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The Crisis Facing Indigenous Women and Children

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

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Antenco

Foto: Belinda Hernández

Mexico Police

   Rape 7 and Assault

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   Lydia Cacho is

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Indigenous & Latina Women & Children's Human Rights News from the Americas 


 

 
Jan.  Feb.   Mar.  May  May   June  July Aug. Sep.  Oct. Nov.  Dec.

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

May 2008 News




Added May 8, 2008

Arizona, USA

Douglas girl, 11, two months pregnant

At eleven years old, a Douglas elementary school girl finds herself pregnant and under the protection of Child Protective Services...

In late January or early February 2008, when her homeroom teacher and the school nurse noticed the slight swell of her tummy, the girl dismissed her girth as a tumor...

When her grandparents, who have legal custody of the girl, were questioned, they told Douglas detectives that she ate too much and that’s why she was gaining weight...

At first the 11-year-old was hesitant to open up to anyone at the school, but later she revealed her situation to a teacher whom she trusted. She said that in December 2007 she had been on school break and had been sexually abused by her father. The assault occurred at her father’s house in Agua Prieta, Sonora. Douglas police immediately contacted CPS...

According to the police report, the mother, upon learning about her daughter’s assault, called the girl’s father and threatened him.

Because the father is in Mexico, the case now belongs to the Mexican authorities...

- Xavier Zaragoza

The Daily Dispatch

Dec. , 2007


Added May 8, 2008

Idaho, USA

Police: Girl, 10, raped, gives birth

A 10-year-old girl police say was raped by a 37-year-old man gives birth. See: video news story.

- CNN

May 9, 2008

See also:

Residents Shocked, A 10-Year Old Girl Gives Birth

St. Anthony - We broke the unbelievable story last night of a 10-year old girl in St. Anthony who gave birth to a baby...

Thirty-seven-year-old Guadalupe Gutierrez-Juarez... is now behind bars in the Fremont County Jail on other rape charges...

- Araksya Karapetyan

KIDK TV News

Idaho Falls, Idaho

May 7, 2008


Added May 8, 2008

Louisiana

Man accused of trying to rape housekeeper

A Bossier Parish man has been arrested on charges he tried to rape his housekeeper.

Villalt Carlos "Santos" Canales, 32..., was arrested Thursday.

Bossier Parish sheriff's deputies said the woman told them she had gone to Canales' residence to do housekeeping on Wednesday when he tried to remove her clothes and have sex with her. She struggled and got away, deputies said, ran to a neighbor’s house and called 911.

After an all-night search, Canales was arrested about 6 a.m. Thursday.

Sheriff's deputies said Canales, who is a horse trainer, was in the country illegally. They said he has been deported at least twice -- in 1999 and in 2004.

- KTBS News

Shriveport

May 9, 2008


Added May 8, 2008

Arizona, USA

53 illegal immigrants held against will in Phoenix

Phoenix - Fifty-three illegal immigrants found Sunday had been held against their will in a fortified home by suspected smugglers demanding more money, authorities said.

The group of rescued immigrants included two 13-year-old girls, three women and a mentally disabled man. The rest were men, Department of Public Safety spokesman Harold Sanders said.

Authorities began investigating Saturday after getting a tip that immigrants were being held captive. Sanders said the smugglers wanted an average of $2,500 for each person's release.

The single-family home where they were kept had been fortified to prevent escape and weapons were seized at the location. The suspected smugglers also took away the immigrants' shoes so they couldn't run off.

Sanders said five people, all residents of Mexico, were being jailed on charges of extortion, kidnapping, aggravated assault and human smuggling...

- The Associated Press

May 11, 2008


Added May 8, 2008

Georgia, USA

[Man] charged with rape

A 27 year-old Palmetto man was arrested April 27, charged with the statutory rape of a 13 year-old girl at her home on the city’s south side. Police said the man had been living illegally in the United States for 16 years.

Francisco Torres Landeros, a nearby resident of the 13 year-old, was charged with statutory rape, according to Palmetto Police Det. John Cooper.

Cooper said police were called by a family member at the girl’s residence shortly after midnight. The family member told Officer Ron Stripling that Landeros was found in the girl’s bedroom after noises were heard coming from the room. Officers were told that Landeros was found in the bedroom closet naked and that he ran out of the house after being discovered.

- Ben Nelms

Fayetteville, Georgia

May 08, 2008


Added May 8, 2008

Florida, USA

Everglades bid to dismiss suit by rape victim denied

Circuit Judge John J. Hoy has denied a motion to dismiss a lawsuit against the Everglades Club, which was filed in February by a former employee who was raped by another employee in 2006.

Hoy also denied a motion to strike some of the allegations contained in the complaint.

Melissa Legare, a former pantry cook, was raped by a co-worker in the predawn hours of April 2, 2006, in her dormitory room at the club. Esdras Cardona, an illegal resident from Guatemala, was convicted of the rape last summer and is serving a 20-year sentence.

The club wanted Hoy to strike Legare's claims of negligent security and negligent hiring. The club also wanted allegations that the club's long history of discrimination created an atmosphere of hostility and led to the attack. In addition, the club wanted any reference to Cardona's illegal status removed from the complaint.

- Michele Dargan

Palm Beach Daily News

May 06, 2008


Added May 8, 2008

Guatemala

(Who is not part of this story)

Guatemalan

Mayan Leader

and Nobel

Peace Prize

Laureate

Rigoberta

Menchu

 

Madres que reclaman devolución de sus hijas siguen en huelga de hambre

Mothers Hold Hunger Strike to Demand the Return of their Kidnapped Children

Four Guatemalan mothers whose babies were kidnapped to be sold in foreign adoption are continuing a hunger strike in front of the National Palace of Culture. The women started the protest on April 28th.

Norma Cruz, director of the Survivors Foundation, which assist women victims of violence, stated that representatives of the National Council on Adoptions, and the federal Attorney General's office have expressed interest in assisting the families.

Nonetheless, Cruz lamented, we don't see real, concrete action, and the investigation has not brought-about any positive results.

The mothers have vowed to continue their protest until there are clear signs that authorities are taking these cases seriously.

Raquel Par, an indigenous woman of the Kakchiquel Mayan ethnic group, told of how on April 4, 2006, her daughter, Heidi Saraí Batz, was drugged and then kidnapped by a woman in the Villa Hermosa neighbor-hood on the south side of Gauatemala City.

Ana Escobar, another victim, related how on March 26, 2006 an armed man entered the shoe repair shop where she worked, attempted to rape her, locked her in a bathroom, and then kidnapped her 6-month-old daughter Esther Zulamitha.

Olga López, whose daughter Arlene Escarleth disappeared on November 27, 2006, and Loyda Rodríguez, mother of Angielyn Lisset Hernández, kidnapped on November 3, 2006, also discussed their tragedies.

According to Cruz, these are just four of the hundreds of cases in which young, poor and unprotected [and mostly indigenous] women become victims of organized criminal gangs whose business it is to rob children to sell to foreigners [mostly from the United States] in adoption.

Cruz: "We have denounced dozens of adoption lawyers. The authorities take this information, but they don't do much to stop these crimes."

In December of 2007, the Guatemalan Parliament adopted the Law of Adoptions, authored by the National Council on Adoptions, an organization representing diverse sectors of society.

Guatemala's government was pressured into enacting the law after the Hague Conference on Private International Law declared in July, 2007 that Guatemala was the number one source country in the world for children given in adoption, where the legality of these adoptions are not guaranteed.

- Actualidad - Terra

Spain

May 5, 2008

See also:

LibertadLatina note:

Indigenous women and girls in Latin American countries face extreme violations of their human rights and dignity due to the continuation of 500 years of feudalism based on their sexual and labor exploitation.

Few human rights efforts address the dynamics of racism and sexism facing indigenous and African Descendent women in Latin America.  At LibertadLatina, active advocacy against such modern impunity is a large part of the focus of our work.

We remember them and all women and children facing oppression!

Happy Mothers Day!

- Chuck Goolsby

LibertadLatina

May 11, 2008

LibertadLatina

The Crisis of Sexual Exploitation and Femicide Facing Guatemalan Indigenous Women and Girls


Added May 8, 2008

Paraguay

Niños indígenas fueron abandonados en Luque

Indigenous children live abandoned on the street

Approximately 30 indigenous children from the community of Caaguazú live on the streets of the capitol city of Asunción because, they say, there is no food to eat in their community. The children told of hold the community has no more land, and nobody is buying what their parents make for sale.

The children pass the day sniffing glue and begging on the streets. They flee when the National Indigenous Institute (INDI) picks them up, because they feel that they are not treated right by INDI staff.

Attorney Myriam Antonia Mora de Cáceres, of the local Center for Child and Adolescent Counseling states that when she brings the children clothing and checks up on them, they express fear of being taken back to INDI.

- abc.com.py

May 2, 2008

LibertadLatina note:

Indigenous peoples in Paraguay faced an active genocide until the 1970's, where entire villages were hunted down, the adults were murdered and the 12 to 14-year-old girls were raped and sold into sexual slavery. 

The above article appears to indicate that, as has happened across the Americas, the last land base has been stolen from this tribal group, leaving adults with no means to support themselves, and children with no food to eat.

Similar battles for land are taking place today with the Mapuche tribe in Chile, and with tribal groups in Colombia, who's land is stolen with impunity because they are made vulnerable by socially accepted racism against them, that justifies all manner of acts of impunity.

We will do our best to investigate this case further and report back to our readers.

- Chuck Goolsby

LibertadLatina

May 11, 2008


Added May 8, 2008

Nicaragua

Niña obligada a prostituirse

An Underage Girl is Kidnapped into Forced Prostitution

Police are investig-ating the case of a 16-year-old girl from Somoto, who was offered work in Guatemala and ended-up enslaved in a brothel.

Rosa Díaz Martínez filed a criminal complaint stating that 18 days ago, a local human trafficker and taxi driver, Luis Alfonso Benavides, from San Lucas, had taken her daughter to the Guatemalan border, where he paid a bribe to border agents to allow the minor to pass into Guatemala.

The girl, who had been offered a good job, was picked-up on the other side of the border by her supposed new Guatemalan employer, who took her to San Luis.

Díaz Martínez: "This man promised my daughter a job. But she was able to call me from Guatemala, and told me that she was being held against her will in a brothel together with other girls, some of whom were also from Somoto, Nicaragua."

During the phone call, the girl told her mother that the taxi driver told her during the trip that he would return her to Nicaragua, but only after her family had paid him $1,800.

Díaz Martínez: "I am afraid that something bad will happen to my daughter, because I have come to find out that this trafficker is a very dangerous man, who tricks many young girls by offering them good jobs, and then sells them into prostitution." Díaz Martínez has also learned that this trafficker is protected by police in Guatemala.

During an interview with La Prensa, the taxi driver Benavides denied having taken the girl to Guatemala. He states that Antonio Díaz, a businessman from Tecohumante, Guatemala was visiting him, and the girl asked him for work. Benavides states that she made an agreement to go to Guatemala directly with Díaz.

- William Aragón Rodríguez

La Prensa

Nicaragua

May 2, 2008


Added May 8, 2008

New York State, USA

Jesus De-Maria

Sandoval-Lopez

Cops: Man flashed girl in Mount Kisco store

Mount Kisco - An [undocumented] immigrant living in Mount Kisco has been arrested for allegedly exposing himself to a 10-year-old girl at the T.J. Maxx store on Main Street, police said.

Jesus De-Maria Sandoval-Lopez, 23... was arraigned... on misdemeanor charges of endangering the welfare of a child and public lewdness, Mount Kisco police Detective Lt. Patrick O'Reilly said.

Sandoval-Lopez was arrested Wednesday afternoon at the store after he allegedly displayed his genitals to the child in the girls clothing section. A security guard detained him until police arrived.

The girl was crying hysterically as she told officers what had happened, police said.

He is being held on $7,500 bail at the Westchester County jail in Valhalla, pending a hearing in village court Thursday. Federal authorities have also issued a detainer warrant, considering him a fugitive because he entered the country illegally from Guatemala in 2001, O'Reilly said.

He was arrested after crossing the Mexican border into Texas, but failed to appear for a follow-up court date.

- Shawn Cohen

The Journal News

May 9, 2008


Added May 8, 2008

Mexico

Violación a migrantes centroamericanas en territorio mexicano

Bad News: The Rape of Central American Migrant Women in Mexico

There are no exact figures regarding the number of Central American migrant women who have been raped after they cross into Mexico through its southern border, seeking to reach the United States. They remain quiet from shame, and from the fear that comes from knowing that to report rape in Mexico could result in their arrest and deportation...

Martha Villareal, spokesperson for the central region for the Migration Forum, recently held a press conference to denounce the rape of migrant women, who for cultural reasons are dehumanized, and are left highly vulnerable to sexual assault.

Villareal regards the rape of Central American migrant women as a hidden crisis, because these women do not report the crime, there is really no process for them to do so, and if they do manage to file a complaint, the criminal justice system does nothing about it.

Villareal stated that the most notable groups of rapists include police officers, soldiers and gang members. When migrants travel by walking in groups, the women tend to fall behind. When they do, they are attached by criminals and also by the authorities....

Family members and fellow travelers also expose migrant women to rape.

Martha Villareal:

"Women report to us the fact that their own families utilize them to avoid violence from officials committing acts of corruption, and from gangs who rob them. If a gang demands money and the family has none, they tell the gang: "Here is my daughter. 'Use her' and let us pass."

...The Migration Forum estimates that 80% of migrating Central American women have their rights violated as they cross Mexico.

In view of this crisis, Martha Villareal believes that Mexico's federal government must take a number of steps to protect migrant women, including efforts to place controls on the immigration inspection process, and the organization of law enforcement efforts to protect migrants.

Related human rights issues affecting southeastern Mexico include the separation of mothers from their children during migration, human trafficking, and rampant sexual exploitation faced by the many domestic workers in the region.

Full Translation

- Guadalupe Cruz Jaimes and Carolina Velázquez

CIMAC Noticias News For Women

Mexico City

May 8, 2008


Added May 7, 2008

Mexico, Spain

Lydia Cacho

Asegura Lydia Cacho que premios "no blindan"

Lydia Cacho: Receiving a Prize Does not “Bullet-

proof Me”

Barcelona, Spain – Mexican journalist Lydia Cacho today received the House of Catalonia’s Freedom of Expression Award.  Accepting the prize,

Cacho declared that winning honors is no protection from the death threats she faces for denouncing pedophilia [specifically child sex trafficking] and corruption in Mexico.

Lydia Cacho:

“These awards don’t protect us, they are not bullet-proof vests shielding us from the death threats, but they do raise the ‘price’ a little for those who would like to eliminate[murder] us."

Cacho was also recently honored as the 2008 laureate of this year’s UNESCO World Press Freedom Prize during a ceremony in Mozambique.

These prizes honor a woman who faced torture and jail at the hands of Mario Marín, governor of the state of Puebla.

Her 2005 book “The Demons of the Eden, The Power That Protects Child Pornography”  lead to a long series of acts of retaliation against her by the [child sex] trafficking network that she exposed.

This year, Cacho has published “Memories of an Act of Infamy.”  In an intimate, diary-like tone, Cacho recounts, play by play, the acts of persecution and defamation that she suffered after publishing Demons of Eden.

For the past three years, Cacho has traveled by bulletproof car, accompanied by a permanent security detail.

Full Translation

- ElFinanciero.com.mx

(With inputs from

EFE and AYV)

May 06, 2008

See also:

2008 UNESCO/ Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize awarded to Mexican reporter Lydia Cacho Ribeiro

- UNESCO

April 9, 2008

LibertadLatina

Journalist / Activist Lydia Cacho Railroaded by the Legal Process for Exposing Child Sex    Networks In Mexico


Added May 7, 2008

United States, World

Defending the Freedom and Dignity of the World's Vulnerable

Most of the victims of human trafficking in the United States and in most other places in the world are the most vulnerable among us, destitute women and children who are sold into bondage as sex slaves. A 2004 State Department report concludes that of the estimated 600,000 to 800,000 men, women, and children transported across international borders each year, approximately 80 percent are women and girls, and up to 50 percent are minors. The State Department estimates that between 15,000 and 18,000 human slaves are brought into the United States, many of whom are forced into the sex trade every year.

While the past few years have seen increased efforts on the part of the State and Justice Departments and the FBI to combat the human slave trade, we must do more. As President, I'll increase cooperation and communication between all agencies of the federal government by establishing an Inter-Agency Task Force on Human Trafficking, whose purpose will be to focus exclusively on the prosecution of human traffickers and the rescue of their victims...

- U.S. Senator John McCain

Rochester, Michigan

May 07, 2008

See also:

Past comments about the anti-trafficking movement movement by Senator Barak Obama.

Past c