Colorado, USA

Police on Sunday said they finally have nabbed the man they believe savagely raped and beat a 23-year-old University of Colorado student with a baseball bat then left her for dead a decade ago as she walked home alone after getting pizza early one December morning.

...Police said they recovered DNA from semen left on Chase's body after she was discovered in a downtown alley a block from her home in the early hours of Dec. 21, 1997.

The young woman, known for her sunny disposition, had suffered massive head injuries. She never regained conscious-ness and died the following day.

On Thursday, detectives got the news they had been awaiting for 10 long years: There was a DNA match linking 38-year-old Diego Olmos-Alcalde, a Chilean native with Denver-area ties, to Chase's slaying.

Police said Olmos-Alcalde was released from prison in Wyoming in July after serving seven years in connection with a kidnapping charge that has eerie similarities to the attack on Chase.

...A check of Colorado Court records reveals that Denver police arrested Olmos-Alcalde on an unrelated first-degree sexual assault charge on Jan. 16, 1998, less than a month after Chase's murder.
Prosecutors later dismissed that charge and Olmos-Alcalde pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of carrying a concealed weapon...

Julie Poppen
Rocky Mountain News

Jan. 28, 2008

Nicaragua

Violación múltiple a menor trabajadora sexual

A 17-year-old female prostitute who was walking home in the early morning hours was surrounded by 15 men and youth and then kidnapped. The subjects took the underage girl to an alley, where each of them raped her.

Five of the assailants were arrested by police: Freddy Alberto Martínez Zamora, age 20; Densy José Sánchez Ruiz, 24; Fernando José Ruiz Cuba, 19; Jonny Omar Álvarez Martínez, 31, and a 15-year-old youth. The youth was later freed from detention.

In a surprising decision, the local prosecutor decided at the last minute not to charge those arrested, stating that a further investigation was needed.  The decision will likely mean that the assailants will be freed pending the results of the investigation.

Medical examiners stated that physical evidence of rape could not be proven because of the fact that the victim was a prostitute. However, the doctors stated that psychologically, the victim was in fact traumatized as the result of a sexual assault.

- El Nuevo Diario

Jan. 28, 2008

Arkansas, USA

Clarksville - A former minister pleaded not guilty to five counts of rape filed in connection with allegations he sexually assaulted five young girls, 5th Judicial District Prosecutor David Gibbons confirmed Thursday.

Gibbons filed the charges against Jose Banda in early December after Clarksville police responded Oct. 2 to Johnson Regional Medical Center.
It was there that two girls under the age of 14 reported to hospital staff they had been raped by Banda, 48...

Banda, a resident alien and a citizen of Mexico, was employed as a Hispanic minister with the Clarksville Church of Christ from July 2002 to November 2007...

- Mary Kincy Benefield

The Courier

Russellville, Arkansas

Jan. 25, 2008

Mexico

Veracruz - Sufre robo e intimidación reportero que siguió el caso Ernestina Ascencio.

Reporters Without Borders is very concerned about two burglaries at the home of Andrés Timoteo Morales, the correspondent of the newspaper La Jornada in the eastern city of Veracruz, on 9 and 16 January. Morales... regards [the burglaries]as an attempt to intimidate him.

Morales was one of the first journalists to write about the murder of Ernestina Ascencio [age 73], a member of the local Nahuatl indigenous community, on 26 February 2007, allegedly by soldiers who raped her first. After conducting an investigation... the Veracruz prosecutor’s office concluded that Ascencio was not raped and died of natural causes. The state judicial authorities have finally just reopened the case.

California, USA

Respected anti-trafficking activist opposes nomination of new police chief due to past failure to act against child sex trafficking in migrant labor camps

John Monti, member of Save Our State, appeared before the City Council of San Diego on January 22, 2008 to oppose the appointment of Captain Boyd Long, San Diego Police Department, as assistant police chief of the department.

Monti said, “My opposition is based on the complete denial of what has been happening and has happened in McGonigle Canyon.” Monti displayed a red backpack in the council which was found in McGongicle Canyon when girls were brought to be prostituted at a well-known “prostibulo,” outdoor prostitution area, in the part of the canyon known as  “Los Diablos” by the migrants. The backpack contained lubricant, contra-ceptives and tissue paper and had belonged to an unknown prostituted girl.

"To deny that there is a problem is silence – it is a silence that equals death,” thundered Monti. Monti is alarmed that knowledge of the human trafficking and forced prostitution of women and children is being suppressed by law enforcement and open-borders activists.

“Those girls are equally deserving of protection as anyone else in our country – legal or illegal. If we say there is no problem when there is – we create victims and more victims, because no one will know this is going on. If it is to be stopped the public must know so they can identify victims when they see them.”

Jan. 21, 2008

See also:

An alternative view of the child rape camps of rural San Diego County is presented by this article about migrants in McGonagle Canyon and anti-trafficking activism.

"What has gotten [the San Diego Minute-men] the most mainstream mileage is its scary claim that the migrants of McGonigle run a child prostitution ring in one corner of the canyon..."

- Casey Sánchez

Southern Poverty Law Center

Aug.23, 2007

We differ strongly with Casey Sánchez' dismissive conclusion that child sex trafficking is a non-existent problem in McGonigle canyon. 

The fact that the San Diego Minutemen are a component of those who fight sex trafficking in the area does not change the fact that the most severe cases of mass child sexual slavery in the U.S. during modern times have occurred exactly in rural San Diego migrant labor camps such as the one that exists in McGonigle Canyon.

The rightfully revered Southern Poverty Law Center should be advocating on behalf of the hundreds of preteen girls who are forced to sell sex to adult farm laborers in San Diego County.  That would be civil rights advocacy at its very best.

The San Diego County child sex trafficking crisis is an extension of the vast network created by criminal mafias (some Mexican, some Russian and some Central American) that forces 900 or more children and youth, some as young as age seven, into prostitution in Tijuana, literally just blocks from the the San Diego County line.

John Monti, a bilingual middle school teacher with close ties to the Latino community, is one of the most effective activists against child sex trafficking as it occurs in San Diego County, California. 

Monti (who is not a member of the San Diego Minutemen) calls into question why, after 100's of thousands of dollars in anti-trafficking funds were given to law enforcement in the region, Latina child and youth sex trafficking remains largely uncontested.

We encourage all who read this to ask that question also, and to help in the activism that aims to put a stop to the impunity enjoyed by the largest cluster of child brothels to be found anywhere in the United States.

The victims await our organized and effective response to their ongoing sexual enslavement with impunity by murderous, raping gangsters!!

- Chuck Goolsby

YouTube videos on John Monti's activism

LibertadLatina

Our special section on the San Diego Crisis

United States, Mexico

U.S. Marine Corporal Cesar Laurean

Marine Corporal Cesar Laurean, wanted for murder, may have fled to his native Mexico.

...Onslow County, North Carolina, District Attorney Dewey Hudson told CNN that he was shown "strongly compelling evidence" compiled by federal authorities that shows Laurean is in Mexico.

Hudson said he has asked through the State Department that Laurean be arrested if he is found in Mexico. But, he said, he had "no other option" but to take the death penalty off the table if Laurean is found there.

Mexico has a longstanding record of refusing to extradite suspects to the United States if they face a possible death sentence if convicted.

"I had to agree not to seek the death penalty," Hudson told CNN. "My hands were tied if I wanted to bring him here to face murder charges."

"It was very frustrating and disappointing," Hudson added.

Laurean has been charged with murder in the death of Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach. Her charred remains were found January 11 in a fire pit in Laurean's backyard.

...Lauterbach was scheduled to testify last month at a military hearing after accusing Laurean of raping her last spring.

Jan. 21, 2008

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Added Jan. 22, 2008

California, USA

Woman pleads guilty to charges in forced labor and human smuggling scheme

Wanted: Mario Antonio Antunez-Sotelo

San Diego - A Guatemalan woman pleaded guilty here yesterday to federal charges following an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that revealed she and her husband ran a criminal organization that smuggled Mexican nationals into the United States and forced them to work using physical and verbal threats.

Gloria Eugenia Leon-Aldana, 37, pleaded guilty to three counts of bringing in illegal aliens for financial gain and one count of forced labor. As part of her plea, Leon-Aldana admitted she forced an alien to work by threatening to report him to the Border Patrol if he did not comply with her instructions. Leon-Aldana is scheduled to be sentenced April 7.

According to court documents, Leon-Aldana and her Mexican national husband, Mario Antonio Antunez-Sotelo, 44, harbored the smuggled aliens at two residences located in Logan Heights. The aliens held in those homes were repeatedly threatened and the couple took their identity documents to keep them from fleeing.

Antunez-Sotelo has been charged with threatening the aliens and their families with physical harm and brandishing a shotgun at one of the residences. He remains at large and a warrant has been issued for his arrest.

- U.S. ICE

Jan. 18, 2008

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Added Jan. 22, 2008

Florida, USA

Washington, DC - Six Immokalee, Fla., family members were indicted today for enslaving Mexican and Guatemalan immigrants and forcing them into agricultural labor.

...According to the 17-count indictment, Cesar Navarrete and Geovanni Navarrete beat, threatened, restrained and locked workers in trucks to force them to work for them as agricultural laborers. The defendants underpaid the workers and imposed escalating debts on them, threatening physical harm if workers left their employment before their debts had been repaid.

Cesar, Geovanni, Jose, Villhina, Ismael and Michael Navarrete and Antonia Zuniga Vargas are also charged with harboring undocu-mented foreign nationals for private financial gain, commercial advantage, document fraud, and identity theft. Cesar Navarrete is charged with feloniously re-entering the United States after being convicted of a felony and deportation. Jose Navarrete and Ismael Michael Navarrete are charged with re-entering the United States after being deported.

- U.S. ICE

Jan. 17, 2008

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Added Jan. 22, 2008

Florida, USA

...Organizers are preparing for the annual meeting of the Inter-American Development Bank to be held April 4-8 at the Miami Beach Convention Center. It's the first time the meeting convenes in Florida since 1987 and the first with a strong business and philanthropy focus.

...The meeting comes as the Washington-based bank funded by governments shifts its focus under new leadership. The IDB now seeks to boost the role of business and philanthropy to help develop economies in Latin America and the Caribbean.

...Puerto Rican singing star [Ricky] Martin is expected, because he's been working through his Ricky Martin Foundation on an IDB campaign to fight human trafficking, including trafficking of women and girls for the sex trade. Martin appears in ads urging residents to call hotlines for help in Latin American countries.

- South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Jan. 22, 2008

See Also:

Ricky Martin's "Call and Live" campaign web site (in Spanish)...

Llama y Vive es una campaña contra la trata de personas. Es un esfuerzo conjunto del Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (BID), de la Organización Internacional de las Migraciones (OIM) y de la Fundación Ricky Martin para la promoción de líneas telefónicas gratuitas y confidenciales para la prevención y la denuncia de la trata de personas.

Ricky Martin Foundation

(English) (Español)

"We have a collective a collective duty to uphold the principles of human dignity, equality and social justice, particularly to the children of the world to whom the future belongs."

California, USA

Not Guilty Plea In Alleged Teen Sex Slave Case

Redwood City - A 23-year-old man pleaded not guilty Thursday at his arraignment in San Mateo County Superior Court to 159 felony counts that he hid a young girl in his parents' home for about three years during which he molested her and beat her.

John France Gonzales, who appeared briefly in red jail-attire today, is charged with 159 felony counts, including sexual and physical assault, criminal threats, intimidating a witness and domestic violence, defense attorney Paul Demeester said. He faces up to life in prison if convicted.

Gonzales is alleged to have molested the girl beginning when she was 12 years old and later, unbeknownst to his parents, to have hidden her in his room at their homes in Hayward, and later in Daly City, beating and sexually assaulting her repeatedly until she was 16, according to Deputy District Attorney Melissa McKowan.

...Gonzales met the girl when she was 10 and he was dating her aunt. After the relationship ended, Gonzales took the girl from her home and then refused to let her leave, threatening that she would not be able to survive on her own alone, McKowan said...

...Gonzales remains in custody in lieu of $1 million bail...

- KTVU

San Francisco Bay Area

Jan. 17, 2008