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Indigenous & Latina Women & Children's Human
Rights News from the Americas |
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United States - Latina
Women and Children at Risk
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Mexico, an Unpunished Crime |
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Rape Victims Face Widespread Cultural
Bias in Pursuit of Justice
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By Mary Jordan, Washington Post
Foreign Service
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| Originally published in
the Washington Post, June
30, 2002 |
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REYESHOGPAN, Mexico — These gorgeous
mountain slopes in central Mexico, blooming with black pepper plants and
golden cornstalks, camouflage the sorrow of the two silent sisters.
Antonia and Isabel Francisco Melendez, who were born deaf, are nine
months pregnant, and the doctors treating them say they were raped.
The sisters, who cannot speak, cry and
crumple, and literally fold up, when asked how they got pregnant. Their
babies are due at the same time, within a week or so. Do they know the
man? Did it happen in the fields on their way home from school? Isabel
seemed to try to answer once, to her grandmother, by pointing to a spot
high on a mountainside before tears streamed down her face and she
turned away again.
Antonia is 13 years old, and Isabel 16.
Perhaps if they were older, the pregnancies would have been easier to
keep secret, the way rapes and beatings of women are usually dealt with
in Mexico. But in this little town of fewer than 500 people, a place
where the church bells toll every afternoon at 5 to call everyone to say
the rosary, the reality is hard to hide. The girls' tiny frames swell
more each day. Their backs and legs are sore—not from playing tag with
schoolmates, but because their bodies are telling them they will soon be
mothers.
"This is a crime and there should be an
investigation," said Juana Maria Diego Victor, a community leader in
this village 85 miles northeast of Puebla city. "Someone should protect
these girls."
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. Although the two
girls' medical charts say their pregnancies were the "product of rape,"
no police authority has looked into the case.
In recent decades, Mexico has made strides
to improve women's rights and opportunities. Mexican women still have
much higher illiteracy rates than men, but that is slowly changing as
young girls are staying in school longer. During the 1990s, laws that
trampled women's rights were abolished, such as those that said married
women needed their husband's permission to hold a job outside the home.
But 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—such as in the case of Yessica Yadira Diaz Cazares.
Diaz testified that three police officers
raped her in 1997, when she was 16, as she was on her way home from
school in the northern city of Durango. She then did a rare thing: She
tried to punish her attackers.
When she went to the police station with
her mother, she was jeered and then jailed overnight. They forced her,
as is mandatory in Mexico, to have a physical vaginal exam by a
government doctor. They made her submit to eight separate blood tests,
telling her, falsely, that the tests would determine whether she had
been raped. But no one ever told her what the lab results were.
When the teenager did not back off, even
after her family received death threats, a prosecutor told her that to
identify the officers who attacked her, she must physically lay her hand
on them. It was not good enough to point out her attackers. She needed
to touch them, she was instructed. When she reached out and touched an
officer, he taunted her and told her she was crazy.
Finally she gave up. She told her sister
she was tired of seeking justice. Three months later, the young girl
with big brown eyes and long, wavy hair killed herself with an overdose
of prescription drugs. After her burial, the national human rights
commission took up her case and helped convict two officers of rape.
"They make the few women who dare to report
rape give up," said Yessica's mother, Maria Eugenia Cazares, who said
her daughter's rape and death shattered the family's life. After her
daughter's suicide, she moved her family to Canada where, she said,
there are more enlightened laws to protect women.
"In 90 percent of the cases of rape, the
Mexican police blame the women," she said in an interview. "In the few
cases where they know the man is guilty, they let him 'fix' it with
money."
She said she believes that 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." She said 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.
"The thinking is 'she's a woman, so she
deserved it,' or 'he's a man, so what do you expect?'" said Cazares.
Rape in Mexico is prosecuted at the state
level, and state laws vary. 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.
"What message is this? That the crime is
not serious," said Elena Azaola, author of "The Crime of Being a Women,"
a book about how the Mexican justice system discriminates against women.
In order for a woman to file a criminal
complaint alleging rape, she must submit to a medical exam by a doctor
assigned by the prosecutor's office. Patricia Duarte, president of the
Mexican Association Against Violence Against Women, said these exams,
routinely conducted in the prosecutor's office, are often carried out
with little sensitivity or privacy. The exams, she said, are an obstacle
to reporting rape that contributes to "impunity of rapists" in Mexico.
Fighting Old Customs
Whatever problems women face in the cities
and towns, they are compounded in small villages where old customs are
still the only true law. Ten million Mexicans are indigenous, as are
most of the people in these highlands of the Sierra Madre. In Mexico's
march toward modernity, there is great tension here between protecting
women from violence and honoring indigenous customs.
In many of the thousands of indigenous
communities, by longstanding custom, women are essentially servants of
their fathers, brothers and husbands. In many villages around
Reyeshogpan, women are forbidden to go out after dusk without their
husband or their husband's permission. After 7 p.m., streets in village
after village are populated by men only, many of them drunk. Alcoholism
is another problem that contributes to violence against women.
Town elders who act as judges in local
criminal matters are invariably men. In one village in Guerrero state,
elders were recently asked how they punish rape. The six men looked
confused, as if they did not know what the term meant. When it was
explained to them, they all laughed and said it sounded more like a
courting ritual than a crime.
When they stopped laughing, they said a
rapist would probably get a few hours in the local jail, or he might
have to pay the victim's family a $10 or $20 fine, but that all would be
forgotten if he and the victim got married.
In the case of a cow thief, they said, the
robber would be jailed. And, unlike the rapist, a cow thief would be
brought before the elders for a lecture about the severity of the crime.
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.
Complete statistics are impossible to find,
because most cases are settled between the two families involved and
never reported. Because rapto implies that the girl was taken away for
sex, her parents want to avoid the shame associated with making a public
complaint to police.
In some cases, the girls voluntarily go
with the man as a way to elope to avoid wedding expenses. But Gabriela
Gutierrez Kleman, a lawyer with the Oaxacan Women's Institute, said in
many cases the women are taken against their will.
Gutierrez said it is hard to ask girls to
complain about rapto, to buck a system that has changed little since
their great-grandmother's time. If they do, she said, the family or the
community often "treats them as outcasts."
Marriage as a Remedy
The regional maternity hospital in
Zacapoaxtla caters to women and children from scores of villages in the
highlands here in the northeast corner of Puebla state. White-coated
doctors and nurses scurry about among the crying children, past brightly
painted walls decorated with basic information about nutrition,
breast-feeding and sanitation.
About 220 babies are born there each month,
many of them to mothers who are children themselves. Hospital officials
said babies are born there frequently to girls as young as 12, many of
whom do not understand that intercourse caused their pregnancy.
The pregnancy of a child that age implies a
crime: In Puebla, it is illegal to have sex with a person younger than
18. But only rarely are rape charges filed in these cases.
Teresa Arrieta Martinez, 13, petite and
hugely pregnant, cringed as a nurse took a blood sample as part of her
prenatal care. Her boyfriend, Eliazar Hernandez Martinez, a 20-year-old
grocery store manager, stood outside in the waiting room.
About seven months ago, when Teresa was 12,
Hernandez had sex with her and she became pregnant. Because of her age,
the law says that Hernandez committed statutory rape. But it was not the
police who came after him; it was Teresa's mother, Maria Juana Martinez.
"He could go to jail. If he doesn't carry
through on his promise to marry her, I'll have to report him," she said.
"I'll sue him if he fails her."
In most states marriage is a legal remedy
for statutory rape. Women's groups say if the penalties were harsher,
statutory rape cases would not be so common. As it is now, a man can
agree to a wedding to avoid going to jail, and then abandon the woman.
Social workers say many unhappy, abusive marriages begin with statutory
rape.
Any day, Antonia and Isabel, the two deaf
sisters, are due to deliver their babies at the same hospital. Antonia,
the 13-year-old, lives with her mother in a small house near the main
road of Reyeshogpan, a tiny village with little more than a church,
basketball court and general store. Antonia is carrying her baby in the
breach position, so her doctors expect a difficult delivery.
Isabel, 16, lives with her 95-year-old
grandfather in a small wooden house nearby. It is at the bottom of a
ravine lined with cornstalks, a challenging 30-minute climb straight
down from where her mother, stepfather and sister live. No one seems
quite sure how Isabel will be able to make the climb up to get to the
hospital once she is in labor.
Isabel passes her days sitting on a log at
her front door, staring off into the cornfields or embroidering. She
wears her silky brown hair neatly tied up, her white dress and apron are
impeccably clean and she folds her hands nervously over her huge belly.
The girls' mother, Ventura Melendez, 35,
communicates with them using rudimentary sign language and drawings.
When she asked Isabel if she had any pain, the girl put her arm against
her lower back. She nodded when asked if she is scared about being such
a young mother.
Melendez said she prefers not to dwell on
how they got pregnant. "What happened to them happens to a lot of
girls," she said. "We don't want justice. We don't want trouble."
But Diego Victor, the neighbor who has
known the girls since they were born, said she is angry that what
happened to the girls will never be punished.
"They deserve better," she said.
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LibertadLatina
News /
Noticias |
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Updated:
July 21, 2010
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Últimas Noticias
Latest News
California, USA
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Norma Lopez |
Body found in Moreno Valley near area where girl, 17, vanished
A partially decomposed body was found in a desolate, grassy field in Moreno Valley on Tuesday afternoon, just two miles from where a 17-year-old girl disappeared last week on her walk home from summer school.
Riverside County Sheriff's Department officials said they have not determined if the remains are those of Norma Lopez, who authorities believe was abducted Thursday, triggering a massive search throughout central Riverside County.
A local resident doing yard work found the body around 3 p.m. about a mile south of the 60 Freeway, just off Theodore Street, on the eastern outskirts of the city in an area surrounded by wheat fields, horse ranches and jagged hills. The remains, which have yet to be identified as male or female, were found in the tall grass and near a line of trees but were not otherwise concealed, said Sgt. Joe Borja, a Sheriff's Department spokesman.
"I know you're all interested in finding out whether this is Norma Lopez or not, and honestly we do not know," Borja told reporters gathered several hundred yards from the crime scene. "No matter which way it is, it's still a tragic event. There's someone out in the field who is dead." ...
Norma was reported missing about 12:30 p.m. Thursday by her older sister, Sonja, after she failed to return home from summer school. She was out of class at Valley View High School by 10 a.m. and had plans to meet her older sister and another friend, authorities said.
Investigators said they found some of Norma's belongings, and signs of a struggle, in a vacant field along Cottonwood Avenue. They are also looking for the driver and passengers of a newer-model green SUV seen near the dirt field at the time of her disappearance.
After the body was found, deputies roped off the area and waited for coroner's officials to arrive and examine the remains. FBI investigators, assisting the Sheriff's Department in the case, also went to the scene.
"It could take as short as one day to a week to determine who that person is," Borja said...
Authorities urged anyone with information about the case to call (877) 242-4345,
or
e-mail [the Riverside Sheriff's office].
Phil Willon
Los Angeles Times
July 21, 2010
Mexico
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Chamber of Deputies Special Commission to
Fight Human Trafficking president Deputy Rosi Orozco |
Piden penalizar pornografia en Internet
La presidenta de la Comision Especial contra la Trata de Personas en la Camara de Diputados, Rosi Orozco pidio penalizar el consumo, intercambio y almacenamiento de pornografia infantil por Internet.
Agrego que debido a los vacios legales aunado a la rapidez con que evolucionan las tecnologias de la informacion, este delito se ha incrementado de manera alarmante en el pais.
En entrevista, la legisladora del Partido Accion Nacional (PAN) senalo que la pornografia infantil es el tercer delito mas comun en Internet despues fraude y las amenazas.
Explico que Mexico ocupa el primer lugar en apertura de paginas web de pornografia infantil, y tiende a incrementarse mas de cinco por ciento la distribucion de videos de imagenes de abuso a recien nacidos.
Por ello, considero que se debe incorporar a las redes de telecomunicacion en las legislaciones y penalizar el consumo, almacenamiento e intercambio de pornografia infantil.
"Porque hoy estas lagunas facilitan que los pederastas y quienes comercian con ella escapen a la justicia", sostuvo.
Orozco comento que a traves de reformas al articulo 202 del Codigo Penal Federal, mismas que analiza la Comision de Justicia, se busca inhibir y evitar el almacenamiento, arrendamiento y compra de material que contenga pornografia infantil.
En ese contexto, subrayo la importancia de que se castigue con penas de siete a 12 anos de prision y de 800 a dos mil dias de multa, a quien para obtener un beneficio de cualquier indole o con animo de lucro o sin el, produzca, distribuya o venda material pornografico.
Rosi Orozco calls for increased penalties for Internet
Child Pornography
National Action Party (PAN) congressional deputy Rosi Orozco, who is the
president of the Special Commission to Fight Human Trafficking in the Chamber of
Deputies (lower house of Congress), has called for legislative action to
increase penalties for those who commit the crimes of consuming, exchanging and
selling child pornography via the Internet.
Deputy Orozco explained that, due to gaps in current legislation, caused in-part
by the pace of changes in information technology, these crimes have increased in
an alarming manner across Mexico. Orozco added that child porn related crimes
are the third largest category of criminal activity on the Internet after fraud
and threats.
Deputy Orozco noted that Mexico holds first place globally in the number of
accesses to child pornography web sites. [Authorities have also registered] a
recent 5% increase in the distribution of pornographic videos of recently born
babies.
Due to these conditions, Deputy Orozco has called upon Congress to pass
legislation that includes communications networks, and that controls the
consumption, exchange and sale of child pornography via the web.
Orozco: "Because of the gaps that continue to exist in our laws, pedophiles and
those who commercialize [child pornography] escape justice."
Deputy Orozco seeks to bring about changes to Article 202 of the Federal Penal
Code, which is currently being reviewed by the Commission on Justice in the
Chamber of Deputies. She added that the proposed legislation will seek criminal
penalties of 12 years in prison and 800 to 1,000 days of salary [typically
minimum wage salaray is used to define these types of fines], for anyone
associated with the production, distribution or sale of illicit pornography.
Notimex
July 01, 2010
New York, USA
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U.S.
Ambassador Luis CdeBaca (second from left) and other
presenters at UN / Brandeis conference |
Hidden in Plain Sight: The News Media's Role in Exposing Human Trafficking
The Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism at Brandeis University cosponsored a first-ever United Nations panel discussion about how the news media is exposing and explaining modern slavery and human trafficking -- and how to do it better. Below are the transcript and video from that conference, held at the United Nations headquarters in New York City on June 16 and co-sponsored by the United States Mission to the United Nations and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
Take a look as some leading media-makers and policymakers debate coverage of human trafficking. What hinders good reporting on human trafficking? What do journalists fear when they report on slaves and slavery? Why cover the subject in the first place? What are the common reporting mistakes and missteps that can do more harm than good to trafficking victims, and to government, NGO, and individual efforts to end the traffic of persons for others' profit and pleasure?
Among the main points: Panelists urged reporters and editors to avoid salacious details and splashy, "sexy" headlines that can prevent a more nuanced examination of trafficked persons' lives and experiences.
Journalists lamented the lack of solid data, noting that the available statistics are contradictory, unreliable, insufficient, and often skewed by ideology.
As an example, the two officials on the panel -- Ambassador Luis CdeBaca, head of the U.S. Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, and Under-Secretary-General Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime -- disagreed on the number of rescued trafficking victims. Costa thought the number was likely less than half CdeBaca's estimate (from the International Labour Organization) of 50,000 victims rescued worldwide...
Read the transcript
The Huffington Post
July 15, 2010
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Chuck Goolsby |
LibertadLatina
Note:
In response to the above article by the Huffington Post, on the topic of press
coverage of the issue of human trafficking, we would like to point out that the
LibertadLatina
project came into existence because of a lack of interest
and/or willingness on the part of many (but not all) reporters and editors in
the press, and also on the part of government agencies and academics, to
acknowledge and target the rampant sexual violence faced by Latina and
indigenous women and children across both Latin America and the Latin Diaspora
in the Untied States, Canada, and in other advanced economies such as those of
western Europe and Japan.
Ten years after starting
LibertadLatina,
more substantial press coverage is taking place. However, the crisis of ongoing
mass gender atrocities that plague Latin America, including human trafficking,
community based sexual violence, a gender hostile living environment and
government and social complicity (and especially in regard to the region's
completely ignored indigenous and African descended victims - who are especially
targeted for victimization), continue to be largely ignored or intentionally
untouched by the press, official government action, academic investigation and
NGO effort.
Therefore we persist in broadcasting the message that the crisis in Latin
America and its Diaspora cannot and will not be ignored.
End impunity now!
Chuck Goolsby
LibertadLatina
July 15, 2010
Maryland, USA
Montgomery County Man Sentenced to 37 Years in Prison in Sex Trafficking Conspiracy
Underage Girls Drugged and Threatened
Baltimore - U.S. District Judge Alexander Williams, Jr. sentenced Lloyd Mack Royal, III, a/k/a “Blyss,” “B,” and “Furious,” age 29, of Gaithersburg, Maryland, to 37 years in prison followed by 10 years supervised release for conspiracy to commit sex trafficking; sex trafficking of a minor; sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion; possession of a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence; conspiracy to distribute drugs; and distribution of drugs to persons under 21, related to a scheme to prostitute three minor females. Judge Williams also ordered that after his release from prison Royal must register as a sex offender where he lives, works, or goes to school. Royal was convicted at trial on March 25, 2010.
The sentence was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein; Assistant Attorney General Thomas E. Perez of the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division; Special Agent in Charge Richard A. McFeely of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; and Chief J. Thomas Manger of the Montgomery County Police Department.
“Maryland’s human trafficking task force follows a policy of zero tolerance for child prostitution,” said U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein. “Anyone who pays for or profits from sex with children should understand that we are standing by to send them to federal prison.”
“The defendant violently preyed upon some of the most vulnerable members of our society,” said Assistant Attorney General Perez. “He sought out troubled young girls and through physical violence, drugs, guns, and lies, coerced them into prostitution for his own benefit. The Department of Justice will continue to vigorously prosecute these cases.”
According to testimony at the two week trial, from April to May 2007 Royal and his co-conspirators coerced a minor girl to engage in sex for pay. In addition, witnesses testified that Royal: coerced two additional minors to engage in sex, for which he was paid; threatened to harm the girls and their families; struck the girls; and held one of the girls at gun point. In order to assert his authority over the girls, Royal would forbid them from contacting certain individuals and forced them to kiss his pinky ring. Royal drove the girls to hotels in Gaithersburg, Maryland, or caused them to be transported from Maryland to the District of Columbia, to have them engage in sex.
On several occasions, testimony showed that Royal gave the girls illegal drugs before forcing them to engage in sex with him in order to test the girls’ sexual aptitude. Royal and his co-defendants provided the girls with cocaine, “dippers” or “ciga-wets” (cigarettes dipped in phencyclidine liquid known as PCP), marijuana and alcohol before coercing them to engage in sex with customers, and sometimes sold cocaine to customers. Witnesses testified that Royal gave the girls instructions on pricing for different sexual acts and instructed the girls to lie about their ages.
Paul Raymond Green, a/k/a “PJ,” age 25, of Washington, D.C., and Angela Samantha Bentolila, age 27, were sentenced to 52 months and 15 months in prison, respectively, for their roles in the sex trafficking conspiracy.
The case was investigated by the Maryland Human Trafficking Task Force formed in 2007 to discover and rescue victims of human trafficking while identifying and prosecuting offenders. Members include federal, state, and local law enforcement, as well as victim service providers and local community members. For more information,
see the
Maryland Human Trafficking Task Force, web site.
United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein and Assistant Attorney General Thomas E. Perez commended former Assistant United States Attorney Solette A. Magnelli and Trial Attorney James Felte, of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit, who prosecuted the case.
United States Attorney's Office
District of Maryland
July 19, 2010
New Jersey, USA
Sentencing for N.J. man found guilty in human trafficking case is delayed
Newark - A judge has postponed the case of a Togolese citizen living in New Jersey who was due to be sentenced today for his role in the smuggling of girls and young women who were forced to work at hair braiding salons.
Geoffry Kouevi was found guilty in August of visa fraud.
U.S. District Judge Jose Linares says additional documents are needed to settle a dispute over how much prison time Kouevi should get.
Prosecutors say at least 20 people were brought from Togo using fraudulent visas and forced to work for no pay.
Lassissi Afolabi was sentenced in July to more than 24 years in prison after pleading guilty to conspiring with his ex-wife and her son to commit forced labor.
Afolabi's ex-wife faces sentencing in September. Her son received a 55-month prison term.
The Associated Press
July 20, 2010
California, USA, Mexico
Boy left behind with body of dead sister; family flees
Arrest warrants have been issued for a Southern California couple who may have fled to Mexico after abandoning their 4-year-old nephew with the battered body of his 3-year-old sister.
A relative found the 4-year-old boy sleeping in one room of a home in southwest Bakersfield; the body of his sister, identified as Serenity Julia Gandara, was found on the floor of another room, police said. The two children had been living with Alberto Garcia and Carla Torres Garcia, both 26, whom authorizes believe may have crossed the border into Mexico along with their own three children after Serenity's death.
Bakersfield Police Sgt. Mary DeGeare said arrest warrants were issued, charging the couple with murder and felony child abandonment. They also face federal charges for unlawful flight.
DeGeare said investigators believe the couple was already in Mexico when Torres called her sister to inform her of the death.
DeGeare said the two children exhibted signs of abuse.
"Both of these children had injuries, old and new," she said. "They had scars and marks in various stages of healing, including recent injuries."
The death and abandonment surprised neighbors, who described the couple as caring and preoccupied with the well-being of their children.
"I never saw any cruelty there to any of those children," neighbor Patty Clemons told ABCNews.com. "I feel it must have been an accident."
Police said Serenity had trauma to her head and torso, and that both she and her brother had injuries that were still healing. An autopsy was performed on Monday but the exact cause of death was pending. The boy, whose name was not released, was placed in foster care.
The children were apparently being adopted by the couple. Alberto Garcia did auto body work, which enabled him to stay home with the children and do repair jobs outside, according to neighbors. Carla Garcia cleaned homes.
"The guy was very nice and always very happy," said another neighbor, who asked not to be identified by name. "You wonder why this happened. They were very nice people."
Neighbors said Carla Garcia called her sister Sunday morning and asked her to come to the home in southwest Bakersfield. The sister found Serenity's body on the floor in one room while her brother slept in another room. The Garcias and their three young children – ages 4 to 10 – were gone. Maria Garcia, the maternal grandmother of the foster children, told television staton KGET in Bakersfield that she had warned a child protective services social worker about abuse in the Garcia household but nothing was done. "I told her many times something happened with these kids," Maria Garcia told the station.
The two children belonged to Alberto Garcia's sister, but he and Carla were in the process of adopting them, according to neighbors.
Clemons said she never witnessed the abuse although Serenity and her brother were rarely seen outside. "I never saw cruelty to any of those children," she said. "Now all these people are coming out of the woodwork saying these children were abused. I never saw it but I don't know what happened behind closed doors."
Clemons said the Garcia and Torres were pleasant neighbors who sometimes stopped by with plates of Mexican food. Alberto Garcia occasionally rode the younger children on a red wagon when he picked his children up from school. "They always made sure all the children got ice cream," Clemons said. "The children were always well dressed. She worked all day cleaning and then came home and always cooked for the family. I used to tell them you guys need some time for yourselves."
The FBI was assisting in the investigation. The family vehicle was described as a white Ford Eddie Bauer Expedition, license plate 5FLC681.
Ray Sanchez
ABC News
July 20, 2010
Texas, USA
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Steven Perez |
Man Accused Of Sexually Abusing Baby
Steven Perez, 24, was arrested in Galena Park Thursday on a charge of super sexual abuse of a child.
Investigators said the attack happened while the 1-year-old's mother was in the shower at a southeast Houston home in May.
A warrant for Perez's arrest was issued this week. Detectives said he was arrested at his new girlfriend's home.
KPRC
July 16, 2010
New Jersey, USA
Lakewood man pleads guilty to sexually abusing 8 girls
Toms River - A Lakewood man is facing up to 60 years in prison after admitting that he sexually abused eight children, between the ages of 4 and 9, said Ocean County Prosecutor Marlene Lynch Ford.
Cirilo Cholula Maranchel, 19, of Woehr Avenue pleaded guilty to six counts of aggravated sexual assault on six children, and two counts of sexual assault on two more children, Ford said.
The abuse took place between January and June of 2009, when the defendant was 17 and 18. Although Maranchel was a minor when he committed the offenses, he was prosecuted as an adult, Ford said in a prepared statement.
Maranchel entered his guilty plea Wednesday before Superior Court Judge Wendel E. Daniels.
The defendant admitted acts of sexual penetration — digital as well as sexual intercourse — with six of the victims, who were between the ages of 6 and 9, said Senior Assistant Ocean County Prosecutor Laura Pierro. He admitted molesting another child in front of yet another child who was 4, Pierro said.
All of the victims are girls who are known to the defendant, Ford said.
The abuse was revealed after one victim, age 6, came forward to her parents, who contacted Lakewood police on June 13, 2009, Ford said.
That girl told investigators she had witnessed other children being sexually assaulted by Maranchel, leading them to seven other victims, Pierro said.
Ford said the special victims unit of her office worked with Lakewood Detective Leroy Marshall and other Lakewood officers to identify the other victims and arrest Maranchel.
"The young victims of these crimes have been courageous in cooperating in this investigation," Ford said.
Ford said the arrest of Maranchel, an illegal immigrant, followed an intensive investigation and hunt for him.
"At the time of his arrest, it appeared the defendant was attempting to board public transportation and escape criminal responsibility for his actions," she said.
Maranchel faces a minimum of 20 years in prison and a maximum of 60 years when he is sentenced following an evaluation at the state Corrections Department's Adult Diagnostic and Treatment Center in Avenel, Ford said. He will be held at the Ocean County Jail until then, with his bail set at $2 million.
Maranchel will be deported to his native Mexico after he serves his prison term, the prosecutor said.
Kathleen Hopkins
APP.com
July 08, 2010
California, USA
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David Mosqueda |
Sun Valley man accused of raping 4-year-old girl
A Sun Valley man was arrested today on suspicion of sexually assaulting a 4-year-old California girl nearly a month ago.
David Mosqueda, 22, was booked about 4 p.m. into the Washoe County Jail on charges of sexual Assault of a child under the age of 16 and lewdness with a child under the age of 14 and held on $27,500 bail, Deputy Armando Avina said in a news release.
On June 21, deputies answering a domestic disturbance report found Mosqueda had locked himself in a bathroom with a knife and had self-inflicted injuries to his neck, wrist and stomach region. After an investigation, Mosqueda, a previously convicted sex offender, was taken into custody, Avina said.
RGJ
July 14, 2010
Massachusetts, USA
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Edilzar Mazariegos |
Illegal alien sought in rape of 4-year-old girl
Springfield Police Dept.Police in Springfield, MA, are looking for an illegal alien from Guatemala, who they say brutally raped a 4-year-old girl on Saturday.
Springfield Police Sgt. John M. Delaney told reporters the suspect, Edilzar Mazariegos is wanted on a charge of aggravated rape of a child with force.
The tiny victim, whose name is being withheld, was found by her mother, after returning from work, crying and bleeding. She rushed her daughter to Mercy Medical Center, but because of the “severe trauma” she suffered, she was transferred to Baystate Medical Center, where she remains in serious condition.
Another illegal alien, Angel Santizo, 20, who was babysitting the girl at time of the rape, has been charged with of permitting serious bodily injury on a child while being a caretaker.
Sgt. Delaney said: “He was the caretaker of this child while somebody else there raped her.”
Immigration and Customs Enforcement has placed a hold on Santizo, who is also from Guatemala.
Mazariegos (aka Edy Gonzales), is described as 5 feet, 3 inches tall with a stocky build. He is driving a blue Dodge Durango with two white racing stripes on the hood and roof, with a South Carolina license plate of FSX-544.
Mazariegos is employed as a farm worker in Connecticut. He is known to have ties in West Palm Beach, FL, as well as in Massachusetts.
Anyone with information on the whereabouts of Mazariegos is asked to call the police Special Victims Unit at (413) 787-6352.
Dave Gibson
The Examiner
July 06, 2010
Massachusetts, USA
Illegal alien charged with child rape
One man is under arrest, accused of raping his 4-year old family member. The little girl is now hospitalized at Baystate Medical Center with what police describe to be serious but non life-threatening injuries.
Detective Mike Chapin told 22News the victim was sexually assaulted at her home at 693 Carew Street sometime Saturday evening.
The girl's mother called police and arrested 19-year old Angel Santizo at the home without incident. Santizo is an illegal immigrant from Guatemala. He is being held and will be arraigned Tuesday.
U.S. Department of Immigration and Customs has been notified, since the suspect is an illegal alien.
Police are looking for a second suspect in connection with the crime.
Anthony DiLorenzo
WWLP
July 04, 2010
Texas, USA
Police: Illegal Immigrants Raped 14-Year-Old Texas Girl at July 4th Party
A pair of illegal immigrants raped a 14-year-old Texas girl at July 4th party in Texas, where the teen was later found sitting naked in a bathtub, police said.
The victim told police that she went to an Independence Day party with her cousin in Horseshoe Bay, Tex., about 40 miles northwest of Austin, where she was left in a room with Anibal Escobar, 19, and Anael Martinez, 22, MyFoxAustin reported.
The two Honduran natives, who told police they are in the U.S. illegally, made advances at the victim and then raped her, she told police. The victim’s cousin discovered her in the bathtub and brought her home.
Escobar and Martinez were arrested early in the morning on July 9 and face felony charges of aggravated sexual assault, MyFoxAustin reported. Local investigators contacted Texas Rangers to assist in their investigation and translate, as none of the witnesses at the party or the suspects spoke English.
Fox News
July 13, 2010
Nevada, USA
‘Beauty and the Beast’ sticker leads to arrest in sex assaults
A 27-year-old man who police say assaulted five women in his car in the past two months was arrested Tuesday night during a traffic stop in the western Las Vegas Valley. Police said a “Beauty and the Beast” sticker on his car that was described by the alleged victims helped them nab the man.
Antonio Farias was booked into the Clark County Detention Center in connection with two counts of attempted sexual assault and two counts of first-degree kidnapping tied to five sexual assaults, the first of which allegedly occurred May 9.
Police said Farias approached women at bus stops in the area of Flamingo Road and Arville Street. Some of the women got into his car voluntarily and others were threatened and forced inside, authorities said.
He appeared friendly to gain their trust and would drive them to different areas in western and northern parts of the valley to sexually assault them, police said.
Police Lt. Christopher Carroll said at a news conference Thursday that officers were able to link Farias to the assaults during a traffic stop at Valley View Boulevard and Viking Road on Tuesday night. He said officers stopped the vehicle and noticed a “Beauty and the Beast” Disney sticker on the car's dashboard, which some of the alleged sexual assault victims had described.
Carroll said Farias also matched descriptions given by victims. He said Farias is currently facing charges in four cases, but additional charges are possible.
“In our discussions with him, we’re more confident that other people are out there,” Carroll said...
Tiffany Gibson
The La Vegas Sun
July 15, 2010
Argentina
Cardinal Bergoglio denounces sexual slavery
“This city is too much,” said the Cardinal Primate of Argentina, Archbishop Jorge Bergoglio of Buenos Aires, who denounced the South American republic’s capital city as a “meat grinder that destroys the lives of these people and breaks their dignity.”
Moreover, said the prelate during a Sunday July 11 homily in the Constitucion neighborhood of Buenos Aires, there are “mafias” that have turned the city into a “slave workshop” dedicated to “human trafficking.” He reflected on the mafias as criminal organizations that “corrupt and destroy, including with drugs, and later throw people to the side of the road.” The mafias control “dens of slavery” that operate openly, having bribed the police and other authorities in one of the largest cities of the Americas.
“Please,” said the clergyman to his listeners, “let us not wash our hands, since otherwise we become accomplices in slavery!”
In May 2010, Nancy Miño, a Paraguayan woman who worked with Argentina’s Federal Police corps, provided testimony that the police in charge of controlling human trafficking and vice were receiving payoffs from the owners of brothels. Prostitution is legal in Argentina, for the most part. However, pimping and the profiting from prostitution is illegal and ostensibly controlled. For its part, the Federal Police has denied Miño’s claims and says that she is currently on medical leave for the treatment of a mental disorder.
Martin Barillas is a former U.S .diplomat, who also worked as a democracy advocate and election observer in Latin America.
Martin Barillas
Spero News
July 13, 2010
Peru
Niega Perú justicia a mujeres víctimas de esterilización forzada
Recibe CIDH demanda de 2 casos emblemáticos en gobierno de Fujimori
La Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos (CIDH), recibió una demanda contra el Estado peruano, interpuesta por la negación del acceso a la justicia para mujeres víctimas de esterilizaciones forzadas, durante el gobierno de Alberto Fujimori.
La organización feminista “Estudio para la Defensa y los Derechos de la Mujer” (Demus), informó en un comunicado que el 11 de junio pasado, presentó la demanda ante la CIDH, con dos casos de esterilización forzada, calificados como emblemáticos, porque revelan lo ocurrido a más de 200 mil peruanas, en su mayoría pobres de zonas rurales y urbano marginales en los años 90.
Información proporcionada a Cimacnoticias por Mariela Jara, integrante de la organización peruana, precisó que lejos de que el gobierno hiciera justicia y reparara los daños ocasionados a las mujeres, dejó impune el delito, que se considera de lesa humanidad.
Una investigación presentada en 2002, por organizaciones defensoras de los derechos humanos de las mujeres en el país revela que entre 1996 y 2000, se realizaron 215 mil 227 ligaduras de trompas y 16 mil vasectomías.
Diana Portal, abogada del caso señaló que acudieron al sistema regional de protección de derechos humanos, ya que ante la instancia nacional, se agotaron los recursos para obtener justicia.
“Es fundamental que el Estado peruano reconozca su responsabilidad internacional, al haber violado de manera sistemática y generalizada los derechos reproductivos de miles de mujeres peruanas, que termine la impunidad, y que las víctimas reciban una reparación integral por los daños irreversibles sufridos”.
Los casos presentados ante la CIDH son el de una mujer que murió en julio de 1997, a consecuencia de la operación realizada en el hospital de Piura, a donde llegó tras el incesante acoso del personal de salud.
Así como el de una mujer migrante andina quechuahablante de la zona periférica del distrito La Molina, que fue convencida de practicarse una ligadura de trompas a la que finalmente se negó al observar el abundante sangrado en otra paciente. Fue entonces llevada a la fuerza a la sala de operaciones del hospital Hipólito Unanue y amarrada para proceder con la intervención...
Peru denies justice to [hundreds of thousands of
indigenous] victims of forced sterilization
The Inter American Human Rights Commission has received two cases that are
emblematic of the abuses faced by women under the rule of former president
Alberto Fujimori...
Gladis Torres Ruiz
CIMAC Women's News Agency
July 16, 2010
Mexico
Urge ombudsman para combatir trata
El presidente de la Comisión Nacional de los Derechos Humanos, Raúl Plascencia Villanueva, llamó a todos los sectores sociales y a los tres niveles de gobierno a conjuntar esfuerzos para combatir y castigar la trata de personas.
El ombudsman nacional denunció que la falta de armonización legislativa en el sistema jurídico mexicano amplía la brecha de impunidad y dificulta la acción coordinada de las autoridades encargadas de la seguridad pública y la procuración de justicia.
Otro obstáculo para combatir ese flagelo, que alcanza proporciones alarmantes en algunas partes del país, es la carencia de instrumentos y políticas públicas para dar protección y asistencia adecuada a las víctimas.
Ello debido a que la reparación del daño a que tienen derecho las personas afectadas no llega, porque no resulta fácil denunciar al tratante, ni luchar contra las inercias legales, dijo.
De acuerdo con un comunicado del organismo, Plascencia Villanueva destacó, durante la instalación del Comité Regional contra la Trata de Personas Zona Occidente (Colima, Jalisco y Nayarit), que la erradicación de ese delito plantea muchos retos y sólo en un marco de colaboración se podrá avanzar en el tema...
Human Rights Ombudsman Calls for More Effective
Legislation to Combat Human Trafficking
Raúl Plascencia Villanueva, president of Mexico's National Human Rights
Commission, has called upon all sectors of society and government to join forces
to improve the nation's efforts to fight human trafficking. Plascencia
Villanueva denounced the lack of synchronization between various state laws,
stating that the lack of a homogenous legal framework nationwide is leaving the
door open for impunity, buy, for example, making the coordination of interstate
law enforcement efforts exceedingly difficult [states jurisdiction predominates
over federal law in the case of the current national anti-trafficking law].
An additional obstacle to effective efforts to halt human slavery, which is
reaching alarming proportions, is the lack of adequate services provided to
victims...
Notimex / El Universal
July 14, 2010
Massachusetts, USA
Springfield police search for suspected rapist of 4-year-old girl
Springfield – Investigators continue to search for a man suspected of raping and assaulting a 4-year-old girl on Saturday.
Although detectives with Special Crimes Unit initially charged Angel Santizo, 20, of 693 Carew St., with the rape, they now believe that a second man was responsible, Sgt. John M. Delaney said.
“He was the caretaker of this child while somebody else there raped her,” Sgt. John M. Delaney said of Santizo. “We are looking for the guy that did.”
Santizo’s charges have been amended to permitting serious bodily injury on a child while being a caretaker, Delaney, aide to Police Commissioner William J. Fitchet, said.
The U.S. Department of Immigration and Customs has also put a detention order on Santizo, who is from Guatemala, police said.
Delaney said the girl, who required surgery, remains at Baystate Medical Center.
Police have to release any information regarding the second suspect.
George Graham
The Republican
July 06, 2010
Texas & Arizona, USA
Man Wanted In Child Rape In Juarez Arrested In Phoenix
El paso, Texas - Detectives say a man wanted for the rape of a child has been deported to Mexico after being arrested in Phoenix, according to ABC-15 in Phoenix.
Miguel Manuel Hernandez-Beltran, 29, was arrested in Phoenix last month and deported to Mexico on June 28. He allegedly molested his 7-year old nephew approximately fifteen times in 2005 in Juarez, according to the US Marshals Office.
Shortly after law Mexican law enforcement became aware of the alleged molestation, authorities believe Hernandez-Beltran entered the United States illegally near El Paso and eventually traveled to Phoenix.
"Persons wanted for crimes in Mexico cannot find a safe haven in the United States," United States Marshal David Gonzales said in the ABC-15 report. "The United States Marshals Service places a high priority on arresting those accused of sex crimes, particularly cases involving children. By two federal agencies working together, an accused child predator was arrested which now allows him to face justice."
KVIA
July 9, 2010
Ohio, USA
Man accused in rape of young girl indicted
Lebanon - A Texas man in jail with a $1 million bond was indicted on rape charges.
The Warren County grand jury on Friday, July 2, returned indictments for rape, attempted rape and abduction against Armando Bautista Hernandez, 27, of Houston, Texas.
Hernandez is accused of raping a 16-year-old female at the Red Roof Inn in Deerfield Twp. on June 4.
The prosecutor’s office also asked the grand jurors to consider kidnapping charges, but they returned a “no bill” verdict, meaning they didn’t think there was sufficient evidence to prove the charge. Kidnapping is a first-degree felony, abduction is a third-degree felony.
Hernandez’s attorney Tim McKenna asked for a lower bond, saying the high bond would be appropriate if he stood charged with a special felony or murder. He said his client has a family back in Texas and he was here working on a water tower project.
If found guilty on all charges, Hernandez faces 46 years in prison. Because there is an Immigration and Customs Enforcement holder on Hernandez, Assistant Prosecutor Matt Nolan said it is likely he would be deported following legal proceedings or if he is convicted and serves time in prison..
Denise G. Callahan
The Dayton Daily News
July 06, 2010
Europe, Latin America, Africa
United Nations: Human traffickers make $3 billion a year in Europe
Mardrid, Spain -Traffickers who subject women and children to prostitution and forced labor are engaged in one of Europe's most lucrative crimes — a euro2.5 billion a year, modern-day slave trade whose victims are growing by 50 percent annually, a United Nations agency said Tuesday.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime estimated that more than 140,000 people are currently controlled by organized gangs. Many victims are tricked into leaving lives of poverty in eastern Europe, Africa and Latin America with bogus promises of work.
"Europeans believe that slavery was abolished centuries ago. But look around — slaves are in our midst," UNODC executive director Antonio Maria Costa said in a statement accompanying the report.
Costa said one big problem is that governments in industrialized countries have only recently passed tougher laws to crack down on trafficking in people.
"It is a very recent recognition of a very old problem," Costa said later to the Associated Press, adding that arrests and convictions of traffickers are rare. "I could count them on one hand."
Worldwide, his agency estimated several million people have fallen victim to traffickers.
American actress Mira Sorvino, who serves as a goodwill ambassador for the UN agency, said she met in Madrid with women who have been rescued from trafficking gangs in Spain and their stories were heartbreaking.
One Romanian woman was beaten so badly while being smuggled to Spain that her ribs were broken. Despite the injury, she still had to service clients in a roadside brothel while she recovered, Sorvino said.
Another woman, from Nigeria, was fooled into traveling to Spain with a promise of work so she could support her daughter back home. After traveling to Spain in the cargo hold of a ship, and seeing several travel mates die along the way, the woman learned there was no work waiting for her. She ended up as a prostitute and was told she had a euro50,000 debt to pay off.
People back in Nigeria who had promised to care for her daughter instead had a chilling new message.
"If you do not pay, we will kill your daughter," Sorvino quoted the woman as recalling.
And when the woman called home periodically to speak to her daughter, traffickers would beat the little girl while the mother listened. As the Nigerian told her story, Sorvino said, "she cried a little. I cried a lot."
The UN report said that 51 percent of victims in Europe come from the Balkan countries or the former Soviet Union, with another 13 percent coming from Latin America, 7 percent from Central Europe and 5 percent from Africa.
Damiel Woolls
The Associated Press
June 30, 2010
Massachusetts, USA
Accused Serial Child Rapist Behind Bars
Accused Rapist May Have Attacked Dozens Of Kids
The I-TEAM has discovered that a man sitting in the Worcester County Jail may be one of the worst child rapists in the state.
Chief Correspondent Joe Shortsleeve has been digging and he says it's a shocking case shrouded in mystery.
His name is Juan Nazario. The 33-year-old Leominster man was arraigned in Leominster District Court last month on two counts of child rape. But it's what police found inside his apartment on Pleasant Place in downtown Leominster that now has investigators county-wide very concerned.
More victims may be out there
Court documents obtained by the I-TEAM indicate Nazario recorded his "assaults via a video camera" and that photographic evidence along with a detailed personal diary clearly indicates there were far more than two victims.
In fact, sources tell the I-TEAM that the Worcester County District Attorney's Office now believes perhaps dozens of children were raped by Juan Nazario over the past 15 years.
As many as 20 investigators are now working this shocking case. District Attorney Joe Early spoke exclusively to the I-TEAM and was asked by Shortsleeve if there were multiple victims.
"It may bring us there. Yes. I am not at liberty to say how many victims there are, but I can tell you we have got a lot of people working on this right now, and we want to get it right," Early said.
WBZ
July 23, 2009
Virginia, USA
Marine Charged in Second Arlington Attack
Arlington County police have charged a Marine in connection with the abduction and rape of a woman who was left badly injured in Prince William County on February 27.
Jorge 'George' Torrez, 21, had previously been charged in connection with a similar attack on Feb. 10.
In the Feb. 27 incident, two women walking in the Ballston area where abducted at gunpoint. One victim was taken to Prince William County where she was attacked.
Torrez was indicted on 14 charges regarding this incident, including abduction with intent to defile, rape, forcible sodomy, robbery, and six counts of the use of a firearm in the commission of a felony.
Torrez remains in custody at the Arlington County Detention Center. The trial for this case is currently set to begin on July 26, 2010.
Markham Evans
WJLA
June 25, 2010
Wisconsin, USA
New London Man Arrested for Alleged Sexual Assault
Police in Menasha arrest a 23-year-old New London man for allegedly having sex with a 13-year-old girl.
Authorities say it happened Tuesday morning inside a vehicle parked on Coldspring Road at Schlidt Park. A detective with the Town of Menasha Police Department was making rounds at the park when he noticed a van parked in the rear parking lot.
The detective went up to the vehicle and noticed 2 people engaged in a sexual act in the backseat. After making contact, the detective identified the 2 occupants as Jose Muniz and a 13-year-old female.
Police indicate the suspect and the teen met on a social networking site and had been seeing each other for several months. Muniz is currently in the Winnebago County Jail facing a felony charge of second-degree sexual assault of a child.
WTAQ
June 24, 2010
New Jersey, USA
Hunterdon police search for man who physically assaulted jogger in N.J. park
West Amwell Township - An unknown man assaulted a Lambertville woman as she jogged along the Delaware and Raritan Canal State Park towpath, but the victim was able to fend off her attacker, authorities said.
The 47-year-old was treated and released from an area hospital following the attack that occurred between 8 and 8:15 p.m. Thursday, said Dan Hurley, chief of detectives and spokesman for the Hunterdon County Prosecutor’s Office. "Her actions in defending herself were heroic and may have saved her life and prevented additional crimes from occurring to her," he said today.
The woman was jogging along the West Amwell Township portion of the towpath when the man dragged her into a wooded area. No weapon was used, but the victim suffered numerous injuries, Hurley said.
The attacker is described as a Hispanic male, between 5-feet, 6-inches, and 5-feet, 8-inches tall and between 140 and 160 pounds. He was 20 to 30 years old, had olive skin and brown, flat-top style hair and was wearing a dark polo shirt, Hurley said. It is believed the suspect was sitting on a bench as the victim passed. He fled the scene by running south along the towpath...
Jennifer Golson
The Star-Ledger
July 02, 2010
Texas, USA
Texas Supreme Court: Kids in Prostitution Are Victims, Not Criminals
The case of a 13-year-old girl who was prosecuted for prostitution (while her 32-year-old pimp got away) in Texas was decided by the Texas supreme court this week. And they've said categorically that children in the commercial sex industry aren't criminals, they're victims of child sex trafficking. This decision is significant not only for the children of Texas, but for kids around the country as more and more states may begin to see child prostitution for what it is: a crime against children.
On the one hand, declaring that children in prostitution are victims as opposed to criminals sounds like a no-brainer. Every state has an age of sexual consent that prohibits children of a certain age from consenting to sex. Why should the fact that a financial transaction is involved suddenly make children and young teens able to consent to sex? But Texas, like almost all states, never provided an age limit on the crime of prostitution. So it was legally possible for a 13-year-old to be a victim of the crime of statutory rape, but a perpetrator of the crime of prostitution -- both for the same act!
The Texas Supreme Court decision is poised to change that -- not just in Texas, but across the country. The ruling sets an important precedent by stating that children in the commercial sex industry are victims of a crime and should be treated as such. Will other states take this ruling and use it in their own cases, aiming to protect children from sexual exploitation? Will this lead a new movement to decriminalize minors in prostitution while placing the onus for their abuse on their pimps and the men who buy them? Only time will tell.
If this does mark the beginning of a new trend, then one thing is abundantly clear: we need some place to put these girls. One of the major reasons the Texas 13-year-old was prosecuted in the first place was the D.A. argued that jail was safer than the streets, and in juvenile detention she'd have access to social services she couldn't get elsewhere. And the sad thing is in many areas, the only safe place off the streets is juvenile detention. But locking up victims (aside from being wrong) can traumatize them even more. So if we as a country follow Texas's lead and say teens in prostitution are victims, then we need to build them shelters and safe houses, not jails...
Amanda Kloer
Change.org
June 24, 2010
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Texas, USA
Loophole closed for illegal immigrants accused of serious crimes
They are accused child rapists, drug dealers and thieves. And because of major reforms in the justice system
- spurred by a News 8 investigation - those people now face prosecution.
As recently as November, because of a loophole in the law, many would have simply been set free without ever going to trial.
Until it was fixed, the loophole allowed for the deportation of accused criminals
- and a breakdown in the justice system.
We introduced you to "Sylvia" back in November. While she is an American citizen, her husband, Jose Salvador Tinajero, is Mexican.
He had just been deported instead of prosecuted for molesting her two children.
"There is no justice," Sylvia said last year, "especially for my girls, my family. There is none."
Today, she is simply overwhelmed at the progress that's been made.
News 8 first broke the story that more than 1,000 illegal immigrants who were charged with serious crimes like murder had been deported before their cases ever went to trial.
Many were bused back to Mexico and simply set free across the border.
In November, we spoke to Sgt. Ernesto Fierro, an investigator for the Dallas County District Attorney's office. At the time, little was being done to fix the problem, and Fierro said he was "furious" about it.
Buena Valentin is a Mexican citizen charged with raping his girlfriend's seven-year-old daughter. After the attack on the girl
- and her sister - they immediately ran to church for help.
"She looked really bad. Very bad," said Eleuterio Cabrera of Templo de Dios. "She was crying. The girls were very, very, very bad. It was horrible."
What was the problem?
After an arrest, the district attorney's office was usually not notified until a case had been in the system for several weeks. In that gap of time, the accused paid his bond.
Then - because the suspect was in the U.S. illegally - he was turned over to ICE, Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The job of that agency is to deport, regardless of pending charges.
Now, however, because of News 8 reports, those holes in the system are all plugged, and Sgt. Ernesto Fierro has a new, full-time assignment: Keeping people like Buena Valentin in jail.
"I feel great; I feel really good," Fierro said. "I feel like I've really done something here."
And the 90 crime suspects in Fierro's book will remain incarcerated in the Dallas County jail until their cases are settled.
"Many of them would've been on the bus back to their home country," Fierro said, without the changes to the system.
Two big fixes are:
* A mandatory $100,000 bond for anyone who is a flight risk due to possible deportation. In some cases, that's a 20-fold increase.
* Improved communication and cooperation between Dallas County and ICE.
"I appreciate you guys highlighting," said Nuria Prendes, the top ICE agent in Dallas. "If we're not made aware of things, there's no way we can fix them." ...
Federal officials say one in four felony defendants are in the U.S. illegally. News 8 has attempted to find out how many are deported before trial, but no government agency tracks the issue, and privacy rules have impeded our efforts to learn more.
Still, there is strong evidence the loophole does exists nationwide. We found cases in Florida, Massachusetts and New York...
Davis Schechter
WFAA
June 23, 2010
See also:
Texas, USA
Hundreds in Dallas County
Deported Before Their Trials
Hundreds of defendants awaiting trial for violent
crimes in Dallas County have been deported by
federal immigration officials and then set free in
their home countries.
The practice goes back to at least 1991 and includes
the release of murder, kidnapping and child rape
suspects. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
officials say they're required to deport illegal
immigrants quickly but are now in talks with local
agencies who are trying to resolve the problem...
One survey of prosecutors shows that since 1991 in
Dallas County, nearly 1,000 illegal immigrants have
not stood trial after being accused of felonies.
That number also counts cases in which a wanted
person fled before being arrested, but does not
include all Dallas County cases - just ones that
prosecutors judged to be of the highest priority.
Those who post bail and agree to then be sent home
are taking advantage of the system to escape
justice, said Terri Moore, top assistant to District
Attorney Craig Watkins...
Officials from the DA's office, the Dallas County
Sheriff's Department and ICE met this week to
discuss the problem. No quick fixes were found, but
they plan to meet again, officials said...
The agency's policies led to
the deportation of one defendant, Jose Rico, who
returned to Mexico before he could stand trial in
the rape of two girls in separate incidents. DNA
connected him to both sexual assaults, court records
show.
Both girls, ages 12 and 14,
were bound with clear duct tape. The attacker told
one of the girls: "I have a gun. I will kill you."
Rico, 34, posted his $125,000
bond and was deported in August...
In Dallas County, judges this week took a step
toward decreasing the chances that someone in the
country illegally will post bond and be deported
before trial. Judges began setting the bail at
$100,000 per charge if a defendant is in the country
illegally.
Under the new system, the bail for Rico, the child
rape suspect, probably would have been $200,000...
Jennifer Emily
Dallas News
Nov. 14, 2009
See also:
Dallas Police Identify Suspect
in 2 Child Rapes
Dallas police today released the identity of the man
believed to be responsible for raping two children
in northeast Dallas.
He
was identified as Jose Rico, 33, an illegal
immigrant, police said.
Rico
was being held in the Dallas County jail on charges
of aggravated sexual assault and burglary of a
habitation.
He
is also under an immigration hold...
In
both assaults, the victims -- girls between 12 and
14 -- were home alone when a man entered through an
unlocked doors. Both girls were bound before they
were raped.
[During] the
Oct. 16 assault the attacker... entered the home
while the girl and an 11-month-old baby were alone.
The
man confronted the girl as she was coming out of a
bathroom, pushed her back in and turned off the
lights. He threatened to hurt the baby if she
screamed.
[During] the
Jan. 30 attack... a man with a similar description
bound and raped a girl while she was home alone.
Dan X. McGraw
The Dallas Morning News
March 26, 2009 |
Connecticut, USA
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 |
|
Kimberly Revolorio and Celetino Aguilar |
New Haven Police Ask For Help Finding Missing Teen
Police are asking for the public's help locating a missing 15-year-old girl.
Kimberly Revolorio was last seen on May 29 at 903 Congress Ave.
Police said they believe she left willingly and may be with Celetino Aguilar, 35.
Revolorio is described as a 5-foot-tall, 103-pound Hispanic female with long black hair and a light brown complexion, police said.
Aguilar is a 6-foot-tall, 175-pound Hispanic male with short black hair. He may be clean shaven but is known to have a mustache and goatee, police said.
Anyone with information on their whereabouts is asked to call the New Haven Police Department at 203-946-6316 or the Special Investigations Unit at 203-946-6290.
Julie Stagis
The Hartford Courant
June 24, 2010
New Jersey, USA
Pennsylvania halfway house escapee is caught in Newark, charged with sex assault
A man who escaped from a Pennsylvania Department of Corrections halfway house and was captured Wednesday in Newark has been charged with raping a 12-year-old child while he was on the loose.
Daniel Rosario, 33, was captured by the U.S. Marshals Service in Newark.
U.S. Marshal Michael Regan says Rosario failed to return March 25 to a halfway house in Scranton where he had been serving time on burglary charges. Authorities allege that Rosario raped a child in Dickson City earlier this month.
U.S. Marshals caught up with Rosario at an apartment building in Newark. Regan says Rosario fled on foot and scaled a razor-wire fence before being captured...
The Associated Press
June 24, 2010
The World, Latin America
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 |
|
Latin America in the global crime big
picture
* Latin America exports $38 billion
annually in cocaine to the U.S., while exporting $34
billion to Europe
* The region generates $6.6 billion
by smuggling 3 million migrants annually into the
U.S. and Canada
Note that much of Latin America's
drug trade profits are used to finance human
trafficking operations.
By comparison, the world's second
largest organized criminal enterprise - heroin
trafficking from Afghanistan, generates $33 billion
in annual sales to Europe and Asia.
In other words, the impunity of human
trafficking is not ending any time soon in Latin
America. - LL |
UN warns of gangs’ global muscle
International crime networks now enjoy such an extensive reach that the gangs behind them must be regarded as a significant economic power, says a United Nations report.
In one of the most comprehensive analyses undertaken of transnational criminal activity, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime has calculated that the illicit trade in a range of commodities – including drugs, people, arms, fake goods and stolen natural resources – has an annual value of roughly $130
billion.
The report shows how transnational crime continues to be dominated by the trade in cocaine and heroin, a business whose product is worth about $105
billion
a year...
Cocaine trafficking from the Andean region to North America, a business with an annual value of $38
billion
at destination, is the biggest sector in the illegal narcotics trade. The export of cocaine from the Andean region to Europe is worth about $34
billion
a year.
However, the UNODC believes that the North American cocaine market is shrinking because of lower demand and greater law enforcement. It says this has generated a turf war among trafficking gangs, particularly in Mexico, and prompted them to forge new drug routes...
The second-biggest sector in international organized crime is people-trafficking.
The trade in women for sexual exploitation is now worth about $3
billion a year. Much of the trade involves trafficking people from Africa and the Balkans to other parts of Europe, where about 140,000 women are being manipulated by gangs at any one time.
The illegal smuggling of economic migrants is worth about $6.6
billion
a year to those who run the trade, according to the report.
The dominant illegal migrant flow is across the southern border of the US, with about
3 million Latin Americans illegally moving to North America each year. Flows from Africa to Europe are far smaller, with about 55,000 migrants smuggled into Europe in 2008...
James Blitz
The Financial Times Limited
June 17, 2010
See also:
"La delincuencia organizada se ha globalizado
convirtiéndose
en una amenaza para la seguridad"
En un nuevo informe de la UNODC se expone cómo, mediante la
violencia y los sobornos,
los mercados internacionales de la delincuencia han pasado a ser grandes centros
de poder
"Organized Crime Has Globalized and Turned
into a Security Threat"
A new UNODC report shows how, using violence and
bribes, international criminal markets have become major centres
of power
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)
June 17, 2010
Mexico
Delitos impunes, a pesar de que la CIDH pidió enviarlos a la vía civil
Suma justicia militar 5 casos de violación a mujeres indígenas
México, D.F. - Desde hace nueve años, la Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos (CIDH) recomendó al Estado mexicano que fuera la justicia civil quien investigara la violación sexual ejercida por militares en perjuicio de tres mujeres indígenas, no obstante, hoy dicha recomendación no se ha cumplido y a ella se han sumado dos casos similares en la jurisprudencia militar.
El 4 de abril de 2001, fue la primera vez que la CIDH exhortó al gobierno mexicano trasladar a la Procuraduría General de la República (PGR) un caso de violación sexual ejercida por soldados, esto con el objetivo de juzgar con mayor efectividad a los miembros de las fuerzas armadas que incurrieran en violaciones contra los derechos humanos.
Dicha recomendación del organismo internacional fue por el caso de Ana, Beatriz y Celia González Pérez (nombres ficticios), de tres indígenas tzeltales, que el 4 de junio de 1994 fueron detenidas en un retén militar, instalado tras el levantamiento del Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (EZLN) en Chiapas.
Cabe recordar que las hermanas González Pérez y su madre, Delia Pérez de González fueron interrogadas y privadas de su libertad durante dos horas. En tanto, las tres hermanas fueron golpeadas y violadas en reiteradas ocasiones por los militares. Después de lo ocurrido, el 30 de junio de 1994, las jóvenes agredidas -de 20, 18 y 16 años de edad- presentaron una denuncia ante el Ministerio Público Federal.
Sin Justicia Expedita
Sin embargo, el 2 de septiembre de 1994, el expediente de dicha denuncia fue trasladado a la Procuraduría General de Justicia Militar, quién dos años después, en febrero de 1996, decidió archivar el expediente con el argumento de: “la falta de comparecencia de las víctimas a declarar nuevamente y a someterse a pericias ginecológicas”.
Cabe mencionar que el 17 de septiembre de ese año, la defensa de las víctimas presentó un amparo para evitar que la justicia militar investigara el caso, pero éste fue negado.
Este hecho permitió que el caso permaneciera en la impunidad, ya que a decir de la defensa de las tres indígenas, era inaceptable la pretensión de que estas mujeres, que fueron torturadas por miembros de la institución castrense, se sintieran seguras declarando (por tercera vez) ante este organismo...
A pesar de estas declaraciones y de que han transcurrido 16 años, la investigación permanece en la justicia militar y en la impunidad.
Rapes of civilian indigenous women remain in impunity
despite the demands of the Inter-American Human Rights Commission that Mexico
move the cases to civilian courts
The case of the 1994 beatings and rapes of three Tzeltal Mayan indigenous
sisters, who were then ages 16, 18 and 20, and are known by their pseudonyms of Ana, Beatriz y Celia González Pérez, remains
in impunity 16 years after the fact. Mexican President Felipe Calderón's policies
have never allowed civilian jurisdiction in this case, nor in the cases of two other
indigenous rape victims, who have also faced impunity (and ongoing intimidation
for having sought to bring criminal complaints against soldiers).
Despite the fact that the Inter-American Human Rights Commission has, since
2001, called upon Mexico to allow its civilian criminal justice system to take
over cases involving soldiers attacking Mexican civilians, President Calderón
has ignored these pleas.
Anayeli García Martínez
CIMAC Noticias Women's News Agency
June 14, 2010
See also:
|
 |
|
CIMAC Noticias' collection
of over 300 news articles on the rape of (mostly
indigenous) women with impunity by soldiers in
Mexico
(in Spanish) |
Cuba
Cuba denounces US criticism on human trafficking
Havana - Cuba reacted angrily... to its inclusion on a U.S. list of countries that could be sanctioned for failing to fight human and child trafficking, calling it a "shameful slander" and part of Washington's efforts to justify its trade embargo.
Cuba is one of 13 countries put on notice... that they are not complying with the minimum international standards to eliminate the trade in human beings and sexual slavery, and could face U.S. penalties.
Compiled by President Barack Obama's administration, the list also includes Iran, North Korea, and Myanmar. Another 58 countries were placed on a "watch list" that could lead to sanctions unless their records improve.
Cuba was singled out for allegedly not doing enough to prevent the trafficking of children who work as prostitutes on the island, mostly serving foreign tourists. It also said some Cuban doctors have complained that the government leases out their services to foreign countries as a way of canceling Cuba's debt.
"Cuba categorically rejects these allegations as false and disrespectful," Josefina Vidal Ferreiro, director of the Cuban Foreign Ministry's North American affairs office, said in a statement sent to the foreign news media Tuesday.
She said the allegations are all the more offensive because the communist government has concentrated its limited resources on protecting women and the young, providing far more for the most vulnerable members of society than most nations in the region.
While Cubans receive low wages, the island offers free education through college, free health care and heavily subsidized housing and transportation. Crime rates and drug usage are extremely low in a country where the state maintains near total control.
"These shameful slanders profoundly hurt the Cuban people. In Cuba, there is no
sexual abuse against minors
[well, that certainly is an exaggeration -
LL],
but rather an exemplary effort to protect children, young people and women,"
Vidal Ferreiro said. She said Cuban laws "put us among the countries in the
region with the most advanced norms and mechanisms for the prevention of abuse."
...
The latest report notes that Cuban laws against trafficking appear stringent, but that the country has not provided enough evidence to show they are being enforced.
Interestingly, the report does not concentrate on Cubans seeking to emigrate to the United States, a diaspora
which has meant vast profits for traffickers, who can charge thousands of
dollars for illicit transportation to the U.S., often through Mexico...
Vidal Ferreiro said Cuba's inclusion on the trafficking list is political.
"It can only be explained by the desperate need that the U.S. government has to justify, under whatever pretext, the persistence of its cruel blockade, which has been overwhelmingly rejected by the international community."
Cuba was not the only country in the region to react strongly to the report.
Guyana, which received slightly better marks than Cuba, said the report hurts its friendship with the United States. The Dominican Republic is also included on the list
[and richly deserved to be there -
LL]. The country's official in charge of monitoring human trafficking, Frank Soto, called the list "a lie with no merit."
Paul haven
The Associated Press
June 15, 2010
Colorado, USA
Woman molested at 7-11 in Colorado Springs
Colorado Springs police are warning residents about a sexual assault that happened this weekend at the 7-11 store at 3306 E. Fountain Blvd.
A 17-year-old girl was standing with some friends while filling their car at about 4:40 p.m. Saturday when a large green van pulled up behind the car.
The victim said a Hispanic man, age 30-40, made some small talk with her and then molested her.
The man was described as 5-feet-7-inches tall, heavy and wearing black Dickies shorts and a gray or white tanktop shirt.
The van was large and had red "For Sale" signs on the side and the rear windows.
James Amos
KOAA
June 22, 2010
The World
|
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2010 report from
the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) |
UN: Organized crime spans planet, involves big economies - Summary
New York/Vienna - International mafias with their enormous power in money and weapons have sent and marketed illicit goods across and in all continents, affecting the world's biggest economies, the first UN report on transnational crime said Thursday.
Europe has become one of the destinations, with an estimated 140,000 victims of sexual exploitation generating gross annual income of 3 billion dollars to human traffickers, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime
(UNODC) said in the report The Globalization of Crime.
Major human trafficking routes flow from Africa to Europe and from Latin America to the United States.
"Worldwide there are millions of modern slaves traded at a price not higher in real terms than centuries ago," said UNODC executive director Antonia Maria Costa who presented the report in New York.
"Transnational crime has become a threat to peace and development, even to the sovereignty of nations," Costa said. "Criminals use weapons and violence, but also money and bribes to buy elections, politicians and power."
...
UNODC warned that transnational crime threatens to derail security especially in poor countries that already suffer from conflicts.
"Crime is fuelling corruption, infiltrating business and politics, and hindering development," Costa said.
He pointed to drug cartels that spread violence in Central America, the Caribbean and West Africa, as well as to cooperation between insurgents and criminals in Southeast Asia and Northern and Central Africa.
The UNODC said governments should try fighting criminal markets rather than crime syndicates, by stopping money laundering and informal transfer systems...
Two main routes for smuggling migrants are from Africa to Europe and from Latin American to the US. Up to 3 million migrants are smuggled from Latin America to the US every year, providing more than 6 billion dollars to smugglers.
The heroin market in North America has declined because of lower demand and more effective law enforcement. But it triggered a turf war among gangs, particularly in Mexico, for new drugs trafficking routes.
Afghanistan produces opium and Colombia coca, but the drug profits are made at their destination rich countries. Afghan heroin is sold for an estimated 55 billion dollars around the world, but Afghan farmers, traders and insurgents probably receive only about 2.3 billion dollars...
Earth Times
June 17, 2010
See also:
International criminal markets have become major centres
of power, UNODC report shows
The UN Office on Drugs and Crime
June 17, 2010
Guyana
The US human trafficking report is defective
US human trafficking policy is a product of religious leaders,
neo-conservatives, and abolitionist feminists. It was Michael Horowitz from the
Hudson Institute who set up a coalition of evangelicals to advocate for the
legislation that became the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA); the
legislation received approval from the US House of Representatives by a 371-1
vote, and by the US Senate by 95-0 vote, and was signed into law by President
Clinton on October 28, 2000.
The TVPA’s aims are to prevent human trafficking overseas, protecting the
victims of traffickers, and prosecuting traffickers. A singular dimension of
TVPA has to do with the US’s demands on overseas countries to enact preventive
measures against sex trafficking.
This TVPA as a matter of policy requires the State Department to
effect an annual assessment of other countries’ anti-trafficking efforts, and to
evaluate each country on the basis of its procedures undertaken to combat
trafficking. For this reason, the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in
Persons with the State Department executes its work through a mandate from
Congress to produce annual Trafficking in Persons (TIPS) reports that ranks each
country’s progress to end trafficking.
The US keeps awarding itself a Tier 1 status, meaning it is
making sufficient efforts to end trafficking; countries that do not do well in
US judgment are labeled Tier 2 or Tier 3.Tier 3 countries could receive
sanctions from the US.
If you look carefully, you will see that Tier 3 countries are
countries that may be more concerned about paying no mind to this US program,
rather than their efforts to end trafficking. Some recent Tier 3 countries are
Cuba, North Korea, Venezuela, Indonesia, India, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain,
Lebanon, Sudan, Qatar, Turkey, etc. These are countries not comfortable with US
imperialism, where Enloe (2000) argued that the US sets itself up as “a model to
be emulated” and [performs] the role of “global policeman.”
Trends in Organized Crime (2006) noted that the US State
Department’s justifications for its ranking awards to countries that do not
satisfy minimum standards to end human trafficking, are deficient, and the State
Department’s report is applied patchily to establish government-wide
anti-trafficking programs and projects.
Some of the minimum standards are subjective, and the report
fails to delineate how these standards were applied, reducing the report’s
integrity. For instance, country narratives for Tier 1 countries do not make
clear compliance with the second minimum standard pertaining to approved
penalties for sex-trafficking crimes.
The US itself has to address domestically the problem of about
200,000 children at risk for human trafficking each year, and it would serve
that country well to effect some house cleaning there, as that problem has begun
to fester. And instead of sitting in judgment over other countries’ issues on
trafficking, there may be better outcomes if all the affected countries worked
in unison to stamp out this evil trade.
Yours
faithfully,
Prem Misir
Letter to the editor
Stabroek News
June 17, 2010
Added: Jun. 22, 2010
Cuba,
The Americas
We present a continuing dialog on the
perennial inclusion of Cuba in the worst rating categories in
the annual U.S. Trafficking in Persons Report
Cuba,
The Americas
Added: Jun. 22, 2010
Response to the 2007 TIP Report
 |
|
Rosa Miriam Elizalde
|
Crime or Punishment in Cuba
Myths about the sex trade
[A Cuban activist's analysis in
response to the
2007
U.S. Trafficking in Persons report's
allegations of child sex trafficking in Cuba]
"...The... report... avoids to mention that
before the 1959 triumph of Revolution, Cuba had a population of
about 6 million and was known as the "North American brothel in
the Caribbean." Some 100,000 women worked either directly or
indirectly on prostitution due to poverty, discrimi-nation or the
absence of jobs. The Revolution educated them and offered them
employment."
In... the “2007 Trafficking in Persons Report," Cuba and
Venezuela head-up the U.S. State Department’s black list. The
annual verdict - it has been issued now since 2001 - repeats
practically the same arguments already used for seven years. It
reiterates that both women and children are "internally
trafficked" for sexual exploitation and that the country,
[is] an
important destination...
In the Cuban case, it is not in the social or the individual
levels where this myth “woman = prostitute” reveals itself more
clearly, but in the international news media. Cuba has lived the
unusual experience of a political manipulation of the drama of
prostitution that has become the center of an international
campaign presenting Cubans, all of them, as potential saleable
objects. “You will feel watched by hundreds of approachable
women,” starts an article in Man magazine...
By linking the reemergence of prostitution in Cuba with the
measures enacted to strengthen [the] economy they are actually trying
to demonstrate the unfeasibility of the Cuban social project.
...It [the existence of prostitution] is offered-up as
the highest evidence of the political disintegration of the
Cuban system, the return to a type of trade that had disappeared
in the initial decades of the Revolution. “This campaign intends
to present the increasing number of tourists in the country as a
wave of sex-starved males that will find their desires fulfilled
in an island plunged into poverty, with women selling their
bodies for their daily bread," as a Spanish journalist who
took part in a debate on the topic in the magazine Cambio 16
stated.
The attempt at [highlighting this part of the economy continues
to grow] thanks to the sex
market... There have even been those who have
rashly awarded Cuba the credential of “erotic imperialist” when
trying to explain the signs of economic recovery in a blockaded
country. In this type of analysis, of course, the image of Cuban
prostitutes is presented out of context. Since, as a rule, the
phenomenon is seen superficially and tendentious information is
offered, foreigners imagine that these prostitutes are not
essentially different from those who sell themselves in
bordellos and streets in their cities and that form part of a
highly organized and lucrative business, all this quite far from
Cuban reality.
"Whether directly or indirectly, what is being sold as an image
is the possibility of subduing the Cuban nation."
As a mathematical formula [that runs in an endless loop], the equation
“woman = prostitute = Cuba” has ended up as a new version of the
myth maintaining that all women are whores: it is the
stigmatized identity of a country and the tropical version of
the failure of socialism.
Whether directly or indirectly, what is
being sold as an image is the possibility of subduing the Cuban
nation. That “all women are approachable” does not only mean
that you can buy sexuality and power over another human being –
and, by extension, take control of a country for a period of
time established beforehand – but that you can avail yourself of
their intimacy, [that place] in human beings, no matter where
they are from, where the link with shame and taboo runs deep. ..
Rosa Miriam Elizalde
Translated by María Teresa Ortega
July 27, 2007
See also:
Cuba
Response to the 2010 TIP Report
Reconoce UNICEF ejemplo de Cuba en protección a la infancia
Es el cuento de nunca acabar. Autoridades estadounidenses ya no
saben de cuál gajo colgarse en su enfermizo empeño contra Cuba.
La mala nueva es ahora la aparición de la lsla entre los peores
países del globo en cuanto al tráfico de personas, según informe
elaborado por el Departamento de Estado en relación con el tema…
Paradojas: hace apenas cinco días, en La Habana, Juan José
Ortiz, representante del Fondo de Naciones Unidas para la
Infancia (UNICEF) ofreció declaraciones en las cuales resaltó:
"En el planeta, millones de menores sufren la falta de
escolarización y de vacunación contra enfermedades prevenibles,
además de ser víctimas de explotación laboral y sexual en las
redes internacionales de prostitución, ninguno es cubano"...
UNICEF recognizes Cuba as a leader in
childhood protection
The story never ends. U.S. authorities no longer know from which
hook to hang in the ongoing campaign against Cuba.
The newest story to come out is that Cuba appears as one of the
worst nations on earth in regard to human trafficking, according
the [2010 Trafficking in Persons report of the] U.S. Department
of State.
Cuba did not hesitate to respond. Josefina Vidal,
director for North America for the Cuban Chancellery responded
to the 2010 TIP report by declaring the allegations to be “false
and disrespectful.”
Paradoxically, five days ago, Juan Jose Ortiz, a representative
of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), made the
following statement: “Across the world, millions of minors
suffer from a lack of access to education and vaccines to
protect against preventable diseases, in addition to being
victims of international sexual and labor exploitation networks.
None of these children are Cuban."
During recent years Cuba has achieved important, positive
progress in regard to protecting children, a fact which has
transformed Cuba into the Latin American nation with the highest
quality of life for girls and boys.
An age-old saying in Cuba goes: “Tell me what you accuse me of,
and I will show you what you, yourself are lacking.” This fits
like a ring on a finger in the case of the allegations made
against Cuba.
The U.S. leads in statistics regarding all forms of trafficking,
immigration. Drug use, murders, mafias, wars, etcetera…
The [allegations of child trafficking made against Cuba] show
the blindness of certain authorities in the Obama
Administration. They have never visited Cuba, and they have
apparently never read UNICEF’s reports in regard to conditions
for children here.
Continuing with the statement of conditions in Cuba by UNICEF’s
Juan Jose Ortiz, he says: “quantitatively and qualitatively, we
can say that the
Convention on the Rights of the Child is applied very well
in Cuba."
In Ortiz’ opinion, this state of affairs has come about through
the collaboration between the Cuban Government and UNICEF,
making Cuba a shining example for children rights for the rest
of Latin America.
Everything is not perfect. Nothing exists in simple, black and
white tones. Shades of grey do exist. As one poet stated it:
“none of use live in a perfect society.” But to say that
children in Cuba are subjected to the degrading business of
human trafficking and child prostitution is a repugnant form of
political aggression.
Cuba is not a rich country, but it does not interfere in
the “persistent effort to guarantee protections for children,”
which is, according to UNICEF, a state of affairs made possible by
[the actions of] Cuba’s
government.”
Children in
Cuba may lack financial resources, but there is no lack of love
and good will to support them…
Marcos Alfonso
Radio Guantanamo
June 16, 2010
See also:
Added: Jun. 21, 2010
Cuba,
The Americas
LibertadLatina
Commentary
Response to the 2010 TIP Report
|
|
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Chuck Goolsby |
We do not take a position on the political situation in Cuba, beyond
acknowledging that Democracy must come, some day, to that island nation. In
addition, we are not communists, socialists or any other 'ist' that can be
negatively labeled.
As a musician specializing in, among other things, Afro-Cuban folkloric music
(Rumba) for the past 32 years, I have had many Cuban friends, of all ages, races and political
leanings. As one of Cuba's best African folklorist's, a man named Hector, told
me when he came to Washington, DC after the
1980 Mariel Boatlift exodus of
refugees: "The lack of political freedom in Cuba was terrible, but the fact
that all of your needs were met - education, food, housing and
healthcare - was a good thing."
In regard to the rights of children and human trafficking, we find that the
recent report from Cuba's
Radio Guantanamo (see the above article), and also UNICEF official
Juan Jose Ortiz's recent comments on Cuba's treatment of children, ring much closer to the truth than the
allegations contained in the 2010
U.S. State Department's assessment, which declares that Cuba deserves a "Tier 3" (the
lowest) rating for supposedly
refusing to address the issue of human trafficking.
Before the Cuban revolution in 1958, Cuba was literally the top sex
tourism destination for U.S. citizens in the Americas. After the revolution, prostitution was
banned and former prostitutes were given job training, an approach that would
have been considered unthinkable in any other Latin American nation at the time,
despite the continent-wide epidemic of prostitution that then plagued (and still
plagues) the region.
After the victory of Castro's forces in 1958, one of his first acts was to allow
Afro-Cubans to attend public beaches (a practice banned under the dictator
Batista). We note with horror that Mexican police had been known to clear
Acapulco's beaches of
Afro-Mexican children and adults - also with
the goal of 'pleasing' U.S. tourists, as recently as
a decade ago.
In
1975, I recall seeing a mainstream television news story about Fidel Castro
declaring that women would be given equal rights in Cuba.
At the time, this policy change caused enraged men to flock to Cuba's streets en-mass to protest.
Yet equality became official policy. By contrast, women did not even win the
right to vote in Mexico until 1953.
In 1991, a very high level official in the U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services (the director of an HHS region) had a very long conversation with me about the human rights of children in
Latin America. What this official said to me was that Cuba was the only nation in
Latin America that properly cared for all of its children. He added that hunger,
lack of access to medical care, lack of access to education and other maladies
that plague all other Latin American nations are non-existent in Cuba. This
official's assessment from 1991 is compatible with UNICEF's recent (2010)
comments on the positive, pro-children efforts that are clearly visible
throughout Cuba.
In addition, African descendents, who are 60% of Cuba's current population, are
given access to equal education and, even if poor, can look forward to attending
excellent medical schools if they qualify academically and so desire. You
will not find that state of affairs anywhere else in the Americas.
The
Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM) in Havana, has graduated more than
7,000 doctors from Latin America and nations around the world, often via
scholarships. One family friend, who's son's medical practice partner in Colombia is
Afro-Colombian, noted that Colombia's racist medical schools refuse to admit even ONE
Afro-Colombian student. This perfectly qualified physician therefore received
his training in Cuba.
In Cuba, the social drivers that create the conditions necessary to expose
children to mass human trafficking simply do not exist.
By contrast, millions of indigenous children in Mexico are forced to work for a
living while facing unspeakable racial hatred focused against them by the
nation's Spanish descendents. It is well documented that indigenous and African
descendant children in Mexico are forced to go to schools with dirt floors and
often without bathroom facilities (a public health factor that was widely
discussed in the context of the 2009 Swine Flu outbreak). Tens of thousands of
poor indigenous girls in the 12 to 14-years-of-age range must work, with no
access to schooling, as domestic servants for middle and upper class Mexican
households. Only a few of these children are actually paid, and many of them are
routinely raped with impunity by the homeowner and/or his sons.
In addition, some 3,000 to 4,000 indigenous children and youth
have been kidnapped with complete impunity by Japanese Yakuza mafias and their
accomplices in Mexico, and have been sent to Japan to be enslaved as Geisha prostitutes,
while neither Mexico nor Japan have ever lifted even one little finger to help these innocent victims
of serial rape until death.
Activists in Mexico admit that the federal government does little to stop human
trafficking, and police agents are complicit in a large number of trafficking crimes.
None of these critical human rights issues are visibly active on Mexico's national agenda, even
now that the United Nations Blue Heart Campaign against human trafficking has
begun a ground breaking effort to combat human slavery in that nation.
It has been a concern of ours for years that the U.S. State Department
Trafficking in Persons Report has
repeatedly rated Cuba as the worst location in the Americas for human
trafficking (which is a stretch, at best), while virtually ignoring the easily
demonstrable pandemic of mass enslavement of poor women and
children in Mexico, Argentina, the Dominican Republic and other major source
countries for victims.
Does prostitution and adult sex tourism exist in Cuba? Yes. Is Cuba's problem
with human trafficking anywhere near as bad as it is in Mexico? No. Not by a long
shot.
Cuba was always targeted for low ratings in the TIP report when President George
W. Bush was in office. It was understood by many that this was political payback.
If Cuba deserves a Tier 3 rating, then Mexico and Argentina deserve a Tier 4
rating (of course, tier 4 does not actually exist).
If Mexico is a gleaming example of a nation that is doing good work, and better
work than Cuba to stop child sex trafficking, then our nation's assessment techniques
are flawed and inaccurate, and are therefore in BIG trouble.
...Just keeping the discussion honest.
End impunity now!
Chuck Goolsby
LibertadLatina
June 21/22/23, 2010
See also:
UNICEF's background report on conditions
Cuba
See also:
Press response to the 2010 TIP Report
Ambassador CdeBaca on 10th Annual
Trafficking in Persons Report
CdeBaca answers questions on modern
slavery, sex and labor trafficking
Question [from a reporter]: Thank
you.
Ambassador CdeBaca: Yes.
Question: Yes. Back on the case of
Cuba, I’m wondering what actually is the justification for the -
I mean, I read a little bit, but it sounds - it seems like the
U.S. might be open to charges of political ranking. I’m just
trying to get why Cuba is on Tier 3.
Ambassador CdeBaca: Well, I think
that one of the things that we see for Cuba is that there is no
law against this practice. There’s some other laws that could be
cobbled together perhaps in order to prosecute a trafficker, but
there’s no evidence that that has actually been done. I think
one of the things that we also look at there is, again, the age
of legal prostitution. Again, children are – can legally be in
prostitution at ages 16 and 17.
[We note that the age of sexual consent in
Mexico continues to be age 12 in the majority of states, a fact
the fuels a massive child sex trafficking industry who's
regulation is not even hinted at by Mexico's government. Police
do not enforce any laws against 12-year-olds being involved in
prostitution in Mexico because these girls and boys are of legal
age to consent to sex.
Yet
that fact did not place Mexico in a Tier 3 ranking,
contradicting Ambassador CdeBaca's rationale for singling out
Cuba (where he states that 16 and 17-year-olds, who are of the
age of consent in Cuba, engage in prostitution).
Most Latin
American nations have ages of consent in the 12 to 15-years-of-age
range, and their prostitution 'industries' reflect that fact. -
LL]
Ambassador CdeBaca: We also see the lack of human trafficking protections and no
training for the police, prosecutors, or social workers on what
to do if one sees a human trafficking situation. So in a country
where not only do you have a – such a large tourist industry,
other countries in the region that draw tourists from the same
places as Cuba, have large child sex tourism problems, and are
working to address those, we don’t see the same activity in
Cuba. So it’s a multifaceted approach as far as why they would
end up on Tier 3.
U.S. Department of State
June 14, 2010
[We note that Latin American
and Caribbean nations other than Cuba, where child sex tourism is rampant,
have few if any of the extensive protections that are available in Cuba that guarantee
children shelter, food and a good education.
The result is that young
people in these other nations easily fall victim to sexual exploitation. Cuba
maintains a high level of support for children despite the fact that, as the UNICEF web page
on Cuba
notes, the U.S. trade embargo has had the effect of raising infant
mortality rates. -
LL]
Cuba
Another view of the Cuban reality
Havana Has The Air of a Brothel...
...Havana has the air of a brothel at times, particularly if you pass through Monte Street where it meets Cienfuegos. Young women in their flashy - if a little faded - clothes offer their "merchandise," especially after night falls and the spandex doesn't look quite as baggy nor the circles under their eyes quite as dark. These are the ones who can't compete with those who can snag a manager or a tourist to take them to a hotel and offer them, the next morning, a breakfast that comes with milk. These are the ones who don't wear perfume and who finish their work in the cramped quarters of a solar or even on the landing under the stairs. They traffic in groans, exchanging spasms for money.
These men and women - merchants of desire - avoid tripping over the uniformed police who guard the area. Falling into their hands can mean a night in a cell or, for those in the city illegally, deportation to your home province. Everything can be "resolved" if the officer accepts the hint of a probing thigh and agrees to withhold an official warning in exchange for a few minutes of privacy. Some officers return regularly to take their cut, in money or in services, that allows these nocturnal beings to continue taking up their positions on the corner. A woman who refuses the exchange can find herself in a prostitute reeducation camp, while the men might be charged with the crime of pre-criminal dangerousness.
And so the cycle of sex for money comes full circle, in a city where honest work is a museum relic and the needs bring many to position their bodies and swing their hips in hopes of an offer.
Yoani Sanchez - Award-Winning Cuban Blogger
The Huffington Post
April 26, 2010
See also:
Cuba
Response to the 2008 TIP Report
Cuba Rejects Its Inclusion on US List of Countries Not Fighting Human Trafficking
Cuba on Sunday rejected U.S. claims that it does not do enough to combat human trafficking, saying that Washington "has a lot to learn" about life on the island.
U.S. authorities "are unfamiliar with and distort" Cuban reality, the Foreign Relations Ministry said in a written response to the U.S. State Department's annual "Trafficking in Persons Report," released Wednesday. The report tracks human trafficking for the sex trade, coerced labor and the recruitment of child soldiers, outlining efforts to fight it, including prosecution, sentencing and programs to help victims.
Listing Cuba among the world's worst offenders, the report said poor women and
children on the island are often forced into prostitution by family members. But
it also noted that human trafficking cannot be properly measured in Cuba, given
the government's refusal to cooperate with independent observers. Cuba said it
maintains a "firm" policy against human trafficking and prostitution and noted
that its communist system provides for the basic needs of all citizens...
"Cuba does not see any value in the State Department's report," the Foreign Ministry's statement said. "The government of the United States has a lot to do in its own country to combat the rampant phenomenon there of prostitution, sexual exploitation, forced labor and the trafficking of people."
"The government of the United States has a lot to learn about Cuba and is not in a position to judge anyone," it said.
The International Herald Tribune
June 13, 2008
See also:
Cuba, The World
Sixty-second General Assembly - Thematic Debate on Human Trafficking
The representative of Cuba said that, since industrialized countries were the main destination for human trafficking, and their actions increased the demand for women and child sex workers, a credible United Nations anti-trafficking strategy should advance a more just international economic order that would put a stop to inequalities.
The United Nations General Assembly
June 03, 2008
See also:
Venezuela
Response to the 2006 TIP Report
Venezuela's Record in Combating Human Trafficking
Since 2000 the U.S. State Department has issued a yearly report on the status of trafficking in persons (TIP) throughout the world. In June 2006 the Office to Combat and Monitor the Trafficking of Persons, the State Department body responsible for studying TIP and issuing the report, characterized Venezuela as an egregious human trafficker and designated it a Tier 3 nation, subject to economic sanctions. The TIP Report claims that Venezuela “does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so.”[1] This ruling, for the second year in a row, sits in stark contrast to the facts surrounding Venezuela’s human trafficking record.
Is Venezuela's tier 3 designation politically motivated?
According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) many countries with many more human trafficking violations than Venezuela have been assigned Tier 1 or Tier 2 status while others with less serious records receive Tier 3. Michael Shifter of the Inter-American Dialogue notes in an opinion piece published in the New York Times that “in the State Department’s 2003 Human Trafficking report Venezuela did not even appear among the five worst offenders in the Western Hemisphere” and that “the Bush administration has not provided compelling and persuasive evidence that warrants singling out one country.”
Mexico serves as a case in point.
In the 2006 TIP Report Mexico is described in far worse terms than Venezuela and even noted as “a source, transit, and destination country for persons trafficked for sexual exploitation and labor.” In contrast to Venezuela’s record, the government of Mexico has repeatedly refused to gather official data on human trafficking within its borders and keeps no law enforcement statistics on trafficking investigations, arrests, prosecutions, or convictions. Even more disturbing, “there are no shelters or related services that specifically aid trafficking victims” in Mexico. Despite these dismal results, Mexico was assigned a Tier 2 designation for the third consecutive year. Washington justifies this designation in the Report by noting a “future commitment” from the Mexican government to undertake efforts in prosecution, protection, and prevention. Venezuela on the other hand has pro-actively addressed all of these areas.
In a statement regarding the State Department’s Human Rights Report issued in early 2005 the Deputy Director of the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) Kimberly Stanton noted “political considerations are evident in some of the findings… The credibility of the reports depends on consistent, objective analysis. This year the U.S. government policy priorities are affecting the evaluation of the data in some cases.”
VenInfo.org
2006
See Also:
The reality is that
Mexico fares much worse than Cuba or
Venezuela in regard to the treatment of its
self-created mega-crisis of child and adult trafficking
Mexico
Víctimas del tráfico
de personas, 5 millones de mujeres y niñas
en América Latina
De esa
cifra, más de 500 mil casos ocurren en
México, señalan especialistas.
Five million victims
of Human Trafficking Exist in Latin America
Saltillo, Coahuila state -
Teresa Ulloa Ziaurriz, the director of the
Coalition Against Trafficking in Women's
Latin American / Caribbean regional office,
announced this past Monday that more than
five million women and girls are currently
victims of human trafficking in Latin
America and the Caribbean.
During a forum on successful
treatment approaches for trafficking victims
held by the Women's Institute of Coahuila,
Ulloa Ziaurriz stated that
500,000 of these
cases exist in Mexico, where women and girls
are trafficked for sexual exploitation,
pornography and the illegal harvesting of
human organs...
Mexico is a country of
origin, transit and also destination for
trafficked persons. Of 500,000 victims in
Mexico, 87% are subjected to commercial
sexual exploitation.
Ulloa Ziaurriz pointed out
that locally in Coahuila state, the nation's
human trafficking problem shows up in the
form of child prostitution in cities such as
Ciudad Acuña as well as other population
centers along Mexico's border with the
United States.
- Notimex /
La Jornada Online
Mexico City
Dec. 12, 2007
See also:
Added March 23, 2008
Mexico
Un millón de menores
latinoamericanos atrapados por redes de prostitución
Former Special
Prosecutor for Violent Crimes Against
Women - Alicia Elena Perez Duarte:
|
At least one million children across Latin
America have been entrapped by child
prostitution and pornography networks.
[In many cases in Mexico] these child
victims are offered to businessmen
and politicians. |
Full story (in
English)
See also:
Added Oct. 28, 2007
Central America and Mexico
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 it
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 three 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
See also:
Mexico: Más de un
millón de menores se prostituyen en el
centro del país: especialista
Expert: More than one
million minors are sexually exploited in
Central Mexico
Tlaxcala city, in Tlaxcala
state - Around 1.5 million people in the
central region of Mexico are engaged in
prostitution, and some 75% of them are
between 12 and 13 years of age, reported
Teresa Ulloa, director of the Regional
Coalition Against Trafficking in Women and
Girls in Latin America and the Caribbean...
La Jornada de Oriente
Sep. 26, 200
[Note: The figure of 75% of 1.5 million
indicates that 1.1 million girls between the
ages of 12 and 13 at any given time engage
in prostitution in central Mexico alone. -
LL]
See also:
Blacks in Mexico: A
Forgotten Minority
...The [estimated one million] Afro-Mexicans
face considerable hurdles. ...The all-black
shantytowns near
Yanga [in
Veracruz state] lack schools, and eager
young migrants who move to bigger cities for
work complain of blatant discrimination.
A report released... by Mexico's Congress
said that roughly 200,000 black Mexicans who
reside in the rural areas of Veracruz and
Oaxaca and in tourist cities like Acapulco
are out of the reach of social programs like
employment support, health coverage, public
education and food assistance. ..
LibertadLatina
We truly appreciate the wonderful work of the
Office To Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons
(TIP) in the U.S. Department of
State, but it
is absolutely ridiculous to point the finger
at Cuba on the issue of child sex trafficking, when,
by comparison, Mexico's
'pampered' government has not even pretended to bring the
crisis of mass gender atrocities
affecting Mexican and migrant Central American children in its territory under the control
of the rule of law.
The TIP office cannot employ a double standard that
uses their annual report to advance geopolitical
goals that are not tied directly to the issue of
human trafficking.
The whole world is watching!
End impunity now!
Chuck Goolsby
LibertadLatina
June 22/23, 2010
|
North Carolina, USA
|
 |
|
Pedro Ventura Chavez |
Cary man charged with sexually abusing child
A [city of] Cary man has been accused of sexually abusing a 10-year-old girl, according an arrest warrant.
Pedro Ventura Chavez, 33, had been abusing the girl for over a year, sources told WRAL News.
Chavez, of 304 Middleton Ave., was charged Sunday with one count of felony taking indecent liberties with a child.
He was being held Sunday in the Wake County jail under a $150,000 bond. His first court appearance was set for Monday afternoon.
Chavez has also been placed under a retainer by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.
North Carolina Most Wanted
June 20, 2010
Delaware, USA
|
 |
|
Sketch of suspect |
Camera Captures Images of 9-Year-Old’s Rapist
Child rape suspect's Chevy Tahoe caught on surveillance camera
A surveillance camera captured images of what police believe to be the car of the man who abducted and raped a 9-year-old Alban Park, Del. girl June 9.
The 9-year-old girl accepted a ride from a stranger when she was accidentally locked out of her home. The man drove her to the 200-block of Liberty Street in Wilmington and raped her before she could get out of the car, police say.
The young girl was dropped off at her 500-block of Homestead Road address by a family friend. She walked into her building but when she was unable to get inside her door, she walked back outside to look for her sister and parents, police say.
While walking along Alban Drive near the Canby Park Shopping Center, a man described as an Asian or Hispanic male with short black hair, round eyes, “chubby cheeks” and a “chubby build” offered her a ride. After some conversation the child accepted the ride, police say.
The suspect’s SUV is a 1995-2005 Chevrolet Tahoe with a registration containing a “2” in the middle of the tag.
If you have any information on the suspect, please contact the New Castle County Police Department at 395-8110, attention Detective Timothy Argoe. Or text tip at: 847411 (TIP411) and begin your message with NCCPD and then type your message. Tipsters may also call Crime Stoppers at (800) TIP-3333.
Teresa Masterson
NBC Philadelphia
June 21, 2010
Texas, USA
Body Found in Field - Woman Strangled
Houston - An autopsy has revealed that a woman whose body was found in a southeast Houston field was strangled.
Investigators found the body of Raquel Mundy at approximately 4 p.m. Friday in the 300 block of North St. Charles Street.
Police say Mundy, 24, was seen at 1:30 a.m. Thursday driving her mother and two children to the Greyhound Lines bus station in downtown Houston. Mundy had apparently parked the vehicle in a McDonald's restaurant parking lot where it had been towed from.
After Mundy had obtained her mother's debit card to pay for the tow bill, she tried to contact other relatives to get a ride but was not able to reach anyone, according to a statement released by the Houston Police Department on Monday.
Witnesses told investigators that Mundy was seen entering a gray car with a male. Mundy sent a text message to her mother that said she thought she was in danger and was with a Hispanic male.
Police ask anyone with information about Mundy's death to contact the HPD Homicide Division at 713-308-3600 or Crime Stoppers of Houston at 713-222-8477 (TIPS).
Alexander Supgul
Fox Houston
June 21, 2010
New York, USA
|
 |
|
Christian Inga |
Undocumented immigrant held in Cortlandt home invasion
Cortlandt - A Peekskill man faces felony charges in the home invasion of an ex-girlfriend's apartment where police say he struggled with a 15-year-old girl who was inside with a 2-year-old at the time.
Christian Inga, who state police said is an undocumented immigrant from Ecuador, has been charged with first-degree burglary and second degree attempted kidnapping, felonies. Additional charges are expected as an investigation continues.
The break-in was reported by a neighbor who heard screams around 6:40 p.m. Friday and called 911. Arriving troopers say they found Inga attempting to flee out of a rear window. Police did not disclose the location of the home invasion.
Inga was said to be wearing all black at the time, including a black bandana over his face, a black hat and black gloves.
He was to be remanded to the Westchester County Jail in Valhalla following arraignment. Police filed an Immigration and Customs detainer.
The arrest was made by Trooper Peter A. Zerrle and investigators Sean J. Morgan and Paul M. Schneeloch of the Cortlandt barracks.
Brian J. Howard
Lower Hudson dot com
June 19, 2010
Colombia
Explotación sexual infantil, amenaza a los menores del Valle
Ana María* solo tiene 16 años y un bebé de trece meses de edad, vive en una humilde vivienda en el oriente de la ciudad junto a su padre y a su madre. Los progenitores de esta menor la obligan a que ejerza la prostitución en un bar todas las noches.
El papá y la mamá de Ana María la explotan sexualmente con la condición de echarla de la casa sino accede. Lo peor de este caso, el dueño del prostíbulo entrega el dinero directamente a los progenitores de Ana María. Este es sólo un caso de los muchos que atiende la línea infantil 106.
En lo que va corrido del año el Instituto Colombiano de Bienestar Familiar, Icbf, ha recibido 223 denuncias de abuso sexual en el Valle del Cauca, en esta categoría entran los casos de explotación sexual comercial infantil, pornografía infantil, turismo sexual infantil y acto sexual abusivo.
"En Cali y el Valle del Cauca la prostitución es un problema social que está tocando todas las esferas en los menores", dice Lucy Mancilla Marulanda, aboga especializada en derechos humanos del Departamento Administrativo de Seguridad, DAS...
Child sexual exploitation threatens the lives of minors in
the Cauca Valley and the city of Cali
[English translation to follow.]
Diario Occidente
June 20, 2010
Louisiana, USA
61-year-old Gretna man sentenced to life in prison for raping boy
A 61-year-old Gretna man received a mandatory life sentence in prison Thursday for his conviction of raping a boy under his care.
Carlos Hernandez was convicted June 4 of the aggravated rape of a boy who said he was 5 or 6 years old when the crimes occurred.
In handing down the sentence, Judge Henry Sullivan of the 24th Judicial District Court said he found that Hernandez was a risk to society. Hernandez's attorney Marquita Naquin objected to the sentence and said the conviction will be appealed.
Assistant District Attorneys Amanda Calogero and Jennifer Rosenbach prosecuted the case.
The boy was 11 years old in January 2008 when he told his mother that Hernandez had abused him. The claim came to light after Hernandez was arrested amid allegations that he sexually abused girls, when the boy's mother began asking whether Hernandez had abused anyone else.
Hernandez is awaiting trial on a charge of aggravated incest involving a 7-year-old girl and sexual battery, for allegedly touching two 7-year-old girls in December 2007, according to the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office.
The Times-Picayune
June 17, 2010
Canada
|
 |
|
An undated picture from a Canadian
religious boarding school for indigenous children
Canadian and U.S. Indigenous children
by the tens of thousands were forcibly taken from
their parents and were then sent to either
government-run or religious boarding schools, where
they were forbidden from speaking their languages,
and were raped and sometimes sold to local
pedophiles.
Some girls who became pregnant from
the rapes perpetrated by their teachers in Canadian
schools were murdered and buried in secret
graveyards.
We continue to scream BLOODY MURDER!
- LL |
Residential school survivors speak at historic hearings
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada said it's counting on people to share their stories of living in residential schools.
Hundreds of aboriginals gathered in Winnipeg Wednesday to share their stories of abuse suffered during years of living in Canada's disgraced residential school system.
The hearing was the first in a series of seven national events being run by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which aims to document the physical and sexual abuse and other horrors endured by children at residential schools across Canada.
"You will not be questioned. You will not be asked to prove anything. You do not have to share anything that you do not wish to share," commission chair Justice Murray Sinclair told those in attendance.
The Winnipeg hearing runs until Friday.
About 150,000 First Nations, Inuit and Metis children were taken from their homes and forced to attend the government- and church-sponsored residential schools over a period of more than 100 years, beginning in the 19th century.
The last school, in Regina, closed in 1996. There are about 85,000 former residential school students still alive across Canada.
Most children were forbidden from speaking their native languages and many were physically and sexually abused.
Manitoba's deputy premier, Eric Robinson, has said he never got to know his mother and was sexually abused in the residential system.
Survivor Robert Joseph, B.C. hereditary chief of the Kwagiulth nation on Vancouver Island, told CTV Winnipeg he hopes the event starts the healing process.
"Us survivors are going to benefit by being able to tell our stories and release the anger and the resentment," he said.
Joseph told the crowd it took him nearly all of his 70 years to share the "dark, ugly, painful, degrading, dehumanizing secrets" of his residential school experience.
Joseph said the sexual abuse he endured, as well as the loss of his culture, left him angry, ashamed and an alcoholic.
"I didn't know how to raise my family. I was just so angry ... I don't want to pass my anger on any more," he said.
Survivor Gerald McIvor said he appreciates the opportunity to speak out about what happened to him, telling CTV Winnipeg that "disclosure here is great to heal the victims. (But) what about rehabilitating the perpetrators? Nobody is addressing that."
...
The Winnipeg event is the first of seven national commission events to be held over the next four years.
The official program started Wednesday with the lighting of a sacred fire and a pipe ceremony.
CTV.ca
June 16 2010
See also:
LibertadLatina
About the sexual exploitation with
impunity of indigenous children and women in Canada
Canada
Canada still has much to do when it comes to human trafficking
We need a national strategy to investigate traffickers and to find and help victims
It's an indication of how grim things are elsewhere that Canada -- by meeting only the minimum standards for legislation and enforcement -- is once again ranked among the best countries in the world in the U.S. state department's 2009 human trafficking report.
Once again, Canada was singled out as a source, destination and transit country for people being trafficked into prostitution and forced labor, in the report released earlier this week.
Aboriginal women and girls are the most frequent targets here, while it's mostly Asians and Eastern Europeans who either end up in Canada or passing through en route to other countries.
The majority of victims are women, who wind up in massage parlors and brothels. Forced labor is acknowledged as a problem here, with the highest incidence reported in Alberta and Ontario, in agriculture, sweat shops and processing plants, and as domestic servants.
It's a mug's game trying to put numbers on the extent of the illegal trade. The only Royal
Canadian Mounted Police estimate, made a few years ago, is that there are 600 to 800 people trafficked into Canada each year. Victims' and immigrants' services agencies say that figure is far too low...
The U.S. report notes that Canada is "also a significant source country for child sex tourists, who travel abroad to engage in sex acts with children." As of late February, there were 32 cases before Canadian courts involving 40 alleged traffickers and 46 victims. Not one of those is in British Columbia even though the U.S. report has, in the past years, fingered Vancouver as a port of major concern.
It's also in spite of the British Columbia government's claim to be "leading the way nationally in responding to human trafficking situations."
Canada does have adequate anti-trafficking laws. What it lacks is a national strategy for investigating traffickers and identifying victims, even though Parliament unanimously approved one three years ago.
Victim support services are a provincial patchwork, which also makes it difficult to both identify victims and to help them once they are found...
Daphne Bramham
The Vancouver Sun
June 19, 2010
Mexico
|
 |
|
Impunity!
Father Alejandro Solalinde,
director of the shelter "Hermanos en el Camino de la
Esperanza " [Shelter
for Migrant Brothers on the Road of Hope]
and the
coordinator of the Southern Zone of the Pastoral
Dimension of Human Mobility of the Mexican Episcopal
Conference - is thrown into the back of a pickup
truck and taken away by corrupt police forces in
Oaxaca state.
Amnesty International:
"Father
Alejandro
Solalinde has been repeatedly arrested, threatened
and intimidated by local authorities and criminal
gangs [for his work assisting migrants]..."
How is the Blue Heart
Campaign going to end the madness of corrupt police
action against migrants, others at risk of human
exploitation and those who help them,
President Calderón? - LL |
Gangs, corrupt officials make illegal migrants' trip through Mexico dangerous
Ixtepec, Mexico - As the Mexican government condemns a new immigration law in Arizona as cruel and xenophobic, illegal migrants passing through Mexico are routinely robbed, raped and kidnapped by criminal gangs that often work alongside corrupt police, according to human rights advocates.
Immigration experts and Catholic priests who shelter the travelers say that Mexico's strict laws to protect the rights of illegal migrants are often ignored and that undocumented migrants from Central America face a brutal passage through the country. They are stoned by angry villagers, who fear that the Central Americans will bring crime or disease, and are fleeced by hustlers. Mexican police and authorities often demand bribes.
Mexico detained and deported more than 64,000 illegal migrants last year, according to the National Migration Institute. A few years ago, Mexico detained 200,000 undocumented migrants. The lower numbers are the result of tougher enforcement on the U.S. border, the global economic slowdown and, say some experts, the robbery and assaults migrants face in Mexico.
The National Commission on Human Rights, a government agency, estimates that 20,000 migrants are kidnapped each year in Mexico.
While held for ransom, increasingly at the hands of Mexico's powerful drug cartels, many migrants are tortured - threatened with execution, beaten with bats and submerged in buckets of water or excrement.
"They put a plastic bag over your head and you can't breathe. They tell you if you don't give them the phone numbers" of family members the kidnappers can call to demand payment for a migrant's release, "they say the next time we'll just let you die," said Jose Alirio Luna Moreno, a broad-shouldered young man from El Salvador, interviewed at a shelter in the southern state of Oaxaca.
Luna said he was held for three days this month in Veracruz by the Zeta drug trafficking organization, which demanded $1,000 to set him free. He said he was abducted by men in police uniforms and taken to a safe house with 26 others.
'Epidemic' in kidnappings
Of the 64,000 migrants detained and expelled by Mexico last year, the Mexican government granted only 20 humanitarian visas, which would have allowed them to stay in Mexico while they testified and pressed charges against their assailants.
"We have a government in Mexico that emphatically criticizes the new immigration law - which is perfectly valid, to criticize a law with widespread consequences - but at the same time doesn't have the desire to address the same problem within its own borders," said Alberto Herrera, executive director of Amnesty International in Mexico.
"The violations in human rights that migrants from Central America face in Mexico are far worse than Mexicans receive in the United States," said Jorge Bustamante of the University of Notre Dame and the College of the Border in Tijuana, who has reported on immigration in Mexico for the United Nations.
U.N. officials describe the kidnapping of illegal migrants in Mexico as "epidemic" in scope...
Amnesty International says that as many as six in 10 women experience sexual violence during the journey...
At a meeting Wednesday, Interior Minister Fernando Gomez Mont, the U.S. ambassador and the governors of the southern Mexican states pledged to work harder to protect migrants.
Like 'merchandise'
The small city of Ixtepec in the humid hills of Oaxaca is a crossroads for illegal migrants moving north on trains. At the edge of town, along the tracks at a shelter for migrants run by the Catholic church, 100 migrants slept on cardboard in the shade, waiting for an afternoon meal, before they move on.
Sergio Alejandro Barillas Perez, a Guatemalan at the shelter, said he was kidnapped in the gulf state of Veracruz this month and held for three days by men who said they worked for the Zetas.
He said his kidnappers demanded $10,000 for him and his girlfriend. "They told me if you don't give us the phone numbers, we'll kill your girlfriend," said Barillas, whose face was still bruised. "We were all in a house, a normal house. When they beat us, they would put a rag in our mouths and they turned on the music, loud, like they're having a party."
He said the kidnappers knocked out his girlfriend's teeth and dragged her away. He and others escaped. He said he does not know what happened to his girlfriend.
"These migrants aren't people -- they are merchandise to the mafias, who traffic drugs, weapons, sex and migrants," said Alejandro Solalinde, the Catholic priest who runs the Brothers of the Road shelter in Ixtepec. "They suck everything out of them."
The priest said that federal authorities do not protect the migrants and that local officials also look the other way, or take their cut from the robbers and traffickers.
Solalinde has battled local authorities who want to shut down his shelter, which feeds as many as 66,000 passing migrants in a year. More than 100 were at the shelter last week.
The priest said many Mexicans are distrustful of the outsiders. In 2008, townspeople became enraged when a Nicaraguan man who was living in Ixtepec was accused of raping a young girl. As police and the mayor were outside the gates at the shelter, Solalinde said, 100 angry protesters got inside.
"They had stones and sticks and gasoline," the priest said. "They wanted to burn us down."
William Booth
The Washington Post
June 18, 2010
Mexico
Urge ley contra trata de personas, dice Rosi Orozco
Ciudad de México.- El tráfico de personas en México, que registra entre 16 y 20 mil niñas y niños, cifra actualizada hasta el 2005, no podrá combatirse mientras no se apruebe la Ley General contra la Trata de Personas, que se encuentra en comisiones de la Cámara de Diputados y que obliga a los tres órdenes de gobierno a combatir el delito, aseguró la panista Rosi Orozco.
La presidenta de la Comisión Especial de Lucha contra la Trata de Personas de la Cámara de Diputados dijo que sólo cuatro estados de la república:
Tlaxcala, Chiapas, Distrito Federal y Tabasco tienen leyes en la materia.
Congressional anti-trafficking leader Rosi Oroszco urges
the passage of new federal bill held-up in committee
Mexico City - Human trafficking in Mexico, which includes 16,000
to 20,000 girls and boys, according to statistics developed in
2005, cannot be effectively fought until Congress approves the
new General Law Against Trafficking in Persons, according to
congressional deputy Rosi Orozco.
Orozco, who is president of the Special Commission to Fight
Human Trafficking in the Chamber of Deputies, added that only
four of Mexico's [31] federated entities,
Tlaxcala, Chiapas and Tabasco states, as well as the Federal
District [Mexico City], currently have anti-trafficking laws.
Gabriel Xantomila
El Sol de México
June 16, 2010
Note: Press reports from Mexico have
commonly stated that 21 of
Mexico's 32 federated entities have passed
anti-trafficking legislation. The context of Deputy Orozco's figure of four
states having anti-trafficking laws represents a discrepancy that will require
some investigation to resolve.
The Dominican Republic
Migración califica de injusto informe sobre trata de personas
En cuanto al punto del informe que se refiere a la parte fronteriza, el director de Migración, señaló que todos los países del mundo tienen un nivel de trata de personas
Santo Domingo - El director de Migración, Sigfrido Pared Pérez, también se pronunció en contra del informe del Departamento de Estado de los Estados Unidos que degrada a República Dominicana a la categoría tres en el combate a la trata de personas.
Pared Pérez calificó el informe de injusto y explicó que uno de los puntos a mejorar que señala el documento, el de la explotación de dominicanas en el exterior, no es responsabilidad de República Dominicana, sino del país de destino.
"Esas dominicanas que son explotadas en el exterior algunas son engañadas, eso tiene que ver con las autoridades del país de destino, no de origen", indicó.
En cuanto al punto del informe que se refiere a la parte fronteriza, el director de Migración, señaló que todos los países del mundo tienen un nivel de trata de personas.
"Ahora bien, decir que República Dominicana no está haciendo esfuerzos para tratar de desarticular eso es una cosa que escapa al juicio valedero", agregó.
Al ser entrevistado a su salida del programa Diario Libre AM, el funcionario destacó que en el país hay una ley (Ley 173-03) sobre Trata de Personas y en adición a esa ley un decreto (575-07) que creó una comisión para la aplicación de esa ley.
"Hay dos factores importantes a tomar en cuenta para un informe, y ese informe de este año fue peor que el de 2003, 2004 y 2005", indicó.
The government of the the Dominican
Republic calls the U.S. State Department's 2010 Trafficking in
Persons (TIP) report unjust
[English translation to follow.]
Paolah Soto
Diario Libre
June 17, 2010
Mexico, Latin America
Informe anual en Washington del Departamento de Estado: Más de 12 millones de personas, víctimas de trata en el mundo
México, tránsito y destino para prostitución y trabajo forzado, afirma
Washington, DC - Unos 12 millones 300 mil personas fueron víctimas de la trata de personas en el mundo entre 2009 y 2010, según un informe anual sobre la materia, publicado hoy por el Departamento de Estado estadunidense, que mantuvo a Cuba en su lista negra de países donde se trafican personas y colocó bajo "observación" a Venezuela, Nicaragua, Guatemala y Panamá.
Éste es el décimo año consecutivo que el Departamento de Estado publica el informe, el cual por primera vez incluyó a Estados Unidos, del que dijo tiene políticas "a la altura de nuestros ideales".
Washington utiliza tres categorías para evaluar la acción de 177 países en esta materia. La primera comprende a aquellos que cumplen totalmente con el Acta de Protección de las Víctimas de Tráfico Humano e incluye a Estados Unidos, varios países europeos y Colombia, la única nación latinoamericana en este grupo.
En el segundo nivel se ubican los estados que no cumplen con los estándares mínimos del acta, pero hacen "esfuerzos significativos" para alcanzarlos. Aquí se encuentran México y la mayoría de los países de la región, incluido Argentina en este año, que se reincorporó después de haber permanecido un tiempo en una llamada "lista de observación".
La tercera categoría abarca a los que no tomaron medidas adecuadas para detener el tráfico humano ni adoptaron "medidas significativas" para cambiar la tendencia. En este peldaño la República Dominicana se puso al lado de Cuba, de cuyo gobierno el reporte indica que por primera vez compartió información.
Con referencia a México, el reporte señaló que este país es fuente, tránsito y destino de hombres, mujeres y niños sujetos a la trata, especialmente en lo relacionado con la prostitución y el trabajo forzado. Los extranjeros más afectados son de Guatemala, Honduras y El Salvador.
Annual U.S. State Department Trafficking in Persons
(TIP) report states that 12 million people are victims of human trafficking
across the world
[English translation to follow.]
Afp, Dpa y Notimex
June 15, 2010
Argentina
Avanza proyecto legislativo sobre trata de personas
Buenos Aires - Legisladores del oficialismo y la oposición de Argentina se comprometieron hoy a impulsar una nueva legislación contra la trata de personas, a la que definieron como "una forma de esclavitud".
Oscar Aguad, presidente del bloque opositor UCR, resaltó que "la trata de personas es una forma de esclavitud, igual que la droga. Y si hay droga y si hay trata es porque hay complicidad de la Policía fundamentalmente". Los legisladores coincidieron, durante una conferencia de prensa, que "tenemos que darle a la Justicia y a los jueces las herramientas para que puedan combatir estos delitos".
Legislative initiative against human trafficking
advances
Buenos Aires - Legislators from Argentina's ruling and opposition parties today
committed themselves to push for new legislation to control human
trafficking, which they defined as a form of modern-day slavery.
Oscar Aguad, president of the UCR opposition block, emphasized that human
trafficking is a form of slavery, equal to drug addition. Congressman Aguad:
"If drugs and human trafficking exist, that condition is made possible
because of police complicity." During a press conference on the subject, the
legislators agreed that "we must give prosecutors and judges the tools that
they need to allow them to combat these crimes."
Legislator
María Luisa Storani, one of the authors of the bill, noted that:
"This is a plague that will require the collaboration of legislators and
civil society to fight, given that the majority of victims are women,
children and the poor."
ANSA
June 18, 2010
Mexico
Refrenda gobierno federal compromiso para prevenir trata de personas
El gobierno federal refrenda su irrestricto compromiso de consolidar políticas públicas transversales para prevenir y sancionar la trata de personas, así como dar atención integral a las víctimas de este delito, afirmó el titular de la Segob, Fernando Gómez Mont.
En un comunicado, la Secretaría de Gobernación (Segob) informó que lo anterior se patentó al realizarse la segunda sesión ordinaria de la Comisión Intersecretarial para Prevenir y Sancionar la Trata de Personas, presidida por el funcionario federal.
Puntualizó que en cumplimiento de la Ley para Prevenir y Sancionar la Trata de Personas, en la sesión se presentaron informes de los trabajos de la Subcomisión Consultiva, órgano encargado de la elaboración del Programa Nacional para Prevenir y Sancionar la Trata de Personas.
Además se dieron a conocer las actividades del lanzamiento, el pasado 14 de abril, de la Campaña Corazón Azul y todas las demás acciones encaminadas a informar a la población sobre el delito de trata de personas, como foros académicos, diálogos con la comunidad, la próxima carrera deportiva y conciertos...
Informó que como representantes de las organizaciones de la sociedad civil con actividades preponderantes en la prevención o asistencia a las víctimas de trata, se seleccionó a la Fundación Camino a Casa, A.C.
También a la Coalición Regional contra el Tráfico de Mujeres y Niñas en América Latina y El Caribe, A.C., y a la Alianza por la Seguridad en Internet, A.C.
,,,
The government of Mexico re-dedicates itself to
the fight against human trafficking
[English translation to follow.]
Notimex
May 24, 2010
New York, USA
Albany Moves to Let Sex Trafficking Victims Clear Criminal Records
New York - Sex trafficking victims may soon be able to have prostitution convictions against them vacated, thanks to new legislation approved in Albany.
Young women are often lured to the New York area with promises of jobs and then find themselves coerced into prostitution. Many of these young women get arrested and charged with a crime even though they were forced to do the work against their will.
Sienna Baskin, a staff attorney for the Sex Workers Program at the Urban Justice Center, says treating trafficking victims like criminals simply pushes them back into the hands of their abusers.
"They end up with a conviction on their record and they go right back into the hands of their trafficker, so we have clients who were arrested up to ten times before escaping their trafficking situation, usually on their own," Baskin says.
Baskin adds that those convictions can make it harder for women to get jobs or legal residency. The landmark legislation--New York's law is the first in the country--will allow trafficking survivors to start their lives over with a clean slate. As it stands, women who've been abused for years are then forced to disclose their criminal convictions to potential employers.
"Even after [the victims] escape from trafficking, that criminal record blocks them from decent jobs and a chance to rebuild their lives," says Democratic Assemblyman Richard Gottfried of Manhattan, the author of the bill. "This bill will give them a desperately needed second chance they deserve.”
The New York State Senate passed the bill on Tuesday and the Assembly passed the same bill in May. The governor still has to sign the bill into law, but advocates believe he will. The governor's office says he will review the bill when it is delivered to him by the legislature.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton released a State Department report earlier this week that acknowledged for the first time the modern "slave trade" is going on in this country.
WNYC
June 17, 2010
California, USA
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 |
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Phillip Michael Dominguez and Racquel Martinez |
San Jose Pair Arrested In Child Sex Assault
A man and woman were arrested Wednesday in connection with the kidnapping and sexual assault of a 5-year-old girl in San Jose on Tuesday, police said.
The child was playing on the front lawn of her home in the 600 block of Balfour Drive on Tuesday afternoon when a man grabbed her and took her to a house nearby, where he sexually assaulted her, according to police.
Dominguez later let the child go and fled before officers arrived.
Investigators identified San Jose resident Phillip Michael Dominguez, 34, as the suspect and issued a warrant for his arrest. He was taken into custody on Wednesday morning.
Dominguez's girlfriend, 29-year-old San Jose resident Racquel Martinez, was also arrested on suspicion of aiding and abetting in the kidnapping and sexual assault. Both were booked into Santa Clara County jail.
Anyone with information on the case is asked to call Detectives Martin or Ichige, or Sgt. Robb of the Police Department's child exploitation detail, at (408) 277-4102. Those wishing to remain anonymous can call Crime Stoppers at (408) 947-STOP.
CBS 5
June 17, 2010
California, USA
2 Accused Of Sex Assault At Menlo Park Restaurant
Two employees of the British Bankers Club in Menlo Park were arrested Tuesday for allegedly groping two women at the restaurant, police said Wednesday.
The suspects, 26-year-old Moises Rojas and 29-year-old Juan Gustavo Robles-Alejo, allegedly groped the women while they were inebriated and unable to stop the advances, according to police.
The alleged incident was caught on surveillance video, and Rojas and Robles-Alejo were taken into custody Tuesday and booked into San Mateo County jail, police said.
Anyone who may have experienced similar incidents or who has information on this incident is asked to call Detective Ed Soares at (650) 799-9459.
CBS
June 17, 2010
Florida, USA
Attempted rapist captured on surveillance camera
Orlando - Police say a man who attempted to rape a woman at the Fountains of Millenia apartments may be a resident, or a regular visitor. Detectives released surveillance video of the attack which happened at one o'clock in the afternoon on June 13.
In the video, the surveillance camera captured the attacker walking away from the pool restroom and across the pool deck. After the suspect changes, he reappears in the surveillance video where he's seen lounging in the pool. Ten minutes later, the victim, a 34-year-old female enters the side of the screen and walks towards the restroom. The suspect takes notice, and thirty seconds later, he gets out to go show the victim how to get into the restroom through an open vent. Police say she went into the bathroom stall.
But when the victim came out, she saw the attacker right in front of her. A struggle began, and she told police he was trying to sexually attack her, so she fought back.
Fortunately, she scared off her would-be rapist, and the last shot of him is as he's running with his stuff towards the pool exit.
The suspect is described as a Hispanic male in his early 20s, thin to muscular build, with short hair and possibly a thin beard. He has tattoos on this chest, shoulder, and calf. he also had a beach towel designed like the flag of the Dominican republic.
WOFL FOX 35
June 19 2010
Oregon, USA
North Coast's Most Wanted: Elias Ramirez
North Coast law enforcement agencies are on the lookout for a man on the "Most Wanted" list.
Elias Arriaga Ramirez is wanted for the rape of an 11-year-old girl that occurred in Astoria in 2009. Arriaga Ramirez is a 25-year-old Hispanic man who is about 5-foot, 8-inches tall and weighs about 145 pounds. He has black hair and brown eyes.
There is an outstanding felony warrant for Arriaga Ramirez with a bail of $250,000.
If you have any information about the whereabouts of Elias Arriaga Ramirez, contact Detective Andrew Randall of the Astoria Police Department at (503) 325-4411, ext. 24 or dial 9-1-1.
The North Coast's "Most Wanted" is brought to readers by The Daily Astorian with cooperation from all the region's law enforcement agencies.
The Daily Astorian
June 17, 2010
Arizona, USA
Victim, suspect turn themselves in to Avondale police
Avondale - Avondale police are looking for a woman possible kidnapped by her abusive husband.
According to a witness, the victim, Italia Figueroa, and the witness were driving to court to obtain an order of protection for Italia when they were forced to stop in the roadway.
The witness said the suspect, Leonardo Rodriguez, drove his car and blocked them from continuing and then took Figueroa against her will.
Figueroa was forced by Rodriguez into his 2002 silver Honda Civic that was last seen driving northbound on Fairway Drive towards Van Buren Street.
The 2002 silver Honda Civic four door has Arizona license plate HPG-060.
Figueroa has told the witness she had been the victim of domestic violence as recent as two days ago, sustaining numerous bruises on her arms after Rodriguez assaulted her.
Update: Just before 9 p.m. Friday evening [June 18, 2010] Rodriguez showed up at the Avondale Police Department.
Figueroa, his wife, was with him when they showed up to the police station. She was unharmed.
They were cooperating with police interviews.
No word of if any charges will be filed.
Natalie Rivers
azfamily.com
June 18, 2010
Southwest USA
U.S. Border Patrol Weekly Blotter
Excerpt
June 15, 2010 - Buffalo Sector - Border Patrol agents arrested an illegal alien from Mexico at the Greyhound bus station in Rochester, New York. Records checks revealed the subject had a prior conviction for child molestation and had previously been removed from the United States.
June 15, 2010 - Tucson Sector - Border Patrol agents arrested an illegal alien from Mexico near Douglas, Arizona. Records checks revealed the subject had a prior conviction for attempted unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor in the state of California, and had previously been removed from the United States.
June 15, 2010 - Tucson Sector - Border Patrol agents arrested an illegal alien from Honduras near Sierra Vista, Arizona. Record checks revealed the subject had a prior conviction for indecent liberties with a child and had previously been removed from the United States.
June 13, 2010 - Laredo Sector - Border Patrol agents seized a tractor-trailer and arrested a USC and 47 illegal aliens at the traffic checkpoint near Laredo, Texas. The USC subject presented himself for inspection, and a Border Patrol canine alerted to the trailer. A search by agents revealed the 47 illegal aliens inside the locked trailer. Record checks revealed that the USC was a registered sex offender and had an extensive criminal history.
June 13, 2010 - Tucson Sector - Border Patrol agents arrested an illegal alien from Mexico near Coolidge, Arizona. Records checks revealed the subject had a prior conviction for rape of a child in the state of Washington, and had previously been removed from the United States.
June 11, 2010 - Tucson Sector - Border Patrol agents arrested an illegal alien from Guatemala near Tucson, Arizona. Records checks revealed the subject had a prior conviction for lewd or lascivious battery upon a minor in the state of Florida and had previously been removed from the United States.
U.S. Border Patrol
June 16, 2010
Kansas, USA
How should the media cover the human-trafficking story?
Last year, The Star did a big
series on human trafficking that got a lot of positive attention. One of the reporters who worked on that project, Mike McGraw, was on a panel yesterday at the United Nations... The big takeaway: The media needs to do a better job on the issue. (I was shocked by this critique, as I'd assumed the mainstream media was without flaw. How wrong I was.)
But I do think they made good points about coverage of human trafficking. When it does get covered, the stories tend to focus on the sex angle. That might have something to do with the fact that a lot of human-trafficking victims are forced into the sex trade. Not all of them are, though, as demonstrated by Mark, Mike and Laura Bauer's reporting. Case in point:
Sebastian Pereria told a friend last year about his life in America. How he wanted to see his wife and children in India, but his boss kept his identification papers and wouldn’t let him go.
Other waiters who worked with him at a Topeka restaurant told of how they were forced to work 13-hour days, six days a week. They talked of how the boss underpaid them and pocketed their tips. In the end, Pereria, 46, got his wish. He finally arrived home last year. In a coffin.
I have my own theory about why human trafficking hasn't caught fire as a cause among the U.S. public. I think a lot of Americans view human-trafficking victims not as someone who's being hurt, but as people who chose to illegally immigrate to the United States. That dries up the sympathy among a lot of Americans - even to the point where they overlook the terrible conditions that human-trafficking victims live in.
The Kansas City Star
June 17, 2010
See also:
The Americas
LibertadLatina
Commentary
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Chuck Goolsby |
Great job, Kansas City Star
Responding to the Kansas City Star's opinion piece: How should the media cover the human-trafficking story?
The Kansas City Star did a great job in its award-winning series on human trafficking published in December of 2009.
I have been an anti-trafficking activist since the late 1990s, focusing on the Latin American, and Latin U.S. immigrant aspects of the issue. I developed a web site:
Libertad Latina, which today contains 1,300 factual news articles, papers, abstracts and essays about the emergency of human trafficking.
I applaud the Star for having focused on the Latin American aspects of the issue.
I agree with this article's author in viewing at-least part of the public apathy in regard to human trafficking issues as being associated with anti-immigrant bias.
At the same time, many parties 'conflate' voluntary migrant smuggling with forced human trafficking. Federal authorities at-times report progress in the fight against cross-border (Mexican - U.S.) human trafficking, when they are really including arrests related to human smuggling operations.
As the Star series pointed out, many migrants who are smuggled voluntarily are later kidnapped, raped, tortured and sometimes murdered by 'coyotes' (smugglers), who decide to extort victim's families for an exaggerated smuggling fee.
[These cases often start as voluntary smuggling, and end-up as human
trafficking.]
According to veteran Mexican women's rights lawyer Teresa Ulloa, who is now the head of the Latin American and Caribbean branch of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW-LAC), 17% of the gross national product across Latin American nations in derived from prostitution. Ulloa identifies 500,000 victims of human trafficking as existing in Mexico (compared to perhaps 200,000 cumulative victims in the U.S.). Child sex tourism from U.S. perpetrators are among the outrageous crimes that are rampant in Mexico's border regions and resort towns. An estimated 3,000 to 4,000 indigenous girl children have been kidnapped by the Japanese Yakuza mafias, and have been sold in Japan as 'geisha' prostitutes. Neither Mexico nor Japan have lifted a finger to save those children.
Although labor trafficking exists, sexist and racist machismo in Mexico and Latin America's other nations create special conditions where criminal men who act with impunity can literally get away with kidnapping, rape, murder and
[sexual]slavery with impunity. The U.S. public has very, very little visibility into these realities. U.S. federal anti-trafficking efforts, and the work of most NGOs have not provided the Latin American crisis, and especially its severely impacted indigenous people's component, a place at the table of decision making and public discourse on this emergency.
My efforts with
LibertadLatina
have focused on filling the gap in mainstream news coverage in regard to human trafficking's Latin American crisis. For the past 9+ years I have documented as much of the crisis as possible, so that the general public, legislators, law enforcement and criminal justice folks and advocates have access to the truth. Much of that truth, in regard to Latin America's crisis exists as Spanish language reporting by passionate and dedicated reporters and activists. Many of them, especially in Mexico, risk being jailed or killed by corrupt officials and mafias for speaking these truths. I translate as many critical stories as possible, and believe that the effort has had a positive impact on the crisis. In recent months, Mexico has been forced by global public outrage to finally begin to take action to address its huge human trafficking crisis.
So yes, the mainstream press needs to address human trafficking in more detail. The Kansas City Star has made a good start at setting an example for others in professional journalism.
Chuck Goolsby
LibertadLatina
June 18, 2010
Mexico
2010 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report - Mexico
Excerpt
Mexico is a large source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to trafficking in persons, specifically forced prostitution and forced labor. Government and NGO statistics suggest that the magnitude of forced labor surpasses that of forced prostitution in Mexico. Groups considered most vulnerable to human trafficking in Mexico include women, children, indigenous persons, and undocumented migrants. Mexican women, girls, and boys are subjected to sexual servitude within the United States and Mexico, lured by false job offers from poor rural regions to urban, border, and tourist areas…
The vast majority of foreign victims in forced labor and sexual servitude in Mexico are from Central America, particularly Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador; many transit Mexico en route to the United States and, to a lesser extent, Canada and Western Europe…
The Government of Mexico does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so. Mexican authorities increased anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts and achieved the first convictions under the 2007 anti-trafficking law, in addition to opening a government-funded shelter dedicated to sex trafficking victims. The Secretariat of Government assumed more active leadership of the interagency trafficking commission and the Mexican Congress created its own trafficking commission. Given the magnitude of the trafficking problem, however, the number of human trafficking investigations and convictions remained low. While Mexican officials recognize human trafficking as a serious problem, NGOs and government representatives report that some local officials tolerate and are sometimes complicit in trafficking, impeding implementation of anti-trafficking statues…
NGOs, members of the government, and other observers continued to report that corruption among public officials, especially local law enforcement and judicial and immigration officials, was a significant concern. Some officials reportedly accepted or extorted bribes or sexual services, falsified identity documents, discouraged trafficking victims from reporting their crimes, or tolerated child prostitution and other human trafficking activity in commercial sex sites…
NGOs noted that many public officials in Mexico, including state and local officials, did not adequately distinguish between alien smuggling and human trafficking offenses and that many judges and police officers are not familiar with anti-trafficking laws. In order to address this problem, both government and outside sources provided some law enforcement officials, prosecutors, and social workers with anti-trafficking training.
…According to NGOs, victim services were lacking in some parts of the country and remained inadequate in light of the significant number of trafficking victims… Foreign victims who declined to assist law enforcement personnel… were repatriated to their home countries and were not eligible for victim aid or services in Mexico. Although authorities encouraged victims to assist in trafficking investigations and prosecutions, many victims in Mexico were afraid to identify themselves or push for legal remedies due to their fears of retribution from trafficking offenders. Furthermore, victims had little incentive to participate due to a culture of impunity, reflected by official complicity, the limited number of trafficking prosecutions and convictions, and the fact that no trafficking victim has been awarded compensation for damages. The law establishes legal protections for trafficking victims, though in practice, according to NGOs, witnesses were not offered sufficient protection…
U.S. Department of State
June 14, 2010
Arizona, USA
Who's coming to Arizona from Mexico?
Phoenix - Arizona's border with Mexico is the busiest crossing for illegal immigrants, and a number of them are criminals, according to the Border Patrol.
Last year, the Tucson sector of the Border Patrol caught 240,000 people trying to sneak into the United States illegally.
"Right about now, we're apprehending between 400 and 600 people a day," said Colleen Agle with the Border Patrol. She said this is the slow time of year; the number of illegal crossers peaks at around 1,000 a day in cooler weather.
Several criminals are among the illegal immigrants, Agle said.
"Rapists, child molesters, a lot of violent gang members."
She said it's tough to determine just what percentage of illegal immigrants have criminal backgrounds, but agents encounter them on a daily basis.
In the past few days, agents at Douglas have arrested an illegal immigrant who had been convicted of rape and another who had been convicted of having sex with a child under 3 years old. A child molester was arrested at a Nogales border crossing and an illegal who had been convicted of manslaughter was arrested in Casa Grande.
"We definitely see these types of individuals on a weekly basis," said Agle, "and I'd say pretty close to every day, we're apprehending somebody (criminal) -- whether it's a child molester or some sort of sex offender or violent gang member. Those are definitely people who are trying to get into the United States."
Pamela Hughes
KTAR
June 17, 2010
Texas, USA
Lawsuit alleges boy was raped in bathroom connected to CBP office
Brownsville — The office of the city attorney is reviewing The Brownsville Herald’s request to release an incident report regarding an alleged sexual assault of a child at the
Brownwsville and Matamoros International Bridge.
The report contains information on the investigation into the alleged sexual assault of a 7-year-old boy in a bathroom connected to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection office at the port of entry.
The boy and his mother — both residents of Matamoros — had accompanied his grandmother to the facility, where she was interviewed in connection with a criminal investigation regarding then Hidalgo County Commissioner Sylvia Handy.
The Herald on Thursday requested the report from the Brownsville Police Department after the child’s mother filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government, several federal agencies and BPD.
The mother claims federal and local law enforcement agencies mishandled evidence and released a suspect without charging him in connection with the assault, the lawsuit states. The mother is accusing authorities of covering up the crime.
The mother seeks unspecified actual and exemplary damages, the lawsuit states.
City Attorney Mark E. Sossi said Tuesday that he would have a resolution soon to The Herald’s request for public information. The Police Department appears to be the lead agency conducting the inquiry.
CBP spokesman Eddie Perez said Tuesday, “We are not at liberty to discuss any case that is in pending litigation.”
The woman filed the lawsuit May 28 in U.S. District Court...
According to the lawsuit, the boy, his mother, two sisters and grandmother were present at a CBP office because the FBI was to interview the grandmother in connection with a criminal investigation regarding then Hidalgo County Commissioner Sylvia Handy. Handy, who represented Hidalgo County Precinct 1, subsequently pleaded guilty to tax evasion and conspiracy to harbor illegal aliens and then resigned from her elected office.
“The FBI knew that (the grandmother) would necessarily have to bring her family and agreed to safeguard all of them while in the United States for government purposes,” the lawsuit states. “The sole purpose of their visit was to be interviewed at the CBP Office regarding an ongoing FBI investigation.”
On the family’s arrival at the CBP office, the FBI began to interview the boy’s grandmother while the remaining family members waited nearby, the lawsuit states. The boy then went to use the restroom.
The mother alleges that when she went to look for her son, there was a man inside wearing glasses and a striped shirt who raced past her out of the restroom and out the CBP office.
The child was found unconscious on the floor in the restroom, the lawsuit states.
Emma Perez-Treviño
The Brownsville Herald
June 08, 2010
Tennessee, USA
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Valentino Vasquez Miranda |
Illegal immigrant admits raping, killing Alabama woman; will reveal accomplice
The illegal immigrant who confessed to raping and killing an Alabama homecoming queen in a West Knoxville hotel room made a vow Thursday to expose his accomplice.
"That is a promise I make to the family (to) give them some peace," Valentino Vasquez Miranda said via an interpreter in Knox County Criminal Court.
Miranda admitted at a hearing Thursday that he used a master key to get inside a sleeping Jennifer Lee Hampton's hotel room at the Days Inn on Lovell Road and then raped and strangled her in September 2008.
As part of a plea deal approved by Judge Bob McGee, Miranda was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole after a mandatory 51-year prison term.
Hampton, 21, was in Knoxville to help train workers at a new Mama Blue's restaurant set to open here. Miranda and girlfriend Rosa Hernandez were living and working at the Days Inn as housekeepers.
Assistant District Attorney Kevin Allen told McGee that the attack on Hampton was a violent one, with guests in an adjoining room reporting a crash against her wall severe enough to shake items in their room. Hampton fought for her life, he said, evidenced by bits of Miranda's flesh under her fingernails.
"The cause of death was strangulation," he said...
At a hearing earlier this year, Allen signaled that his office might seek the death penalty in the case. But the Mexican consulate, acting on behalf of Miranda and his family, later questioned whether Miranda was 17 at the time of the slaying rather than the age of 20 as suggested by fake Social Security documents. Birth certificates are not issued in Mexico, so there is no way to verify a Mexican citizen's age. Under Tennessee and federal law, juveniles cannot be put to death.
To avoid a battle over the issue, Knox County District Attorney General Randy Nichols declined to authorize what's known as a "death notice" to be filed against Miranda.
Spared death and a lifetime behind bars, Miranda still tarried several hours Thursday before inking his plea deal.
Hampton's mother, Cynthia Senn, said she was told Miranda did not want to face her daughter's loved ones. He relented shortly before a 1:30 p.m. deadline.
Attorney Eddie Daniel already won a civil settlement on behalf of the Hampton family from the Days Inn. The terms have been kept under wraps.
Jamie Satterfield
The Knoxville News Sentinel
June 18, 2010
Pennsylvania, USA
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Louis Alberto Berrios-Rodriguez |
Police ID second suspect in Berks carjacking, rape
State police have identified a second suspect in the 2008 carjacking, beating and rape of a 22-year-old woman in Berks County.
State police at Reading issued an arrest warrant Wednesday night for Louis Alberto Berrios-Rodriguez, 22, formerly of Reading. He has not been captured, and is believed to be living in Puerto Rico.
Police in Puerto Rico and Reading are actively looking for him and anyone with information is asked to call state police at 610-378-4011, or Crime Alert Berks County at 877-373-9913. Callers are eligible for a reward of up to $10,000.
On Wednesday, state police said Raymond Cosme-Gomez, 21, formerly of Reading, was captured in Puerto Rico for the brutal Alsace Township rape on Oct. 18, 2008. He is awaiting extradition.
Police said an intensive investigation, which included the use of DNA evidence, led them to Cosme-Gomez.
Police said Cosme-Gomez and Berrios-Rodriguez were two of the three men who were in an Alsace bar with the victim. The three men followed the woman out of the bar and carjacked her in a parking lot across from the bar, police said.
The men robbed the victim of her money and drove her to a remote area about a quarter-mile away, where she was assaulted and raped, police said.
The attackers left the victim there, taking her car and her cell phone.
About an hour later, police found her car burning in Reading.
The Morning Call
June 17, 2010
Arizona, USA
Report: Man in Sparkletts uniform sexually assaults woman
Phoenix- A Phoenix woman claims she was sexually assaulted in her home this week by a man dressed in a Sparkletts water uniform.
Luis Samudio with the Phoenix Police Department said the woman told authorities she heard a knock on her door in the area of 51st Avenue and Cactus Road around 6 p.m. Tuesday.
The woman reportedly looked through the peep hole and saw a man wearing what appeared to be a Sparkletts uniform.
Samudio said the woman told authorities she opened the door and the suspect forced entry into the home.
The man allegedly sexually assaulted her and struck her several times in the head with a black semi-automatic pistol.
The suspect is described as a Hispanic male between 25 and 30 years old, 5 feet 8 inches tall, 190 pounds, and was wearing a Sparkletts water polo, a matching baseball cap, leather gloves, and tan shorts. Police also said he had a ‘chinstrap’ goatee.
Samudio said this appears to be an isolated incident. Police say the crime in under investigation.
Katrina Schaefer
Scripps Media, Inc.
June 17, 2010
The World, The United States
2010 Trafficking in Persons Report
U.S. State Department
June 15, 2010
Cuba
Cuba Rejects U.S. Allegations About Underage Prostitution
Havana - The Cuban government rejected Tuesday as “false and disrespectful” the U.S. State Department report on human trafficking and denied any trafficking of minors, as stated in the document.
The 2010 Trafficking in Persons Report, presented Monday in Washington, listed Cuba among countries that fail to meet minimum international standards in battling human trafficking, and said that sexual exploitation of minors is common on the communist-ruled island.
“This shameful slander deeply offends the Cuban people. Sexual trafficking of minors does not exist in Cuba, but rather there is an exemplary record of protecting children, young people and women,” according to Josefina Vidal, head of the North America desk in the Cuban Foreign Ministry.
In a statement sent to the media, Vidal said that Cuba does not figure, “either as a country of origin, or of transit, or as a final destination for this scourge.”
She said that the legislation and measures adopted against that crime place Cuba among the countries of the region with the “most progressive” regulations and mechanisms to prevent and combat human trafficking.
The State Department report, she said, “can only be explained by the desperate need the U.S. government has to justify, under any pretext whatsoever, the persistence of its cruel policy of (economic) embargo, rejected overwhelmingly by the international community.”
EFE
June 17,2010
New York, USA
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Victor Orozco |
Rapist sentenced to 25 years
[Albany] Only the quiet sound of shackles could be heard as Victor Orozco, 24, made his way into the courtroom. His fate resting in the hands of Judge Jonathan Nichols.
"The nature and extent of your crime against the victim and her family is probably one of the worst crimes in terms of victim impact that i've had to preside over," said Judge Nichols.
Orozco pled guilty to the rape of a Stockport woman back in January. Even more shocking -- the victim's two young children were forced to watch.
"He duct taped them, told her to make them stop screaming or he would kill her in front of her kids," said Columbia County District Attorney Beth Cozzolino.
The victim, who we couldn't show on camera, spoke to the judge through tears, saying "He destroyed my life and my children's lives."
"They will be forever traumatize by this. They can't go to the bathroom. They're afraid to fall asleep at night. They're afraid to go home," said Cozzolino.
Orozco waived his right to a hearing, and thus a trial. His attorney asked that to be taken into consideration during sentencing.
But the judge's concern was for the victim, handing down 25 years in prison.
"I'm really pleased the judge gave him the maximum sentence," Cozzolino says. "There really is no other sentence you could give an animal like this."
"He didn't know why he did it. He's sorry he did it. He wishes he could take it back," says defense attorney Michael Howard. "But that's obviously after the fact."
Now, Columbia County District attorney Beth Cozzolino says the victim is going to focus on moving forward.
"She's back to work," Cozzolino says. "Her kids are back to school and I'm hoping that they recover from this."
Cait McVey
WXXA
June 15, 2010
Pennsylvania, USA
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Angel C. Solano-Martinez |
Drug ring suspect in prison on several felony sex charges
A 30-year-old Hazleton man is in Luzerne County prison on multiple felony sex charges involving a 15-year-old girl.
Hazleton detectives escorted Angel C. Solano-Martinez, West Hemlock Street, into District Judge Joseph Zola's office Wednesday night to be arraigned on five felony charges including deviate sexual intercourse, statutory sexual assault, aggravated indecent assault, dissemination of explicit sexual material and criminal contact with a minor. He also faces two misdemeanor counts of corruption of minors.
According to the police criminal complaint, the female juvenile's family called Luzerne County Children and Youth after they recognized Solano-Martinez in a photograph on the front page of the June 10 edition of the Standard-Speaker. The photo appeared with a story about drug arrests made by federal agents in Hazleton.
Solano-Martinez was one of more than a dozen alleged drug dealers from Hazleton arrested in the raid. All of the alleged dealers were named in a one-count indictment that said they conspired to sell more than 5 kilograms, or 11 pounds, of cocaine, and 50 grams of crack. They each pleaded not guilty.
Solano-Martinez was free on federal bail Wednesday when city detectives escorted him to district court on the sex crime charges.
According to the criminal complaint, Solano-Martinez met the 15-year-old girl at the Pine Street Playground in November 2009.
From the playground, Solano-Martinez invited the girl to a local motel where he gave her ecstasy pills and marijuana, court papers said. From November to his arrest last week on federal drug charges, Solano-Martinez had a sexual relationship with the girl that included watching pornographic movies at his house and having unprotected sexual intercourse, sometimes multiple times a day, police said.
The girl told police that Solano-Martinez was aware that she was only 15.
According to the criminal complaint, the girl told police that Solano-Martinez also supplied her with crack cocaine, smoked it with her, and often had her deliver drugs to customers when he was "too tired or too busy to deliver himself."
Police said Solano-Martinez "walked into Hazleton City Hall to deliver a message to" the federal Drug Enforcement Agency on Wednesday. The man was questioned by police on the sexual allegations and taken into custody.
Dressed in blue jeans and a gray sweatshirt with shackles on his ankles and wrist cuffs attached to a leather restraint around his waist, Solano-Martinez wore a surgical-type mask over his mouth and nose as he sat quietly before Zola at district court. He answered the judge's questions with single-word answers spoken in a quiet tone of voice.
Zola set bail at $100,000 straight cash, which Solano-Martinez was unable to post. He was remanded to the Luzerne County Correctional Facility in lieu of bail. Zola scheduled a preliminary hearing for 9 a.m. Wednesday.
Mia Light
Standard Speaker
June 17, 2010
Pennsylvania, USA
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Raymond Cosme-Gomez |
Police make arrest in Berks County rape case
ALSACE Township - A man accused of helping to carjack and rape a Berks County woman has been captured in Puerto Rico where he awaits extradition, the state police at the Reading barracks announced Wednesday.
Authorities in the U.S. territory took Raymond Cosme-Gomez, 21, last known address in Reading, Pa., into custody Tuesday, the state police said.
Cosme-Gomez is accussed of participating in the carjacking and rape of a 22-year-old woman at 12:40 a.m. Oct. 18, 2008, on Pricetown Road in Alsace.
According to police, the accused and two other Hispanic men came up to the woman who was in her car and would not allow her to get out of her vehicle in the 2800 block. The men "grabbed her by her hair and demanded that she give them all of her money," police said. The men took $40 from the victim's back pocket and the woman's cell phone, police said.
Keeping the woman in the car, the three men drove it to a secluded area on the same road about two miles from where they first came upon the woman, police said. The men proceeded to beat the woman and rape her, police said.
The assailants left the woman at the rape scene and took off with her car and cell phone, police said.
The stolen vehicle was later found burning in the 900 block of North Sixth Street in Reading about 2 a.m. the same day, police said.
The ensuing investigation, including an examination of DNA, lead police to Cosme-Gomez, who fled the country to Puerto Rico in 2009, police said. With the help of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Puerto Rican officials, a search warrant was issued and Cosme-Gomez was found and investigated before being arrested June 15, 2010, for his alleged part in the crime, police said.
Cosme-Gomez is awaiting extradition to Pennsylvania where he will be tried, police said. Police said expect to have a second suspect under arrest soon.
The Mercury
June 16, 2010
The United States,
The World
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Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks at the presentation
of the 2010 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report
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U.S. State Department: Remarks on the Release of the 10th Annual Trafficking in Persons Report
Hillary Rodham Clinton - Secretary of State
Maria Otero - Under Secretary for Democracy and Global Affairs
Luis CdeBaca - Ambassador-at-Large, Office To Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons
Laura Germino - The Coalition of Immokalee
Workers
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Maria
Otero - Under Secretary for Democracy and Global Affairs, speaking
at the 2010 TIP Report presentation |
Under Secretary Otero: …The announcement of the 2010 TIP Report is not only the result of many months of hard work, from offices - from our embassies and analysts and the Human Rights Trafficking Person - and the Human Trafficking Person, but also the community of NGOs - many of whom who are here - and activists who have dedicated their lives' work to combat this terrible scourge. Today, we come together to recognize over one decade of work…
The TIP report is a fair and transparent diagnosis of the impact of human trafficking, and it offers an assessment of how we can partner to end this human rights abuse, because human trafficking cuts across policies and sectors. We are challenged to gather our resources and increase our capacity to fight this crime together…
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton …I want to thank Under Secretary Maria Otero for her leadership on this and so many other pressing global challenges. I want to thank our own hero, Ambassador Lou CdeBaca, and all the men and women here at the State Department. They are working literally around the clock to shine the brightest of all spotlights on the scourge of modern slavery. Lou and his team work very closely with Melanne Verveer, our first ever ambassador-at-large for Global Women's Issues. Because human trafficking not only exploits and victimizes women and girls; it also fuels the epidemic of gender-based violence around the world. So thank you, one and all…
Human trafficking crosses cultures and continents. I've met survivors of trafficking and their families, along with brave men and women in both the public and the private sector who have stood up against this terrible crime. All of us have a responsibility to bring this practice to an end. Survivors must be supported and their families aided and comforted, but we cannot turn our responsibility for doing that over to nongovernmental organizations or the faith community. Traffickers must be brought to justice. And we can't just blame international organized crime and rely on law enforcement to pursue them. It is everyone's responsibility. Businesses that knowingly profit or exhibit reckless disregard about their supply chains, governments that turn a blind eye or do not devote serious resources to addressing the problem, all of us have to speak out and act forcefully…
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Ambassador Luis CdeBaca, speaking at the
2010 TIP Report presentation |
Ambassador Luis CdeBaca:
…Ten years ago, the law caught up with what so many people in this room knew - what you knew, what you cared about long before this was a hot issue. The injustice, though, was still as great. So we honor your leadership from within government and civil society. On shoestring budgets and with incomparable resolve, you had the courage to identify weaknesses and victims, to build shelters and best practices, and to trust and support survivors. We hope to use the same courage, the same strength, and the same tenacity as we celebrate 10 years of progress, but also 10 years of learning…
Laura Germino is going to give a few remarks on behalf of the heroes [recognized
here] today, but in the introduction of Laura, we talk about a multi-sectoral approach, tapping NGOs, law enforcement, labor inspectors and the survivors, themselves. And the pioneer of that approach here in the United States is Laura Germino. In the early 1990s, Laura began to not just give a voice to escaped slaves, but traveled to Washington on her own dime to hold the federal government accountable to - investigate and prosecute these cases. And when I say federal government, I mean me -and I think Leon Rodriguez…
Laura Germino: …Twenty years ago - we're turning the clock back - there was no State Department TIP Report. There was no Justice Department Anti-Trafficking Unit. There was no Trafficking Victims Protection Act, no freedom network of NGOs. Farm workers like Julia Gabriel and thousands of others had not yet escaped to freedom. Farm bosses like Ron Evans or Sebastian Gomez and a dozen others had not been brought to justice. There was no admission yet by this great nation that the unbroken threat of slavery that has so tragically woven through our history, taking on different patterns, but always weaving the horrendous depravation of liberty - that it was a constant.
But here's the good part: There was nowhere to go but up. What we found is the mills of justice grind slowly, but they grind exceedingly fine. I have to say at times those mills ground really slowly. But change can and does come. Twenty years later, we see those changes, and you don't have to take my word for it. You can ask Ambassador CdeBaca.
Fifteen years ago, Ambassador CdeBaca was a young prosecutor… sitting in our office in Immokalee… puzzling about how to bring a violent, armed boss who was holding more than 400 farm workers, to justice. Our work together on that case eventually put that employer, Miguel Flores, behind bars for 15 years hard time. And as Ambassador CdeBaca was saying - (applause) - that prosecution helped lay the groundwork for the Trafficking Victims Protection Act…
U.S. Department of State
June 14, 2010
Note: The
U.S. Department of State
web page covering this presentation includes a video of the event.
See also:
The Coalition of Immokalee Workers
See also:
Laura Germino is the first U.S. citizen to be recognized
as a “Trafficking in Persons Hero.”
News-Press.com
June 14, 2010
Colombia
Colombia only Latin American country combating human trafficking sufficiently: United States
Colombia is the only country in Latin America that according to the U.S. government's Trafficking in Persons Report 2010 meets the minimal international standards to fight human trafficking. However, the country remains a major source for the forced prostitution of women and girls abroad.
According to the report, Colombian male and female human trafficking victims are forced to work in sweat shops in Latin America, while Colombian women are forced to prostitute themselves in "Latin America, the Caribbean, Western Europe, Asia, and North America, including the United States."
"During the reporting period, the government increased law enforcement actions against trafficking offenders, enhanced prevention efforts, and continued to offer victim services through an interagency trafficking operations center and through partnerships with NGOs and international organizations. The significant number of Colombians trafficked abroad, however, reflects the need for increased prevention efforts and victim services," the State Department report went on.
The reports qualifies Colombia as one of the top "Tier 1" countries that comply with regulations.
Despite its praise, Washington advises Colombia to "dedicate more resources for victim services provided directly by the government; increase efforts to encourage victims to assist with the prosecution of their traffickers; enhance efforts to assist and repatriate the large number of Colombians trafficked overseas; institute formal measures to identify trafficking victims among vulnerable populations; and continue to raise public awareness about the dangers of human trafficking, particularly among young women seeking jobs abroad."
The U.S. warns Latin American countries like Cuba and the Dominican Republic they may face sanctions if they don't improve efforts to fight human trafficking.
Venezuela, Panama, Nicaragua and Guatemala are on a "watch list" and are expected to do more against the trafficking of humans.
According to Washington, the U.S. itself faces a "serious" human trafficking problem.
Adriaan Alsema
Colombia Reports
June 14, 2010
The United States
U.S. sex 'slaves' in thousands today, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says
Washington - There are thousands of modern-day "slaves" in America - girls and boys forced into the sex trade, and men and women held in debt bondage, Secretary of State Clinton said Monday.
"There are Americans, unfortunately, who are held in sexual slavery," Clinton said in releasing the State Department's annual "Trafficking in Persons" report that for the first time included the U.S. on the list of suspect nations.
The trafficking horror outlined by Clinton has for years been the focus of law enforcement in New York City, where police have waged an uphill battle against pimps and predators using massage parlors and strip joints as fronts to prey on young Americans and illegal immigrants.
Last month, Mayor Bloomberg launched a public education campaign on human trafficking with ads on bus shelters in all five boroughs to "raise awareness of the impact of this horrible crime."
Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes last week created a sex trafficking unit, and last December Queens District Attorney Richard Brown notched the first conviction under New York State's anti-trafficking law.
In the State Department report on 177 nations, the U.S. was singled out as "source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children subjected to trafficking in persons, specifically forced labor, debt bondage and forced prostitution."
Thailand, Mexico, the Philippines, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and India were listed among the main source countries for forced labor.
Richard Sisk
The New York Daily News
June 15, 2010
The World
Fighting slavery for 10 years
The U.S. State Department released the 10th annual Trafficking in Persons Report today. It approximates that there are 12.3 million adults and children in forced labor, bonded labor, and forced prostitution around the world.
On a press phone call, Luis CdeBaca, Ambassador at large for Trafficking in Persons, called the word trafficking "rather unfortunate," when the reality is that it really means slavery. Translating trafficking rather than slavery into Spanish also causes problems when trying to raise awareness in Latin America.
The common image of trafficking is women forced into prostitution in Third World countries, though trafficking for labor is more common. The good news is that many developing countries have improved by enforcing laws and assisting victims, including Bosnia & Herzegovina, now a tier 1 state (the best) after years of being a tier 3 state (the worst).
The bad news is that even tier 1 states, like the United States, have a trafficking problem. Trafficking comes as close to home as the dinner plate in the United States. "The victim population in the U.S. has been majority Latino," CdeBaca said, mostly because of farm workers (this year it skewed to Thai farm workers in Hawaii because of a few large raids there).
He described the shift from African American to trafficked Latino farm labor in the Southeast as just a different type of slavery. The old plantation model has easily transitioned into industrial agriculture's factory farms--and these certainly aren't only in the Southeast...
Megan Sweas
U.S. Catholic
June 14, 2010
Arizona, USA
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Israel Correa |
Justice of the Peace candidate charged with child prostitution
Israel Correa, a candidate for Justice of the Peace in downtown Phoenix, is the subject of an 18-count indictment alleging sexual conduct with a minor, child prostitution and solicitation of child prostitution.
Correa's most recent indictment came less than a week after a Maricopa County Attorney filed a direct complaint alleging six counts of sexual conduct with a minor.
The allegations have not yet derailed Correa's attempt to become a Justice of the Peace in the downtown district.
Correa filed the required paperwork by a late-May deadline and his most recent legal problems won't affect his candidacy unless he's found guilty.
The 18-count indictment handed up on May 28 include allegations that Correa engaged in sexual conduct with four underage boys, including one who is under age 15. The indictment also attaches allegations of child prostitution to Correa's involvement with the boys, along with an allegation that Correa wrote bad check to one of the victims.
According to court paperwork attached to a separate criminal complaint filed on May 24, a 14-year-old victim told a neighbor he was sexually abused by a man he worked for named Jose. Phoenix police interviewed a 17-year-old victim a short time later and described similar incidents of sexual contact taking place in the 2400 block of North 24th Street, the same location given by the first victim.
Based on those allegations, Phoenix police arrested Correa on May 20 on suspicion of sexual conduct with a minor. Correa denied the allegations, according to court documents.
Correa's past troubles with the law includes a 2008 incident when he staged an abduction at his home. Correa accused former Justice of the Peace Carlos Mendoza — now one of Correa's rivals for the post — of coordinating a break-in at Correa's home that left Correa and his girlfriend duct taped.
Phoenix police pulled Mendoza out of his home at 1 a.m. before realizing Correa's abduction was a hoax. Correa was found guilty of filing a false report with law enforcement.
Correa was also arrested in 2008 after he refused to show his driver's license to a Maricopa County Sheriff's deputy. Correa said sheriff's deputies targeted him because he is Hispanic. The Sheriff's Office said Correa's headlights didn't work and that he refused to cooperate when the deputy asked for identification.
In June 2009, Correa was arrested after police said he held two men at gunpoint in a Jack in the Box parking lot and flashed a badge claiming to be a police officer.
JJ Hensley
The Arizona Republic
June 3, 2010
California, USA
Teen Girl Molested in Barrio Logan Alley
Barrio Logan (in the city of San Diego) - A 14-year-old girl was groped in a Barrio Logan alley Friday night.
The assault happened at 7:23 p.m. in the north alley of 2100 National Avenue.
A Hispanic man approached the girl, made a comment in Spanish, then touched her private area over her clothes. He smiled and fled westbound through the alley on foot.
The suspect appeared to be in his early 30's, 5'5" and heavyset. He was wearing a white t-shirt and blue jeans.
San Diego 6
June 11, 2010
Maryland, USA
Sexual Assault in Aspen Hill Area of Rockville
Detectives from the Montgomery County Police Major Crimes Division – Homicide/Sex Section are investigating a sexual assault that occurred early this morning near the intersection of Aspen Hill and Veirs Mill Roads in Rockville.
At approximately 12:32 a.m., officers from Montgomery County Police, Maryland National Capitol Park Police (Montgomery County Division), and Rockville City Police responded to Aspen Hill Road and Veirs Mill Road for the report of a sexual assault that had just occurred. The preliminary investigation revealed that the 26-year-old female victim was walking along Veirs Mill Road when she was accosted by two male subjects. The two males forced the victim into a wooded area along Veirs Mill Road and sexually assaulted her. After the assault, the victim was released and she called police.
One suspect is described as being 5’ 5” to 5’ 6” tall and weighing approximately 150 pounds. He has short dark hair. The other suspect is described as being 5’ 5” to 5’ 6” tall. He has short spiky hair. Both subjects are described as being in their mid-twenties and of Hispanic descent.
Anyone who may have information about this sexual assault is asked to call the Major Crimes Division – Homicide/Sex Section at 240-773-5070. Those who wish to remain anonymous and qualify for a reward may call Crime Solvers of Montgomery County toll-free at 1-866-411-TIPS (8477). Crime Solvers will pay a cash reward of up to $1,000 for information provided to them that leads to an arrest and/or indictment for this felony crime.
The Washington Post
June 13, 2010
California, USA
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Jesus Hernandez (left) and Martin Gonzalez Lopez |
Police search for third suspect in rape case
Police have yet to arrest a third suspect involved in the statutory rape of a 13-year-old girl inside a former cannery building in east Gilroy last month.
Jesus Hernandez, 41, a local transient, and Martin Gonzalez Lopez, 43, of the 100 block of Third Street, were arrested May 6 on charges of committing lewd and lascivious acts with a child under the age of 14 after allegedly having sex with the girl in an abandoned warehouse. Hernandez also was arrested on a charge of sexual penetration of a child under age 14 with a foreign object. The pair have a plea hearing scheduled at the South County Courthouse at 9 a.m. Friday.
A third suspect allegedly had sex with the girl in exchange for $80 - $20 of which she gave to Hernandez and Lopez for beer and cigarettes they had already purchased, according to a police report. That suspect, allegedly a close friend of Lopez, is described as a 23-year-old Hispanic male who is 5 feet, 2 inches and about 142 pounds. However, police have not made any other arrests in the case, Sgt. Jim Gillio said Monday.
The 13-year-old victim told police that she initially planned to go to Christmas Hill Park at 7 p.m. May 4, but she could not find anyone to give her a ride there, according to court documents. As a result, she went to the Caltrain depot on Monterey Street and asked a man on a bicycle if he had cigarettes, the report said. The man said his "partner" had cigarettes, and he led the girl to the abandoned warehouse at 199 E. Ninth St., according to court documents.
The girl told police that about five people were at the encampment, and she told them she was 18 years old, according to police. She asked if they had marijuana and methamphetamine, and they said they did, according to police reports. The girl told police that a man, who she later identified as Lopez, provided her with both drugs.
In an initial interview, the girl said that she did not have any sex with any of the men, stating that they only had touched her chest and given her hickeys, according to court documents. However, her story changed during a subsequent interview after Lopez had told police that he had sex with the girl, according to court documents.
During a second interview, she initially told police that she woke up in the warehouse at Alexander and Ninth streets to find her shirt off and some of her clothes on backwards, according to court documents. Police still believed she was holding back information and gave her a pen and paper to write what happened, according to a police report. She then wrote that she had sex with Lopez, Hernandez and the third suspect, adding that she initially lied because she did not want to get into trouble, according to police reports...
Jonathan Partridge
The Gilroy Distach
June 14, 2010
Honduras
Venden niñas por edades
En San Pedro Sula hay unas 10 mil menores que son víctimas de abuso sexual y comercial
Apenas tiene 16 años y “Elena” ya ha tenido relaciones sexuales con diferentes hombres. La menor era prostituida por su padrastro, ahora lo hace por su cuenta.
Desde pequeña empezó a sufrir los maltratos del hombre que apenas esperó a que el cuerpo de ella comenzara a notarse el desarrollo para poder lucrarse.
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