Added Jan. 29, 2008
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
Added Jan. 29, 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
Added Jan. 27, 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
Added Jan. 22, 2008
Mexico
Veracruz - Sufre robo e
intimidación reportero que siguió el caso Ernestina
Ascencio.
-
CIMAC Noticias
News for Women
Mexico City
Jan. 22, 2008
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.
Jan. 22, 2008
See also:
Sobre el Caso de Ernestina
Ascencio
-
Wikipedia
Jan.
22, 2008
Veracruz:
rape-murder
case
against
soldiers
dropped
- as
victims'
children
"disappear"
- Bill
Weinberg
May
09, 2007
Added Jan. 22, 2008
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:
Video of the San Diego City
Council meeting where John Monti spoke-up on behalf
of the sex trafficked underage Mexican girls
kidnapped and trafficked into forced sexual slavery
in San Diego County.
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
LibertadLatina
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!!
Silence is also violence!
End impunity
now!
- Chuck Goolsby
Jan. 22, 2008
LibertadLatina
YouTube videos on John Monti's
activism
LibertadLatina
Our special section on the
San Diego Crisis
Added Jan. 22, 2008
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
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
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
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."
Added Jan. 18, 2008
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
Added Jan. 18, 2008
Washington, DC, USA
Fairfax, Va. - U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced today that its Washington,
D.C. Fugitive Operations Team arrested a fugitive alien on Dec. 27, 2007, who
was also wanted for sexual abuse of a minor in Prince William County, VA.
Raul
Ernesto Sarmiento Sanchez, a 48-year-old Honduran national, ignored an
immigration judge's order of removal and has been a fugitive since 1997.
-
U.S. ICE
Jan. 3, 2008
Added
Jan. 15, 2008
Guatemala
Guatemala City, Guatemala
(CNN) -- Guatemala's first leftist president in 50
years, Alvaro Colom, took office Monday with a
pledge to help the poor.
"Today is the beginning of privileges
for the poor, for those without opportunity," said
Colom, who represents the center-left National Union
of Hope party.
...He spoke of his commitment to
Guatemala's Mayan community, which remains largely
mired in poverty. He said he hopes to help the
people, while continuing to encourage private
investment and economic development.
His inauguration ends a violent
campaign season during which at least 51 candidates,
their relatives and political activists were killed.
...Perhaps the most well-known
leftist president in Guatemala, Jacobo Arbenz was
forced from office in 1954 after the CIA helped
arrange a force that overthrew him.
- Patzy Vasquez
CNN
Jan. 15, 2008
LibertadLatina
note:
The 1954 overthrow of president
Arbenz was followed by a string of military
dictatorships supported by the U.S. From 1975
through the early 1990s, military forces murdered
200,000 Mayan people, including 50,000 women.
Almost all Mayan females of any age were raped
during this time period.
Today, the legacy of 'femicides'
continues, with hundreds of cases of rapes, followed
by murder and dismemberment, occurring each year.
These cases are almost never properly investigated
or prosecuted. Why? Because the victims
are women, and because many of the victims are
Mayan.
We wish President Colom good
hunting in his efforts to finally bring this
wave of murderous gender violence under control.
- Chuck Goolsby
LibertadLatina
Jan. 15, 2008
See also:
LibertadLatina
The
crisis facing women and children in indigenous
Guatemala
Added
Jan. 15, 2008
United States, Mexico
...The
murder suspect of the pregnant Marine Lance Cpl.
Maria Lauterbach... Cpl. Cesar Armando Laurean... is
an immigrant from Mexico serving in the United
States Marine Corps under a immigration Visa.
...Corporal Cesar Armando Laurean was
last sighted boarding a Greyhound Bus in Louisiana
which was bound for Texas. Cpl. Cesar Armando
Laurean may be fleeing to Mexico to avoid
prosecution in the United States.
- Fox 13
Tampa Bay, Florida
Jan. 14, 2008
Added
Jan. 15, 2008
Arizona, USA
Twelve serial sex offenders
cross the U.S. border illegally every day, according
to a 2006 Department of Homeland Security report.
Police in Chandler say one such
offender ended up in their community and raped four
young girls over the past year and a half.
"When I first saw the (Chandler
rapist sketch) I told my wife I guarantee he is
illegal," said Al Rodriguez, founder of the
anti-illegal immigration group, 'You Don't Speak For
Me.'
Records show Santana Batiz Aceves
entered the U.S. illegally back in 1988.
Since then, police have deported him
twice back to his native Mexico, but each time he
managed to return.
"...The person who did this is not a
good person...the fact he's here illegally, I'm not
sure how that plays in," said Harry Garewal,
President of the Arizona Hispanic Chamber of
Commerce...
- Tim Vetscher
KNXV - ABC 15
Phoenix, Arizona
Jan. 14, 2008
Added
Jan. 15, 2008
California, USA
Petaluma - Police were
searching for two men Sunday in connection with the
sexual assault of a 16-year-old girl in Petaluma on
Saturday night.
At 10:41 p.m., the teenager said that
she was walking on Albert Way near McGregor Avenue
when she was forced into a vehicle by two unknown
males, Sgt. Marlin Christensen said.
...Both men are described as being
Hispanic males. One suspect is bald and was wearing
a white shirt, tan pants and no shoes. The second
suspect had short hair and was wearing a white shirt
and black pants. They were driving a dark, older
model, four-door sedan, according to police.
- NBC 11 [Bay Area]
Jan. 13, 2008
Added Jan. 13, 200
8
Arizona, USA

Chandler Rapist is
Caught by Police
Undocumented immigrant
from Mexico was deported twice, returned to U.S.
Chandler - A suspect in the
sexual assaults of several young girls in Chandler
has been arrested and police said Saturday that DNA
positively links the man to the case.
Santana Batiz Aceves, 39, was booked
into a Maricopa County jail in Phoenix on 25 counts
of kidnapping, sexual assault and trespassing in
connection with the assaults that began in June
2006, poli