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A young Indigenous girl child from Paraguay, South America, freed from sexual slavery by police in Argentina.

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News and Events - English
Other News Archives: 2001 - 2002 - 2003 - 2004 - 2005 - 2006 - 2007

April / 2008 News


Added April 26, 2008

Ricky Martin:

Llama y Vive

Washington, DC - Ricky Martin lanza una campaña de prevención de la trata de personas y proteger a sus víctimas hispanas en esta capital estadounidense.

- The Associated Press

April 24, 2008

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Ricky Martin Foundation [and others] have partnered to launch Call and Live in Washington DC, a campaign that promotes an anti-trafficking hotline.

- Inter-American Development Bank

April 24, 2008

Llama y Vive / Call and Live Hotline:

1-888 NO-TRATA

llamayvive.org/


Added April 30, 2008

Washington, DC  USA

Ricky Martin at the

April 29th Inter-

American Develop-

ment Bank (IADB)

event kicking-off the

"CALL AND LIVE"

campaign in

Washington, DC

El cantante Ricky Martin ha decidido extender su lucha contra el tráfico de personas a Estados Unidos, donde se calcula que hay unas 20 mil personas [nuevas cada año] que son retenidas o han sido desplazadas contra su voluntad.

El artista, que desarrolla esta labor a través de la Ricky Martin Foundation (RMF) , presentó hoy en Washington la campaña "Llama y Vive"...

La campaña consta de anuncios de radio, televisión y prensa escrita, en los que el cantante promociona una línea telefónica de información y asistencia contra el tráfico de personas en la capital estado-unidense...

"Si estás lejos de casa y te están explotando sexual o laboralmente, eres víctima de trata" rezan los tres comerciales dirigidos a la población latina...

"No están solos" dijo Martin dirigiéndose a los latinos de Washington. "Vamos a llamar a sus puertas si es necesario, para preguntarles si necesitan nuestra ayuda"...

- EFE / El Universal

April 29, 2008

Ricky Martin campaigns against human trafficking [in Washington, DC]

Latin heartthrob Ricky Martin is using his star power to launch "Llama y Vive" or "Call and Live", a campaign to prevent human trafficking from Latin America and also provide services for victims.

"Call and Live" has already been implemented in Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Peru, and Nicaragua. Now, it's expanding to five more Latin American countries.

Martin has partnered with the Inter-American Develop-ment Bank and Ayuda [a local Latino legal services agency] to launch "Call and Live".

Ricky Martin on human trafficking says: "My dream right now is all about seeing abolition, abolition of a new era, abolition of what we call a modern day form of slavery which is human trafficking and I'm not going to give up."

The campaign works to prevent human trafficking from Latin America and provide protection services to Latino victims in Washington, D.C. including offering a confidential victims' hotline...

- TimesNow.tv - with material from Reuters

India

April 30, 2008

LibertadLatina note:

The Llama y Vive / Call and Live kick-off event in Washington, DC on April 29, 2008 was an historic occasion.  Human trafficking, in its many forms, has long-existed in the Washington, DC region.  Ten and twenty years ago when I began seeking help from Latino agencies and the local press for exploited Latinas, few people and organizations in a position to help answered the call.

The LibertadLatina project and this web site came into existence as a result of those efforts, dating back to 1986, to bring assistance to the victim community.

I salute Ricky Martin, his foundation, the Ayuda legal services agency, the Washing-ton DC Office of Latino Affairs, other collabor-ating agencies and local Latino media outlets for working to address the issues of human trafficking and exploitation head on.

¡Mil gracias!

A thousand thanks!

The victim community awaits our serious and substantial efforts to help them!

- Chuck Goolsby

LibertadLatina

April 30, 2008

See also:

The exploitation of Latin American women and children in the greater Washington, DC region

- LibertadLatina

Latina worker sexual exploitation in the office cleaning Industry - a 1990's case in which Washington, DC area government agencies, corporations and the press refused to come to the assistance of Latina women & girls.

- LibertadLatina

There is one form of prostitution slavery that exists in almost every neighborhood in greater Washington.

It is well-known that the women and girls involved are forced to work against their will, and that the traffickers transport in new groups of them to each apartment-based brothel every two weeks from New York City.  Nothing has changed since the time of the below 1994 article, except that the city of Washington, DC now has even more Latin brothels than ever before:

String of Latino brothels found in [Washington, DC's] Virginia and Maryland Suburbs: Police Say Women Come from New York

- Washington Post

Sep. 21, 1994

Law enforcement - shut down the [mega-brothel] rape camps of Langley Park, Maryland!

- LibertadLatina

Aug. 5, 2005

Our first report on the Sexual Exploitation of Latina immigrant Women and Girls [in the workplace] in the greater Washington, DC region.

- Chuck Goolsby

LibertadLatina

Feb., 1994


Added April 30, 2008

Dominican Republic

Republica Dominicana: ONG denuncia incremento de trata de blancas en República Dominicana

Advocacy group in the Dominican Republic has denounced a recent increase in human trafficking, and calls for urgent help from the national government to address the crisis.

The nation is the forth largest source country for women trafficked in prostitution across the globe (following Thailand, Brazil and the Philippines).

Santo Domingo - According to the a spokesperson for the Aquelarre Assistance Center (CEAPA), between 50,000 and 60,000 Dominican women are forced to work in prostitution abroad.

During a recent workshop conducted by CEAPA, victims of exploitation shared their stories of abuse at the hands of exploiters, and discussed the fact that the number of Dominican women trapped in exploitation is increasing. Many victims are entrapped by typically false overseas job offers, and are pushed to migrate by poverty or to flee an abusive relationship.

During the workshop, a woman identified only as Fátima gave testimony that these victims are extorted, are subjected to physical abuses, are forced to serve up to 10 clients each day, and are murdered with impunity.

- PrensaLatina.com

Mexico

April 24, 2008


Added April 30, 2008

Arizona, USA

[Undocumented] immigrant suffers miscarriage

An [undocumented] immigrant woman from Chiapas, Mexico had a miscarriage Sunday after entering the U.S... and being left behind by traveling companions near Marana.

...The 25-year-old woman called 911 and said she had been dropped on Sandario Road and needed help...

She was transported to Northwest Hospital but the unborn baby was dead upon arrival...

She went into labor in a vehicle that was transporting the group and had the miscarriage inside. The group agreed to drop her off at Sandario Road where she would call for help, Daniels said. She was not traveling with any family members or friends.

The Border Patrol contacted the Mexican Consulate in Tucson and they are working together to get her safely to her home in Chiapas, located in southern Mexico, Daniels said.

- Brady McCombs

Arizona Daily Star

April 28, 2008


Added April 30, 2008

Costa Rica and California, USA

Accused California sex tourist added to ICE 'most wanted' list

Oakland - U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is appealing for the public's help in locating a 61-year-old Bay Area mortgage finance expert who fled after an ICE investigation led to him being charged with child sex tourism and possession of child pornography.

Leonard B. Auerbach, of Orinda, Calif., was added today to ICE's list of "most wanted" fugitives. The action comes after Auerbach failed to appear for his arraignment in federal court...

...Search warrants, including one executed at his Orinda residence, showed that Auerbach traveled to Costa Rica approximately 40 times between 2003 and 2007. ...ICE agents discovered computers and thumb drives containing images of Auerbach with a minor female in various stages of undress...

The public is encouraged to report suspected child predators and suspicious activity by contacting ICE's 24-hour toll-free hotline at 1-866-DHS-2ICE; and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, at 1-800-843-5678 or cybertipline.com.

- U.S. ICE

April 22, 2008


Added April 30, 2008

Virginia, USA

Woman Abducted, Raped While Walking With Baby

Fairfax - A team of detectives went door-to-door Friday night, searching for clues in the alleged rape of a woman who was attacked walking her infant daughter in the Springfield area, authorities said.

The 18-year-old woman was carrying her 3-month-old daughter in a car seat outside the Commerce Plaza shopping center when she was approached by a man with a handgun in his waistband at about 8 p.m. Thursday.

"She was then forced down along several streets to finally end up in the 6200 block of Dana Avenue," said Camille Neville, of Fairfax County police. "At gunpoint she was forced to go behind one of the residences there and she was raped."

Police said the man threatened the baby, raped the woman and fled...

Police described the attacker as a Hispanic man in his mid-20s...

- NBC4

Washington, DC

April 25, 2008


Added April 30, 2008

Rhode Island, USA

Outcry follows crackdown on [undocumented] immigration

Providence - Rhode Island's closest international border is the Canadian one, about 200 miles to the north. About 11 percent of the 1 million people who live in Rhode Island were born in another country, and estimates say a third or less of those people are in the country illegally.

But Gov. Don Carcieri says [undocumented] immigration has become such a problem -- and costs the state so much money as it grapples with a $568 million budget deficit -- that last month he signed an executive order directing state police to crack down on illegal immigrants.

Church leaders and some of Carcieri's own advisers have urged him to rescind the order or have said it is creating a climate of fear among minorities.

Protesters stormed the office of Carcieri's top policy aide. Police departments are divided. Some say they'll enforce the order, but the chief in Providence says it's destroying the bonds of trust officers have built with communities.

After meeting with concerned clergy Friday, Carcieri declined to rescind his order. But he agreed to create an advisory committee that will monitor how it is enforced.

- Ray Henry

The Associated Press

April 27, 2008


Added April 30, 2008

Texas, USA

[Undocumented] Immigrant Faces Deportation After Crash

Irving - A woman faces the threat of deportation and losing her children after police discovered she is an illegal immigrant.

Police said they learned Patricia Sarmiento was an [undocumented] immigrant after she was involved in a crash Thursday morning.

Officials from Accion America said they were told by representatives of the city of Irving that only criminal [undocu-mented immigrants] would be deported. Accion America’s Carlos Quintanilla said he thinks they went back on their word.

Quintanilla said the organization is planning a rally at the Irving Police Department May 1.

- nbc5i.com

April 25, 2008


Added April 30, 2008

California, USA

Wanted: Man Who Tried To Rape Woman In Pacoima

Pacioma - Police Friday were searching for a man who tried to rape a woman at Hansen Dam Park in Pacoima.

Lorena Vasquez was pushing her granddaughter in a stroller when she was attacked from behind about 3 p.m. Thursday, according to Richard French of the Los Angeles Police Department.

"He was punching me on my face and in my jaw," Vasquez said. "He punched me, I would say, like 20 times. He just started hitting me -- hitting me from the back -- and just punching me. He threw me on the floor and he wanted to rape me."

The man was described as Hispanic, 18 to 22 years old, 5 feet 4 inches tall and weighing 160 pounds.

- CBS News

Apr 25, 2008


Added April 30, 2008

Arizona, USA

Nogales cop faces trial in sex assault case

[Tucson -] A Nogales police officer who goes on trial for sexual assault and kidnapping this week has been accused of sexually inappropriate behavior by four other young women or girls.

Nogales police and Department of Public Safety investigators dismissed three of the other four complaints against Ramon Borbon, 38 — two of which were made before the 2005 incident he will stand trial for.

But he has now been additionally charged with molesting a 16-year-old who came forward only after he was charged in the assault case.

The girl said she kept quiet for nine months after Borbon reminded her her mother is vulnerable as an illegal immigrant...

- Kim Smith

Arizona Daily Star

April 26, 2008


Added April 30, 2008

Texas, USA

Two Men Sentenced For Human Trafficking and Alien Smuggling Charges

Washington - Two brothers, Victor Omar Lopez and Oscar Mondragon, were sentenced for their roles in a scheme to smuggle Central American women and girls into the United States and hold them in a condition of forced labor in bars and cantinas in the Houston area, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division Grace C. Becker and U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas Don DeGabrielle...

In all, eight defendants have been convicted in connection with this scheme to compel the victims into service in restaurants, bars and cantinas in the Houston area, using threats to harm the victims and their families if they attempted to leave before paying off their smuggling debts...

- U.S. Dept. of Justice

April 29, 2008


Added April 30, 2008

United States

Latinos outraged over CBS report

...[Katie Couric, anchor of the “CBS Evening News"] recently aired a one-sided and inaccurate report about illegal immigrant women who give birth to their children in the United States. The news story challenged the broader constitutional law of birthright citizenship and stated — without providing the correct context — that the births cost U.S. taxpayers millions of dollars annually.

The story’s central figure was a woman identified as an illegal immigrant, who was lying in her South Texas hospital bed — her right arm wrapped around her newborn and her left hand punctured by an intravenous needle — while reporter Byron Pitts lectured her that “many Americans who struggle to take care of their own families think it is unfair that they should have to take care” of non-U.S. citizens...

“Anti-Latino falsehoods deserve no time on our public airwaves,” stated a letter to CBS by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund and the National Council of La Raza. The groups and others have asked to meet with CBS “to help raise the dialogue and provide the American public an honest and accurate analysis of this nation’s broken immigration system...”

- Gebe Martinez

www.Politico.com

April 29, 2008


Added April 27, 2008

Florida, USA

Tampa - More than anything, the young mother wanted her children in a permanent home so they could succeed in elementary school. They must not end up like her and their father, hunched over rows of crops all day...

When the owner of the farm began sexually assaulting her, she kept it a secret. If her hot-headed husband learned of it, he might take matters into his own hands. If he went to prison, she and her children would be destitute...

...Lourdes Villa-nueva... with the Redlands Christian Migrant Association in Plant City tried to help. But the woman was ashamed and terrified - of immi-gration officials, of deportation, of her husband's wrath, of the boss, of getting her family blackballed from working again. No, she would handle it. No policia, no.

When Villanueva visited her trailer this month, the family was gone...

Mary Bauer, director of the Immigrant Justice Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center, testified April 15 about farmworker exploitation before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions... Bauer told the senators that of the estimated 70,000 female farmworkers in Florida, hundreds if not thousands face chronic sexual harassment on the job. They often are forced to have sex with supervisors to get or keep jobs, she said, and they put up with a "constant barrage of grabbing, touching and propositions for sex by their supervisors."

...Ramirez says the few studies that have been done on sexual exploitation reveal a pattern.

"It's like a Catch-22," she says. "The women know the abusers won't get in trouble, and the abusers know it, too. They'll use threats against the woman's family or say, 'I'll have your husband and children deported.'

"If they're undocu-mented, they are certain no one will believe them..."

- Donna Koehn

The Tampa Tribune

April 27, 2008

LibertadLatina note:

The above tragic story of severe sexual harassment and 'legalized' (because nobody ever gets prosecuted) serial rape is repeated daily and nightly in thousands of farmworker communities, and in tens of thousands of low-wage work-places... restaurants, office cleaning and hotels, and others, all across the United States. 

During my 25+ years of advocacy work for this population in the Washington, DC region, I have seen little improvement in conditions for women and underage girl immigrants who came to the U.S. largely to escape the impunity of 'legalized' sexual assault that they have faced all across the map of Latin America.

Latin American community leaders within the U.S. have a responsibility to change course from the past pattern of ignoring this issue (something I have also seen) and stand-up to fight for the dignity and basic human rights of women and children.

Government agencies at all levels have a similar obligation to take responsibility for protecting women and children in the U.S. workplace from criminal impunity.

Silence is also violence!

End impunity now!

- Chuck Goolsby

LibertadLatina

April 19, 2008

See also:

LibertadLatina

The sexual Exploitation of Women and Children in the Washington, DC Region

LibertadLatina

The workplace rape of Latina and Indigenous women in the U.S. and Latin America

LibertadLatina

Our first report on the Sexual Exploitation of Latina immigrant Women and Girls [in the workplace] in the greater Washington, DC region.

- Chuck Goolsby

LibertadLatina

Feb., 1994

Congressional Testimony - The Cadenas Case - Forced Sexual Slavery of Mexican Women in Florida's Agricultural Industry

- U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee

April 4, 2000

LibertadLatina Commentary

...Ms. undocumented Latina finds herself with no relief from comprehensive immigration reform, no green card, no work permit, no job, little understanding of the details of federal, state and local laws, no protection from crime, protection that should be provided by police forces that today may arrest and deport her, no way to feed herself and her children, and no access to the social services that could help to alleviate those desperate circumstances.

In that situation, Ms. Latina will not report rape to police.  She [also] will not say "no!" to a potential or current employer who says (in violation of the law) that sex is the price she must pay for employment...

- Chuck Goolsby

LibertadLatina

Mar 29, 2008


Added April 26, 2008

Mexico

[Activists Demand "Gender Alert" in Oaxaca State]

Demandan OSC de Oaxaca Alerta de Género en región Triqui

Oaxaca city, Oaxaca state - Beatriz Ramírez from the Huaxyacac Collective, together with representatives of 45 civic organizations, announced during a press conference that the group is demanding the Mexico's Interior Ministry (Segob) declare a "Gender Emergency" in the Triqui tribal region in Guerrero state.

A Gender Emergency is written into the recently enacted federal Law Giving Access to a Life Without Violence to Women.

Eduardo Liendro, of the group Diversities, stated that the Gender Alert would make federal resources available to communities, would create more 'spaces' for community dialog, would sensitize local authorities to women's rights, would halt the proliferation of firearms in the region, and would facilitate the deployment of human rights observers.

The group said that a long list of bloody crimes against humanity have lead to the call for a Gender Alert in the region. Among these acts including rapes and murders targeting indigenous and also undocumented migrant women and girls. In regard to the state government of Oaxaca the group stated: "far from establishing conditions allowing for personal and legal security, they disguise their ineptitude and misogyny in official acts, and at the same time allow violent crimes against humanity to be carried out.

The group demanded that the state government authorities prosecute those responsible for kidnappings, rapes and murders of women, and that they promote public policies that would help the Triqui people reestablish their autonomous culture and their right to live free from violence.

- Soledad Jarquín Edgar

April 23, 2008

See also:

Mexico

(Conditions of gender oppression targeting indigenous women in neighboring Guerrero state)

Grave escalada militar en La Montaña alerta a mujeres indígenas

Indígenous peoples from the Me´phaa (Tlapaneco) and the Na´savi (Mixteco) tribes in the region of Ayutla de los Libres, in Guerrero state, have organized to denounce the fact that a recent increase in military and police forces in the area has brought with it threats of sexual violence against native women.


Added April 26, 2008

Ricky Martin y BID buscan prevenir trata de personas

Washington, DC - Ricky Martin se asoció con el Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (BID) y varias autoridades municipales para lanzar una campaña de prevención de la trata de personas y proteger a sus víctimas hispanas en esta capital estadounidense, dijo el jueves el BID en comunicado de prensa.

- The Associated Press

April 24, 2008

See also:

Llama y Vive promoverá línea telefónica de asistencia confidencial y gratuita (1-888 NO-TRATA)

BID, la Fundación Ricky Martin, Ayuda y socios locales lanzan campaña contra trata de personas en Washington, D.C.

- El Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (BID)

Washington, DC, USA

April 24, 2008

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Ricky Martin Foundation, the non-governmental organization Ayuda and the DC Mayor’s Office on Latino Affairs have partnered to launch Call and Live in Washington DC, a campaign that promotes an anti-trafficking hotline for prevention and victim protection. Other local partners of the initiative include Telemundo, Univisión, Washington Hispanic and Radio Viva 900.

Ricky Martin, IDB President Luis Alberto Moreno and Ayuda Executive Director Mauricio Vivero will launch the campaign in an event scheduled to take place on April 29, 2008 from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at the Enrique V. Iglesias Auditorium, IDB Headquarters (1330 New York Avenue, Washington, D.C).

The campaign aims to reach 100,000 Latinos in the D.C. area with prevention messages about human trafficking and provide access to legal and social services for victims through a Spanish-language hotline. Call and Live has been implemented in Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Peru and Nicaragua, where it has triggered more than 55,000 relevant calls to the national hotlines, 60 police investigations, and the rescue of at least a dozen victims.

The IDB is launching this initiative in Washington D.C. as part of its local corporate responsibility efforts...

Members of the press (including print, radio, and television) wishing to cover the event can pre-register or register on-site the day of the event with appropriate press credentials.

 

- Inter-American Development Bank

April 24, 2008

Llama y Vive / Call and Live Hotline:

1-888 NO-TRATA

http://www.llamayvive.org/

Ricky Martin Foundation

http://www.rickymartinfoundation.org


Added April 26, 2008

Honduras

Honduran labor leaders Rosa Altagracia Fuentes and Yolanda Virginia Sánchez were recently ambushed and murdered on a highway linking the northern Honduran cities of Progreso and San Pedro Sula.

Altagracia Fuentes was Secretary General of the Honduran Labor Federation (CTH), and was a member of the executive committee of the recently founded Union Confederation of Workers of the Americas (CSA). Yolanda Santos was a member of the executive committee of the CTH, and directed the Labor Union of the National Institute of Professional Formation (INFOP).

Police report that witnesses saw 6 men dressed in black clothes and ski masks ambush the victims. Police believe the attack was premeditated, given the choice of a dark, isolated section of road to carry out the crime. Authorities also believe that the trio was being followed on the day of the attack.

Honduran former president Rafael Leonardo Callejas, who had talked to Sánchez hours before the attack, expressed his condolences.

Daniel Durón, Secretary General of the Workers Central General (CGT), lamented the murders, demanded an immediate investigation and called upon the Honduran government to protect labor leaders "because we face danger here."

- CIMAC Noticias

News for Women

Mexico City

April 24, 2008


Added April 26, 2008

New Jersey, USA

Princeton Township - A man was arrested and charged after a teenage girl was assaulted and sexually harassed...

Detectives believe the juvenile... was approached by a man about 5:30 p.m. Police later arrested a man suspected of the alleged attack.

Accompanied by her stepfather, the girl reported the incident to police a couple of hours later. She told investigators that the unknown man began making several obscene and sexual comments towards her, and then slapped her across the face with an open back hand. The victim described the attacker as a 6-foot Hispanic man wearing a red shirt, with tan skin and bushy brown hair.

Less than 10 minutes after the report was filed, officers found a man matching the description at about 8:10 p.m.

Identifying himself as Roman Cabellano Ramirez, the man admitted to making the lewd comments toward the teenager, but denied striking her.

Ramirez was taken into custody and charged with simple assault and harassment. He was later released on his own recognizance.

- Paul Szaniawski

The Times

April 23, 2008


Added April 26, 2008

Southeast Asia

Sexual and physical abuse, child labor alleged in Southeast Asia shrimp industry

Washington, DC - Workers in Southeast Asia's shrimp industry suffer regular abuse and sometimes live in what amounts to virtual slavery, a human-rights organization said Wednesday.

The Solidarity Center report says the global shrimp industry is worth about $13 billion annually.

Sexual and physical abuse, debt bondage, child labor and unsafe working conditions are common in Thailand and Bangladesh's shrimp processing factories, the Solidarity Center said in a 40-page report...

Workers told Thai police who raided one factory in September 2006 "that if they made a mistake on the shrimp peeling line, asked for sick leave, or tried to escape, they could expect to be beaten, sexually molested, or publicly tortured," according to the report.

..."On average, Americans eat more than three pounds of shrimp each year; about 80 percent of that shrimp is imported. In 2006 alone, U.S. shrimp imports were valued at over $4 billion, making shrimp the most valuable seafood import into the United States. Roughly one-third of that shrimp came from Thailand.

- CNN

April 23, 2008


Added April 25, 2008

Texas, USA

Artist's Drawing

of one of two

rape suspects

South Houston Police Department (SHPD) said that a South Houston teenager was walking home from school near Shaver and Vista Road when two men drove up to her in a white Toyota Camry... and asked what her name was.

SHPD Police Chief H. Gilbert said the teen reported trying to ignore them. "She then said that they pulled the car in front of her and the suspect passenger got out of the car and grabbed her," he said.

Gilbert said they drove her to an area behind a Food Town grocery store and while the driver held her down, the passenger sexually assaulted her. She was then released and was able to contact her mother, who called the police.

The two suspects were described as Hispanic men between the ages of 30 to 40.

- The Pasedena Citizen

April 24, 2008


Added April 23, 2008

Argentina

Marita Verón

Rescatan a 40 niñas forzadas a prostituirse en varios prostíbulos argentinos

Forty undernourished children between the ages of 11 and 12 have been rescued from 30 brothels in the province of Rioja, in northeast Argentina, where they were sexually exploited.

The announcement was made by Susana Trimarco during ceremonies to mark the opening of her foundation dedicated to rescuing young victims of human trafficking. Trimarco has struggled for 7 years to recover her own daughter, Marita Verón, who was kidnapped by a sex trafficking network in April of 2002 in the city of San Miguel Tucumán.

Trimarco's efforts have saved dozens of lives. With her new foundation, she plans to extend her work, searching for victims, rescuing them and working with them during their recuperation.

Trimarco pointed the finger at the local police chief, who she accused of "wanting to block the sun with his own hands." Thanks to Trimarco'e efforts, dozens of victims have been rescued from trafficking mafias, a judge has been sacked, and 30 other people have investigated and processed.

- Actualidad

Spain

April 23, 2008

See also:

Power of a Mother’s Love Saves 100 Women from Traffickers

U.S. State Dept. Under Secretary Paula Dobriansky stands with Susana Trimarco de Veron in Washington.

Argentine woman wins U.S. International Women of Courage Award

Susana Trimarco: "Women disappear in Argentina every day, she said. Many are taken away to Colombia, Mexico, Spain, Paraguay and other countries to work in the sex industry."

Trimarco said her goals for the coming year are to establish a foundation to help fight human trafficking, get more governmental involvement, and, of course, to find her beloved Marita.

- United States Embassy - Uruguay

June 12, 2007


Added April 23, 2008

United States

U Visa - Helping victims turn violence around

The federal U Visa program helps unauthorized immigrants who are victims of domestic violence and other crimes, such as rape, torture and involuntary servitude.

In exchange for a maximum of four years to live and work legally in the U.S., participants help government and law enforcement authorities investigate and prosecute crimes, according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, a branch of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security...

Many women who enter the U.S. illegally from Latin America or Asia are following their husbands or partners. Domestic violence is often a taboo topic in these cultures where female subservience can be accepted as the norm...

...Members of the Hispanic community often distrust law enforcement in their home countries and don't realize that police in the U.S. can help, she said.

Nevertheless, Blotny said, many Hispanic immigrants get a chilly reception here, and deportation rumors swirl, inspiring fear and uncertainty.

Blotny described a case in Baltimore where a woman called police to report on an abusive partner. When the police arrived, the abuser asked them to check her papers. They discovered she was not authorized to be in the country, arrested her and took her to prison.

Still, Blotny encourages her clients to call the police, get a protection order and then to seek help in finding relief, possibly in the form of a U Visa...

Although the act creating U Visas was passed in 2000, official regulations for the program were not released by the Homeland Security office until October 2007.

- Frederick News Post

Frederick, Maryland

April 22, 2008


Added April 22, 2008

Missouri, USA

Wrongly convicted of rape, facing decades in jail, broke -- Armand Villasana turned to his fiancee Wanda.

He asked for her trust; she asked her brother for money.

A loan of $25,000 led Villasana to aggressive defense lawyers and -- eventually -- his now-well-documented vindication.

DNA proved his accuser Judith Ann Lummis a liar.

Sounds like a great ending, right?

It's not.

Villasana never got a dime for his wrongful conviction. No compensation for 21 months in jail on false charges. Nothing to help with his legal bills...

Villasana has received no money from a civil suit he filed against Missouri Highway Patrol evidence collectors in his case, and Greene County officials have not offered any sort of reparation for his wrongful prosecution...

"I don't want a million dollars or nothing," he said. "I just want them to do the right thing..."

- The Springfield News-Leader

April 21, 2008


Added April 21, 2008

United States, USA

Even as he was flying to the United States, Pope Benedict XVI spoke of protecting immigrant families, not dividing them...

...While the immigration theme has been over-shadowed during Benedict’s trip by his denunciations of the sexual abuse scandal in the church, it was the second issue after the abuse cases that he addressed on the plane from Rome...

The separation of families “is truly dangerous for the social, moral and human fabric” of Latin and Central American families, the pope told reporters aboard his plane.

“The fundamental solution is that there should no longer be a need to emigrate, that there are enough jobs in the homeland, a sufficient social fabric,” he said. Short of that, families should be protected, not destroyed, he said. “As much as it can be done it should be done,” the pontiff said...

Secular advocates for immigrants... welcomed the pope’s words. “That’s big news,” said Teresa Gutierrez, a coordinator for the May 1st Coalition for Immigrant and Workers Rights. “Any decent comment about the reality of what’s really happening to immigration in the United States coming from such a prestigious person as the pope is extremely helpful.”

- Daniel J. Wakin and Julia Preston

- The New York Times

April 20, 2008


Added April 21, 2008

Texas, USA

El Paso - A federal judge Wednesday sentenced a 51-year-old man to more than nine years in prison after he pleaded guilty to engaging in sexual activity with teenage girls in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) conducted the investigation.

John Dickens Armstrong, a registered sex offender, was deported from Mexico... in August 2007... ICE special agents obtained an arrest warrant for Armstrong last year after learning that Ciudad Juarez police officers arrested him for engaging in sexual conduct with underage girls. ICE charged him with engaging in illicit sexual conduct in a foreign place, a federal offense.

A U.S. citizen who travels out of the country for sexual activity with a minor may be charged with travel with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct, more commonly known as "sex tourism." In April 2007, Juarez police found Armstrong in his Juarez apartment with a 15-year-old El Paso girl, who later told authorities she engaged in sexual conduct with Armstrong in exchange for money and crack cocaine. The teenager, a U.S. citizen, lived in Juarez with her grandmother at the time.

ICE special agents also learned that Armstrong solicited under-aged girls in a Ciudad Juarez bar and paid them $40 to have sex with him. He was also known to offer them crack cocaine.

- U. S. ICE

April 3, 2008


Added April 21, 2008

Michigan, USA

Two of seven men who allegedly raped a 23-year-old mentally impaired woman over several hours last fall in Washington Township have been charged while the investigation against the other suspects proceeds slowly.

Alberto Trejo, 32, of Washington Township, is scheduled to face trial Tuesday in Macomb County Circuit Court on four counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct for the Sept. 30 incident... Juan Aguilar, 37, faces a preliminary examination Tuesday in 42nd District Court in front of Judge Denis LeDuc on one count of first-degree criminal sexual conduct...

...The two defendants and five suspects took advantage of a young woman with the mental ability of a 12-year-old... Four of the men surrounded her, took her mobile phone and broke it in half...

"She was very scared"... "She said she thought if she agreed to drink with them that they would leave her alone. Remember, she has the mind of a 12-year-old."

The men started grabbing her breasts, crotch and thigh, and one man simulated sex with her on the porch...

"She kept saying no, but they wouldn't let her get away," she said. They escorted her to a bedroom inside the unit...

- Jameson Cook

The Macomb Daily

Mount Clemens, Michigan

April 20, 2008


Added April 21, 2008

Louisiana, USA

High court split over execution of child rapists

Washington - The Supreme Court focused Wednesday on whether "evolving standards of decency" in the United States forbid a resumption of capital punishment for any felony but murder. But the justices offered no clear indication of how they will rule in the case of a man who is on Louisiana death row for raping a child.

Patrick Kennedy, 43, is on Louisiana's death row for the rape of his 8-year-old stepdaughter.

- Bill Mears

CNN

April 16, 2008


Added April 21, 2008

Arizona, USA

Gaudalupe - An [undocumented] immigrant has been arrested on suspicion of raping and kidnapping a 15-year-old girl at her Guadalupe home, Maricopa County sheriff's deputies said.

The MCSO Special Victims Unit arrested Jose Dolores Montoya Sanchez, 24...

The 15-year-old was immediately taken to a local hospital for medical treatment, MCSO said. A forensic evaluation confirmed an assault, according to sheriff's investigators.

- KPHO

April 17, 2008


Added April 20, 2008

Colombia

...Colombia... has the second-highest internal displacement rate in the world after Sudan, with estimates ranging from 1.9 million to almost 4 million. That's about 6 percent of the population...

Displacement of people who live on the land [is]... a deliberate strategy to get them out of the way of armed groups fighting for strategic territory to cultivate and process lucrative illegal drug crops...

The reality for many families faced with the priority of putting food on the table is that children might have to go out to work.

...Six out of 10 displaced children go to school - not such a low number - but most drop out well before the end of high school.

While boys are often drawn to gangs, girls can get pulled into prostitution, especially in areas frequented by tourists.

Wherever they are, displaced women are easy prey to sexual exploitation and abuse - from partners, relatives, neighbors, landlords and strangers and many become mothers at a very young age.

While 20 percent of Colombian teenage girls have been pregnant, that figure goes up to 30 percent for internally displaced girls.

...One in five internally displaced women has been raped...

These statistics are shocking, but... levels of violence against women are shocking all over Colombia, and few women have access to any kind of sexual health services. It's especially hard for women who are illiterate, and women from Afro-Colombian and indigenous communities, all of whom make up a sizable portion of Colombia's displaced population...

In this culture of violence, discrimin-ation and inequality, ...things are only going to get worse, as another generation of displaced children grows up too poor to get a good education.

- Ruth Gidley

Reuters

April 02, 2008


Added April 19, 2008

Mexico

United Nations and UNICEF Estimate that 50,000 Minors are Prostituted Along Mexico's Border with the United States

Prostituyen a 50 mil menores en la frontera, denuncia ONU

A survey conducted by the United Nations, UNICEF, and children's human rights organizations such as Casa Alianza (Covenant House, Latin America), indicates that an estimated 50,000 underage children and youth are prostituted on Mexico's border with the United States. An additional 20,000 children are active in the nation's interior cities and in tourist areas.

Sex traffickers target migrant children [mostly from Central America], Mexican children from dysfunctional families, and from Internet blogs and chat rooms. Despite the existence of international, federal, state and local laws, government entities do not address the problem with diligence, causing alarming growth in the child sex industry...

According to Sadot Sánchez Carreño, coordinator of the anti-trafficking program for the National Human Rights Commission of Mexico (CNDH), child sex trafficking is not fought with the energy that should be applied. Neither Mexican children, who are exploited along the U.S. border, nor Central American children, who are prostituted along Mexico's southern border, are protected...

Sánchez Carreño of the CNDH stated that child sex trafficking is not fought by authorities in part because it has become an accepted practice. She noted that globally, statistics on the age of children entering prostitution have gone down from age of 15 to ages 5 and 6...

- Judith García Aura

El Sol de México

April 13, 2008


Added April 19, 2008

Mexico

Military and police escalation in indigenous region accompanied by threats to women

Grave escalada militar en La Montaña alerta a mujeres indígenas

Indígenous peoples from the Me´phaa (Tlapaneco) and the Na´savi (Mixteco) tribes in the region of Ayutla de los Libres, in Guerrero state, have organized to denounce the fact that a recent increase in military and police forces in the area has brought with it threats of sexual violence against native women.

Soldiers, agents from the Federal Agency for Investigations (AFI) [similar to the U.S. FBI] and agents of the Ministerial Investigative Police (PIM) have subjected indigenous women to severe sexual harassment, intimidation and threats of rape.

Orlando Manzanares Lorenzo, a representative of the Organization of the Me'phaa Indigenous People (OPIM) announced that in recent days, these state forces have set-up camps near the town of El Camalote and told local residents "that they were going to rape women as they had done in other locations."  They told residents of the area that they were going to arrest leaders of the OPIM, and accused them of being guerillas.

These retaliatory actions are apparently a response to the ambush and murders of 4 police officers by unknown persons in the region.

The retaliation is also related to the fact that indigenous organizations are demanding compensation for the fact that government health services had forcibly sterilized 14 native women in El Camalote, and had also forcibly sterilized 16 native men in the native towns of La Fátima, Ocotlán and Ojo de Agua.

- CIMAC Noticias

News for Women

April 17, 2008

See also:

Obtilia

Eugenio

Manuel

Amnesty International believes indigenous rights activist and human rights defender, Obtilia Eugenio Manuel, may be in danger…  

As a leading member of the indigenous organization Organización del Pueblo Indigena Tlapaneco, AC (OPIT), Obtilia has documented reports of human rights violations against members of the indigenous communities in the southern state of Guerrero. At a conference on indigenous rights in Guerrero [in] 2004, Obtilia… publicly condemned the authorities' failure to... investigate… rapes in which members of the military have been implicated.

On 9 December 2004, a few days following the conference, a letter was reportedly delivered to Obtilia's house, in the municipality of Ayutla de los Libres. It warned her that "soon you will rest in peace", and also threatened her family. It told her that "You keep on trying to attack us with your stupid lies about the rape of Valentina and Inés... We were already going to get you but now you are really in trouble."

- Amnesty International

2005


Added April 19, 2008

Brazil

[A view into gender rights and crime]

Impunity

...The police in fact rarely catch criminals, because cases are normally not investigated diligently, even when they would involve very serious offences like rape, torture and first-degree murder. Instead, police investigations are often conducted in an utterly superficial and incomplete manner, if not visibly performed with bad-faith.

Violence Against Children

...There are now seven million abandoned children living on the streets of Brazilian cities. Crimes against these children are characterized by extreme brutality and include torture and dismemberment...

Those who manage to survive another day are left worrying about where their next meal will come from and finding a safe place to sleep. ...These children are subject to a process of "natural selection," in which only the strong survive to adulthood and the weak die early from disease and violence...

...Girls from rural areas are recruited in cities as prostitutes by strip clubs and modeling agencies, as well as through "wanted" advertisements. ...Sexual tourism involves child prostitution and is facilitated by travel agents, hotel workers and taxi drivers.

...Around 500,000 Brazilian children are victims of sexual exploitation. ...In the northern and northeastern regions, "most sexual crimes against children and adolescents are not investigated, and in some cases representatives of the judiciary are involved..."

Violence Against Women

Violence against women is, historically, a frequent occurrence in Brazil. ...Brazilian women are "frequently exposed" to all forms of sexual victimization. ...The country has one of the highest levels of incidents in the world falling under the categories of rape, attempted rape, and indecent assault. ...Crimes against women are often under-reported and the perpetrators very [often] left unpunished.

- Augusto Zimmermann

www.Brazzil.com

Feb. 22, 2008

LibertadLatina Note:

The above description of epidemic rape and sex trafficking, coupled with a failure of national, state and local governments to react and defend the basic human rights of women and children in their societies, applies not only to Brazil, but to many Latin American nations.

Mexico stands out as a notable example, where activists and journalists who speak out against rampant child sexual exploit-ation face official retaliation and even kidnapping and murder.

- Chuck Goolsby

LibertadLatina

April 19, 2008

See also:

The crisis of sexual exploitation in Brazil

Subasta de Niñas en el Corazon de Brasil (Fortaleza).

Girls as young as 9-years-old are given false employment offers, and are taken by boat to remote jungle mining camps where they are auctioned off as sex slaves to miners.

- Cronica El Mundo

March 03, 2002


Added April 19, 2008

Virginia, USA

Virginia State Police have issued an Endangered Missing Child Alert for the 12-year-old Charlottesville girl who vanished after returning home from school Tuesday...

“They believe she has or is leaving the Charlottesville area,” state police Sgt. Ted Jones said, referring to Charlottesville police, who could not be reached for comment.

Jones said city authorities believe Lorena Sanchez-Toledo may be with a Hispanic man named Jeremias Chagala-Mil...

- Daily Progress

April 19, 2008


Added April 18, 2008

Mexico - The World

Lydia Cacho

Photo:

Theresa Braine

 

Paris - Mexican journalist Lydia Cacho Ribeiro will be given the UNESCO World Press Freedom Prize for her work exposing political corruption and organized crime, the UN cultural body said Wednesday.

“Through investigative journalism, she uncovered the involvement of businessmen, politicians and drug traffickers in prostitution and child pornography” in Mexico, said UNESCO in a statement announcing the award.

Her work continued “in the face of death threats, an attempt on her life and legal battles,” it added, noting that she had also been the victim of police harassment...

UNESCO’s director-general will hand over the $25,000 (€16,000) prize to Cacho in a ceremony to be held on World Press Freedom Day on May 3 in the Mozambican capital Maputo...

The news came as media freedom campaigners Reporters without Borders (RSF) condemned the killings Monday of two young women working for a community radio station in the south of the country.

RSF expressed its shock at the fatal shootings Monday of Teresa Bautista Flores, 24, and Felicitas Martinez, 20, at Putla de Guerrero, in the southern state of Oaxaca.

Both women worked for La Voz que Rompe el Silencio (The Voice that Breaks the Silence) a community radio station serving the Trique indigenous community...

- Agence France-Presse

April 10, 2008

See also:

LibertadLatina

Journalist / activist Lydia Cacho is railroaded by the legal process in Mexico for exposing child sex trafficking networks


Added April 18, 2008

Tina Davila

Texas, USA

Houston - The victim of a fatal carjacking Wednesday evening in northeast Houston was a mother of five children who loved being a mother and enjoyed cooking and football, her eldest child said.

Tina Davila, 39, was trying to fight off a man who wanted to carjack her vehicle because her 4-month-old daughter was inside, police have said. Surveillance video shows one of the men trying to snatch her keys away, and when she fought back, she was stabbed by a knife or sharp object...

Officials still are looking for the stabbing suspect, who witnesses describe as two Hispanic males in their mid- to late-30s.

(Story includes security camera video of the attack.)

- Fox News, Houston

April 17, 2008


Added April 18, 2008

El Salvador

Cárcel para acusados de violar a bebé de 14 meses

El Guayabo County, Sonsonate Province - Pedro Ernesto Rodríguez Abarca and Miguel Ángel Cortez have been arrested and accused of raping a 14-month-old child. Prosecutors obtained a 5 month pre-trial detention period while police seek evidence.

Prosecutor Carmen Vásquez announced that witness testimony and scientific evidence will be used against the suspects. They face a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison if convicted.

According to the girl victim's father, the attack has traumatized the whole family. "We are in very bad shape. At times, I can't even believe it. I see my wife and children suffer."

The victim is recovering in Bloom Hospital, where she had to undergo a colostomy operation.

- La Prensa Grafica

San Salvador

April 18, 2008


Added April 18, 2008

Yemen

Divorcing

husband

in Court

BBC News

San'a, Yemen (AP) -- A Yemeni judge dissolved the marriage of an 8-year-old girl to a man nearly four times her age...

The lawyer, Shatha Ali Nasser, said the girl is just one of thousands of underaged girls who have been forced into marriages in this poor tribal country at the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula.

The girl's story has drawn headlines in Yemen because she took the unusual step of seeking out a judge on her own to file for divorce...

The girl said her father forced her to marry a 30-year-old man... She charged that her husband constantly beat her and forced her to have sex...

In issuing his ruling Tuesday, the judge said he was terminating the marriage because the girl "had not reached puberty..."

The girl's family was ordered to pay $250 as "compensation" to [the husband]

- The Associated Press

April 17, 2008


Added April 17, 2008

Mexico

New attempt by Puebla authorities to censor Lydia Cacho highlights difficulty of covering pedophilia

Reporters Without Borders is worried about the fate of journalists who try to cover pedophilia in Mexico, especially after the authorities in the southern city of Puebla obstructed preparations on 30 March for a presentation by freelance journalist Lydia Cacho, a specialist in the subject, of her new book on 5 April.

Two other journalists, Sanjuana Martínez of the Monterrey-based regional daily Milenio Diario de Monterrey and Carmen Aristegui of W Radio, have also run into problems over pedophilia-related reporting since the start of the year. Martínez’s regular column was scrapped after she linked church figures to pedophilia cases, while Aristegui was fired after revealing how Cacho was arrested in December 2005 on the orders of Puebla’s governor...

The press freedom organization added: “It is clearly not a good idea for journalists to talk about pedophilia in Mexico. The presentation of Cacho’s new book with her two colleagues in attendance, coming at a time when the media are subject to strong pressure as soon as the subject is broached, is an act of courage that we salute. It is vital that nothing should mar this event.”

A wall poster announcing the presentation of Cacho’s new book was removed at the behest of the Puebla police on 30 March. The authorities said it “did not meet safety standards.” Another poster immediately replaced it.

The new book, “Memories of Infamy,” published by Random House Mondadori, includes an account of her December 2005 arrest and the various attacks and intimidation attempts to which she was subjected after the publication in 2004 of her book “The Demons of Eden,” in which she exposed the alleged involvement of well-known figures in pedophilia cases including José Camel Nacif, a textile entrepreneur close to Puebla governor Mario Marín.

Random House Mondadori told Reporters Without Borders that six local radio stations and newspapers called at the last minute to cancel interviews scheduled with Cacho to talk about the new book. At the same time, Mario Alberto Mejía, the editor of the news website Quinta Columna, reported that access to his site had been blocked in Puebla government offices.

- Reporters Without Borders

April 3, 2008

See also:

LibertadLatina

Journalist / activist Lydia Cacho is railroaded by the legal process in Mexico for exposing child sex trafficking networks


Added April 17, 2008

California, USA

Victor Navarro

Suspect arrested in brutal 2002 rape

A man alleged to have raped a woman and brutalized her so severely that she now needs a catheter to urinate was arrested Tuesday, nearly six years after the incident, Sheriff's Department officials said...

"Just don't give up," said Tammy Chavez, 44. "You'll get your justice somehow."

San Diego sheriff's deputies arrested Victor Navarro, 41, on Tuesday morning

The attack has left Chavez severely crippled...

..."Her insides are ruined," said Chuck Ryder, a marriage and family counselor who has worked extensively with Chavez and her husband. "She is the most severely injured person I have ever heard of who lived."

Chavez also has suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and attempted suicide. Doctors have tried to fix her internal problems with a range of surgical and medical treatments, but she remains unable to control her urinary and excretory systems.

"I'm 44 years old and I'm in diapers," she said, wiping away tears.

- Dan Simmons

North County Times

April 16, 2008


Added April 16, 2008

Mexico

Balbina Flores of Reporters Without Borders: Mexico's Special Prosecutor for Crimes Against Journalists is not doing their job

Misión internacional indagará asesinato de reporteras de Copala

Mexico City - A large number of international organizations have condemned the recent murders of two young indigenous women journalists, Teresa Bautista and Felicitas Martínez, who were ambushed and shot this past April 7, 2008 in the town of San Juan Copala in Oaxaca state in southeast Mexico.

An international mission which is now touring Mexico joined in the condemnation.  The group includes the United Nations Science and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Reporters without Borders, The World Association of Community Radios, International Media Support, the Committee for the Protection of Journalists, the International News Safety Institute, the Roy Peck Trust, the Inter-American Press Society, the International Federation of Journalists and the Foundation for Press Liberty.

...Members of the Mission announced that they will be visiting the states of Guerrero and Oaxaca...

...The two young journalists were murdered for denouncing the abuses of local caciques [corrupt town bosses].

...Women in this community face violence and rape, a reality which federal and state authorities have completely failed to respond to.

...Since the beginning of 2006, 37 journalists have been murdered in Mexico, with only 4 of those cases having been resolved. Flores expressed worry that today, 8 journalists are missing, and there is no law enforcement mobilization to resolve the mystery of the fate of our sister and brother journalists.

- Sandra Torres Pastrana

Cimac Noticias

News for Women

Mexico City

April 15, 2008


Added April 16, 2008

Colorado, USA

Photo by Carol Berry - Indian Country Today

 -- Diane Millich, Southern Ute, founder and executive director, Our Sister's Keeper Coalition with Kenny Frost, Southern Ute, the coalition's spiritual adviser.

 

Denver - Hazy Colorado sunshine nearly obscured the light of candles carried by women who gathered April 5 for a vigil in front of the state Capitol to honor Native and non-Native victims of sexual violence.

Gov. Bill Ritter proclaimed April Native American Sexual Assault Awareness month in Colorado, where 420 women who were victims of domestic violence in 2007 were served by Our Sister's Keeper Coalition, the group that sponsored the gathering.

...'''We're holding a candlelight vigil to shine a light on sexual assault on Native lands,'' said Diane Millich, Southern Ute, founder and executive director of the coalition, which is based in Ignacio on the Southern Ute Indian Tribe's reservation and in Durango, both in southwestern Colorado. ''It has been hidden far too long.''

''In my community of Towaoc, people said you shouldn't talk about sexual assault,'' said Ernest House Jr., Ute Mountain Ute and executive director of the Colorado Commission on Indian Affairs, who read the proclamation. ''It is not an easy thing to talk about.''

...The ceremony began with a Sun Dance song by Kenny Frost, Southern Ute, an American Indian consultant in several fields and spiritual adviser to the coalition. ''The first part of healing is talking about it,'' he said...

- Carol Berry

Indian Country Today

April 14, 2008


Added April 16, 2008

Alaska, USA

Anchorage - A radio station suspended two disc jockeys Tuesday over a derogatory remark about Alaska Native women made on their show, a comment that has Alaskans comparing the shock-jock duo to Don Imus.

The Anchorage DJs, known as Woody and Wilcox, were joking about what makes someone a real Alaskan, when one of them offered a variation on an old saying — offensive to many — that real Alaskans have urinated in the Yukon River and made love to an Alaska Native woman. What the DJ said, however, switched the verbs, making it far more offensive...

The station said it has indefinitely suspended the disc jockeys while they get sensitivity training...

Adding to the anger over the remarks is the fact that Alaska Native women are disproportionately targeted in violent crimes, including rape, said Denise Morris, president of the Alaska Native Justice Center, an Anchorage-based social advocacy organization.

The state has long had the highest sexual assault rate in the nation, and the problem is worst in rural, largely Native areas, according to a recent law enforcement study.

"These comments just cannot be taken lightly," Morris said. "Who is their listening audience? Young men..."

- Rachel D'Oro

The Associated Press

April 15, 2008


Added April 15, 2008

Mexico

© UNESCO

 

 

 

 

 

Stop killing journalists!!

México, DF.- El Director General de la UNESCO, Koichiro Matsuura, condenó el pasado 11 de abril el asesinato a balazos en una emboscada de las locutoras Felicitas Martínez Sánchez y Teresa Bautista Merino, de 21 y 24 años de edad, respectivamente, quienes conducían el programa, “La Voz que Rompe el Silencio”, parte de una emisora radiofónica comunitaria con sede en el municipio de San Juan Copala en el estado de Oaxaca, al sureste de México, y que emplea a jóvenes adultos y adolescentes de la comunidad indígena triqui.

- CIMAC Noticias

News for Women

Mexico City

April 14, 2008

[Gunmen murder young indigenous women journalists]

The Director-General of UNESCO, Koïchiro Matsuura, today condemned the murder of community radio announcers Felicitas Martínez Sánchez and Teresa Bautista Merino who were shot dead in an ambush in the state of Oaxaca, in southeast Mexico, on 7 April.

“I condemn the murder of Felicitas Martínez Sánchez and Teresa Bautista Merino,” said the Director-General. “Killing journalists is a heinous crime which harms the whole of society as it undermines the democratic right of citizens to hold informed debate and make informed political choices.”

Felicitas Martínez Sánchez (21) and Teresa Bautista Merino (24), were ambushed on a highway in Oaxaca state. Four other people were injured in the attack...

According to the Mexican National Center for Social Communication (CENCOS), and Article 19, the journalists were killed while on a reporting assignment for their community radio, La Voz que Rompe el Silencio [The Voice that Breaks the Silence] which is based in San Juan Copala, in Oaxaca, and employs young adults and teenagers from the Triqui indigenous community.

UNESCO is the only United Nations agency with a mandate to defend freedom of expression and press freedom...

- Martínez Sánchez and Teresa Bautista Merino

UNESCO

Paris, France

April 04, 2008


Added April 15, 2008

Mexico

500,000 indigenas relegados del poder politico en DF

Mexico City - During the 40th year commemoration of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King in the Digna Ochoa [an assassinated Mexican human rights lawyer] Auditorium at the Mexico City Human Rights Commission (CDHDF), CDHDF Technical Secretary Ricardo Bucio Mújica declared that racial discrimination against Mexico City's 500,000 indigenous residents co-opts their access to political, economic and cultural power and equality.

CDHDF officials cited the following facts: 73% of indigenous residents in the capitol city have no access to health care; 27% of them live in homes with dirt floors; 73% have no running water; 52% have no sewer access; and 11% live without electricity.

Migrant rights activist Elvira Arellano, of the Mesoamerican Migrant Movement, was also present for the event. Arellano called upon Mexican authorities to respect the human rights of Central American migrants who pass through Mexico on their way to the United States. Arellano noted: "the discrimination that these migrants suffer in our national [Mexican] territory is terrible."

- CIMAC Noticias

News for Women

Mexico City

April 14, 2008


Added April 15, 2008

Colorado, USA

Denver – The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) today announced it has settled its class sexual harassment lawsuit against the Dillard’s department store chain for $500,000 and substantial remedial relief on behalf of a class of 12 female former employees who were sexually harassed by an assistant store manager in two states.

The EEOC maintained in its suit that assistant store manager Scot McGinness sexually harassed women at two Dillard’s stores. The EEOC said that Dillard’s knew that McGinness was sexually harassing young female subordinates at the Palmdale, Calif., store, but failed to take appropriate action to stop the misconduct. Instead, Dillard’s transferred him to a managerial position in its Westminster, Colo., store, and failed to notify the new store about McGinness’s history of sexual harassment.

...Ybarra Lloyd, who worked at the Palmdale store, said, “The EEOC helped us ladies stand up to Dillard’s. In order to settle this lawsuit, Dillard’s had to agree to make changes in its workplace that, hopefully, will prevent others from being victimized..."

Ketty Lopez, who worked at the Palmdale store, said, “Our complaints about sexual harassment were ignored because no one seemed to care – but the EEOC made them care. Now Dillard’s will have to follow up on any complaints about sexual harassment it receives.”

- The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

April 1, 2008


Added April 15, 2008

Florida, USA

Tampa - Police arrested a sex offender for the 4th time after he was seen masturbating in front of two children inside a store.

Fermin Martinez-Ramos has a criminal history with Tampa Police.

This time two girls ages 9 and 4 confirmed to police he was masturbating in front of them at the Main Street Grocery store Sunday evening.

Martinez-Ramos ran out of the store before police arrived but was captured a short time later several blocks away....

- The E.W. Scripps Co.

April 7, 2008


Added April 13, 2008

Florida, USA
...For all that sets The Everglades Club apart, the private social club on Worth Avenue shares something with the most ordinary family or corporation. When an act of violence draws a glare of publicity, decades of history are re-hashed and old stories are re-examined in the face of new charges.

The current saga was triggered by a sensational lawsuit claiming the club contributed to an employee's rape.

In April 2006, Everglades Club employee Melissa Legare was raped by another employee in a club-owned dormitory. Esdras Cardona, an [undocumented] alien from Guatemala, was convicted of the assault and is serving a 20-year prison term.

But in February, Legare — who no longer works there — sued the Everglades Club, alleging that its discriminatory practices fostered a dangerous work environment.

Circuit Judge John Hoy is scheduled to hear a motion to dismiss the suit...

Stephanie Murphy

The Palm Beach Daily News

April 13, 2008


Added April 13, 2008

Central America, Mexico

Central America migrant flow to US slows

Arraiga, Mexico - For thousands of illegal immigrants from Central America, the long journey to the U.S. starts here, on the groaning back of a freight train they call The Beast...

Central Americans without documents now face increased security within Mexico, including checks on the train for stowaways. It's also harder for them to head north once they cross into Mexico because of hurricane damage to the train tracks.

The result: The number of non-Mexican migrants stopped by the U.S. Border Patrol has dropped almost 60 percent from 2005, despite increased detention efforts. About 68,000 non-Mexican migrants — mostly Central Americans — were detained last year, compared to 165,000 in 2005. Non-Mexicans make up about 10 percent of all migrants caught by Border Patrol officers.

Mexico itself is also seeing fewer illegal immigrants — 120,000 were arrested last year, a 50 percent drop from 2005...

"The mistreatment of migrants here [along Mexico's southern border] is brutal, and no one does anything about it because everyone sees them as booty," said Heyman Vasquez, a Roman Catholic priest. He estimated 80 percent of migrants are robbed before they arrive at his two-room shelter in Arriaga...

...One Nicaraguan man told of the time he saw a group of criminals gang-rape a woman and shoot her boyfriend...

- Olga R. Rodriguez

The Associated Press

April 13, 2008


Added April 12, 2008

Maryland, USA

A Montgomery County man, sentenced to two life sentences for rape Thursday, posed as a police officer and preyed on the fears of illegal immigrants, revealing what State’s Attorney John McCarthy called a growing trend among criminals.

John Robert Lay, 51, whose criminal history stretches back more than 30 years, is already serving time in a Virginia prison for sexually assaulting an [undocumented] Hispanic woman in Fairfax County in 2001. He was convicted of that crime in 2006.

In both cases, prosecutors said, Lay played on the fear of deportation held by many illegal immigrants by flashing a fake police badge at his victims and demanding identification.

When the women said they had none, he put them in his car, brought them to secluded areas and forced them to perform sexual acts...

“This is a pattern we’re seeing too often in our community. … On a regular basis criminals are targeting Hispanics, believing they can act with impunity,” McCarthy said, encouraging witnesses and crime victims, regardless of immigration status, to step forward...

“Preying on vulnerable victims; targeting Latino women is an aggravating factor, and so is impersonating police,” [Judge David] Boynton said. “You’re a lifelong criminal with offenses in every walk of life and in every location you’ve been in … this is to protect the community from you.”

- Freeman Klopott

The DC Examiner

April 11, 2008


Added April 12, 2008

California, USA

[Riverside -] A woman was raped Thursday as she ran along Gage Canal near Maude Street, a Riverside police spokesman said.

It was the second time in the past five months that a woman has been attacked in Riverside as she ran along a popular pedestrian path.

"This was a pretty brazen attack," said Riverside police spokesman Steven Frasher. "It was along a well-used recreational trail in the daylight ... so it's definitely cause for concern..."

"This is one of those deeply distressing cases that does not have enough clues. That is why we are reaching out to the public," Frasher said.

The man in Thursday's attack is described as Hispanic... the release stated.

- The Press-Enterprise

April 11, 2008


Added April 12, 2008

California, USA

Friends and family of a teenager shot and killed last month are urging the L.A. City Council to support a new policy for the LAPD they're calling "Jamiel's Law."

Seventeen-year-old Jamiel Shaw was a Los Angeles High School student and football star. He stayed out of the street gangs in South L.A. But last month, someone who thought Shaw was in a gang gunned him down near his Arlington Heights home.

The LAPD says the suspected gunman, 19-year-old Pedro Espinoza, was a member of the 18th Street Gang, and possibly in the country illegally. Jamiel's father, who is also named Jamiel Shaw, asked the L.A. City Council to overturn Special Order 40, at least for gang members. That's a decades-old guideline that keeps LAPD officers from asking about the immigration status of people they've arrested.

Jamiel Shaw: My son was murdered by someone that was not in the country legally, and he was a documented 18th Street Gang member, that I'm sure was in the database, and when he was released, he was released into the community. And it's just sad. We're devastated, even though it's just, it's been over a month, we are completely devastated that our son is gone.

- Brooke Binkowski

KPCC

Southern California Public Radio

April 08, 2008

See also:

Jamiel Shaw's family speaks out at Los Angeles City Hal in favor of Jamiel's Law.

Jamiel Shaw Sr.:

"We love Latinos just like we love our son." 

"Our problem is the 18th Street Gang."

"Eighty percent of the 18th Street Gang is [undocumented]."

"We want him back [Jamiel] but we can't get him back."

"Something has to be done."

www.YouiTube.com

April 08, 2008

Angry Los Angeles residents demand passage of Jamiel's Law, repealing Special Order 40.

www.YouiTube.com

April 08, 2008

LibertadLatina note:

The impunity that exists in Mexico and other regions of Latina America, that focuses on violence against women and against those who are different from oneself, has grown into a wave of gang attacks, from Central America through Mexico into the Unites States.  These attacks focus on rape and forced sex trafficking on the one hand, and on the other hand, anti-Black ethnic cleansing in places like Los Angeles, California.

It is the responsibility of the leadership within the Latino communities of the United States to address this issue in its U.S. context.  Federal, state and local authorities also have a role to play that must be more active, and better informed, than what they have done in the past.

There is no excuse and no justification for allowing criminal impunity to continue to exist.  To ignore these realities will cause the anti-immigrant movement to continue to grow in reaction to these events, that the public sees unfolding every day across the U.S.

- Chuck Goolsby

April 1, 2008

See also:

...These [Latino] gangs are responsible for the alarming spike in gang membership worldwide and share a racial agenda against African Americans, stemming from their sworn allegiance to the racist Mexican Mafia (La Eme) prison gang that works with the Aryan Brotherhood...

...Black gangs don’t have these chilling unwritten rules whereby once you join a Latino gang you cannot get out alive. Nor do black gangs share a racial agenda to rid their neighbor-hoods of all Latinos. Finally, black gangs don’t give out stripes for executing a murderous racial agenda, or threaten to kill bangers who won’t.

All of these, according to [Deputy District Attorney and landmark Mexican Mafia prosecutor Anthony] Manzella, are known as La Eme’s unwritten rules.

- Annette Stark

Los Angeles CityBeat Newspaper

March 19, 2008

See also:

An example racist and homicidal gang speech

- AsiaPacificUniverse.com

March 24, 2004

Moving to unite blacks and Latinos in a neighborhood plagued by fear

- Los Angeles Times

Jan. 7, 2007

Federal prosecutors say a powerful Latino gang systematically targeted rival black gang members and innocent black civilians in a reign of terror.

- Newsweek

Oct. 24, 2007

Sixty one Los Angeles members of Latino gang arrested for targeting African Americans for murder.

- KCAL

On YouTube.com

Oct. 16, 2007


Added April 11, 2008

Illinois, USA

Chicago - Police on Thursday have issued a community alert as they continue to search for a man who attempted to lure two young children into his vehicle on the Southwest Side Tuesday afternoon.

The attempted child abduction happened about 2 p.m. on the 2900 block of West 47th St., according to a release from police.

Police are searching for a Hispanic male between the ages of 20 and 30 with a thin build, a scar on his left cheek and black spiked hair, the release said. He was last seen wearing a white t-shirt...

- The Chicago Sun-Times

April 10, 2008


Added April 11, 2008

California, USA

Lodi - Police have released a sketch of a man who detectives believe tried to kidnap a 10-year-old girl in Lodi Monday.

The fifth grader at Washington Elementary School was approached by a suspicious man around 3:15 p.m. near the school's playground, she told investigators.

The man was carrying files and asked the girl to "look over or review some contracts." She feared he was tying to kidnap her, so when he was within a few feet of her, she kicked the man and ran away. She said the man tried to run after her but fell...

The girl described the man as...Hispanic, thin, and standing about 5 feet 4 inches tall. Police released a sketch Thursday...

- Elizabeth Bishop

KXTV

April 10, 2008


Added April 11, 2008

Maryland, USA

Baltimore - U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents yesterday arrested four convicted sexual predators, passing the milestone of 100 arrests of sexual predators in Maryland since 2003. All the predators arrested by ICE were foreign-born criminals who are subject to removal from the United States...

The four were arrested... have served their sentences and are now amenable to be returned to their countries of origin.

Carlos Alvarado, age, 37, a citizen of Honduras, was convicted of Rape, 2nd degree, ...and was initially sentenced to six years of incarceration in 2005. His victim was 11 years old...

Richard Amos age, 36, a citizen of the Philippines, was convicted of child abuse... and sentenced to 18 months incarceration in 1990. His victim was 5 years old...

Jose Isa Portillo, age 33, a citizen of El Salvador, was convicted for carrying a handgun and a fourth-degree sex offense... in 2006. He was sentenced to one year in jail. His victim was 17 years old...

Yovanni Zelaya Ortega, age 22, a citizen of El Salvador, was convicted... of 3rd-degree sex offense against a 13-year-old victim in 2007.

- U.S. ICE

April 04, 2008


Added April 11, 2008

Pennsylvania, USA

Police yesterday released a new composite drawing of the Fairmount Park rapist, the man thought to have killed one woman in 2003 and assaulted three others, and warned that he may be still around.

"We've got better weather," said Capt. John Darby of the Special Victims Unit. "We want people to know they are potential witnesses, but also that they are potential victims."

On July 13, 2003, the attacker raped and strangled Rebecca Park, 30, a fourth-year medical student at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine.

After raping two other women that year, the killer disappeared for four years and reemerged almost a year ago...

...The attacker may have a Jekyll-and-Hyde personality. He said that the attacker consoled one or two of the victims after the attacks. The attacker also talked of his family in Puerto Rico.

- Dwight Ott

Philadelphia Inquirer

Apr. 10, 2008


Added April 11, 2008

Arizona, USA

The head of the union representing more than 2,000 Phoenix police officers says each day of delay in implementing a new immigration policy puts lives at risk.

Mark Spencer with the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association says the number of Hispanic murder victims is alarming, that 63 percent of all homicide victims in the city in 2006-2007 were Hispanic. And, he said 50 percent of the murder suspects were in the United States illegally.

Hispanics are three to four times more likely to become murder victims, according to Spencer...

- Jim Cross

KTAR

April 09, 2008


Added April 10, 2008

Young Mexican girls are enslaved and prostituted in the United States

Niñas mexicanas prostituidas y esclavizadas al sexo en EU

The business is as lucrative and sophisticated as the illegal drug trade. The products are undocumented Mexican girls as young as 11-years-old who suffer a terrible fate: to live as sex slaves and serve 25 to 30 clients per day.

The victims have been tricked [with false romance and job offers] and taken from their homes, at times because of the actions of their own parents.

John Johnson, regional director of the FBI in McAllen, Texas and former director of the FBI's Civil Rights unit: "The victims are the most vulnerable people in society: poor, without education and easy to manipulate." "They are brought here with promises of better opportunities, but when they get here, they face intimidation and control."

Some victims are seduced by job announcements seeking young women to be models or assistants, noted Víctor Manuel Treviño, Mexico's Consul in Brownsville, Texas.

One job ad published in newspapers to hook young women states: "What would you think if someone offered you $600 just to accompany a man in his travels? We can get you that type of job."

Other ads seek domestic workers. Yet others are from "a good American man" seeking a young Mexican woman to marry.

International Organizations that fight sex trafficking state that Mexico is one of the world's nations that is out of control in regard to this issue, much like Thailand, Cambodia, India and Brazil. Of the 13,000 homeless street children living in Mexico City, for example, 95% have had some type of sexual encounter with adult men.

A study by the U.S. Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, of rescued trafficking victims, has found an epidemic of rape, abuse, and sexual diseases such as HIV/AIDS and the viruses that cause cervical cancer. The violence that they face is so extreme that rape, broken bones and loss of consciousness are common experiences.

In San Antonio, a gang that trafficked Mexican children into Texas was recently dismantled by police.  Court documents have charged Timothy Michael Gereb and three Mexican-American sisters with child prostitution.

In another recent case from Houston, a 16-year-old Mexican girl was freed from sexual slavery by police.  The victim stated that she was held prisoner in a house guarded by three dogs.  Gregoria Salgado Vázquez, age 58, and her son David Salazar, 27, were arrested in that case.

- Texas en Linea

(Texas Online)

April 8, 2008

LibertadLatina commentary:

The above article states that 95% of the homeless street children in Mexico City have had sexual encounters with adult men.  A study by Casa Alianza in Nicaragua found that 80% of street children had such experiences within the first year of leaving their homes.

Latin America his over 40 million street children.  It is fair to assume that therefore, many more than 40 million children survive in the region through child prostitution and 'survival sex' with adult men. 

The fact the Latin American cultures condone and accept impunity in the sexual exploitation of children by adult men has grave impacts both within Latin America, and in migrant destination countries such as the United States.

- Chuck Goolsby

.LibertadLatina

April 10, 2008


Added April 10, 2008

Rhode Island, USA

Woonsocket - A... man awaiting trial on charges of kidnapping and sexually assaulting a 5-year-old girl in 2005 was back in police custody Wednesday morning after allegedly kidnapping an 11-year-old girl at knifepoint on her way to the middle school and sexually assaulting her in an empty apartment...

The girl was able to break free from her alleged assailant, Miguel A. Navarro, 20.... and return home to her family, who notified police immediately of the incident...

A swarm of city police officers canvassed the neighborhood where the attack occurred and had Navarro in custody within 30 minutes of the 7:46 a.m. assault...

...Police are attempting to determine if Navarro had any role in the March 11 brief kidnapping of a 15-year-old city girl as she walked to school at the high school or another incident involving a 10-year-old girl who was approached by an unidentified male as she walked to the Citizens Elementary School several days earlier...

The 15-year-old high school student was allegedly pulled into a car by a Hispanic male subject on Elm Street near Jervis on March 11 but was able to escape the vehicle unharmed when it slowed in traffic...

- Joseph B. Nadeau

The Woonsocket Call

April 09, 2008


Added April 10, 2008

Minnesota, USA

..."Laura" was 19 and out with friends at Rookie's Sports Grill...

She decided to leave... A man in a white sedan pulled up. He opened the passenger side door and asked if she needed a ride home. When she bent over to respond, he grabbed her arm and pulled her into the car.

Then, she said, he hit her on the head with a bottle...

Some closure came Monday when the assailant, Domingo Perez Santos, was sentenced to 15 years in prison...  He pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting three women at different times in 2006 and 2007.

[In] the first assault... a 40-year-old woman was walking alone... when a man grabbed her around the neck from behind and pulled her to the ground. She screamed until he stuffed a sock or rag in her mouth. He then raped her more than once. She tried to get away, but he punched her in the jaw...

The second assault [was] Laura's...

...In May 2007... a 23-year-old Rochester woman said a man who had given her a ride got violent after she refused to have sex. He ordered her out of his car, tackled her into a ditch, punched her in the chest and raped her. He fled after she hit him in the head with her shoe...

Laura: "I grew up in Rochester. I have never before felt at any point it was not safe. That has all been shattered. I don't feel safe anywhere..."

"I am not racist, but I am terrified of Hispanic males," she said...

[Laura] is troubled, too, that Santos was given only a 15-year prison term. He will be eligible for release in 10 years, she said, and then be deported to Mexico.

- Janice Gregorson

Post-Bulletin
Rochester, Minnesota

April 09, 2008


Added April 09, 2008

Rhode Island, USA

Patricia Martinez

- The Providence Journal

Providence - A member of Governor Carcieri’s Cabinet apologized yesterday for raising concerns that the governor’s effort to curb illegal immigration has caused hatred and widespread fear across the state.

“The executive order is the first step in the right direction toward immigration reform,” said Department of Children, Youth and Families Director Patricia Martinez, a day after saying that Carcieri’s recent order, like several bills proposed by the legislature, “is really slamming immigrants” by promoting racial profiling.

Martinez, a former leader of the Hispanic advocacy organization Progreso Latino, met with the governor yesterday afternoon behind closed doors for roughly 45 minutes.

The meeting came on the same day that calls for Martinez’s resignation dominated Rhode Island talk radio.

“I apologize for any misperceptions my comments might have caused,” she said in a statement released after the meeting. “In particular, I did not mean to imply that the governor’s actions were spreading hatred.”

But in a later interview with The Journal, she disputed assertions made recently by the governor and his supporters that undocumented immigrants are a drain on Rhode Island’s resources.

“We need to have the right facts before we begin to point fingers at everyone,” Martinez said...

- Steve Peoples

The Providence Journal

April 09, 2008


Added April 08, 2008

Pennsylvania, USA

York - A 2-year-old girl died after being beaten with a video game controller by her mother's boyfriend, police said Tuesday. Darisabel Baez's mother overheard the beating Sunday but did nothing until she realized the girl was unconscious, police said.

The girl was pronounced dead late Monday at Hershey Medical Center, police Lt. Ron Camacho said.

Homicide was added to the list of charges against Harve L. Johnson on Tuesday; he was already in jail on counts including aggravated assault and reckless endangerment...

The girl's mother, Neida E. Baez, was charged with endangering the welfare of a child.

- The Associated Press

April 08, 2008


Added April 05, 2008

North Carolina, USA

...Hundreds of... women, and dozens of men participated in "Combating Sex Trafficking," a conference held... at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The conference featured academics, social workers, bureaucrats, lawyers and law enforcement...

To start the conference, Kika Cerpa shared her story of being lured to New York from Venezuela as a young woman by a man who promised to care for her.

Instead, his female cousin took her passport and her $2,000 in life savings and forced her into a brothel, where she had sex with dozens of men every night while her captors collected the money.

"I felt wounded inside," Cerpa said.

She came to see police as enemies, as they not only patronized the brothel but also arrested the women and not the pimps or the johns. Cerpa ended up marrying a customer -- a man who had threatened her at gunpoint -- to escape the brothel...

- Jesse James DeConto

April 05, 2008


Added April 05, 2008

Texas, USA

La familia de una adolescente de 13 años acusada de ofrecerle sexo a un policía encubierto dentro de un salón de baile de Dallas afirma que no estaba al tanto de las actividades de la niña.

- Rebecca López and Tanya Eiserer

Al Dia Texas

March 26, 2008

[Dallas -] About a dozen protesters clamored Friday night for the closure of a Love Field-area nightclub where police said one 13-year-old girl lured another into prostitution.

"The children don't have a voice. Someone needs to speak up," said organizer Enrique Carranza outside Metropolis club at 8416 Denton Drive.

Some protesters called for the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission to step in and suspend or revoke the club's liquor license based on numerous complaints.

Mr. Carranza said he is frustrated by the city's inability to close the club, because a city ordinance doesn't require it...

The council will discuss the issue on Wednesday. Ms. Koop hopes a revised ordinance will specifically address age.

- Holly Yan

April 5, 2008


Added April 05, 2008

Colombia
Autoridades enciendan alerta por turismo sexual infantil en Cartagena

Authorities from the Colombian Institute for Family Wellbeing (ICBF) and from the Colombian beach resort city of Cartagena have stepped up patrols in tourist areas where pimps offer children for sale in prostitution.

According to Elvira Forero, director of the ICBF, enforcement activity is focusing on the city's historic district and other trouble hot spots. Forero emphasized that their work to stop child sex tourism cannot be effective without community cooperation.

Forero: "The most revealing complaints have focused on the fact that exploitation has increased, especially in clubs where minors are performing striptease." Forero went on to state that her agency will come down hard on the offenders.

Forero noted that her agency has an agreement with local hotels wherein hotel security will prohibit minors from entering the rooms of single tourists and those who are acting suspiciously.

- Caracol Noticias

March 26, 2008


Added April 1, 2008

Ecuador

Un sentenciado por trata de personas

Chimborazo Province - Ecuador has seen a number of its underage youth being hired to work in Venezuela. On February 29, 2008, José Vicente Yuquilema Cajas, age 57, was sentenced by First Criminal Court of Chimborazo Province for illegal trafficking of three children, who were sent to Venezuela via Colombia. He had offered parents $1,000 US dollars as the child's annual pay.

The victims, Pablo N., age 17, Laura N., age 15 and Rosa N., age 13, were taken by the accused and other suspects to Caracas, where the children were abused and forced to work 10 hours a day as street vendors and in cleaning services. The children received 2 meals a day.

A social service agency report from Caracas stated that the three children survived by begging, and faced abuse and physical aggression during the two years that they were enslaved in Venezuela.

Pablo N. stated that they were offered $1,000 per year to work, but were never paid over a 21 month period.

Police arrested Yuquilema Cajas on February 21st as he tried to recruit a 10-year-old girl at the local Guamote County fair.

Ecuadorian authorities state that over 60 similar cases exist. Parents typically refuse to file a formal criminal complaint [an investigation requires a civilian complaint in Latin America]. Yuquilema Cajas is the first person to be sentenced for this form of human trafficking, which has existed for many years.

- El Comercio - Quito

March 24, 2008

LibertadLatina note:

The majority of children and youth trafficked from northern Ecuador to Colombia and Venezuela are from the indigenous peoples of the region.

- Chuck Goolsby

April 1, 2008


Added April 1, 2008

Brazil

Procesan 12 personas por encarcelar niña de 15 años en una celda con 20 hombres

Police arrest 12 people involved in jailing a 15-year-old girl, and then placing her in a cell with 20 men. The victim was repeated raped, and was forced to exchange sex for food.

Among the accused are 5 policemen, 5 corrections authorities and 2 male inmates who are accused of raping the girl.

Brazilians became enraged when the chief of the state police of Pará, Raimundo Benassuly, accused the victim of having a mental disability... because she did not tell police that she was 15 at the time of her arrest.

The victim has alleged that she has been threatened by the policemen who permitted the abuses. She went on to say that, during each of the 8 times that she has been jailed since July of 2007, she has been treated as an adult and sexually assaulted in jail.

- La Voz de Galicia - ['Spain']

March 24, 2008


Added April 1, 2008

Mexico

Bandas de explotación sexual de Puebla y Tlaxcala operan en Orizaba

Sex workers in the Orizaba Valley region have been made uncomfortable by the growing presence of underage prostitutes sent to the area by a sex trafficking network based in the states of Puebla and Tlaxcala. Lead by Jairo Guarneros Sosa, of the Civil Society Coalition, the adult sex workers converged on the Orizaba mayor's office to demand that authorities do something about the problem.

Guarneros Sosa: "These sex trafficking networks originate in a region of Puebla state, near Tlaxcala, that is known nationally and internationally as the capital of the [sexual] exploitation networks." "The problem is made worse by the fact that these youth agree to sex without protection at a low price, in order to meet the daily quotas of their pimps." "They are 17, 16 and even 15 years old."

Activists demand that authorities come up with a solution to the problem, one which increases the risks of sexual infections including HIV.

María de la Cruz Jaimes of the Veracruz Women's Institute stated: "These sex trafficking networks have set up shop in Orizaba because nobody [among local legal authorities] tells them that they can't.

- Marea Informativa

March 27, 2008


Added April 1, 2008

California, USA

Vacaville Police arrested a 15-year-old Vallejo boy Friday in connection with a sexual assault at an [Osh Kosh B'Gosh] outlet store.

The boy, described as a Hispanic male, faces charges of penetration with a foreign object, assault with intent to commit rape, false imprisonment, burglary and sexual battery. According to a police statement, the juvenile suspect was on probation in Solano County for armed robbery...

- TheReporter.com

Vacaville, CA

March 29, 2008


Added April 1, 2008

Texas, USA

Sugar Land - Police have named a person of interest in the attempted kidnapping of a15-year-old girl Tuesday...

It happened... while the girl was walking home around 4:10 p.m. The man, who was driving a truck, stopped and talked to her. He tried to grab the girl, but she ran away.

Sugar Land police said the girl told her mom the same man tried talking to her a couple of weeks ago, but she'd run into her house.

Now police are looking for Mario Enrique Garcia Santizo...

A similar situation happened at the Aquatic Center last week. A man in a white truck approached an 11-year-old girl who was walking with her teenaged brother. The two kept walking, and the man drove off...

- KHOU

March 28, 2008


 

 
     

LibertadLatina

News / Noticias

 


Updated: March 12, 2010


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LibertadLatina

Analysis of the political actions and policies of Mexico's National Action Party (PAN) in regard to their detrimental impact on women's basic human rights


¡Feliz Día Internacional de la Mujer!

Happy International Women's Day!

LibertadLatina Statement for International

Women's

Day, 2010


Últimas Noticias

Latest News



Added: Mar. 12, 2010

Mexico

Critica PE falta de compromiso para defender DH de las mujeres Reprochan nula respuesta ante abusos sexuales de militares

Diputados del Parlamento Europeo (PE) encabezados por Raül Romeva, criticaron el deterioro de los derechos humanos en México y la falta de compromiso del Estado para defenderlos y apoyarlos, principalmente los derechos sexuales y reproductivos, violencia contra las mujeres y justicia militar, por lo que pidieron que la Unión Europea condicione la ayuda a México, en tanto no haya avances perceptibles en la materia.

En la resolución original sobre México, propuesta e impulsada por el eurodiputado Raül Romeva i Rueda, conjuntamente con Barbara Lochbihler y Ulrike Lunacek, del partido de los Verdes, se hace un recuento de la violencia en todos los ámbitos que actualmente enfrenta México…

European Parliament Rebukes Mexico for Failing to Defend the Rights of Women

Body condemns Mexico's failure to respond to rape by military members

Deputies of the European Parliament (EP), lead by Raül Romeva i Rueds [a Green Party deputy from representing the Catalunya region of Spain], have criticized the deterioration of human rights in Mexico and the lack of commitment on the part of the State to defend and support the rights of women, including those concerning sexual and reproductive rights, violence against the women and military justice. Given a lack of response from Mexico to inquiries, the EP has recommended that aid to Mexico be conditioned on improvement in human rights.

EP deputy Raül Romeva i Rueda proposed and pushed through the resolution in collaboration with fellow Green Party deputies Barbara Lochbihler y Ulrike Lunacek…

Lourdes Godínez Leal

CIMAC Women's News Agency

March 11, 2010


Added: Mar. 12, 2010

Mexico

2009 Human Rights Report: Mexico [Released 2010]

Women

The law criminalizes rape, including spousal rape, and imposes penalties of up to 20 years' imprisonment. However, rape victims rarely filed complaints with police, in part because of the authorities' ineffective and unsupportive responses to victims, the victims' fear of publicity, and a perception that prosecution of cases was unlikely... Human rights organizations asserted that authorities did not take seriously reports of rape and victims continued to be socially stigmatized and ostracized…

NGOs criticized government authorities for failing to investigate adequately, prosecute, and prevent the killings of women and girls.

In November the Inter-American Court of Human Rights found that the government denied justice to and failed to prevent the deaths of Claudia Gonzalez, Esmeralda Herrera, and Berenice Ramos, whose bodies were found near Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, in 2001.

According to the National Institute of Statistics and Geography, Mexico City and the 12 states of Chihuahua, Nuevo Leon, Sinaloa, Sonora, Tamaulipas, Mexico, Guanajuato, Jalisco, Morelos, Tlaxcala, Tabasco, and Yucatan experienced high rates of alleged gender-driven homicide.

FEVIMTRA--staffed by 19 legal, administrative, and technical support professionals--is responsible for leading government programs to combat domestic violence and trafficking in persons. Its work includes prosecuting the crimes, raising awareness with potential victims and government officials, and providing the only government shelter for trafficking victims. With only five lawyers dedicated to federal cases of violence against women and trafficking countrywide, FEVEIMTRA faced challenges in moving from investigations to convictions…

Prostitution is legal for adults and continued to be practiced widely. While pimping and prostitution of minors under age 18 are illegal, these offenses also were practiced widely, often with the collaboration or knowledge of police, according to the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women in Latin America and the Caribbean. The country was a destination for sex tourists and pedophiles, particularly from the United States. There were no laws specifically prohibiting sex tourism, although federal law criminalizes corruption of minors, for which the penalty is five to 10 years' imprisonment. Trafficking in women and minors for prostitution remained a problem.

Federal law prohibits sexual harassment and provides for fines of up to 40 days' minimum salary, but victims must press charges. Sexual harassment is criminalized in 26 of the states and the Federal District, but in only 22 of these is a punishment contemplated when the perpetrator has a position of power. According to INMUJERES, sexual harassment in the workplace was widespread, but victims were reluctant to come forward, and cases were difficult to prove…

Children

…The anti-trafficking law prohibits the commercial sexual exploitation of children. The CNDH estimated that every year, more than 30,000 children were recruited by criminal organizations dedicated to trafficking in persons. UNICEF and the anti-trafficking NGO CEIDAS reported that 1.8 million children were involved in commercial sex exploitation and that 1.2 million were victims of child trafficking. CEIDAS, the NGO Casa Alianza, and the National Network of Shelters reported that sex tourism and sexual exploitation of minors were significant problems in the resort and northern border areas. The UN special rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution, and child pornography, who visited the country in 2007, stated that the country did not have an effective system to protect and provide assistance to children and young people who were victims of sexual exploitation or trafficking…

Trafficking in Persons

The country was a point of origin, transit, and destination for persons trafficked for sexual exploitation and labor.

The INM, CNDH, and CEIDAS reported that the vast majority of noncitizen trafficking victims came from Central America; a lesser number originated in the Caribbean, Eastern Europe, and Asia. Victims were trafficked to the United States as well as to Europe, Asia, Canada, and in-country destinations. Women and children (both boys and girls), undocumented migrants from Central America, the poor, and indigenous persons were most at risk for trafficking.

… Many illegal immigrants also became victims of traffickers along the border with Guatemala, where the growing presence of gangs such as Mara Salvatrucha and MS 18 made the area especially dangerous for undocumented and unaccompanied women and children migrating north.

Apart from cartels and gangs, many criminal organizations from Mexico, Central America, Brazil, Europe, Japan, China, and several other countries, as well as small family networks, were reportedly involved in trafficking.

…The federal government does not automatically assume jurisdiction in interstate trafficking cases. Twenty-one states criminalize certain aspects of trafficking…

On December 2, a federal judge convicted five individuals from Tlaxcala, Mexico, for sexual exploitation--the first convictions under the Trafficking in Persons Law adopted in 2007. Four of the individuals were in custody in Mexico awaiting sentencing, while the fifth was in the United States awaiting sentencing on a conviction there. Separately, the government pursued 48 trafficking cases. FEVIMTRA investigated 43 of the cases involving three or fewer suspects during the year. The Special Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime, which handles trafficking cases with more than three suspects, was investigating the other five cases. In several states that have adopted penal codes to reflect the federal trafficking legislation, local prosecutors also made efforts to prosecute traffickers, particularly in Mexico City, Chihuahua, and Oaxaca. These offices had limited resources and experience.

Indigenous People

The CNDH and the Secretariat of Indigenous Peoples in Chiapas acknowledged that indigenous communities have long been socially and economically marginalized and subjected to discrimination, particularly in the central and southern regions, where indigenous persons sometimes represented more than one-third of the total state population. In the state of Chiapas, the NGOs Fray Bartolome de las Casas (FrayBa) and SiPaz argued that indigenous peoples' ability to participate in decisions affecting their lands, cultural traditions, and allocation of natural resources was negligible.

…[Indigenous] communities applied traditional practices to resolve disputes and choose local officials without government interference. While such practices allowed communities to elect officials according to their traditions, usages and customs laws generally excluded women from the political process and often infringed on other women's rights...

U.S. Department of State

March 11, 2010


Added: Mar. 10, 2010

Mexico

Jean Succar Kuri (left)

Exhortan Diputados a Reforzar Lucha Contra Explotación Infantil

Ciudad de México.- Un exhorto a las procuradurías de justicia de los estados y del Distrito Federal hizo la Cámara de Diputados para que redoblen sus esfuerzos en el combate a la explotación sexual infantil, a la trata de personas, así como para que capaciten constantemente a su personal…

Congressional Deputies Call for a Redoubling of Efforts to Fight Human Trafficking

Mexico City – A recent debate in the Chamber of Deputies [lower house of Congress]  lead to a unanimous vote on a non-binding resolution calling upon the nation’s federal and state prosecutors to redouble their efforts to fight against the sexual exploitation of children and human trafficking. The legislators also asked that the Courts establish permanent professional training on human trafficking law for their employees.

The non-binding resolution also asks criminal justice entities to coordinate with other government agencies with expertise in human trafficking, such as the Special Prosecutor for Violent Crimes Against Women and Human Trafficking

(FEVIMTRA).

The resolution specifically asks that prosecutors charge defendants with trafficking crimes where such action is merited, and that the punishment be commensurate with the crimes committed. 

National Action Party (PAN) deputy Rosi Orozco called upon the authorities in charge of the Cancun Penitentiary to take preventive measures to insure that [convicted millionaire child pornographer] Jean Succar Kuri does not escape during his upcoming transfer [from a maximum security prison in Mexico state to the Cancun minimum security facility]. Deputy Orozco also called for psychological studies to be performed and re-education be carried before prisoners like Succar Kuri are released back into society.

Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) deputy Pedro Avila Nevares asked that members of the Chamber put their political divisions aside and work as one to defend the wellbeing of the children of Mexico. PAN deputies Agustín Castilla Marroquín y Guillermo Zavaleta Rojas declared that Mexico must have a “zero tolerance policy for pedophiles, regardless of whether they are wealthy, politically connected or are members of a religious cult.”

Members of the Chamber agreed that recent child sexual exploitation scandals such as those of Father Rafael Muñiz Maciel, [child pornographer] Jean Surcar Kuri and the Casitas del Sur case [in which a dozen or more children were trafficked from a network of children’s shelters with possible links to Succar Kuri’s sex trafficking network] should never be repeated in our nation. “These are examples of behaviors that are indeed embarrassing to all Mexicans.”

El Sol de México

March 05, 2010


Added: March 10, 2010

Haiti, Bolivia

Haitian Children Rescued From Traffickers

Authorities in Bolivia have rescued 19 children and teenagers thought to have been kidnapped in Haiti by human trafficking gangs.

A state prosecutor says the children are now being looked after by the Bolivian government and a search is continuing for at least eight others.

The 19 children who are now being looked after in a safe house in Santa Cruz were in a party of 88 Haitians who entered Bolivia from Peru on tourist visas in January.

It is not clear when they left Haiti, but one report indicates they set off on their journey - which took them through the Dominican Republic, Panama and Peru - two days before the earthquake which devastated large parts of Haiti on January 12.

Prosecuting authorities in Bolivia suspect the children were being trafficked for sexual exploitation and three people have been arrested - two Haitians and a Bolivian.

ABC News

March 10, 2010


Added: March 10, 2010

Mexico

Desarticulan banda de trata de personas en México

Una banda de trata de personas, incluyendo menores de edad, fue desarticulada en Puebla, centro de México, dijo la Procuraduría General de Justicia del Estado (PGJE).

La banda operaba en San Pedro Cholula, una población del estado de Puebla.

Agentes del Ministerio Público y Policía Ministerial de la entidad aseguraron a 11 integrantes de una célula delictiva, que operaba en el bar "Las Vías del Amor" .

Los detenidos fueron identificados como Salvador Anatolio Ramírez Cortés, de 60 años de edad, dueño del lugar; Salvador Ramírez Sosa, de 23 años, hijo del dueño, y Edna Ruth González, de 41 años, encargada del bar.

La PGJE dijo que además fueron arrestadas Carmen Cajica Rodríguez de 33 años, Javier Sánchez Morales, de 33 años; Leonel Mena Sánchez, de 30, y Héctor Manuel Becerra Fernández, de 56 años.

Human Trafficking Ring is Broken Up in Puebla

A human trafficking gang that included underage members has been disbanded in the state of Puebla, according to the state Attorney General's office.

The gang operated in the town San Pedro Cholula, in Puebla.

Police agents from the Public Ministry and the Ministerial Police detained 11 subjects who ran the ring from the the bar "Las Vías del Amor" (the paths of love).

Those arrested include Salvador Anatolio Ramírez Cortés, age 60, the bar's owner, Salvador Ramírez Sosa, 23, the bar owner's son, and Edna Ruth González, 41, who was in charge of the bar.

The Attorney General's office also mentioned the arrests of: Carmen Cajica Rodríguez, age 33; Javier Sánchez Morales, age 33; Leonel Mena Sánchez, age 30; and Héctor Manuel Becerra Fernández, age 56.

United Press International (UPI)

March 08, 2010


Added: March 10, 2010

Mexico

Buscan crear banco de datos sobre la trata de personas

La Junta de Coordinación Política de la Cámara de Diputados exhortó a la Comisión Intersecretarial para Prevenir y Sancionar la Trata de Personas (conformada por instituciones del gobierno federal) a integrar un acervo especializado que contenga un banco de información particular sobre la trata de personas...

Congress Seeks to Create a National Human Trafficking Database

The Political Coordinating Committee of the Chamber of Deputies (lower house of Congress) has asked President Calderón's [recently formed] Inter-Agency Commission to Prevent and Punish Human Trafficking (composed of federal agencies) to create a computerized human trafficking database system.

The Coordinating Committee also requested that the anti-trafficking commission coordinate the development of the project with experts in the field. The Chamber of Deputies would like to see the project developed in a timely manner. The purpose of the project is to utilize the collected data to assist in the analysis of human trafficking with the objective of supporting efforts to prevent and punish human trafficking, as well as improve services for victims.

The National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI) says that each year between 16,000 and 20,000 children are sexually exploited in Mexico. The Special Prosecutor's Office for Specialized Investigation of Organized Crime (SEIDO) has detected 14 child sex trafficking networks just in the state of Guerrero.

Roberto Garduño

La Jornada

March 06, 2010


Added: March 10, 2010

Mexico

Preocupan a EU trata de personas, drogadicción y violencia aquí: Pascual

Zacatecas, Zac., 8 de marzo. El embajador de Estados Unidos en México, Carlos Pascual, aseguró que el gobierno de Washington está preocupado por tres problemas sociales relacionados con el narcotráfico y el crimen organizado que ocurren en este país:

La trata de personas, sobre todo de mujeres jóvenes y adolescentes; el alto porcentaje de “muchachos” que en muchas ciudades han desertado de sus escuelas hasta en 70 por ciento y luego caen en el uso de drogas, y en tercer lugar, la “batalla” que estos jóvenes libran todos los días “por el control de una esquina...

U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Expresses Concern About Human Trafficking, Drug Addiction and Violence

During an event held in Zacatecas city in Zacatecas state to celebrate International Women’s Day, U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Carlos Pascual has expressed his concern about three social problems with ties to narcotics trafficking and violence that occur in Mexico.

The problems mentioned were: 1) Human trafficking, and especially that which affects women and youth; 2) the high levels of school dropouts - which reach up to 70% of students in some regions – that drives youth drug addiction; and 3) the street battles that these youth unleash every day in their efforts “to control a street corner.”

Ambassador Pascual: “We can’t allow these youth to become the model for the future. We have to find a way to rescue those who have already fallen.”

The Ambassador added that is important that we support drug rehabilitation programs for addicts, as well as job creation and the taking back of public spaces.

Ambassador Pascual went on to note that “we are also responsible, and therefore we are doing everything possible to reduce the demand for drugs” in the U.S., by means of a federal prevention and rehabilitation program funded at 5.6 billion dollars.

Pascual said that the U.S. is doing what is possible to reduce the flow of arms and dollars, which crime networks send to Mexico from the U.S.

Ambassador Pascual also discussed immigration reform, noting that the Obama Administration will continue to seek to pass a comprehensive immigration reform package that will benefit the more than 12 million Mexicans who reside in the U.S. He added that understanding migration is a priority, because what it signifies for the future of both sides of the border.

Alfredo Valadez Rodríguez

La Jornada

March 09, 2010


Added: March 10, 2010

Costa Rica

United States Announces Initiatives in Costa Rica to Curtail Human Trafficking

The United Nations estimates that more than 250,000 people from Latin America are forced into labor as a result of human trafficking at any given time.

Though the extent of trafficking in Costa Rica is not known, the country has been recognized as both a feeder country and a destination for forced labor. A March, 2009 report issued by the United States said that Costa Rica fell short of the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking.

Girls from Nicaragua, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Colombia, Russia and Eastern Europe have been identified here as victims of forced prostitution. Officials are also aware of trafficking going the other way. According to the United States, Costa Rica needs to intensify efforts to investigate and prosecute trafficking offenses and improve data collection regarding trafficking crimes, among other changes.

To help Costa Rica meet minimum benchmarks, the United States government announced Monday that it would be backing two initiatives with a collective $350,000 grant.

“Make no mistake, human trafficking is a real example of modern-day slavery,” said U.S. Ambassador Anne Andrew. “That is why the United States Government is intent on supporting the fight against human trafficking.”

Part of the grant will go to Fundación Rahab to promote prevention as well as protection of adults and adolescents who are victims of trafficking. The other piece will go to the country's Judicial Investigation Police (OIJ) to improve investigation and response to forced labor.

“Trafficking of persons is a phenomenon that has no place in the 21st century; not in Costa Rica, not in the U.S. and not in our world,” Andrew continued. “It is our duty as human beings to fight against this evil.”

According to Andrew, Costa Rica has taken steps towards addressing the problem by changing some of its laws and improving the tools used to fight illicit trafficking. She said that traffickers frequently recruit people through fraudulent advertisements, promising legitimate jobs as models, hostesses, or work in the agricultural industry. When they accept, they find themselves trapped in jobs in a foreign country.

One way Public Security Minister Janina DelVecchio plans to confront the issue of trafficking is by “putting police where we have people” so that cases of forced labor are better detected.

Chrissie Long

Tico Times

March 09, 2010


Added: March 10, 2010

California, USA

Illegal Immigrant Wanted on Sexual Molestation Charge Arrested Near Calexico

An illegal immigrant charged with sexually molesting a child in the Bay Area was arrested near Calexico after trying to sneak back in the United States from Mexico, authorities said Tuesday.

The man was arrested Sunday nine miles west of Calexico with four other immigrants who had entered the U.S. illegally, the Department of Homeland Security said. His name and age were not released.

A records check by federal officers showed that the man was wanted on an outstanding warrant in Marin County on a charge of a lewd and lascivious act with a child under 14, the department said.

The man was being held by the Imperial County Sheriff's Department pending extradition to Marin County, according to the department. The four others were processed and returned to Mexico.

Robert J. Lopez

Los Angeles Times

March 9, 2010


Added: Mar. 9, 2010

Mexico

Ciudad Juarez

Sin cubrir “una mínima” parte la sentencia de CoIDH por Campo Algodonero

Critica organización civil “política simulatoria”de autoridades

México.- En materia de justicia, el gobierno mexicano mantiene una "política simulatoria", que solo se vale de grandes "distractores" para impactar. Esa es la razón por la que hoy se publican en el Diario Oficial de la Federación, los párrafos ordenados por la Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos (CoIDH) sobre la sentencia del caso "Campo Algodonero"...

Mexico Has Not Complied With "Even the Minimum" of the Inter-American Court's Sentence in the Juarez Cotton Fields Case

In matters of justice [for women], the government of Mexico uses a false front that relies upon large distractions to create public impact. This is the reason why today a statement ordered by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) in the 'Cotton Fields' case in Ciudad Juarez was published in the Official Gazette of the Federation.

Marisela Ortiz, the co-founder of the organization May Our Daughters Return Home [Nuestras Hijas de Regreso a Casa], told CIMAC News that the fact that the Mexican State has complied with paragraph 15 of the Court's order, requiring the publication as a "recognition of the true history" of the case, does not mean that Mexico is actually bringing about justice in the case.

Ortiz went on to say that the Government wants to show that it is doing something, but to date, 'we haven't seen any actions by them that come from a true concern to see justice done in the case, because the Government lacks the political will to repair the damage that has been done.'

The reality from our point of view, Ortiz says, is that Mexico has not complied with even the minimum requirements of the sentence published by the International Court. The only thing that they have done is to meet with the three families who brought the case to the IACHR. The Cotton fields case involved 8 women who's tortured bodies were found in a cotton field in Ciudad Juarez in 2001. The families of three victims participated in the IACHR case.

A clear example of the lack of appropriate government response to the case involves the fact that the authorities have stopped the small payments that they were making to the three families who brought the case…

Now, more than  ever, the government is using a false front in addressing the issue of femicide in Ciudad Juarez. The authorities have not taken into consideration the mothers of the other mothers of femicide victims, and today, government officials never mention anything about the femicide murders. They have blame cases of femicide in Ciudad Juarez on the narco-traffickers. Ortiz: “That is not a policy.”

Ortiz: “We will now have to be more vigilant in our demands that the Mexican Government compy with the requirements of the IACHR’s sentence.

In addition, we will continue in the struggle to bring justice to all of the other femicide cases, until we oblige the Mexican State to take responsibility for not guaranteeing safety for women, providing reparations for victims and for the prevention future crimes [as called for in the Court’s sentence]…

Ortiz declared that reparations for the damages done to the victims is not about money, it is about justice, about a public apology from the government, and later, it will be about seeing results to efforts to provide a better quality of life those who have been affected.

In commemoration of International Women’s Day, May Our Daughters Come Home expressed the need to do away with the idea that giving us a flower, of telling us that it is “beautiful to be a woman” and giving hypocritical accolades to distinguished women – is somehow the equivalent of their having an awareness of gender equality and justice.

Women in Cuidad Juarez continue to be murdered, and the machismo-driven attitudes of the government continue to foment impunity.

Marisela Ortiz:

“We dedicate this day to the women who have been the victims, and we rededicate ourselves to the fight against femicide.”

Laura Romero Gómez

CIMAC Women's News Agency

March 08, 2010


Added: Mar. 7, 2010

The Americas

Indigenous girls in Mexico - always at risk from sex traffickers and a government that does not care.

LibertadLatina Statement for International

Women's Day,

 2010

Government and NGO anti-trafficking efforts must be held accountable for

Taking effective

action

March 8, 2010, International Women's Day, represents LibertadLatina's 9th anniversary. We wish all women and girls around the world happiness and success on this day.

During the past year, we at LibertadLatina have redoubled our efforts to end gender oppression in the Americas. We thank our readers for their many expressions of support.

We have presented the true facts about the severe oppression facing Indigenous, African descendent and other Latina and Caribbean women and girls today. These are populations that remain severely under-represented in deliberations by those with the power to act at the governmental and NGO level to stop modern human slavery, and the many other forms of exploitation and injustice faced by these women of color.

We do not exclude any group in the war against gender oppression. With limited available resources, we have focused on populations and on issues that have been neglected by the mainstream ‘movement’ – and therefore need urgent attention.

We believe that our energies are best spent by bringing focus to the various forms of mass gender atrocity that are increasingly plaguing Mexico.

Mexico is the ‘bottleneck’ for mass migration from South and Central America to the United States. Mexico’s long standing traditions of severe machismo, political corruption, a tolerance for impunity and the influence of billions of dollars in drug cartel money has lead to women and children, and especially those who are indigenous, being targeted for kidnapping, rape, sex and labor trafficking and even murder. Taken together, these cases add up to tens of thousands of victims per year.

We have constantly insisted that the press, authors, academics and government officials end the virtual embargo on discussion of Latin America as one of the very top crisis areas globally for human trafficking. In 2010 the exclusion of Latina, Indigenous and Afro-Latina and Caribbean victim issues from public policy discussion, planning and action is an unacceptable fact in this movement.

Racial prejudices and preferences within Latin America’s educated elites, and similar traditions within the United States and Canada appear to be the motivating factors that cause this movement to avoid mention of Latin America and the Caribbean, where, by some estimates, approximately 50% of global sex trafficking activity takes place. We work continuously to provide the facts that will empower people of conscience to break the glass ceiling and provide ‘Little Brown Maria in the Brothel’ – our metaphor for these voiceless victims, an equal place at the table of decision making and provision of services.

Their voices must be heard!

We believe that our work is setting an example, and is a model to all of the many factions within the movement against human trafficking and exploitation. Because the movement, in it various forms (non governmental organizations, national and local government – and international agency organizations) has evolved largely from an academic base, the approach to fighting human trafficking has centered on many intellectually sound approaches – including efforts to raise awareness, petition government, pass laws, empower law enforcement and NGOs, give victims access, provide them shelter and space for recovery, and reduce demand for prostitution. These are all legitimate activities, and yet human trafficking continues to expand exponentially, far beyond the current capacity of our institutions to respond...

The disappointing example of Mexico’s effort to pass human trafficking legislation, and President Calderón’s two year effort to block and disable that important law, shows that the anti-trafficking movement cannot simply rely upon academic approaches to fighting trafficking that appear, on their surface, to be effective.

We must hold the governments of the region responsible for enacting and enforcing truly effective laws against human trafficking. For that reason, we support the efforts of those countries who are working through the United Nations to insist upon a new, Global Plan of Action to finally organize an effective global fight against human trafficking. Néstor Arbito Chica, Ecuador’s Minister of Justice and Human Rights, has been an articulate leader in this effort. Minister Arbito Chica: "National and regional efforts are not enough to cope with this global problem." "That’s why we call on the U.N. to take action."

We will continue to report on the developing story of the growth in impunity, and the movement to push back against that impunity. Those who are at risk, and those who are enslaved and exploited today, deserve our urgent attention, empathy, support and effective direct action to defend them from a life of torture leading to an early death.

We will continue to give that attention, and we will continue to press for government accountability in response to well advertised but as-yet ineffective actions to defend and rescue women and girls who

face impunity without  defense.

End impunity now!

Chuck Goolsby

LibertadLatina

March 8, 2010

Read the complete essay


Added: Mar. 7, 2010

Illinois, USA

DePaul University College of Law research fellow Jody Raphael presents her study of prostitution in Chicago - in 2008.

Video: WLS TV

‘Sex Trafficking’ Not Just a Problem Abroad

Juvenile Delinquency ‘We’ve got to punish men who are buying sex from children’

One of the first things Jody Raphael will tell you about child prostitution is this:

These children are not prostitutes. They're victims of abuse.

They're girls mostly, as young as 12, thousands of them, pimped out in hotels and apartments, often via the Internet, from the suburbs to the outskirts of Midway Airport and on down to Springfield, especially when all sorts gather for a legislative session.

The practice is officially known as sex trafficking, though the word "trafficking" often gets paired with "international" and conjures images of girls from foreign places.

The abuse of those girls – from Eastern Europe, Cambodia, Thailand – is what most often makes news and the plots of prime-time crime shows.

"International trafficking has excited a whole lot of interest," says Raphael, a research fellow at the DePaul University College of Law. "We've been trying to say for years: We have the same thing happening to girls born and bred in Chicago."

The plight of local girls got some publicity last week when Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez testified at a U.S. Senate hearing on domestic trafficking. That hearing relied partly on Raphael's research, so on Friday I asked her to paint a picture of what goes on in Chicago.

Our girls, she said, are mostly poor, which means disproportionately African-American and Hispanic. Almost all were sexually abused before they entered the trade.

Some girls are "put out" by a mother or a brother as a way to make money for the family. Some run away from an abusive home, only to be preyed upon by "recruiters..."

Raphael works with various groups, including the Cook County Sheriff's Office and End Demand Illinois, a new campaign funded by Peter Buffett's NoVo Foundation.

Targeting the traffickers, she believes, won't solve the problem.

"You have to make it very expensive and unhappy for the customer," she said. "We've got to punish men who are buying sex from children. We have to stop normalizing it.

"That means going after the customer and making it clear that here in Chicago we're not going to put up with this."

Mary Schmich

The Chicago Tribune

Feb. 28, 2010

See also:

Domestic Sex Trafficking of Chicago Women and Girls

[PDF file] [Overview]

Jody Raphael and Jessica Ashley

May, 2008

See also:

Studies Look at Prostitution in Chicago

[The linked article includes a video report.]

WLS

May 07, 2008


Added: Mar. 7, 2010

Mexico

Jean Succar Kuri (left) is escorted in a straight jacket by federal agents

Photo: Crónica

PRD, PRI, PAN y PT unen fuerzas para que no se beneficie al pederasta Succar Kuri

“Esta Cámara no tolera a los malditos pedófilos; para ellos mano dura”, afirma Leticia Quezada

The Party of the Democratic Revolution, the Institutional Revolutionary party, the National Action Party (PAN) and the Labor Party (PT) Unite to Prevent Pedophile [Kingpin] Jean Succar Kuri From Benefiting From the 'System.'

Deputy Leticia Quezada: "The Chamber of Deputies will not tolerate these evil pedophile; throw the book at them."

La Cámara de Diputados aprobó un exhorto al Poder Judicial para revertir la decisión del juez Alfonso Gabriel García Lanz de trasladar a una cárcel de Cancún al pederasta Jean Succar Kuri, y que en caso de cumplirse su cambio de prisión se ejerza una vigilancia especial para evitar que escape.

En la sesión de ayer, diputados de todos los partidos lamentaron que Succar Kuri, sentenciado por abuso a menores de edad en Cancún, Quintana Roo, sea enviado a una prisión de mínima seguridad, aun cuando fue catalogado en el proceso judicial como reo de alta peligrosidad.

En todos los tonos, legisladores de los partidos Revolucionario Institucional (PRI), Acción Nacional (PAN), de la Revolución Democrática (PRD) y del Trabajo (PT) reprocharon las facilidades que el juez García Lanz concede a Succar Kuri...

The Chamber of Deputies have passed a non-binding resolution that calls upon he Judiciary to reverse a decision by Judge Alfonso Gabriel García Lanz that will permit the transfer of [millionaire child pornographer] pedophile Jean Succar Kuri to a minimum security prison in the city of Cancún. The resolution also call for extreme vigilance to be used in the case that Succar Kuri is transferred, so that he is not allowed to escape.

In a plenary session of the Chamber, all of Mexico’s political lamented the fact that Succar Kuri, who was convicted and sentenced to prison for the sexual abuse of children in Cancún, is scheduled to be transferred to a minimum security jail when he had previously been categorized during the judicial process as a dangerous prisoner. The Party of the Democratic Revolution(PRD), the Institutional Revolutionary Party(PRI), the National Action Party (PAN) and the Labor Party (PT) all denounced the special access that Judge García Lanz is permitting Succar Kuri to have.

From the podium of the Chamber, PRI deputy Pedro Ávila Nevárez decried “the evil intentions that this man [Succar Kuri] had against Mexican children. If possible, the Army should pick this individual up, but don’t allow him to be taken to Cancun as if he had just won a prize. Send him instead to the Marias Islands or some other place that he can’t escape from!”

PAN deputy Guillermo Zavaleta stated that the crime committed by Succar Kuri should be punished by the death sentence. “He doesn’t deserve to see even the light of day tomorrow” stated Deputy Zavaleta from the podium. “Nonetheless, the political system guarantees him that he will be allowed to live.”

PRD legislator Emilio Serrano also spoke, saying that the transfer of Succar Kuri involves an attempt to allow his escape. “What can we say, now, to the ‘precious gover’ [a nickname used by Succar Kuri accomplice Kamel Nacif, heard in secretly recorded phone calls, where he refers to Governor Mario Marín of Puebla state by this term]? That he take Succar Kuri to Puebla, because he would be protected there – a place where  Miguel Ángel Yunes and Emilio Gamboa Patrón, and other [wanted] men hide, men who are in the same business and have the same tastes as Sucar Kuri?”

Labor Party deputy Gerardo Rodolfo Fernández stood to propose an end to the sheltering of pedophiles. “Often special privileges are offered to those who are rich and influential, those who have the protection of politicians, such as in the case of this person, Jean Succar Kuri. That is what the cases of Succar Kuri, Miguel Ángel Yunes and Emilio Gamboa have in common, that they are gravely serious and related cases of impunity.

The Party of the Democratic Revolution’s spokesperson in the Chamber, Leticia Quezada Contreras, upon voting for the resolution stated: “This Chamber will not tolerate these perverted pedophiles who want to hide between the gaps in the law. Throw the book at them!”

The Chamber also approved a proposal by Labor party deputy César González Yáñez, that Deputy Rosi Orozco, in her role as Chair of the newly created Special Commission to Fight Human Trafficking, personally present the resolution to the Judiciary, and specifically to Judge García Lanz.

Enrique Méndez and Roberto Garduño

Periódico La Jornada

March 05, 2010

[Note: In the above article, Miguel Ángel Yunes, who until Feb. of 2010 was head of the federal Secretariat of Public Security, and Emilio Gamboa, a legislator in the National Action Party, are referred to as having ties to Kamel Nacif, a collaborator of Jean Succar Kuri.

These ties are briefly described in several articles posted on our page dedicated to the Lydia Cacho case.

The below article from IPS also describes these allegations. - LL]

See also:

Added: Mar. 7, 2010

Mexico

Ties Between Elites and Child Sex Rings "Beyond Imagination"

Mexico City - The complicity in Mexico between child sex rings and the political and business elites "goes beyond what we can even imagine," says activist Lydia Cacho, who faces death threats and was even thrown briefly into prison for revealing those ties in a book...

The number of Mexican politicians and businessmen involved in child pornography and sex rings "would shock us if we knew the real extent of the phenomenon," said Cacho.

In one of the illegally taped conversations broadcast Tuesday, which apparently date back to 2004, the governor of the state of Veracruz, Fidel Herrera of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), and Emilio Gamboa, head of the party's bloc in the lower house of Congress, can be heard talking on friendly terms with textile mogul Kamel Nacif.

Nacif, a Mexican of Lebanese origin, who in the obscenity-laced conversation can be heard asking Gamboa to block a gambling bill to be debated by Congress, is suing Cacho for libel.

In her 2004 book "Los Demonios del Edén" (The Demons of Eden), Cacho - who is a journalist and writer as well as the director of a women's shelter in Cancún - links Nacif with Jean Succar, a Lebanese-born hotel owner who is in prison facing charges of arranging pedophile parties in that Mexican resort town...

The two PRI politicians, Herrera and Gamboa, denied having any illegal ties with Nacif, and said they did not even know Succar. From their point of view, the airing of the tapped phone conversations was a low political blow aimed at their party...

So far, no direct link between politicians or prominent businessmen and child porn or sex rings has been proven. But there are suspicions, which are fuelled by Nacif and his web of contacts.

Cacho, who has been under police protection since last year, when she began to receive death threats, was referred to in earlier leaked conversations, between Nacif and Mario Marín, governor of the state of Puebla, near the capital.

In the tapped conversations, Marín, a member of the PRI, can be heard telling Nacif that "I just gave a bump on the head to that old witch" [Cacho].

The two men also discussed how they had the activist arrested and thrown into a cell with "nutcases and dykes (lesbians)," so that she would be raped - something that did not occur, because in the prison, "the prisoners themselves and the guards protected me," the writer said in an earlier conversation with IPS...

But when the news of her arrest broke, the rights watchdog Amnesty International, the World Organization Against Torture, the Inter-American Press Association and other international groups raised an outcry, and Cacho was released on bail.

After the scandal triggered by the leaked phone conversations in February, in which the governor of Puebla and Nacif - who owns factories in that state - are heard discussing actions to teach Cacho a lesson, the Supreme Court initiated an investigation to determine whether or not Marín had engaged in criminal activity.

[Note: Since this article was written in 2006, press reports have revealed that Kamel Nacif's wife, who was then in a divorce process, had secretly recorded her husband's conversations with politicians and co-conspirators including Jean Succar Kuri. She anonymously released these tapes to the press in 2006. - LL]

Diego Cevallos

Inter Press Service (IPS)

Sep. 13, 2006


Added: Mar. 7, 2010

Mexico

National Action Party (PAN) legislator Guillermo Zavaleta speaks from the podium in the Chamber of Deputies to denounce judicial  favoritism shown to child porn kingpin Jean Succar Kuri

La Cámara Baja Exige al Poder Judicial Combatir Eficazmente la Pederastia

El pleno de la Cámara de Diputados aprobó por unanimidad, un punto de acuerdo para exhortar al Poder Judicial, a la PGR y a las procuradurías de Justicia de todo el país a combatir con eficacia la pornografía infantil y el abuso sexual a menores.

Diputados de todas las fracciones parlamentarias coincidieron en que se trata de delitos cada vez con mayor incidencia en México.

La propuesta fue presentada por la legisladora panista Rosi Orozco...

Chamber of Deputies Passes Non-binding Resolution Requesting That the Attorney General's Office and State Prosecutors Across Mexico Effectively Combat Child Pornography and the Sexual Abuse of Children.

Daniel Blancas Madrigal

Crónica

March 05, 2010

See also:

Added: Mar. 7, 2010

Mexico

Avala Pleno de Diputados Punto de Acuerdo para que la SSP Evite Traslado de Succar Kuri

México, D. F. Palacio Legislativo.- El Pleno de la Cámara de Diputados aprobó un punto de acuerdo de urgente y obvia resolución para exhortar a la Secretaría de Seguridad Pública (SSP) para que a través de la Dirección General de Traslado de Reos y Seguridad Penitenciaria se tomen todas las medidas de seguridad necesarias para evitar el traslado de Jean Succar Kuri a una prisión de Cancún, Quintana Roo. Lo anterior porque es procesado por un delito sumamente ofensivo para la sociedad –pederastia y pornografía infantil- y se pretende trasladarlo del penal de máxima seguridad del Altiplano, de Almoloya de Juárez, al centro penitenciario municipal de Cancún, el cual ha sido catalogado como uno de los más inseguros del país...

Chamber of Deputies Passes Non-binding Resolution Requesting that the Secretariat of Public Security Not Transfer [Millionaire Child Pornographer] Jean Succar Kuri to a Minimum Security Jail in Cancún that is known as one of the most insecure facilities in the nation.

Notilegis

March 05, 2010

See also:

Added: Feb. 22, 2010

Mexico

Víctimas Apelan Reubicación de Kuri

Victims Appeal Succar Kuri’s Relocation to a Minimum Security Jail in Cancun

The city of Cancun in Quintana Roo state – The administrators of the Cancun municipal jail have announced that Jean Succar Kuri, who have been prosecuted for heading-up a child pornography ring and engaging in child sexual exploitation, may be relocated from a high security prison to this minimum security prison, as a result of orders from the Second District Court in this city...

The announcement of the return to prison in Cancun came four years after the detention of writer and journalist Lydia Cacho, author of book The Demons of Eden, which exposed the activities of a pedophile ring.

Cacho, who was arrested in Cancun in December 2005 and taken to Puebla state under a criminal charge of defamation, considers that there is a very high probability that, once in Cancun, Succar Kuri will use his influence to live a comfortable life, and will escape and exact revenge against his victims.

Cacho, “Succar Kuri promised that he would return to Cancun to get revenge on girls who denounced him and, of course, to take revenge on me."

Adriana Varillas Corresponsal

El Universal

Feb. 16, 2010

See Also:

LibertadLatina

Special Section

Journalist / Activist

Lydia Cacho is

Railroaded by the

Legal Process for

Exposing Child Sex

Networks In Mexico


Added: Mar. 7, 2010

Colorado, USA

Western Union to Pay $94 Million in Mexico Transfer Settlement

Denver – Western Union will pay $94 million to settle a legal battle with the state of Arizona over whether the company allowed its money transfers to be used to send proceeds from human trafficking and drug smuggling to Mexico, officials said Thursday.

The settlement includes $50 million that will help law enforcement operations in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California battle money laundering and the smuggling of immigrants, drugs and guns along the 2,000-mile border.

"Attacking the flow of illicit funds from the United States to smuggling cartels in Mexico is fundamental to our goal of crushing the cartels," Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard said.

Joseph Cachey, Western Union's chief compliance officer, said the company has improved its monitoring of transfers and screening of agents.

As part of the settlement, Western Union will provide law enforcement officials with unprecedented access to records of wire transfers.

Los Angeles Times, The Associated Press

Feb. 12, 2010


Added: Mar. 7, 2010

Texas, USA

Heriberto Zaragoza III

Fugitive Arrested in Connection With Sexual Assault of a Child

Belton - Police arrested a man Thursday who had been a fugitive since 2007.

Heriberto Zaragoza III was charged with Sexual Assault of a Child in connection with incidents in the summer of 2007, involving a girl in her mid-teens.

The investigation led to a warrant being obtained in November of that year, but by then Zaragoza had disappeared. Police believed he had gone to Mexico.

The warrant remained active, however, and when detectives got word he might be returning to town, they watched for him and took him into custody.

Zaragoza is also charged with Failure to Identify Himself As a Fugitive With Intent to Give False Information...

Louis Ojeda

KXXV

March 05, 2010


Added: Mar. 7, 2010

New Mexico, USA

Adult Charged After Teen Found Pregnant

Las Cruces - A 23-year-old Las Cruces man has been indicted on child-sex charges after he allegedly impregnated a 14-year-old girl.

Austin Villado was indicted on eight felony child sex charges for having sex with the high school student at her home while the girl's mother was at work.

Court documents say the 14-year-old girl met Villado in September and they began having sex within weeks. Less than a month later, she was pregnant... The teenager broke up with the alleged gang member in December because he began dating someone else.

Villado was on probation for a burglary conviction at the time he was arrested so is not eligible for bond.

The Associated Press

March 01, 2010


Added: Mar. 6, 2010

Pennsylvania, USA

Jose David Castillo

Five in Montgomery County Charged in Drug, Prostitution Ring

Try as he might, alleged drug and prostitution ringleader Jose David Castillo couldn't keep Montgomery County authorities and his own children in the dark.

Castillo, 36, gave it his best shot, though, cops say. He and his cohorts set up a shrine with spiritual symbols - including the Santa Muerte, or angel of death - to ward off law enforcement in the hope that investigators wouldn't notice the two brothels and the cocaine-trafficking operation he ran in Norristown, authorities said.

But when Montgomery County investigators finally entered his home on Green Street with a search warrant last May, after a year of surveillance and investigation, one detective had a question for his daughter: "What does your father do for a living?"

"All I know is that he had a whorehouse," the girl answered, according to an affidavit of probable cause. When detectives asked her what her father said about the place, she answered: "Just rumors around town . . . My friends would tell me that he was selling women," the affidavit said.

Castillo, known by his underlings as "Gordo," or "fat guy," and four other defendants were charged yesterday with corrupt organizations, prostitution and drug and related offenses.

The others charged were Victor Castillo (J.D. Castillo's brother) Alfredo Hernandez Garcia, Louis Manuel Gonzalez-Sosa and Eduardo Lalo Guzman-Hernandez. All are Mexican nationals in the country illegally. Castillo has been arrested twice, once in California and once in Norristown, and has been deported twice to Mexico...

One brothel and the house that served as base for the cocaine operation were across the street from Gotwall's Elementary School, the affidavit said...

Three women who allegedly were working as prostitutes when the warrants were served are in protective custody of the Department of Homeland Security and have been cooperating with investigators.

"The women were brought to the United States illegally, and they were brought in with promises of a better life, promises of employment," District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman said at a news conference. Instead, she said, they were forced into prostitution "and physically beaten if they did not comply."

They were threatened with abandonment in the United States or, worse, "they would be taken back to Mexico to be killed so they could not be able to share this information with authorities," Ferman said.

Such women would work for Castillo for one week in Norristown while always being watched by one of his men, according to the affidavit.

"The operation here was part of a circuit of prostitutes who were routinely routed from Mexico to New York into New Jersey, Philadelphia and the Norristown area," Ferman said...

Regina Medina

Philadelphia Daily News

March 5, 2010


Added: Mar. 6, 2010

Mexico

Piden Partidos Políticos Evitar Traslado de Succar Kuri a Cancún

México, DF.- Llaman partidos políticos en San Lázaro a la Secretaría de Seguridad Pública (SSP) a que tome las medidas necesarias para evitar el traslado del pedrastra Jean Succar Kuri a una prisión de Cancún, Quintana Roo, al tiempo que exhortaron a procuradurías a redoblar esfuerzos contra la explotación sexual.

Durante la sesión de la Cámara de Diputados de este jueves fue aprobada una iniciativa para integrar un banco de datos sobre la trata de personas.

Al respecto, fue ampliamente criticada la decisión del juez Alfonso Gabriel García Lanz, de trasladar de un penal de máxima seguridad del Estado de México, a una cárcel de mínima seguridad, al pederasta Succar Kuri, quien fue catalogado en el proceso judicial como un reo de alta peligrosidad.

Legislators Ask That Jean Succar Kuri Not Be Transferred to Cancún

Mexico City - Legislators from across Mexico's political parties have asked the Secretariat of Public Security (SSP) to take all necessary measures to avoid the transfer of [millionaire child pornographer] Jean Succar Kuri to a jail in Cancún, in Quintana Roo state. They also called for prosecutors to redouble their efforts against sexual exploitation.

During the March 4th session of the Chamber of Deputies [lower house of Congress], a bill was passed that will create a national human trafficking database.

During the session, judge Alfonso Gabriel García Lanz was widely criticized for his decision to allow child pornographer Succar Kuri to be transferred from a maximum security prison in Mexico state to a minimum security jail in Cancún. A pervious assessment of Succar Kuri during the judicial process had identified him as a dangerous, high risk prisoner. 

CIMAC Women's News Agency

March 05, 2010


Added: Mar. 6, 2010

Latin America, The United States

Hillary Clinton Urges Latin America to Fight Drug Corruption

Mexico City - Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called for Latin America to fight drug corruption in a regional swing that ended Friday in Guatemala, days after that country's drug czar and national police chief were jailed on suspicion of leading a police ring that stole cocaine from drug traffickers.

The arrests underscored Guatemala's vulnerability to traffickers, whose billions of dollars in profits and bribes are undermining a fragile country still recovering from years of military rule and civil war.

"Organized crime has infiltrated all aspects of the Guatemalan state, and now rivals it in terms of power and influence," said Andrew Hudson, senior associate at Human Rights First in New York.

Drug czar Nelly Bonilla was arrested Tuesday, along with Police Chief Baltazar Gómez. They were accused of leading a criminal police gang that stole 1,500 pounds of cocaine.

They were the latest in a string of police officers alleged to have crumbled before the lure of drug profits.

The previous national police chief was jailed in 2009on suspicion of stealing $300,000 from drug traffickers. A previous drug czar, Adan Castillo, was caught on tape accepting $25,000 from a Drug Enforcement Administration informant as payment for overseeing narcotics shipments through Guatemala. He was invited to a DEA meeting in 2005 and arrested when he arrived in Virginia.

Clinton has said that despite increased cooperation in the region against drug traffickers, the Obama administration wants governments there to work harder to confront corruption.

Upon arriving in Guatemala, she praised the arrests and called on officials to "weed out corruption." Congress has authorized $1.6 billion for fighting drug trafficking in Mexico, Central America, the Dominican Republic and Haiti under the three-year Merida Initiative.

"We're going to be asking more of a lot of our friends," Clinton said earlier during a stop in Costa Rica. "A number of them are not respecting democratic institutions. A number of them are not taking strong enough stands against the erosion of the rule of law because of the pressure from drug traffickers."

Guatemala has one of the highest rates of violent crime in the world. Drug traffickers and gangs have revived insecurities in the impoverished people, who are recovering from a 36-year civil war that killed 200,000 people, most of them civilians.

A United Nations crime-fighting team, the International Commission Against Impunity, spearheaded the investigation that led to the arrest of the police officers. The team was created in 2007 to compensate for the inability of the Guatemalan judicial system to solve crimes often found to be committed by moonlighting members of the security forces.

[The above-described realities have important implications for the ability of Latin American nations to organize any serious effort to combat human trafficking. - LL]

Anne-Marie O'Connor

The Washington Post

March 6, 2010

See also:

Added: Mar. 6, 2010

Central America

Centroamérica: Territorio Común Para los Feminicidios

La escalada de homicidios de mujeres o femicidios cometidos en la región, ha experimentado un preocupante aumento, según el estudio denominado "Femicidio en Centroamérica", que se presentó a finales del año pasado en San José, Costa Rica, en el marco de una reunión del Consejo de Ministras de la Mujer de Centroamérica (COMMCA). Este documento comprende una investigación cuantitativa y cualitativa sobre las manifestaciones extremas de la violencia contra las mujeres.

Dicho estudio fue desarrollado en Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panamá y República Dominicana por el Centro Feminista de Información y Acción (CEFEMINA) con el apoyo del Consejo de Ministras de la Mujer de Centroamérica (COMMCA), el Fondo de Desarrollo de las Naciones Unidas para la Mujer (UNIFEM) y la Organización Canadiense de Cooperación Horizontes.

A pesar de que la preocupación por los femicidios es reciente el estudio pudo cerciorarse de que, en realidad, el problema ya tiene décadas de estar enraizado en la sociedad centroamericana.

Los hallazgos encontrados indican que este fenómeno se manifiesta en toda la región y de manera particularmente alarmante en Guatemala, Honduras y El Salvador. Así mismo, identifica los escenarios en que se producen los femicidios, analizando algunos de ellos con estudios de caso...

Central America: Common Territory for Femicide

The number in homicides of women, or femicides, committed in the region has experienced an alarming increase, according to the study “Femicido en Controamerica” (Femicide in Central America) which presented its findings from last year in San Jose, Costa Rica, at the meeting of the Consejo de Mujer de Centroameria (Council of Women’s Ministries of Central America). The document is comprised of a quantitative and qualitative investigation of the extreme manifestations of violence against women.

The study was conducted in Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama and the Dominican Republic by the Centro Feminista de Información y Acción de Centroamérica (Feminist Center of Information and Action in Central America), el Fondo de Desarrollo de las Naciones Unidas para la Mujer (The UN Development Fund for Women) and la Organización Canadiense de Cooperación Horizontes (Horizon Organization for Cooperation of

Canada).

Although the concern for femicide is has grown in recent years, the study found that in reality, the problem has been taking root for decades in Central American society.

The findings indicate that this phenomenon has manifested itself in the entire region and most alarmingly in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. The study identified the situation in which femicide is produced, analyzing some with case studies...

The study also makes clear that in countries like El Salvador and Honduras, the phenomenon of gangs is generating a greater number of murders of women when compared with that produced by the couple and former partners.

The above includes deaths provoked by sexual exploitation, revenge between men and mafias connected with prostitution. Femicides have taken place in the street, public places, streams, beaches, vacant lots, among other places. The majority of femicides are committed with guns and knives...

...El Salvador has seen a greater increase in female deaths than male deaths. Murders of men have increased by 40% while femicides have increased by 111%.

In Guatemala, these figures are higher. Femicide is growing by 183% while murders of men is growing by 100%... The principal people responsible for femicides are significant others, ex-partners or other people within the family like fathers, brothers, stepfathers or cohabitants. Gangs are also responsible for many femicides.

...Illegal practices connection with organized crime such as arms proliferation, mafias, international trafficking networks are also responsible for femicides.

The study only intended to analyze figures from past years. Although there have been advances in causes to help end femicide like the passing of the Law Against Femicide or the Law Against Human Trafficking in Guatemala- the figures keep climbing. The increase in violence against women is due to structural deficiencies that the State must reform to stop these crimes from continuing.

Mario Cordero

La Hora

Jan. 19, 2010


Added: Mar. 6, 2010

New Jerey, USA

Police, Feds Investigate Human Trafficking in [Trenton]

Trenton - City police and federal agents have been investigating human trafficking in Trenton's Latino community since late last year, top police officials said yesterday.

Young women from Guatemala and Mexico have been brought into the city to be used in an illegal network of bars and social clubs as part of a trade that is spiking in urban areas across the county, said Police Director Irving Bradley Jr.

Bradley said the department and its federal partners are building a strong case against the traffickers and sex-club operators, both of whom may have connections to Latino street gangs.

"We don't want to do a Band-Aid approach," Bradley said. "We want to shut them down permanently."

The investigation began when an informant spoke up about high drink prices last fall, Special Operations commander Capt. Michael Flaherty said.

"We got a complaint that one of the bars was charging $20 for a beer," he said. "We found that when you paid $20 for a drink, you also got the company of a person."

From there, police followed the nexus of alcohol, money, and sex through the South and East Wards, Bradley said. They found violence was sometimes added to the mix...

The clubs' customers are Latino men, many of them separated from their families and some in the U.S. illegally. The combination of their immigration status and cash income makes them tempting targets for both johns and robbers, police say, as well as potentially being unwilling to report a crime.

The women, who may provide dancing, sexual favors, or simple companionship, are often deceived by the traffickers.

NJ.com

March 06, 2010


Added: Mar. 6, 2010

Maryland, USA

Arash Koraganie Ghulam Abbas

Montgomery County Police Accuse Six of Human Trafficking, Prostitution

More than a dozen women are ready to testify against a Germantown man accused of luring them into prostitution, police say.

Arash Koraganie Ghulam Abbas, 31, was arrested Feb. 26 at his home in the 17800 block of Cormorant Lane and charged with four counts each of human trafficking and running a prostitution business, said Montgomery County Police Department Cpl. Dan Fitzgerald.

Abbas was one of six arrested in a recent Montgomery County Police investigation into people being forced into labor or sexual exploitation, also known as human trafficking.

The investigation led to the disruption of three such trafficking operations in Montgomery County, authorities said.

"These pimps, what they do, is put these girls in a world they don't know," Fitzgerald said.

Fitzgerald said the women who worked as prostitutes for Abbas answered advertisements on Web sites like craigslist.org and backpage.com for quick money.

"With the economy the way it is, he was posting things like, ‘Who needs a sugar daddy?'" Fitzgerald said.

The other five arrested, according to Montgomery County Police, were:

- Deangelo A. Bynum, 24, of Washington, D.C. He was charged with solicitation of a minor for prostitution after being arrested in Gaithersburg by an undercover officer posing as young girl, police said. Bynum had attempted to recruit the girl on facebook.com, requesting photos and money before she could work for him, police said.

- Rodney Hubert, 34, of New York. He was charged with human trafficking of a 15-year-old female for prostitution. The teen was advertised on craigslist.com after she arrived in Maryland from New York.

- Christy Elmes, 23, of the Bronx, N.Y. She was charged with human trafficking, sexual abuse of a minor and second-degree child abuse.

- Katherine Mateo, 19, of the Bronx, N.Y. She was charged with human trafficking, sexual abuse of a minor and second-degree child abuse.

- Tomika Powell, 21, of Montgomery, Ala. She was charged with human trafficking, sexual abuse of a minor and second-degree child abuse. Powell was also wanted for desertion from the U.S. Army, police said...

Andre L. Taylor

The Gazette

March 2, 2010


Added: Mar. 6, 2010

Mexico

Demandarán Mujeres Indígenas de Guerrero Recursos y Servicios

Más de 800 mujeres indígenas del estado de Guerrero se reunirán este sábado 6 de marzo en la comunidad de Xalatzala, municipio de Tlapa y el domingo 7 de marzo en la comunidad de Tejocote, municipio de Malinaltepec, para marchar después a Tlapa con el objetivo de demandar el cese al hostigamiento a mujeres líderes y de organizaciones defensoras de los derechos humanos y laborales.

Las manifestantes demandarán el diseño de políticas públicas de acuerdo con las necesidades de las mujeres indígenas de la entidad.

La marcha forma parte de los actos por el Día Internacional de la Mujer, organizados por la Unión Regional de Mujeres de la Montaña “Francisca Reyes Castellanos”, presidida por Jacqueline Balbuena Ramírez, la Unión Nacional deMujeres Mexicanas y la Unión Regional de la Montaña.

Indigenous Women From Guerrero Demand Resources and Services

More than 800 Indigenous women from Guerrero state will gather on Saturday, March 6th in the community of Xalatzala, in Tlapa municipality, and on March 7th in Tejocote, Malinaltepec municipality, to be followed by a march to Tlapa. The event is a protest that will demand an end to the harassment of women leaders of human and labor rights organizations in the region. The women will also demand that public policies be developed that address the needs of Indigenous women in the region. The march is being held as part of International Women's Day activities, and is being organized by the Francisca Reyes Castellanos Regional Union of Women of la Montaña - headed by Jacqueline Balbuena Ramírez, The National Union of Mexican Women and the Regional Union of la Montaña.

CIMAC Women's News Agency

March 5, 2010 


Added: Mar. 6, 2010

California, USA

Barstow Mayor Joseph Dennis Gomez Jr. explains his legal problems to the Barstow City Council. He is charged with willfully touching the intimate parts of a woman against her will for purposes of "sexual arousal, sexual gratification and sexual abuse."

Barstow Mayor Charged With Sexual Battery

Barstow - Barstow Mayor Joseph Dennis Gomez Jr. has been charged with sexual battery for allegedly assaulting a police officer's wife at a December party.

Gomez was charged Monday with a misdemeanor that involved touching the woman against her will. The San Bernardino County district attorney's office says he faces up to six months in jail and a $2,000 fine if convicted.

Gomez allegedly assaulted the woman on Dec. 18 but investigators have not released details of the incident.

Gomez hasn't been arrested. His arraignment is scheduled for April.

At a City Council meeting earlier this month, Gomez said the allegation was false and he intended to

fight it.

The Associated Press

Feb. 23, 2010


Added: Mar. 5, 2010

Mexico

Imprisoned child pornographer Jean Succar Kuri photo-graphed with one of his 200 child victims (Now older, the victim was interviewed for a documentary on the repression of journalist Lydia Cacho by associates of Succar Kuri.)

Piden operativo para evitar fuga de Jean Succar Kuri

México.- Por unanimidad el pleno de la Cámara de Diputados exhortó a las procuradurías General de la República y General de Justicia del Estado de Quintana Roo a implementar un operativo de seguridad para evitar la fuga del pederasta Jean Succar Kuri, cuando éste sea trasladado al centro penitenciario de Cancún.

La Cámara de Diputados también solicitó la intervención de la Secretaría de Seguridad Pública, para que a través de la dirección general de traslados de reos y seguridad penitenciaria adopte las medidas necesarias para impedir que el pederasta pudiera ser liberado durante el viaje a la prisión local…

Lower Chamber of Congress Unanimously Calls for Special Security Measures to Prevent Child Pornographer Jean Succar Kuri's Escape from Prison

Mexico City - The Chamber of Deputies (lower house) of Congress has unanimously passed a non-binding resolution that requests that the Attorney General of the state of Quintana Roo mount a security operation to insure that convicted millionaire child pornographer Jean Succar Kuri does not escape during his upcoming transfer from a maximum security prison to a minimum security jail in Cancún.

The Chamber of Deputies also requested the intervention of the federal Secretary of Public Security, through its directorate for prisoner transfers and security, asking that they take all possible precautions to prevent any escape attempt by Succar Kuri.

The vote on the non-binding resolution was held with a sense of urgency and obvious determination. It was supported by all political parties. The resolution was presented by National Action Party (PAN) congressional deputy Rosi Orozco, who is Chair of the newly formed Special Commission to Fight Human Trafficking in the Chamber of Deputies.

The resolution also calls upon federal agencies and state governments to redouble their efforts to eradicate and prevent child sexual exploitation, and asks that they find and prosecute more cases like that of pedophile Jean Succar Kuri.

From the Chamber of Deputies all of Mexico's political parties attacked pedophilia and stood in favor of defending the rights of Mexican children.

Nonetheless, Emilio Serrano, a deputy from the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) asked the Chamber why they were 'tearing their clothes up' about this issue, given that the same institution, Congress, had previously protected pedophiles and human rights violators. He recalled the case of Puebla state governor Mario Marín, and his collusion with millionaire businessman Kamel Nacif, who himself is linked to Succar Kuri.

[See the below link to the Lydia Cacho case for additional context to this statement. - LL]

Mónica Romero

W Radio

March 04, 2010

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Journalist / Activist Lydia Cacho is

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Added: Mar. 5, 2010

Mexico

New Alliance Party deputy Elsa María Martínez Peña

Impulsarán cambios culturales para resolver cultura machista

Comité del Centro de Estudios para el Adelanto de las Mujeres

México, DF.- Diputadas integrantes del Comité del Centro de Estudios para el Adelanto de las Mujeres y la Equidad de Género (CCEAMEG), coincidieron en la necesidad de crear nuevas estrategias de desarrollo en favor de las mujeres del país, y en particular de las indígenas y rurales.

Durante la instalación del Comité, las legisladoras convinieron en impulsar la igualdad tanto en las diferentes instituciones de gobierno, como en las políticas públicas y en los distintos ámbitos de la sociedad...

Congressional Leaders Push for Social Changes to Resolve the Problem of Mexico's Culture of Machismo

Congress creates a committee, and the Center for Studies for the Advancement of Women

Women congressional deputies from several political parties, who are members of the newly created Committee for the Center for Studies for the Advancement of Women and Gender Equality (CCEAMEG), are in agreement that new, pro-women development strategies must be created in Mexico, and these efforts must focus in particular on the problems of Indigenous and rural women.

During the Committee's inaugural ceremony, women legislators convened to promote gender equality both within government institutions and among the many sectors of society.

In response to the constant expansion of poverty that affects women, the inequality and the lack of access to basic needs such as education, healthcare and development, among other forms of discrimination which women endure in Mexico, the LIX (59th) Legislature of the Chamber of Deputies has created the CCEAMEG Center.

The Center will be the first of its kind in Latin America. It is founded on the principles declared at the Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing, China in 1995. The Beijing Declaration requires all of the world's governments to implement mechanisms to guarantee solutions to gender inequality.

New Alliance Party deputy Elsa María Martínez Peña stated that the