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Noticias de
Julio, 2008
July 2008 News
(News Added During July, 2008)
Unites States
Native Women Receive
Protection
The
Tribal Law and Order Act of 2008, designed to lower
sexual violence against American Indian and Alaskan
Native women, was introduced July 23rd by the Senate
Indian Affairs Committee. The bill would enable
tribal police to enforce violations of federal laws
on Indian lands and offers them greater access to
criminal history information.
Amnesty International, which in a 2007 report found
the rate of rape and other sexual violence for this
population of women 2.5 times higher than that for
other U.S. women, hailed the bill.
On
July 17, the committee also held a hearing on the
implementation of the Adam Walsh Act for tracking
sex offenders, which the U.S. Congress passed in
2006 without tribal consultation. The law requires
tribal governments to include all convictions for
qualifying sex offenses in their registries and
register offenders in the places where they live and
work. Those [tribes] that don’t comply will
automatically cede jurisdiction to the state,
reported
Indianz.com
on
July 11, 2008.
The
majority of tribes that are now working to create
their own tracking systems face a 2009 deadline. The
National Congress of American Indians has said that
tribes that opt to implement the Adam Walsh Act
should have the same rights and access to criminal
databases as U.S. states.
- Besa Luci
WomensNews
July 26, 2008
LibertadLatina
Commentary:
Native women and children in the United States have
long been subjected to criminal impunity. Today it is
unprosecuted sexual assault that is the most glaring
example of the second class status that indigenous
people continue to hold in this country.
The statistics from the U.S. Department of Justice
show that Native women in the U.S. have a 3.5 times
higher rate of exposure to sexual assault than other
groups of women (Amnesty International states that the
rate is 2.5 times higher).
During recent
years, the crime of rape on Native reservations has
been virtually ignored and unprosecuted by federal
prosecutors who, in addition to local tribal courts,
have jurisdiction over such cases.
As Congress had written the current law, and as the
President has enforced it, the typically white,
non-resident rapists who stalk women on U.S.
reservations can only receive a ONE YEAR jail
sentence for rape - from a tribal court, no matter
if the assailant is a repeat offender.
It has also been especially troubling to the Native
community that 5 of the 8 federal prosecutors who
were fired by former U.S. Attorney General Gonzalez
had focused their efforts on increasing the
prosecution and conviction rates for rapists who
victimized women on
Native reservations.
We at sincerely hope that the Tribal Law and Order
Act of 2008 repairs these errors in the provision of equal protection
under the law as it applies to Native women, and
their undue exposure to gender violence.
- Chuck Goolsby
Afro Creek Catawba
LibertadLatina
July 30, 2008
See also:
Added July 26, 2007
Native America
Fired
Nevada U.S. attorney had doubled prosecution rate in
cases affecting Native Americans
After 11 years as
an assistant U.S. attorney in Reno, where most of
the cases from federal crimes on Nevada's 27 Indian
reservations were handled and where he had
prosecuted many of them, Daniel Bogden became the
U.S. attorney for Nevada and made American Indian
issues a priority...
Then in late 2006, the
Justice Department abruptly fired eight U.S.
attorneys. Bogden was one of five among the eight
who had taken a leadership role on DOJ's
sub-committee on Native issues...
Arlan Melendez, vice
president of the Inter-Tribal Council of Nevada:
''When you see the Justice Department isn't really
interested in Indian country, and then you see them
fire U.S. attorneys who are taking an interest in
Indian country, you formulate your opinions from
that.''
- Indian Country Today
July 20,
2007
Added July 14, 2007
Native America
Crime-victim
advocates from Indian country have focused attention
on the pandemic of rape on Indian lands by whites
and other perpetrators. One in three Indian women
will be raped, and more than 70 percent of the
rapists are not Indian.
...Native women leaders say that sexual predators
target Indian lands because they know that their
chances of getting investigated and prosecuted are
slim.
If these cases are prosecuted, it is most likely by
a tribal court which, under federal law, can only
impose a one-year sentence
even for the most violent rape by a repeat offender.
Native leaders say white rapists travel from
reservation to reservation offending...
- Indian Country Today
July 06, 2007
Mexico
Desaparecidas, muestras de
exhumación de Susana Xocua
Tissue Samples
from Exhumed Body of Indigenous Woman Victim
Disappear
LibertadLatina
note:
As reported in a July
18th story by CIMAC Noticias in Mexico, federal and
Veracruz state judicial authorities recently conducted the
exhumation of the body of Susana Xocua, a
64-year-old indigenous woman from the Zongolica
Mountain region of Veracruz. The Xocua case is
troubling in that state authorities at-first labeled
the death to be from natural causes, despite the
fact that 250 neighbors saw Ms. Xocua's body lying
in a corn field bloodied, semi-nude, with her legs
opened, and with visible signs of torture present.
**
Juan Carlos Mezhua Campos, the
Secretary for Indigenous Affairs for the
Revolutionary Democratic Party (PRD), has announced that
the tissue samples taken during the recent autopsy of
the body of Ms. Susana Xocua have
disappeared.
In addition, the federal forensic
specialists requested who were believed to be
participating in the examination have issued a statement saying that
they were not involved in the autopsy of Ms. Xocua.
The family of Ms. Xocua had
requested that independent forensic specialists from the
National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM)
participate. However, Veracruz authorities assured
the family that it was not necessary, as federal experts from Mexico City
were participating.
With the federal denial of
involvement in the forensic investigation and with
the disappearance of the tissue samples, state
officials are now announcing that they don't know who is
in charge of analyzing the tissue samples.
In other
developments...
* Veracruz state congressional deputy
Alba Leonila Méndez, president of the legislature's
Commission on Equality and Gender, is demanding
rapid government action to clarify the unusual
deaths of four indigenous senior citizen women. The victims,
after apparently having been raped and murdered,
were judged by Veracruz judicial authorities to have
died from natural causes.
* Veracruz governor Fidel Herrera
Beltrán travelled to the Zongolica Mountain region
to participate in the inauguration of the first
office of the state public prosecutor's office that
will specialize in crimes against sexual freedom and
against the family. The governor remarked that the
opening was a first step in "trying to root out
ominous and discriminatory treatment against
indigenous women in regard to injustices,
inequalities, atrocities and family violence."
- Mónica Tejeda and Guadalupe
Gómez Q.
CIMAC Noticias
Women's Rights News
Mexico City
July 30, 2008
Mexico
Violencia Contra Mujeres
Migrantes en Aumento
About Violence Against Migrant Women
in Mexico
The
National Institute for Women (Inmujeres) has
announced that Central and South American migrant
women face the risk of being trafficked
as they cross Mexico on on their way to the United
States. Wherever they end their journey [in the U.S.
or Mexico], they face discrimination, labor
exploitation, low wages, precarious living conditions, and
have no access to social services.
For
these reasons, Inmujeres considers that the two most
critical problems facing women migrants today are reproductive and sexual health, and gender violence.
Due
to current migration patterns, the problem of
HIV/AIDS is having an especially severe impact on
these women. They are put into high-risk situations
during their long journey, due to the high frequency of
sexual assaults that occur.
- CIMAC Noticias
Women's Rights News
Mexico City
July 24, 2008
Mexico
Centroamericanas víctimas de
trata sexual y laboral al pasar por Veracruz
Central
American migrants who seek to reach the United
States are tricked into sex and labor slavery in
Veracruz
City of Xalapa, Veracruz state -
During a recent workshop conducted by the
International Organization for Migration (IOM), Martha
Mendoza Parissi, director of the Veracruz Women's
Institute (IVM) declared that human traffickers in
their southern Mexican state are luring women
migrants into slavery through deception. Women are
offered supposedly high-paying jobs, an offer that
they find attractive because it eliminates the need
to go through the long [and expensive and risky]
journey to the United States to improve their living
conditions.
In
Veracruz there are few reports of trafficking in
women, said Mendoza Parissi. In fact, there are no
recorded complaints involving the many undocumented
Central American women who are known to be
trafficked into sexual slavery in the southern counties of the state.
Mendoza Parissi: "it is common to see street ads in
municipalities such as Acayucan, that are designed
as a hook to pull these women into jobs in which
nobody knows where the job is, nor who they will be
working for. They only show a cell phone number.
That is where the businesses that engage in human
trafficking may possibly be found."
Mendoza Parissi went on to say that for these
reasons, it is important for government agencies to
understand what trafficking is and how it operates,
so that they can build strategies to combat it.
"Often it is the women victims who are punished by
the law for defending themselves against being
forced against their will to engage in a particular
activity." It is precisely for that reason, she
noted, that women refuse to report abuses by men to
the authorities.
"Local governments create 'bottlenecks' in providing
access to the law as it relates to violence against
women. We have to resolve these issues as a first
step."
The
IOM and IVM are currently planning to conduct a
study of human trafficking in Veracruz as a next
step in their collaboration.
- CIMAC Noticias Womens Rights News
Mexico City
July 24, 2008
Florida, USA
Colombian warlords plead
guilty to drug charges
Miami - Two warlords from a far-right Colombian
paramilitary group blamed for some of modern
Colombia's worst atrocities pleaded guilty Tuesday
in federal court to a drug conspiracy charge.
Ramiro Vanoy Murillo, 60, and Francisco Javier
Zuluaga Lindo, 38, are among 14 paramilitary members
extradited to the U.S. in May for their alleged
roles in a massive cocaine smuggling operation in
the late 1990s. The two entered their pleas before
U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore in downtown
Miami.
Under a plea agreement, Vanoy Murillo faces up to 19
years and Zuluaga Lindo more than 17 years behind
bars. Prosecutors said they would drop additional
charges against the two at sentencing. Each could
also face up to $14 million in fines...
So
far, Diego Murillo, 47, is the only other member of
the extradited group [of 14 men] to have pleaded guilty. He
entered his plea in June to drug trafficking charges
in Manhattan federal court and faces a sentence of
up to 33 years in prison. He is scheduled to be
sentenced Dec. 18. Human rights organizations
claimed Diego Murillo was behind hundreds of murders
in Colombia as part of the right-wing United
Self-Defense Forces of Colombia [AUC]...
Thousands of Colombians have lodged formal
complaints of ``atrocious crimes'' against the
paramilitaries - including murder, rape and
kidnapping. Hundreds of mass graves are thought to
remain hidden in Colombia.
- Laura Wides-Munoz
The Associated Press
July 29, 2008
Mexico
Drug-abuse backlash in Mexico
Agua
Prieta, Sonora state - Perla got hooked on crack and
crystal meth at age 12. Soon she was prostituting
herself to support her habit.
At
her lowest point, the girl said, she was selling sex
for 50 pesos, about $4.75.
"As
soon as one rock was done, I'd be out trying to get
money for another," said Perla, whose last name is
being withheld because of her age.
Now
15, Perla is in a rehab center in this Mexico border
town, trying to put her life back together.
Stories like Perla's are multiplying as Mexico
confronts a growing problem with drug addiction, a
phenomenon that some experts blame on the Mexican
government's crackdown on drug cartels and
stepped-up U.S. border enforcement.
With
drugs harder to smuggle into the United States, more
remain in Mexico, where they are sold to local
consumers, said Marcela López Cabrera, director of
the Monte Fenix Center for Advanced Studies in
Mexico City, which trains drug counselors...
- Chris Hawley
AZ Central
July 28, 2008
New York State, USA
Veteran Buffalo Police officer
faces criminal sex charge, expected in court
A
veteran Buffalo Police officer facing a criminal sex
charge is expected to appear in court Wednesday.
38-year-old Monte Montalvo is accused of forcibly
performing oral sex on 19-year-old girl last
December.
It
allegedly happened at Montalvo's home after he
worked as an off duty security officer for a
Fraternity party.
Montalvo has been suspended from the force during
the investigation.
- WIVB
July 23, 2008
Hawaii, USA
Minister Charged With Abusing
Girl
Honolulu - A Kaneohe minister was held on $2 million
bail after being accused of sexually assaulting a
member of his congregation for several years.
Manual Guillermo Taboada was the spiritual leader of
a group of families who shared a large home in
Kaneohe. Prosecutors said he abused his position to
abuse a girl over eight years, starting when she was
12.
Taboada’s Web site describes him as a rags to riches
immigrant from Peru who has devoted his life to God.
On the site, he lectures visitors against the way of
the flesh.
But
prosecutors said the 57-year-old minister was a
hypocrite, leading several families in a communal
lifestyle while molesting a member of the flock for
years.
“He
told her if she told anyone that the ministry would
fall apart and the children of other families would
be taken away,” said deputy prosecutor Vickie Kapp.
The
woman reported the abuse last week after turning 21.
Taboada was arrested...
- KITV
July 23, 2008
California, USA
Inland Empire Teen rape
victim, mother speak out
Montclair police are searching for the suspect they
say raped a teenage girl as she cried for help.
The
14-year-old victim told police a man grabbed her by
the arm as she walked home through an alley on
Sunday night.
She says the suspect pinned her down on an old
mattress behind a dumpster and raped her, and when
she screamed, no one came to help.
The
victim and her mother spoke to Eyewitness News about
the alleged attack.
"I
screamed three times three loud times. The first
time I screamed he'd put his hand over my mouth, he
slapped me and told me to shut up," the victim said.
"I
want make him pay for what he did to my daughter. I
want the ultimate punishment, and he'd be lucky if
the cops catch him before I do," said mother Tina
Torres.
The
victim says the suspect also threatened her with a
gun, although she never saw it.
The
suspect is described as a Hispanic man, between 18
and 20 years old...
- KABC
Los Angeles, California
July 29, 2008
Tennessee, USA
MS 13 Leader Pleaded Guilty In
Court On Monday
Nashville - The motto of the MS 13 gang is
"kill, rape, control.”
MS 13 is one of the largest and most violent gangs
in the U.S., but when they made their way to
Nashville, their violence couldn't be ignored with
shootings and slayings often taking place in south
Nashville.
Sgt.
Gary Kemper brought three years of investigations to
help prosecute the members, including a double
homicide on Nolensville Road in June 2006 in which
MS 13 gang members killed two men who they thought
were in a rival gang.
"MS
13 worked on intimidation and fear and intimidation
of the Hispanic community. That’s the way they
worked. Their whole MO (method of operation) is
fear," said Kemper...
The
three who pleaded guilty in court on Monday were the
group’s leaders. The most current head of the gang,
Escolastico Serrano agreed to 45 years in prison.
His
brother Oscar Serrano and high-ranking member Ronald
Fuentes faced between 30 years to life. They'll be
sentenced in September.
- WSMV
Sara Dorsey
July 28, 2008
Added July 28, 2008
Mexico
Otra Carta de una Sobrevivente
de Ciudad Juarez
Another Letter
from a Survivor of Ciudad Juarez
[Teresa Ortiz, an
occasional contributor to
LibertadLatina,
found it necessary to flee the 'gender hostile
living environment' in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, for a
better life in the United States. Her letters,
which tell the truth about the realities in Mexico
for women today, are available at the above link in
Spanish and English.]
Excerpt from
Letter 3:
...It
is incredible to see that
the mere fact of being born women puts us at a 90%
risk [of our lives].
Sanity no longer
exists. Poverty and ambition have finished-off with all human values.
The narcos see us
[women] as a secure transport for their drugs. They don’t look at our bodies as
a divine work but as a tool to do their dirty work. Our breasts, our stomachs,
our vaginas and our uterus, are the perfect vessels to transport their garbage
[illegal drugs].
Sex traffickers see
the same thing, hoping to find in our bodies the perfect business.
Organ traffickers
look at us and start adding-up the millions in profits
that unscrupulous doctors and organizations will pay
for our healthy organs.
Sexual predators
carefully stalk us, looking for the right time to rape us. In every case, if we
resist, they simply murder us.
Where is the law, and the government?
They are there, and
they are perfectly aware of the problem.
But they are
filling their own pockets with cash, cash from the inert body of a woman.
Perhaps she is a little girl, or the mother of a family, or a university
student, or a prostitute.
These bureaucrats
know perfectly well what is done with each disappeared and murdered woman. But
these bodies are their little gold mine. After every transaction they celebrate
and prepare for the next victim...
[Extended
text in Spanish and English]
- Teresa Ortiz
July 28, 2008
Added July 28, 2008
Mexico
En el DF, 50 mil niñas y 50
mil mujeres víctimas de explotación sexual
Researcher: 50,000 children
and 50,000 women are sexually exploited in Mexico
City
One
of the centers of sexual exploitation in Mexico City
is located in the vicinity of the Secretariat of
National Defense (SEDENA) near Military Camp Number
1, to the west of Mexico City, where military
commanders come to pay up to 55,000 pesos [US
$5,487] for [sex
with] "niñas
vírgenes" [virgin underage girls].
Currently in Mexico
City
there are 50 thousand women and 50 thousand girls
who are sexually exploited.
Some 80 percent of them
have a history of being raped and abused. Eighty
five percent of these women and girls were born in
the city. Another 15 percent came here through
fraud, deception, sale, coercion or theft.
These statistics were
documented by Rodolfo Casillas, a specialist in the
field and a history teacher at El Colegio de Mexico,
in his book "I remember well… Testimonies and
perceptions of trafficking in girls and women in
Mexico City," presented Tuesday in a presentation at
the Digna Ochoa auditorium, at the Human Rights
Commission of the Federal District (CDHDF)...
For Juan Artola,
representative in Mexico for the International
Organization for Migration (IOM), both across Mexico
and in the capital city, the issue of trafficking is
not new one, even if it is only now being widely
recognized. Artola draws attention to the [absolute]
lack of goods and services to support the victim
community...
Federal deputy
(congresswoman) Maricela Contreras Julián, president
of the Commission on Equality and Gender of the
Chamber of Deputies, found the data and testimony
provided in the book to be shocking, and announced
that through the Commission that she chairs,
Congress will provided 70 million pesos [US $7
million dollars )for a
shelter for trafficked women...
[Expanded
Translation]
-
Sandra Torres Pastrana
and Carolina Velázquez
CIMAC Noticias
Women's Rights News
Mexico City
July 23, 2008
North Carolina, South Carolina,
USA
Mexican National Sentenced For
Role In Sex-Trafficking Ring In The Carolinas
Washington, DC - Jesus
Perez-Laguna, a citizen of Mexico, was sentenced
July 17, 2008 in federal court in Columbia, S.C., on
charges stemming from a sex trafficking ring
involving at least one teenage girl. Perez-Laguna
was sentenced to over 14 years imprisonment and
ordered to pay $52,500 in restitution to his
victims. After his release from prison, Perez-Laguna
will be on federal supervised release for the rest
of his life...
In April, Perez-Laguna’s
co-defendant, Ciro Bustos-Rosales, was sentenced to
70 months in prison, ordered to pay restitution, and
ordered to comply with similar terms and conditions
of release as those included in Perez-Laguna’s
sentence.
During their guilty plea
hearings in September 2007, both men admitted that
they were involved with transporting a 14-year-old
girl across the border between the United States and
Mexico and the border between North Carolina and
South Carolina in order for the minor to engage in
prostitution. Additionally, both men admitted that
they harbored illegal aliens for the purpose of
prostitution.
“Sex traffickers prey on
young girls and vulnerable women who are brought
into the United States, kept far from home, and
forced into prostitution,” said Grace Chung Becker,
Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Civil
Rights Division. “The Court’s sentence demonstrates
the Justice Department’s commitment to prosecuting
those who exploited this young victim, who hopefully
can now move on to a better life.”
“This is a fitting end
to a disturbing case. Mr. Perez-Laguna had no regard
whatsoever for the young girls he enslaved and
victimized,” stated W. Walter Wilkins, U.S. Attorney
for the District of South Carolina. “I applaud the
dedication and hard work of the investigative agents
who exposed this ring and the prosecutors who
ensured the convictions...”
-
U.S. Dept. of Justice
July , 2008
Maryland, USA
Former Montgomery County,
Maryland Man Pleads Guilty to Holding Teenage
Nigerian Girl in Involuntary Servitude
Washington - George
Udeozor, 52, formerly of Darnestown, Md., pleaded
guilty today to holding a Nigerian girl in
involuntary servitude, the Justice Department
announced. U.S. District Judge Peter J. Messitte
scheduled sentencing for Oct. 7, 2008 at 9:30 a.m.
George Udeozor faces a
maximum sentence of 10 years in prison followed by
three years of supervised release...
According to his plea
agreement, in September 1996, George Udeozor
traveled to Nigeria and using the passport of his
oldest daughter, smuggled a 14-year-old Nigerian
girl to his home in Maryland. He and his then-wife,
Dr. Adaobi Stella Udeozor, used the girl as an
unpaid domestic servant and child care provider for
their six children for approximately five years,
from October 1996 to Oct. 28, 2001. The victim
cooked, cleaned the home, did laundry, and took care
of the Udeozor children. During that time, the
victim was physically abused.
"The defendant stole
part of the victim's youth by sexually abusing and
forcing a teenage African girl to serve as a
domestic servant for over one year," stated Grace
Chung Becker, Acting Assistant Attorney General for
the Civil Rights Division...
-
U.S. Dept. of Justice
July 16, 2008
NOTORIOUS SEX TRAFFICKERS!
Added July 27, 2008
New York, USA
Grandmother Guilty in Violent Mexican Prostitution Ring
[Head of brutal family-run
kidnapping and sex trafficking ring was extradited
from Mexico]
Cadman Plaza East - A diminutive grandmother pleaded guilty to her role in a
family-run prostitution ring that smuggled women from Mexico to New York who
were sometimes violently coerced to perform sex acts.
Consuelo Carreto Valencia, who is from Mexico, pleaded guilty Tuesday in federal
court in Brooklyn, quickly bringing to a close a trial that had begun only a day
earlier.
The 4-foot-10, 61-year-old woman had faced 12 counts of conspiracy, sex
trafficking and smuggling. She pleaded guilty to one sex-trafficking count and
faces a sentence of no more than 14 years in prison.
Her attorney, John S. Wallenstein, said she was deathly afraid that she would
die in prison if convicted on all counts.
He said he warned Carreto about the strength of the government’s case. “I said
the jurors are going to want to jump out of the jury box and tear you to
pieces,” Wallenstein said...
Prosecutors said Carreto was the matriarch of a family operating a human
smuggling operating out of the town of San Miguel de Tenancingo. The Carretos,
according to prosecutors, “engaged in a scheme to lure, entice, compel and
coerce Mexican women and girls into prostitution” in Mexico and the United
States.
The women and girls were smuggled across the border and brought to two
apartments in Corona, Queens, where two of Carreto’s sons and another person
forced the women — through violence, sexual assault, threats and other methods
of coercion — to become prostitutes, prosecutors said...
-
Associated Press
July 24, 2008
New York, USA
See also:
Mexican woman pleads guilty to
sex trafficking
-
U.S. ICE
July 22, 2008
Sex Slavery Investigation in
New York City Nets Human Traffickers
...In one of the largest sex trafficking cases since
the passage of the Trafficking Victims Protection
Act of 2000, a federal investigation led to guilty
pleas from three Mexican men to 27 counts of forcing
young Mexican women into prostitution in brothels
throughout the New York City area...
- Jim Kouri, CPP
April 24, 2005
Three
Carreto
Family Suspects Plead Guilty to All 27 Counts in New
York City Trafficking Trial.
Prosecution is one largest sex trafficking cases to
date under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act.
-
U.S.
Department of Homeland Security
April 5, 2005
Dirty Little Secret in Corona
Cops Allege Homes in Queens [New
York] Were Prisons for Latin Sex Slaves
- John Marzulli
New York Daily News
April 4, 2005
Mexican Women Set to Testify
Against Alleged [Carreto] Sex Traffickers
- The Associated Press
April 3, 2005
Rescued From The Shadows
(48 Hours Special)
(Covers Carreto Case)
- Peter Van Sant
CBS News
Feb. 23, 2005
Mexican officials arrest
suspects in New York-linked sex slavery ring
- John Rice
EFE
Feb. 23, 2004
The Girls Next Door
[An
extensive article covering the brutal
methods used by family-run Mexican Sex
Trafficking mafias, including the Carreto
Family].
...Once the Mexican traffickers abduct or
seduce the women and young girls, it's not
other men who first indoctrinate them into
sexual slavery but other women….
"Women are the ones who exert violent force
and psychological torture..."
- New York Times
Jan. 25, 2004
|
Mexico
Exhuman a Susana Xocua, violada y asesinada en Zongolica
Elderly Indigenous Woman Who Was Raped and Murdered is
Exhumed
Susana Xocua exhumation, a case of rape and murder in Zongolica
Two
months after a the family insisted that the Veracruz state government exhume the
body of Susana Xocua Tezoco, and elderly indigenous woman, the state Attorney
General of Justice heeded the request, and performed the exhumation together
with experts from the federal government.
Relatives and neighbors of the woman from the community of San Jose in the
Zongolica region had rejected the opinion of the PGJE death by a "strangled
herniated bladder." Authorities never performed an autopsy on Xocua Tezoco,
despite the fact that when her body found on May 25th, she was semi-nude, her
legs were open, she was bloodied and she showed visible signs of torture. The
victim was seen in this condition by 250 witnesses from her community.
The
case of Susana Xocua is the fourth to have occurred in the Sierra Zongolica with
similar characteristics: the victims have all been older adult women with signs
of sexual violence and torture, whom the authorities have claimed died from
other [non-violent, non-criminal] causes...
...According to Julio Atenco Vidal, the Coordinator
of Indigenous Organizations of the Zongolica Mountain region (CROISZ), the
advanced state of decomposition of Susana Xocua may hide the physical and sexual
abuse suffered by her before death. Atenco Vidal expressed the idea that perhaps
the Veracruz Attorney General's office delayed the exhumation intentionally, to
obscure the facts in the case.
For his part, Attorney Veracruz announced that from this date forward, he will
prosecute public servants of the attorney general's office who apply for autopsy
waivers in cases where it is presumed that a death was caused by violence...
[Expanded Translation]
- Laura Castro Medina
- CIMAC
Noticias
Womens
Rights News
Mexico
City
July 18, 2008
Mexico
Presentan nuevo programa dirigido a mujeres indígenas en Guerrero
New Initiative Aims to Strengthen Indigenous Women's Rights
in Guerrero State
Mexico City - With the aim of strengthening the rights of indigenous women, the
United Nations Office for the Development for Women (UNIFEM) and Rosa Maria
Gomez, Secretary for Women's Affairs for the state of Guerrero, introduced in
the House of Deputies their "Agenda for Strengthening the Rights of Indigenous
Women."
UNIFEM consultant Patricia Olamendi Torres stressed that the project seeks
social justice for indigenous women, and the full exercise of their human rights
and citizenship, especially in cases where there are few or no [economic]
opportunities for themselves and their families.
[Expanded
Translation]
-
Sandra Torres Pastrana
CIMAC NOticias
Womens Rights News
Mexico City
July 11, 2008
New York, USA
Grandmother Guilty in Violent Mexican Prostitution Ring
Cadman Plaza East - A diminutive grandmother pleaded guilty to her role in a
family-run prostitution ring that smuggled women from Mexico to New York who
were sometimes violently coerced to perform sex acts.
Consuelo Carreto Valencia, who is from Mexico, pleaded guilty Tuesday in federal
court in Brooklyn, quickly bringing to a close a trial that had begun only a day
earlier.
The 4-foot-10, 61-year-old woman had faced 12 counts of conspiracy, sex
trafficking and smuggling. She pleaded guilty to one sex-trafficking count and
faces a sentence of no more than 14 years in prison.
Her attorney, John S. Wallenstein, said she was deathly afraid that she would
die in prison if convicted on all counts.
He said he warned Carreto about the strength of the government’s case. “I said
the jurors are going to want to jump out of the jury box and tear you to
pieces,” Wallenstein said...
Prosecutors said Carreto was the matriarch of a family operating a human
smuggling operating out of the town of San Miguel de Tenancingo. The Carretos,
according to prosecutors, “engaged in a scheme to lure, entice, compel and
coerce Mexican women and girls into prostitution” in Mexico and the United
States.
The women and girls were smuggled across the border and brought to two
apartments in Corona, Queens, where two of Carreto’s sons and another person
forced the women — through violence, sexual assault, threats and other methods
of coercion — to become prostitutes, prosecutors said. The women were compelled
to turn over their earnings — $25 to $35 for each sex act — to various brothel
owners and to the Carretos, prosecutors said. The money was then wired to
Mexico, prosecutors said.
Two of Carreto’s sons and a friend pleaded guilty to more than two dozen
criminal counts for their roles in the prostitution ring. The brothers were
sentenced to 50 years and the friend to 25.
Carreto was accused of helping to coordinate the operation from Tenancingo. In
her plea, she admitted knowing that a woman living in her house in Tenancingo
worked as a prostitute and had been brought to New York to work as a prostitute,
her attorney said. She also acknowledged receiving money that had been wired
from her sons.
-
Associated Press
July 24, 2008
New York, USA
Woman Assaulted; Newborn Baby Dies
The Wayne County District Attorney's Office will decide Thursday whether an
illegal immigrant from Mexico will face more serious charges in connection with
the death of a newborn baby.
The Wayne County Sheriff's Department is investigating the death of the infant
after an assault on the baby's mother.
Authorities say Juan Martinez, 28, assaulted his girlfriend, Angelica
Ponce-Ramirez last week, causing her to go into premature labor.
Ponce-Ramirez delivered a baby girl at Strong Hospital Tuesday. The baby died
about an hour later.
D.A. Rick Healy says Martinez kneed Ponce-Ramirez in the stomach at least five
times and beat her leg with an extension cord.
Healy says the assault stemmed from an argument in which Martinez claimed he
wasn't the baby's father.
"This is really a troubling case," Healy said. "The allegation is at least on
the charge, it appears he intentionally assaulted her for the purpose of her
losing the baby or the baby dying. It appears that way from the allegation that
he struck her with his knee multiple times in her stomach. Being 28 weeks, that
was his intent. It appears that way..."
-
R News
Rochester, NY
July 23, 2008
Texas, USA
One Arrested,
Two Sought In Retired Officer's Shooting
Houston - A man was arrested and charged in connection with the shooting of a
retired Houston police officer, while two other persons of interest remained on
the loose, KPRC Local 2 reported Thursday.
Raziel Jesus Munoz, 20, was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly
weapon.
Police said Munoz shot Belle Ortega, 78, at an apartment in the 6900 block of
South Loop East in southeast Houston on Monday at about 1:20 p.m.
Investigators said Ortega was visiting family members at the Plum Creek
apartment complex when she was critically wounded in a drive-by shooting...
Two other suspects, Bruno Aviles, 17, and Andrew Garcia, 20, are still wanted
for questioning in the shooting.
Ortega was the first Hispanic female officer in the Houston Police Department.
-
KPRC
July 24, 2008
Texas, USA
Jorge Mejia is charged with aggravated sexual assault of a child
Houston police are searching for a man accused of sexually assaulting a young
girl.
Jorge Mejia, 31, is charged with two counts of aggravated sexual assault of a
child in connection with attacks on a 9-year-old relative, police said.
The attacks occurred during the past year, said Officer M.S. Bailey, who is
investigating the case.
She said the child told another family member about the attacks.
"This child has been sexually assaulted by this guy several times," Bailey said.
She said Mejia was last seen about three weeks ago, when he sexually assaulted a
woman who also is one of his relatives.
Dale Lezon
Houston Chronicle
July 24, 2008
Florida, USA
Man wanted for sexually battering patient
Volusia County - Police said 50-year-old Carmelo Eduardo Reyes-Rosado, a medical
attendant at the center, is accused of pressuring a 26-year-old patient to have
sex with him several times at the facility.
As early as June 2, the woman alleges Rosado told her she needed to have sex
with him if she wanted to get into a residential treatment program. The patient
at the time was sedated and in what she said was an emotional state, and feared
she would not get the help she needed if she refused him.
She agreed, and told police that Rosado led her into a laundry room where he
asked her to perform a sex act on him. This was the first of several alleged
encounters at the treatment center that either took place in the laundry room or
a conference room.
The victim told police that she was told not tell anyone what had happened or it
would jeopardize her getting into the treatment program.
Police said the last encounter happened at the end of May when Rosado brought
another female in the room to witness the sex act.
Rosado quit his job the same day the patient filed the complaint against him.
Two days later, his attorney arranged a meeting with investigators where he
admitted to two of the sex acts. An arrest warrant was issued on Thursday after
the investigation was complete.
Police need your help finding Rosado...
-
FOX 35
Orlando , Florida
July 21 2008
Texas, USA
Francisco Pedraza Cruz fugitive on charges of Aggravated Sexual Assault of a
Child
Houston - Crime Stoppers and Harris County Sheriff's Office Child Abuse
Investigators are seeking the public's help for information leading to the
capture of 33 year old Francisco Pedraza Cruz, a fugitive on charges of
Aggravated Sexual Assault of a Child.
Around March 2000, Francisco Pedraza Cruz would enter the 7-year-old victim's
home when her mother was working and he would sexually assault her. This
happened on numerous occasions and the suspect told the victim if she told
anyone he would kill her and her mother. She finally told someone when she was
14 years old.
On June 26, 2008 charges of aggravated sexual assault of a child were filed on
Cruz. A warrant was issued out of the 183rd District Court and bond was set at
$30,000. He is described as a 5'6" Hispanic male weighing 210 pounds. He has
black hair, brown eyes, possibly a mustache and a medium complexion. He still
believed to be in the Houston area.
- KTRK
Houston, Texas
July 24, 2008
Indiana, USA
Man Accused of Raping Young Girl
A man is facing rape charges thanks to his fellow church goers. Members of an
Hispanic church in Evansville told police officers one of their members, Armando
Heras, had molested one of their other members, a 14-year-old girl. The girl
told officers he had forced himself on her twice and sent her an inappropriate
picture of himself via cell phone. Officers tracked down and arrested Heras, who
claims that when he and the girl were together sexually, it was consensual. He
faces several charges, including false informing for the fake name he gave
officers during the arrest.
-
TristateHomePage.com
July 14, 2008
Georgia, USA
Wanted for Rape of a Minor
Pierce County - Jorge Ibarra, 20, is wanted on charges he raped a 14-year-old
female, which was reported to authorities June 30...
Ibarra has warrants for child molestation, rape and aggravated sodomy. He is 5
feet 3 inches tall and weighs 160 pounds. He is said to be fluent in both
Spanish and English.
-
The Blackshear Times
July 16, 2008
Georgia, USA
3 hunted in home invasion and rape
Three suspects are being sought in what authorities are describing as a home
invasion armed robbery in which a 15-year-old female was raped.
The incident took place Thursday afternoon at a residence in the Beverly Park
neighborhood, south of Newnan off Millard Farmer Road.
Just before 1 p.m., Israel Salis Rodriguez, 26, was at the residence along with
a 15-year-old and two children when three Hispanic males entered through the
basement door wearing gloves and sunglasses, according to the Coweta Sheriff's
Office incident report.
Rodriguez told investigators he was surprised by two of the men when they came
up from the basement stairs. The intruders demanded money, and Rodriguez
attempted to fight them off. The intruders jumped him, tied him up with
extension cords and began punching him and burning his right leg with a lighter,
according to sheriff's office Major James Yarbrough.
The 15-year-old told officers that when the intruders entered the home, she was
in her room with the two children. When two of the intruders made their way
upstairs, the third intruder -- who was armed with a knife and a handgun --
remained in the basement with the three juveniles.
The attacker reportedly put the gun to the female's head and raped her,
according to investigators. The two children were unharmed...
Elizabeth Richardson
The Times-Herald
Coweta, Georgia
July 18, 2008
Ohio, USA
Abuse among immigrants more difficult to confront; victims especially afraid to
get help
Immigrants are no more likely to suffer abuse than other American women, experts
say, but they are less likely to see a way out.
Isolated, unsure and maybe reliant on their husband for their visa, "It's harder
for immigrant women to get safe." said Cathleen Alexander, executive director of
the Domestic Violence Center, which runs Cuyahoga County's domestic-violence
program.
Her center's recent experience in the Hispanic community illuminated a pent-up
demand for help. Three years ago, it launched its Latina Project, reaching out
to Latinas with lures like bilingual counselors and a Spanish-speaking support
group.
A dam seemed to burst. The number of incidents of abuse reported by Hispanic
women surged by 400 percent, to 240 cases last year.
One of the callers was Marta, an immigrant from South America who asked that her
full identity not be divulged, as she still fears her abuser and his family.
For weeks, she said, her boyfriend kept her locked in an apartment without a
phone, beating and raping her. At rare times when she was free of him, "I was
too afraid to call police. He had told me I would be ignored," she said through
an interpreter.
One Sunday, her minister slipped her a card with the Latina Project's linea de
ayuda, helpline. Now her ex-boyfriend is in jail and counselors are helping her
piece her life back together.
What immigrant women should know
* If you are the victim of abuse or rape, you have the right to the same
protections as any other woman in America.
* You will not be turned away from a women's shelter because you do not speak
English.
* If you ask for help, it is very unlikely anyone will ask about your
immigration status.
* If you are afraid to call the police or a crisis hot line, ask someone to call
for you.
* You will not be deported for leaving an abusive husband. U.S. law allows
battered women with temporary visas to petition for their own green cards.
-
Joshua Gunter
The Plain Dealer
July 17, 2008
Massachusetts, USA
Violent Assault In Front Of Local Church
Morning prayers at a Springfield church turn somber after the congregation
learns of a violent act that took place in front of their church early Sunday
morning.
Early this morning St. John's Congregational Church on Union Street was the
scene of a violent struggle. Police say just before 1 AM a woman was held at
knife point...dragged to a grassy area beside the church and sexually assaulted.
It's a crime that left church goers horrified as they stepped through the doors
for Sunday service.
Lilly Davis says, "They didn't have respect for God's house and to use another
person, that is disgusting."
Daphne Reid says, "It's a place where you go for prayer and to sanctify and I
think that it's wrong, I think we need a little more police in the neighborhood
to see what's going on."
Police say somehow the victim did manage to escape from her attackers by kicking
and screaming. Once she was out of their hands she called for help and was
transported by an ambulance to the hospital...
Right now police are on the lookout for two men described as Hispanic males. The
first is said to be in his 20's and was wearing a red shirt, a gold cross and
blue jeans. The second man was visibly older and has a cast on one of his hands.
Even though the congregation is upset the incident happened on church property,
many say it's not a complete shock and right now their prayers are with the
victim...
-
Meredith Broadcasting
July 13, 2008
Texas, USA
Lubbok police probe second abduction
Lubbock police are investigating the second kidnapping in a week involving a
white SUV, a stun gun, an attempted rape and a dark, secluded area.
Two women have reported being attacked by a Hispanic man in a white SUV. In both
cases, the attacker, described as in his late 20s or early 30s, around 6-feet
tall and 200 pounds, used a stun gun on the women.
"Because there are similarities, we're thinking they're related," said Lubbock
police Sgt. John Gomez...
-
Andre L. Taylor
Avalanche-Journal
July 12, 2008
Arkansas, USA
DNA links man to rape
Bond has been set at $100,000 for the suspect in a May 24 residential burglary
and rape of a Batesville woman, according to an Independence County Circuit
Court affidavit filed by Detective Mike Mundy with the Independence County
Sheriff’s Office.
The suspect, identified as Saul E. Reyes, 23, ...is behind bars after his DNA
was reportedly matched to his victim, her clothes and a knife he was said to be
carrying at the time of the incident.
In his affidavit, Mundy said that just before 6 a.m. on May 24, officers were
dispatched to another residence at 100 Hidden Valley Drive, where the victim
told them that a man had entered her home and raped her at knife point.
The woman said she didn’t know the man was in her home until she woke up with
him on top of her and holding a knife to her throat, telling her he would kill
her and her children, according to Mundy.
“(The victim) advised the suspect was a Hispanic male, short, skinny, with short
hair and a beard,” Mundy said. “She said the attacker kept telling her he loved
her.”
She also told police she would recognize the man’s voice if she ever heard it
again...
On June 11, officers were again dispatched to same residence regarding a
burglary in progress.
Upon their arrival they found a Hispanic man armed with a knife, lying on the
ground a few feet from a window that had been forced open, according to Mundy.
Mundy said Reyes was detained by officers while Detective Jeff Sims and Deputy
Rob Leonard spoke with the victim inside her home.
“While speaking with (her) and advising her they had a suspect, she heard the
suspect’s voice,” Mundy said. “She grabbed Deputy Leonard by the arm, becoming
quite emotional and stating, ‘That is the man that raped me...’
- Guardian Online
July 15, 2008
Tennessee, USA
Man charged in prostitute's rape
An Oak Ridge woman reported that she was raped on July 12 and then saw her
alleged assailant in the same area on Monday night and called police.
The 35-year-old victim on Sunday told police she had been raped on Saturday
night by a Hispanic man while three other Hispanic men held her. Officer Daniel
McFee saw the victim walking on West Outer Drive and talked to her there,
reports said.
She told McFee she was raped about 3 a.m. in the basement of an Applewood
apartment building on Hunter Circle. She said one of the men hit her on the head
with something, and they took her to a back room of the basement and raped her.
On Monday, she called the Police Department from a pay phone and reported seeing
the man going into another Hunter Circle apartment.
McFee arrested Alejandro Hernandez Cortez, 23, 103 Hunter Circle, for aggravated
rape in the case.
Police Capt. Rick Stone said the victim and another woman went to Hunter Circle
for solicitation of sex. He said the other woman was not a witness to the attack
but had apparently negotiated a sex act with another person in the area.
Stone said that although the victim is known in the area as a prostitute,
officers believe she may have been attacked. He said negotiations may have gone
bad or she may have changed her mind...
-
Beverly Majors
The Oak Ridger
July 15, 2008
Arizona, USA
Police: Sex Predator Behind 9 Attempted Attacks
Phoenix - A sex predator who tried to rape a 12-year-old girl June 11 is behind
nine attempted sex assault attacks since January, police said on Thursday.
Investigators said the man poses an immediate threat to the safety of children
in the community and Silent Witness posted a $1,000 reward for information
leading to the arrest and prosecution of the attacker.
The serial predator has targeted children and teens between the ages of 7 to 17,
said Sgt. Paul Penzone. He said all of the attacks have occurred between 2 p.m.
and 11 p.m.
The latest attack happened on Wednesday.
The June 11 attack occurred when the man approached a 12-year-old girl walking
alone to her friend's apartment, shoved her to the ground and tried to rape her,
police said.
The man ran up behind her in the 2200 block of West Campbell Avenue and
attempted to pull down her shorts, officers said.
When the man pushed her to the ground and tried to sexually assault her, the
girl screamed and the attacker released her, investigators said.
The girl ran to her friend's apartment and called police.
The man is described as a Native American or Hispanic male and is believed to be
between 20 and 29 years old...
- KPHO
July 18, 2008
Utah, USA
...Rapist behind bars
Hurricane investigators, with the help of St. George police have caught the man
suspected of rape, who has been on the run since last Sunday.
The victim called investigators on Saturday and said the suspect, 27 year old
Jaime Avila tried to contact her again.
"During the attempt she was able to get a licence plate number," says Ken
Perkins, Hurricane Police's public information officer.
Initial reports said the victim called 911 at around 2 am last Sunday to report
the attack that happened at around 3700 West and 150 North in Hurricane.
The 17 year old girl described her attacker as a
Hispanic male between 5'4 and 5
foot 8 inches tall, but did not know his name...
-
Chance Walser
KCSG
July 15, 2008
Washington State, USA
Rape reported in Centralia park
Centralia - Lewis County residents are on edge after two rapes were reported in
five days.
The first happened Wednesday at a Chehalis Subway shop where a female employee
was raped, tied up and robbed.
The latest rape was reported five miles away, in Centralia.
The 17-year-old victim says a stranger, on a bike, approached her Saturday at
Fort Borst Park.
Police say the suspect spoke in Spanish before leading her to a wooded area and
sexually assaulting her.
He rode away on his bike and she was able to make her way to a friend's house to
call 9-1-1.
-
KING5.com
July 20, 2008
Florida, USA
Rape suspect followed both victims to homes, officials say
Winter Haven - Law enforcement officials say they have learned how rape suspect
Edwin G. Mejia-Zapata found the victims.
The suspect didn't know the victims and it's just a coincidence the two victims
lived in the same neighborhood, according to Winter Haven spokeswoman Joy
Townsend.
Mejia-Zapata, 25, told officers he followed one victim from Burger King to her
home in the Verandahs at Lake Reeves subdivision, according to Townsend.
The second victim was
followed from the 7-Eleven convenience store on
Cypress Gardens Boulevard, near Lake Ruby, to her
home in the same subdivision, Townsend said...
A
native of Ecuador, Mejia-Zapata was arrested at his home around 6:20 p.m. Monday
and charged with the rape of the two women.
Through DNA testing, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement determined one
man was responsible for both rapes, though there wasn't a match in the existing
database at the time...
A former aircraft mechanic in the Navy, Mejia-Zapata is charged with two counts
of armed burglary and seven counts of sexual battery with a deadly weapon in
connection with the two rapes...
-
Shelly Godefrin
July 23, 2008
Texas, USA
Man wanted in woman's attack in downtown Austin
Austin police detectives released a composite sketch of a man they say attacked a
woman in downtown Austin and tried to sexually assault her.
The attack happened early in the morning on July 19 in the 1400 block of West
6th Street.
The woman told police the man walked up behind her and demanded her money. Then
he took her to a grassy area and tried to assault her, but she was able to get
away.
The man ran. He's described as a Hispanic man in his 20's...
-
KVUE.com
July 24, 2008
South Carolina, USA
Girl, 13, presumed to be with boyfriend, 21
Goose Creek - A 13-year-old girl has been missing more than a week, and police
have accused an illegal immigrant of being involved in her disappearance...
Fernanda Amores left her home about midnight July 14 after receiving several
e-mails from 21-year-old Noe Marin Jimenez, an illegal immigrant from Mexico,
authorities said. They said that Jimenez wrote in the e-mails that he would come
to Amores' house and pick her up that night.
Jimenez is wanted on a charge of contributing to the delinquency of a minor in
connection with Amores' disappearance.
"He is not suspected of endangering her. The two are, against the family's
wishes, a couple," said Casey Hoskins, Goose Creek public information officer.
"It is, typically, a kid walking off. The problem here is that, because he's
older, he is contributing to her delinquency."
-
Nadine Parks
The Post and Courier
July 24, 2008
Mexico
Ocho de cada diez migrantes
son violadas
Eight in every ten migrant
women is raped as they cross Mexico
The 'American
Dream' for many migrating women turns into a
nightmare when, as they cross from Central America
into Mexico, they become victims of psychological
torture and other abuses of all kinds.
According to the
latest report of the Forum on Migration, drafted
this year, eight out of 10
Central American women migrants who cross the southern border of
Mexico are raped, regardless of whether they are
adolescents or elderly women. Among them are
a high percentage of Guatemalan migrants [the
majority of Guatemalans are indigenous].
Mary Galván, a
social worker with the Instituto Madre Assunta, a
migrant assistance agency, notes that sexual abuse
is prevalent along both the southern and northern
borders of Mexico. Galván lamented that: "Central
American women are the most vulnerable, because they
attach them-selves to a male fellow traveler for
protection, and he takes advantage of her."
Galván recalled a
case from 2007, in which three sisters wanted to
cross the border. Assailants forced them to strip
naked. The youngest sister, because she was mentally
disabled, did not strip. She was grabbed by the hair
and taken away. She has not been heard from since...
Pedro Pantoja, a
priest who is in charge of the Posada Belén
(Bethlehem Shelter), located in Saltillo, in
Coahuila state, related the story of Marisa, a
Central American woman. Pantoja: "After passing
through the city of Tapachula [a border town near
Guatemala], due to a lack of
freight trains [to ride], Marisa had to walk through the
forest. Twelve men robbed her of everything, and
then they each raped her. A few days before this, a
policeman had also raped Marisa..."
(Extended
Translation)
-
Prensa Libre
July. 14, 2008
Dominican Republic
Republica Dominicana: En
primeros lugares del continente en trata de personas
Dominican Republic Holds
Record for Latin American Sex Trafficking
An estimated 50,000
Dominican women are victims of sex trafficking
networks
The Dominican
Republic occupies one of the three ghastly first
place positions in the number of victims of human
trafficking in the Americas, with an estimated
50,000 women victims, aside from additional numbers
of girls, boys and men also trapped in slavery.
During her remarks
at the opening of the seminar 'Protection for
Persons Affected by Trafficking,' Margarita Cedeño
de Fernández, First Lady of the Republic, stated
that trafficking in persons is a crime against the
state and those who are affected by it. It is a crime, she said,
that is linked to poverty, gender inequality, racial
discrimination, social marginalization and unequal
development...
A plan needed
The First Lady
noted that a national strategic plan of consolidated
action is needed. That plan must be well designed and
coordinated to serve as an effective tool to
eliminate this scourge, which, after trafficking in
weapons and drugs, has become the world's most
lucrative illegal activity.
In that vein, the
First Lady said that the Dominican
Republic has been combating human trafficking
since 1999. Work
began with the founding of the Inter-Agency
Committee for the Protection of Migrant Women (CIPROM),
created by Order 97-99. Since 2003 the country
has had a specific law, 137-03, to combat human
trafficking...
(Extended
Translation)
- Diario Libre
July. 14, 2008
Central America, Mexico
What is the status of the
Jacqueline Maria Jirón Silva case?
Question from Chuck
Goolsby to Catalina Fernandez, development
coordinator, Alianza Por Tus Derechos – June 12,
2008:
"What is the status of the
Jacqueline Maria Jirón Silva case?
Although every
victim is equal, this case is unique because we have
a picture of this Nicaraguan girl who was kidnapped
into sexual slavery at age 11, and because her
mother, a domestic worker in Costa Rica, has
travelled to every corner of Central America to find
her. See:
The Jaqueline Maria Jiron
Silva case."
Answer from Catalina Fernandez – June 20, 2008:
"Jacqueline turned
15 this June 11, 2008, and we continue searching.
The investigation
team of Alianza Por Tus
Derechos (Alliance For Your Rights) in Central America looked tirelessly for
Jacqueline in the border area between Guatemala and
Mexico, which has given us information that she is
there. However many factors make us believe that
her rescue is not possible.
First, the case of
Jacqueline reached Alliance for Your Rights nearly a
year after she disappeared. This caused us to loose
a lot of time in the search for her. Further, the
corruption that rules among many Central American
authorities has caused these officials to warn
Jacqueline’s captors when we are in a given area,
and they move her.
Here
at Alliance for Your Rights, we are convinced that
she was the victim of a network of traffickers that
began in [the city of] Chinandega, Nicaragua . She
was moved among the Central American countries, and
she is being sexually exploited in a brothel in the
Guatemala / Mexico border area.
We will not rest in
our search for Jacqueline, but we call upon the
authorities to help us. We know that there are
honest people in their ranks, and we want them, and
also the truck drivers who transit the border
region, to alert us when they see Jacqueline."
-
www.ChangeMakers.net
July 14, 2008
Guatemala
Rescatan a unos 150 menores
Some 150 children have been rescued from
prostitution during 2008
During the 2008
authorities in Guatemala have rescued 150 underage
victims from prostitution. The victims were being
exploited in bars, nightclubs and clandestine
parties.
In raids conducted
by multi-state task forces, 65% of the women
detained have been underage.
-
Coralia Orantes
Prensa Libre
July 14, 2008
Argentina
Unos 5.000 niños se
prostituyen en Buenos Aires, según informe
periodístico
Thousands of children and
youth engage
in prostitution in Buenos Aires, according to a
newspaper report
Some 5,000 underage
prostitutes exist on the streets of Buenos Aires...
says a report today that the Diario Popular
(the People's Journal), quoting sources from the
Argentine Federal Police.
According to an
expert from the federal police, poor children
between the ages of 8 and 17 are exploited by gangs
that offer tourists a "low cost and relatively safe"
form of impunity...
According to
Fabiana Tuñes, who directs the NGO Casa Encuentro,
80% of the women who are victims of sexual
exploitation are underage. Tuñes believes that the
unofficial estimate of 5,000 child victims in
Argentina's capitol "could be triple: that number.
She said that in Buenos Aires: "We have to dismember
trafficking networks and their accomplices in our
political, judicial and law enforcement
environments." Tuñes emphasized that "It is clear to
us that these [criminal child sex trafficking] organiza-tions could not operate in
the relaxed way that they do if
'liberated zones' that allowed
pedophilia did not exist.
(Extended
Translation)
- EFE News
July 14, 2008
Added July 15, 2008
Illinois, USA
Man accused of caging children
in back of pickup
Posen - A suburban
Chicago man locked his two young daughters in a wire
cage hidden in the back of his pickup truck because
he didn't have a baby sitter, officials said
Thursday.
Ricardo Gonzalez, 35, of
Midlothian, was arrested Monday after a woman at a
gas station in Posen heard a crying child and
spotted him pushing small hands back into a cage,
police said.
He had a wire cage
behind the front seats of his truck, police said.
Black-tinted windows and a large plywood board in
the back window concealed it.
Gonzalez told police he
used the cage because he didn't have a baby sitter.
He also said he wanted to control the girls, ages 2
and 5, so they wouldn't run away. Police said the
girls did not live in the cage.
Gonzalez will appear in
court July 31 on charges of misdemeanor child
endangerment. Cook County prosecutors were exploring
Thursday whether the charge could be upgraded to a
felony...
-
The Associated Press
July. 15, 2008
Washington, DC, USA
Serial rapist may lurk in the
Northwest section of Washing-ton,
D.C., police say
Washington, DC -
District of Columbia police believe a man may be
prowling the streets of Northwest neighborhoods
early in the morning, burglar-izing homes and raping
the women inside.
On Monday, noting a
recent surge in the number of rapes and attempted
rapes, police officials said many of the sex crimes
are likely connected.
Police said they’re not
sure that the latest incident, in which a Hispanic
male in his late teens or early 20s broke into a
woman’s home on the 3300 block of 18th Street NW
around 4 a.m. Thursday, raped her and then stole
some of her belongings, is connected to three
previous similar cases from earlier this year, but
it might be...
The first report came
May 16, the next was nine days later on May 25,
which was followed by a month break until the
culprit popped back up on June 26. Fourteen days
later, just before 5 a.m. he may have been back at
it.
With a man like that on
the loose, it’s best to be proactive, the two Holmes
men write. “Keep the windows and doors locked ... a
dog doesn’t hurt either.”
- The Examiner
Washington, DC
July. 15, 2008
Florida, USA
Fake cop uses threats and
demands sex
Tampa - Investigators
say Edwin Nieves pretended to be a police officer
and threatened to take away a pregnant woman's
children and notify immigration authorities unless
she had sex with him.
Nieves, a 38-year-old
from Tampa, faces charges of felony kidnapping,
impersonating an officer and aggravated battery on a
pregnant woman, jail records show. He was held in
lieu of $59,500 bail, records show...
Nieves... began to
fondle the woman, police say. The woman, who is
seven months pregnant, then persuaded Nieves to take
her home "so she could clean up" before sex, police
say.
He ordered her to meet
him in 30 minutes, police say.
Instead, the woman's
relatives went to the spot and got his license plate
number before he drove away, police say. When police
located him, he was dressed in a police uniform...
-
Abbie VanSickle and
Casey Cora
St. Petersburg Times
July. 15, 2008
Sudan
Sudanese president charged
with genocide in Darfur
The
Hague - Netherlands - The prosecutor of the
International Criminal Court filed genocide charges
Monday against Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir,
accusing him of masterminding attempts to wipe out
African tribes in Darfur with a campaign of murder,
rape and deportation.
The
filing marked the first time prosecutors at the
world's first permanent, global war crimes court
have issued charges against a sitting head of state,
but al-Bashir is unlikely to be sent to The Hague
any time soon. Sudan rejects the court's
jurisdiction, and senior Sudanese officials said the
prosecutor was politically motivated to file the
charges.
Luis
Moreno-Ocampo asked a three-judge panel at the
International Criminal Court to issue an arrest
warrant for al-Bashir to prevent the slow deaths of
some 2.5 million people forced from their homes in
Darfur and still under attack from government-backed
janjaweed militia.
"Genocide is a crime of intention — we don't need to
wait until these 2.5 million die," he told The
Associated Press.
"The
genocide is ongoing," he added, saying systematic
rape was a key element of the campaign.
"Seventy-year-old women, 6-year-old girls are
raped," he said...
- Mike Corder
The Associated Press
July 14, 2008
See also:
Rape is a way of life for
Darfur's women
- CNN
June 19, 2008
LibertadLatina
Our special section on the
crisis of genocide in Darfur, Sudan
LibertadLatina
Commentary
As
human and women's rights activists, we strongly
applaud the action of prosecutor
Luis Moreno-Ocampo at the
International Criminal Court in the Hague in
charging
Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir with
master-minding genocide.
We wish
Moreno-Ocampo
well in his efforts to arrest
and try al-Bashir. At the very least, al-Bashir
will not be travelling abroad very much for fear of
facing arrest.
Those who suffered through genocides where no
justice was ever given, such as the victims of the
1980s and 1990s mass murders of mass rapes of Mayan
peoples in Guatemala, also deserve their day in the
Hague for what was done to them.
Genocide, and the rape of
almost every female, from children through
elderly women in Mayan Guatemala went almost
completely unpunished by international legal action.
Those acts were no less heinous than the terrible
genocide and mass rape facing Darfur, Sudan today.
In both cases, justice cannot come soon enough.
End impunity now!
-
Chuck Goolsby
LibertadLatina
July 9, 2008
Added July 9, 2008
Sudan
Sudan fury at possible
genocide charge
International
Criminal Court may seek arrest of Sudan's president
The U.N. estimates 2.5 million have been forced
from their homes in Darfur.
Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo has scheduled a
news conference Monday, just after he is expected to
filed the warrant with the court.
The Sudanese ambassador to the United Nations told
CNN said Friday that the ICC has indicated to
Sudanese officials that al-Bashir may be charged
over the five-year campaign of violence in the
country's Darfur region...
- CNN
July 11, 2008
Guatemala
Presentan estudio sobre
femicidio en San Marcos
CERIGUA Releases
Study on Press Coverage of Femicide in San Marcos
The
study "An Analysis of Press Coverage of Violence
Against Women" during 2007 was released to
journalists and civil society representatives from
San Marcos
department [state], which reported that during the
first half of last year the phenomenon of femicide
claimed the lives of 272 women.
The
study, by the Center for Informative Reporting
About Guatemala (CERIGUA), which is dedicated to
raising awareness about [femicide and human rights],
revealed that last year 394 women were murdered
during 2007, without arousing any serious interest
on the part of the mass media to provide the public
with analysis of the causes, a variety of news
sources or dignified treatment of the victims in
their news coverage.
According to the study, the main characteristics of
press stories about female murders involved
sensational-ism and yellow journalism, the lightness
with which they treated the subject, and a lack of
effort to raise awareness about the causes of
femicide and current trends.
The
study noted that it is important to mention the
victim's profession and contributions in society,
and to present statements from those who knew them,
as a way to reclaim the dignity of these women's
lives.
According to the World Summit on the Information
Society (WSIS) held in Geneva in 2003, the press
must be guided by the principles of equality and non
discrimination towards women in its coverage...
-
CERIGUA
Guatemalan Human Rights News
July. 12, 2008
California, USA
ICE mounts outdoor ad campaign
to raise awareness about human trafficking
"Hidden in plain
sight" is theme of displays in San Diego and six
other U.S. cities
San
Diego - As part of it's ongoing effort to raise
public awareness about the plight of human
trafficking victims in the United States, U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has
launched an outdoor advertising campaign featuring
billboards and transit shelter signs in seven major
cities across the country, including San Diego.
Posters,
bearing the slogan "Hidden in Plain Sight," were
erected last month at 15 transit shelters throughout
the greater San Diego area. The goal of the campaign
is to alert the public about the existence of human
trafficking in communities nationwide. In addition
to San Diego, the human trafficking billboards and
transit shelter signs are being displayed in Los
Angeles, San Francisco, Phoenix, Chicago, Baltimore
and New York City. Additional outdoor displays are
planned for Houston, Miami and Washington, D.C.
"ICE is
asking for the public's assistance to help us
recognize and identify the victims of modern-day
slavery who are in our midst," said Miguel Unzueta,
special agent in charge for ICE investigations in
San Diego. "These victims are domestic servants,
sweat shop employees, sex workers and others lured
here by the promise of prosperity, then forced to
work without the ability to leave their situation.
ICE is committed to giving trafficking victims the
help they need to come forward, so we can put an end
to this reprehensible form of modern day slavery...
-
U.S. ICE
July. 13, 2008
Colorado, USA
Police Looking For Sex Assault
Suspect
Denver police say they are looking
for the person who sexually assaulted a woman who
was walking along the Lakewood Gulch Trail.
Police said the assault happened
Tuesday night around 1 a.m. in the area of 13th
Avenue and Decatur Street.
Officers said a Hispanic man
assaulted a woman, and then ran away.
He is descried as between 22 and 29
years old, about 5 feet tall and between 110 and 125
pounds.
- The Denver Channel
July 9, 2008
Virginia, USA
Composite of Suspect in [City
of] Sterling Sex Assault
Loudoun County, Virginia-
Investigators have released a composite sketch of a
suspect in an attempted sexual assault that occurred
Monday night in Sterling, VA.
A Loudoun Sheriff’s Deputy was in the
area of North Ithaca Road and North Ithaca Court
around 9 PM when she heard a woman scream. The
deputy went to investigate and observed a man
assaulting a woman. The man fled from the area and
the deputy gave chase. A perimeter was established
and a canine unit was called to the scene. The
suspect was not located.
The victim told authorities she was
walking home when the suspect grabbed her and
attempted to sexually assault her. The suspect is
described as a dark skinned Hispanic male, 5’5”
tall, 170 pounds
-
Fox 5 - Washington, DC
July. 13, 2008
Florida, USA
Police have arrested a man
they are calling a serial rapist.
At a press conference
Thursday afternoon, Miami Beach Police announced the
capture of 29-year-old Arturo Soto and asked the
public if anyone out there may have been victimized
by this same man. So far they think he is
responsible for at least two rapes and one attempted
rape.
Police apprehended Soto
Wednesday night after an attempted sexual battery.
The chef at the Maya Tapas and Grill restaurant,
near where the latest attack occurred, said graphic
surveillance video outside the restaurant, which
police have confiscated as evidence, looked like
something out of a horror movie.
Police said Soto
reportedly lured a woman into an alley at 14th
Street and Collins Avenue where he punched her
bloody and fled on foot after he became nervous.
Police officers caught
up with him soon after, and, authorities said, he
confessed to the crime. During the course of the
questioning of Soto, authorities determined he is
also a suspect in the November 2006 rape of a woman
behind the Presidential Hotel, located at 1423
Collins Avenue, also in an alley.
Police added that he is
also a suspect in the more recent sexual battery of
a woman who was visiting from out of town. This
attack occurred on June 24, outside a Miami Beach
parking garage, again in an alley, near 919 Collins
Avenue...
- WSVN
July. 11, 2008
Nevada, USA
[Undocumented] immigrant
convicted of assaulting girl gets 57 more months
A deported
[Undocumented] immigrant who returned to the United
States and sexually assaulted a young girl will be
spending another 57 months in federal prison.
Sergio Hugo Hernandez,
31, of Las Vegas, received that sentence Friday on
top of a sentence of 10 years to life that he
received in state prison for assaulting the girl,
said Gregory A. Brower, U.S. Attorney for the
District of Nevada.
Officials said Hernandez
-- already convicted of carjacking and use of a
deadly weapon in California -- was deported from the
country on July 29, 2003. He then was found in the
U.S. on April 6, 2007, during an investigating into
the sexual assault of a girl under age 14.
Hernandez was convicted
Jan. 9 of two felonies tied to the sexual assault of
the girl. In February, he pleaded guilty to being a
deported alien found unlawfully in the U.S., and
today was sentenced to the 57 additional months in
prison.
The case was
investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement and Henderson police.
- The Las Vegas Sun
July. 11, 2008
[Undocumented man] denies
raping 14-year-old relative
A man accused of raping
a 14-year-old girl denies that the alleged victim is
his relative.
Speaking through an
interpreter in Floyd Circuit Court, Jenrry Yovany
Zavala, 19, claimed the girl in question is actually
his girlfriend, but a family member says
otherwise...
Zavala has been charged
with rape, a class B felony, criminal confinement, a
class D felony, and contributing to the delinquency
of a minor, a class A misdemeanor. He faces six to
20 years in prison if convicted of rape and six
months to three years if convicted of criminal
confinement.
Jony Zavala, the
suspect’s brother, said he has legal custody of the
victim. He reportedly called police when she went
missing and led them to where his brother was
staying near East 18th Street in New Albany.
Jony claims that when he
went looking for the girl, a man told him that
Jenrry had been trying to “sell” her as a
prostitute.
...According to the
affidavit, the alleged victim said that Jenrry
kidnapped her, forced her to have sex with him
multiple times and threatened to kill her. Police
found her hiding in a closet...
“It has been very
painful for my family, especially my mom,” Jony
said. “But if he has the guts to kidnap a
14-year-old girl, what else could he do?”
Jenrry is being held in
the Floyd County Jail on $150,000 bail. He will have
to pay $15,000 in cash to be released. Judge Cody
issued a no-contact order with the alleged victim.
- Matt Thacker
News and Tribune
July. 11, 2008
|
Recent
Event
Thursday, July 10th
Washington, DC
The Profits of
Pimping:
Abolishing Sex Trafficking In The
United States
|
Added July 9, 2008
Tennessee, USA
Man Sentenced For Sex
Trafficking Of Adults and Juveniles
Washington, DC - The Department of
Justice, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
(ICE), and the Federal Bureau of Investigation
announced that Juan Mendez of Nashville, Tenn., was
sentenced on June 27, 2008 to 50 years in prison to
be followed by 10 years of supervised release for
sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion and sex
trafficking of a juvenile. He was also ordered to
pay $100,000 in restitution to his victims.
Mendez pleaded guilty on Dec. 13,
2007, to two counts of child sex trafficking and sex
trafficking by force, fraud and coercion. Mendez
admitted to fraudulently luring two young girls,
aged 13 and 17, to Tennessee with the intent of
forcing them into prostitution. Mendez further
admitted to threatening the victims, physically and
verbally, in order to coerce them into
prostitution...
“This defendant lured young girls to
this country with the promise of jobs working in a
restaurant, then used physical and psychological
abuse to force them to work in brothels across the
South,” said Grace Chung Becker, Acting Assistant
Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. “We
hope that this sentence will give a new sense of
hope to the young victims in this case, whose lives
were tragically affected by the defendant’s criminal
acts.”
- U.S. Dept. of Justice
Press Release
June 30, 2008
Florida, USA
Errata
Our updating of a recent
story on the alleged beheading of a trafficking
victim
LibertadLatina
apologizes to its readers for the fact that we
inadvertently published a story that had previously
been
reported in the Bradenton Herald in Florida, yet was
later discovered to be false.
During 7
years of reporting on human trafficking and
exploitation issues affecting the Latino/a,
Afro-descendent and indigenous commu-nities in the
Americas, this is the first case of an apparently
falsified story, from an otherwise credible news
source.
On June 24th we spend many hours tracking down the
official Florida House of Representatives video tape of the
hearing where the Florida Attorney General's office
publicly testified about the alleged beheading of a
trafficked Mexican girl. They too were mislead
by the Bradenton Herald story from March 11, 2008,
which, the paper says, has now been retracted.
Read the details at this link.
-
Chuck Goolsby
LibertadLatina
July 9, 2008
Georgia, USA
Feds Say Women, Girls Forced
Into Prostitution
Atlanta - Five men are accused of
forcing young women and girls from Mexico to work as
prostitutes in metro Atlanta...
"We believe that the men would go to
Mexico and befriend or seduce the young women tell
them they were going to be their boyfriends, once
they started dating in Mexico they'd get them to
come to the U.S.," said Assistant U.S. Attorney
Susan Coppedge.
...The men lured at least 10 victims
from Mexico into Metro Atlanta...
Federal authorities say the victims,
including four under 18, were lured to the U.S. with
promises of jobs or romance, then held in suburban
homes and made to perform sex acts with up to 30 men
a night at $25 apiece...
"Immigration and Customs Enforcement
was the lead agency and they had help from Gwinnett
and Bartow County local enforcement who saw these
things going on in their community and helped
conduct surveillance of the men taking women into
various homes for prostitution," said Coppedge.
Named in a 31-count indictment were
34-year-old Amador Cortes-Meza; 31-year-old Juan
Cortes-Meza; 25-year-old Francisco Cortes-Meza, and
21-year-old Raul Cortes-Meza, all of Mexico and
living in Norcross, and 69-year-old Edison Wagner
Rosa Tort of Uruguay and living in Cartersville.
-
WAGA - Fox
July. 8, 2008
Argentina
Dos chicas desaparecieron y
temen que las tengan tratantes de blancas
Two Girls Disappear
and are Feared to be Sex Trafficking Victims
Santa Fe - Daiana Graciela Valdez,
age, 16, and Gisela Romero, age 22, are feared to
have been kidnapped by sex traffickers during the
month of June [2008].
Daiana disappeared on June 20th. On
that date she sent two text messages to a male
friend, pleading for help. This together with other
information lead authorities to believe that Daiana
was the victim of a 'typical' sex trafficking kidnap
operation.
Gisela has a mild mental disability,
with the capacities of a 15-year-old. She had not
been seen since June 13th. She left without clothing
and without her child, leading police to suspect
that she too was the victim of sex traffickers.
Both cases were reported to police,
and Argentina's Specialized Unit for the Prevention
and Fight Against the Crime of Trafficking is
investigating.
Daiana was able to send three text
messages after her kidnapping. In the first, she
told a friend that she had been forced into a black
car, had been taken to the north, and that she had
been beaten and was being held in a room. Later,
Daiana send another message asking for help, saying
that she was going to die. Later yet, she
communicated with her sister, saying that she was
locked in a room and blindfolded. The cell phone
used was not her own. It later showed up in a
package that was found by authorities in the
capitol, Buenos Aires.
Gisela left her home on June 13th to
go to a tourist area. She left her identification
and her 2-year-old daughter at home. Two years
earlier, Gisela had disappeared from home, and
returned pregnant. Her parents never found out where
she had been, Her mother fears that she may be with
the same people again. Her mother is sure that her
current disappearance was not voluntary.
- La Capital
Argentina
July 4, 2008
Uruguay
Prostitución infantil en Salto
Child prostitution in
the resort city of Salto
Dr. Silvia Alvez , of the Committee
for the Eradication of Child Labor (CETI) in Salto
has announced that that organized child sex
trafficking networks are active in their city.
Dr. Alvez, who is also a councilwoman
in the National Party, reported that child sexual
exploitation had first been reported during a
MERCOSUR (Southern Latin American Common Market)
organized workshop on trafficking held in 2006.
The range of ages of the victims was
between 10 and 12. Dr. Alvez stated that child sex
trafficking is not a partisan political issue, and
the nation needs to 'put its shirt on' and work to
strengthen legal controls and education about the
problem.
A TurísticaRadio reporter travelled
to a thermal spa in Termas del Arapey to interview
neighbors [of an alleged child prostitution center].
The residents interviewed, angry and
indignant, denied that child prostitution was
occurring, and demanded that Dr. Alvez produce proof
of its existence.
-
Uruguay al Dia
July 4, 2008
Peru
Los dueños de un sauna tenían
cautivas a dos menores para ejercer el meretricio
The owners of a sauna
held two children captive in prostitution
Iquitos - Two Chinese immigrants to
Peru, Zhang Jun Hong, age 43, and Hao Zchenbin, 28,
have been arrested and charged with human
trafficking.
The two are owners of a sauna
business, and held two girls, ages 14 and 15,
against their will and forced them to engage in
massage parlor prostitution.
Jéssica Dávila Rojas, 36, and Gisela
Torres Vargas, 22, were also arrested, and were
charged with convincing the parents to hand over
custody of the girls to them, by using falsified
stories that the girls would work in good paying
jobs in the capitol city of Lima.
According to police, the two girls
called their families when they discovered that they
would be forced into prostitution. The families
alerted police, who came to their rescue at the
sauna.
Those arrested face 15 years in
prison for the crime of human trafficking.
-
24 Horas Libre
July 3, 2008
Washington State, USA
$1 million bail for rape
suspect
Bellingham - A Whatcom Superior Court
judge set bail at $1 million Tuesday for rape
suspect Hector Serano Salinas.
Salinas, 36, is charged with three
counts of first degree rape while armed with a
deadly weapon. He is accused of raping a woman in
Maritime Heritage Park early Monday morning.
According to charging documents read
by Whatcom County Deputy Prosecutor Jeff Sawyer,
police officers were flagged down by a woman at 2
a.m. Monday near the post office at 315 Prospect St.
The woman reported she had been raped at knifepoint
at her campsite - a sleeping bag on a nearby cement
bench - three times by a man she described as
Hispanic and wearing a black stocking cap.
The victim told police she was
dragged down the stairs into Maritime Heritage Park
and raped again...
-
The Bellingham Herald
July 2, 2008
Hawaii, USA
Big Island Man Wanted for Sex
Assault on a Minor
Big Island police are renewing their
request for the public's help in locating a
28-year-old man wanted for the sexual assault of a
minor in Puna. Mauro Martin Ortiz of Hawaiian
Paradise Park is described as Hispanic, 5-foot-6,
about 180 pounds with brown eyes and brown hair.
Ortiz may be in the company of
19-year Nohealani Cabarloc, whom detectives would
also like to contact.
-
KGMB
Waikiki
July 1, 2008
Added July9, 2008
Mexico
Femicidio en Ciudad
Juarez:
Para
mi, es indignante ver como mi gobierno justificando su ineptitud, le
resta importancia a este tema, y le resta valor a las personas
involucradas en el, haciendo aparecer siempre a las victimas como
mujeres de poca moral, problematicas, prostitutas etc.
[Letters
from the War Front:] A Woman Who Fled Ciudad
Juarez, the Epicenter of Mexican Femicide,
Comments of the Realities that Women Face in
Mexico...
I am
indignant seeing how my government justifies its ineptitude, always
detracting from the importance of this crisis, and detracting from the
value of its victims. They always make the victims appear to be women
of low morals, ‘problematic’ women, and prostitutes.
- Teresa Ortiz
Letter sent-to and
Published-by:
LibertadLatina
July. 8, 2008
Added July 6, 2008
Mexico
Es realmente triste para mi el
ver la manera tan ligera en que se trata este tema
Yo, soy una mujer de 35 anos,
nacida en la ciudad de chihuahua, pero radicada en
cd. Juarez por 18 anos, me vi en la necesidad de
emigrar a estados unidos, no buscando el sueno
americanos sino buscando un lugar justo donde mis
derechos y los de mis hijos fueran escuchados y
respetados.
Me canse de ver tanta injusticia
y de comprobar dia a dia que aunque mi pais mexico
es hermoso y presume de tener hombres recios y
protectores, no es asi.
Bastantes de nuestros hombres
mexicanos, se estan encargando de hacer de nuestro
hermoso pais un campo de guerra para nuestras
mujeres y nuestros ninos, porque en vez de
protegernos nos abusan y las autoridades parecen
estar ciegas en estas situaciones.
Es realmente preocupante que
mujeres como yo, tengamos que dejar atras nuestra
familia, nustras amistades, trabajo y todo lo que a
lo largo de nuestras vidas hemos construido, por uir
de quienes nos debieran proteger, hombres, gobierno
y leyes.
Gracias a dios he sido de las
afortunadas que pude rescatar mi dignidad, mi
libertad y mi vida, por eso amo tambien este pais
que me ha cobijado y me a acogido como el mio no lo
hizo.
A
letter from the War Zone: "It's really sad for
me to see how [the crisis for women is Mexico]
is taken so lightly."
"I am a 35-year-old
woman who was born in the city of Chihuahua, who has
lived in Juarez City 18 years. I see the need to
emigrate to the United States, not to seek the
American dream, but to find a place where my rights
and those of my children will be heard and
respected.
I am tired of seeing so
much injustice, and of seeing proof from day to day
that although my country is beautiful, and Mexico
boasts that is men are upright and act as protectors
[of women], it is not true. Quite a few of our
Mexican men are taking it upon themselves to turn
Mexico into a war zone targeting our women and
children. Instead of protecting us they
abuse us, and the authorities act like they are
blind to these situations.
It is really troubling
that women like me have to leave behind our family,
our friends, our work and everything else that we
have constructed in our lives, to flee from those
who should protect us: men, the government and the
law.
Thanks to God, I have
been one of the fortunate ones, who could rescue my
dignity, my liberty and my life. For this reason I
love this country [The United States], that has
covered me and held me as my country has failed to
do."
- Teresa Ortiz
Letter sent-to and
Published-by:
LibertadLatina
July. 4, 2008
See also:
LibertadLatina
Our special section
of the crisis of the mass murder of women and girls
with impunity in Ciudad Juarez (Juarez City), Mexico
|
Mexico
Many of the 80,000 Mexican children who cross from Mexico into the U.S. alone,
as undocumented immigrants, are fleeing abuse at home, or are escaping from
child prostitution rings. As such, they
would possibly qualify for permission to stay in the United States.
These children would be able to avail themselves of this opportunity if U.S.
Border Patrol officers would provide them with the appropriate interview form,
as federal law requires. Instead, these minors are typically deported less
than 24 hours after their arrests.
...Thousands of Mexican and Central American
children flee northward into the U.S. each year to escape child prostitution...
Nugent explained how in Mexico there exists terrible child trafficking in the
area of Acapulco, Guerrero, and that many now call this region "the new Bangkok"
of child sex tourism.
Nugent also emphasized that Tijuana [on the U.S. border
with San Diego County] has also become an zone controlled by powerful child
prostitution networks.
Many children [enslaved in prostitution] from Tijuana are trying
to flee to San
Diego[, California].
According to Nugent
70 percent of children who migrate and come to the
Office of
Refugees in the United States have suffered some sort of trauma from violence
or sexual exploitation...
[Expanded
Translation]
Georgina Olson
Excélsior
July 3, 2008
Also regarding the work of Christopher Nugent:
Missing in America: 8,000 immigrant children
The Examiner
Washington, DC
Feb. 1, 2007
|
Added July 5, 2008
Bolivia
UNICEF: Indígenas bolivianos entregan a sus hijos a hacendados en calidad de
servidumbre
UNICEF: Indigenous Bolivians deliver their children to landowners as bonded
servants
Native peoples from the Chaco region and eastern Bolivia deliver their children
to the owners of agricultural plantations on condition that they can study.
However, they are made to work beyond their capacity, the work harms their
attendance in school, and they are not paid for their work, according to a study
by the United Nations Fund for Children (UNICEF).
Children belonging to ethnic Guarani ethnicity are the ones who are subjected
to this condition of servitude.
In Beni, indigenous families working on cattle ranches and
children are handed
over to the landowners bonded for life.
The conditions of poverty have also caused indigenous people to migrate to
cities. There, children engage in informal work, devoted to washing cars,
shining shoes, and selling sweets and bread on the streets.
The most serious forms of exploitation, are at work in the harvest of sugar
cane. Adolescents and women are called "quarters" and are seen as helpers in
lighter tasks, receiving a quarter of the wage of an adult. These groups are
also included children under 12 years accompanying their parents...
UNICEF says in its
report that it is necessary to: design public policies and
implement programs aimed at quantifying the rate of labor law violation relapses
involving indigenous child population; develop a
coordinated and joint work process between the
main institutions responsible for child
protection; and give Indigenous infants better
conditions for their development and integration
into the educational system.
UNICEF argues that in Bolivia 118,000 children aged between 7 and 13 years
of age are working. This represents 8 percent of the child population.
Some 28.2 percent of adolescents between 14 and 17 years (206,000 youth)
usually work. Overall, 10.2 percent of the economically active population (EAP)
of Bolivia is made up of children and adolescents.
-
ElDiario.net
July 3, 2008
Argentina

Rescatan a adolescente vendida en USD 800 a red de prostitución
Sixteen-Year-Old is Rescued After Being Sold to Sex Traffickers for US$800.
A 16-year-old teenager who had been sold to a prostitution network for 2,500
pesos (about 800 dollars) was rescued on Thursday in Misiones
Province, in
northeastern Argentina, according to the Gendarmerie (border police).
When her trafficker attempted to take her to Buenos Aires, police arrested the
47-year-old Brazilian citizen who was charged with "fraud in the trafficking of
a child for exploitation or commercial sex."
The nightmare for the victim had started in the Misiones town of San Pedro,
where she was sold for 2,500 pesos to a sex trafficking network.
Human trafficking is a crime not released in Argentina and sentences ranging
from four to ten years in prison.
Last week authorities revealed another case from Misiones, it was revealed the
case of a teenager aged 15, also a native of Misiones, rescued in Brazil after
being forced into prostitution for 3 years.
The Misiones Coalition to Stop the Trafficking and
the Commercial Sexual
Exploitation of Children reported in 2007 that at least 550 minors disappeared
in Argentina, and were victims of prostitution rings.
The Coalition also alleged in court that officials from the National Directorate
for Migration were in collusion [with criminals] in cases of the trafficking of
children and adolescents, especially from Paraguay.
Several
non-govern-mental organizations (NGOs) have pointed to the Triple Border region between Argentina, Brazil
and Paraguay, as a [lawless] territory where trafficking and recruitment of
children and adolescents, who are promised an escape from extreme poverty, is
rampant.
-
Univision
July 4, 2008
See also:
LibertadLatina
The crisis of sexual exploitation
facing women and children in Argentina
Dominican Republic,
The Caribbean
Miles de dominicanas se prostituyen en islas las caribeñas, según un estudio
Thousands of Dominican Women Engage in Prostitution in Caribbean
Region
Thousands of Dominican women, some of them undocumented, work as prostitutes
in the [English and French speaking] Caribbean region, where they are discriminated against and do not
have access to services, according to a study conducted by a local
organization.
The investigation was carried out by the Centre for Integral Orientation and
Investigation (COIN), whose director, Santo Rosario, stated that some 20,000
Dominicans live on these islands, and 50% of them lived from prostitution.
Some do it by choice, but others are victims of trafficking networks, said
Rosario.
The seven
nations involved are French Guyana, Antigua, Dominica, Guadeloupe, Martinique,
Trinidad and Haiti.
The study entitled "Sex Work, Trafficking and HIV / AIDS", reveals an increase
in female migration to these Caribbean nations, and a close link between poverty,
gender inequality and high-risk female migration.
According to research, "these factors act as a complex network that lead women
to fall, often, into the trap of smuggling and human trafficking."
The study also reveals the existence of networks of smugglers and traffickers who act
as intermediaries to meet "the demand for commercial sex in the region" stated
Rosario.
Rosario: "The Impunity in which they are moved and the lack of protection for victims and
their families prevent these abuses from being reported."
Rosario explained that many of these women
are face violence, sexual
abuse and exploitation by their traffickers, employers and clients. Some of these
women are hopeful that they will receive support in resolving their
undocumented legal status, and will be able to improve their economic situation.
However, "the strictness of the laws of migration in these countries, far from
helping solve the problems their problems as migrants, has made them invisible,
facilitating the smuggling and trafficking of persons and the violation of their
human rights."
Rosario called on the governments involved to take measures to alleviate the
situation, including by developing training and development programs for women,
so that they will be able to support themselves.
-
EFE
July 4, 2008
Mexico, Central America
Abusos en la frontera sur
Central and South American Migrants Face Terrible Abuses
Along Mexico's Southern Border
Transit through Mexico for most immigrants from Central and South
America is a
living hell of robbery, extortion, threats and harassment on the part of
individuals and authorities. "
"In Mexico, these migrants cease to be people and become a commodity, a 'mine'
of profits," notes Catholic priest Alejandro Solalinde, age 63, who manages a shelter in
town Ixtepec, in the southern state of Oaxaca, one of the most commonly used by
passing migrants.
Solalinde: "The mafia and the authorities come in and abuse
these migrants because
they see them as less. They call them 'cachuco,' a word that translates as 'dirty
Central American."
The federal National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), humanitarian groups and the
consuls of the Central American countries have been complaining for over a
decade of abuses suffered by migrants in Mexico. The authorities recognize the
problem and are working to fix it, but few changes can be seen. In Ixtepec,
where there is a transshipment center for freight trains running from the border
with Guatemala northward into Mexico. Solalinde states until
March of 2008, reports of kidnappings, robberies and harassment against immigrants transiting with
the aim of reaching United States were commonplace.
But since April, after the National Migration Institute (INM) suspended
its monitoring operations in Ixtepec, reports of allegation of crimes fell. "Draw
your own conclusions" said Solinde. The Institute decided to curb its
monitoring efforts in Ixtepec, and
after March 31st, about 90 Central Americans were beaten and harassed by Mexican
Navy personnel in that area, an event that is still under
investigation.
Before arriving in Ixtepec, immigrants who travel by
train have typically suffered assaults at the hands of criminals and gang members,
and have been subjected to extortion and robbery at the hands of policemen, military personnel
and immigration (INM) officers,
explained Solalinde. "But now, the mafia is having a
field day."
"I've just had a meeting with delegates of the INM and they explained that
their operations would resume soon. They asked me to not say anything. I replied that surveillance
is good, but I shall not remain silent about abuses. That is unacceptable."
When the train stops in Ixtepec, Solalinde and his colleagues come to ask
immigrants who are not separated from family to go with him to his hostel, where
he gives them food, medicine and accommodation for one day. The aim is to
prevent passengers from being subjected to assaults, rapes and arrests...
[Expanded
Translation]
-
Iberarte
July 3, 2008
El Salvador
Vendedores retiran pornografía infantil
Street Vendors Pull Child Pornography from Sale
Street vendors from downtown San Salvador announced yesterday that
they would
withdraw pornographic films, and in particular child pornography, from sale and
exhibition.
"We will do this as a contribution to society. It is a show of our complete
rejection of the sale and reproduction of child pornography, and the display of all
kinds of pornography, "said Pedro Julio Hernandez, who is a leader of the
traders.
The decision was taken by more than 30 organizations of informal vendors due to
"concerns that they have generated" in the news about the rape of children.
"The sale of child pornography is absolutely prohibited," Hernandez reiterated.
However, he noted that traders are "free" to sell their product, when customers
seek the videos or posters.
"People determine what kind of things you see.
We can not expose our
children, who are going to buy a children's movie as 'Finding Nemo' and have
them run into something that is not suitable for them," said Hernandez...
-
La Prens Grafica
San Salvador
July 4, 2008
Puerto Rico
ICE nabs Puerto Rican man for sexually enticing a minor
Bayamon - A 43-year-old man from Hato Rey, Puerto Rico, was arrested here today
after a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) investigation revealed
that he was sexually enticing a girl who he thought was 13-years-old.
Angel Cosme-Martinez was arrested by ICE agents in the parking lot of Plaza Rio
Hondo after he arranged the meeting during the sexually explicit
conversations...
"This arrest is a stern reminder of the consequences awaiting those who use the
Internet to sexually exploit innocent children," said Manuel Oyola Torres,
special agent in charge of ICE's office of investigations in Puerto Rico. "Some
predators mistakenly believe the anonymity of cyberspace shields them from
scrutiny, when in fact, their use of computers and the Internet have given us
new tools in our enforcement efforts to protect children from online predators."
This case will be prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Jenifer
Hernandez.
-
U.S. ICE
July 3, 2008
Added July 4, 2008
Spain, Bolivia
Acusado de abusar niña
boliviana alega relación con menores es habitual en
país
Sexual enslaver of child seeks
acquittal because behavior is normal in his country
A Bolivian migrant to Spain, referred
to here as Walter F.F., faces charges in a Barcelona
criminal court for ongoing sexual abuse of an
11-year-old girl.
In 2005 'when the victim was 11,
'Walter' obtained permission from the girl's parents
to take her from Bolivia to the Cataluña region of
Spain. Walter had told that girl and her family that
she was to work as the nanny for his then expectant
girlfriend...
Walter began to force the victim to
have sex with him...
Walter faces 11 years in prison for
sexually abusing the victim.
Walter and his defense attorney argue
that Walter should be pardoned for his acts, because
he did not know about the statutory rape laws in
Spain, and, he asserts, having a sexual relationship
with a girl who has reached puberty is normal in his
native country, Bolivia.
The prosecutor, on the other hand,
believes that Walter is guilty of ongoing child
sexual abuse and exhibitionism, and has asked the
judge in the case to sentence Walter to 11 years in
prison...
Two former partners of the accused,
who are Bolivian women, have stated that they did
not see any sexual abuse of the girl. They have both
told authorities that indeed, it is not strange that
a girl aged 11 has sexual intercourse because she is
considered to be a woman at the time of her first
menstruation...
[Extended
translation]
- Actualidad / Terra
Spain
July 1, 2008
Texas, USA
Police: Man Exposes Self To
Child In Store
Houston - Police are searching for a
man who exposed himself to a child inside a
southwest Houston store...
Houston police said the man
approached an 11-year-old girl as she shopped with
relatives at the Marshall's store in the 8100 block
of South Gessner Drive on April 26.
The man left the store after he
exposed himself to the child, investigators said.
Detectives said the man is
Hispanic...
- KPRC
Houston
July 3, 2008
Spain
Spain says new European Union
immigration law "necessary"
Madrid - Spain believes the
newly-approved EU law on the repatriation of
undocumented immigrants is "necessary" at a time
when unemployment is on the rise in the country, a
top official said Wednesday.
Spanish Deputy Prime Minister Maria
Teresa Fernandez de la Vega told the press that "we
are going to hire less immigrants" as the total job
opportunities continue to decline....
The European Parliament approved the
"Return Directive" on June18, ordering the expulsion
of undocumented immigrants in Europe.
If they do not leave the bloc within
a period of seven to 30 days, they may face up to 18
months in jail.
The law, which could come into force
in 2010, has drawn widespread and strong criticism
from Latin America.
According to Spain's official
statistics, some 424,500 people lost their jobs
during the one-year period starting June 2007, and
the hardest hit sectors are the construction
industry, agriculture and service industry, which
provide jobs to the largest percentage of
undocumented immigrants.
- Xinhua
July 3, 2008
Added July 2, 2008
Florida, USA
Fla. holds 1st execution since
botched method
Starke - Florida on
Tuesday carried out its first execution since a
botched lethal injection procedure prompted the
state to revamp the way it conducts capital
punishment.
Mark Dean Schwab, who
was convicted of kidnapping, raping and killing
11-year-old [Junny Rios-Martinez in 1991], died at
6:15 p.m...
Schwab raped and killed
Junny a month after he was released early from a
prison sentence he got for raping a 13-year-old boy.
The case led to Florida's Junny Rios-Martinez Act of
1992, which prohibits sex offenders from early
release from prison or getting credit for good
behavior.
Schwab stalked the boy
after seeing his photo in a newspaper for winning a
kite contest...
-
The Associated Press
July 1, 2008
California, USA
...A
statutory rape case from the county's recent
history has the potential to alter...
immigration law
The U.S. Ninth Circuit
Court of Appeal heard the case of Juan Elias
Estrada-Espinoza in Pasadena on Wednesday.
Amador County - …[Five years ago Juan Elias]
Estrada-Espinoza was a 20-year-old... grocery
clerk. The Mexican national had relocated to the
states with his family in 1992 at the age of 12,
attaining permanent residence status six years
later.
In
July 2003, Estrada-Espinoza had an emergency
protective order filed against him when S.A.
[his under-age girlfriend and mother of his
child] complained he inappropriately touched
her…
Around this time, two other women had filed
complaints with the sheriff's office against
Estrada-Espinoza. They said he committed sexual
acts when they were too drunk to protest. One
was a 17-year-old girl…
[Estrada-Espinoza has been in federal custody
for 3 years on immigration charges.] In that
time, the American Civil Liberties Union filed
multiple lawsuits in federal court protesting
the government's ability to incarcerate immig-rants
in detention centers for prolonged periods of
time while their deportation cases are heard…
This January, the ACLU took its case to the
Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Pasadena…
At issue is whether
statutory rape, even when it's consensual,
constitutes "sexual abuse of a minor" and should
therefore be considered an aggravated felony
worthy of deportation.
…A favorable ruling could set a precedent that
requires the reevaluation of potentially
thousands of other deportations, as well as
those currently serving prison sentences for
illegal reentry into this country when statutory
rape was the underlying offense for which they
were deported.
…There will be tremendous repercussions in
immigration [law]…
- Amador Ledger Dispatch
June 27, 2008
LibertadLatina
Commentary
The age of sexual consent in Mexico City and in a
number of Mexican states is 12. Similar laws exist
across Latin America. Men who migrate bring
that cultural dynamic with them to the United
States.
The U.S. population does have the right to say
"well, we have laws against underage sexual
relationships with adult men and women." For
newly arrived immigrants, it is certainly required
that they obey the rules as they exist today in the
U.S.
These problems are complicated further when the men
involved believe in sexist machismo, and feel that
it is their macho right to engage in
'unequal' underage relationships, with impunity,
regardless of what U.S. laws say.
The collective social sensibilities of all people in
the U.S. need to be consulted first, in regard to whether
or not we want adult men to engage in this behavior
simply because it is their custom in another
country. Do mothers, be they Latina or not,
really want adult men asking 'Maria' to the middle
school prom??
I don't think so!
-
Chuck Goolsby
LibertadLatina
July 1, 2008
See also:
Letter to the National Center
for Missing and Exploited Children about conditions
in the city of Gaithersburg, Maryland
"I see adult Latino men with 11 and 12 year old
girls all the time in the greater Washington, DC
area. While these relation-ships are 'acceptable' in
much of Latin America, the mothers of these girls
are NOT AGREEABLE to having the adult Central
American (and other men) in their poor neighborhoods
run around after their 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17
year old daughters after school while they, the
hard-working parents (often single mothers), have to
work two jobs and cannot defend their children
during and after school hours.
And when the local police authorities do not act
with the same energy that the case of a young middle
class American female would invoke from them, these
Latina mothers are disgusted. These parents come to
the conclusion that the police and the government do
not care, an experience that they are familiar with
in their home countries..."
-
Chuck Goolsby
Dec. 5, 1999
Rhode Island, USA
Suspect in kidnap-ping,
rape to remain [incarcerated]
Providence - Marco Riz, a Guatemalan immigrant
accused of kidnapping and raping a woman at
knifepoint in Roger Williams Park, waived his
right to a bail hearing yesterday in District
Court...
Riz
is charged with kidnapping a 30-year-old woman
on June 8 outside a Warwick supermarket and
raping her in Roger Williams Park on the
Providence-Cranston border. A few days later, a
task force of Providence and Warwick police,
immigration officers, state police and federal
marshals captured Riz on Linwood Avenue in the
West End of Providence.
The
case has become a lightning rod for state
residents opposed to illegal immigrants living
in Rhode Island. Governor Carcieri entered the
fray last week and blamed the Providence police
for releasing him twice last year after he was
arrested on drunken-driving and domestic-assault
charges.
At
the time, there was a federal deportation order
in effect that called for Riz to be sent back to
Guatemala...
- Zachary Malinowski
Providence Journal
July. 1, 2008
Added July 1, 2008
Indiana, USA
Police seek Indianapolis sex
assault suspect
Indianapolis - Police
released a sketch Monday of a man who reportedly
abducted and assaulted an Indianapolis teenager.
...The 18-year-old
victim told police that a man approached her as she
walked near East 42nd Street and North Post Road.
The victim said the man
grabbed her and forced her into a red SUV, then
drove her to an industrial park... Once there, the
victim told police the man punched her in the face
numerous times while he sexually assaulted her...
The suspect is described
as a Hispanic male, 30 to 35 years old...
- WTHR
June 30, 2008
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March 12, 2010
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Últimas Noticias
Latest News
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
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
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
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
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
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 Calder ón'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
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
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
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
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
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
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:
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
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.
See also:
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
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
Texas, USA
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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
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
Pennsylvania, USA
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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
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
Latin America, The United States
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