|
Latin America's most popular television talk
show host, NBC/ Telemundo Network star Dr. Laura Bozzo, is well known
for her advocacy for women and children in poverty who face sexual
assault, harassment and impunity in Peruvian society. Each
weekday, Dr. Bozzo's one hour prime time afternoon talk show presents
several cases of sexual exploitation and abuse in a respectful,
informative, but also no-holds-barred approach, that allows alleged
perpetrators of injustice to tell their stories (after sometimes being
invited to the show under false pretexts). The accused are then
typically confronted by women and/or children who come to Dr. Bozzo's
show to accuse these men (and sometime women) perpetrators of sexual
misconduct and/or infidelity. Victims are invited to present their
allegations to Dr. Bozzo, which are inevitably backed up by hidden
camera video evidence. The show focuses its attention on
identifying the truth, and in providing practical and real assistance to
the victims. Many guests [suspected
perpetrators of wrongdoing] are invited to the Laura en America show to
declare their love for a person in a relationship outside of their
formally declared partnership. They are typically caught by
surprise when evidence of their own wrongdoing (infidelity, rape, child
sexual assault or severe sexual harassment) is exposed on international
TV.
Dr. Bozzo's show is staffed with social
services specialists and a psychologist from her non profit social
services organization, Solidaridad de Familia (Family Solidarity).
These professionals are called upon to counsel victims immediately after
their appearances on the show, and on an ongoing basis as clients of
Family Solidarity.
Dr. Bozzo's interview style in
empathetic, but also based upon her extensive experience as a lawyer.
After allowing the alleged perpetrator(s) ample time to explain their
side of a given story, she begins to confront the reality that these
perpetrators have been proven guilty through clear hidden camera video
evidence.
During the first 5 months of 2005 Dr.
Bozzo's show has presented a well organized series of cases regarding
the sexual exploitation of young children and underage youth at the
hands of stepfathers, uncles, neighbors, and even their mother's
employers and their older sister's boyfriends (who may be decades older
than they are). In many of these cases the perpetrators have
sexually harassed, abused and raped underage girls and boys in their own
homes.
During a show titled "Your Husband is My
Woman", broadcast in the U.S. on May 20, 2005, Dr. Bozzo presented one
of the most outrageous cases of child sexual exploitation yet shown in
the long history of her show. Dr. Bozzo's level or outrage reached
new heights as the show progressed.
The show segment began with by inviting a
man to discuss his romantic relationship. For purposes of this
article, we will refer to this man as 'Manolo' (not his real name).
Manolo explained that his lover, another man (whom we shall refer to as
Oscar), was married and has a young child of 1 year of age and a
step-child, a boy age 6. Manolo declared that he had come to the
show to announce to Oscar's wife that: "your husband is my woman."
Dr. Bozzo then proceeded to invite the
alleged married lover's wife (whom we shall refer to as Rosa) onto
the set. Rosa proceeded to explain in angry terms to Dr. Bozzo
that Manolo was a bad person, was a bad influence on her husband Oscar,
and was known to expose himself sexually to young children in the
neighborhood and to offer those children candy. The accused,
Manolo, denied that he was guilty of any of those charges.
Dr. Bozzo next called Rosa's husband
Oscar to the set. After being shown hidden video evidence
regarding his affair, the husband admitted in front of his wife that he
and Manolo were indeed lovers. The two men had been filmed with a
hidden camera greeting each other romantically at the doorway of Oscar's
house.
Rosa reacted violently upon seeing this
video evidence, and began hitting her husband. Dr. Bozzo calmed
everyone down.
Dr. Bozzo then addressed the core issue
of the program. She stated that the program would expose "grave"
accusations against both Manolo and Oscar involving the abuse of a
6 year old boy.
Dr. Bozzo stated: "if it were up to me, I
would give both of you the death penalty for what you have done."
Dr. Bozzo also stated: "I may be the host
of this show, but I may have to be jailed for homicide today because of
the unpardonable crimes both of you committed against a 6 year old boy."
Dr. Bozzo proceeded to enter a booth on
the set with obscured glass double doors that side open and shut.
This 'zone of safety' is typically used on the Laura en America Show to
allow Dr. Bozzo to film interviews with children and underage youth
victims, away from the aggression and verbal threats of their adult
tormentors, who are sitting on the set of the show. Within this
both, Dr. Bozzo began to interview a six year old boy, who cried
throughout the short session.
The six year old, Rosa's son, began to
explain that his stepfather (of only a few months) - Oscar and his
step-father's friend Manolo abused him in moments when his mother was
away from the family home. The boy proceeded to say that both men
forced him to kiss them, and he was beaten every time the boy resisted
the kissing, and the men's sexual fondling of him. The boy showed
Dr. Bozzo a bruise on his forehead from one such assault, clearly
visible to the camera.
The boy indicated that he had gone
through these experiences many times.
Upon hearing this information the mother
began to beat her husband, but was stopped by guards that are always
present on the set.
Both men denied the accusations.
Dr. Bozzo then ran footage from a hidden video tape, showing the 6 year
old boy sitting distraught on the floor in what appeared to be the
family kitchen.
In the taped scene, the boy's stepfather,
Oscar, began talking to the boy and pushing his face around like he was
an animal. Oscar then looked out the door to the house, and
declared to Manolo that the boy's mother was not home.
Oscar, the stepfather, proceeded to tell
his lover Manolo "take advantage of him [the boy] now while the boy's
mother is not home."
The film footage proceeds to show Manolo
beginning his sexual attack on the 6 year old boy. The film
footage stopped at that moment.
The mother, outraged, again physically
attacked her husband, and also Manolo.
For the first time in the author's
several years of watching the Laura en America Show, many members of the
audience got up out of their seats, and ran onto the set to beat Manolo
and Oscar.
Dr. Bozzo also expressed her outrage, but
asked audience members to sit down, because she would handle the case.
Dr. Bozzo proceeded to state that local police were present at the
filming of the show, and that the two child rapists would be taken from
the set straight to jail.
Dr. Bozzo proceeded to delve further into
the life of Manolo, the lover of Oscar.
Dr. Bozzo exposed the fact that Manolo
also was married. She proceeded to show hidden video tape footage
from Manolo's home. On the tape, Manolo's wife (whom we will call
Maria for this story), a young woman, was being slapped in the face,
punched on the body and kicked in the behind by Manolo.
Dr. Bozzo invited Manolo's wife Maria
onto the set. Maria began to explain that she was driven to the
streets by domestic violence perpetrated by her step father against her
in her own home, and she was out of touch with her mother. Maria
had invited her younger sister (whom we will call Gloria for this story)
to stay in her home.
Gloria was invited to the set.
Gloria proceeded to state to Dr. Bozzo that Manolo, her brother in law,
had violently raped her.
Dr. Bozzo then had both rapists, Manolo
and Oscar, hauled off the set by her guards, and taken directly to the
Lima City jail for processing as criminal suspects. As is true
with many cases presented on the Laura en America Show, the hidden video
tape recorded in Manolo's home and in Oscar's home is valid evidence in
the Peruvian legal process. Dr. Bozzo declared that both men were
likely to receive 15 years in jail for their crimes against the young
boy.
Dr. Bozzo's production team had located
Maria and Gloria's mother before the show, and the family was reunited
on the set.
In closing the show, Dr. Bozzo asked the
psychologist of Family Solidarity, a woman doctor named Ursula, to take
charge of treatment for both the 6 year old boy and Maria's sister
Gloria, who was raped by her brother in law Manolo.
Dr. Bozzo emphasized to the audience, as
she has on many recent shows where boyfriends and stepfathers are proven
to be child sexual predators, that the women watching the show should
never invite a man to live in their home, if they have children, without
getting to know he very very well, over a long period of time.
To alleviate the stress of this traumatic
show segment, Dr. Bozzo stated that not all men are bad. She
invited a visiting Cuban American transgender female impersonator to
come on stage. The impersonator was made up as Dr. Bozzo,
and imitated many of her gestures and ways of speaking, bringing a laugh
to all in the audience. The actor proceeded to state that he, like
Dr. Bozzo, worked through his art as an impersonator to bring an end to
injustice and awareness of the need for condom use in the fight against
HIV/AIDS in Miami, Florida's gay community.
Dr. Bozzo has consistently respected the
dignity of Peru's gay and transgender communities on her show, and has
invited many victims of exploitation from these communities to present
their cases of exploitation and abuse.
|