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Indigenous & Latina Women & Children's Human
Rights News from the Americas |
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Indigenous North America |
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Women & Children at Risk |
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Title: Catholic Church Will be Served with Federal Lawsuit |
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Publisher: Black Hills People's News |
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Publish Date: 2003-March Edition |
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PINE
RIDGE--Mr. Gary Frischer was in Pine Ridge this week. Frischer is a
Multi-District Litigation Consultant. Mr. Frischer said that Attorney
Jeffrey Herman, who has previously and successfully sued the Catholic
Church, is representing hundreds of Lakota who have been sexually,
mentally and physically abused.
"It's about the alleged stripping of the Lakota Culture from many
children who attended Catholic schools in the past," Frischer said. "And
the federal lawsuit will be filed in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, on 17
March."
When Frischer was asked how long he's been around here, he answered, "I
came here in September to do research, so we have solid legs to stand
on. This is my fifth trip here, every two or three weeks I'm here. And
what I have found is that the Catholic Church, including Holy Rosary,
has completely derailed a culture. Our goal is to reflect what has
happened to these Indian people. I have always said, if Indian people
want to practice their traditions, they should be allowed to do so."
When asked if he and Attorney Herman were accustomed to major lawsuits
such as this, he answered, "I have been at this for 23 years, and this
is the best lawsuit I've been involved in. I did the DuPont Fire and the
Union Carbide lawsuit in India. We did the litigation on the Lockerbie,
Scotland, terrorist attack. Another high-profile lawsuit we did was the
MIA Act of Congress."
BHPNEWS: The Catholic Church has lost a lot of credibility in the past
few years.
"With all the sexual abuse lawsuits the Catholic Church has been
involved in," Frischer said, "the Church has lost all credibility. And
that is in our favor. We have discovered the U.S. government allegedly
made secret payments for children to attend St. Francis. The government
paid for children to go to that school. And the school is supposed to be
independently funded. That's concealment."
BHPNEWS: Will a successful lawsuit shut down the Catholic schools in
Indian country?
Frischer said no, the schools will still be there and operating. The
U.S. government honors treaty stipulations; therefore, the government
will keep them running.
BHPNEWS: Abuse of children in Catholic schools is so well know, I'm
surprised a lawsuit like this hasn't come forward years ago.
"People elsewhere don't care," Frischer said. "If people elsewhere,
white people, went through what the Indian people went through due to
the Catholic Church, they would have had the church in court years ago.
And the lawsuits would have driven the Church out of business. It's time
for justice here. Two years ago we couldn't have successfully done this.
Timing is everything now. This lawsuit will bring change to the whole
Indian world."
BHPNEWS: This lawsuit will be high profile?
"Yes," Frischer answered, "people everywhere need to know what happened
during and after colonization. To see that maybe these people, who
brought and forced Christianity on the people, weren't so holy. To make
the lawsuit high profile, the minute the lawsuit is filed in Sioux
Falls, we will go to worldwide media. Worldwide media has already been
notified."
When asked what drives his consulting firm and law team to seek out
these cases, Frischer replied, "I love doing these projects. These
horrors, allegedly inflicted on one group of people, need to be dealt
with in litigation; then the grieving and healing can begin. There was
so much oppression of your people. I have interviewed so many Indian
people, and the same names of priests and nuns keep popping up. When
these priests and nuns bot out of hand, the Church just transferred
them; just transferred the problem to a different area."
BHPNEWS: In history books, I have read where the Catholics basically
traded souls for soil.
"According to the 1868 Treaty," Frischer said, "the schools were brought
to the Indians to teach English. And that was it. Schools weren't
allowed to convert Indian people to Christianity. And they definitely
weren't set up to inflict sexual, physical and mental torture. And they
definitely weren't set up to destroy a nation of people and their
culture. The people never asked for a holocaust."
Mr. Frischer hosted an informational meeting/supper at Wapamni CAP this
past Tuesday. His flyer read:
If you are interested in joining the hundred of Oyate that are pursuing
this litigation, please attend this important meeting. For more
information, please call Floyd Hand at 867-5762.
Mr. Frischer can also be reached at 605-384-5100 or gfomedia.com
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Últimas Noticias
Latest
News
May 2008 News
Mexico
Soldados nos agreden:
mujeres Me’phaa de La Montaña, Guerrero
Soldiers Subject Indigenous Women & Communities
to Terror in Guerrero State
Fortina Cruz Ortega, of
the Me`phaa ethnic group (members of the larger
indigenous Tlapaneca tribe of the region called
La Montaña in Guerrero state), joined with four
other indigenous women... to denounce human
rights abuses occurring in La Montaña... The
group... gave testimony before the Indigenous
Affairs Committee of the Chamber of Deputies...
Cruz Ortega: "We,
the women of the Me`phaa, live in everyday fear
of leaving our homes, because military soldiers
harass us... Many of our women have been raped
by these soldiers, but they remain silent
because if their husbands found out, they would
get angry and leave them."
Cruz Ortega, the
wife of Orlando Manzanares Lorenzo, also
denounced the fact that her husband, as well as
the husbands of the other four women present,
had been falsely accused in the homicide of
Alejandro Feliciano García, a police and
military informant. Those detained include:
Manuel Cruz Victoriano... who denounced having
been forcibly sterilized by workers of the
Secretary of Health; ... and Natalio Ortega Cruz
and Romualdo Santiago Enedina, both... cousins
of a woman named Inés, who... was raped by
soldiers in 2002...
The wives of these
prisoners declared that the only 'crime' their
husbands are guilty of is that of having
organized and protected their communities...
After the women
concluded their statements at the press
conference, Deputy Marcos Matías Alonso
announced that the following day, the issue of
the
Me`phaa leadership's unjust
arrest would be presented to the Senate of the
Republic by Senator Cuauhte-moc Sandoval, a member of the
Permanent Commission...
- Sandra Torres
Pastrana
CIMAC Noticias
Mexico City
May 8, 2008
See also:
Lorenzo Fernández Ortega,
a leading member of the Me Phaa Indigenous
People’s Organization (Organización del Pueblo
Indígena Me Phaa - OPIM) and brother of Inés
Fernández Ortega, was kidnapped on 9 February
and found dead the following day, in Ayutla de
los Libres, Guerrero State.
Other members of OPIM have also
suffered threats and intimidation since the day
of the kidnapping. Amnesty International is
gravely concerned for their safety.
- Amnesty International
Feb. 22, 2008
Mexico's Indians Target of
Sterilization 'Sweep'
Ayutla de los Libres - Jose
Toribio, a Mixtec Indian from the Sierra Madre
mountains... attributes the pain [in his leg] to
a vasec-tomy he had two years ago after visits
to his remote village by No. 3 Brigade, a state
medical team...
Toribio now says he had the
operation because of threats made to him by No.
3 Brigade.
His claims are supported by the
official Guerrero Human Rights Commission...
- Linda Diebel
Toronto Star (Canada)
March 26, 2000
LibertadLatina
The crisis of forced
sterilization facing indigenous and Latin
communities in the Americas
Mexico
A view from the
frontlines of grass-roots action to rescue
children in sexual slavery in Mexico
About the Breaking Chains
Mission, based in Tijuana, Mexico
Steven Cass: "Our ministry actually works street
level to identify and then rescue victims of
child prostitution and trafficking. We have
over 150 rescues so far from 7-22 years old and
are in the midst of an extended trip in Southern
Mexico where we have identified 100's in this
situation. Over the next month we pray to bring
them to freedom."
[The front page of the
above web site contains a moving video of
testimonies from teen girls rescued from the
street by the Breaking Chains Mission.]
Breaking Chains Mission
Report
For 5-11-2008
Report Excerpt:
Mexico's Southern Pacific Coastal Tourist
Areas
...In terms of what’s happening here on this
mission…there is much. I am seeing numerous
children involved in prostitution with tourists,
many as young as 5-7 years old. As I walk the
areas where this is prevalent it is clear that
the locals are very aware of what’s happening
between their children and the tourists who
flock here...
North Americans and those from other countries
as well are known here for one thing…looking for
drugs and underage boys and girls...
Last night as I walked through one of the main
party zones I was approached by a hustler who in
perfect English asked me if I wanted “underage
girls.” I asked him “what about the laws?” His
reply made me want to vomit…he said with a grin
that had satan written all over it: “we have a
great government here.”
I do believe the local authorities are trying to
stop it but like the war on drugs they have
turned a cheek for so long that the problem is
almost beyond hope...
- Steven Cass
Breaking Chains Mission
May 11, 2008
LibertadLatina
note:
Dear Steven Cass,
Thanks for your letter.
Keep up the great work. We know that it is tough
and lonely on the frontlines!
Many of the most effective acts against impunity
are those taken by individuals and small groups
of volunteers who have the fortitude to walk
into the jaws of evil and dare to rescue victims
from impunity. We salute your efforts to
rescue our children and youth in peril.
End
impunity now!
-
Chuck Goolsby
LibertadLatina
May 14, 2008
Mexico
Exigen frenar explotación
laboral de menores indígenas
Congress Demands an End to the Labor
Exploitation of Indigenous Children
Approximately three
million mostly indigenous children and
adolescents face labor exploitation in Mexico
due the economic problems facing 80% of the
population, and due to the customs of families
who use the labor of their children to survive.
According to a
report by Mexico's Chamber of Deputies, the
majority of these children abandon school or are
about to do so, as their families migrate to
cities and agricultural export farm regions.
Deputy César Flores
Maldonado, coordinator for the Revolutionary
Democratic Party (PRD) stated: "The child labor
force can be seen in workshops, farm fields,
ware-houses, markets, long-haul trucking and
high-risk activities such as sexual
exploitation. It is a well-established reality
in our nation. Little-or-nothing is done to
eradicate it."
Some 15.7% of
underage Mexicans engage in some type of work.
An estimated 54.7% of child laborers are
domestic workers [many of whom are sexually
exploited].
About 5,000 children
work as 'carriers' in Mexico City's warehouse
industry. The government does nothing to control
this exploitation, which causes accidents and
deformities for these working children.
Nine in ten indigenous
child laborers receive no pay for their work.
The states with the
highest rates of child labor are Chiapas,
Campeche, Puebla and Veracruz, where 22% of
minors work.
In Mexico City,
15,000 minors live and work on the city's
streets,
- La Cronica
Mexico
May 2, 2008
LibertadLatina
note:
The
feudal Spanish system of slave labor that was
imposed on indigenous peoples in Mexico and
across Latin America during the European
colonial period (1400's-1800's) has continued to
operate with impunity in Mexico and many other
Latin American countries unchanged.
For
500 years, indigenous women and children have
remained the primary target of opportunity for
sexual predators, and sex traffickers,
across the Americas.
(Yes, our peoples were sex-trafficked even 500
years ago.)
End
impunity now!
-
Chuck Goolsby
LibertadLatina
May 14, 2008
See also:
An undercover
reporter in
Spain
poses as
a buyer
[pimp], and is
Offered six
virgin
Indigenous
'girls
[all of them
age 13] by
a trafficker.
The
'sale' price
in Europe
for young Mayan
girls
kidnapped
from
Chiapas,
Mexico:
$25,000
each.
(In Spanish)
-
Antonio Salas and
Joan Manuel Baliellas
Crónica
Spain
Feb. 29, 2004
Investigará
gobierno de
Chiapas
venta de
indígenas en
Europa
Chiapas
State
Investigates
Sale of
Young Mayan
Girls in
Europe.
(In Spanish)
- CIMAC Noticias
News for Women
Mexico City
March 15, 2004
LibertadLatina
About the Crisis of Sexual Exploitation
Affecting Women and Children in Mexico
Idaho, USA
The use of "illegal
immigrant" in Idaho rapist story creates false
connection
An appalling story
out of St. Anthony, Idaho speeded across the
Internet this morning. According to Idaho Falls
CBS affiliate, KIDK, a 10-year-old girl gave
birth to a 6 lb. baby girl as a result of being
raped.
The news story on
the KIDK site read in part: "…That person is
this man, 37-year old Guadalupe
Gutierrez-Juarez. Juarez is actually an illegal
immigrant, and is now behind bars in the Fremont
County Jail on other rape charges...
If convicted the
illegal immigrant could face life in prison, a
$50,000 fine ,or both. Whether he ever serves
anytime behind bars will be up to the judge who
if he places him on probation, could deport
him."
From the way this
story reads, "If convicted the [undocumented]
immigrant could face life in prison,"
dehumanizes not just the intended target, the
rapist, but ALL undocumented immigrants. Also,
it makes it sound that this was a
stranger-on-stranger crime.
It wasn't.
The rapist was
married to the girl's mother. Latina Lista has
yet to verify if the rapist was the child's
father.
At any rate, it
should go without saying that not all
undocumented immigrants are rapists but this
article definitely plants the connection between
the two terms...
By repeatedly
referring to this rapist as the "illegal
immigrant," this media story does a disservice
to the local community and popular perception of
all undocumented immigrant men who are Latino...
-
Marisa Treviño
Politics in Color
May 9, 2008
LibertadLatina
note:
We
at
LibertadLatina
agree with Marisa Treviño's editorial
view-point that repeatedly calling an accused
rapist "the illegal alien" instead of using his
actual name is indeed a thinly-veiled effort to
identify all undocumented immigrant men with the
crime of rape (be that a conscious or an
unconscious goal of a given reporter).
However, the fact that a rape suspect is
undocumented is in-fact part of the story.
One
researcher (see below) estimates that 93 sex
offenders and 12 serial sexual offenders come
across the U.S. - Mexican border each day.
While the impact of that fact in the United
States is of concern, of equal concern is the
fact that women and children in Mexico face rape
and abuse with impunity in a nation where laws
against sexual predation are almost never
enforced.
The
crisis of severe sexual exploitation that women
and children face in Latin America has migrated
to the United States and other destination
nations for migrants.
The
responsibility to defend the victims remains the
same in any part of the geography of the
Americas.
Therefore, the traditional code of silence in
the Latino community, that has kept quiet the
victims of sexual terror for centuries [and
especially that terror's indigenous victims]...
must be ended.
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"Historically the voices of women,
especially women of color have been
silenced. As we begin to uncover our
past, the oppression we experienced is
being detailed, however embar-rassing it
may be.
To
continue the silence would be a
detrimental step backwards."
-
Puerto Rican women's health rights
advocate Venus Ginés |
While the statistics gathered by research-ers
such as
Dr. Deborah Schurman-Kauflin
of Atlanta's Violent Crimes
Institute (see below) are disturbing, do
pro-Latina activists have an obligation to
silence these facts?
We
don't think so.
Human rights activists and those who report the
news are not advancing women's basic human
rights when they remain silent about the truth.
It may be convenient to protecting the Barrio
during a time of obvious hostility towards
immigrants, but that does not justify leaving
'Maria' abandoned to her fate at the hands
of rapists and sex traffickers.
Arguably, much of the hostility facing the
immigrant community in the U.S. would diminish
if the Latino community were seen as being more
visibly active in stopping the impunity of
rapists who today remain protected by the
Barrio's centuries-old code of silence. We
cannot pretend that non-Latinos in the U.S.
don't see clearly what is happening.
"Illegal alien rapes" is an unfortunate headline
in dozens of news stories across the U.S. every
day.
Today, remaining silent is not an option.
We in El Barrio must face these issues head-on,
an exercise that is also taking place, slowly
but surely, across all of Latin America.
At-risk women and children across the Americas
deserve no less from us.
Now is the time to act.
Silence is also
violence!
End impunity now!
-
Chuck Goolsby
LibertadLatina
May 14, 2008
See also:
www.LatinaLista.net
-
Marisa Treviño
And:
After conducting a 12
month in-depth study of [undocumented]
immigrants who committed sex crimes and murders
for the time period of January 1999 through
April 2006 , it is clear that the U.S. public
faces a dangerous threat from sex predators who
cross the | |
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