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Indigenous and Latina Women & Children's Human
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Updated: Dec. 27, 2010
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A child in prostitution in Cancun, Mexico
stands next to a police car with an adult john.
About
Child Sexual Slavery in Mexico
Thousands of foreign sex tourists arrive in Cancun
daily from the U.S., Canada and Europe with the intention of having
sex with children, according to a short documentary film by a local
NGO (see below link). Police and prosecutors refuse to criminalize this
activity.
This grotesque business model, that of
engaging in child sex tourism, exists along
Mexico's
entire northern border with the U.S., along Mexico's
southern border with Guatemala [and Belize], and in tourist resorts including
Acapulco, Cancun and Veracruz. Thousands of U.S. men cross Mexico's
border or fly to tourist resorts each day to have sex with minors.
Unfortunately, Mexico's well heeled criminal sex traffickers have exported the business
model of selling children for sex to every major city as well as to many
migrant farm labor camps across the U.S.
Human trafficking in the U.S. will never
be controlled, despite the passage of more advanced laws and the
existence of ongoing improvements to the law enforcement model, until
the 500-year-old 'tradition' of sexual slavery in
Mexico
is brought to an end.
The most influential
political factions within the federal and state governments
of Mexico show little interest in ending the mass torture and rape of this innocent child
population.
We must continue to pressured them to
do so.
End Impunity now!
See also:
The Dark Side of Cancun
- a short documentary
Produced by Mark Cameron and Monserrat Puig
2007
About the case of
Jacqueline Maria Jirón Silva
Our one page
flyer about Jacqueline Maria Jirón Silva
(Microsoft Word 2003) |
|
Últimas Noticias
Latest News
Mexico
|
 |
|
Father Alejandro Solalinde Guerra, director of the Brother Migrants
on the Path shelter, has been subjected to
ongoing harassment by
authorities and drug cartels for assisting Central and South
American migrants in need.
"Father Solalinde has publicly condemned Mexican
officials’ treatment of migrants without valid documents. This, too, makes him
vulnerable to attack. For example, early in 2007 Father Solalinde learned that
municipal officials in Ixtepec had illegally detained twelve Guatemalans. He
went looking for them because he was afraid they were
being handed over to human traffickers. He found the house they had just
occupied. When police arrived, they did not investigate the crime scene but
instead arrested Father Solalinde and 19 other migrants who were with him.
Police officers used batons to force them into the back of a police pickup
truck. The officers held Father Solalinde and the migrants for four hours before
releasing them without any charges." |
Denuncian migrantes operativo y secuestro por parte policías
Dos mujeres que escaparon fueron violadas
Más de 50 migrantes centroamericanos, entre ellos mujeres, niñas y niños, se encuentran en grave riesgo luego de que fueron secuestrados el pasado 16 de diciembre en el Istmo de Tehuantepec, Oaxaca. Algunas de las mujeres que lograron escapar denunciaron que las llevaron al monte, las desnudaron, y dos de ellas fueron violadas sexualmente.
En un comunicado de prensa, el sacerdote Alejandro Solalinde Guerra, director del albergue “ Migrantes Hermanos en el Camino”, sostuvo que el 16 de diciembre, unos 80 migrantes, fueron secuestrados en el poblado de Acuites Istmo de Tehuantepec cuando iban a bordo del tren después de un operativo realizado por elementos de Instituto Nacional de Migración (INM) y la Policía Federal...
Migrants denounce their kidnapping in the aftermath of an
undocumented migrant detention police operation
Two of the women who escaped had been raped by their captors
More than 50 Central American migrants, including women and children, are in grave danger after they were kidnapped on December 16 in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Oaxaca. Some of the women who escaped reported that they were taken into the forest, were stripped, then two of them were raped.
In a press release, Father Alejandro Solalinde Guerra, director of the shelter "Brother Migrants on the Path" declared that on Dec. 16, 2010, some 80 migrants were kidnapped in the town of Acuites Isthmus of Tehuantepec while they were traveling on board a freight train. The kidnappings occurred
around the time of an operation conducted by elements of the National Migration Institute (INM - Mexico's immigration agency) and the Federal Police.
Father Solalinde Guerra said that two days later, on December 18, 2010, at about nine o'clock at night, a train in Arriaga, Chiapas [where Central American migrants traditionally board freight trains north], about 95 migrants were taken off of the train and "became victims of
an operation, and were assaulted and robbed."
The migrants who escaped reported that they saw two groups of about 40 people, of whom 10
were women. One victim was a child. They were kidnapped and taken away in three Tracker model
vehicles.
The statement said five women who arrived on the evening of December 18th at the Brother Migrants on the Path shelter reported that they were taken "into the bush, stripped," and that "two of them were raped."
On December 19th, a migrant went to a store near the shelter and was intercepted by two men, one them armed, who told the
man that those who had escaped the kidnappers had to turn themselves back in to them. The men threatened to go into the migrant shelter after the escapees if they did not comply with their order.
In response, Father Solalinde Guerra, requested protection from the National Human Rights Commission of Mexico (CNDH).
Father Solalinde Guerra pointed out that since December 18th, the deputy inspector of the CNDH has remained at the shelter to listen to, evaluate and guide the migrant victims of the
kidnapping.
Father Solalinde Guerra added that given the serious nature of the case he had also sought support from the Chiapas State Police, which is currently guarding the perimeter area of the shelter. He added that the Mexican Army, the Center for Investigation and National Security and regional office of the Mexican Attorney General's office were also notified of the facts.
Mexico's National Institute of Migration (INM - Mexico's immigration service) said yesterday there is no evidence of an alleged kidnapping of migrants who were traveling on a train, as has been claimed by authorities in El Salvador. The Salvadoran Foreign Ministry released a statement on the alleged abduction of at least 50 people
on December 16th.
By the Editors
CIMAC Women's News Agency
Dec. 22, 2010
See also:
Mexico
Migrants detail mass kidnapping in Mexico
Oaxaca - A Honduran who was at the scene of an alleged mass kidnapping in southern Mexico described Wednesday the chaos at the time of the incident, even as Mexican authorities cast doubt on whether the crime took place.
El Salvador's foreign ministry and two heads of Roman Catholic shelters, all citing witnesses, said gunmen kidnapped scores of migrants after robbing a freight train carrying migrants in the southern state of Oaxaca late December 16.
Mexico's interior ministry initially dismissed the claims as "unsubstantiated," but on Wednesday flew a group of Hondurans, Guatemalans and Salvadorans to Mexico City to give details of their alleged ordeal to federal prosecutors.
The National Institute of Migration (INM) gave the migrants humanitarian visas so they can temporarily stay in Mexico, an interior ministry spokesperson told AFP.
Alejandro, a middle-aged Honduran who said he was aboard the train with his 23 year-old son, told AFP in a telephone interview from a Catholic shelter in the town of Ixtepec, in Oaxaca state, that he had been warned that criminals often preyed on migrants.
"The train stopped suddenly and we heard cries and shots," said Alejandro, who only gave his first name. "A lot of us fled into the countryside..."
Alejandro later returned to the railroad and met other migrants who escaped the train.
"There they told me that the criminals carried firearms and machetes, and kidnapped women, men and children," Alejandro said...
Father Heyman Vasquez, who runs a shelter for migrants in Oaxaca state, said Tuesday that as many as 100 migrants were kidnapped by gunmen during the raid, citing some 50 migrants who reached his shelter after the incident.
He said Mexican police had earlier stopped the train and detained nearly a third of the 300 migrants believed to be on board. Mexican authorities confirmed that 92 migrants were detained at a checkpoint.
The criminal raid allegedly took place soon thereafter, Vasquez said, citing witnesses.
The head of another nearby shelter said he received 19 migrants after the attack and requested police protection after armed men from two powerful gangs warned him to give them up or "face the consequences."
Mexican drug and human traffickers have a history of capturing illegal migrants, at times forcing the women into prostitution and men into low-level criminal jobs.
Migrants avoid Mexican police for fear of being deported, which could explain why news of the kidnapping took so long to emerge...
Around half a million illegal migrants cross Mexico each year, mostly from Central America on their way to the US border, according to Mexico's Human Rights Commission.
The head of the Migration Institute, Salvador Beltran, said in a radio interview Wednesday that the drug cartels "are apparently having major difficulties recruiting Mexicans, so they are focusing on migrants..."
Agence France-Presse (AFP)
Dec. 23, 2010
See also:
Mexico
Mass kidnapping of migrants alleged in Mexico
Tuxtla Gutierrez, Mexico - Mexican officials on Tuesday dismissed as "unsubstantiated" reports that as many as 100 Central American migrants were taken hostage during a raid on a train in southern Mexico.
El Salvador's foreign ministry said that around 50 migrants of various nationalities, mostly women, had been kidnapped during the attack in Mexico's southern state of Oaxaca.
The director of a Roman Catholic charity in Oaxaca state, citing witnesses, also mentioned a large number of hostages in the alleged attack late December 16...
Alejandro Solalinde, a priest in charge of another shelter that took in 19 migrants from the train, has since asked for government protection.
He said that last week gunmen from two powerful gangs -- the Zetas from Mexico and the Mara Salvatrucha, which operates in El Salvador and Central America -- demanded he give up the migrants, warning he would "face the consequences" if he refused.
In August the bodies of 72 abducted Central American migrants were found on a ranch in Mexico's northern Tamaulipas state, in what police said was a mass execution by the Zetas of men and women who refused to work for them.
Around half a million illegal migrants cross Mexico each year, mostly from Central America on their way to the US border, according to Mexico's Human Rights Commission.
Some 10,000 undocumented migrants were abducted in Mexico over six months from September 2008 to February 2009, the commission reported last year.
Agence France-Presse (AFP)
Dec. 21, 2010
Mexico
|
 |
|
Activists
march for Marisela
Escobedo
Ortiz in
Ciudad
Juarez |
Hundreds gather for demonstration to honor slain activist in Juárez
Activists calling for justice in the murder of Marisela Escobedo Ortiz gathered for a march in Juárez on Wednesday.
A coalition of advocacy organizations and relatives of victims is organizing the protest demonstration, said Judith Galarza, a veteran activist.
Escobedo's public murder in front of the governor's palace in Chihuahua City made headlines around the world and elicited the condemnation of Amnesty International and the United Nations.
She was protesting the release by Chihuahua state judges of a suspect in her daughter's 2008 slaying when a man wielding a gun shot her at close range on Thursday. Security cameras recorded her murder.
The El Paso Times
Dec. 23, 2010
See also:
Added: Dec. 27, 2010
Mexico
|
 |
|
Anti-femicide
activist Marisela Escobedo
Ortíz is
shown in a
street
security
video
collapsed on
a sidewalk just after being shot
in front of the Chihuahua state governor's mansion. |
Activist Murdered in front of Chihuahua Governor’s Office
Although murders in Mexico’s northern state of Chihuahua have, sadly, become commonplace, Marisela Escobedo Ortíz’s
death last week drew widespread attention and outcry. Escobedo became a
one-woman activist
after judges set free the confessed killer with narco ties suspected of murdering her teenage daughter in 2008. Escobedo initiated an ongoing vigil in front of Chihuahua’s government buildings where a gunman killed her on December 16. The assassination was captured on video and has been widely broadcast. Two days later, authorities found the body of Escobedo’s slain brother-in-law. Observers say the family tragedy underscores rampant impunity in Mexico.
Americas Quarterly
Dec. 22, 2010
See
also:
Mexico
Incendian el negocio de pareja de Marisela Escobedo
Chichuahua, Chih, - Un grupo de hombres armados quemó ayer por la mañana en Ciudad Juárez una maderería cuya propiedad es atribuida a José Monge, pareja sentimental de Marisela Escobedo Ortiz, la activista que fue asesinada el jueves pasado en esta capital.
“Era su pareja sentimental desde hace muchos años y vivían juntos”, dijo una persona que pidió el anonimato por el temor a represalías.
Él apoyaba a Marisela, agregó, en su lucha por encontrar justicia para su hija Rubí Marisol Frayre Escobedo, quien a su vez fue asesinada hace dos años por Sergio Rafael Barraza Bocanegra, dejado en libertad por tres jueces locales.
Los responsables del siniestro, además de rociar el establecimiento con gasolina y provocar un aparatoso incendio que dejó pérdidas totales, se llevaron secuestrado a Manuel Monge, de 37 años, hermano del dueño, según testigos...
Arsonists burn business of Marisela Escobedo Ortiz' partner and kidnap
[and murder] her partner's brother
Chichuahua city in Chihuahua state - A group of armed men started an arson fire yesterday at the lumber yard run by José Monge, partner of anti-femicide activist Marisela Escobedo Ortiz, who was murdered last Thursday in this state capitol city.
"He [Monge] was her partner for many years. They lived together," said a friend of the couple who remained nameless for fear of reprisals. The firend added that Monge helped Escobedo Ortiz in her struggle to find justice in the case of teh murder of her daughter Rubí Marisol Frayre Escobedo, who was killed two years ago by Sergio Rafael Barraza Bocanegra [who at the time confessed to where he had hidden the body o fhis victim], who was later freed by three local judges.
In addition to the arson fire, the suspects in this latest act also kidnapped
[and later murdered] Manuel Monge, age 37, a brother of José Monge... .
Carlos Coria and el Diario Juárez
Dec. 19, 2010
Mexico
Liberan en Morelos a dos violadores sentenciados a 28 años de cárcel
La impunidad en casos de mujeres víctimas se ampara en la Ley
México, DF, - En México, las violaciones sexuales a las mujeres continúan bajo el resguardo de la impunidad; los jueces siguen dejando en libertad a los hombres que las agreden, el caso más reciente ocurrió el 7 de diciembre pasado, cuando en Morelos fueron liberados dos hombres que habían sido sentenciados a 28 años de prisión y 80 mil pesos de multa, por ser culpables de violar a una joven de 21 años.
Nadxieellii Carranco Lechuga, representante del Comité contra el Feminicidio en Morelos, dijo a Cimacnoticias que la impunidad que priva en los casos de mujeres víctimas de violencia, se ampara en la Ley. Bajo su amparo, dijo, jueces y magistrados han dejado libres a delincuentes confesos; “convirtiéndose en cómplices y privilegiando la impunidad”...
The state of Morelos frees two rapists who had each been sentenced to 28 years in prison
The law facilitates impunity in cases of violence against women
In Mexico, the rape of women continues to be protected by an institutionalized impunity as judges continue to free male assailants. The most recent case of this phenomenon occurred on December 7, 2010, when two men who had sentenced to 28 years in prison, and fined 80,000 pesos each - were free in the state of Morelos. The men had previously been convicted of raping a 21-year-old woman.
Nadxieellii Carranco Lechuga, who is a representative of the Morelos Committee Against Femicide (CCFM), told CIMAC News that the law facilitates impunity in cases of violence against women. She added that by using that 'shelter,' judges and magistrates have freed confessed delinquents; "converting themselves into accomplices and placing impunity in a privileged position."
In the town of Ocotepec in Morelos state, a pueblo with many traditional customs, two constables raped the 21-year-old victim in April of 2009. The rapists were accompanied by three other men. The rape took place in the town's police headquarters.
The so-called 'patrolmen,' Roberto Jaimes Colín and Gerardo Estrada Rosas, were reported and located. During a trial held in October of 2010, the two accused men were sentenced to 28 years in prison and were fined 80,000 pesos each.
Despite the convictions, December 7, 2010 the ruling was reversed by the Magistrate Iván Arenas Angeles. The culprits were freed from custody.
According to activist Carranco Lechuga, information provided by the state attorney general's office indicates that the public prosecutor's office does not have any legal options available to it to appeal the sentence. Therefore, the magistrate's decision, which was justified by "a supposed lack of evidence that the crime took place," will stand.
Carranco Lechuga noted that the three other suspects in the crime have never been changed, for unknown reasons. The CCFM has not been able to access case documents to discover why they have no been charged. CCFM must rely upon press reports as their only source of information about the case.
In a press release, members of the CCFM stated that the victim in this case no longer lives in Morelos. Nonetheless, they declared, "we are thousands of women who could become victims of these magistrates and rapists."
The CCFM press release rebuked the authorities for not protecting the life of the victim. "She's still alive but, what are the authorities waiting for, that she too be killed? We are tired of listening to those who run this country declare that, we 'regret' what [just] happened."
"The state governance [Interior] minister says that he does not want us to shake with fear." We say that he must shake up the discourse and begin to take action, says the CCFM press release.
The press release emphasized that: "those of us who defend human rights also deplore the murder of activist Marisela Escobedo that occurred in the city of Chihuahua on December 16th."
In the face of the impunity that severely affects the victims of femicide and their families on Mexico, once again the state of Chihuahua [note that Ciudad Juarez is located in this state] has shown that neither women in general nor human rights advocates are being provided with protection under the law.
Gladis Torres Ruiz
The CIMAC Women's News Agency
Dec. 23, 2010
Mexico
Mexico says its troops killed U.S. man
Mexico City - Joseph Proctor told his girlfriend he was popping out to the convenience store in the quiet Mexican beach town where the couple had just moved, intending to start a new life.
The next morning, the 32-year-old New York native was dead inside his crashed van on a road outside Acapulco. He had multiple bullet wounds. An AR-15 rifle lay in his hands.
His distraught girlfriend, Liliana Gil Vargas, was summoned to police headquarters, where she was told Proctor had died in a gun battle with an army patrol. They claimed Proctor - whose green van had a for-sale sign and his cell phone number spray-painted on the windows - had attacked the troops. They showed her the gun.
His mother, Donna Proctor, devastated and incredulous, has been fighting through Mexico's secretive military justice system ever since to learn what really happened on the night of Aug. 22.
It took weeks of pressuring U.S. diplomats and congressmen for help, but she finally got an answer, which she shared with The Associated Press.
Three soldiers have been charged with killing her son. Two have been charged with planting the assault rifle in his hands and claiming falsely that he fired first, according to a Mexican Defense Department document sent to her through the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City.
It is at least the third case this year in which soldiers, locked in a brutal battle with drug cartels, have been accused of killing innocent civilians and faking evidence in cover-ups.
Such scandals are driving calls for civilian investigators to take over cases that are almost exclusively handled by military prosecutors and judges who rarely convict one of their own.
"I hate the fact that he died alone and in pain an in such an unjust way," Donna Proctor, a Queens court bailiff, said in a telephone interview with the AP. "I want him to be remembered as a hardworking person. He would never pick up a gun and shoot someone."
President Felipe Calderon has proposed a bill that would require civilian investigations in all torture, disappearance and rape cases against the military. But other abuses, including homicides committed by on-duty soldiers, would mostly remain under military jurisdiction. That would include the Proctor case and two others this year in which soldiers were accused of even more elaborate cover-ups...
The Associated Press
Dec. 25, 2010
Mexico
|
 |
|
Anti-trafficking
leaders
gathered
in
Mexico
City
for
the
forum
The
Panorama
of
Human
Trafficking
in
Mexico.
Congressional
deputy
Rosi
Orozco
is
second
from
left.
Photo:
Ariel
Ojeda
/ EL
UNIVERSAL
|
Se dispara en
México la trata
de personas
Impunidad,
corrupción,
leyes
deficientes y
una sociedad
permisiva y
consumidora de
sexo de paga
hacen que el
fenómeno de la
trata de
personas sea un
problema de
dimensiones
alarmantes al
que, en el corto
plazo, no se le
ve salida a
menos de que se
impulse un
cambio cultural,
advirtieron
autoridades del
país e
integrantes de
la sociedad
civil que
asistieron al
foro Panorama de
la Trata de
Personas en
México,
organizado.
Rosi Orozco,
diputada federal
y presidenta de
la Comisión
Especial de
Lucha contra la
Trata de
Personas, alerta
que la
explotación
sexual se ha
disparado en los
últimos años a
consecuencia de
la guerra contra
narcotraficantes,
quienes al verse
perseguidos han
optado por
hacerse de
recursos
mediante la
venta de mujeres
y niñas. “El
desinterés de
algunas
autoridades
estatales en el
tema, las laxas
legislaciones y
la falta de
capacitación de
policías,
ministerios
públicos y
jueces para
perseguir y
castigar el
delito facilitan
que el crimen
organizado actúe
con total
impunidad”...
Human
Trafficking
Explodes in
Mexico
During the forum
The Panorama of
Human
Trafficking in
Mexico,
organized by
[Mexico City's
leader daily
newspaper] El
Universal,
government
authorities and
nongovernmental
organization
leaders warned
that trafficking
has reached
alarming
dimensions due
to impunity,
corruption,
deficient laws
and a permissive
society that
feels
comfortable with
paying for sex.
They believe
that no
improvements in
this situation
will occur
without bringing
about a cultural
change in
Mexican society.
Rosie Orozco, a
federal
congressional
deputy and
president of the
Special
Committee to
Combat
Trafficking in
Persons in the
Chamber of
Deputies [lower
house of
Congress],
cautioned that
[commercial]
sexual
exploitation has
exploded in
recent years due
to the war
against drug
traffickers. In
reaction to
[more effective
law enforcement
interdiction
efforts], they
have chosen to
[redirect their
activities and]
make their
profits from the
sale of women
and girls. "The
lack of interest
on the part of
some state
authorities in
regard to
trafficking
crimes, the
existence of lax
laws and a lack
of training for
police,
prosecutors and
judges to
prosecute and
punish
trafficker
allows organized
crime to act
with total
impunity."
Of the 32
federated
entities of
Mexico, only
six, Mexico City
and the states
of Chiapas,
Nuevo León,
Tabasco,
Tlaxcala and
Hidalgo have
passed
[anti-trafficking]
legislation. The
rest of the
states, with the
exception of
Campeche and
Tamaulipas,
mention the
crime in their
penal codes.
Only 12 states
have harmonized
their
legislation with
the content of
the Palermo
Protocol on
human
trafficking.
To date, said
Deputy Orozco,
at the federal
level there has
only been one
person convicted
of human
trafficking.
Four traffickers
have been
convicted by the
Attorney
General's office
of Mexico City.
Orozco, "This is
nothing compared
to the magnitude
of the problem,
because Mexico
is considered by
the United
Nations (UN) to
be one of the
five countries
with the highest
incidence of
human
trafficking
[among all
nations], and we
are in first
place
internationally
in regard to
child
pornography.
This shows the
high level of
disinterest that
exists on the
part of
authorities in
regard to
attacking the
trafficking
mafias..."
Dilcya García
Espinoza, the
assistant
prosecutor for
Victim Services
in the Mexico
City Attorney
General's office
recognizes that
sexual
exploitation in
Mexico City is
very serious,
because we face
a cultural
reality that
says that it "is
normal for a man
to solicit
sexual services
- without him
having an
awareness that
he has become
part of a chain
of human
exploitation."
García Espinoza:
"Most human
trafficking is
perpetrated by
organized crime.
It could not
exist without
the existence of
state
corruption, both
within agencies
and also under
the domed roofs
[of
legislatures].
Within the
Mexico City
Attorney
General's office
we are fighting
against this. We
know that there
are police
officers who are
in collusion
with the
trafficking
mafias. We are
working to
identify and
prosecute those
personnel..."
García Espinoza
added that
Mexico City
prosecutors have
executed more
than 100
anti-trafficking
operations. Some
100 traffickers
have been
arrested and 200
victims have
been rescued.
"We started in
this work from
ignorance; we
worked on the
knees because we
had no training.
We have gained
knowledge not
only by way of
our experiences
with each case,
but also with
the help of
civil society
organizations
[such as
the Regional
Coalition
Against
Trafficking in
Women and Girls
for Latin
America and the
Caribbean]
that support us
with training in
specialized care
for victims and
in regard to
prosecuting
traffickers."
Teresa Ulloa,
director of the
Regional
Coalition
Against
Trafficking in
Women and Girls
for Latin
America and the
Caribbean (CATW-LAC),
warned that at
least 1.2
million people
are the victims
of sexual
exploitation in
Mexico.
During the
forum, Ulloa,
who has been a
pioneer in the
fight against
this social
scourge, called
upon society and
the authorities
to focus their
efforts on
inhibiting the
demand for paid
sex "because
otherwise, we
[Mexico] will
never stop being
such an
attractive
location, as we
are, for sex
tourism and the
consumption of
child
pornography..."
Ulloa,
"[traffickers
are now
offering] a new
product in La
Merced - young
[underage] girls
from Central
America.
Traffickers
bring them here
[to be trained].
They then take
them illegally
to the United
States, and
force them into
prostitution
there."
Carmen Rubio,
assistant
director for
identification
and care for
victims at the
National
Migration
Institute
[Mexico's
immigration
agency],
acknowledges
that human
traffickers sell
women and
underage girls
from Central
America to other
organizations to
exploit these
victims
sexually.
"Unfortunately,
the situation of
the victims is
so complex that
the hardly ever
denounce their
traffickers."
Teresa Ulloa
urged U.S.
authorities to
take action.
Just as the U.S.
proposed a
target of
lowering the
demand for
illicit drugs by
15% over the
next five years,
Ulloa would also
like to see the
U.S. inhibit the
demand for paid
sex, because
U.S. citizens
are highly
involved as sex
tourists in
Mexico and
Central
America...
Full English
Translation
Evangelina
Hernández
El Universal
Dec. 19, 2010
See also:
Lydia Cacho:
Human
Trafficking
could displace
narcotrafficking
English
translations to
follow - LL
Mexico
Investigan presencia de mafia japonesa en México
La reciente captura en esta ciudad de un ciudadano japonés identificado como jefe de una red de tráfico de drogas, podría reavivar hoy las denuncias de posibles vínculos de la Yakuza japonesa con los cárteles locales.
La Secretaría de Seguridad Pública abrió una investigación, tras la detección del narcotraficante por utilizar a tres mujeres mexicanas para transportar drogas hacia Tokio, Japón. Junto con él fue apresado el encargado de contratar a las llamadas "mulas".
A finales de noviembre pasado, una denuncia de María Teresa Ulloa, directora de la Coalición Regional contra el Tráfico de Mujeres y Niñas en América Latina y el Caribe, alertó sobre la actuación en la capital mexicana de mafias rusa y japonesa junto a los cárteles locales de la droga, quienes controlan el tráfico de personas con destino a la prostitución...
Authorities investigate the presence of Japanese yakuza
mafias in Mexico
The recent arrest of a Japanese citizen who has been identified as being a crime
boss in a drug trafficking network could revive concerns about alliances between
Yakuza mafias and Mexican drug cartels.
The Secretariat of Public Security opened an investigation into the Yakuza boss
after he and three Mexican women were arrested. The women were taking drugs to
Tokyo as so called drug mules.
At the end of November, 2010, Teresa Ulloa, director of the Regional Coalition
Against Trafficking in Women and Girls for Latin America and the Caribbean
raised concerns that Russian and Japanese mafias were collaborating with local
Mexican drug cartels to engage in the trafficking of women for purposes of
prostitution.
In July of 2010, the Mexican journalist and author
Lydia Cacho revealed to the press that "the majority of the drug cartels,
together with a large number of public servants are implicated as being involved
in the organized prostitution and sex trafficking networks in Mexico."
A study performed in 2002 by Johns Hopkins University concluded that in recent
years, criminal gangs that operate in the city of Tijuana, in Baja California
state, have taken 1,200 Mexican women between the ages of 18 and 30-years-of-age
to Japan. These women were taken to Japan under false pretenses for the purpose
of exploiting them in prostitution.
The Japanese Yakuza and the Mexican criminal organization Titanium of Mexico
were identified in the study as being "the major networks of organized crime
that recruit, transport, hide and sell persons for prostitution and other forms
of human slavery."
The Yakuza is a mafia that was formed in the 17th Century. The largest of its
3,000 clans is the Yamaguchi-gumi, which is considered to be the largest mafia
organization globally, with approximately 84,700 members.
Prensa Latina
Dec. 06, 2010
See also:
Added: Dec. 19, 2008
Mexico
En Japón, de 3 a 4 mil
niñas mexicanas víctimas
de ESCI
Afirma la experta
Teresa Ulloa
Entre 3 y 4 mil niñas
indígenas originarias de
entidades pobres de
México, como Oaxaca,
Chiapas, Guerrero y el
Estado de México, son
víctimas de explotación
sexual comercial
infantil en Japón...
Teresa Ulloa: Three to
four thousand underage
indigenous girls from
the poor states of
Oaxaca, Chiapas,
Guerrero and Mexico have
become victims of
commercial sexual
exploitation of children
(CSEC) in Japan.
Puebla city,
in Puebla state
- Teresa Ulloa,
Latin America and
Caribbean Director of
the Coalition Against
Trafficking of Women (CATW)
announced her estimates
of the numbers of
indigenous children sex
trafficked to Japan, and
explained that
traffickers trick their
victims using offers of
thousands of dollars for
their parents in
exchange for [obtaining
permission] to take
their daughters. The
parents are told that
their girls are going to
the United States to
work in fast food
restaurant jobs.
Taking advantage of the
condition of submission
that Mexico's indigenous
communities are forced
to live in, the
traffickers take their
victims to Japan where
they are prostituted and
work as geishas...
Ulloa said that before
these victims from Japan
are repatriated, the
home conditions of these
girls must be
investigated to assure
that they can be
reintegrated without
facing the risk of being
sold or sexually
exploited again.
Ulloa noted that in the
year 2002 the CATW
helped to repatriate two
sisters, ages 8 and 10,
who had been prostituted
in a brothel in New
York. They were
subjected to
exploitation again, 15
days later, because
their family "had sold
their daughters in
exchange for two goats
and two cases of beer."
Ulloa added that today
these two girls live
with a new family in the
U.S., and are now
learning English.
During her interview
with CIMAC Noticias,
Ulloa declared: "the
subject [of child
protection] is not on
the national agenda.
Much attention is paid
to drug trafficking, but
the government hasn't
even realized that the
same drug trafficking
networks are used for
the [sex] trafficking of
children, and that
organized crime regards
this activity to be one
of their most important
businesses."
Ulloa stated the above
knowing that "a nation
that doesn't guarantee
the lives, security,
dignity and liberty of
its children is
condemned, sooner or
later, to loose its
ability to progress or
to have social values."
For these reasons, Ulloa
insists that the
government of Mexico
comply with the
international agreements
that it has signed in
regard to these matters,
and that it supply the
resources needed to
protect children, given
that the anti-drug
efforts are
much
better funded.
Nadia Altamirano Díaz
CIMAC Noticias
Dec. 12, 2008
See
also:
Mexico
Implican a los Zetas con
la mafia rusa, con Los
Mexicanos y la Yakuza en
la explotación sexual y
laboral y cobro de
cuotas
'Zeta' hitmen, Russian
Mob, Japanese Yakuza and
Mexican drug cartels are
implicated in sexual and
labor exploitation and
extortion
From the Russian Mob to
the Japanese Yakuza,
which dedicates itself
to drug trafficking,
child pornography and
money laundering in
Mexico, international
criminal networks cover
our country like a giant
brotherhood.
According to reports
from the International
Organization for
Migration (IOM), close
to 3,000 Mexican women
have been taken by the
Yakuza and enslaved in
prostitution in Japan.
The Yakuza collaborates
with the Russian Mob.
"There are mafias that
are not just working in
Mexico, but are
cooperating [to send
Mexican women into the
sex industry in Japan],
notes Aquiles Colimoro,
coordinator of the
foundation Casa de
Mercedes.
These mafias place
employment ads in
newspapers seeking
models and secretaries
without experience. They
obtain passports for
these young women for
the trip to Japan, where
the passport is taken
away from them.
Lately, these mafias
have built alliances
with the 'Zetas'
[mafia], who extort bar
owners.
Mexico's drug cartels
are also heavily
involved in sex
trafficking. According
to Sadot Sánchez Carreño,
head of the Program
Against Trafficking in
Persons at Mexico's
National Human Rights
Commission: "We know
that many of the cartels
that are dedicated to
illegal drug and arms
trafficking are also
involved in human
trafficking."
Mario Luis Fuentes,
director of the Center
for Studies and
Investigation in
Development and Social
Assistance (CEIDAS)
agrees. "There are
indications detected by
the United Nations, that
conclude that the same
criminal networks that
traffic in drugs and
arms also engage in
human trafficking, given
the level of
sophistication,
relationships and
logistics needed to
navigate around the
legal and migration
controls in Mexico.
Full English
Translation
- A. Olivier Pavón
Cronica
June 18, 2008
See also:
Infancia robada - El
tráfico de mujeres y
niñas
Stolen Childhood - The
trafficking of women and
girls
Teresa
Ulloa, head of the the
Latin American and
Caribbean branch of the
Coalition Against
Trafficking in Women (CATW):
|
...The Russian
Mafia "have an
infinity of
brothels on the
Mexican-U.S.
border, in
cities such as
Tijuana, where
they prostitute
girls that are
ever younger in
age. The last
time I
accompanied a
police raid we
found
seven-year-old
girls. |
-
Univision Online
Oct.,
2007
See also:
UNICEF: An estimated
50,000 minors are
prostituted along
Mexico's border with the
United States
-
Judith García Aura
El Sol
de México
April
13, 2008
See also:
Added
Nov. 25, 2007
Mexico, Japan
Prometen sueldos
atractivos, pero allá
les quitan el pasaporte
y las prostituyen.
Women are offered
attractive salaries in
Japan. When the arrive,
their passports are
taken from them and they
are forced into
prostitution
Representatives of the
Mexican National
Commission for Human
Rights (CNDH) have
denounced the fact that
at least 3,000 Mexican
women are currently
enslaved in prostitution
in Japan.
The number could be
higher, noted Susana
Chiarotti, director of
the Latin American and
Caribbean Committee for
the Defense of Human
Rights (CLADEM),
given that the sale of
people is on the
increase in the region.
The problem of enslaved
Mexican women in Japan
is grave, stated Sadot
Sánchez Carreño,
coordinator of the
trafficking program at
Mexico's CNDH. "We
weren't aware of this
before, but Japan has an
especially strong demand
for Latina, and
particularly Mexican
women.
The only information
available on this
illicit trade comes from
the study Basic Aspects
of Trafficking in
Persons, edited by the
IOM, the OAS and the
Mexican Institute for
Migration. The study
notes that each year,
1,700 women [and girls]
are kidnapped from Latin
America to be sold into
sexual slavery in Japan.
Chariotti stated that
Latin American women are
kidnapped by
international
trafficking rings using
false offers of
employment. They are
then sold to Japanese
crime organizations such
as the Yakuza mafia.
Across Mexico City one
can find false ads for
fantastically
high-paying jobs in
Japan or Australia
posted near telephone
booths, especially in
locations frequented by
young women.
Chariotti went on to say
that sex trafficking in
Latin America, and
particularly in Mexico,
is facilitated by the
complicity of corrupt
officials.
A human trafficking
report by the OEA notes
that Japan issues
120,000 'entertainment'
visas, to mostly female
Latin Americans, each
year.
Japanese authorities
refuse to recognize the
majority of these
trafficking cases...
- Alianza
Por Tus Derechos
Nov. 22, 2007
Mexico
|
 |
|
Congressional
Deputy and
anti
trafficking
leader Rosi
Orozco |
Venden mujeres en cárceles mexicanas
A través de una red de trata de personas, cualquier interno de los centros de readaptación social de México tiene la posibilidad de escoger y “comprar” mujeres. “Esta red que existe en los centros penitenciarios, es un acto terrible al que se enfrentan las mujeres, quienes son llevadas hacia los penales varoniles, donde las escogen para violarlas y venderlas como objetos”, reveló la diputada federal panista Rosi Orozco.
Orozco, quien es presidenta de la Comisión de la Lucha contra la Trata de Personas en San Lázaro, aseguró que estas mujeres reciben un trato discriminatorio, lo cual muestra la violación a los derechos humanos y la falta de equidad de género que se vive...
Women are sold in prostitution in Mexico's prisons
A human trafficking network has set itself up to allow any prisoner in Mexico's
prisons and jails to select and "buy" women. "The network, which exists in the
nations penal institutions, puts the women involved in a terrible situation.
They are taken to men's prisons, where they are chosen to be sold as objects and
raped," stated Deputy Rosi Orozco, who is the president of the Special
Commission to Fight Human Trafficking in the Chamber of Deputies [the lower
house of Congress].
Deputy Orozco emphasized that the women who are prostituted under these
conditions face discriminatory treatment, which demonstrates a lack of gender
equality and a violation of their human rights.
One factor that aggravates these problems is the level of overpopulation in the
prison system, noted Deputy Arturo Santana, who is a member of the Public
Security Commission in the Chamber of Deputies...
The Justice Commission in the Chamber of Deputies has reacted to the problem by
passing a non binding resolution that calls upon the appropriate authorities to
implement measures to control sex trafficking. Their resolution asks that the
National Penitentiary System, local jails, the Council of the Judiciary, the
Attorney General's Office, the Superior Court of Justice, the Mexico City Human
Rights Commission and the Secretariat of Public Security all take action to
prevent the exploitation of women.
The resolution asks that the Secretary of Public Safety create an environment
conducive to the social rehabilitation of inmates while also taking action to
effectively monitor conditions in the nation's prisons. It calls upon the
secretaries of National Defense and the Federal Public Security Secretariat to
act to permanently strengthen the presence of the Federal Police [at prisons],
and to engage in aerial surveillance in the municipalities of Práxedis,
Guadalupe and Valley de Juarez, in Chihuahua state.
Omar Sánchez
El Arsenal
Dec. 11, 2010
Texas, USA
District Attorney: Human Trafficking A Major Problem
San Antonio - On Friday, a jury in state district court sentenced Juan Moreno, 45, to life in prison after convicting him on human trafficking charges. He held a 13-year-old runaway girl captive and forced her to have sex with several men.
Human trafficking, according to Assistant District Attorney Kirsta Melton, is "when a child is, in some way, obtained and then forced into prostitution or forced to engage in any other kind of forced labor or services."
State laws against human trafficking have been strengthened recently and now carry a maximum punishment of life in prison. The state laws are primarily used in domestic cases.
Federal laws against human trafficking, in most cases, deal with international cases.
"Best estimates suggest that there are over 100,000 children being trafficked here in the United States," Melton said. "What we do not realize is that there are huge numbers of our very own children who are being trafficked right here."
Prosecution at both the federal and state levels is vital, she said.
"We've got to take the resources and expertise that we have and apply it to the crisis," Melton said.
Melton said that there are other cases currently being prepared for prosecution in Bexar County. Among them are cases against Moreno's younger brother and two other men accused of raping the teenage runaway.
Paul Venema
KSAT 12 News
Dec. 13, 2010
New Jersey, USA
Farm worker arrested for raping girl in New Jersey
On December 3, New Jersey State Police arrested Elias Santos, 32, and charged him with first degree aggravated sexual assault and endangering the welfare of a child.
According to NJ State Police spokesman Sgt. First Class Stephen Jones, the incident took place two days before Thanksgiving, in the girl’s home in Upper Freehold.
The victim is under the age of 10.
Santos, who works at a Christmas tree farm, admitted to police that he is in the country illegally from Guatemala...
David Gibson
The Examiner
Dec. 15, 2010
Latin America
|
 |
|
University
of
California -
Santa Cruz
professor of
Latin
American and
Latino
studies
Rosa-Linda Fregoso |
UCSC professor explores feminicide in Latin America
…A new book co-edited by University of California - Santa Cruz professor of Latin American and Latino studies Rosa-Linda Fregoso, "Terrorizing Women: Feminicide in the Americas," investigates violence targeted at women and offers some strategies for combating the phenomenon…
Since 1993 more than 1,000 women and girls have been murdered in Ciudad Juarez, according to Fregoso.
Feminicide [also referred to as femicidio (femicide)] is not simply any murder of a female. In "Terrorizing Women" Marcela Lagarde y de los Rios defines feminicide in the preface as "genocide against women " that "occurs when the historical conditions generate social practices that allow for violent attempts against the integrity, health, liberties and lives of girls and women."
In other words, feminicide is systematic violence rooted in social, political, economic and cultural inequalities.
Much of the early attention to feminicide in Mexico revolved around the border factories know as maquiladoras, and structural inequalities between men and women in the border state of Chihuahua. However, as the book points out, the problem is not limited to border states -- in fact the highest rate of feminicide is found in the central, Pacific-coast state of Nayarit -- and is found in many countries outside of Mexico. The book includes chapters that address feminicide in Guatemala, Argentina and Costa Rica, and refers to cases in Peru and other countries.
According to studies done in Mexico and Guatemala, nearly all the cases of feminicide, 98 to 99 percent, go unpunished.
There are many factors contributing to the unabated violence toward women according to Fregoso: patriarchal legal structures, devaluing of women's bodies and lives, systems of impunity, power relationships and legacies of violence and armed conflict.
"Violence against women is a complex phenomenon and there are many factors to consider in explaining feminicide and violence against women," Fregoso said. "We are also attempting to challenge cultural stereotypes about gender violence as rooted in Mexican culture. ... Mexican culture is not monolithic nor is it one thing,' but rather quite diverse and heterogeneous."
While Fregoso says studies have shown that a mere 10 percent of violence against women in Mexico is linked to the drug war, the fight against narco-traffickers has affected the movement to bring attention to feminicide more than just by grabbing all the headlines.
Activists in Ciudad Juarez were holding regular protests, similar to those in Buenos Aires by the Madres del Plaza de Mayo that spread awareness of the disappearances during Argentina's dirty war, but have stopped because of the escalating drug-related violence in the area.
Fregoso, who is a former radio and television journalist from south Texas and joined the UCSC faculty in 2001, sees the current Mexican government's strategy of combating the drug war as incompatible with appropriate methods for addressing feminicide.
"With this particular government in place I'm not confident it will help," Fregoso said. "What is needed is a people-centered approach to human security, instead of a national approach. It will take a grass roots shift of focus to a human security model. The further militarization of law enforcement will not help. The military is not trained to combat this."
Instead, Fregoso advocates for a multi-level approach that addresses fundamental inequalities such as access to jobs and health care, while also seeking justice through collaborations between community groups, advocacy and non-governmental organizations, the state and law enforcement agencies.
"There is a lot of work that still needs to be done," Fregoso said. "We have focused on the problem, the next phase in research is to look at the potential solutions and methods for combating the problem."
In addition to the book, Fregoso and Bejarano have also set up a website,
stop terrorizing women, that is dedicated to raising awareness and coordinating advocacy.
Tovin Lapan
The Santa Cruz Sentinel
Nov. 14, 2010
Indigenous Latin America
HIV/AIDS in Indigenous Communities: Indo-America’s Forgotten Victims
...The International Indigenous Working Group on HIV/AIDS (IIWGHA) is a worldwide network of representatives of native groups that seeks to incorporate “first peoples” into the international efforts to address and combat the spread of HIV. Over half of the members of the IIWGHA represent Central or South American indigenous peoples. As they prepare to release their strategic plan of action in the next few months, it is clearly time to address the social marginalization that has heightened the risk of infection in indigenous populations.
Indigenous Community Marginalization and Health
...The legacy of colonization has left indigenous communities in Latin America significantly marginalized. Most of these groups were forced off of their ancestral lands, which has contributed to critical health issues caused by persistent poverty. With the expenses brought on by poor general health in the community, the “increased burden of care” means that individuals are rarely capable of financially coping with debilitating diseases like HIV/AIDS, much less of engaging in preventative strategies like condom use. The strong correlation between poverty and HIV infection has been analyzed in innumerable contexts, demonstrating that poverty results in less education, poor/inadequate healthcare, and a higher susceptibility to sexual exploitation. Geographical isolation compounds these challenges.
...As the UN report puts it, “Because the spread of HIV in any community involves complex questions of culture, sexuality and social relations, and because indigenous cultures, by definition, are different from prevailing or mainstream cultures, the development of strategies to reduce the impact of HIV on indigenous populations requires real and active engagement with those communities.”
In most Latin American governments, this concept is not well understood or effectively implemented.
Louisa Reynolds reported her findings on HIV in Guatemalan indigenous communities in the Latinamerica Press in July of 2009. This article, which provided one of the earlier-cited anecdotes, began in the city of Almolonga, in the Guatemalan department of Quetzaltenango. Almolonga registered 14 new cases of HIV in the first seven months of 2009. Reynolds reported that, although the mayor recognized the crisis and attempted a campaign for condom use, the town’s evangelical churches vetoed his efforts. Quetzaltenango had 206.71 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, with a total of 1551 HIV positive citizens at the time of the article’s publication, a number which can only continue to grow without active efforts to impede it. The age group most affected was teens and young adults ages 15 to 25.
...Reynolds quoted another Guatemalan mayor, Saturnino Figueroa of San Jaun Ixcoy in Huehuetenango: After people migrate, they come back with sexually transmitted diseases such as AIDS, which has already caused a number of deaths. A young man comes back from the United States infected with the disease and has sex with a number of women. All the women in the community want this man to marry them because they think he will give them material goods. Then, these women have sex with other men and that’s when it becomes a threat to the population. It’s an issue that few people are willing to talk about because it involves a person’s honor and people prefer to remain silent.
Unfortunately, this dynamic of increased HIV susceptibility from patterns of migration pervades the indigenous communities....
The United Nations reported that, though in 2000 only 4.6 percent of HIV/AIDS cases in Mexico came from rural locations, in the decade since, the disease has begun to leave the cities and permeate indigenous, rural areas. A team led by Daniel Hernández-Rosete performed 91 interviews with Purépecha and Zapotec indigenous communities, focusing on the health of indigenous women in the context of the Mexican concubinage institution. Under this cultural practice, some women are “stolen” (robadas) from their families at very young ages to be “concubines” (similar to the English concept of common-law wives) for men. Though many Mexicans accept this practice, it often creates dynamics of hyper-masculinity, machismo, and power domination in concubine relationships. The 91 interviews included 24 women in concubinage and 29 indigenous migrants.
...Many transient workers insist on having unprotected sex with their concubines upon return, in an attempt to keep the women dependent on, and therefore faithful to, the men through pregnancy. The heavily machismo culture prevents many women from resisting, even those who suspected their partners of engaging in sexual behavior abroad and acknowledged the danger this posed to their children’s health as well as their own. In addition, though the concubinage system carries less stigma than the word evokes in English, concubines still have a diminished social support structure. Over time, this system has caused these women to become “wrapped in a spiral of isolation, economic dependency, and domestic violence that places them in situations that diminish their ability to prevent and treat HIV/STIs.”
Though HIV/AIDS in indigenous communities mainly revolves around a simple lack of attention, the Community HIV/AIDS Mobilization Project (CHAMP) has alleged that the indigenous communities in Oaxaca, Mexico, have been actively repressed by a corrupt government. The article claimed that an organization called Frente Común Contra el SIDA discovered that the state AIDS council, COESIDA, was treating indigenous patients improperly (or not at all) and under-reporting rural AIDS cases. It quoted the journals of late AIDS activist Bill Wolf, who pointed to a suspicious relationship between COESIDA’s director and current and past governors. Wolf also claimed that during the disruptive 2006 strikes in Oaxaca, the government forced him to sign an agreement “to cease activities concerning HIV/AIDS.” Wolf also alleged that, even more reprehensibly, the government attacked a Frente-run condom supplier in a mafia-like scenario. Though some of the details of the allegations seem unverifiable to say the least, the simple truth remains that governments are not doing enough to address HIV/AIDS in their indigenous communities...
...Local experts have accused the Brazilian government of covering up an HIV/AIDS crisis in Amazonia. Neil McKenna raised this issue almost 20 years before this announcement in a 1993 article entitled “A Disaster Waiting to Happen.” In it, he referenced a number of alarming statistics, such as high rates of prostitution (among girls as young as 11 years old), and STI rates of 20 percent among garimperos. To conclude, McKenna quoted the founder of the Amazonia AIDS and Health Project, in regards to HIV/AIDS in the region: “The tribes of Amazonia are an endangered species: they’re facing extinction.”
Call to Action
Clearly, the international HIV/AIDS activist community needs more data on this issue in order to develop effective long-term policies. Yet, even from the limited available data, one thing is certain: if Latin American officials do not begin to address HIV/AIDS in indigenous communities swiftly, purposefully, and with the intention of incorporating culture-specific risk factors, the death toll in Indo-America could become catastrophic. Accordingly, this work concludes with an international call to action. It is to be hoped that NGOs, aid networks, governments, and individual activists will answer this call and address the plight of Latin America’s indigenous population before it is too late. There is simply no excuse to continue ignoring this problem.
J. Preston Whitt
Counsil on Hemespheric Affairs
Dec. 01, 2010
Latin America
Violence in Latin America more ruthless, ritualistic
Mexico City: Violence and murder grew across Latin America in 2010, with ruthless, ritualistic bloodshed by drug traffickers and criminal gangs making public safety the top concern in the region.
The execution in northeastern Mexico of 72 US-bound migrants in August, and 37 people killed in Brazil's recent crackdown on criminal gangs in Rio de Janeiro's biggest favela (slum) show the two faces of the regional violence.
"We live in a region where violent and slow, painful death have spilled across the borders," said the director of the Human Rights Institute at Central American University El Salvador, Benjamin Cuellar.
He noted that for the past 10 years, Latin America's murder rate has been twice that of any other continent…
In August, Organization of American States secretary-general Jose Manuel Insulza admitted that Latin America was experiencing an unprecedented crime wave, which "in a number of cities has become a real epidemic".
"Five years ago, we spoke separately of drug cartels, maras, armed gangs, kidnappers, smugglers and
people traffickers. Now all this violence seems to converge in criminal organizations alone," he said after a Mexico City event.
Sofia Miselem
Agence France-Presse (AFP)
Dec. 14, 2010
Southwest U.S., Mexico, Central America
'Lives for Sale': film examination of human trafficking
"Lives for Sale" is a thought-provoking film that humanizes the plight of the immigrant in a heartfelt way. Hollywood films such as "Trade", "Babel", and "Fast Food Nation" explore related issues such as sex trafficking and the exploitation of immigrants.
The "Lives for Sale" documentary examines the reasons why immigrants such as Mexicans and Central Americans are willing to risk death at the hands of "coyote" smugglers and criminal gangs called "maras", or in the deserts of the southwestern United States. Rarely seen is the human tragedy of lives lost and ruined along the permeable border between the United States and the waves of immigrants seeking refuge and a better way of life.
As Mexico's ongoing war with narcotraffickers appears to go awry, and the governments of Central America reach the brink of ungovernability, the people of the United States need to look at the complexity of the issue of immigration and its ties to demands in the US for cheap labor, cheap sex, and cheap produce. That a black market in human beings can exist under the noses of a people known heretofore for the rule of law diminishes our humanity.
Speroforum editor Martin Barillas is a former US diplomat, who also worked as a democracy advocate and election observer in Latin America. He is also a freelance translator.
The Spero Forum
Dec. 08, 2010
Mexico
|
 |
|
Indigenous
girl
children in
Mexico:
Always at
risk from
sex
traffickers,
U.S. and
European
pedophile
sex tourists
and a
government
that doesn't
care. |
|
 |
|
Guillermo Gutiérrez Romero, who is the president of Mexico's National Foundation
for the
Investigation
of Kidnapped
and
Disappeared
Children,
holds a
press
conference
to discuss
the
disappearance
of 140,000
children in
Mexico
during the
past 5 years. |
De cada 10 niños robados uno es recuperado
En México, se estima que por cada diez niños que son robados sólo uno es recuperado, por lo que urge que se tipifique este hecho, como un delito federal y se integren unidades policíacas especializadas de investigación.
Guillermo Gutiérrez Romero, presidente de la
Fundación Nacional de Investigación de Niños Robados y Desaparecidos, observó que este ilícito, comienza, a presentarse con mayor frecuencia en zonas indígenas del país, donde los padres de familia, no cuentan con documentos o fotografías de sus menores que permitan abrir indagatorias...
Only one out of 10 kidnapped children in Mexico is ever recovered
The kidnapping of indigenous children is accelerating due to
the impunity that is made possible by language barriers and a lack of children's birth certificates and photographs
An estimated 50,000 children have been kidnapped and are now living on the streets under the control of sexual exploiters
It is estimated that for every ten children who are kidnapped in Mexico, only one is rescued. Activists are therefore urging the passage of legislation creating a federal crime of child kidnapping and the standing-up of specialized law enforcement units to respond to the problem.
Guillermo Gutiérrez Romero, who is the president of the
National Foundation for
the Investigation of Kidnapped and Disappeared Children believes that the crime of child kidnapping is focused on indigenous regions of Mexico, where the parents of victims do not have birth certificates or photographs that would allow the authorities to investigate their cases.
Gutiérrez Romero added that human trafficking has become the third most profitable criminal activity globally, after arms and drug smuggling. This requires, he said, that the legislative branch of the federal government reform the nation's laws, so that human trafficking becomes a federal crime.
[Note, the nation's current Law to Prevent, and Punish Human Trafficking, passed by Congress in 2007, is not a 'general' federal law. It therefore is not enforceable by federal law enforcement in any of this nation's states, nor in Mexico City. -
LL]
No statistical reporting mechanisms exist in any of Mexico's states to identify unusual patterns in child kidnappings, said Gutiérrez Romero. Therefore, he added, criminal networks operate with complete impunity.
From Gutiérrez Romero's perspective, these kidnappings have three purposes: 1) to sell these children to couples via illegal adoptions; 2) to use the victims for sexual exploitation; and 3) to illegally extract their organs.
Gutiérrez Romero emphasized that the kidnappings of infants and young children is perpetrated specifically to supply the illegal adoptions market. He has recommended that hospitals and clinics step-up security in their facilities.
The kidnapping of children between the ages of 3 and 6 represents a particular pattern, noted Gutiérrez Romero. He said that many young couples in which the woman wants to preserve her figure seek out clandestine adoptions of children in this age range.
Gutiérrez Romero declared that the only statistics that are available about child kidnappings in Mexico indicate that at least 50,000 of these victims live on the streets and are exploited by sex trafficking networks, while at the same time nobody [particularly in law enforcement] takes action to rescue them.
What is striking is that now, in southern Mexico and especially among the indigenous peoples of the region, this phenomenon is beginning to accelerate, especially because the language spoken by
the parents of the victims is not Spanish, said Gutiérrez Romero.
A second problem that impedes the documentation of each of these cases is the fact that parents do not have birth certificates, photographs or other documents that are
required to create the case file that is needed to begin the search.
Gutiérrez Romero concluded by saying that families, schools and hospitals must develop approaches to protect children, and they must fight back, so that the federal authorities echo our demands to pass legislation that responds to this phenomenon.
El Universal
Dec. 09, 2010
See
also:
Mexico
Guillermo Gutiérrez informa que en México en los últimos 5 años han desaparecido 140 mil niños
Para combatir el robo de niños falta voluntad de la autoridad
Culiacán, Sinaloa.- En México, en los últimos 5 años, han desaparecido 140 mil niños, de los cuales sólo el 10 por ciento ha sido recuperado, informó Guillermo Gutiérrez Romero, director general de la Fundación Nacional de Investigaciones de Niños Robados y Desaparecidos IAP.
Señaló que 50 mil de esos infantes están siendo víctimas de la prostitución infantil, mientras que 70 mil de ellos son explotados laboral y sexualmente.
Los rangos de edad, dijo, van desde recién nacidos hasta la adolescencia, siendo las niñas las que encabezan la lista...
Combating the kidnapping of children will remain impossible as long as Mexico's government lacks the will to do so
140,000 Children have been kidnapped during the past 5 years
According to National Foundation for Investigation of Kidnapped and Disappeared Children president Guillermo Gutiérrez Romero, 140,000 children have disappeared during the past 5 years. He added that only ten percent of these children have been found.
Fifty thousand of these victims have become victims of child prostitution. Another 70,000 are subjected to labor and sexual exploitation.
These missing children range in age from recently born infants to adolescents. Girls are the primary victims.
Speaking in the city of Culiacán on the northwestern state of Sinaloa, Gutiérrez Romero declared that large numbers of children are kidnapped from the family nest, given that during divorces, the father often takes his children without the consent of their mother.
When the mother in these cases submits a formal complaint to the authorities, they refuse to receive it. They choose not to believe the woman, and this slows down the investigation.
The segment of the problem of child kidnapping that is expanding is associated with sexual exploitation, noted Gutiérrez Romero.
Gutiérrez Romero emphasized that the law enforcement has the personnel, infrastructure and other resources needed to fight child kidnapping. The only missing element in the equation is political will on the part of these authorities.
Rumors
Although no statistics exist in regard to the kidnapping of children in the state of Sinaloa, Gutiérrez Romero
said that he was speaking here in response to his concerns about the number of rumors of kidnapped children that he has received.
Gutiérrez Romero presented a strategic plan to guide the prevention of child kidnappings. He added that his organization may open an office in the
Sinaloan capitol of Culiacán.
El Debate
Dec, 12, 2010
See
also:
Mexico
"Sufren 50 mil niños explotación sexual"
Culiacán.- Se calcula que en México hay alrededor de 50 mil niños raptados que son explotados sexualmente, sin embargo, no existe una cifra oficial que permita conocer la realidad, dijo el presidente de la Asociación de Niños robados y Desaparecidos, IAP, Guillermo Gutiérrez Romero.
"No tenemos esa cifra. Desconocemos cuál es la radiografía nacional, para saber cuántos niños robados hay en México. Muchas veces los mismos estados niegan cierta información porque no conviene a sus intereses", aseveró.
Por la explotación infantil, indicó, México es considerado el Bangkok de América Latina, donde llegan miles y miles de pedófilos de todo el mundo.
"Les ofrecen carteras donde vienen bebés, niñas y niños de 1 ó 2 años, incluso, para tener sexo con ellos", reveló...
Fifty Thousand children kidnapped suffer [commercial] sexual exploitation
The city of Culiacán on the state of Sinaloa - It is estimated that 50,000 kidnapped children are being sexually exploited
in Mexico, although no official statistics exist to allow us to understand the actual situation, declared Guillermo Gutiérrez Romero, the president of Mexico's National Foundation for Investigation of Kidnapped and Disappeared Children. Gutiérrez Romero, "We don't have any statistics. We don't know how many stolen children exist in Mexico." Gutiérrez Romero warned that, "On many occasions, the state governments themselves have refused to provide certain statistics, because to do so would not be in their own self interest."
Gutiérrez Romero observed that in regard to the [commercial] sexual exploitation of children [CSEC], Mexico is considered to be the Bangkok of Latin America, where thousands of pedophiles arrive from all over the world. "These pedophiles are offered venues where infants, babies of 1 to2-years-of-age are sold, to have sex with them," he declared.
Gutiérrez Romero reported that the majority of CSEC takes place in Mexico's large cities and in its tourist ports. For that reason, he said, these are the locations that pedophiles flock to. "What is known as child sex tourism is taking place in our tourist ports. A number of people choose these destinations to have sex with children."
Gutiérrez Romero cautioned that state governments that have tourist resort areas within their jurisdictions are loathe to announce publicly that the kidnapping of children takes place, because that news would diminish tourism.
Only 10% of child kidnapping victims are rescued, noted Gutiérrez Romero.
Gutiérrez Romero denounced the fact that the laws against stealing cattle in Mexico are more severe than the laws against the kidnapping of children.
Janneth Aldecoa
Noroeste (Northwest)
Dec. 12, 2010
Mexico
[This article from the year 2000, which
mentions the important work of missing children's advocate
Guillermo Gutierrez Romero,
shows that Mexico's federal government has not done much of anything at all to live up
to its responsibility to protect its children from human traffickers during the
past 10 years.]
Often unaided by authorities, Mexican parents of abducted children spend their days
searching and nights haunted by... stolen lives
…At a time when the U.S. Congress has called for better cooperation in tracking American children abducted during custody fights to other countries, including Mexico, the issue of missing Mexican children gets barely a mention.
It is the other side of a story cloaked in silence and malevolence.
In Mexico, families with missing children have no answers. They are lonely voices screaming for justice, for a resolution and government recognition of what they claim is practically an epidemic of crime rings trafficking in children.
In a country where political and drug crimes get all the publicity, where children are coddled and spoiled, it is Mexico's dark secret: Babies, infants and teen-agers are disappearing. Some accounts put the rate at one per day; others say it's much higher.
…Mexico lags behind the rest of the world in legislation to combat the problem.
There is no national data bank on the names and numbers of disappeared children and no single government agency dedicated to finding them.
The federal attorney general's office oversees such cases, and since 1990 Mexico City's attorney general has operated the Center of Support for Missing Persons, but it doesn't investigate.
Mexico is among 28 countries that signed The Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Cooperation in Respect of Inter Country Adoption. Under the agreement, it is required to name authorities responsible for controlling the trafficking of children.
Discussion has been under way to create such a special agency, but it has yet to develop. Officials from the Foreign Relations Secretariat, the president's office and the attorney general have been in contact with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children in Alexandria, Va., to join forces. But it has yet to come to fruition…
"When people rob a bank, there are cameras. But if you steal a child in circumstances no one sees, we are talking about an invisible enemy," said Guillermo Gutierrez
Romero, who runs one of the largest private organizations in Mexico dedicated to finding missing children.
"There is not a trace of anything," said Gutierrez, who heads the National Foundation of Investigations of Stolen and Disappeared Children and has been trying to establish links with the Center for Missing & Exploited Children in Virginia. "In the United States, you have help from the government, from the FBI, from private corporations. In Mexico we are on our own…"
The only organization with a breakdown of the percentage of cases is the
Association for the Recovery of Lost Children, run by accountant Israel Betanzos.
He said about 60 percent of the cases he handles are custodial. That is, a husband or wife took the child. But he said between 30 percent and 40 percent are stolen or kidnapped. Other organizations agree on the breakdown.
"Police don't help us. When we call them, they want money," said Betanzos, who wants to establish an alliance with the Heidi Search Center for Missing Children of San Antonio. "But all the victims are poor. They barely have enough to eat…"
Betanzos said if a child is under 3 years of age, the chance of recovery is virtually nil.
"Minors who are stolen are becoming younger all the time. That way they can't remember their parents or talk about their families, and in many cases they don't even know their name," the newly created Federal Preventive Police said in a statement in March.
"They are stolen for sale to illegal adoption networks that take them out of their country, and are exploited in various forms, including sexually, for pornography and prostitution," he said…
Bring in the clowns
The children's organizations say kidnappers use all means to take a child when parents have their guard down.
"The kidnapping of newborn babies from hospitals and clinics by people dressed as nurses is very common," said Gutierrez, a business administrator who founded his organization after running the Mexico City attorney general's Center for Missing Persons.
"There is also what we call 'shopping from a catalog,' which happens in poor, rural areas," he said.
A few years ago, Gutierrez said, officials discovered a clown ring that traveled to remote indigenous villages in the states of Guerrero, Oaxaca and Veracruz to entertain children and take their photographs.
"The whole village came out, children, parents to see the clowns. They gave out candy and told jokes," Gutierrez said. "When the games were over they took photographs of the children."
A couple of months later, the clowns return to the villages bearing gifts for the children.
"They give presents except to certain ones, the ones selected in photographs," Gutierrez said. "To those they say 'Oh, no! We've run out of toys, but there are more in our van if you come with us.'"
The children follow and are locked inside, not to be seen again, Gutierrez said.
"These rings operate where there is poverty, where people have no power or political clout," Gutierrez said.
Children's organizations say a child can bring anywhere from $10,000 to $100,000 depending on skin and eye color. The whiter the skin, the more expensive…
Susana Hayward
San Antonio Express-News
April 09, 2000
LibertadLatina
Special Section
Read our section on the prostitution of infants by trafficking gangs across Latin America
Mexico
|
 |
|
Men line up
by the
dozens
to buy women
and underage
girls in
prostitution
on Santo Tomás
street, in
Mexico
City's La
Merced
prostitution
zone.
The
photographer's
notes say: "This
is a,
although not
well-known,
Mexico-City
institution.
The small
road Santo Tómas near
the metro
station La
Merced is
one of the
red light
zones.
Men standing
beside the
wall, while
prostitutes
passing by
from time to
time
offering
their
service. The
whole
atmosphere
is so
absurd:
there is no
sound, no
whisper,
nothing.
Just the
sound of the
Prostitutes'
shoes
passing on
the
pavement..." |
La mafia rusa opera en La Merced; prostituye a mujeres del Este
DF.- Prostitutas rusas, de Bulgaria, rumanas y de varias naciones asiáticas están comenzando a operar en las diversas zonas rojas de la Ciudad de México, manejadas por grupos criminales internacionales, denunció la Coalición regional contra el Tráfico de Mujeres y Niñas en América Latina y el Caribe (CATWLAC, por sus siglas en inglés).
María Teresa Ulloa, Directora Regional del organismo precisó que la zona de La Merced, ubicada en la delegación Venustiano Carranza y en donde se concentra gran parte de la prostitución capitalina, se ha incrementado la presencia de extranjeras.
The Russian Mafia operates in Mexico City's La Merced
prostitution zone, and has trafficked Russian, Eastern European
and Asian women to the area
La Merced is used to traffic women from Eastern European to the U.S.
The Regional Coalition Against Trafficking of Women and Girls for Latin America and the Caribbean (CATW-LAC) has denounced the fact that international criminal networks are introducing prostitutes from Russia, Bulgaria, Romania and several Asian nations in Mexico City's various red light districts.
CATW-LAC director Teresa Ulloa noted specifically that the red light zone known as La Merced, where a large part of Mexico City's prostitution activity is concentrated, is experiencing an increase in the presence of foreigners. La Merced is located in the city's borough of Venustiano Carranza.
Ulloa, "[La Merced] has been converted into a zone where we now encounter many foreign women. It looks like a gathering place for models, whereas previously, we only found ugly women, indigenous women and those who charge the cheapest prices. Ulloa added the transsexual prostitution is also on the increase in the area.
Federal deputy Rosi Orozco (National Action Party - Mexico City), who is the president of the Special Commission to Fight Human Trafficking in the Chamber of Deputies (the lower house of Congress), stated that among the women and minor girls who have been forced into prostitution, the ones who receive the worst treatment from the leaders of organized crime are Central Americans.
Ulloa commented that she has filed complaints with the National Institute for Migration [Mexico's immigration service] in regard to the arrival in Mexico of hundreds of young women. Those who are European tell immigration that they are coming to Mexico to teach ballet classes. In reality, said Ulloa, they are employees of table dance clubs.
From La Merced to the United States
Just as European women and girls are trafficked to Mexico City, Mexican females, the majority of whom are underage, are also brought in from across Mexico to be 'trained' as prostitutes in La Merced. After their training, they are exported to the United States.
"[La Merced] has become a distribution center where many women are taken to initiate them in prostitution. They are then taken to Atlanta, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, Miami, Las Vegas, Phoenix and Los Angeles, where they are later rescued," said Ulloa.
Deputy Orozco stated that Mexico is the second largest supplier of human trafficking victims to the United States, after Thailand.
[Note: we refute Deputy Orozco on this point. Mexico is by far the number one
source of foreign born child trafficking victims who are brought into the U.S.
See the below reference.
-
LL].
Deputy Orozco
added that Mexico is among the top five nations globally in regard to the incidence of human trafficking.
Statistics developed by the CATW-LAC estimate that prostitution in Mexico City represents 20% of the national total. The majority of prostitution activity takes place along Mexico's northern border with the U.S.
During a presentation of recommendations for changing police procedures in regard to trafficking victims, provided to the Mexico City Attorney General's office and the Secretariat of Public Security, Ulloa said, "Our estimate of the number of people who are living in sexual exploitation in Mexico City amounts to 250,000 persons. We are extrapolating in our statistics. We know that the parts of the prostitution business that are hidden in the shadows amounts to 80% of the problem. What we can see openly is only 20% of the total, because there are [underground] segments of the trade such as those that are based on the Internet."
Paraselas
Ulloa demanded that Mexico City authorities shut down the so-called paraselas [street runways - see above photo], where prostituted women and girls are presented to potential johns under humiliating conditions that she called outrageous. Ulloa specifically identified the paraselas that exist along the [infamous] Santo Tomás street, Limones Street and Manzanares Street areas of the La Merced red light zone as being problem areas where many underage girls are on display.
Ulloa also called for criminal penalties to be put into place to punish borough officials and police officers who make these activities possible.
In regard to that issue, Mexico City Assistant Prosecutor Dilcya García [who runs victims services and public affairs for the PGJDF] said that the PGJDF is seeking to reform the city's criminal code so that public servants, and especially agents of the PGJDF and police officers who are found to be traffickers of women or prostitution clients, may be charged with aggravating circumstances, and be subject to prison sentences.
García added that her role in the investigation of cases at the PGJDF will continue.
Excélsior
Nov. 30, 2010
See
also:
LibertadLatina
Note
Anti-trafficking leader
Deputy Rosi Orozco and
other officials have
stated on many occasions
that Mexico is the
second largest
'exporter' of trafficked
girls and boys into the
U.S., trailing only
Thailand. This
information is
incorrect.
Here is what is stated
in the
2010 Trafficking in
Persons (TIP) Report,
published by the U.S.
Department of State:
|
…More
foreign
victims are
found in
labor
trafficking
than sex
trafficking,
some of whom
have entered
the country
under work
or student
visa
programs.
Primary
countries of
origin for
foreign
victims
certified by
the U.S.
government
were
Thailand,
Mexico,
Philippines,
Haiti,
India,
Guatemala
and the
Dominican
Republic… |
The TIP report statement
above addresses only
statistics for victims
who actually came into
contact with U.S.
government agencies and
were officially
certified as trafficking
victims. This is a small
percentage of the total
number of foreign born
victims.
In reality, the vast
majority of foreign born
children who are
trafficked for sex or
labor into the United
States are Latin
American. The majority
of those victims are
Mexican.
End impunity now!
Chuck Goolsby
LibertadLatina
Nov. 23, 2010
California, USA
|
 |
|
Above:
Heroes
-
DeMario
Hawkins,
left,
describes
how he and
Sammy
Johnson,
right,
helped to
tackle
Eugene Ramos. |
|
 |
|
Suspect
Eugene Ramos |
Union City sex offender accused of raping 2-year-old
Union City - A registered sex offender was arrested on suspicion of raping a 2-year-old girl in a Dollar Tree store as her relatives were Christmas shopping in the next aisle, police said Thursday.
Eugene Ramos, 36, of Union City, was arrested Wednesday afternoon on suspicion of kidnapping, rape, sexual acts with a child and false imprisonment. He was booked into Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, and the case will go to the District Attorney's Office today.
Ramos was convicted in 2003 for the sexual assault of a 7-year-old in Hayward, police said.
On Thursday, police honored two men who prevented Ramos from fleeing the scene.
Sammy Johnson, 55, of Fremont, was in the store Wednesday afternoon when the crime occurred, and 24-year-old DeMario Hawkins was outside soliciting donations.
"They were absolutely instrumental in the capture of the suspect from yesterday," police Capt. Brian Foley said. "Without their help, the suspect would not be in custody."
The incident began about 1 p.m. when a man grabbed the girl as she returned a ribbon to a Christmas aisle in the store, momentarily leaving the sight of her grandmother and aunt, police said.
"This is not a case of inattentive parents or guardians. "... This happened in the space of 20 to 30 seconds," Foley said.
The man had the child pinned down in the aisle and was sexually assaulting her when he was spotted by the grandmother, police said. The child's pants and diaper had been removed and she was being straddled by the man, who had pulled down his pants and underwear, police said.
The man was pulling up his pants as he fled the store while being chased by the girl's grandmother and aunt, police said.
"She (the aunt) was just hysterical, holding this baby and screaming, 'Please, please, help me,' " Johnson said.
He and Hawkins thought there had been a purse snatching, and intervened.
Hawkins tried to stop Ramos, who squared off and swung at him. Hawkins punched back and hit Ramos on the cheek.
"I reeled back, swung at him and kind of decked him," Hawkins said.
Johnson then tackled Ramos and kept him pinned down...
Police are asking anyone who witnessed the crime to call Sgt. Jared Rinetti at 510-675-5229 or the tip line at 510-675-5207, or e-mail
tips@unioncity.org.
Rob Dennis and Matthew Artz
Oakland Tribune
Dec. 03, 2010
The Dominican Republic
A Full Disclosure: A criminologist fictionalizes real-life crimes of the Caribbean island in novel
Asesino de Crimen o Usurpador de la Ley (published by AuthorHouse).
In an astonishing tale of triumph over adversity, Carlos, Asesino de Crimen o Usurpador de la Ley tells the story of Petra Luna, a single mother raising her son Mico amidst the drug and sex-trafficking streets of the Dominican Republic. When Petra is murdered, Mico, educated at one of the best schools on the island, vows to overturn the violent streets of his country. With his street-wise cousin, Carlos, by his side, Mico dives into the island’s murky underground political movement in hopes of rising as the people’s new president.
“The conventional rules are completely convoluted and broken,” Gomez says of the world his protagonists find themselves. “Therefore they need to find a way to restore order and peace by eradicating the impunity, controlling or eradicating the organize crime activity and educating the people. Carlos knows that in order to reach such a goal, many people will have to be killed.”
A riveting political thriller, Carlos, Asesino de Crimen o Usurpador de la Ley brings the vivacity of the Dominican Republic to life and offers a unique discourse of the realities of organized crime, government corruption, drug trade and human trafficking occurring in Latin America.
About the Author
Orlando N. Gomez was born in San Pedro de Macoris, Dominican Republic, a town known for its great poets and major league baseball players. In San Pedro de Macoris, he began to study law and soon developed a passion for history and justice which led him to victim advocacy. Upon moving to the U.S., he received his licensing in criminology from John Jay College of Criminal Justice. His other books include Caribbus Dagger Bundelle: The Relentless Sprout and The Opprobrium of Wanton Behavior.
PRWeb
Dec. 09, 2010
Added: Dec. 7, 2010
 |
|
Teresa Ulloa - Executive Director
of the Regional Coalition Against Trafficking in Women and Girls for Latin America (CATW-LAC) |
Mexico
México, primer lugar de AL en producir pornografía infantil
La Coalición Regional contra el Tráfico de Mujeres y Niñas en América Latina y el Caribe reportó que en estados fronterizos y del Pacífico registran un millón 200 mil víctimas de trata de personas. En el país la tendencia es traer rusas y búlgaras para explotarlas
La Coalición Regional contra el Tráfico de Mujeres y Niñas en América Latina y el Caribe (CATW-LAC, por sus siglas en inglés), informó que México ocupa el primer lugar de Latinoamérica en producción de pornografía infantil, el tercero en consumo de esos materiales y el quinto en trata de personas, y que en estados de las fronteras y del Pacífico, se han reportado al menos un millón 200 mil víctimas vinculadas a redes del narcotráfico...
Mexico holds first place in the production of child pornography in Latin America
Press conference
CATW-LAC reports that 1.2 million victims of human trafficking exist along Mexico's border states and on its Pacific coast.
Russian and Bulgarian women are also brought into Mexico
The Regional Coalition Against Trafficking in Women for Latin America (CATW-LAC) is reporting that Mexico occupies first place among Latin American nations in the production of child pornography. Mexico places third as a consumer of child porn, and holds 5th place in human trafficking in the region. At least 1.2 million trafficked persons have been reported to exist in these
regions of Mexico. The victims are being exploited by the drug cartels.
During a recent press conference, CATW-LAC Executive Director Teresa Ulloa indicated that the cartels have diversified their activities in response to the increased [effectiveness of] law enforcement responses to criminal drug trafficking activities. They now engage in piratery, kidnappings and human trafficking for the purposes of exploiting these individuals in the drug trade and in prostitution.
Ulloa noted that 20% of human trafficking victims are minors. She added that "Mexico holds fifth place among Latin American nations in human trafficking statistics. Only the Dominican Republic, Haiti. Brazil and Argentina rank higher than Mexico." Ulloa emphasized that "Mexico holds first place as a producer, and third place as a consumer of child pornography among
the countries of the region.
Ulloa also declared that Russian and Bulgarian women are brought to Mexico under the guise that they will be smuggled into the United States, or that they are coming for [an arranged] marriage. In reality, these women are trafficked to Mexico for the purpose of sexual exploitation...
The problem of child exploitation affects almost the entire nation of Mexico. Some 70% of Mexico's 31 states report suffering from the problem of child trafficking and child sex tourism.
In general, 90% of sexually exploited children have not completed primary school, and 22% of child victims are illiterate. Eighty eight percent of sexually exploited minors become the mothers of at least three children.
Ulloa states in her report, "During the past two decades the age of initiation of females into prostitution has dropped from 15 to 11. The daughters of sex workers in the La Merced prostitution zone n Mexico City, for example, are condemned without exception to engage in prostitution. Normally, the mother sells her daughter's virginity between the ages of 11 and 13, for an average price of 10,000 Mexican pesos (US$800)."
The sale of women
and girls
Pablo Navarrete, the coordinator for judicial affairs for the National Women's Institute (Inmujeres - a federal agency) stated during the
event that the tradition of families selling their daughters for livestock, money or even two cases of beer, continues in the [rural] states of Oaxaca, Chiapas, Campeche and Guerrero.
Navarrete noted that in the state of Oaxaca, for example, local authorities do not accept the existence of human trafficking because they lack sufficient information. It is therefore important to work in a coordinated manner to raise their awareness in this regard. "The cost of a woman ranges from a sack of corn to a pig," he said.
"In indigenous communities, girls are sold by their family. It is these practices that must be reversed, given that they result in forced marriages and also slavery. Although people are sold to become domestics or for sexual exploitation, the penalties are higher for stealing a cow than they are for assaulting a woman." Said Navarrete.
According to the penal codes of 20 Mexican states, a man who uses violence or deception to kidnap, hold hostage and rape a women is freed from any criminal liability if he agrees to marry his victim. [This holds true in many Latin American nations -
LL.]
In additional, added Navarrete, "it is outrageous that 30 state criminal codes protect those who commit child rape, and also legitimize the forced marriage of minors, something that international law forbids" declared Navarrete.
Navarrete rejected the idea that respect for "traditions and customs" should be used to justify violence against women and trample their human rights.
Ricardo Bucio Mujica, chairman of The National Council to Prevent Discrimination, CONAPRED, presented additional statistics. According to reports from CONAPRED, there are a growing number of cases of women [and girls] who were sold to rich people to serve as domestics in big cities, and then fell into the hands of criminal groups involved in pornography and the sex trade.
Bucio Mujica, "Females engaged in domestic work range in age from 12 to 29. We have seen that the phenomenon of human trafficking for domestic work is widespread, as is child labor trafficking, organ trafficking and commercial [sexual] exploitation."
[Note, the vast majority of domestic servants in Mexico are poor indigenous girls in the 12-to-14 years-of-age range.
-
LL]
Full English Translation
Blanca Valadez
Milenio
Nov. 30, 2010
See
also:
Latin America
Over 5 million Latin American women sex trade victims
Mexico City - More than five million women have become victims of people trafficking networks in Latin America and 10 million more are at risk of falling prey, activist Teresa Ulloa has said.
The director of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women - Latin America and the Caribbean (CATW-LAC), also said that the traders "are more and more linked with organized crime", and added that poverty had made the phenomenon " skyrocket
in recent years".
"It's a very serious problem," said Ulloa Monday after inaugurating CATW-LAC's first formal conference here. Part of the problem of the current spike in this kind of crime is due to the fact that "organized crime throughout Latin America has diversified its illicit activities", moving into "very lucrative" activities such as sex trafficking, Ulloa said.
"A dose of drug is sold once and there's no more profit. They can sell a woman or a girl up to 40 or 50 times per day, making $40 or $60 each time and they can be exploiting her for five years," she added. She said she feared that the number of women and minors involved in the trade will grow in the coming months "because of the problem of the recession and poverty", both of which are bound to the economic crisis.
The meeting in Mexico City brought together non-governmental organizations from 20 Latin American and Caribbean countries who want to create forums to improve information about these cases and to make proposals for better public policies.
According to the International Organization for Migration, earnings from sex trafficking amount to about $16 billion per year in Latin America.
EFE
March 26, 2009
See also:
Mexico
En desventaja, niños mexicanos indocumentados
Mexico's
undocumented migrant children are at a
disadvantage for refugee
benefits
Thousands of
children cross alone
into the U.S. each year to escape child sex trafficking networks
Many of the 80,000 Mexican children who cross from Mexico into the U.S. alone,
as undocumented immigrants, are fleeing abuse at home, or are escaping from
child prostitution rings. As such, they would possibly qualify for permission to
stay in the United States.
These children would be able to avail themselves of this opportunity if U.S.
Border Patrol officers would provide them with the appropriate interview form,
as federal law requires. Instead, they minors are typically deported in less
than 24 hours after their arrests.
This is the reality facing children at risk, as described by attorney
Christopher Nugent. For many years, Nugent, of the law firm Holland and Knight,
has represented Mexican and Central American children and adults with
immigration problems. His work has been pro bono.
The Border Patrol treats unaccompanied Central American children differently
from Mexican children arrested as undocumented migrants. They are held for 72
hours before a decision is made to deport them. They are taken to a juvenile
detention center where they are given access to lawyers. Nugent estimates that
approximately 20,000 Central American children each year cross into the United
States...
"There are many Mexican children who qualify to receive asylum… most minors are
between 13 and 17 years, but are also 10-year-olds who migrate alone" said
Nugent, who regretted the fact that these Mexican children are not given the
option to talk with lawyers or with the Mexican consulate.
...Thousands of Mexican and Central American
children flee northward into the U.S. each year to escape child prostitution...
Nugent explained how in Mexico there exists terrible child trafficking in the
area of Acapulco, Guerrero, and that many now call this region "the new Bangkok"
of child sex tourism. Nugent also emphasized that Tijuana
[on the U.S. border with San Diego County] has also become an zone controlled by
powerful child prostitution networks. Many children [in prostitution] from
Tijuana are trying to flee to San Diego.
According to Nugent 70 percent of children who migrate and come to the Office of
Refugees in the United States have suffered some sort of trauma from violence or
sexual exploitation...
[Note: The 2010 renewal
of the Trafficking
Victim's Protection Act,
which was passed by
Congress and signed into
law, resolves some of
the child asylum vetting
process issues raised by
Christopher Nugent in
the above article
-
LL]
Full English Translation
Georgina Olson
Excélsior
July 3, 2008
Mexico
|
 |
|
Dr.
Patricia
Olamendi
is
shown during
a previous
presentation
to the
United
Nations.
Dr. Olamendi
is a former
Vice-Minister
for Global
Issues in
Mexico's
Ministry of
Foreign
Affairs |
México ignora trata de personas: Olamendi
Edomex inaugura Foro Regional para Prevención y Erradicación de ese mal
Toluca, Méx.— De las 33 mil denuncias telefónicas que ha registrado el programa Llama y Vive que opera en Perú, Nicaragua, Costa Rica y el estado de México, 12 mil han estado relacionadas con el delito de trata de personas y de éstas se han derivado 180 denuncias penales, dijo ayer Ellis Juan, representante del Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (BID) en México.
En el marco del Foro Regional para la Prevención y Erradicación de la Trata de Personas, inaugurado por el gobernador mexiquense, Enrique Peña Nieto, el representante del BID precisó que el programa inició operaciones en Perú y desde hace un año la entidad mexiquense se incorporó al esquema que tiene como objetivo denunciar el ilícito que, según organismos internacionales, después del tráfico de droga y armas es el que genera más ganancias.
“Nos preocupa mucho todo el impacto que está teniendo el tráfico ilegal de personas de Centroamérica, hacia el norte —Estados Unidos—, que buscan mejores oportunidades de trabajo y, México es una región de paso”, comentó Ellis Juan.
Patricia Olamendi, experta mexicana en el tema y colaboradora del Comité Técnico del Mecanismo de Seguimiento de la Convención de Belem Do Pará, sostuvo que el delito de trata de personas, en su modalidad de prostitución y tráfico de migrantes, es ignorado por las autoridades federales y estatales, entre otras cosas, porque es aceptado por la sociedad...
Dr. Patricia Olamendi:
The nation of Mexico
ignores human
trafficking
Mexico State
opens regional forum in
regard to the prevention
and eradication of
trafficking
The city of Toluca in
the state of Mexico – Of
the 33,000 complaints
received by the
anti-trafficking project
Call and Live in the
nations of Peru,
Nicaragua, Costa Rica
and the state of Mexico
[a state within the
nation of Mexico], some
12,000 were related to
the crime of human
trafficking. Those
complaints have led to
180 criminal charges
being filed.
These results were
announced by
Ellis Juan,
a representative of the
Inter-American
Development bank (IDB)
in Mexico.
[Note: The Call and Live
project is a
collaboration between
the
Ricky Martin Foundation
and the IDB.]
During the opening
events of the Regional
Forum on the Prevention
and Eradication of Human
Trafficking, which began
with a presentation by
Governor
Enrique Peña Nieto of Mexico state, the IDB’s Juan
stated that the Call and
Live hotline had been in
operation for one year.
The program will now be
implemented in Mexico
state.
Ellis stated, “We are
very concerned about the
impact that the mass
illegal trafficking in
persons from Central
America - people who are
seeking to reach the
United States – is
having as they pass
through Mexico.
Dr. Patricia Olamendi,
who is a Mexican expert
in human trafficking and
a collaborator on the
Technical Committee of
the Monitoring Mechanism
for implementation of
the Convention of Belem
do Para, declared that
the forms of human
trafficking that involve
prostitution and migrant
trafficking are being
ignored by federal and
state authorities
[across Mexico], because
human slavery is
accepted by our society.
"We do not see any
responses to human
trafficking from state
prosecutors across
Mexico. Nor is the
federal Attorney
General’s office
responding, despite the
fact that they are
spending millions of
pesos [on
anti-trafficking
activities].
Pardon me for saying
this, but we also see no
response from the
courts. This is a form
of complicity with the
human traffickers”, said
Dr. Olamendi.
Dr. Olamendi noted that
in some states,
prosecutors are not
investigating
trafficking and when
they do, they
equivocate. That is,
they do not follow the
protocols that, for
example, indicate that
under no circumstances
can a prosecutor state
the identity of the
victim in his
[public] statements. There are
also no special spaces
for those who will
testify (such as the
Gesell chamber) to avoid
direct eye contact with
the aggressor.
Dr. Olamendi believes
that prosecutors and
officials in general who
work with human
trafficking cases must
be trained. If they are
negligent in their
duties they should be
sanctioned.
During the event,
Dr. Olamendi
stated
that every day, domestic
workers [many of whom
are young, teens and are
often indigenous], are
treated as objects and
are forced to submit to
schemes of servitude
that are similar to
slavery…
Federal congresswoman
Rosi Orozco (of the
ruling National Action
Party-PAN), who is the
president of the Special
Commission to Fight
Human Trafficking in the
Chamber of Deputies [the
lower house of
Congress], stated that
human trafficking is a
crime as serious as
kidnapping. Both crimes,
she added, should
involve the same
investigative mechanisms
and criminal sanctions.
Deputy Orozco noted that
the exception to the
rule in regard to state
responses was Mexico
City [a federated entity
– with powers similar to
those of a state], where
human trafficking is
investigated and
criminals face [serious]
penalties. In the rest
of Mexico’s states, said
Deputy Orozco,
prosecutors don’t even
worry about the problem.
Governor Peña Nieto
declared that his
administration will open
a specialized judicial
center next year that
will provide integral
services to victims.
El Universal
Dec. 04, 2010
The United States, Mexico, Latin America
|
 |
|
John Walsh,
Host of
America's
Most Wanted |
Teens Enslaved in Plain Sight
John Walsh, Host of "America's Most Wanted" speaks to CNN news anchor Anderson
Cooper in regard to human trafficking
John Walsh: It [human slavery] is all -- it's all over this country, and I don't think politicians or the criminal justice system has really dealt with it. It's the ugly underbelly of America...
And who is the No. 1 country that engages in sex trade and use of illegal workers and keeping them in slavery like those women? It's America. And we have Central Americans. We have Mexicans --
CNN's Anderson Cooper: Tens of thousands of people are brought -- are trafficked into the United States for this, for slavery.
Walsh: For sex, for work, work they don't want to do, work they don't have to do, seven days a week. Brutalized, scared to death, threatened with, "We'll kill you. We'll kill your family…"
Walsh: Of retribution. I mean, the people who manipulate these people are good at it. They brought them in. They smuggled it in. Look at the Mexican people that have been smuggled in here. I've done many cases of Mexican pimps and madams. A woman who smuggled in young girls from Mexico telling them that they're going to be maids… at the Ritz Carlton. They're going to be a waitress at an Applebee's.
And where are they brought to? South Florida where I'm from or they're brought to Southern California or Texas. And they're brutalized by -- pimps control them and say, "I'll kill you. You don't tell anybody. Or we'll get back into Mexico and we'll kill your loved ones. We know exactly where you're from. We got you from your family."
Cooper: Do you think the law knows how to deal with this? I mean, the trafficker in the case of the Africans
[highlighted in a film segment] in the hair salon got 27 years. That's an extraordinarily long sentence for -- it's a rare sentence.
Walsh: It's a bellwether. It's great. It sends that large message that, if you're going to bring people into this country illegally and exploit them, you're going to pay for it. And
I think law enforcement's [been] ready to saddle up for years. They just don't have the resources.
The FBI and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children just partnered up in a nationwide sting. And they arrested 900 people that were involved in sex trafficking of little children, of teenagers, girls, 12, 13 years old. They got -- I forget how many kids that they got out of that. Something like 30 kids they got out of it.
[Sixty nine children were rescued in the FBI's Operation Cross Country V - LL].
They've been wanting to do this for years. They need the mandate. They need the money. They need the training. They need the resources. And they need the politicians to say it's not just enough to deport these guys and push them back over the border. They're going to come back in six months and they're going to operate somewhere else...
News Anchor Anderson Cooper
CNN
Dec. 02, 2010
Argentina
700 mujeres fueron secuestradas para la prostitución en Argentina en año y medio
Buenos Aires - La trata de mujeres con fines de prostitución tuvo un crecimiento alarmante en Argentina, donde en los últimos 18 meses desaparecieron 700 mujeres -entre ellas varias de otros países- que se sumaron a las llamadas rutas de la soja y del petróleo, reveló una ONG.
"La trata de personas en Argentina en los últimos 10 años tuvo un crecimiento sumamente preocupante", dijo a AFP Fabiana Túñez, de La Casa del Encuentro, una ONG que elabora la única estadística disponible sobre el secuestro de mujeres para el tráfico sexual...
700 women
[and girls] were abducted for prostitution in Argentina during the past 18 months
Buenos
Aires – The rate of trafficking in women for purposes of sexual exploitation has
underdone an alarming
increase in Argentina. During the past 18 months 700 women have disappeared,
including a number of victims from countries beyond Argentina.
"The
growth in human trafficking in Argentina during the past 10 years has been
extremely worrying", said Fabiana Túñez of the non
profit organization Casa del Encuentro, which produces the only statistics
available on the abduction of women for sex trafficking in Argentina.
Túñez stated,
"In the past year and a half 700 women and girls have gone missing. They were
kidnapped by human trafficking networks for prostitution. Of these victims, 70% are
Argentinean. The rest are Paraguayans, Dominicans, Peruvians, Bolivians and
Brazilians, in that order...”
"One thing that particularly concerns us is that
recently, the age of the victims of prostitution networks has decreased. We are
seeing children and adolescents ranging from ages 8 to 16," noted Túñez.
Boys and adolescent males are also being targeted...
"Once
they are in the hands of these mafias, the victims are subjected to 20 days of
what traffickers call the
ablande (the softening-up
process). The victim is
raped, tortured, their family is threatened, and they are given drugs to break
them mentally. After this process, they are moved into the brothels,”
revealed Túñez.
After stealing the victim’s identity documents,
or after they are given counterfeit documents, the victims are hidden away in
regions that they are not familiar with. They are forced to receive customers as
frequently as once every 20 minutes.
"A pimp
can buy a kidnapped woman for between $2,000 and $ 3,000, but there are also
auctions of teenagers and girls - to see who wins the right to steal her
virginity. Johns bid up to $7,000 for this,” reported
Túñez.
The
'investment' is extremely profitable given that each slave will generate about $2,000
for her pimp each month, a figure that can increase fivefold in the case of a girl
under age 12.
Trafficked women are kept at a given [brothel] location for only 20 to 25 days.
When they are rotated, the brothels advertise a "change list" to draw their
customers' attention...
Túñez
denounced the fact that "the existence of human trafficking requires the
complicity of the political and judicial powers, as well as the security
forces." She added that there must also exist "social indifference, and men who
are willing to pay for sex with women in slavery..."
See also:
Full English Translation
Josefa Suárez
AFP
Dec. 02, 2010
See also:
Argentina
Grave: el 50% de las mujeres víctimas de trata de blancas en el país son menores de edad
Argentina tuvo un alarmante crecimiento en la trata de mujeres para explotación sexual en el último tiempo. Aunque no existe una estadística oficial, los datos recogidos por la ONG La casa del encuentro sugieren que el flagelo en el país ya atrae a las grandes redes internacionales dedicadas a la prostitución.
"En los últimos 18 meses secuestraron en Argentina a 700 mujeres para explotación sexual. De ellas, el 50% son menores de edad", aseguró a ámbito.com Fabiana Túñez, coordinadora general de la asociación. A estos escalofriantes números se le agregó el dato de que en los pasados dos años "han aumentado los casos de mujeres- niñas de entre 10 y 17 años"...
Grave
crisis: Some 50% of sex trafficking victims in Argentina are minors
Argentina has recently
experienced an alarming increase in sex trafficking. Although no official
statistics exist, data gathered by the NGO Casa del Encuentro suggest that this
scourge is experiencing rapid growth at the hands of large, international sex
trafficking mafias.
According to Fabiana Túñez
general coordinator of Casa del Encuentro, “during the past 18 months 700 women
and girls have been kidnapped in Argentina for purposes of exploiting them
sexually. Half of the victims are minors.” Túñez added that during the past two
years, the sexual enslavement of girls ages 10 to 17 has increased…
Guadalupe Rivero
ámbito.com
Dec. 02, 2010
New York, USA
Sex trafficking in Brooklyn
Sex traffickers in Brooklyn are targeting Caribbean teenage girls, many as young as 13 years, to lure them into prostitution.
Young women from Russia, Germany, China and Latin America are also on the radar screen of criminal youth gangs, including the Crips, Bloods and Latin Kings, who beat, threaten or otherwise force them into becoming prostitutes.
That alarm was raised by Charles Hynes, Brooklyn’s district attorney and top prosecutor, who has created the Brooklyn Sex Trafficking Unit, BKSTU, to investigate cases and bring perpetrators to court. He has also launched a public information campaign to heighten awareness about what he calls a “barbaric” crime. “It’s hundreds of kids and every one of these kids is being trafficked,” Hynes said. “People misunderstand trafficking. When you say trafficking they picture someone being spirited across the Canadian or Mexican border.”
Hynes explained that the profile of a victim was a teenage girl who had moved to the city with her parents from the Caribbean, Europe, Asia and Latin America, probably as an undocumented immigrant, and would have been approached by a gang member.
She was then enticed by the young man who pretended to be interested in a relationship as a boyfriend but then forced her into prostitution...
Carib News
Reprinted in the New York Times
Nov. 28, 2010
See also:
New York, USA
Brooklyn DA Works With Local Community to Fight Trafficking
Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes knows too well that the U.S. is not immune to the problem of sex trafficking – it occurs in his own borough every day. And high at risk, Hynes says, are young immigrant girls. That's why he's working with the community and New York celebrity activists like Sarah Jessica Parker and Gabourey Sidibe to create a community safety net for trafficking victims.
According to Hynes, girls between the ages of 13 and 15 are frequently trafficked in Brooklyn, many of them from Latin American countries, as well as Europe and China. Lacking proper documentation and a good handle on language, these girls are easy prey for sex traffickers, many of whom, Hynes says, belong to gangs. The Crips, Bloods and Latin Kings, among other groups, specifically target young, undocumented immigrants, knowing their trademark tactics of threats, coercion and brutality will work like a charm in pushing the girls into prostitution...
Angela Longerbeam
End Human Trafficking
Nov. 30, 2010
See also:
LibertadLatina
Note
The below letter from a
Latina social worker,
although written 11
years ago, continues to
accurately describe the
problem of
community-based sexual
exploitation that is
epidemic in immigrant
neighborhoods across the
United States and
throughout the Americas.
This pattern of largely
uncontested gender
violence, targeting
underage girls and young
women, including many
immigrants, is actively
used by criminals to
entrap victims into
forced prostitution. The
crime organizations know
that the immigrant
community's code of
silence, its
vulnerability to legal
status issues and its
fear of both police and
criminals will provide
the shield that is
needed to hide sex
trafficking and allow it
to flourish right under
our noses.
During a September 2010
interview with a human
trafficking victim's
shelter director working
in greater Washington,
DC, for example, the
director stated that ALL
of the victims that her
organization is rescuing
in Washington's populous
Virginia suburbs were
sex trafficked by major
Latin gangs.
End impunity now!
Chuck Goolsby
LibertadLatina
Dec. 02, 2010
Added: 2001
A Washington, DC Latina
social worker and girls
community center
director's letter
Dear Mr. Goolsby,
"...Over the past two
years, I have been
observing a systemic
pattern of violence
committed against girls
and young women in our
community. This violence
involves the sexual
abuse/assault against
girls as young as 10
years old...
...There
have been incidents of
date rape, gang rape,
abductions, drugging,
threats with firearms,
etc. The incidents are
just as you described in
your letter [ Chuck
Goolsby's 1999 letter to
the National Center for
Missing and Exploited
Children],
and have been met with
the same level of
indifference and
dismissal of legal
(never mind moral)
responsibility on the
part of civil
institutions -- the
police department,
public schools, etc."
...While some do say
this is culturally
accepted behavior, the
reality is that many
families -- mothers and
fathers alike -- are
enraged and wanting to
pursue prosecution of
the perpetrators, but
they find themselves
without recourse when
the police won't respond
to them, when they fear
risking their personal
safety, and/or when
their legal status
(undocumented) prevents
them from believing they
have rights or legal
protection in this
country. Many girls and
young women's families
are threatened and
harassed by the
perpetrators when it
becomes apparent that
the family is willing to
press charges for
statutory rape/child
sexual abuse.
...The use of
intimidation and
violence to control
girls and their families
results in the
following: 1)
parents/guardians back
off from pressing
charges, 2) relatives do
not inform the police or
others of sightings of
girls and young women
who have been officially
reported as "missing
juveniles," and 3) the
victims of sexual
violence refuse to
participate as "willing
witnesses" in the
prosecution / trial
process...
- Excerpt of a letter
from a Latina social
worker and girl's
community center
director working with
young Latina girls in
Washington, DC's largest
Latino neighborhood.
Late
1999
See also:
New York, USA
Prostituted Youth in New York City: An Overview
…By focusing on New York, where ECPAT-USA [End Child Prostitution and
Trafficking] is based, this report presents the dynamics and ramifications of child prostitution in the microcosm of one city… Through interviews with social workers, law enforcement officials, and others, we are learning that the problem only appears to be getting worse. Younger children are being coerced into prostitution under ever more violent circumstances. Gang pimping has become more common in recent years, as well as sexual assaults and kidnappings by pimps and clients…
…Susan Breault of the Paul and Lisa Program estimates that there are roughly five thousand youth and children in prostitution in New York City…
…The average entering age of prostitutes has decreased from fourteen to thirteen or even twelve years of age in recent years. Also, many girls physically mature between the ages of twelve to thirteen and are prime candidates for the sex trade. According to Laura Italiano, reporting on the scene in East New York, Brooklyn, "the youngest girls are so popular, their customers cause traffic jams…"
Sexually exploited youth in New York reflect the ethnic diversity of the city. A report on New York City streetwalking prostitutes revealed that half of all the prostitutes were African-American, twenty-five percent were Latino, and twenty-five percent were White… According to [Rachel Lloyd, Executive Director of GEMS, Girls Educational & Mentoring Services], latent racism may also serve as one explanation for the lack of attention given to CSEC [commercial sexual exploitation of children], because of the high percentage of prostituted youth who are of color: "They aren't your sympathetic victims-these kids are loud, foul-mouthed, and they're not White..."
Mia Spangenberg
ECPAT-USA
2001
Mexico
Consideran a Tijuana como capital de trata
Tijuana.- Debido a que en Tijuana operan redes de trata de personas y pedófilos que buscan a menores de edad que se encuentran en diversas casas de masajes en esta ciudad fronteriza, ahora es considerada el "Bangkok de Latinoamérica", reveló la Diputada federal panista, Rosi Orozco...
Tijuana is considered to be a capitol of human
trafficking
Tijuana - Due to the fact that human trafficking networks operate in Tijuana and pedophiles seek out minors in the city's many massage parlors, the region has become known as the Bangkok of Latin America.
Congressional deputy Rosi Orozco (PAN - Mexico City), who is the president of the Special Commission to Fight Human Trafficking in the Chamber of Deputies [lower house of Congress] discussed trafficking in Tijuana during a ceremony held to kick-off the United Nations Blue Heart Campaign against human trafficking initiative in this border city. Deputy Orozco was joined
at the event by a panel that included honorary consuls from Honduras and Guatemala as well as representatives of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC - creators of the Blue Heart campaign) and Mexico's secretaries of the Interior (governance), External Relations and Public Security.
Deputy Orozco applauded the office of the State Attorney General of Baja California for having joined the campaign.
"I believe that everyone who lives in Tijuana knows about this problem, because resident have told me that pedophiles refer to this city as the Bangkok of Latin America…" declared Deputy Orozco.
She continued, "We know that there are specific streets in the Coahuila street area [the city's official prostitution tolerance zone], where 12 and 13-year-old girls are displayed as if they were merchandise, as objects, where they are being sold.
A large number of human trafficking mafias from the central Mexican state of Tlaxcala are present in Tijuana, noted Deputy Orozco.
Orozco, "They are pimps who pretend to fall in love with these girls. They have created international networks. They bring a large number of girls to Tijuana, where it is easy to take them over the border into the U.S.
Deputy Orozco said that Mexico is the second largest source of boys and girls exported to the United States, after Thailand.
Deputy Francisco Sánchez (Party of the Democratic Revolution), stated that a study conducted three years ago when he was in charge of the state's office for human rights prosecutions, found that minors were [engaging in prostitution] in massage parlors, where they were given fake identification cards [showing that they were adults].
Adriana Lizárraga, the director of Attention for Victims of Crimes and Witnesses within the state attorney general's office, explained that the Blue Heart Campaign's principal objective was to awaken consciousness about this problem in the general population.
Lizárraga, "In Baja California, nobody has filed a criminal complaint in regard to human trafficking crimes. Because of this, we have no statistical data [about the problem]. We also have not assisted any victims of trafficking. The only cases that we have processed have been for corruption of minors and for pimping…
Aline Corpus y Miguel Cervantes
Agencia Reforma
Nov. 15, 2010
A sample of
other
important news stories and
commentaries from
2009 and 2010
India
Human trafficking slur
on Commonwealth Games
The jinxed Commonwealth
Games could have done
without this. After
being troubled by
brittle infrastructure,
CWG 2010 has now been
blamed for a jump in
trafficking of women and
children from the
Northeast. The
accusation has come from
Meghalaya People’s Human
Rights Council (MPHRC)
general secretary Dino
D.G. Dympep. The
platform he chose on
Tuesday was the general
debate discussion on
racism, discrimination,
xenophobia and other
intolerance at the 15th
Human Rights Council
Session at the UN
headquarters in Geneva,
Switzerland.
“The human rights
situation of indigenous
peoples living in
Northeast India is
deteriorating,” Dympep
said, adding New Delhi
has chose to be
indifferent to human
trafficking of and
racial discrimination
toward these indigenous
groups.
“What worries the
indigenous peoples now
apart from racial and
gender-based violence is
the fear of alleged
human trafficking for
flesh trade.” The number
of indigenous women and
children trafficked
particularly for the
upcoming CGW could be
15,000, he said.
The rights activist also
underscored the racial
profiling of people from
the Northeast on the
basis of their
ethnicity, linguistic,
religious, cultural and
geographical
backgrounds.
Dympep also pointed out
86 per cent of
indigenous peoples
studying or working away
from their native places
face racial
discrimination in
various forms such as
sexual abuses, rapes,
physical attacks and
economic exploitation.
“The UN has condemned
India's caste system and
termed it worse than
racism. The racism faced
by indigenous peoples of
the Northeast is
definitely the outcome
of the caste system.
Such negative attitude
as ignoring the region
will only lead to deeper
self-alienation by the
indigenous peoples,
which comes in the way
of integration in
India,” he said.
Rahul Karmakar
Hindustan Times
Sep. 28, 2010
LibertadLatina
Note:
Indigenous peoples
across the world face
the problem of being
marginalized by the
dominant societies that
surround them. They
become the easiest
targets for human
traffickers because the
larger society will not
stand up to defend their
basic human rights.
Exploiting the lives and
the sexuality of
indigenous women is a
key aspect of this
dynamic of oppression.
We at
LibertadLatina
denounce all forms of
exploitation. We call
the world's attention to
the fact that tens of
thousands of indigenous
peoples in the Americas,
and most especially
women and girls in
Guatemala and Mexico,
are routinely being
kidnapped or cajoled
into becoming victims of
human trafficking.
For 5
centuries, the economies
of Latin America have
relied upon the forced
labor and sexual
exploitation of the
region's indigenous
peoples as a cornerstone
of their economic and
social lives. Mexico,
with an indigenous
population that
comprises 30% of the
nation, is a glaring
example of this dynamic
of racial, ethnic and
gender (machismo) based
oppression. In Mexico,
indigenous victims are
not 'visible' to the
authorities, and are on
nobody's list of social
groups who need to be
assisted to defend
themselves against the
criminal impunity of the
sex and labor
trafficking mafias.
For
Mexico to arrive in the
21st Century community
of nations, it must
begin the process of
ending these feudal-era
traditions.
End impunity now!
Chuck Goolsby
LibertadLatina
New York, USA
|
 |
|
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
 |
|
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 marginalized
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
21, 2010
Video of Mexican Interior Secretary Fernando Gómez Mont's presentation at the Feb. 23rd and 24th, 2010 congressional Forum for Analysis and Discussion in Regard to Criminal Law to Control Human Trafficking.
[Ten minutes - In Spanish]
Deputy Rosi Orozco
On YouTube.com
Feb. 26, 2010
See also:
LibertadLatina Commentary
|
 |
|
Chuck Goolsby |
Lead, Follow or Get Out of the Way!
Mexican Interior Secretary Fernando Gómez Mont's presentation at the congressional Forum for Analysis and Discussion in Regard to Criminal Law to Control Human Trafficking has been widely quoted in the Mexican press. We have posted some of those articles here (see below).
The video of Secretary Mont's discourse shows that he is passionate about the idea of raising awareness about human trafficking. He states: "Making [trafficking] visible is the first step towards liberation."
Secretary Mont believes that the solution to human trafficking in Mexico will come from raising awareness about trafficking and from understanding the fact that machismo, its resulting family violence and also the nation's widespread extreme poverty are the dynamics that push at-risk children and youth into the hands of exploiters.
During Secretary Mont's talk he expressed his strongly held belief that federalizing the nation's criminal anti-trafficking laws is, in effect, throwing good money after bad. In his view, the source of the problem is not those whom criminal statutes would target, but the fundamental social ills that drive the problem.
The Secretary's views have an element of wisdom in them. We believe, however, that his approach is far too conservative. An estimated 500,000 victims of human trafficking exist in Mexico (according to veteran activist Teresa Ulloa of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women - Latin American and Caribbean branch - CATW-LAC).
|
A note about the figures quoted to describe the number of child sexual exploitation victims in Mexico...
Widely quoted 'official' figures state that between 16,000 and 20,000 underage victims of sex trafficking exist in Mexico.
We believe that, if the United States acknowledges that 200,000 to 300,000 underage children and youth are caught-up in the commercial sexual exploitation of children - CSEC, at any one time, based on a population of 310 million, (a figure of between .00064 and .00096 percent of the population), then the equivalent numbers for Mexico would be between 68,000 and 102,000 child and youth victims of CSEC for its estimated 107 million in population.
Given Mexico's vastly greater level of poverty, its legalization of adult prostitution, and given that southern Mexico alone is known to be the largest zone in the world for the commercial sexual exploitation of children (CSEC), with 10,000 children being prostituted just
in the city of Tapachula (according to ECPAT figures), then the total number of underage children and youth caught-up in prostitution in Mexico is most likely not anywhere near the 16,000 to 20,000 figure that was first released in a particular research study from more than five years ago and continues to be so widely quoted today. |
Regardless of what the actual figures are, they include a very large number of victims.
While officials such as Secretary Mont philosophize about disabling anti-trafficking law enforcement and rescue and restoration efforts, while instead relying upon arriving at some far-off day when Mexican society raises its awareness and empathy for victims (and that is Mont's policy proposal as stated during the recent trafficking law forum), tens of thousands of victims who are being kidnapped, raped, enslaved and sold to the highest bidder need our help. They need our urgent intervention. As a result of their enslavement, they typically live for only a few years, if that, according to experts.
The reality is that the tragic plight of victims can and must be prevented. Those who have already been victimized must be rescued and restored to dignity.
That is not too much to ask from a Mexico that calls itself a member of civilized society.
Mexico exists at the very top of world-wide statistics on the enslavement of human beings. Save the Children recognizes the southern border region of Mexico as being the largest zone for the commercial sexual exploitation of children on Planet Earth.
Colombian and Mexican drug cartels, Japanese Yakuza mafias and the Russian Mob are all 'feeding upon' (kidnapping, raping, and exporting) many of the thousands of Central and South American migrant women who cross into Mexico. They also prey upon thousands of young
Mexican
girls and women (and especially those who are Indigenous), who remain unprotected by the otherwise modern state of Mexico, where Roman Empire era feudal traditions of exploiting the poor and the Indigenous as slaves are honored and defended by the wealthy elites who profit (economically and sexually) from such barbarism.
Within this social environment, the more extreme forms of modern slavery are not seen as being outrageous by the average citizen. These forms of brutal exploitation have been used continuously in Mexico for 500 years.
We reiterate our view, as expressed in our Feb. 26th and 27th 2010 commentary about Secretary Mont.
Interior Secretary Mont has presided over the two year delay in implementing the provisions of the nation's first anti-trafficking law, the Law to Prevent, and Punish Human Trafficking, passed by Congress in 2007.
-
The regulations required to enable the law were left unpublished by the Interior Secretary for 11 months after the law was passed.
-
When the regulation were published, they were weak, and left out a role for the nation's leading anti-trafficking agency, the Special Prosecutor for Violent Crimes Against Women and Human Trafficking in the Attorney General's office (FEVIMTRA).
-
The regulations failed to target organized crime.
-
The Inter-Agency Commission to Fight Human Trafficking, called for in the law, was only stood-up in late 2009, two years after the law's passage, and only after repeated agitation by members of Congress demanding that President Calderón act to create the Commission.
-
Today, the National Program to Fight Human Trafficking, also called for in the 2007 law, has yet to be created by the
Calderón administration.
-
In early February of 2010, Senator Irma Martínez Manríquez stated that the 2007 anti-trafficking law and its long-sought regulations were a 'dead letter' due to the power of impunity that has contaminated the political process.
All of the delaying tactics that were used to thwart the will and intent of Congress in passing the 2007 anti-trafficking law originated in the National Action Party (PAN) administration of President Felipe Calderón. All aspects of the 2007 law that called for regulations, commissions and programs were the responsibility of Interior Secretary Mont to implement. That job was never performed, and the 2007 law is now accurately referred to as a "dead letter" by members of Congress.
Those of us in the world community who actively support the use of criminal sanctions to suppress and ultimately defeat the multi-billion dollar power of human trafficking networks must come to the aid of the many political and non governmental organization leaders in Mexico who are working to create a breakthrough, to end the impasse which the traditionalist forces in the PAN political machine have thrown-up as a gauntlet to defeat effective anti-trafficking legislation.
Interior Secretary Mont's vision for the future, which involves continuing on a course of complete inaction on the law enforcement front, must be rejected as a capitulation to the status quo, and as a nod to the traffickers.
While "Little Brown Maria in the Brothel" - our metaphor for the voiceless victims, suffers yet another day chained to a bed in Tijuana, Acapulco, Matamoros, Ciudad Juárez, Mexico City, Tlaxcala, Tapachula and Cancun, the entire law enforcement infrastructure of Mexico sits by and does virtually nothing to stop this mass gender atrocity from happening.
That is a completely unacceptable state of affairs for a Mexico that is a member of the world community, and that is a signatory to international protocols that fight human trafficking and that defend women and children's human rights.
We once again call upon U.S. Ambassador at Large Luis CdeBaca, director of the Trafficking in Persons office at the State Department, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and President Barack Obama to stand-up and speak out with the moral authority of the United States in support of the forces of change in Mexico.
Political leaders and non governmental organizations around the world also have a responsibility to speak-up, and to let the government of President Felipe Calderón know that the fact that his ruling party
(finally)
supported presenting a forum on trafficking, and the holding of a few press conferences, is not enough of a policy turn-around to be convincing.
The PAN must take strong action to aggressively combat the explosive growth in human slavery in Mexico in accordance with international standards. Those at risk, and those who are today victims, await your effective response to their emergency, President Calderón.
Enacting a 'general' federal law that is enforceable in all of Mexico's states would be a good fist step to show the world that sincere and honest voices against modern day slavery do exist in Congress, and are willing to draw a line in the sand on this issue.
As for Secretary Mont, we suggest, kind sir, that you consider the age-old entrepreneurial adage, and either "lead, follow, or get out of the way" of progress.
No more delays!
There is no time to waste!
End impunity now!
- Chuck Goolsby
LibertadLatina
March 1, 2010
See Also:
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.
Ulloa Ziaurriz said that human trafficking is the second largest criminal industry in the world today, a fact that has given rise to the existence of a very large number of trafficking networks who operate with the complicity of both [corrupt] government officials and business owners.
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:
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]
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Added: Dec. 03, 2009
Mexico
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Award-winning anti-child sex trafficking activist, journalist, author and women's center director Lydia Cacho |
Muertes por violencia en México podrían ser plan de limpieza social: Cacho
Especialistas indagan si asesinatos vinculados con el crimen son una estrategia del Estado, dijo.
Madrid. Las muertes por violencia en México en los últimos años, 15 mil en los últimos tres años, podrían formar parte de un plan de "limpieza social por parte del Estado mexicano", declaró este lunes en Madrid la periodista mexicana Lydia Cacho….
Deaths from violence in Mexico could be the results of social cleansing: Lydia Cacho
Specialists are investigating whether murders are state strategy, Cacho says.
Madrid. Deaths from violence in Mexico in recent years, including 15,000 during the past three years, could form part of a plan of "social cleansing by the Mexican State," declared Mexican journalist Lydia Cacho in Madrid, Spain on Monday.
"Experts are beginning to investigate at this time in Mexico whether these 15,000 murders are linked to intentional social cleansing by the Mexican State," Cacho said in a press conference in which she denounced human rights violations and persecution of the press in her country.
Since President Felipe Calderón [became president] three years ago, we have been witnessing a growing authoritarianism in Mexico "justified by the war " (on drugs), in which " militari-zation, and harassment of journalists and human rights defenders is increasing danger-ously," stated Cacho.
Cacho was kidnapped [by rogue state police agents] and tortured in Mexico after divulging information about a pedophile ring in which businessmen and politicians were involved.
The Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) will determine in an upcoming decision whether Mexican authorities violated the rights of the journalist in that case.
The foundation that bears Cacho's name, created in Madrid a year ago, is organizing a concert to raise funds to help pay for her defense before the IACHR...
Cacho is the author of [the child sex trafficking exposé] The Demons of Eden. In recent years she has received several awards for her work on behalf of human rights carried out through investigative journalism, including the UNESCO-Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Award.
Agence France Presse (AFP)
Nov. 23, 2009
See also:
Mexican Government Part of Problem, Not Solution, Writer Says
Madrid - A muckraking Mexican journalist known for exposes of pedophile rings and child prostitution said on Monday that President Felipe Calderón’s bloody campaign against Mexico’s drug cartels is “not a battle for justice and social peace.”
Lydia Cacho, who has faced death threats and judicial persecution for her writings, told a press conference in Madrid that Mexico’s justice system is “impregnated with corruption and impunity.”
Accompanied by the head of the Lydia Cacho Foundation, Spanish screenwriter Alicia Luna; and Madrid Press Association President Fernando Gonzalez Urbaneja, the author said the nearly three years since Calderón took office have seen increased “authoritarianism” and harassment of journalists and human rights advocates.
The period has also witnessed “15,000 documented killings,” Cacho said, exceeding the carnage in Colombia at the height of that country’s drug wars.
“Specialists are beginning to investigate if those 15,000 killings are linked with intentional social cleansing on the part of the Mexican state,” she said.
Calderón, she noted, “insists on saying that many of those deaths are collateral effects and that the rest are criminals who kill one another.”
“It is a war among the powerful and not a battle for justice and social peace,” she said of the military-led effort against drug cartels, which has drawn widespread criticism for human rights abuses.
Cacho also lamented “self-censorship” in the highly concentrated Mexican media, saying that many outlets color their reporting to avoid trouble with the government and other powerful interests.
A long-time newspaper columnist and crusader for women’s rights, Lydia Cacho became famous thanks to the furor over her 2005 book “Los demonios del Eden” (The Demons of Eden), which exposed wealthy pedophiles and their associates in the Mexican establishment.
In the book, she identified textile magnate Kamel Nacif as a friend and protector of accused pedophile Jean Succar Kuri, who has since been sent back to Mexico from the United States to face charges.
Nacif, whose business is based in the central state of Puebla, accused Cacho of defamation - a criminal offense - in Mexico and arranged to have her arrested for allegedly for ignoring a summons to appear in court for the case.
In February 2006, Mexican dailies published transcripts of intercepted phone conversations in which Nacif was heard conspiring with Puebla Governor Mario Marin and other state officials to have Cacho taken into custody and then assaulted behind bars.
The transcripts indicated that Nacif, known as the “denim king” for his dominance of the blue-jeans business, engineered the author’s arrest by bribing court personnel not to send her the requisite summonses.
Cacho was subsequently released on bail and the case against her was ultimately dismissed.
EFE
Nov. 24, 2009
See Also:
LibertadLatina
Special Section
Journalist / Activist
Lydia Cacho is
Railroaded by the
Legal Process for
Exposing Child Sex
Networks In Mexico
See Also:
Perils of Plan Mexico: Going Beyond Security to Strengthen U.S.-Mexico Relations
Americas Program Commentary
Mexico is the United States' closest Latin American neighbor and yet most U.S. citizens receive little reliable information about what is happening within the country. Instead, Mexico and Mexicans are often demonized in the U.S. press. The single biggest reason for this is the way that the entire binational relationship has been recast in terms of security over the past few years...
The militarization of Mexico has led to a steep increase in homicides related to the drug war. It has led to rape and abuse of women by soldiers in communities throughout the country. Human rights complaints against the armed forces have increased six-fold.
Even these stark figures do not reflect the seriousness of what is happening in Mexican society. Many abuses are not reported at all for the simple reason that there is no assurance that justice will be done. The Mexican Armed Forces are not subject to civilian justice systems, but to their own military tribunals. These very rarely terminate in convictions. Of scores of reported torture cases, for example, not a single case has been prosecuted by the army in recent years.
The situation with the police and civilian court system is not much better. Corruption is rampant due to the immense economic power of the drug cartels. Local and state police, the political system, and the justice system are so highly infiltrated and controlled by the cartels that in most cases it is impossible to tell the good guys from the bad guys.
The militarization of Mexico has also led to what rights groups call "the criminalization of protest." Peasant and indigenous leaders have been framed under drug charges and communities harassed by the military with the pretext of the drug war. In Operation Chihuahua, one of the first military operations to replace local police forces and occupy whole towns, among the first people picked up were grassroots leaders - not on drug charges but on three-year old warrants for leading anti-NAFTA protests. Recently, grassroots organizations opposing transnational mining operations in the Sierra Madre cited a sharp increase in militarization that they link to the Merida Initiative and the NAFTA-SPP [North American Free Trade Act - Security and Prosperity Partnership] aimed at opening up natural resources to transnational investment.
All this - the human rights abuses, impunity, corruption, criminalization of the opposition - would be grave cause for concern under any conditions. What is truly incomprehens-ible is that in addition to generating these costs to Mexican society, the war on drugs doesn't work to achieve its own stated objectives...
Laura Carlsen
Americas Program, Center for International Policy (CIP)
Nov. 23, 2009
Added: Dec. 03, 2009
Mexico
The Numbers Don't Add Up in Mexico's Drug War
Drug Seizures are Down; Drug Production, Executions, Disappearances, and Human Rights Abuses are Up
Just a week before Mexican president Felipe Calderón completes half of his six-year term, [leading Mexico City newspaper] La Jornada reports that 16,500 extrajudicial executions [summary murders outside of the law] have occurred during his administration. 6,500 of those executions have occurred in 2009, according to La Jornada’s sources in Calderón’s cabinet...
While executions are on the rise, drug seizures are down, and drug production is up, Mexico is also experiencing an alarming increase in human rights abuses perpetrated by government agents - particularly the army - in Calderón’s war on drugs. As Mexican human rights organizations have noted, human rights violations committed by members of the armed forces have increased six-fold over the past two years. This statistic is based on complaints received by the Mexican government’s official National Human Rights Commission (CNDH).
No Mas Abusos (No More Abuses), a joint project of the Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez Human Rights Center, the Fundar Center for Analysis and Investigation, and Amnesty International’s Mexico Section, monitors human rights abuses committed by soldiers, police, and other government agents.
Kristin Bricker
My Word is my Weapon
Dec. 1, 2009
See also:
LibertadLatina News Archive - October 2009
El Paso - …Mexican human rights official Gustavo de la Rosa Hickerson [has] reported 170 instances of Mexican soldiers allegedly torturing, abusing and killing innocent people in Chihuahua [state].
The Associated Press
Oct. 17,2009
See also:
LibertadLatina Commentary
According to press reports from Mexico, the Yunque secret society is the dominant faction within the ruling National Action party (PAN).
El Yunque holds the belief that all social activists, including those who advocate for improving the lives of women, indigenous people and the poor, are literally the children of Satan. They take aggressive political action consistent with those beliefs.
During the 1960s, El Yunque perpetrated political assassi-nations and murders targeting their opponents. Although today they profess to adhere to the political process to affect change, it is not a stretch, given their violent history, to conclude that Lydia Cacho's concern, that the federal government of Mexico may be engaging in 'social cleansing through "extrajudicial killings" (which is just a fancy way to say state sanctioned murder of your opponents), may be valid. Cacho is a credible first hand witness to the acts of impunity which government officials use at-times to control free and independent thinking in Mexico.
We have documented the steady deterioration of human rights for women in Mexico for several years. Mexico is one of the very hottest spots for the gender rights crisis in the Americas.
The systematic use by military personnel of rape with total impunity, targeting especially indigenous women and girls, is one example of the harshness of these conditions. The case of the sexual assaults carried out by dozens of policemen against women social protesters in the city of Atenco, Mexico in 2006 is another stark case.
The Mérida Initiative, through which the U.S. Government is funding Mexico's drug war to the tune of $450 million over several years, is financing not only that war, but it is also, apparently, strengthening the authoritarian rule of the El Yunque dominated PAN political party.
El Yunque, which has been identified as being an anti- women's rights, anti-indigenous rights, anti-Semitic, anti-protestant and anti-gay 'shadow government' in Mexico, does not deserve even one dollar of U.S. funding.
Defeat the drug cartels?
Yes!
Provide funding for El Yunque's quest to build empire in Mexico while rolling-back women and indigenous people's basic human rights?
No!
Chuck Goolsby
LibertadLatina
Dec. 4, 2009
About El Yunque
The National Organization of the Anvil, or simply El Yunque (The Anvil), is the name of a secret society... whose purpose, according to the reporter Alvaro Delgado, "is to defend the [ultra-conservative elements of the] Catholic religion and fight the forces of Satan, whether through violence or murder "and establish" the kingdom of God in the land that is subject to the Mexican Government, to the mandates of the Catholic Church, through the infiltration of all its members at the highest levels of political power.
Wealthy business-men and politicians (mostly from the [ruling] National Action Party) have been named as alleged founders and members of The Anvil.
About El Yunque on Wikipedia.com |
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¡Feliz Día Internacional de la Mujer!
Happy International Women's Day!
LibertadLatina
Nuestra declaración de 2005 Día Internacional de la Mujer es pertinente hoy en día, y define bien la emergencia hemesferica que enfrentan las mujeres y en particular as niñas de todas las Américas.
Pedimos a todas las personas de conciencia que siguimos trabajando duro para inform al público en general acerca de esta crisis, y que aumentamos nuestra presión popular sobre los funcionarios electos y otros encargados de tomar decisiones, que deben cambiar el statu quo y responder con seriadad, por fin, a las atrocidades de violencia de género -en masa- que afectan cada vez mas a las mujeres y las niñas de las Américas.
¡Basta ya con la impunidad y la violencia de genero!
LibertadLatina
Our 2005 statement for International Women's Day is relevant today, and accurately defines the hemispheric emergency facing women and especially girl children in the Americas.
We ask that all people of conscience work hard to continue informing the general public about this crisis, and that we all ramp-up the pressure on elected officials and other decision makers, who must change the status quo and respond, finally, to the increasingly severe mass gender atrocities that are victimizing women and girls across the Americas.
End Impunity and violence against women now!
Chuck Goolsby
LibertadLatina
March 8, 2008 |
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Read our special section on the crisis in the city of Tapachula
Mexico
The city of Tapachula, located in Chiapas state near Mexico's border with Guatemala, is one of the largest and most lawless child sex trafficking markets in all of Latin America.
Our new news section tracks events related to this hell-on-earth, where over half of the estimated 21,000 sex slaves and other sex workers are underage, and where especially migrant women and girls from Central and South America, who seek to migrate to the United States, have their freedom taken from them, to become a money-making commodity for gangs of violent criminals.
A 2007 study by the international organization ECPAT [End Child Prostitution and Trafficking]... revealed that over 21,000 Central Americans, mostly children, are prostituted in 1,552 bars and brothels in Tapachula.
- Chuck Goolsby
Libertad Latina |
|
Added
June 15,
2008
Ending
Global
Slavery:
Everyday
Heroes
Leading
the Way
Humanity
United
and
Change-makers,
a
project
of
Ashoka
International,
are
conducting
a global
online
competition
to
identify
innovative
approaches
to
exposing,
confronting
and
ending
modern-day
human
slavery.
View the
over 200
entries
from 45
nations
See
especially:
Teresa
Ulloa:
Agarra
la Onda
Chavo",
Masculini-dad,
Iniciación
Sexual y
Consumo
de la
Prostitución
('Get It
Together
Young
Man:
Masculinity,
Sexual
Initiation
and
Consumption
of
Prostitution).
Equidad
Laboral
Y La
Mujer
Afro-Colombiana
(Labor
Equality
and the
Afro-Colombian
Woman)
Alianza
Por Tus
Derechos,
Costa
Rica:
Our
borders:
say no
to
traffick-ing
of
persons,
specially
children
(APTD's
news
feed is
a major
source
of
Spanish
language
news
articles
translated
and
posted
on
LibertadLatina).
Prevención
de la
migración
temprana
y
fortalecimiento
de los
lazos
familiares
en apoyo
a las
Trabajadoras
del
Hogar en
Ayacucho
(Preventing
early
migration
and
re-enforcing
families)...
serving
women in
Quechua
and
Spanish
in
largely
Indigenous
Ayacucho,
Peru.
LibertadLatina.org
contributor
Carla
Conde -
Freuden-dorff,
on her
work
assisting
Dominican
women
trafficked
to
Argentina
Contribute
your
comments
and
questions
about
competition
entries.
-
Chuck
Goolsby
LibertadLatina
June
15/21/22,
2008
See also:
Added June 15, 2008
The
World
Entrepreneur
for
Society
Bill
Drayton
discusses
the
founding
of
Ashoka...
"Our job
is not
to give
people
fish,
it's not
to teach
them how
to fish,
it's to
build
new and
better
fishing
industries."
-
Ashoka
Foundation
See
also:
Ashoka
Peru |
|
Mexico
|

|
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A woman is paraded before Johns on Mexico City's Santo Tomás Street, where kidnap victims are forced into prostitution and are 'trained'
(C) NY Times |
The
Girls
Next
Door
The New
York
Times'
ground-breaking
story on
child
and
youth
sex
trafficking
from
Mexico
into the
United
States
Excerpt:
[About
Montserrat,
a former
child
trafficking
victim:]
Her cell
of sex
traffickers
offered
three
age
ranges
of sex
partners
--
toddler
to age
4, 5 to
12 and
teens --
as well
as what
she
called a
''damage
group.''
''In the
damage
group
they can
hit you
or do
anything
they
wanted...''
- Peter
Landesman
New York
Times
Magazine
January
25, 2004 |
| |