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Indigenous & Latina Women & Children's Human
Rights News from the Americas |
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News and Events - January
2004 - English |
| Other Available
News Archives: 2001
- 2002 -
2003 |
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¡Feliz Año
Nuevo!
Happy Hew Year!
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January 25, 2004
New York Times prints major story on the Mexico-to-U.S. sex
trafficking of Latina and European sex slaves.
(And our links to
related
LibertadLatina.org
facts:)
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This story documents the process by which thousands of (
typically 12 year old) Mexican and Central American
migrant girls crossing Mexico are systematically
kidnapped, brutalized, prostituted in Mexico and then
trafficked to the U.S. by the thousands, where they are
further prostituted, tortured, re-sold and sometimes
murdered.
Rarely do police get involved in successfully
controlling this criminal impunity.
That needs to change!!
- LibertadLatina.org |
...[There are]
dozens of active stash houses and apartments in the New York
metropolitan area -- mirroring hundreds more in other major
cities like Los Angeles, Atlanta and Chicago -- where
under-age girls
and young women from dozens of countries are trafficked and held
captive. Most of them -- whether they started out in Eastern
Europe or Latin America -- are taken to the United States
through Mexico. Some of them have been baited by promises of
legitimate jobs and a better life in America; many have been
abducted; others have been bought from or abandoned by their
impoverished families.
Because of the
porousness of the U.S.-Mexico border and the criminal networks
that traverse it, the towns and cities along that border have
become the main staging area in an illicit and barbaric
industry, whose ''products'' are women and girls. On both sides
of the border, they are rented out for sex for as little as 15
minutes at a time, dozens of times a day. Sometimes they are
sold outright to other traffickers and sex rings, victims and
experts say. These sex slaves earn no money, there is nothing
voluntary about what they do and if they try to escape they are
often beaten and sometimes killed.
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...At least 15 major [sex] trafficking organizations and
120 associated factions tracked by the P.F.P. operate as
wholesalers: collecting human merchandise and taking
orders from safe houses and brothels in the major
sex-trafficking hubs in New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta
and Chicago.
Like the Sicilian Mafia, Los Lenones are based on family
hierarchies, Caballero explained. The father controls
the organization and the money, while the sons and their
male cousins hunt, kidnap and entrap victims. The boys
leave school at 12 and are given one or two girls their
age to rape and pimp out to begin their training, which
emphasizes the arts of kidnapping and seduction.
Throughout the rural and suburban towns from southern
Mexico to the U.S. border, along what traffickers call
the Via Lactea, or Milky Way, the agents of Los Lenones
troll the bus stations and factories and school dances
where under-age girls gather, work and socialize. |
[ And referring to
the
San Diego Child Rape Camp Crisis
covered on LibertadLatina.org: ]
...A local health care worker [A
Latina medical doctor] had heard rumors about Mexican immigrants
using the reeds for sex and... found more than 400 men and 50
young women between 12 and 15 dressed in tight clothing and high
heels. There was a separate group of a dozen girls no more than
11 or 12 wearing white communion dresses. ''The girls huddled in
a circle for protection,'' [San Diego sheriff Rick] Castro told
me, ''and had big eyes like terrified deer.''
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Added January 29,
2004
January 25, 2004
Desperate bid to
save kids who sell
sex
The [New York]
mayor's office is
finally addressing
the scandal of teen
prostitution, and it
can't happen fast
enough for the
youngest victims of
the oldest
profession.
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Janauary, 2004
Bruce Harris on
Trial in Guatemala
Read our materials and links regarding this important case. Help
maintain freedom of speech, please send a letter of support today!
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January 23, 2004
The Univision
Spanish language
television network
news reported the
rescue by police in
Arizona of 48 Latin
American migrants
who were locked in a
coyote's suburban
house. Five
coyotes were
arrested. The
accused demanded
ransom above the
agreed price to
cross the migrants
from Mexico into the
U.S. The
coyotes are also
accused of sexually
assaulting the
female migrants in
the enslaved group.
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January 23, 2004
NBC News Dateline
presented: "Children
for Sale."
NBC undercover crews
investigated rampant
child prostitution
and western sex
tourism in Cambodia,
Southeast Asia.
This program
featured the work of
the
International
Justice Mission,
a faith- based
activist
organization.
Thank you for having
presented these
important facts
about human slavery.
We at
LibertadLatina
encourage NBC
Dateline and the
International
Justice Mission to
take a close look at
the tragedy of
rampant child and
adult sex
trafficking
affecting hundreds
of thousands of
innocents in the
Americas.
While NBC Dateline
noted with horror
(correctly) the
Cambodian
government's
admission that
30,000 underage
girls are forced to
survive via
prostitution...
...Note the figures
for underage child
and youth
prostitution in
Latin America:
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Brazil:
between
500,000
and 2
million children
each year
forced into
prostitution.
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Northeast
Argentina:
500,000
girls 16 and
under are
prostitutes
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Peru: An
estimated
500,000
children
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According to a
study of
Colombia,
Venezuela, the
Dominican
Republic and
Haiti:
435,000
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Costa Rica:
30,000
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Mexico:
16,000
(officially),
and 120,000
children were
kidnapped never
to be seen again
in a recent 3
year period.
Many victims
were sold to
child
prostitution &
pornography
gangs.
-
Organization of
American States
- Two Million
children are
sexually exploited
in Latin America
(In English y Español)
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Our special
section on the
San Diego Crisis
covers child
prostitution
'camps' on U.S.
soil where
hundreds of
Mexican girls as
young as 7 have
been kidnapped,
prostituted,
tortured and, in
some cases,
murdered.
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Across Latin
America,
according to Sir
Bruce Harris, 40
million street
children exist.
Most of these
children survive
in- part through
prostitution.
Remember also
these victims, ye
non-governmental
organizations &
members of
the press!
LibertadLatina.org
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January 20, 2004
Outrageous
Florida-based
pedophile travel
agency advertises
gay sex tours to
Costa Rica, tours
offer 14 year old
male victims.
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Added January 20,
2004
Palm Beach Post
[Florida] Special
Reports on Immigrant
Exploitation
1)
Guatemalan woman
smuggled to Florida,
kept as personal sex
slave.
2)
Sex slavery, rape
await defenseless.
Among immigrant
women, many sexual
assault victims
never report it.
Immigration might
get called.
...Vega, who works
for Catholic
Charities, said the
girl was still a
teenager when she
was brought across
into Texas by a
coyote. She said he
kidnapped her, had
sex with her every
day for two or three
weeks, then beat her
up and threw her
out.
She ended up in a
hospital and was so
badly beaten the
doctors were forced
to remove her
womb...
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January 15, 2004
U.S. Justice
Department -
Mexican man admits
to forcing his wife
into prostitution in
eastern U.S.
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January 15, 2004
Bruce Harris free
speech trial in
Guatemala starts
January 22, 2004
The
Lawyers Committee
for Human Rights
today sent a letter
to recently elected
Guatemalan
President, Oscar
Berger, urging him
to ensure the right
to freedom of
expression. The LCHR
focused attention on
the case of Bruce
Harris, Latin
America Programs
Director of the
Catholic charity and
children’s rights
organization Casa
Alianza. Harris was
charged with
criminal defamation
in 1997, and is due
to go on trial in
Guatemala City on
January 22.
The case grew out of
Bruce Harris'
denunciation of the
illegal baby
adoption industry in
Guatemala, home of
the largest such
problem in the
Americas.
We at
LibertadLatina.org
support Bruce
Harris' work 100%.
Please contact
Casa-Alianza
and the
LCHR
to express your
concern for Bruce
Harris.
(In
English y
Español)
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January 9, 2004
From:
The
National Council of
La Raza:
Questions and
answers about the
Bush
Administration's
proposed Guestworker
Program
Grassroots Groups
Launch TV ad to
Educate Latino
Public About Bush
Administration
Guestworker Program
Grupos Comunitarios
Lanzan Anuncio
Público Televisivo
Para Educar a la
Población Latina
Acerca del Programa
de Trabajadores
Temporales de la
Administración Bush
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January 9, 2004
Governments in the
Americas have not
focused enough
attention on human
trafficking.
-
A study by the...
Organization of
American States in
Washington shows
that Latin American
nations have mostly
sat back as women
and children were
treated as chattel.
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January 7, 2004
U.S.
President
George W.
Bush
proposes
landmark
immigration
reform
Complete
text of
President
Bush's radio
speech
"...Some
[undocumented
workers]
have risked
their lives
in dangerous
desert
border
crossings,
or entrusted
their lives
to the
brutal rings
of heartless
human
smugglers.
Workers who
seek only to
earn a
living end
up in the
shadows of
American
life --
fearful,
often abused
and
exploited.
When they
are
victimized
by crime,
they are
afraid to
call the
police, or
seek
recourse in
the legal
system."
"...[temporary
workers will
be able to]
talk openly
to
authorities,
to report
crimes when
they are
harmed,
without the
fear of
being
deported."
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LibertadLatina.org
commentary
on
the
news:
While
the
true
fairness
of
his
plan
has
yet
to
be
seen...
Thank
you
President
Bush
for
giving
global
coverage
and
mainstream
respect
to
the
plight
of
Latin
and
other
immigrants
who
face
the
severe
crime
&
workplace
exploitation
issues
that
we
at
LibertadLatina.org
struggle
daily
to
document,
organize
against
and
overcome.
The
excerpts
from
President
Bush's
comments
(above)
summarize
the
motivations
that
drive
much
of
our
immigrant
advocacy
work
here
at | | | | | |
/ Welcome
