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2006 - Migration, Social Reform and Women's Right to Survive

2005 - Defending 'Maria' from Impunity

2003 Slavery Report


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The Crisis Facing Indigenous Women and Children

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

Native Latin America

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Native Guatemala -

   Femicide & Genocide

Native Mexico

   Acteal Massacre

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Haitian children are routinely enslaved in the Dominican Republic

Afro Latin America and the Caribbean

The Crisis Facing Latin American Women and Children

Introduction

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About Machismo

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More Information

Central America / Mexico Region

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Crisis - U.S. Latinas

Crisis: U.S. Latinas

Washington, DC

Workplace Rape

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Sexual Slavery

Trafficking Overview

The Global Crisis

Latin American

   Sexual Slavery

U.S. Latina Slavery

Latina Child Sex

   Slavery in San Diego

Worst Cases

Urgent Human Rights Issues in Mexico

Oaxaca

Striking Mexican

   Women Teachers

   are Violently

   Attacked by Police

   in Oaxaca

Antenco

Foto: Belinda Hernández

Mexican Police

   Rape and Assault

   47 Women at

   Street Protest

Lydia Cacho

Journalist / Activist

   Lydia Cacho is

   Railroaded by the

   Legal Process for

   Exposing Child Sex

   Networks In Mexico

Other Issues

School Exploitation

Forced Sterilization

The Jutiapa, Guate-

   mala Child Porn

   Scandal

The Elio Carrion

   Shooting Case

President Bush's

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The Darfur Genocide

Impact of Hurricanes

  Stan and Wilma

Hurricane Katrina

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Reference

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


 

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

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

November 2006 News


All November News


Added Nov. 26, 2006

Oregon, USA

Juan Manuel Rosa De La Rosa was arrested by Silverton Police on suspicion of third-degree rape, incest, third-degree sex abuse, sexual misconduct and contributing to the sexual delinquency of a minor in the alleged rape of a 15 year old girl.

- Statesman Journal

Salem Oregon
Nov. 22 2006


Added Nov. 26, 2006

Tennessee, USA

Hamilton County -Marino Lopez, facing attempted child rape charges, waived his right to a preliminary hearing and headed back to jail.

Lopez faces three counts of attempted rape and three counts of sexual battery involving a 13 year old girl. 

- WTVC News

Chattanooga, TN

Nov. 22 2006


Added Nov. 25, 2006

Tennessee, USA

Raid ends girl's captivity as a sex slave

Feds say couple lured her from Mexico at age 13

She is known in federal court documents only as "S.M.C."

At the age of 13, they say, she was smuggled into the U.S. from Oaxaca, Mexico, the first leg of a horrific journey that led her to a Harding Place area apartment. There she was beaten, raped and forced into a life of prostitution — an ordeal requiring her to have sex with as many as 40 men a day.

- Sheila Burke
The Tennessean
Nov. 11, 2006

See also:

Five people were indicted today on sex trafficking charges for forcing a now 15-year-old girl to work as a sex slave in a Nashville apartment complex, U.S. Department of Justice officials said.

The Tennessean
Nov. 16, 2006

Video TV news report: "Teenaged Girl Forced Into Prostitution."

- WKRN

Nashville, Tennessee
Nov. 13, 2006


Added Nov. 25, 2006

Latin America

Mexico City - Half of all children in Latin America live below the poverty line, the vice chairman of the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child, Argentine pediatrician Norberto Liwski, told EFE here on Tuesday.

[For example…] The number of working children in Argentina rose from 210,000 in 2001 to 1.2 million in 2003 because of the hard times during the four-year slump that saw the country's economy shrink by 20 percent.

…He said that the economic crises in the region have also facilitated an increase in sexual tourism controlled by organized crime.

…Despite the fact that many countries of the region have approved the non-compulsory protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and pornography, a "significant number" of nations have yet to incorporate into their penal codes specific laws governing those areas.

On Monday, Liwski presented to Mexican diplomats the recommend-ations of UNICEF regarding children and suggested raising the legal age for marriage…

- Agencia EFE

Nov. 15, 2006


Added Nov. 25, 2006

United States

Runaway illegitimacy is creating a new U.S. underclass.

['Family values' in the Context of Latin American Immigrant Communities']

Unless the life chances of children raised by single mothers suddenly improve, the explosive growth of the U.S. Hispanic population over the next couple of decades does not bode well for American social stability.

...Hispanic women have the highest unmarried birthrate in the country—over three times that of whites and Asians, and nearly one and a half times that of black women, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

...Social workers report that the impregnators of younger Hispanic women are with some regularity their uncles, not neces-sarily seen as a bad thing by the mother’s family. Alternatively, the father may be the boyfriend of the girl’s mother, who then continues to stay with the grandmother.

...Irene’s round, full face makes her look younger than her 14 years, certainly too young to be a mother. But her own mother’s boyfriend repeatedly forced sex on her, with the mother’s acquiescence.

- Heather Mac Donald, in

Juan Guillermo Tornoe's Hispanic Trending

Autumn, 2006 Edition

See also:

In Peru it is not uncommon for... the mother’s latest companion to rape the eldest daughters, often resulting in pregnancy. One expects a reaction from the mother, but not the sort of reaction that is so evident here in Peru.

- Chuka Chuka

Center for abandoned teen mothers, Lima Peru


Added Nov. 25, 2006

Arizona, USA

A 14-year-old girl who was believed to be abducted from her home Sunday has been found in Mexico, the Arizona Department of Public Safety said.
Police spoke with Jesus "Lilliana" Vega by phone, and she told them that she was... with her boyfriend, Jose Garcia.

Vega told a detective that she went of her own free will...  The girl's parents reportedly do not have a problem with Vega being taken across the border by her boyfriend — who is 19 or 20 years old — and the Amber Alert that was issued for the Vega was canceled.

The alert was issued after Eloy police received a report that the girl was taken from her house... while her mother was at work.

...Vega's 13-year-old brother [had] heard two male voices followed by a scream.

- Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona

Nov. 23, 2006

See also:

Police have identified one suspect - a neighbor who had previously threatened to kidnap Vega. His name is Jose Garcia or Jesus Ramirez, and he is 19 or 20 years old.

- Djamila Grossman
Arizona Daily Star
Nov. 20, 2006

Lilliana Vega's case on America's Most Wanted.

- America's Most Wanted

November 26, 2006

LibertadLatina's  1999 letter to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) about child abuse and exploitation in Gaithersburg, Maryland explains how adult men frequently attempt to kidnap young teen girls with impunity in U.S. immigrant communities.

Many of these men head to Mexico.

LibertadLatina commentary:

Is this a truly voluntary decision by the child???

Should the Amber Alert actually be cancelled because the girl's parents agree with their 14 year old daughter's common law relationship with an adult man?

U.S. society as a whole has a right to debate, and to decide what is acceptable and what is not, in terms of these types of behaviors.  These actions would land any non-Latino man in jail for a long time anywhere in the U.S.  Our immigrant community cannot claim that such issues are internal, private matters that are not the business of the larger society.

In my 1999 letter to the NCMEC (see link above), I explain how policemen refused to intervene in the severe sexual harassment of a 12 year old Latina girl in the U.S. because the officer's police academy had taught them that "it is just a Latino cultural trait."  Really?  The mothers of these girl victims typically do not agree with that apathy and denial of equal rights under the law.

Make such behavior either illegal for all adult men to engage in, or not, but don't just decide that one group has a free pass on a criminal violation of the laws that protect children.

- Chuck Goolsby

LibertadLatina

Nov. 26, 2006


Added Nov. 24, 2006

The World

Geneva,  – UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres on Friday said there was a "massive" culture of neglect and denial about violence against women.

"That culture of neglect and denial exists everywhere," Guterres told staff of the refugee agency during a ceremony to launch the annual 16 Days of Activism to Eliminate Violence Against Women.

- United Nations Human Rights Commission  (UNHCR)

November 24, 2006


Added Nov. 24, 2006

Mexico

Más de 6 mil niñas y mujeres asesi-nadas en los últimos seis meses en el país.

More than 6,000 women and girls have been murdered during the last six months in Mexico.

- CIMAC Noticias

News for Women

Mexico City, Mexico

Nov. 24, 2006

LibertadLatina Note: Sixty percent of all non-natural deaths of females in Mexico occur in the age group of 13 and younger.


Added Nov. 24, 2006

Mexico

- Alberto Rojas - Zócalo

Coahuila - En llanto estallaron ayer en el Juzgado Penal dos sexo-servidoras que fueran ultrajadas, al confrontarse contra el líder de los militares violadores, Juan José Gaytán Santiago, a quien señalaron con el dedo índice como uno de quienes las ultrajaron el pasado 11 de julio.

Coahuila state - Two prostitutes who testified at a hearing against the leader of a group of Mexican Army personnel [accused of the mass rape of 13 women on July 11, 2006]... cried upon seeing Juan José Gaytán Santiago, whom they pointed to as having been the leader of the sexual assault.

The victims have received threats from the families of the accused soldiers.

- Zócalo

Mexico City, Mexico

Nov. 24, 2006


Added Nov. 24, 2006

Mexico

Governor Mario Marín may have violated Activist Lydia  Cacho´s rights

A Supreme Court justice has reached the conclusion that "preliminary evidence" points to interference in the judicial process by Puebla Gov. Mario Marín in the state´s case against crusading journalist Lydia Cacho, according to information obtained by El Universal.

- El Universal
Nov. 24, 2006


Added Nov. 24, 2006

Panamá

En Panamá están registradas unas ocho mil personas con el Síndrome de Inmunodeficiencia Adquirida (SIDA), aunque la cifra real podría ascender hasta 20 mil, revelaron hoy autoridades de salud.

Panamá has 8,000 registered persons with HIV or AIDS.  Activists estimate that there are 20,000 carriers, may of whom are not aware that they are HIV Positive.

- Prensa Latina

Mexico
11-22-2006


Added Nov. 24, 2006

Darfur, Sudan

Help Us Stop the Killing in Darfur!

The conflict in Darfur has led to some of the worst human rights abuses imaginable, including systematic and wide-scale murder, rape, torture, abduction and displacement.

- Amnesty International
11-23-2006See also:
Added Nov. 24, 2006

See also:

Added Nov. 24, 2006

At least 400,000 people have been killed; more than 2 million innocent civilians have been forced to flee their homes.

- SaveDarfur.org

Dollars for Darfur is a national high school fundraising effort to stop the ongoing genocide in Darfur.

- SaveDarfur.org


Added Nov. 24, 2006

Guatemala, United States

 The killings of women and girls in Guatemala are rising at an alarming rate yet actions by the Guatemalan government to bring those responsible to justice are insufficient. A U.S. House Resolution condemning these brutal killings has been introduced... urging both the United States and Guatemalan Governments to do more to bring an end to this human rights scandal (H.RES.1081). Urge your Representative to sign on to this important resolution. Take action »

- Amnesty International
11-23-2006

See also:

Added Nov. 24, 2006

Background information on the murders of women in Guatemala

- Amnesty International

LibertadLatina's special section on the decades-long crisis of anti-indigenous genocide and femicide in Guatemala.


Added Nov. 24, 2006

Mexico

A woman grieves at the grave of a victim.

- Amnesty International

More than 400 women have been abducted and murdered since 1993 in Ciudad Juárez and Chihuahua, Mexico, bordering El Paso, Texas just over the Rio Grande. In a significant number of cases, the brutality with which the assailants abduct and murder the women goes further than the act of killing. Many of the women are held captive for several days and subjected to humiliation, torture and the most horrific sexual violence before dying, mostly as a result of asphyxiation caused by strangulation or from being beaten.

- Amnesty International
11-23-2006

See also:

Added Nov. 24, 2006

 A slideshow about the femicide in Ciudad Juarez is available.  Organize a display in your community!

- Amnesty International

See also:

LibertadLatina's special section on the crisis in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico - about the mass rape and murder of women and girls.


Added Nov. 24, 2006

Mexico

Young Latina Women Changing the Face of U.S. Politics

With more young Latinos coming of voting age than ever before, young Latina women, like Mireya Gomez, who ran for a city council seat in her hometown, are trying to making inroads in what has traditionally been a landscape dominated by men.

- Daffodil Altan
Nov 08, 2006


Added Nov. 24, 2006

The World

Liora Kasten and Jesse Sage, former directors of the American Anti-Slavery Group, edit a collection of modern day slave narratives entitled, Enslaved: True Stories of Modern Slavery, published by Palgrave Macmillian.

- iAbolish.org
Nov 08, 2006


Added Nov. 23, 2006

Massachusetts, USA

Indigenous people organize the 37th Day of Mourning on Thanksgiving in the city of Plymouth, Massachusetts.

- United American Indians of New England
11-23-2006

See also:

Native American squash and pumpkin recipes.

- Paula Giese
1995/1996

A recipe for pumpkin frybread and other dishes.

- Indian Country
Nov. 22, 2006

Thanksgiving con un toque Latino.

- El Diario la Prensa

New York/New Jersey
Nov. 22, 2006


Added Nov. 23, 2006

Massachusetts, USA

Salem - Jesus Pimental , 17, of New York City, and Caled Marquez Donatiu , 23, of Salem have been arrested after being caught in the act of raping a girl, age 11, who was kidnapped from the street after a Halloween Party. Marquez Donatiu had recently arrived in Salem from Puerto Rico.

- The Boston Globe
11-01-2006


Added Nov. 20, 2006

Arizona

MISSING

Tucson - Authorities are searching for 14-year-old Jesus "Lilliana" Vega, who police say was abducted from her home early Sunday.

...Police have identified one suspect - a neighbor who had previously threatened to kidnap Vega. His name is Jose Garcia or Jesus Ramirez, Blakeman said, and he is 19 or 20 years old.

The suspect's aunt said the man has family members in Mexico, which is why authorities believe he might head toward the border.

- Djamila Grossman
Arizona Daily Star
11.20.2006

Jesus "Lilliana" Vega's poster on the NCMEC's MissingKids.com

LibertadLatina's  1998 letter to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) about child abuse and exploitation in Gaithersburg, Maryland explains how adult men attempt to kidnap young teen girls with impunity in U.S. immigrant communities.

Many of these men head to Mexico.


Added Nov. 19, 2006

Mexico

Mexican army units withdraw from Coahuila state in apparent retaliation for the military prosecution of some soldiers responsible for the mass rape of 13 Prostitutes on July 11, 2006.

- Frontera Norte Sur

(North South Frontier)

Nov.-Dec., 2006 Edition

Added Nov. 19, 2006

Mexico

Continúa juicio contra soldados acusados de violación en Coahuila.

The trial against 12 Mexican Army officers and enlisted men charged in the rape of 14 prostit-utes in Coahuila state continues.  Four officers and four enlisted men are standing trial.  Four other men are now fugitives.

- CIMAC Noticias

News for Women

Mexico City, Mexico

Nov. 17, 2006


Added Nov. 19, 2006

New York, USA

U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales says no region of the U.S. is immune to human trafficking

- Carolyn Thompson

Associated Press

Nov. 14, 2006


Added Nov. 19, 2006

New York, USA

Former U.S. federal immigration inspector Nisim Yushuvayev has been hit with a 10-year prison sentence for his role in a plot to kidnap two Korean women involved in a human trafficking network.

- New York Newsday

Nov. 16, 2006


Added Nov. 19, 2006

Ohio, USA

Hamilton - Mexican national Jose Antonio Lopez-Rivera, 25, who had been a fugitive from justice for more than a year, has been arrested and indicted on rape and kidnapping charges. 

- Journal-News.com

Dayton, Ohio

Nov. 16, 2006

See also:

Hamilton, Ohio - Vigilantes torch house where a 9-year-old child was raped by immigrant.

- WRC 12

Cincinnati, Ohio

June 22, 2005


Added Nov. 19, 2006

Illinois, USA

Wheaton, Illinois - A former nursing home worker charged with raping a profoundly brain-damaged resident who later gave birth changed his plea to guilty Wednesday.

Authorities said Reynaldo Brucal Jr., 19, of Schaumburg, raped the 23-year-old woman, who has cerebral palsy.

- Associated Press
November 16, 2006

See also:

Nineteen-year-old Filipino immigrant Reynaldo B. Brucal Jr. pleaded guilty to raping a severely and mentally handicapped resident of a health care facility.

- Asian Journal
November 18, 2006


Added Nov. 18, 2006

Texas, USA

White supremacist David Henry Tuck, 18, was sentenced to life in prison for savagely beating and sodomizing a Hispanic boy at a drug-fueled party.

- Associated Press
November 18, 2006


Added Nov. 18, 2006

Maryland, USA

Baltimore -Reversing a... man’s rape conviction... the Court of Special Appeals said Monday that “no rape occurred if the jury found that” the 18-year-old woman in the case “withdrew her prior consent after penetration.”

- Baltimore Examiner
November 1, 2006

 


Added Nov. 18, 2006

Colorado, USA / Saudi Arabia

Denver - State Attorney General John Suthers traveled to Saudi Arabia this week to assure officials that a Saudi man convicted in Colorado of sexually abusing and virtually enslaving his housekeeper was treated fairly. 

...Homaidan Al-Turki, 37, was convicted of sexually assaulting an Indonesian housekeeper and keeping her as a virtual slave for four years.  ...A State Department official with knowledge of the matter said the Al-Turki case has been a "thorn in our relations with the Saudis"

- Associated Press
November 17, 2006


Added Nov. 18, 2006

Pakistan

Rape law reform roils Pakistan's Islamists

- Christian

Science Monitor
November 17, 2006


Added Nov. 18, 2006

United States

The Justice Department on Thursday announced the arrests of more than 1,600 fugitive sex offenders as part of a weeklong roundup, the largest number ever arrested in a single operation.

- New York Times
November 13, 2006


Added Nov. 17, 2006

Texas, USA

State appeals court chastises President Bush for intervening in case of Mexican born murderer

Houston - The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Wednesday rejected an argument from Jose Ernesto Medellin that he was denied legal help under international treaties.

Medellin was sentenced in 1994 to die for the rapes and killings of Jennifer Ertman, 14, and Elizabeth Peña, 16. The pair had been tortured, raped and strangled.

- Associated Press
November 16, 2006


Added Nov. 16, 2006

Chiapas, Mexico

Massacre in Chiapas: Six Women, Three Men, Two Children, Assassinated in Mayan Community of Montes Azules

Indigenous Communities and Human Rights Organizations Warned State and Federal Governments of Threats, but Authorities Failed to Act

- Al Giordano
'The Other Journalism' with the'Other Campaign in Chiapas

Nov ember 13, 2006


Added Nov. 16, 2006

North Carolina, USA

Candidate Elected as Sheriff Despite Facing Rape Charges

- New York Times Regional Newspapers

Nov ember 13, 2006 


Added Nov. 16, 2006

Mexico

Buscan castigar turismo sexual de menores

Tijuana, Baja California - Con el fin de frenar el abuso sexual a menores que se da a través del turismo sexual, que empieza a repuntar en Tijuana, Elvira Luna Pineda, diputada local del PAN, presentó una iniciativa de reforma al Código Penal de Baja California.
 

Legislators seek to punish child sex tourism

Tijuana, Baja California state - Elvira Pineda Luna, the local deputy (state legislative representative) of the National Action Party (PAN) has presented an initiative to reform the Penal Code of Baja California aimed at restraining the sexual abuse to children and youth in sexual tourism, a problem that is beginning to appear in [the border city of] Tijuana.

...Pineda Luna indicated that ‘sexual paradises’ such as Cancún exist in Mexico, but the city of Tijuana and the rest of Baja California state is increasingly involved in this problem.

[We note that Tijuana has over 3,000 registered 'legal' adult prostitutes.  Experts estimate that 900 children and underage youth are exploited in prostitution in TJ. This has been a problem, attracting many U.S. sex tourists, for decades, - Chuck Goolsby]

- Luis Adolph San
Tijuana, Baja California

Nov ember 10, 2006 


Added Nov. 15, 2006

Native America

Expert says past genocide linked to high suicide rates

- The Spokesman-Review, via

Indian Country

 Nov. 13,2006


Added Nov. 15, 2006

Guatemala

Extradition of Former Military Officials Proceeds

[Guatemalan Government Begins to Address Past Acts of Murder and Genocide.]

- Guatemala Human Rights Commission/ USA
 Nov. 07,2006


Added Nov. 15, 2006

El Mundo

Vaticano: Existen en el mundo unos 270 millones de esclavos

The World

The Vatican: 270 Million slaves exist in the World

La Prensa

Argentina
 Nov. 11,2006


Added November 14, 2006

Guatemala

Over 400 Women Murdered So Far This Year in Guatemala

Guatemalan human rights organizations are expressing concern over the wave of femicides in Guatemala, which has claimed over 400 victims so far this year. According to the Public Prosecutor's Office, the murders of women in Guatemala City increased during the month of September. The number rose from eleven murders in July, to sixteen in August, to seventeen as of September 27. Congressional representative Nineth Montenegro has noted that the murders of women, along with those of children and adolescents, have increased in Guatemala as never before. The majority of the murders were committed in the capital city, as well as Escuintla and Petén.

Montenegro noted that, of the 322 femicide cases reported from January to August, only twelve were being investigated at the time of her report and only two suspects connected to one murder are currently in prison. She listed a misogynous attitude toward women, the increasing involvement of women in the public sphere, and rising gang activity and organized crime as factors in the rise in femicides. As women become more active in the economy, politics, and education, they become more vulnerable and some also get involved in gangs and organized crime. Montenegro emphasized that participation in criminal activity does not justify the women’s deaths. She said the lack of response on the part of the authorities in cases involving women was also a factor, adding that the justice system is inefficient and the Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP) fails to carry out the necessary investigations.

Mario Polanco, an activist with the Mutual Support Group (GAM), said that this crisis reveals serious institutional weaknesses. In Guatemala there is no security policy for the general population. Polanco said the population is in a position of extreme vulnerability and women are particularly affected because the government lacks the will to guarantee their security much less investigate crimes committed against them. Polanco disagreed with official statements claiming that the investigation process has improved. According to Polanco, monitoring in the courts has shown that there has been absolutely no improvement.

Human rights activists continue to be concerned that the number of women murdered this year will surpass last year’s total.

- Guatemala Human Rights Commission/USA
October 26, 2006


Added November 13, 2006

Latin America

¿Cuántos niños latinoamericanos son explotados sexualmente?

BOGOTA, Nov. 9 (Prensa Sur). No se conoce cuántos niños y niñas están envueltos en las redes de explotación sexual que operan en América Latina, pero las señas de esta actividad que aparecen frecuentemente en muchas ciudades de la región, hacen temer un alevoso crecimiento del delito.

Según estimados de la Fundación “Renacer” de Colombia, sólo en Brasil unos 600.000 niños y niñas estarían siendo explotados sexualmente, en República Dominicana la cifra aproximada sería de unos 25.000 niños y niñas dedicados a la prostitución, y en Venezuela habría unos 40.000 niños en esa actividad.

...Diversas investigaciones han planteado la necesidad de abordar el problema con enfoques que vayan más allá de considerar a los niños como víctimas, asumiéndolos como sujetos de procesos integrales, que actúan por encima de sus condiciones particulares.

...Las prácticas de abuso sexual infantil son reforzadas por la ausencia de políticas de protección especial para menores y por la vigencia de paradigmas que asocian “sexualidad con juventud”, legitimando las relaciones sexuales entre jóvenes y adultos y hasta otorgándoles cierta “aceptación social”, sostiene Renacer.
 

How Many Children are Sexually Exploited in Latin America

Bogotá - It is not known how many children and youth are trapped by the sex trafficking networks that operate in Latin America, but such criminal activity exists in many cities across the region, causing fears that the problem is growing explosively.

According to Fundación Renacer (The Rebirth Foundation, which works to rescue children trapped in prostitution) in Colombia, in Brazil alone about 600.000 boys and girls are sexually exploited.  In the Dominican Republic there are approximately 25.000 children who ‘work’ in prostitution.  In Venezuela there could be about 40,000 children in prostitution.

...A number of investigations into the problem of CSEC have come to the conclusion that a need exists to address the problem with approaches that go beyond considering children as victims.  Children trapped in CSEC should be viewed as being subjected to interrelated social processes that control their particular conditions.

...The practice of child sexual abuse is reinforced by the absence of [governmental and social] policies supporting special protection for minors and by the existence of paradigms that associate “sexuality with youth”, that legitimize sexual relations between young people and adults and grants social legitimacy to such activity, according to  Fundación Renacer.

- Prensa Sur

Co;ombia

November 9, 2006


Added November 12, 2006

California, USA

San Francisco Chronicle Writes 4 Part Series on Asian Sex Trafficking in San Francisco

Part 1: San Francisco Is A Major Center For International Crime Networks That Smuggle And Enslave.

- Meredith May,

San Francisco Chronicle
October 6, 2006

Part 2: A Youthful Mistake

You Mi was a typical college student, until her first credit card got her into trouble.

- Meredith May, Deanne Fitzmaurice,

San Francisco Chronicle
October 8, 2006

Part 3: Bought and Sold

You Mi is put into debt bondage -- life becomes an endless cycle of sex with strangers.

- Meredith May,

San Francisco Chronicle
October 9, 2006

Part 4: Sex Slave Freed, Trapped

Meredith May, Deanne Fitzmaurice

After paying off her debt to int'l sex traffickers, You Mi still owed $40K and creditors in S. Korea were circling her family. So she went to work in an SF massage parlor. Then, she fell in love.

- Meredith May,

San Francisco Chronicle
October 10, 2006

 


Added November 12, 2006

Florida, USA

Rapist Pleads Guilty to 5 Assaults

Miami - A man convicted of raping an 11-year-old girl pleaded guilty Thursday to five other sexual assaults and to charges of escaping from jail last year.

Miami-Dade County Circuit Judge Barbara Areces sentenced Reynaldo E. Rapalo, 35, to between 15 and 45 years in prison for each of the five attacks, as well as the December escape. The sentences will run concurrently with the life term he was given last month for the attack on the girl.

As part of a plea agreement, prosecutors dropped charges against two people who had been accused of assisting Rapalo after his Dec. 20 jail escape, which triggered an extensive manhunt until his capture Dec. 26.

Rapalo escaped by prying open a ceiling vent, cutting through bars and rappelling down the side of the building using tied-together bed sheets.

The agreement also will spare the victims from testifying about the assaults, part of a string of attacks in 2002 and 2003 by the so-called "Shenandoah rapist," named for the Miami neighborhood where most of them occurred...

- Associated Press
November 9, 2006

 


Added November 11, 2006

Mexico

Mexico City, Mexico - Assistant High Commissioner for Refugees Erika Feller has said Mexico faces a major challenge protecting refugees as the country becomes more important as a migration route to North America.

...Noting that there was now a mass exodus of migrants from Central America through Mexico towards the United States and Canada, Feller said: "The pressure this entails puts the humanitarian principle of refugee protection in danger." She added that Mexico had a significant role to play in fulfilling its obligations to vulnerable refugees caught up in mixed migration movements, particularly in the southern border area.

...Among the refugees she met were unaccompanied minors and women, who are regarded as particularly vulnerable. "I only know that I want to stay in a safe place, I cannot go back to my country. I want to study. And I want my mother to come and be with me," a teenage girl, who was a victim of sex trafficking and may be in need of international protection, told Feller.

Some 250,000 undocumented migrants were deported from Tapachula to their respective Central American countries last year alone. "Migrants are determined to reach the US. They are even willing to give up their lives in the attempt. Some have tried up to 16 times," said an official from Mexico's Beta Group, which provides medical care, information and rescue operations for undocumented migrants...

- Mariana Echandi

UNHCR

- Reuters AlertNet
November 10, 2006


Added November 11, 2006

Colorado, USA

Hit-and-run driver hits stroller; mom, 2 kids killed

Denver - A hit-and-run driver struck a couple crossing a street with a stroller, killing a woman and her two young children and injuring the youngsters' father, police said.

...Lawrence Trujillo, 36, was arrested on three counts of investigation of vehicular homicide, as well as leaving the scene of an accident and resisting arrest, police said. Eric Phil Snell, 35, was arrested on three counts of investigation of accessory to a crime.

- CNN
November 11, 2006


Added November 11, 2006

New York, USA

Ex-teacher pleads guilty to sex crime

Five days after his statutory rape trial ended with a hung jury, former North Babylon High School teacher Danny Cuesta admitted in court yesterday that he had sex with an underaged student.

Prosecutors also revealed in court that two other girls have come forward, saying Cuesta had sex with them.

With his accuser watching from the court gallery, Danny Cuesta, 30, of Coram, pleaded guilty to one count of third-degree rape, two counts of third-degree criminal sexual act and one count of endangering the welfare of the child. In exchange for his plea, prosecutors recommended a sentence of 15 months in jail. Suffolk County Court Judge C. Randall Hinrichs will sentence him Jan. 4.

...Yesterday, Cuesta rubbed his face, bit his lip, and occasionally shook his head as he admitted - with short answers of "Yes" - to a two-year sexual relationship with the girl.

Prosecutors also said that as part of the plea deal, they would drop a pending investigation into charges by two other girls that Cuesta had sex with them.

...Upon hearing Cuesta say "guilty" in entering his plea, the girl began quietly weeping in court. Her father braced her head on his shoulder and later said he was proud of his daughter for standing up to Cuesta.

"We knew he was guilty from the start," the girl's father said. "I guess the walls closed in on him."

- Alfonso Castillo
New York Newsday
November 2, 2006

See also:

Hung jury in ex-teacher's rape case

- Alfonso Castillo
New York Newsday
October 28, 2006

Mom's rape trial testimony appears to waver

- Alfonso Castillo
New York Newsday
October 20, 2006


Added November 9, 2006

Arizona, USA

Sketch of attacker released

 
Phoenix police have released a composite sketch of a man they believe snatched a 5-year-old girl from her bed late Sunday and held her for 90 minutes. He then knocked on the door of a home near 22nd Avenue and Indian School Road, more than two miles from the girl's home, and gave her to the woman who answered.

Police said there was "sexual contact" with the girl. Her panties and pajama bottoms are missing.

The man is described as Hispanic, bilingual, in his mid-20s, 5 feet 3 to 5 feet 9 inches tall, 150 to 180 pounds, with a medium build. advertisement

Anyone with information is asked to call (602) 534-3200 or Silent Witness at 1-800-343-TIPS.

- Judy Villa

The Arizona Republic

 Nov. 7,2006


Added November 9, 2006

Virginia, USA

Groping victim steps forward

The latest victim has come forward in what is believed by Fairfax County, Virginia Police to be a related series of assaults.

During the investigation of an assault that occurred Oct. 25 near the Circle Towers apartments in Fairfax, a 50-year-old Fairfax woman told police she had also been assaulted the same day.

This latest victim was waiting for an elevator Oct. 25 at 11 p.m. in the basement of Tower 3 of the Circle Towers apartments when a man approached her from behind and touched her inappropriately. According to police, the suspect then tried to take her purse but ran away when she resisted.

Prior to this latest victim's revelation, police had been investigating a similar incident, believed to be connected, that occurred at Circle Towers around 1:30 p.m. That victim, a 27-year-old woman, was approached from behind by a man who tried to pull down her pants but fled when she screamed.

The earlier victim described her attacker as a 5 foot 7 inch Hispanic man weighing around 150 pounds with black hair, long on top but shaved in the back.

In the last three months, five other women have been assaulted in similar fashion.

Like these latest incidents, three of the earlier attacks occurred in August near the Vienna Metro. Other similar attacks occurred in September in the Fair Lakes area.

In each case, an Hispanic man approached a lone female from behind and attempted to pull down her pants or touch her inappropriately. In each attack, the assailant fled when the women began screaming.

This latest incident is the first where the attacker has tried to rob his victim. Since the first group of incidents, police have been concerned that the attacker could become more violent if not apprehended.

A composite sketch has been provided, and anyone with information is asked to call Crime Solvers at 1-866-411-TIPS/8477 or Fairfax County Police at 703-691-2131.

- Monty Tayloe

Fairfax County Times
11/07/2006


Added November 7, 2006

Nicaragua

Ortega wins Nicaragua's presidency

MANAGUA, Nicaragua - Nicaragua's former Marxist guerrilla leader Daniel Ortega bounced back to power on Tuesday in a presidential-election victory that bolsters an increasingly assertive anti-U.S. bloc in Latin America.

Ortega won with 38 percent of the vote, 9 points ahead of his Washington-backed conservative rival Eduardo Montealegre.

Ortega, who first seized power in a popular 1979 revolution and then fought U.S.-backed Contra rebels as president in the 1980s, was conciliatory in victory, but the White House warned its support for Nicaragua would hinge on his commitment to democracy.

The 60-year-old president-elect met Montealegre late on Tuesday and both promised to work together to attack poverty and encourage the investment need to create jobs.

- Associated Press
11/07/2006


Added November 7, 2006

Nicaragua

Ortega: I'm Not the Same Revolutionary

MANAGUA, Nicaragua -- Daniel Ortega says he's not the same revolutionary the United States once tried to overthrow.

The Sandinista leader won his fifth bid for the presidency preaching harmony, love and reconciliation, often with the music of John Lennon's "Give Peace a Chance" playing in the background.

...Ortega has made three unsuccessful runs for the presidency -- in 1990, 1996 and 2001 -- and used congressional immunity to dodge rape allegations filed by a stepdaughter, Zoilamerica Narvaez. He has denied the charges, but Narvaez continues to push her case publicly.

...Now 60 and balding, he has toned down his revolutionary rhetoric, invoking both Lennon and God and promising to favor free trade policies and improve health care and education.

- Filadelfo Aleman

Associated Press

November 7, 2006

March 23, 1998

Nicaragua

An Ugly Family Affair

Charges of sexual abuse leveled against Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega swirl atop a power struggle

[Daniel Ortega's stepdaughter Zoilamerica Narvaez Murillo] claims the abuse started as early as 1979, when she was 11 and Ortega had just led the overthrow of dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle. The molestation continued "repeatedly," she says, until 1990, after Ortega's defeat in presidential elections that year by the moderate, U.S.-backed Violeta Barrios de Chamorro.

- Associated Press
03/23/1998

 


Added November 7, 2006

El Mundo

Entre un millón y dos millones de mujeres, hombres, niñas y niños son usados para explotación y los traficantes ganan entre cuatro mil y 50 mil dólares por persona.

(Between one and two million women, men, girls and boys are exploited.  Human traffickers earn between $4,000 and $50,000 per victim.)

México. Alrededor de 32 mil millones de dólares se mueven cada año en el negocio de trata de personas, convirtiéndose en el crimen más lucrativo después del tráfico de drogas, destaca el Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (BID).

- Notimex

 Nov. 6,2006


Added November 7, 2006

The World

Human trafficking has dirty profits and huge costs

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) is working in Latin America and the Caribbean to halt the growing people trafficking problem that is vastly under-researched and under-funded.

Poverty, unemployment and lack of opportunity force millions of people to look for a better life by moving away from the places they call home. In Latin America and the Caribbean, illegal emigration is a huge problem, and it goes hand-in-hand with people trafficking and exploitation—pointed out IDB modernization of the state specialist Nybia Laguarda, during a presentation at the Bank’s headquarters in Washington, DC.

According to the United Nations, “people trafficking” is defined as “the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons (…) for the purpose of exploitation.” It ranges from domestic servitude to forced labor, the removal of organs, prostitution or other forms of sexual exploitation.

Unfortunately, it is also big business, bringing in US $32 billion annually, worldwide. This makes people trafficking the most lucrative crime after drug trafficking, according to statistics from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD, 2006). Every year, some 1 to 2 million children, women and men become victims of human trafficking; while traffickers make anywhere between $4,000 and $50,000 per person trafficked, depending on the victim’s place of origin and destination.

Inter-American Development Bank
 Nov. 2,2006


Added November 6, 2006

New York, USA

Man charged with rape

A 60-year-old Copiague man burglarized and raped his female tenant, Suffolk police said.


The incident happened about 4 p.m. Saturday at the apartment the woman rented from Antonio Alvarez in his home on 43rd Street in Copiague, police said.


Police said Alvarez broke into the apartment and forced the woman, whom police did not identify, into "acts of sexual intercourse."

Alvarez was arrested on Saturday, and he was charged with rape in the first degree and burglary in the second degree.

He was arraigned yesterday in First District Court in Central Islip, police said.

- Jennifer Smith
New York NewsDay
November 6, 2006


Added November 6, 2006

Florida, USA

A 21-year-old Immokalee man is charged with having sex with and impregnating a 12-year-old girl.

Immokalee, Florida - Antonio Alvarez Maldonado was arrested on Wednesday, but apparently the sexual encounter happened in either late May or early June.

According to police reports, the victim’s mother discovered the pregnancy when she took her daughter took to the doctor earlier this week. The mother immediately called the sheriff’s office.

The victim told deputies Maldonado threatened to hurt her if she told anyone about the incident.

- ABC7 Online

Florida
 Nov. 6,2006


Added November 5, 2006

Undocumented immigrant gets 33 years in rape, thefts

Albany, NY - A 16-year-old illegal immigrant from Mexico was sentenced Tuesday to 33 years in state prison in the brutal knifepoint rape in December of a University at Albany student and two separate burglaries.

Felipe Dejesus-Flores pleaded guilty previously to breaking into the young woman's home on Dec. 10, waking her from a sound sleep and then raping her.

- Michele Morgan Bolton

Times Sun Union

Albany, NY
 Nov. 1,2006

 

 
     

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Updated: March 10, 2010


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LibertadLatina

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


¡Feliz Día Internacional de la Mujer!

Happy International Women's Day!

LibertadLatina Statement for International

Women's

Day, 2010


Últimas Noticias

Latest News



Added: Mar. 10, 2010

Mexico

Jean Succar Kuri (left)

Exhortan Diputados a Reforzar Lucha Contra Explotación Infantil

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

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

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

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

(FEVIMTRA).

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

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

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

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

El Sol de México

March 05, 2010


Added: March 10, 2010

Haiti, Bolivia

Haitian Children Rescued From Traffickers

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

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

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

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

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

ABC News

March 10, 2010


Added: March 10, 2010

Mexico

Desarticulan banda de trata de personas en México

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

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

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

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

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

Human Trafficking Ring is Broken Up in Puebla

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

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

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

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

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

United Press International (UPI)

March 08, 2010


Added: March 10, 2010

Mexico

Buscan crear banco de datos sobre la trata de personas

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

Congress Seeks to Create a National Human Trafficking Database

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

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

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

Roberto Garduño

La Jornada

March 06, 2010


Added: March 10, 2010

Mexico

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Alfredo Valadez Rodríguez

La Jornada

March 09, 2010


Added: March 10, 2010

Costa Rica

United States Announces Initiatives in Costa Rica to Curtail Human Trafficking

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Chrissie Long

Tico Times

March 09, 2010


Added: March 10, 2010

California, USA

Illegal Immigrant Wanted on Sexual Molestation Charge Arrested Near Calexico

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

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

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

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

Robert J. Lopez

Los Angeles Times

March 9, 2010


Added: Mar. 9, 2010

Mexico

Ciudad Juarez

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

Critica organización civil “política simulatoria”de autoridades

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Marisela Ortiz:

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

Laura Romero Gómez

CIMAC Women's News Agency

March 08, 2010


Added: Mar. 7, 2010

The Americas

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

LibertadLatina Statement for International

Women's Day,

 2010

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

Taking effective

action

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Their voices must be heard!

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

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

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

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

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

face impunity without  defense.

End impunity now!

Chuck Goolsby

LibertadLatina

March 8, 2010

Read the complete essay


Added: Mar. 7, 2010

Illinois, USA

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

Video: WLS TV

‘Sex Trafficking’ Not Just a Problem Abroad

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mary Schmich

The Chicago Tribune

Feb. 28, 2010

See also:

Domestic Sex Trafficking of Chicago Women and Girls

[PDF file] [Overview]

Jody Raphael and Jessica Ashley

May, 2008

See also:

Studies Look at Prostitution in Chicago

[The linked article includes a video report.]

WLS

May 07, 2008


Added: Mar. 7, 2010

Mexico

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

Photo: Crónica

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Enrique Méndez and Roberto Garduño

Periódico La Jornada

March 05, 2010

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

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

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

See also:

Added: Mar. 7, 2010

Mexico

Ties Between Elites and Child Sex Rings "Beyond Imagination"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Diego Cevallos

Inter Press Service (IPS)

Sep. 13, 2006


Added: Mar. 7, 2010

Mexico

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

La Cámara Baja Exige al Poder Judicial Combatir Eficazmente la Pederastia

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

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

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

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

Daniel Blancas Madrigal

Crónica

March 05, 2010

See also:

Added: Mar. 7, 2010

Mexico

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

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

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

Notilegis

March 05, 2010

See also:

Added: Feb. 22, 2010

Mexico

Víctimas Apelan Reubicación de Kuri

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

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

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

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

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

Adriana Varillas Corresponsal

El Universal

Feb. 16, 2010

See Also:

LibertadLatina

Special Section

Journalist / Activist

Lydia Cacho is

Railroaded by the

Legal Process for

Exposing Child Sex

Networks In Mexico


Added: Mar. 7, 2010

Colorado, USA

Western Union to Pay $94 Million in Mexico Transfer Settlement

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

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

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

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

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

Los Angeles Times, The Associated Press

Feb. 12, 2010


Added: Mar. 7, 2010

Texas, USA

Heriberto Zaragoza III

Fugitive Arrested in Connection With Sexual Assault of a Child

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

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

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

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

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

Louis Ojeda

KXXV

March 05, 2010


Added: Mar. 7, 2010

New Mexico, USA

Adult Charged After Teen Found Pregnant

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

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

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

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

The Associated Press

March 01, 2010


Added: Mar. 6, 2010

Pennsylvania, USA

Jose David Castillo

Five in Montgomery County Charged in Drug, Prostitution Ring

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Regina Medina

Philadelphia Daily News

March 5, 2010


Added: Mar. 6, 2010

Mexico

Piden Partidos Políticos Evitar Traslado de Succar Kuri a Cancún

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

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

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

Legislators Ask That Jean Succar Kuri Not Be Transferred to Cancún

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

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

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

CIMAC Women's News Agency

March 05, 2010


Added: Mar. 6, 2010

Latin America, The United States

Hillary Clinton Urges Latin America to Fight Drug Corruption

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Anne-Marie O'Connor

The Washington Post

March 6, 2010

See also:

Added: Mar. 6, 2010

Central America

Centroamérica: Territorio Común Para los Feminicidios

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

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

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

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

Central America: Common Territory for Femicide

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

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

Canada).

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mario Cordero

La Hora

Jan. 19, 2010


Added: Mar. 6, 2010

New Jerey, USA

Police, Feds Investigate Human Trafficking in [Trenton]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

NJ.com

March 06, 2010


Added: Mar. 6, 2010

Maryland, USA

Arash Koraganie Ghulam Abbas

Montgomery County Police Accuse Six of Human Trafficking, Prostitution

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Andre L. Taylor

The Gazette

March 2, 2010


Added: Mar. 6, 2010

Mexico

Demandarán Mujeres Indígenas de Guerrero Recursos y Servicios

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

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

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

Indigenous Women From Guerrero Demand Resources and Services

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

CIMAC Women's News Agency

March 5, 2010 


Added: Mar. 6, 2010

California, USA

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

Barstow Mayor Charged With Sexual Battery

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

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

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

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

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

fight it.

The Associated Press

Feb. 23, 2010


Added: Mar. 5, 2010

Mexico

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

Piden operativo para evitar fuga de Jean Succar Kuri

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mónica Romero

W Radio

March 04, 2010

See Also:

LibertadLatina

Special Section

Journalist / Activist Lydia Cacho is

Railroaded by the

Legal Process for

Exposing Child Sex

Networks In Mexico


Added: Mar. 5, 2010

Mexico

New Alliance Party deputy Elsa María Martínez Peña

Impulsarán cambios culturales para resolver cultura machista

Comité del Centro de Estudios para el Adelanto de las Mujeres

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

New Alliance Party deputy Elsa María Martínez Peña stated that the work of the Committee and the Center should contribute to consolidating a gender based perspective in regard to the legislative process. It should involve a scientific, analystical and political vision about the interrelationships of women and men that proposes to eliminate the causes of gender oppression.

Labor Party deputy Jaime Cárdenas García added that the problem of a culture of machismo in Mexico cannot be resolved through laws alone. "Changes in our culture and our economic model must also take place."

CEAMEG director Maria de los Ángeles Corte Ríos said that on March 10, 2010, the Chamber of Deputies with present a forum, "Advances and Setbacks in Human Rights for Women."

Gladis Torres Ruiz

CIMAC Women's News Agency

March 03, 2010


Added: Mar. 5, 2010

The United States

Convicted child rapist Jeremias Chagala-Mil

Why Are So Many Children Falling Prey to Criminal Aliens?

In April 2009, in a Charlottesville, VA courtroom, Circuit Judge Edward L. Hogshire sentenced Jeremias Chagala-Mil for the repeated rape of a local middle-school girl. Last November, he pleaded guilty to the crime, and admitted that he had sex with her many times.

In April 2008, the girl’s mother discovered what he was doing with her daughter and reported him to police. Since his arrest, he has expressed his desire to marry the 7th grader.

The 32-year-old Mexican national has continued to defend his actions to police, by maintaining that his behavior would not be a crime, and actually quite common throughout his own country.

Charlottesville Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Claude Worrell said of Chagala-Mil: “He said this young girl, who was 12 at the time, looked like she was sexually mature to him. He said in Mexico, any girl who looks sexually mature is fair game to have sex with.”

While Hogshire sentenced Chagala-Mil to 30 years in prison, he suspended all but six of those years. After completing his prison sentence, he will be deported back to Mexico. Unfortunately, the claims that Chagala-Mil makes about Mexico are true.

Another example of this attitude can be found in Mexican national Diego Lopez-Mendez, who pled guilty in 2006 to sexually assaulting a 10 year old West Virginia girl. Through an interpreter, he told the court: "In the pueblo where I grew up girls are usually married by 13 years old….I was unaware of the nature of the offense or that it was a bad crime."

The crime of kidnapping a woman for the purpose of rape and marriage against her will, or "rapto" as it is known in Mexico is actually seen as a minor crime and rarely prosecuted. ...A Mexican legislator actually even called the practice "romantic."

While rape is a serious crime in the United States, many Mexican nationals cannot understand why they are prosecuted on this side of the border. Often, a small payment of $10 to $20 to the victim's family will settle the matter back in Mexico.

Of course, it is also common for all charges to be dropped against the accused rapist, if he offers to marry his victim in front of the judge, even if the girl refuses, the court acknowledges that he has made the offer.

But perhaps, the most troubling and telling reason behind the growing epidemic of child molestation at the hands of Mexican illegal aliens, is the fact the age of sexual consent throughout much of Mexico is 12...

In addition to Mexico City, the age of consent is 12 years old in 19 Mexican states...

Dave Gibson

The Examiner

March 03, 2010

See also:

In Mexico, an Unpunished Crime

Rape Victims Face Widespread Cultural Bias in Pursuit of Justice

...Mexico is struggling to modernize its justice system, but when it comes to punishing sexual violence against women, surprisingly little has changed in a century. In many parts of Mexico, the penalty for stealing a cow is harsher than the punishment for rape.

Although the law calls for tough penalties for rape -up to 20 years in prison- only rarely is there an investigation into even the most barbaric of sexual violence. Women's groups estimate that perhaps 1 percent of rapes are ever punished...

...In the country that made the term "machismo" famous, where women were given the right to vote only in 1953, women's rights advocates said rape and other violence against women are still not treated as serious crimes. And they said police, prosecutors and judges often show indifference or hostility toward women who claim rape... "In 90 percent of the cases of rape, the Mexican police blame the women," ... "In the few cases where they know the man is guilty, they let him 'fix' it with money." ...

...A "machismo culture," instilled through what is learned in the home, school and church, has allowed many men to "believe they are superior and dominant, and that women are an object." ...That mind-set has contributed to making many men-including policemen, prosecutors, judges and others in positions of authority-believe that sexual violence against women is no big deal.

...A review of criminal laws in all 31 Mexican states showed that many states require that if a 12-year-old girl wants to accuse an adult man of statutory rape, she must first prove she is "chaste and pure." Nineteen of the states require that statutory rape charges be dropped if the rapist agrees to marry his victim...

In the southern state of Oaxaca last summer, the one-year-old, government-funded Oaxacan Women's Institute persuaded the legislature to pass heavy criminal penalties against a practice known as "rapto." Laws in most Mexican states define rapto as a case where a man kidnaps a woman not for ransom, but with the intent of marrying her or to satisfy his "erotic sexual desire." The new law championed by the women's group established penalties of at least 10 years in prison.

But in March, the state legislature reversed itself and again made the practice a minor infraction. A key legislator -a man- argued for the reduction, calling the practice harmless and "romantic."

Human rights groups disagree. They say it is not charming for a man to spot a woman he fancies sitting in a park, pick her up and carry her away to have sex with her. Yet to this day, that is still how some women meet their husbands. The attorney general's office said there have been 137 criminal complaints of rapto in the state of Puebla since January 2000.

Mary Jordan,

The Washington Post

June 30, 2002

See also:

Central America and Mexico

mariajesusdl02297.jpg

María de Jesús Silva, Jackeline's mother

Trata de blancas en Centroamérica

For non-governmental organizations, the child kidnapping and sex trafficking case of 11-year-old Jackeline Jirón Silva fom Nicaragua is emblematic, as the case shows clearly how the third most profitable criminal enterprise in the world operates.

...Jackeline has been forced to work in brothels all over Central America.  Her pimps now have her in Tapachula, in Chiapas state [near Mexico's southern border with Guatemala].

María de Jesús Silva [Jackeline's mother, who searched all over Central America and southern Mexico for her daughter]: "I saw things that I never imagined existed... The brothels are full of children, sold by traffickers and abandoned by their parents. I saw them prostitute themselves and wished that any one of them would have been my daughter. I settled for caressing the hair of these girls, and I imagined that in the 'next' brothel, I was going to find my daughter. Everything that I have suffered through is nothing compared to what my girl is going through."

...According to Ana Salvadó, executive director for Mexico, Latin America and the Caribbean for Save the Children:  "the panorama for childhood in Latin America is growing more bleak over time, and child trafficking is growing rapidly in each of these countries..."

…Save the Children has identified the border region between Guatemala and Mexico as being the largest hot spot for the commercial sexual exploitation of children in the entire world.  Ana Salvadó: "It is a bottleneck, because many children attempt to migrate from Central [and South] America to the United States, and they never get past [southern] Mexico…

…A study by the international organization ECPAT… made public ithree weeks ago in Guatemala City, reveals that over 21,000 Central Americans, mostly children, are prostituted in 1,552 bars and brothels in Tapachula, Mexico… 

Traffickers sell these child victims to Tapachula's pimps for $200 each.

More that 50% of these children are from [indigenous] Guatemala.  The rest are Salvadorans, Hondurans and Nicaraguans.  They range in age from eight to fourteen-years-old.

...In 2006, the International Labor Organization conducted a survey of adult attitudes in Mexico, Central America and South America, where it is quite easy [for men] to engage in sexual relations with children.

Some 65% of respondents stated that they don't see any problem, and they don't feel any sort of conflict or fear in regard to having sex with boy and girl children, and "they don't feel that there is anything wrong with doing it."

...Mexico has been converted into a paradise for pimps and a living hell for thousands of Central American girl children like Jackeline Jirón Silva, whose captors have prostituted her during the past 32 months.  It is known that during half of that time, Jackeline has been held in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas.

Ana Lilia Pérez

Revista Contralínea

Oct. 22, 2007


Added: Mar. 5, 2010

California, USA

Sacramento Man Facing 15 Child Molest Felonies Involving Girlfriend's Daughters

Sacramento - Bail has been set at $5 million for a Sacramento man accused of multiple acts of sexual assault against the daughters of his girlfriend, say police. Omar Alejandro Valdivia Mendoza, 29, was booked into Sacramento Main Jail Monday evening on 15 felonies accusing him of oral copulation; and violence, force or duress during the commission of sexual conduct, rape and lewd acts.

Sacramento police served an arrest warrant on Mendoza Monday. Sgt. Norm Leong said detectives began an investigation late last year when the alleged crimes were reported. The first report was made after Valdivia Mendoza was no longer living with his girlfriend, Leong said.

The molestations had begun when the victims were 9 and 10 years old and had been going on for several years, according to the investigation. Valdivia Mendoza's first court appearance was scheduled for Wednesday, March 3, in Sacramento County Superior Court. 

KXTV

March 02, 2010


Added: Mar. 5, 2010

Massachusetts, USA

Gian Carlos Mirabel

Police: Child Rape Caught On Videotape

Lowell Bus Driver Faces Charges

The abuse of a Lowell student at the hands of her bus driver was caught on videotape, police said.

Gian Carlos Mirabel, 22, of Lawrence, was arrested late Sunday night and arraigned on two counts of forcible child rape.

An employee of the North Reading Transportation Bus Co. was reviewing security footage of a bus that was involved in a minor accident on Feb. 25. While reviewing the footage, the employee observed suspicious activity between the defendant and a student on the bus, officials said.

"The time that (the driver) was stating that the accidents happened, there was a student on the bus and this child should have been at school," North Reading Transportation President John McCarthy said. "There was enough questions to what was going on that we couldn't answer..."

The victim, in 7th grade at the time, first met the defendant in the spring of 2009 when he was assigned to bus route, police said. In the fall of 2009, when the victim was in the 8th grade, the defendant allegedly began to ask the victim to remain on the bus after he dropped the other students off.

The victim told police that she did not want to be on the bus with the defendant and he physically prevented her from leaving the bus at least once. Officials said Mirabel told the victim not to tell anyone about the alleged encounters...

TheBostonChannel.com

March 02, 2010


Added: Mar. 5, 2010

California, USA

San Jose State Police Investigate Groping Attacks

San Jose - Authorities in the South Bay Wednesday night were investigating three separate incidents of sexual battery that happened within about two hours of each other near San Jose State University earlier in the day, a police spokesman said.

San Jose police Officer Jermaine Thomas said it appears all three victims are females who attend the university.

The first incident happened shortly after 9 a.m. at North Eighth and St. James streets.

"The subject approached the victim from behind, hugged her and touched her inappropriately," Thomas said.

He said similar incidents happened at about 11:05 a.m. at East San Carlos and South 12th streets and at 11:13 a.m. in the 400 block of East San Fernando Street.

The suspect in all the incidents was described as a Hispanic man, 20 to 30 years old and 5 feet 8 inches tall. He is clean-shaven with short hair and was wearing a black jacket.

Authorities issued a warning Wednesday for women on or near the campus to watch out for the groping suspect. Officers said sexual battery is a serious offense and they were determined to find the man responsible.

KTVU

March 03,2010


Added: Mar. 4, 2010

Florida, USA, Guatemala

Chief Assistant U.S. Attorney Doug Molloy

Immokalee Man Accused of Using Teens as Sex Slaves

Investigators call it one of the worst cases of sex slavery in Southwest Florida.

Francisco Domingo is charged with human trafficking. But court documents detail horrible accounts of what happened to a 16-year-old girl behind closed doors.

The victim was brought to Immokalee illegally in 2008 from Guatemala. Investigators say the girl was held against her will and Domingo was taking the money she made in the farm fields.

Court documents go on to state that on several occasions, Domingo took pictures and videos of the 16-year-old victim having sex with several men against her will.

The victim said that would happen several times a week.

"Human trafficking or slavery - it doesn't get more serious because the people who bring the slaves over know exactly what slaves are getting into. This is a high priority of our office, the Unites States, the Department of Justice and the FBI," said Chief Assistant U.S. Attorney Doug Molloy.

Domingo will be back in court next week for a bond hearing and officials we spoke to say more charges may be filed.

Stacey Deffenbaugh

WBBH

March 03, 2010


Added: Mar. 4, 2010

Mexico

Deputy Rosi Orozco

Es peligroso trasladar a Succar Kuri al penal de Cancún, advierten diputados

La Comisión Especial de Lucha Contra la Trata de Personas de la Cámara de Diputados presentará este jueves un punto de acuerdo ante el pleno legislativo, con la finalidad de exhortar al juez federal Gabriel García Lanz “para que entienda” que tener al pederasta Jean Succar Kuri, El Johnny, en el penal municipal de Cancún, Quintana Roo “es sumamente peligroso”, no sólo porque podría fugarse, sino “fundamentalmente porque las niñas, niños y jóvenes que fueron sus víctimas recibirían un golpe emocional y sicológico terrible, irreparable, al saber que su victimario estaría otra vez tan cerca de ellos”.

La diputada federal y presidenta de esa comisión, Rosi Orozco, buscó este miércoles a La Jornada para informar, directamente, que “esta comisión especial que presido ha decidido de último minuto presentar un punto de acuerdo, exhortando al juez (García Lanz) para que reconsidere su decisión”.

También “exhortaremos a la Secretaría de Seguridad Pública (SSP) federal para que si ya no queda otra cosa más que trasladar a esta persona a Cancún, las autoridades garanticen que no se fugue durante o después del traslado, y que cuiden que (Succar) no atente contra la seguridad de sus víctimas”.

Congressional Leaders: Transferring Imprisoned Millionaire Child Pornographer Jean Succar Kuri to Cancun is Dangerous

On Thursday, March 4, 2010, the Special Commission to Fight Human Trafficking of the Chamber of Deputies in Congress will present a non-binding resolution before the Chamber, with the objective of calling upon federal magistrate Gabriel García Lanz "so that he will understand" that the pending transfer of Jean Succar Kuri, "El Johnny," from a maximum security prison to a minimum security jail in Cancún is "an extremely dangerous move." It is a danger not only because of the risk that Succar Kuri may flee [he is a millionaire based in Cancún], but because his transfer will subject the [200] children and underage youth in Cancún who were his victims to an irreparable psychological blow from knowing that their victimizer has been moved back to Cancún.

Deputy Rosi Orozco, Chair of the Commission, noted that the resolution also asks that the head of the federal security secretariat assure that, in the case that Succar Kuri is transferred, he is not allowed to escape during the transfer process.

Alfredo Méndez

Periódico La Jornada

March 4, 2010


Added: Mar. 4, 2010

Nicaragua

Nicaraguan University Students Rescued from Potential Human Trafficking Scenario

Free for Life International, a U.S. anti-trafficking organization, met last week with Nicaragua's new Ministry of Families Director Marcia Ramirez Mercado to discussed the issue of human trafficking in Nicaragua. Director Mercado stated at that time that Nicaragua is stepping up their efforts in the fight against human trafficking. Evidence of this fact appeared two days later when a couple was arrested in Managua for attempting to sex traffic several University students from Nicaragua into Guatemala and Mexico. The girls, primarily minors, were lured with the promise of appearing in several of Latin America's most prominent magazines.

Director Marcia Ramirez Mercado has recently been appointed Ministry of Families Director in Nicaragua. In this position a key part of her duties will include the oversight of governmental efforts against human trafficking in Nicaragua. Colette and Dr. Daniel Bercu, founders of Free for Life International, along with directors of Nicoya & Friends Mission were honored to meet with her last week to talk about their work concerning human trafficking. The discussion included the future placement of minor victims into the shelter, efforts the Nicaraguan government is making in the fight against trafficking, and a potential collaboration concerning awareness and victim services with Free for Life International.

Free for Life International, a Tennessee based 501c3 nonprofit organization, has made it their mission to partner with those around the world in the rescue, restoration and reintegration of trafficking survivors. Nicoya and Friends Mission, a shelter for minor age trafficking victims in Nicaragua, is one of these shelters. They are one of the only designated shelters in Nicaragua set up for minor sex trafficking victims and are providing a place of love and restoration for these young women....

Press Release

Free for Life International

March 2, 2010


Added: Mar. 4, 2010

Texas, USA, Mexico

Gerardo Salazar - was wanted by the FBI for the sex trafficking of children

Accused Cantina Sex Ring Operator Arrested in Mexico

A nearly five-year run from justice is over for the alleged leader of a depraved sex-trafficking ring accused of using beatings, threats and rape to force young immigrant women into slavery in Houston, according to Mexican authorities who captured him.

Gerardo “El Gallo” Salazar, whose nickname is Spanish for The Rooster, was snared in his hometown in the tiny state of Tlaxcala, outside Mexico City.

He was apparently first arrested on counterfeiting charges, but later confessed to being wanted in Houston, according to a news release Monday from Mexico's federal attorney general's office. He also tried to offer Mexican agents a bribe of a house and car not to extradite him, the statement continued.

Salazar, 45, was known to not only hoodwink his victims with lies of love, but mark them as his property with a tattoo of a rooster.

He would later strike them with belts, wooden spoons and cables, according to a federal indictment on file in Houston. In one beating described in the document, he ordered a teenager to get on her knees and beg for forgiveness for defying him.

Pending his positive identification and other hurdles, Salazar will likely be subject to a request for extradition to Houston to face charges including sexual assault of a child and sex trafficking.

“I never thought they'd catch the guy,” said Sgt. Michael Barnett, of the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, which was part of the team that broke up the ring that forced victims to work as prostitutes from the back of Houston bars...

Salazar is accused of running a gang that specialized in using fancy trucks and full wallets to romance small-town women and teenagers in Mexico, then lure them to the United States as girlfriends...

During the day, Salazar and his fellow gangsters kept them locked in apartments and homes, authorities say, and at night, they were taken to Houston cantinas and sold over and over to customers, sometimes for as little as $5.

They were beaten into submission, according to an affidavit filed in court by FBI agent Maritza Conde-Vazquez, and captors knew to keep the bruises in places that would not show.

Among the many allegations against Salazar is an instance in which he told a teenager she had to earn at least $3,000 a week and that if she ever thought about leaving him he would kill her parents back in Mexico...

Dane Schiller

Houston Chronicle

March 2, 2010 


Added: Mar. 3, 2010

Mexico

Lydia Cacho

Photo: La Jornada

Vigilen a Esos Jueces

Las y los legisladores expusieron dos casos ejemplares que nos permiten entender lo que en realidad sucede en los juzgados de este país

Las y los diputados del PRD, PAN y PT, se pronunciaron en el Congreso para solicitar una supervisión detallada de las actuaciones de jueces que estén a cargo de casos de pornografía y explotación sexual de menores de edad. Llamó la atención el silencio del PRI y del Verde. Está claro que éste es un tema que indigna y enoja a cualquiera que sea incapaz de disfrutar con los abusos de infantes. Justo por eso resulta vital recordar que México ha avanzado en este tema y debe seguir haciéndolo. Las y los legisladores expusieron dos casos ejemplares que nos permiten entender lo que en realidad sucede en los juzgados de este país.

Watch Those Judges

Members of Congress have proposed a closer look at two cases that allow us to understand exactly what goes on in our nation's courtrooms.

Congressional deputies from the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), the National Action Party (PAN) and the Labor Party (PT) have called for a detailed review of the actions of judges in two cases involving child pornography and the sexual exploitation of children. The absence of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and the Ecological Green Party (Verde) in this announcement was notable.

It is clear that these topics outrage all who are incapable of abusing children. For that very fact it is important to note that Mexico is making progress in regard to this issues, and it should continue its efforts to change.

The criminal case against Father Rafael Muñiz demonstrated how the public prosecutor's office in Veracruz state engaged in a mediocre effort to formulate charges against the priest. Later, a federal judge asked the Veracruz court to improve its legal arguments. But the local court ignored the law and allowed Father Muñiz to be freed on bail. Two days after his recent release from jail, he was making crosses from ashes to celebrate his freedom.

Although the truth is that Father Muñiz is only free on bond and his case is being reviewed, he is enjoying the fruits of a judicial decision that has resulted from ignorance, fumbling and pressure from the Archdiocese of Veracruz. Judge Martín has taken no specialized training in child sexual exploitation. He therefore continues to make judicial decisions as if this were the year 2000, when Mexico didn't have the precise legal instruments and judicial arguments that exist today, which  permit serious sentences to be handed down.

In the case of [millionaire accused child pornographer] Jean Succar Kuri, the self-confessed "pedophile of Cancun," he was never charged with child sex trafficking, because he was extradited from the United States on charges of child pornography and the corruption of minors. It has been six years since Succar Kuri was arrested in Arizona. His many attorneys, despite not having done a spectacular job in defending him, have won a victory recently in the fact that Succar Kuri will be transferred from a [maximum security] federal prison to a local [minimum security] jail in his home town city of Cancún. According to authorities, Succar Kuri was one of the planners of a prisoner escape by 103 inmates in 2006.

The magistrate in the case made it clear that federal prosecutors had a responsibility to submit a request for revocation of the judicial order that will send Kuri to a local jail in Cancún, and instead, the prosecutors had submitted an appeal of the judge's order. This is equivalent to saying that a given person went to the hospital for a kidney translation and was offered a liver transplant. As yet we don't know if the prosecutor in this case made an intentional error. It is incompre-hensible that such an error could occur when this case is being scrutinized by the U.S. Justice Department, which had extradited Succar Kuri under an agreement that President Calderón's government would bring him to justice.

Succar Kuri will arrive in Cancún this week. His return to this city will be watched by many.

Judge Martin is also being closely watched. This week we will find out whether Father Muñiz received special treatment. It is clear that there is an urgent need in Mexico to train judges and prosecutors on the law as it applies to sex trafficking cases.

To feel outrage at these developments is essential, but it is not a sufficient response. Only through professional training and oversight of the judiciary will we be able to eliminate the ignorant excuses and the faulty interpretations of the law that allow corruption into the process.

The message that we send out to the millions of boys and girls who are exploited each year must be clear: child pornography is a crime, and the judiciary will protect children.

Lydia Cacho

www.LydiaCacho.net

March 01, 2010

See Also:

LibertadLatina

Special Section

Journalist / Activist Lydia Cacho is

Railroaded by the

Legal Process for

Exposing Child Sex

Networks In Mexico


Added: Mar. 3, 2010

Jamaica

Chief Justice Says Jamaica Dealing With Human Trafficking

Kingston - Jamaica's Chief Justice, Hon. Zaila McCalla O.J., has commended efforts being made by stakeholders, at various levels of the society, to combat human trafficking in Jamaica.

Speaking at a two-day workshop hosted by the Ministry of Health at the Mona Visitors' Lodge and Conference Centre, University of the West Indies (UWI),

St. Andrew, Mrs. McCalla cited the efforts and input of the legislature, judiciary, security forces, human rights activists, women's groups and faith-based organizations.

She alluded to a "fairly recent disclosure" in a human trafficking report prepared by the United States State Department, which lists Jamaica at an "unacceptable"' Tier 2 level on its watch list.

She pointed out that this signaled that it is felt by the authorities there, that Jamaica has not fully complied fully with the minimum standards. She said that, on the contrary, Jamaica had made "significant efforts" to deal with the problem.

Citing that the existing laws in any country to punish perpetrators of the crime is necessary for the cultivation of a social conscience in that society, the Chief Justice highlighted the Trafficking in Persons (Prevention, Suppression and Punishment) Act, legislated in 2007, as a direct effort to stamp out human trafficking.

"So far, the courts have been working to ensure that the objectives of the Act are complied with, and we will continue to do so in an effort to prevent and stamp out this style of criminal activity. The existence of legislation in Jamaica to confront the problem is a significant step on which we should continue to build," she stated...

South Florida Caribbean News

March 2, 2010


Added: Mar. 3, 2010

South Carolina, USA

14-year-old Girl Was State's First Human Trafficking Case

Columbia - ...Tucked away in a trailer park just a few miles outside the Columbia city limits was the center of South Carolina's first human trafficking case.

Inside was a child, smuggled into the US, then trafficked to a pimp and forced to service dozens of men a day in the Midlands.

"I told my agents, I said, 'We're going to treat this little girl like she's our daughter and we're going to hunt this little girl down and get her out of this trailer,'" said Ken Burkhart, an agent from Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Burkhart got a call from Mexican authorities in February 2007 about a 14-year-old runaway who called her sister in Mexico for help and gave a vague description of the trailer on Sharpe Road.

ICE agents put the trailer under surveillance. On Feb. 27, 2007, the agents moved in.

"Wasn't really seeing anything and with a minor being involved, I didn't want to wait much longer, so we made the decision to simply knock on the door. When I knocked on the door the 14-year-old answered the door," said Burkhart. "I was shocked. I didn't expect that, I expected anybody else but my girl to answer that door."

Unaware of who was inside, Burkhart knew he had to act fast.

"I told her we had been in contact with her sister and shook her hand and just gently led her right out of the door and I had several agents, along with officers from the Richland County Sheriff's Office who assisted, and just kind of passed her right over to those agents," said Burkhart.

It took days, Burkhart says, before the girl agents called "AR" could trust them.

"They have been trained not to trust law enforcement, that we're the bad guys, that we're really not there to help them, so initially AR would tell me that everything was fine, she was okay; she was in no danger," said Burkhart.

When she opened up, AR told investigators she was smuggled in from Mexico in July 2006 by Jesus Perez-Laguna.

Perez-Laguna ran a sex trafficking ring in Charlotte where he pimped AR and several other girls out around the area for several weeks, pocketing the money the girls made.

AR told investigators she was then traded out to Guatalupe Reyes-Rivera, also known as Mama Martina, who lived in Columbia.

"She actually liked her because she didn't beat her like the man in Charlotte did," said Burkhart.

AR told investigators a third pimp, Ciro Bustos-Rosales, pimped her out at Columbia's Mauldin Village Apartments on Mauldin Avenue, a few miles away from Columbia College. The girl was forced to have sex with dozens of men a day...

Both Perez-Laguna and Bostos-Rosales pleaded guilty in 2007. Perez-Laguna is serving a 14-year sentence, Bostos-Rosales is serving five-and-a-half years.

The penalties for trafficking carry up to life in federal prison, and in some cases, qualifies for the death penalty.

WIS News 10

March 1, 2010


Added: Mar. 2, 2010

Mexico, The United States

Gerardo Salazar - was wanted by the FBI for the sex trafficking of children

Mexico Arrests Sex-traffic Suspect Wanted by FBI

Mexico City - Federal police in central Mexico have captured a man wanted by the FBI for allegedly trafficking women and minors for prostitution in the United States.

The Attorney General's Office says police acting on an anonymous tip captured Mexican suspect Gerardo Salazar on a highway in the central state of Tlaxcala.

The office says Salazar is being held for attempted bribery and possible extradition to face the U.S. charges. It said in a statement Monday that when police stopped Salazar, he offered them a house and a car to let him go.

The FBI alleges Gerardo Salazar used beatings, threats and deception to force Mexican women and girls to work as prostitutes in the Houston, Texas, area in 2004 and 2005.

The Associated Press

March 01, 2010


Added: Mar. 2, 2010

Arizona, USA

Santana Batiz-Aceves

'Chandler Rapist' Suspect Admits Attacking Young Girls

A 39-year-old Valley man who authorities say stalked and raped six young girls in Chandler agreed Monday to a prison sentence of 168½ years as part of a plea agreement.

Santana Batiz-Aceves, dubbed the "Chandler Rapist," was charged with 47 counts, including child molestation, sexual conduct with a minor, kidnapping, aggravated assault and burglary. Police say he attacked girls from June 2006 to November 2007.

Batiz-Aceves pleaded guilty to 12 counts, including attempted sexual conduct with a minor and molestation. Sentencing is scheduled for April 2 before Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Kristin Hoffman.

The case left the city on edge for two years and received significant media attention. On April 9, Judge Theresa A. Sanders denied Batiz-Aceves' request to have the trial moved out of Maricopa County...

Originally from Sinaloa, Mexico, Batiz-Aceves began living in the United States illegally in 1988 and lived in Sacramento for nearly 16 years, where he worked for a construction company.

Three of the victims were students at Andersen Junior High School, police said.

In all but one of the cases, police believe, the rapist followed the victims for weeks, targeting single-parent homes.

In the incidents, the rapist studied the parent's routine, developed a quick escape route and then struck, police said.

Megan Boehnke

The Arizona Republic

March 1, 2010


Added: Mar. 2, 2010

Texas, USA

Fake Doctor Gets 68 Years In Prison

Dallas - A jury in Dallas has ordered 68 years in prison for a man convicted of sexual assault in an attack on a 12-year-old girl as he pretended to be a doctor.

Jesus Garza testified Monday, during the penalty phase, that the girl and her mother had lied about the allegations.

Prosecutors say the woman in June took her daughter, who has a skin condition, to Garza's Grand Prairie apartment for an examination. Garza allegedly had claimed he had a clinic that was being painted.

The mother says she could not see what the 64-year-old Garza was doing because he covered the girl, whose name was not made public as a sexual assault victim, was doing to her.

Three adult women testified that they also were molested by Garza when they sought treatment from him.

The Associated Press

Feb. 16, 2010


Added: Mar. 2, 2010

California, USA

Daycare Provider Stops Attempted Kidnapping

Parents are on edge in Lompoc, after a man reportedly tried to kidnap a 2-year-old from Ryon Park, Friday morning.

According to police, the man allegedly grabbed the child and tried to leave the park.

A day-care provider was able to free the child from the suspected abductor, who is described as a 40 to 50 year-old Hispanic male.

Witnesses say the man spoke Spanish and broken English. At the time of the crime, he was wearing a dark blue windbreaker, with a pink and yellow logo on the front.

The subject was last seen leaving to park towards Ocean Ave.

Anyone with information about the crime is asked to call the Lompoc Police Department.

Christina Heller

KEYT

March 1, 2010 0


Added: Mar. 2, 2010

North Carolina, USA

Cruz Luis Antonio Cruz

Man Arrested For Having Sex With Minor Over 8-year Period

The Henderson County Sheriff’s Office arrested a man for having sex with a girl for 8 years since she was only 10 years old.

Luis Antonio Cruz, 42, of Howard Gap Road in Hendersonville was charged with four counts of second-degree rape, two counts of attempted second-degree sex offense, indecent liberties with a child and one count of felony child abuse, all of which are felonies.

“Mr. Cruz was identified by our 287(g) unit as being in the country legally, but not a citizen,” Sheriff Rick Davis said. “Persons in this category, after completion of a sentence, are deported as an aggravated felon and returned to their country of origin.”

Cruz was processed at the Henderson County Detention Center where he was placed under a $280,000 secured bond.

Blueridgenow.com

Feb. 27, 2010


Added: March 1, 2010

An activist's letter speaks the truth from the front lines of the battle to save children from impunity

Mexico

Street children in Mexico

Photo: Alex Moore

Breaking Chains Update...lots of action....almost more than we can handle.

Lots of action but it is taking its toll……

In the last 2 weeks we have successfully rescued 2 new daughters both of whom have extraordinary testimonies…I will share Monica’s in a bit. We also through the US Dept. Of Homeland Security successfully shut down a child porn site that had more than 500 videos involving hardcore acts with children many of whom have yet to reach 5 years of age.

I don’t think you can understand until you have seen this stuff the depth of evil that exists in mankind and while the acts are one thing what is causing me what may be more pain than I can handle is the faces of these children during the acts. I keep seeing them over and over in my mind. I find myself now at times in the middle of the day and night just stopping and crying. I can handle a lot as most of my work keeps me in the midst of hell but the enemy may have found the way to take me out of this battle.

On top of that we have identified 3 different middle schools in Baja California where girls yet to reach 16 years of age and many of whom are only 12 are willingly selling themselves not out of force but for money to buy things like cell phones, chips and soda, and the latest fashions. Many of the clients are Americans who either live here or come down specificially seeking these children.

Through an ongoing operation in the red zones of Tijuana we have also identified 42 minors who are being prostituted blatantly with seemingly no repercussion from law enforcement…yeah they do go in and arrest them from time to time but the next day they are back on the streets. It is a helpless feeling to see all this and only be able to act on a miniscule fraction.

We have been waiting for help from Mexico City for a long time now and are pretty much resigning ourselves that it is not coming. It is not like they don’t have other things to do…this country is in the midst of a full blown war that makes Iraq look like a playground. There are armed groups attacking each other daily and many of the attacks are happening in the middle of civilians and even in the middle of town squares. The numbers are staggering and it seems like the daily reports of multiple homicides at the hands of AK 47’s and AR 15’s are just another story. The US has shut down the consulate in Monterrey where the Zetas and Gulf Cartel have engaged in a full blown war.

In the middle of all this I often find myself asking God…where are you?????? I know He is here as my faith has not been completely stolen but those little 3 and 5 year old faces from the videos sure bring legitimacy to the question...

Now would be a good time to pray brothers and sisters…it is a season of almost unbearable pain. We need you now more than ever…we need your prayers, we need your financial support and we need more people to get off their butts and start doing something. There is a war going on …a war which is reaching a level of evil most of you cannot fathom or at least that you choose not to. I don’t have that luxury I have been called to fight for these kids and the images of those tiny faces is a double edged sword…it makes me want to quit and at the same time won’t let me.

In Christ

Steven T. Cass

Breaking Chains Ministry

Feb. 28, 2010

Steven - be strong!

We support your important efforts to save children!

Keep up the great work, hard as it may be. Those who are defenseless depend upon your tireless efforts to stand tall in the face of impunity.

- Chuck Goolsby

LibertadLatina

March 1, 2010


Added: March 1, 2010

Mexico

Deputy Rosi Orozco watches Mexican Interior Secretary Fernando Gómez Mont's presentation at the Forum for Analysis and Discussion in Regard to Criminal Law to Control Human Trafficking.

Video posted on YouTube

Video: Llama Gómez Mont a Visibilizar Delito de Trata de Personas

Video of Mexican Interior Secretary Fernando Gómez Mont's presentation at the Feb. 23rd and 24th, 2010 congressional Forum for Analysis and Discussion in Regard to Criminal Law to Control Human Trafficking.

[Ten minutes - In Spanish]

Deputy Rosi Orozco

On YouTube.com

Feb. 26, 2010

See also: