kids…
She’s also
filled with rage. In November 2008 she and her family carefully
examined the work contract before she decided to accept a job as a
domestic in the home of a wealthy Colombian family in the United
States…
But everything
changed when she arrived at her destination somewhere in the U.S. …
They took away her passport and other documents, then forced her to
work all day long, from 5 a.m. through midnight, with only half a
day’s rest on Sundays, and drastically reduced her meals, feeding
her a meager vegetable diet…
[A]
woman from El Salvador told María that what her "employers" were
doing was illegal, explained how to unblock the telephone, and gave
her an emergency number to phone the police for help.
But the police
merely forced her captors to give back her passport and admonished
them for how they were treating her.
That night,
María’s kidnappers scared her with all sorts of threats against her
and her family back in Colombia. They warned her that if she didn’t
sign a paper exonerating them from all responsibility, they would
report her to the police and accuse her of several offences, and she
would be thrown in jail for years.
She was finally
able to sneak out of the house while her kidnappers thought she was
sleeping, and was driven to a shelter for human trafficking victims
by the Salvadoran woman and her husband.
"There I started
to get better. I spoke several times with my children and the rest
of my family, and I came to realize that there are many people in
the same difficult situation as me. Two other Colombian women were
there with me, and another four had left the day I arrived," she
said…
Inter press Service (IPS)
June 10, 2009
LibertadLatina
Commentary
Ten years ago a Colombian woman caught in an
almost identical situation of domestic labor
slavery approached a hair dresser, asking
for help to escape her employer - a wealthy
Colombian diplomatic family living in the
Washington, DC region. I made good her
escape, and that of a friend who worked for
another diplomatic family from Colombia.
The victim's employer yelled and screamed at
her, made her work under constant verbal threats from 6 am
until midnight, forced her to cook, clean, mow the lawn and shovel the snow for a family of five
living in a big house on a large piece of
land, and forbade her to
leave the house alone. Only during one of
her 'supervised' visits to a local hair
salon was she able to contact a sympathetic
person willing to help. That person
contacted me.
This woman still lives in fear of her
employer, but has gotten married and has
brought her daughter to the U.S.
Many middle and upper class women across
Latin America employ domestic workers. A
very large number of these employers act in
a fashion that reflects extreme cruelty, and
is consistent with the manner in which
wealthy women in the Roman Empire treated
enslaved women in their homes.
We see the results of this attitude in the
Roman Empire through the example of the
poorly fed and frail servant girls, barely
given enough food to survive, whose
well-preserved bodies have been found in the
ruins of the houses of wealthy Romans who
lived in the city of Pompeii.
Many wealthy
and middle class women continue to treat
their 'hired help' in the same slave-like
fashion in one offshoot of the Roman Empire
known as modern Latin America. You just have to
watch a Mexican soap opera on a Spanish language TV
network anywhere in the world to confirm that
ugly fact.
As a
millionaire Greek business owner once explained to me, the fact that
Mediterranean cultures enslaved each other 'back and forth' for
millennia lead directly to the fact that there is no remorse for
slavery in Latin America. He told me that when he arrived in the
U.S. years ago, his biggest surprise was that white Americans felt
remorse for the past enslavement of African Americans.
That
remorse does not exist in the Mediter-ranean region. By extension
(and Spain is one of these Mediter-ranean cultures),
remorse for slavery does no exist among the
elites in Latin America.
So how can
the world depend upon the judgment, and trust the actions of such
elites to pass anti-trafficking laws and enforce them, when
tolerance for labor and sexual exploitation was and is built into
the very foundation of Latin American societies?
This is
why a new Global Plan of Action
against slavery, proposed by a number of
United Nations member countries, is needed, because... given the
existence of the U.S. State Department's Trafficking in Persons
report or not, international legal instruments, and the threat of
U.S. economic sanctions will not break through the Roman wall of
impunity that enslaves Latin America's oppressed populations, and
especially the poor, the indigenous and the African descendent,
without engaging in out of the box thinking and action to end this
crisis.
In other
words, the modern anti-trafficking movement, and the actions of many
international and U.S. bodies assume that all nations want to
collaborate to end sex and labor trafficking. That sentiment
is true among some sectors of society in Latin America. But powerful
economic and political forces thrive through the exploitation of the
victims of modern human slavery, while ancient cultural and
religious traditions justify such inhumanity.
This is
happening to the benefit of the elites and paid-off corrupt
officials in Mexico, while at the same time the publication of
serious federal regulations that are urgently required to enact the nation's first
anti-trafficking law was intentionally delayed by President Felipe
Calderón for 11 months. When the rules were finally published, after
four stern warnings from Congress, they were
watered down to make the law ineffective.
Many members of Mexico's
Congress of the Republic have admonished President
Calderón for not caring
about the plight of trafficking victims. Together with
non-governmental organizations, these legislators have organized an effort to insist
that President Calderón withdraw his current anti-trafficking regulations
and allow them to be re-written to put the teeth back in them to
reflect the original intent of Congress in passing the law. It is
obvious that President Calderón finally published the regulations so
that Mexico would receive a positive rating (Tier 2) in the 2009
U.S. State Department Trafficking in Persons Report.
Meanwhile,
20,000 migrants, mostly women and children, are kidnapped into
slavery in Mexico each year while corrupt and apathetic law enforce-ment
and government officials not only don't lift a finger to help these
victims, but, as the 2009 TIP report acknowledges, they are
sometimes direct participants in these kidnappings.
In
addition, 4,000 Indigenous Mexican children remain enslaved in
prostitution in Japan, while neither Mexico nor Japan do anything to
find and rescue them.
Eight year
old Mexican girls have been reported as being trafficking "into the
brothels of the basements of New York" both currently and since at
least the mid 1990s, if not earlier.
Yet these
realities are not reflected in the 2009 U.S. State Department
Trafficking in Persons Report, which was also true under the
administration of former President George W. Bush.
The
overall TIP report assessment of Mexico is accurate, but the nuances,
detailing the intentional resistance by the Calderón administration
against actually caring
about and acting to defend trafficking victims and those at risk, is
not reflected in the report.
The misogynist policies of the far
right members of Calderón's National Action Party (PAN) are also not
reflected in the 2009 TIP report. It is not in their best interest to clamp-down on modern human
slavery, a position reflected in their efforts to foot-drag on
building effective anti-trafficking efforts at the federal level.
Truth be
told, Mexico's economy would be seriously 'harmed' if all forms of
labor and sexual slavery ended. That does not justify extending the
life of such
exploitation for
even one second.
We applaud
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Trafficking in Persons Office
Director Louis C. De Baca, the first Latino head of the
office, for the release of an expanded and well thought out Trafficking
in Persons report, the first delivered by a Democratic
administration.
But the case of Mexico, as well as
the case of the major
criminal enterprise that is the trafficking of mostly Afro-Latina
women from the Dominican Republic to Argentina (while
anti-trafficking analysis largely ignores this issue) are two areas
that greatly concern us.
We look
forward to seeing serious emphasis placed on addressing sex and
labor trafficking in Latina America, especially where indigenous and
African descendent populations are targeted, because in both types
of slavery, these peoples comprise a very large segment of those who
are at
risk.
If this
basic task of putting greater focus on the Latin American issue is accepted by the U.S. State Department, we should
expect to see new initiatives in the Trafficking in Persons Office
that go beyond the limited work that is being done today to address
this emergency.
Latin
America's exploding human trafficking crisis was virtually ignored
during the past decade by the U.S. Government, except where foes of
the U.S., including Cuba and Venezuela were concerned.
The real
bad guys make their money in Mexico, Brazil, the Dominican Republic,
Colombia and Argentina. The Mexican trafficking mafias enslave
500,000 sex trafficking victims, according to Teresa Ulloa, director
of the Latina American and Caribbean office of the Coalition Against
Trafficking in Women and Children. Yet the U.S. State Department
declares, following the estimates developed by the United Nations
funded International Labor Organization (ILO), that only 1.5 million
sex slaves exist in the entire world.
So if both
Teresa Ulloa and the ILO are to be believed, then Mexico has 1/3 of
the world's sex slaves? Something is wrong with these numbers.
In
addition, Save the Children has recognized that the southern Mexican
border region is the largest area for the commercial sexual
exploitation of children in the entire world. That fact is also
missing from the 2009 TIP report.
We do not
need another 8 years of obfuscation about the true and horrific
magnitude of modern human slavery in Latin America.
We also do
not need a diminished focus on this emergency because the forces
that favor the legalization of prostitution are strongly represented
in liberal Democratic circles. Their work is largely academic, and
it does not account for the mass victimization of children and
underage youth, especially in Latin America, who cannot possibly be
seen as consenting, willing participants in the sex trade.
As well,
we do not need to limit action against human trafficking to only a
focus on further adoption of the Palermo Protocol, an approach which
was defined during a gathering of diplomats at the United Nations on
May 13, 2009 as being ineffective.
As we have stated before... We are encouraged by the brave
efforts of United Nations diplomats and
Ecuadorian Minister
of Justice and Human Rights (Attorney
General)
Néstor Arbito
Chica to
promote a Global Plan of Action
to get around the very clear fact that
the Palermo Protocol, and regional efforts
by the Organization of American States (OAS)
are insufficient to successfully fight this
aggressive criminal war against a whole generation of
Latin American and especially Indigenous
women and girls.
We look forward to seeing the United States
take a leading role to step-up
efforts to bring this crisis under control.
We also look forward to seeing the U.S.
State Department demonstrate leadership in
addressing the hard issues in Latin America
without seeing the rules changed behind
closed doors in favor of
quieting criticism of U.S. allies in the
region, something that was quite blatant
during the last
U.S.
Administration.
Those at
risk, and those who are today enslaved in the region deserve our
undivided attention and an honest approach to ending the condoned
and officially sanctioned mass gender atrocity that is modern human
slavery in Latin America.
Puebla city, in Puebla state- Teresa Ulloa, Latin America and Caribbean Director of the Coalition Against Trafficking of Women (CATW)
announced her estimates of the numbers of indigenous children sex trafficked to
Japan, and explained that traffickers trick the victims using offers of
thousands of dollars for their parents in exchange for [obtaining
permission] to take their daughters. The parents are told that their girls are going to the United States to work in fast food restaurant jobs.
Taking advantage of the condition of submission that Mexico's indigenous communities are forced to live in, the traffickers take their victims to Japan where they are prostituted and work as geishas, a role that Asian women no-longer want to play because today they have more decision-making power than in the past.
Ulloa said that before these victims from Japan are repatriated, the home
conditions of these girls must be investigated to assure that they can be
reintegrated without facing the risk of being sold or sexually exploited again.
Ulloa noted that in the year 2002 the CATW helped to repatriate two sisters,
ages 8 and 10, who had been prostituted in a brothel in New York. They were
subjected to exploitation again, 15 days later, because their family "had sold
their daughters in exchange for two goats and two cases of beer."
During her interview with CIMAC Noticias, Ulloa declared:
"the subject [of child protection] is not on the national agenda. Much attention is paid to drug trafficking, but the government hasn't even realized that the same drug trafficking networks are used for the [sex] trafficking of children, and that organized crime regards this activity to be one of their most important businesses."
...
Tlaxcala city, in Tlaxcala state - Around 1.5 million
people in the central region of Mexico are engaged in prostitution, and
some 75% of them are between 12 and 13 years of age, reported Teresa
Ulloa, director of the Regional Coalition Against Trafficking in Women
and Girls in Latin America and the Caribbean...
During an international seminar in the city of Tlaxcala, Ulloa noted
that, due to the conditions of marginalization in which they live, at
least 50 million women and children in Latin America are at risk of
being recruited for sexual exploitation.
The USA sometimes
tries to make out the "equal partners" thing with the rest of the
Americas and sometimes it doesn't. You get The Hawaiian making some
lip service to the greater cause at the moment, but when push comes
to shove and the bureaucrats are let loose, those old habits of
arrogance, selective memory based on friendships and high-handedness
towards "the brown people down there" shine on through.
Today the US State
Department's ninth annual "Trafficking in Persons Report" was
published, and here's how the region stacks up in the eyes of
TheWorldPoliceman.™
Level One (complies with all, we luvs ya): Colombia
Level Two (not up to scratch but we see you're making an effort, try
a bit harder, boyz): Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El
Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Uruguay.
Level Three (hmmm..not so good, kiddies. We're watching you so don't
do anything stupid): Argentina, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Rep Dom,
Venezuela
Level Four (bad bad bad naughty naughty sanctions sanctions): Cuba
But the biggest
guilty party on human trafficking is left off the list completely.
The country where many labor and sex slaves are sent by their
paymasters and blind eyes are turned. Go on....take a wild guess as
to which one.
El sistema de
justicia parece no ser efectivo en los casos de tres niñas
asesinadas recientemente en San Lucas Sacatepéquez y de una menor
violada en Sololá, ya que se han registrado señales de negligencia
en las investigaciones y parcialidad en el estudio de las pruebas,
denunció la Fundación Sobrevivientes...
Justice Appears Distant
in Cases of Girl Victims of Violence
The
non-governmental organization La Fundación Sobrevivientes (the Survivor’s Foundation) has
denounced the fact that Guatemala’s
justice system does not appear to be working effectively in two
criminal cases: 1) that of three girls killed recently in San Lucas
Sacatepequez; and 2) the case of a minor girl raped in the city of
Sololá. The Foundation states that
there have been indications of negligence and bias in the evaluation
of the evidence in these cases.
In the first case, a 13-year-old
girl was raped on July 8, 2008 in Sololá. Judge Frank Armando
Martínez allowed the accused assailant, Martín Tambríz, to be
freed despite conclusive evidence of his guilt.
Forensic evidence had showed a positive
DNA match tying Tambríz to the
rape. The Foundation plans to appeal the acquittal.
Lawyers for the Survivor’s Foundation also expressed concern about
the case of three girls, ages 7, 8 and 12, who were “butchered” on
May 29, 2009 in the hamlet Chicamán in San Lucas Sacatepequez. It
was ascertained that one of the victim’s was raped. Three men
suspected in the crime have been detained. The Foundation emphasizes
that there are signs of negligence in the investigation conducted by
the District Attorney of Sacatepéquez, a fact that will not
contribute to solving these crimes.
The Survivor’s Foundation has asked that the case be moved to the
capital, Guatemala City to insure that the investigation and preparations for
prosecution are able to be observed, ensuring that due process is
respected in the case.
CERIGUA
June 19, 2009
Added:
June 20, 2009
Guatemala
Juana Méndez, right, and her
translator explain in Court how one
of the two police-men who raped her
told her after the attack: "Why are
you complaining? I will put two
bullets into you and throw you over
an embankment."
Nebaj - La indígena guatemalteca Juana Méndez ha
sido la primera mujer maya que abre un proceso
judicial contra un policial por haberla violado
y logra que sea condenado, según contó ella
misma en una entrevista con Europa Press.
El gran índice de impunidad en delitos contra
las mujeres, según han denunciado reiteradamente
asociaciones feministas, se rompe así con este
caso. A Méndez "le hicieron daño" y ella "no lo
quiso dejarlo así, quiso decir la verdad".
Pese a las amenazas de muerte y a los consejos
que personas de su entorno le reiteraban para
que retirase del proceso contra el policía, ella
decidió seguir adelante. "Qué pienso, que tiene
que haber ley; si un hombre me hizo eso, tiene
que pagarlo"...
An
Indigenous Mayan Woman has Become the First
Female in Guatemala's History to Achieve the
Conviction and Imprisonment of a Police Officer
for Having Raped Her in Custody
Nebaj - Juana Méndez has become the first Mayan
woman [in this Mayan majority nation] to pursue
legal proceedings against a policeman for the
crime of rape resulting in a conviction and a
prison sentence.
This case succeeded despite the high rate of
impunity for crimes against women, an issue that
has repeatedly been raised by feminists. Méndez
stated: "they did me harm" and she "did not want
to leave it at that, I wanted to tell the
truth."
Despite death threats and the repeated advice
from people around her to withdraw the case
against the policemen, she decided to go ahead.
"What do I believe? I believe that the rule of
law has to exist. If a man does that to you, he
has to pay.” Juana Mendez said that with the
full support of her husband, who had told his
wife that he would not respond to this problem
with domestic violence [a common reaction of the
husbands of rape victims]…
Méndez’ struggle for justice caused her insomnia
from fear, and she couldn’t eat. But she never
retreated, saying, “I had to tell the truth.” "I
told the judge that these policemen had raped
me.” Her female friends told her that she should
not pursue the case, because her husband would
beat her. She replied to them: “I don’t care if
my husband beats me. I am going to tell the
truth.”
The one policeman who was tried has been
sentenced to 20 years in prison. Asked whether
she fears retaliation when the convicted rapist
gets out of prison, Méndez said that "I am
afraid that he will do something. But I don’t
think that he will get out of prison."
Echoing the sentiment of many indigenous defense
association leaders, Méndez denounced the
situation of impunity that we live through in
Guatemala, and above all, she protests the
crimes that were committed during the 36-year
armed conflict [that ended in 1996].
I regret that the victims
and the murderers have to live together.
Juana Mendez will be
remembered in Guatemala as the first woman
who succeeded in achieving a
conviction against a serving police
officer for mistreating her in custody.
During her detention at
the police station in Nebaj she was raped
and sexually assaulted by several officers,
one of whom was finally brought to justice.
The Institute of Comparative Studies in
Penal Sciences,
ICCPG from
its initials in Spanish, and
Project Counseling
Services, have made a film about
the case which you can
see here,
in three parts (in Spanish).
A study conducted in 2005 by the The
Institute of Comparative Studies in Penal
Sciences found that
75% of
women arrested in Guatemala suffer sexual
abuse at the hands of policemen while in
custody.
Some 43% of these victims file complaints in
regard to their abuse.
The answer of the Government, says the film,
is: impunity.
Supervivientes del genocidio Maya, acaecido durante la guerra civil
de Guatemala (1960-1996), acusaron al Gobierno de la nación de
incumplir los acuerdos de paz de 1996 y denunciaron que "se sienten
olvidados" por las autoridades del país centroamericano.
Survivors of the Mayan
Genocide Feel "Forgotten" and Accuse Guatemala's Government of
Having Ignored their Obligations Under the 1996 Peace Accords
Nebaj -
Mayan survivors of the genocide, which took place during Guatemala's
civil war (1960-1996), have accused the national government of
violating the 1996 national peace agreements and they feel neglected
by the authorities of the Central American country.
This is
what Juana Méndez believes. She asserts that "we continue living in
poverty because our people have not yet recovered from the crimes
committed against us." “They have not acknowledged the fact that the
victims need material, as well as psychological support, such as in
the form of opening a museum so that the families [of the victims]
can understand what happened.”
Méndez
explained that in her case, she had to flee to the mountains to
avoid being attacked by soldiers. She doesn’t remember any longer
how how long she was in hiding, but she feels that she is “one more
victim of the military violence,” which had a major impact on
women. However, Méndez says that she appreciates the efforts made by
non-governmental organizations to bring light upon the violence that
Guatemalan women suffered in the flesh during the war.
"In Latin America, I wish to reiterate
that Colombia remains a situation of utmost concern. That country's
40-year-long armed conflict has resulted in enormous human, social,
economic and political costs. Civilian lives, security and property
continue to be targeted by all armed groups. Indigenous and
Afro-Colombian are disproportionately affected. Sexual violence as a
war tactic is directed against women and girls. Most victims are
women heads of larger households, in their 40s, with limited
education and few opportunities to work. The conflict continues to
displace people. Antipersonnel mines, which the Government banned,
but which are planted by guerrilla groups, keep exacting their toll
on civilians.
I welcome the Government's invitation to a number of
Special Procedures mandate holders, but also call upon it to act on
their recommendations in an effective manner. The Government should
take all the necessary steps to protect civilians, mitigate their
suffering and address their need for justice."
United Nations Human Rights Council;
United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
(OHCHR)
Mexico is a large
source, transit, and destination country for persons trafficked for
the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and forced labor.
Groups considered most vulnerable to human trafficking in Mexico
include women and children, indigenous persons, and undocumented
migrants. A significant number of Mexican women, girls, and boys are
trafficked within the country for commercial sexual exploitation,
lured by false job offers from poor rural regions to urban, border,
and tourist areas…
Child sex tourism
continues to grow in Mexico, especially in tourist areas such as
Acapulco and Cancun, and northern border cities like Tijuana and
Ciudad Juarez. Foreign child sex tourists arrive most often from the
United States, Canada, and Western Europe. Organized criminal
networks traffic Mexican women and girls into the United States for
commercial sexual exploitation. Mexican men, women, and children are
trafficked into the United States for forced labor, particularly in
agriculture and industrial sweatshops.
The Government of
Mexico does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the
elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant
efforts to do so…
Prosecution
The Government of
Mexico failed to improve on its limited anti-trafficking law
enforcement efforts against offenders last year. No convictions or
sentences of trafficking offenders were reported by federal, state,
or local authorities… There are concerns over the new law’s
effective implementation, particularly that victims must press
charges against traffickers, otherwise they will not be considered
trafficking victims and will not be provided with victim assistance.
NGOs and other
observers continued to report that corruption among public
officials, especially local law enforcement and immigration
personnel, was a significant concern; some officials reportedly
accepted or extorted bribes or sexual services, falsified identity
documents, discouraged trafficking victims from reporting their
crimes, or ignored child prostitution and other human trafficking
activity in commercial sex sites. No convictions or sentences
against corrupt officials were achieved last year…
…Last year Mexican
authorities identified
55
trafficking victims within the country: 28 females and 27 males;
trafficking allegations related both to commercial sexual
exploitation and forced labor…
U.S. Department of State: 2009 Trafficking in Persons Report
June 16, 2009
Added:
June 20, 2009
The Americas
Mailiana Morales Berrios - Costa Rican
anti-trafficking activist
Fighting Human Trafficking a Critical Part of U.S. Foreign Policy
U.S. hopes to cultivate more public-private
partnerships to fight slavery
Washington - The Obama administration views the fight against human
trafficking, both at home and abroad, as a critical part of the U.S.
foreign policy agenda, says Secretary of State Hillary Rodham
Clinton.
At a June 16 event at the State Department marking the release of
the ninth annual Trafficking in Persons Report, Clinton emphasized
the need for more public-private partnerships to fight the scourge
of modern-day slavery.
“The criminal network that enslaves millions of people crosses
borders and spans continents,” Clinton said, “so our response must
do the same.”
“We are committed to working with all nations collaboratively,” the
secretary said...
The secretary also made the announcement that the State Department
will rank the United States in its report to be released next year,
even though the U.S. Department of Justice releases an annual report
focused exclusively on the trafficking problem as it exists inside
the United States…
Ambassador Luis C. de Baca, director of the State Department’s
Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons... himself a
federal prosecutor who has worked many trafficking cases, noted that
the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime recently released its
own report on global human trafficking and found that two out of
every five countries have yet to achieve a single conviction of a
human trafficker. “Prosecutions can be a blunt tool, but they do
matter” in deterring traffickers, he said.
Heroes Honored
In addition to a number of U.S. senators and House members, two
anti-trafficking activists were present at the June 16 State
Department event: Mariliana Morales Berrios of Costa Rica and Vera
Lesko of Albania.
Washington — Around the world, people
desperate for employment often find themselves tricked by human
traffickers. An estimated 800,000 men, women and children are
trafficked across international borders each year. Millions more are
trafficked within their own countries.
This problem does not go overlooked by
everyone, as some everyday heroes from a variety of nations take
steps to end modern-day slavery...
For example, Canadian Benjamin Perrin founded The Future Group, a
nongovernmental organization (NGO) committed to fighting human
trafficking and the child-sex trade. By bringing together a team
from across Canada, The Future Group works with foreign governments,
other NGOs and businesses to address human trafficking and other
global issues such as HIV/AIDS…
Costa Rican Woman a
Pioneer in Anti-Trafficking Programs
…Over the last year, the Costa Rican
government has made progress in addressing human trafficking crimes
and helping victims. The government recently launched prevention
campaigns as well as training efforts for government and law
enforcement officials. Also, the government has begun to provide
more victim assistance, although prosecution of human traffickers
remains lacking.
Before the government began such
efforts, Mariliana Morales Berrios was already fighting to protect
trafficking victims. In 1997, she created the Rahab Foundation to
help victims and their families find a new life, keeping the program
running despite limited resources. Although she and her staff
frequently face threats and attacks, they continue to help
trafficking victims escape from their captors. In fact, since its
founding, the Rahab Foundation has helped more than 3,000 victims
and also trained more than 5,000 government leaders, law enforcement
officials and tourism workers on human trafficking issues...
For these efforts, Perrin and Morales
are being recognized by the U.S. Department of State in its annual
report on human trafficking…
Child sex tourism
continues to grow in Mexican northern border cities like Tijuana and
Juárez, according to a U.S. State Department report.
"Foreign child sex
tourists arrive most often from the United States, Canada, and
Western Europe," the report said.
People from Mexico
also are trafficked into the United States for commercial sexual
exploitation. Besides the northern border cities, the report said
Cancun and Acapulco were popular child sex tourism destinations.
Each year, as many
as 20,000 children are sexually exploited in these urban centers,
officials said.
"Mexican men,
women, and children (also) are trafficked into the United States for
forced labor, particularly in agriculture and industrial
sweatshops," the report said.
The U.S. federal
government said corruption and lax enforcement were to blame for few
human-trafficking prosecutions in Mexico.
The U.S. State
Department released "The 2009 Trafficking in Persons Report" on
Tuesday, and on Wednesday Mexican authorities announced the arrest
of a Mexican federal immigration official assigned to Mexico City's
airport on suspicion of human-trafficking.
Last week
authorities in Costa Rica said they were investigating the
trafficking of its citizens in Mexico.
Diana Washington Valdez
El
Paso Times
June 18, 2009
Added:
June 19, 2009
Mexico
"IMPUNITY" - Women victims of Police
Assault at Atenco Protest at FEVIMTRA offices
Habitantes de San
Salvador Atenco, particularmente 11 de las 26 mujeres que
denunciaron haber sido víctimas de violencia sexual, física y
sicológica por policías los días 3 y 4 de mayo de 2006 en ese
municipio mexiquense, exigieron a la Fiscalía Especializada en
Delitos Violentos cometidos contra Mujeres y Trata de Personas
(Fevimtra) que ya consigne la averiguación previa que abrió y
ejercite acción penal contra todos los uniformados que participaron
en los acontecimientos, con el propósito de que sean sancionados por
acción u omisión…
Inhabitants of [the Mexico City suburb of] San Salvador Atenco,
including 11 of the 26 women who reported being physically,
psychologically and sexually abused by [male] police officers on May
3rd and 4th of 2006, have demanded that the
[federal] Special Prosecutor's Office for Violent Crimes Committed
Against Women, and Trafficking in Persons (FEVIMTRA) act upon the
results of their preliminary investigation in the case, and bring
the actors to justice for their actions and acts of omission.
During
a demonstration in front of the offices of FEVIMTRA in Mexico City,
the activists indicated that, "the Mexican authorities have once
again demonstrated their inefficiency in prosecuting and punishing
those responsible for the serious violations human rights that were
committed in San Salvador Atenco. They were referring specifically
to the fact that just recently, the only police officer to have been
tried, convicted and sentenced for the assaults against women at
Atenco was pardoned...
Some 20,000 of the
140,000 illegal migrants en route to the United States via the
Mexico border to find work and a better life are kidnapped each year
and subjected to rape, torture and murder, crimes that usually go
unpunished due to the corruption of the authorities, fear of
reprisals and distrust of authorities, according to Mexico’s
independent National Human Rights Commission.
Mexico City – More than 1,600
migrants, above all Central Americans en route to the United
States to find work, are kidnapped monthly and subjected to
humiliations that usually go unpunished due to the corruption of
the authorities, Mexico’s independent National Human Rights
Commission reported.
“The kidnapping of migrants has
become a continuous practice of worrying dimensions, generally
unpunished and with characteristics of extreme cruelty,”
commission chairman Jose Luis Soberanes said Monday at the
presentation of the report.
Between September
2008 and February 2009, the commission registered a total of 198
cases of mass kidnappings of migrants involving 9,758 people.
Motivated by the yearning to begin a
new life in the United States, each year some 140,000 people
cross Mexico’s southern border intending to traverse the country
and then cross the U.S. border, according to official figures.
To achieve their dream, the migrants
have to travel thousands of kilometers with hardly any money and
trusting unknown people who promise to help them, but there
exists a risk that they will be betrayed and wind up in the
hands of people-trafficking networks.
Upon presenting its report on the
kidnappings of migrants, the rights commission called attention
to their “high vulnerability” and denounced the fact that the
practice “is on the increase.”
The document prepared by the panel
includes many shocking testimonials, like that of a Salvadoran
woman who was locked up and raped numerous times during the 48
hours she was held.
Finally, the young woman was freed because her family, who lives
in the United States, gave in to the threats of her abductors
and paid part of the $4,500 they demanded as ransom.
“But my companion didn’t have anyone to help her and so they
shot her and let her bleed to death in front of me to intimidate
me,” the woman said...
The kidnappings are committed mainly by organized bands whose
members remain unpunished for the crimes because their victims
do not report them since they don’t know their rights, they are
afraid of reprisals and don’t trust the Mexican authorities,
which, according to the commission report, are complicit with
the criminals in at least 1 percent of the cases.
Victims are usually kidnapped in groups along certain stretches
of the railroad lines in southern Mexico, where migrants
commonly hop on northbound freight trains.
The commission had to move Monday’s presentation of the report
to a different office after receiving a bomb threat – which
turned out to be false – at the original venue.
The threat, according to Soberanes, was a “message” from the
“bands interested in having impunity continue” for their crimes.
Georgetown, Guyana - Minister of Human Services and Social Security,
Priya Manickchand, has lashed out at the United States of America’s
rating of Guyana for its Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report by the
US State Department which places Guyana on Tier 2 watch list.
“Guyana objects completely to being placed on the Tier 2 watch
list...we do not believe that we have trafficking on the scale that
should attract the attention of the US, the report is inaccurate in
some of its assertions: it did not given us (government) credit for
all that has been done,” she stated...
“We prosecute every person who can be prosecuted under the Act who
would have committed acts of trafficking, what we do not have is a
large number of convictions. We cannot dictate what the courts do,
we do recognize that there are some weaknesses in the entire
judicial system in terms of how long matters take to pass through
the system and in that regard, the government is at present engaged
in improving the entire justice system through the Justice Sector
Reform Strategy,” she explained.
This particularly gory testimony,
used by the US State Department to highlight the severity and
widespread nature of human trafficking, is one of many alarming
personal accounts included in their 2009 Trafficking in Persons
(TIP) report.
Jamaica has again been ranked as a
tier two country for human trafficking by the US State
Department which has cited inadequate efforts to prosecute
trafficking offenses and protect victims. In its ninth annual
Trafficking in Persons Report released ...
El Gobierno de EEUU amplió la lista de países con
crecientes problemas de tráfico humano de 40 en 2008 a 52 este año,
en que ha incluido a Nicaragua, Irak, Filipinas, Antillas Holandesas
y los Emiratos Arabes Unidos.
U.S.
Government: Modern slavery is increasing during the current economic
crisis
En más de 60
allanamientos fueron detenidos 52 hombres y 17 mujeres de la red que
solicitaba damas de entre 18 y 25 años de edad en avisos
clasificados en los diarios y les ofrecía trabajo en bares y
restaurantes y altos ingresos, para luego obligarlas a prostituirse.
Authorities
in Colombia dismantle sex trafficking ring and free 69 women between
the ages of 18 and 25. (Translation to follow)
Vancouver, British Columbia - A US report on human
trafficking says Canada has the laws needed to prosecute human
traffickers and sex tourists, but the penalties dished out by
the courts are lax...
The State Department's annual
report, first under president Barack Obama's Administration,
extends the list of countries with increasing human trafficking
problems, from 40 in 2008 to 52 this year, among them Nicaragua,
Iraq, the Philippine ...
Pope Benedict has lauded the “courageous
commitment in defense of human life” of religious sisters involved
in helping victims of human trafficking. The Pope's praise was
contained in a telegram sent Sister Louise Madore, President ...
In Central America and Mexico,
efforts to improve border security, guard against terrorism and
counter human and drug trafficking have led to stricter controls
on the movements of undocumented migrants. ...
But even in Utah, human trafficking,
one of the world's top three most profitable hidden industries,
has reared its ugly head. Dewayne Hopkins, a 27-year-old Salt
Lake City resident pleaded guilty in May to conspiracy to commit
sex trafficking ...
Teenage prostitutes, according to a
mayor's report on child sex trafficking, had begun working
within a few steps of the familiar inscription from Matthew on
the church's wall: “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are
heavy laden, and I will give you ...
The group Shared Hope International
partnered with Canyon Christian Church for the event, drawing
attention to the disturbing crime of human trafficking. A
candlelight vigil was also held after the march. ...
In terms of the challenges, Ramdin
offered that “there are still pending bilateral tensions and
outstanding disputes among member countries” and that many of
the traditional issues such as drugs and arms trafficking,
discrimination, food security ...
This morning at the Vatican's press
office, organizers announced a forthcoming congress on the
theme: “Female Religious in Network against Trafficking of
Persons.” The congress will focus on fighting and preventing
human trafficking...
Vatican City – With
the global financial crisis and the increased desperation of the
poor, human trafficking appears to be on the increase and the
International Union of Superiors General is committed to
extending its networks to fight ...
/ Welcome
About Dr. Laura Bozzo of Peru 
Latin
America's leading women and children's human rights activist,
attorney Dr. Laura Bozzo has recently ended 3 years under house
arrest in Peru. Dr. Bozzo's show "Laura in the Americas"
is seen daily by tens of millions of viewers across the globe.
angel
espero que algun dia venga a Texas para hacer un programa.
Aqui tambien hay personas que tienen historias verdaderas y
tristes que contar.
quisiera
que ella la conociera en persona a usted pues es muy
dificil porque ella vive en guaymas y llo en verdad
quisiera que se conosieran pues ella esta muy
enfermita
