Monica Ortiz Uribe

[U.S.] National Public Radio

Oct. 17,2009

See also:

Ciudad Juárez Women's News: Lawyer Beaten, Links Found in Disappearances

Gustavo de la Rosa Hickerson, a Ciudad Juárez labor lawyer, university professor, women's activist and former prison director, was pulled over, beaten, robbed and threatened between 12:00 and 1:00 a.m. on Wednesday, December 11 while driving to his home near Cd. Juárez.

The four men that attacked de la Rosa tried to stop his car three times but he escaped on the first two of these occasions. When he was finally stopped De la Rosa had a gun pointed at him, was severely beaten and told "not to be so brave or outspoken." His wallet, passport and cell phone were also stolen from him.

Because of the lights the pursuing vehicle used and the men's weapons, de la Rosa believes that his assailants were police officers. De la Rosa also believes that robbery was not the motive for the attack because he is not a wealthy man, drives an old car and the warning or threat meant that the men knew who he was.

De la Rosa told the Ciudad Juárez newspaper El Diario that only two people are angry at him: State Attorney General Jesús José Solís Sliva and a local maquiladora owner. De la Rosa believes that he angered the attorney general when he spoke about the investigation of crimes against women in Cd. Juárez. De la Rosa is also the lawyer for a group of Cd. Juárez maquiladora workers and said that the owner of the facility has threatened him a number of times.

Frontera Norte Sur

Feb. 2003

See also:

The Dead Women of Juarez: A New Mexican's Retrospective Upon the Appointment of Arturo Chavez Chavez

...In May 1998, Mexico's National Human Rights Commission asked for an investigation of the attorney general's office in Chihuahua, given mounting evidence that office was severely deficient in its inquiries into the crimes. In response, state authorities belittled the commission's work, characterizing it as "partial," and "leading to false conclusions and statements, and lacking any foundation in objectivity." (Flash forward: last week Chihuahua State Human Rights Commission investigator Gustavo de la Rosa Hickerson moved to El Paso from Juarez, he said, after multiple threats to his life for publicizing complaints about abuses by army personnel in Joint Operation Chihuahua)...

La Politica: New Mexico!

Sep. 26, 2009

Added: Oct. 10, 2009

Óscar Arias Sánchez, President of Costa Rica and 1987 Nobel Peace Prize Winner

Óscar Arias Sánchez President of Costa Rica: UN General Assembly Address

United Nations - The following is the English Summary Statement by H.E. Óscar Arias Sánchez, President of Costa Rica, delivered to the United Nations General Assembly in September of 2009 at United Nations Headquarters in New York City:

Óscar Arias Sánchez, President of Costa Rica, said that, when he had first spoken at the United Nations 23 years ago, it was as “an island of reason in a sea of insanity”, and he came bearing the cries of millions of Central Americans who sought a peaceful solution to the civil wars that lacerated the region. The second time he had come, it was to ask for support for a peace plan signed by the Presidents of Central America. In those days, “no one thought we would have the strength to confront the Powers of the cold war and find our own solution to our problems. No one thought that we would be able to sow the seed of democracy in our lands.”

Today, he wanted to recognize the distance Central America had traveled, but to also warn of the risk of falling back. He said one Central American nation had seen the “demons of coup d’état” awaken once again [in Honduras]. The armies of the region received nearly $60 billion [mostly from the United States -LL] to combat “imaginary enemies,” while the people struggled against the economic crisis with empty hands. He said some leaders defied democratic rules in “imaginative ways”, while problems on the continent have remained the same or have deteriorated. Poverty continued to afflict more than a third of its inhabitants, and one in three Latin Americans had not “seen a high school classroom”. Additionally, the violent death rates of some countries in the region exceeded that of countries at war...

He said it was difficult for Latin America to not feel it was always rescuing the future from the claws of the past. The problems of democracy, development and fighting militarism and oppression were cycles that repeated themselves in most developing nations. These nations also bore the worst part of the struggle against global warming, and would carry the heaviest burden of population growth.

Success would depend on whether three fundamental challenges could be taken on, namely strengthening democracy; promoting development through the reduction of military spending and arms trafficking; and the creation of a new international order for the transfer of aid, information and technology to combat climate change...

(Article includes Full-Text & Video in Spanish and English)

MaximsNews Network

Oct. 09, 2009

Report: U.S. Officials Unaware of Child Sex-Trafficking Problem

Washington, DC - Most Americans, including far too many government officials, have no idea that children under the age of 18 are being shipped from state to state as child prostitutes, according to a report from an anti-sex trafficking organization.

In fact, an estimated 100,000 American children under 18 years of age are victimized through prostitution every year and children rented for sex acts might be raped 6,000 times over the course of five years. In addition, the United States should be -- but is not -- listed on the "Tier 2" watch list in the State Department's Trafficking in Persons Report.

Those are among the troubling findings by Shared Hope International (SHI), which conducted investigations in 10 United States cities with a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice.

"Few participants in the assessments realized that the victims described in the [federal anti-trafficking law] definition of sex trafficking victims included specifically U.S. citizen and lawful permanent resident minors under 18 years of age regardless of their perceived consent to the commercial sex activities," SHI reported.

The report also found:

Domestic minor sex trafficking consists of "child sex slavery, child sex trafficking, prostitution of children, commercial sexual exploitation of children ... and rape of a child," the report said. Children are exploited through prostitution, pornography and/or stripping, among other means, according to the report.

It is estimated at least 100,000 American [U.S.] children under 18 years of age are victimized through prostitution every year, according to SHI.

Demonstrating the magnitude of the problem for a single child trapped in sexual slavery, SHI said in its 82-page report published in May: "A domestic minor sex trafficking victim who is rented for sex acts with five different men per night, for five nights per week, for an average of five years, would be raped by 6,000 buyers during the course of her victimization through prostitution."

Cindy Ortiz

Baptist Press

Oct. 5, 2009

Thousands Believed to be Enslaved in the United States

Kevin Bales, president of the nonprofit group Free the Slaves, said there are 40,000 to 50,000 slaves in the United States, based on conservative estimates.

Bales said about 14,500 slaves are brought into the U.S. each year. Prior to Sept. 11, 2001, the Central Intelligence Agency estimated 50,000 people were being trafficked into the country annually. Bales credited border tightening with the reduction.

Experts said about half of all slaves in the U.S. are in the sex industry. The rest are used in agriculture, domestic service and other forms of labor.

Many nationalities are involved in the U.S. sex trade and slavery, including Mexicans, Russians and Chinese, investigators said.

One recent study found slaves from 60 countries in 90 U.S. cities.

According to the United Nations, human trafficking is the third most lucrative criminal enterprise in the world after weapons and narcotics.

In 2000 Congress passed the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, which makes trafficking people a federal crime and sets aside 5,000 special visas annually for the victims of human trafficking.

Bales said women who are trafficked into the U.S. as sex slaves are subjected to serial sexual assaults that have a traumatic effect.

"It's the complete loss of freedom," Bales said of the sex slaves. "You're under violent control. This meets all the legal criteria for slavery. It is slavery."

Jason A. Kahl

The Reading Eagle

Sep. 27, 2009

Detectives Arrest Sex Battery Suspect

Kissimmee - Osceola County Sheriff's detectives on Friday arrested Edwin Antonio Torres-Cruz, 20, of Kissimmee, and charged him with sexual battery, kidnapping, possession or use of a weapon and attempted armed robbery.

Torres-Cruz was identified several days after the incident when detectives received information the suspect was seen back in the area where the crime occurred. He was brought in for questioning and initially cooperated but then refused to provide any information, according to detectives.

Investigators eventually obtained a positive match from DNA evidence from the crime scene that matched Torres-Cruz. An arrest warrant was obtained early Friday and he was picked up and brought back to the Osceola County Sheriff's Office...

Osceola County Sheriff's deputies responded to the Indian Wells subdivision in Kissimmee. Upon arrival, deputies spoke with a 47-year-old Hispanic victim who indicated she was walking in the area of Warrior Lane and Moccasin Drive when an unknown male attacked her from behind. The suspect demanded money from the victim and threatened her with a knife. When the victim told the suspect she did not have any money, he sexually battered her before leaving the area.

"I jog once in a while, but I never jog by myself," said resident Carla Lorena. "My husband jogs with me."

WOFL FOX 35

Oct 10, 2009

Dr. Mark Lagon - Executive Director of Polaris Project and previously the Ambassador-at-Large and Director of the U.S. State Department's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (TIP), will speak at the October 24th anti-trafficking rally in Baltimore.

Upcoming Event

Coalition Of Anti-Human Trafficking Organizations To Host "Maryland Stop Modern Slavery Rally

Baltimore, MD  - A "Maryland Stop Modern Slavery Rally" will be held on October 24, 2009, in Baltimore, MD, a coalition of anti-human trafficking organizations, including the Maryland Human Trafficking Task Force announced today.

This ground-breaking rally will be held on "Make a Difference Day." There will be speakers from government and non-profit organizations, live entertainment and information sessions/booths set up by organizations dedicated to combating modern-day slavery.

This event will endeavor to inform the communities and citizens of Maryland on the issues and presence of human trafficking in our 'back-yard.' There will also be information from the various organizations in the region that fight to combat human trafficking, and how YOU can make a difference.

Event speakers:

* Herman Ingram - representing the Maryland Governor's office of Crime Control and Prevention.

* Rev. Jerome Stephens - representing the office of Senator Benjamin L. Cardin

* Trudy Perkins will be at the rally representing the office of Congressman Elijah E. Cummings

* Mark Lagon - Executive Director and CEO of Polaris Project and previously the Ambassador-at-Large and Director of the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (TIP)

* Nancy Winston - Shared Hope International, National Awareness, Member Board of Directors.

* Lisa Lynn Chapman - Survivor Services Director at Boat People SOS.

* Sidney Ford - Director of the YANA Place and Victim Services Subcommittee Chair of the Maryland Human Trafficking Task Force.

* Dan Kane - Justice Advocate at International Justice Mission.

A coalition of anti-human trafficking organizations and the Maryland Human Trafficking Task Force

Trafficking Native American Girls and Women in Minnesota

In response to the August 2009 report, Suzanne Koepplinger discussed finding solutions that would be "meeting the needs of the victim from their perspective, not our perspective." A view shared by both Koepplinger and Tibbits Young was that a multidimensional approach to helping victims is key, considering the number of contributing factors associated with this problem. The women explained that poverty, lack of housing options, lack of importance placed on education, and institutionalized racism are all contributing factors to the increased number of Native American women in risk of sexual exploitation.

A main focus of the meeting was community awareness of the problem. Suzanne Tibbits Young stressed that support from the community is a large stepping-stone to action. Tibbits Young said that to begin helping, the first step is to agree that, "Our community is not going to accept this". The MIWRC and Division of Indian Work are promoting the development of broad based training programs aimed at educating police, teachers and medical providers to recognize signs or risks of sexual exploitation...

Nora Leinen

TC Daily Planet

Oct. 05, 2009

See also:

Decades Old Problem Becoming a Priority

Newsweek, the national weekly magazine that "discovered'' a juvenile prostitution problem in Minnesota..., was heavily criticized by journalism peers and law enforcement types for hyping the obvious and painting the Mall of America as a mega breeding farm for pimp recruiting.

Right state, wrong locale. Try [Indigenous] reservations, or practically any mall, street corner, rave party, juice bar or other place where teens will congregate.

"There's an explosion of girls coming from reservations,'' Minneapolis Police Sgt. Andrew Schmidt informed attendees at an all-day conference on the sexual trafficking of women and children at the College of St. Catherine last week. "Girls there are easy to recruit. It's not much of a sell up in Red Lake [a large reservation of the Chippewa Nation].''

Schmidt knows a thing or two about the subject. Four years ago, he teamed up with a St. Louis-area detective and with the help of federal prosecutors in that city dismantled a Minneapolis-based ring that prostituted young girls in 24 states and Canada. One of the ring's leaders is currently serving an 85-year federal prison term...

Ruben Rosario

Pioneer Press

Oct. 27, 2003

In Police Put Out Alert About Attempted Abduction in Council Bluffs

...Council Bluffs Police are putting out an alert about an attempted abduction. A boy says a man tried to chase him down on Friday afternoon, just outside of Wilson Junior High School at 21st and Avenue G. It happened after school let out for the weekend.

The boy tells Police the man drove up in a red mini van, got out and held up a cell phone. He then told the boy his mother was on the line and he was supposed to go with him in his van.

The 13-year old kid ran several blocks from the school to 21st and Broadway Streets. The entire time, he says the man was chasing him in the van, then on foot. When the boy ran into a nearby business, the man took off. People in the business took action and called 911 for help.

Police are taking this case seriously. They put out the following description of the suspect.

He is a Hispanic man wearing a black shirt, blue jeans and a black baseball cap turned sideways.

He was driving a darker-color red minivan with no license plates...

Action 3 News, Omaha, nNebraska

Oct 02, 2009

Convicted Sex Trafficker Jorge Flores Rojas

Teens Become Prey in Charlotte Sex Trade

In his east Charlotte apartment less than a mile from Windsor Park Elementary, Jorge Flores Rojas created a religious shrine to a mystical figure known as the patron saint of death, who is said to protect pimps and other criminals.

Each day, Flores prayed to Santa Muerte, or "Saint Death," joined by the teenage girls whom he forced to have sex with as many as 20 men a day...

Local and federal authorities are not sure how extensive the Charlotte sex rings have become. They say Flores' ring brought in hundreds of young women each year to work as prostitutes.

Flores was convicted of trafficking in April. But authorities say other pimps in Charlotte continue to prey on young girls from poor countries.

"I don't think we really realized how big this was," says Delbert Richburg, assistant special agent in charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Office of Investigations in Charlotte. "We're probably just scratching the surface."

The growth is so extensive that this month ICE stationed a team of agents in Charlotte to focus on human trafficking, smuggling and exploitation. Across the Carolinas, immigrant sex rings have been broken up in Monroe, Durham and Columbia.

Jennifer Stuart, a staff attorney for Legal Aid of North Carolina, says her office has seen a "sharp increase" in trafficking case referrals the last few months.

Federal agents say Flores, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, picked up vans full of eight to 10 young women each week outside the McDonald's on West Sugar Creek Road near Interstate 85, where other traffickers had brought them. Others, he smuggled in directly from Latin America...

An undercover agent says the teenagers would be made to have sex with up to 100 men a week.

"I have daughters," he says. "... Every time I think of that number, it's something I can't fathom."

Trading in New York, and Washington, D.C.

To keep a fresh cycle of women in Charlotte, Flores traded with traffickers, including relatives, in Washington, D.C., and New York.

In November 2007, court documents say, he "sold" at least two teenagers from Mexico to Yaneth Martinez, a D.C. madam, who advertised her services with cards offering "Hair Cuts for Men Only." ...

Their business relationship worked like this for more than a year, federal authorities said. Then, Flores took a liking to Martinez's teenage daughter.

He asked her if she'd work with him. She refused. Flores didn't give up.

He later called the girl's cell phone and asked her to meet him. He threatened to hurt her mother if she didn't.

She agreed to meet him. She hoped he only wanted to talk, but Flores threw her in his car, authorities said...

Martinez tipped off a women's center in Washington that her daughter had been kidnapped. The center contacted authorities...

Martinez's daughter spent about three weeks as Flores' captive. Authorities say he raped her repeatedly. He forced her to have sex with dozens of men...

The FBI estimates that some 18,000 people are trafficked into the United States for sex or forced labor. About a fourth end up in the Southeast; thousands come to the Carolinas.

Most victims of the sex rings are from Latin America, others from Asia and Eastern Europe...

A... 14-year-old from Mexico, who thought she was to work at a restaurant, was forced to have sex with men in Greenville, S.C., Columbia and Charlotte...

Martinez's daughter is doing much better, Nugent said. She's living with a foster family. She is getting a special green card for abused or abandoned children.

She wants to go to college and be a lawyer.

Two other girls found with Flores at the time of his arrest were also placed with foster families through a Charlotte women's center, authorities said.

The center arranged medical care and new clothes. ICE agents arranged work permits.

Before the permits arrived, the girls disappeared...

Franco Ordoñez

Charlotte Observer.com

Oct. 04, 2009

Added: Oct. 4, 2009 The World, Belarus Belarus Foreign Minister Sergei Martynov Belarus to Promote Global Action Plan to Fight Human Trafficking at United Nations General Assembly Session Minsk - At the session of the UN General Assembly Belarus will push forward the adoption of the global action plan to fight trafficking in human beings, the press service of the Belarusian Foreign Ministry told BelTA. As head of the delegation Belarus Foreign Minister Sergei Martynov is participating in the 64th session of the United Nations General Assembly that opened in the UN headquarters in New York. The head of the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs will take part in general political discussions to present Belarus’ views on the most topical problems of the international agenda. The Belarusian delegation will focus efforts on promoting Belarus’ initiatives, namely the adoption of the global action plan to fight slave trade, creation of an effective international mechanism to facilitate access of all countries to technologies of new and renewable energy sources, enhancement of international development aid to countries with average incomes. The Minister is also supposed to take part in events timed to the start of the General Assembly session. Those are the Conference on the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, ministerial meetings on fighting violence against girls, dialogue between religions. Sergei Martynov is also expected to hold meetings with top executives of the UN Secretariat, several international organizations, and foreign ministers of several countries of Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America. BelTA Sep. 23, 2009 See also: Women's Rights at the Crossroads in Mexico ...A Global Plan of Action... must be implemented to get around the seemingly insurmountable obstacle of state impunity. In extreme circumstances, the United Nations overcomes the problem of criminal impunity by mounting an international force to combat state actors who engage in crimes against humanity. A Global Plan of Action does not have to target state actors through the use of military action, but some new, creative process must be employed to show nations like Mexico that they cannot just sell the poor and minority women and girls in their nations 'down the river' into a tortured, shortened life of sexual slavery in the brothels of Mexico City, Tijuana, Tokyo, Los Angeles, New York, Amsterdam and Madrid, just because they are willing to look the other way in exchange for a 'piece' of this multi-million dollar criminal action. We strongly encourage the people of the world to wake up and actively combat the mass crime against humanity that the oppression of women and girl children in Mexico represents. Enough is enough! ...We also applaud Ecuadorian Minister of Justice and Human Rights (Attorney General) Néstor Arbito Chica and diplomats from a number of nations including Belarus, who have recently spoken out to demand that the United Nations develop a Global Plan of Action to really step-up-the-game to effectively combat modern slavery. The policy of the United States should, we believe, embrace the efforts of Ecuador, Belarus and other nations to develop a Global Plan of Action to get past the ineffectiveness of the Palermo Protocol... Chuck Goolsby LibertadLatina May 30, 2009 See also: The World, Ecuador Ecuadorian Minister of Justice and Human Rights (Attorney General) Néstor Arbito Chica Few Governments Serious About Human Trafficking, U.N. Finds United Nations - The U.N. General Assembly discussed ways of taking stronger collective action to end human trafficking on Wednesday, with delegates debating the need for… a "global plan of action" to end this form of modern slavery. "National and regional efforts are not enough to cope with this global problem," said Ecuadorian Minister of Justice and Human Rights Néstor Arbito Chica. "That’s why we call on the U.N. to take action." The starting point for the debate was whether the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children, passed in Palermo, Italy, in 2000, is enough to stop this global problem. "The protocol is not a sufficient tool for stopping human trafficking, and more than one-third of U.N. member states are not a party to it," said Valentin Rybakov, assistant to the president of Belarus. "The Palermo Protocol is, if you will, an aspirin which helps us to bring the fever down, but aspirin cannot cure us." The need for a new global plan of action was echoed by the majority of speakers and delegates. The United States, however, felt otherwise: "We believe that the U.N. is already effectively leading the fight against global trafficking." The U.S. representative’s concerns were that launching a global plan of action would strain the limited resources of the U.N. and, likewise, that the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime’s (UNODC) "financial and personnel resources would be severely stretched if it were to undertake such a plan of action." "Efforts undertaken at regional and national levels are clearly not enough," Rybakov countered. "Adopting a global plan of action is not an end in itself to us, but this plan is a logical step." The U.N. has passed compre-hensive plans of action before - for instance on terrorism, as pointed out by Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of UNODC… Sexual exploitation accounts for 79 percent of human trafficking, it says, while forced labor makes up 18 percent… "In 2006, the last year for which we have statistics, 22,000 victims were rescued, and we know the problem goes into the millions," Costa said… Matthew Berger Inter-Press Service (IPS) May 14, 2009

Frank Gutierrez

Longmont Man Who Sexually Assaulted Child Asks For Life Sentence -- And Gets It

Frank Gutierrez not eligible for parole for 24 years in assault on 9-year-old boy

An 11-year-old boy said his life had been "ruined" by an adult neighbor who sexually assaulted him numerous times at his Longmont apartment two years ago and that his abuser should be imprisoned for the rest of his life.

In a videotaped statement played at a drama-filled sentencing hearing Friday, the victim -- who was 9-years-old at the time of the assault -- said Frank Gutierrez, 64, should "stay away" from children and adults.

Gutierrez injected an unexpected twist into the proceedings by ignoring the advice of his lawyer and asking the judge to forgo the hearing and impose the maximum sentence -- life in prison with a chance for parole after 24 years. He claimed that there was no way he could be cured of his sexual pathologies.

"I would rather take the sentence than take the chance of being on the street again and hurting someone else," Gutierrez said. "I was abused and I don't know how to change it."

Boulder District Judge Maria Berkenkotter sentenced Gutierrez to the maximum prison term...

Gutierrez said he was molested for 10 years as a child and would never be able to control his impulses again...

Gutierrez still faces a charge of sexually assaulting an at-risk adult -- one of his fellow inmates at Boulder County Jail -- last year...

John Aguilar

Daily Camera

Oct. 02, 2009

ICE Deports Mexican Fugitive Sought for Sexually Assaulting a Child

Columbus, Ohio - U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers deported a Mexican national on Thursday wanted by authorities for sexually assaulting a minor in his home country.

Jose Luis Martinez-Gonzalez, 23, was turned over to Mexican authorities at 10 a.m. on Sept. 29 at the Port of El Paso's Stanton Street Bridge. Martinez-Gonzalez is wanted in Oaxaca, Mexico, for raping a minor.

Martinez-Gonzalez entered the country illegally at an undisclosed location along the Arizona-Mexico border. He has been sought by Mexican authorities since February. Earlier this month, ICE agents with the Office of Investigations in Columbus, Ohio, apprehended Martinez-Gonzalez without incident.

An immigration judge ordered Martinez-Gonzalez removed to Mexico on Sept. 17. A week later, the Mexican attorney general's office asked ICE for assistance in returning the fugitive to Mexico. Martinez-Gonzalez, who was arrested and charged on administrative immigration charges, arrived in El Paso Del Norte Port of Entry (Stanton Bridge) in El Paso, Texas, and was turned over to Mexican authorities, Oct. 1 on a flight that originated in Columbus, Ohio...

U.S. ICE

Oct. 1, 2009

BEST Team Arrests Convicted Child Predator for Illegally Returning to the U.S.

Las Cruces - Members of the local U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)-led Border Enforcement Security Task Force (BEST) on Friday arrested a convicted aggravated felon who illegally re-entered the United States after he was deported in 2004 for raping a minor.

Cesar Gonzalez-Gomez, 43, from Mexico, was arrested Sept. 25 outside a residence in Anthony, N.M. He was convicted of aggravated burglary, criminal sexual contact with a minor, and other related sex crimes. He was sentenced to nine years in prison. After his release from prison, ICE deported him in October 2004.

Recently BEST members received information that Gonzalez-Gomez was back in the United States. He is believed to have returned to the country illegally in January. As a deported aggravated felon, he is charged with re-entry after deportation, which is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

Doña Ana County Sheriff's Office also served him with an outstanding warrant for failing to register as a convicted sexual offender...

U.S. ICE

Sep. 28, 2009

Grandfather Pleads Guilty To Molesting Two Young Girls

Santa Ana - An Orange grandfather who watched neighborhood children after school until their parents came home from work pleaded guilty today to molesting two girls younger than 7.

Octavio Reyes Cortez, 59, a landscaper, will be sentenced by Superior Court Judge Frank F. Fasel on Friday to 18 years in prison for six felony counts of lewd conduct on a minor.

Deputy District Attorney Mark Birney said the molestations date back to 1995, and the victims included a 7-year-old girl who came to Cortez' home to play with Barbie dolls with his granddaughter.

Cortez also admitted to repeated acts of molestation on a girl who was younger than 6 between 1995 and 1997.

Larry Welborn

The Orange County Register

Sep. 29, 2009

Man Pleads Not Guilty to Rape Charges

Zanesville - Charged with three counts of rape and eight counts of gross sexual imposition, Carlos Alfredo Orantes is looking at spending 70 years in prison if convicted on all counts. Orantes, 35, of Zanesville, pleaded not guilty to each charge in front of Muskingum County Common Pleas Judge Kelly Cottrill on Wednesday.

Orantes was indicted last week. He is accused of having sexual conduct (rape) and sexual contact (gross sexual imposition) with two girls, ages 11 and 9, from October 2006 to September 2009.

Judge Cottrill ordered Orantes' bond set at $500,000...

Zanesville Times Recorder

Kathy Thompson

Sep. 23, 2009

Former Stripper Claims Priest Fathered Baby

Pembroke Pines - A woman who described herself as a former stripper in Miami has filed a petition for a restraining order against a South Florida priest, who she now claims fathered her baby.

The woman, Beatrice Hernandez, told CBS4 News that she was a dancer at a Miami strip club, Porky's. She said she met Father David Dueppen at that strip club and started a relationship shortly thereafter.

Early this year, Hernandez had a baby and demanded Dueppen take DNA paternity tests, according to court documents obtained by CBS4 News. But, in the restraining order petition, Hernandez said that after several attempts for a DNA test, "the [priest's] rage escalated as he attacked [Hernandez], grabbing her by the throat and choking her."

"I'm afraid. I'm on the street. I'm running from people," Hernandez told CBS4's Jim DeFede over the phone. "David said to me that if I go to the media, he would make me disappear and take my baby."

Dueppen last served as an associate priest at St. Maximilian Kolbe Church in Pembroke Pines. He has been on administrative leave for one month, according to Miami Archdiocese spokeswoman Mary Ross Agosta...

CBS 4 Miami

Sep. 20, 2009

See also:

Along Came a Spider: What the Pope Doesn’t See

...In the official “Year for Priests,” dedicated by Pope Benedict, a priest in Florida has upped the ante on clerical malfeasance, allegedly fathering a child with a stripper, and threatening the woman with violence. What will it take for the Catholic Church to begin to take responsibility for priests gone wild? ...

Anthea Butler

Religion Dispatches

Sep.27, 2009

Added: Oct. 2, 2009

Mexico

Child Sex Trafficking Routes: (Purple) Puebla to Tijuana; (Blue) Puebla to Matamoros - Larger Map Map: LibertadLatina

Desde Puebla Parten Dos Rutas de Trata de Personas Hacia EU 

Las bandas dedicadas a la trata de personas con fines de   explotación laboral y sexual ocupan al menos dos rutas para traficar con menores que parten desde Puebla, y llegan al norte del país, a fin de internar a las víctimas a los Estados Unidos o bien, desde ahí llevarlas a las Bahamas y España...

Authorities Discover Two Child Sex Trafficking Routes from Puebla to the United States

Gangs engaged in trafficking in persons for sexual and labor exploitation are using at least two routes to smuggle children starting in the city of Puebla. Victims are taken to the United States. From the U.S. some of these children are taken to the Bahamas or Spain.

Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission announced these findings as part of a study of Mexico’s vulnerability to human trafficking. 

The first route runs from Puebla through the cities of Hidalgo, Ciudad Victoria, Chihuahua, and Matamoros (a city adjacent to Brownsville, Texas). The second route also starts in Puebla, and passes through Mexico City, Michoacan, Guadalajara, Sinaloa, Sonora and ends in Tijuana (on the U.S. / Mexico border near San Diego, California).

The report reveals that the Special Prosecutor for Crimes of Violence against Women and Trafficking in Persons (FEVIMTRA) of the Attorney General's Office (PGR) reported that during 2008, 24 preliminary investigations were initiated in regard to human trafficking. Only two cases were prosecuted.  [To date, there has never been a federal conviction on human trafficking charges in Mexico - LL.]  

These preliminary investigations occurred primarily in the states of Coahuila, Chiapas, Chihuahua, Mexico state, Guanajuato, Guerrero, Hidalgo, Jalisco, Morelos, Nayarit, Oaxaca, Puebla, Tlaxcala, Veracruz and Yucatan, as well in the Federal District (Mexico City). Three of the investiga-tions related to crimes committed in Spain, Bahamas and the United States.

Among the victims in the Puebla case are Mexican and foreign women [and girls] who are mainly from El Salvador, Korea, Argentina, China, Honduras, Peru and Guatemala.

The study shows that in Puebla, 283,236 children between the ages of 5 and 17 work. Some 106,295 of them do not attend school.

Full English Translation

Suzana De Los Ángeles

e-consulta.com

Sep. 28, 2009

Police: Men Tried to Abduct Kids Playing Outside

Laurel - Police are looking for two men who attempted to kidnap a group of children playing outside Wednesday night.

The three children - a 7-year-old girl, an 8-year-old boy and a 9-year-old boy - were playing outside next to an apartment building in the 300 block of Thomas Drive around 6:45 p.m.

Police say two Hispanic men sitting in a truck in a parking lot next to a nearby office building began calling out to the children and telling them to "come closer."

The children were able to get away and got home safely...

Police say the men were driving a light blue Mazda pickup truck. The truck is described as being very dirty, with a dent on the driver's side front fender.

Witnesses were only able to provide partial tag information on the truck: 41641W. They did not see the state on the license plate.

Anyone with information is asked to call Laurel Police at 301-498-0092.

Veronica Robinson

WTOP.com

Oct. 01, 2009

Added: Sep. 29, 2009

Trinidad and Tobago

The two island nation of Trinidad and Tobago, located near the northern coast of Venezuela

Government Moves to Stamp Out Human Trafficking

Government is moving to prevent the emergence of human trafficking in Trinidad and Tobago.

According to a release from the Ministry of National Security, Cabinet has approved a proposal from the International Organization for Migration for a nine-month plan to counter any emergence of human trafficking in Trinidad and Tobago.

The plan seeks to address the issue of trafficking in persons. It does so from two bases - that of prevention and protection of victims of trafficking; and that of criminalizing and prosecution of those engaged in human trafficking.

The plan calls for the establishment of a multi-agency task force to develop and oversee a medium-to-long term plan of action. The task force, which will consist of various government ministries, non-governmental organizations, faith-based organizations and the IOM, will be responsible for: implementing a referral process to identify and assist victims; establishing a hotline to field calls pertaining to human trafficking and conducting a nationwide information campaign, using IOM-supplied material.

The release said Government would enact legislation to criminalize trafficking in persons and IOM would support this effort.

The release said: "The Ministry of National Security believes that the assistance offered by IOM through the nine-month plan would serve to address the issue of human trafficking in its embryonic stages, to avoid it becoming a widespread criminal activity in Trinidad and Tobago ... while building public awareness of and minimizing the misconceptions about the nature of the crime of human trafficking."

In implementing the plan, the IOM would conduct a series of outreach and/or training sessions for various audiences, including key stakeholders in government, hotline staff operators, media, NGOs and other representatives of civil society...

Trinidad and Tobago Express

Sep. 28, 2009

Police Seek Man Who Sexually Exploited Kids On Chicago's Northwest Side

Chicago - Police are looking for a man who allegedly masturbated in front of three children in a Northwest Side garage on Friday.

The incident happened in a garage in the 4100 block of North Sacramento, where three children ages 6 to 11 were playing, according to a release from the Special Investigations Unit.

A man entered the garage while speaking English on a cell phone, the release said. He told two of the children to keep playing and told the third child to watch him while he masturbated. He then fled the scene.

The offender is described as a Hispanic male, 35 to 45 years old, 5-foot-8 to 5-foot-10, 170 pounds with black hair, brown eyes and a dark complexion, the release said. He had a full beard and was wearing a black and white striped shirt, black shoes and either reading or sunglasses....

The Chicago Sun-Times.

Sep. 27,2009

Added: Sep. 27, 2009

The World

Pop Star / Activist Ricky Martin is Presenter at the 2009 Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting Ricky Martin: "I feel that my heart is, is going to come out of my mouth, and... it goes through my throat. Its not that I'm nervous. I'm just going to say that there are millions of children that are... that  didn't make it. Millions of children who are forced into prostitution, into slavery - and just didn't make it. Today they are using me, they are using my voice, because they were never heard. That's what inspires me to be here..." "Creo que se me va a salir el corazón por la boca. No son los nervios, sino la emoción por dar voz a los millones de niños que se han visto forzados a prostituirse o que han caído en la esclavitud y a quienes nadie ha escuchado." Spanish translation - EFE From a video of Ricky Martin's remarks at the 2009 Clinton Global Initiative's meeting - posted on YouTube.com

Pop singer and advocate against global child sexual exploitation Ricky Martin stands with anti-trafficking leaders at the Clinton Global Initiative during its announcement of CGI's new program to end violence against girls. Alyse Nelson, head of Vital Voices; Jimmy Briggs, Founder of Man-Up; P. Osmond, founder of Karama; and UNIFEM Deputy Executive Director Joanne Sandler are also shown in this picture. From a video of Ricky Martin's remarks posted on YouTube.com

Ricky Martin Abandera la Lucha Contra el Abuso Infantil en la Iniciativa Clinton

Nueva York, New York - El cantante puertorriqueño Ricky Martin llevó hoy la lucha contra el abuso infantil a la reunión que la Iniciativa Global Clinton celebra en Nueva York, donde reafirmó el compromiso de su fundación para mejorar la vida de los niños.

En el encuentro anual que el ex presidente de Estados Unidos Bill Clinton celebra para impulsar medidas filantrópicas que mejoren las condiciones de los más desfavorecidos en el mundo, Martin reiteró su compromiso con la defensa de los derechos humanos y explicó el trabajo que su fundación realiza en favor de los más pequeños.

EFE

Sep. 24, 2009

See also:

Ricky Martin Fights Human Trafficking at Clinton Summit

New York, New York – When Ricky Martin took the stage at the Clinton Global Initiative on Thursday, he did not sing, or dance, or even flash his trademark grin. Following the same stage directions as dozens of other celebrities who dropped by Clinton's 5th annual global summit, from Brad Pitt to Bono to Jessica Alba, Martin struck a somber note while discussing the fight against human trafficking.

"I feel that my heart is going to come out of my mouth," he said, recounting his sadness for the "millions of children that didn't make it." Martin was followed by testimony from a woman who, along with her two children, was kidnapped and held for four years of forced labor. Then Luis CdeBaca, a former counsel to Rep. John Conyers who now serves as President Obama's chief diplomat for combating human trafficking, explained that between 12 and 27 million people are enslaved around the world today. In its official materials, The Clinton Global Initiative notes that the higher estimates mean there are more people enslaved "than at any other time in human history..."

Ari Melber

The Nation

Sep. 24, 2009

Added: Sep. 27, 2009

The World

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton: Opening Remarks at Combating Violence Against Girls Event

At an event hosted by the Government of the Netherlands

Secretary Clinton: I want to start by saying something that I believe with all my heart, and, obviously, those of you who are here believe it also, that the issues related to girls and women are not an annex to the important business of the world and the United Nations, they’re not an add-on, they’re not an afterthought; they are truly at the core of what we are attempting to do under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that is the guiding message of this organization and what each of us in our own countries is called to do on behalf of equal opportunity and social justice.

So for me, this is a tremendous opportunity to speak about an issue that has basically been relegated to the backwaters of the international agenda until relatively recently: violence against girls and women, and particularly today, violence against girls.

I wish that we could transport ourselves into a setting where we could be in the midst of girls and women who have been suffering from violence, but we don’t have to because it’s all around us. It is in the home, it is in the workplace, it is on the streets of many of the countries represented here, including my friends Maxine and Celso. And it is in the places that make the headlines from time to time, and then in the very bottom paragraphs, there’s a reference to the violence that is a tactic of war and intimidation and oppression to prevent girls from going to school by throwing acid in their faces, by raping girls as a way of intimidating them and keeping them subjugated and demonstrating power.

So this, for me, is one of the most important events that I’ve done at the UN. ...

New York City, NY

Sep. 25, 2009

Added: Sep. 26, 2009

The World

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton (left) presents the initiative to address violence against girls at the closing plenary of the Clinton Global Initiative's 2009 annual meeting. Photo: UNIFEM

New Initiative to Address Sexual Violence Against Girls Launched at Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting in New York

Collaboration among leading public and private sector organizations formed to bring international attention to this injustice

New York - The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), five United Nations organizations (UNICEF, UNAIDS, UNFPA, UNIFEM, WHO) and private sector supporters will join together later today via the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) in a new approach to address the rights violations and health impacts of sexual violence against girls. According to the World Health Organization, in 2002 approximately 150 million girls experienced some form of sexual violence with physical contact.

“Sexual violence against children is a gross violation of their rights, a moral and ethical outrage and an assault on the world’s conscience,” said Ann M. Veneman, Executive Director of UNICEF. “Sexual abuse can lead to lost childhoods, abandoned education, physical and emotional problems, the spread of HIV, and an often irrevocable loss of dignity and self-esteem.” ...

“While it is generally known that sexual violence against girls is a global problem, very limited data exist on the extent of this problem in the developing world. Obtaining valid data is a key step toward mobilizing policy and other positive interventions,” said Dr. Rodney Hammond, Director of the Division of Violence Prevention in CDC’s Injury Center.

“Sexual violence, including coercion, abuse, exploitation, rape and trafficking, has a devastating impact on children, particularly adolescent and pre-adolescent girls, who are among the most vulnerable members of any society,” said Gary Cohen, Board Director of the CDC [U.S. Centers for Disease Control] Foundation and the US Fund for UNICEF... “This grave injustice ruins lives, undermines human potential and drives the cycle of infectious disease spread, increasing the population of people who require treatment. It also has broader societal impacts, because girls who are protected and educated contribute dispropor-tionately back to their families and communities.”

Research demonstrates that sexual violence against girls is a direct and an indirect driver of the HIV and AIDS epidemic...

United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM)

Sept. 25, 2009

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Added: Sep. 26, 2009

Mexico

Arturo Chavez Chavez is sworn-in as Attorney General of Mexico Photo: Mario Guzmán / EPA

Mexico Senate Confirms Arturo Chavez Chavez as Attorney General

Legislators back the nomination by a 75-27 vote despite criticism from human rights activists.

Mexico political deal the stuff of drama

Reporting from Mexico City - Mexico's Senate on Thursday confirmed Arturo Chavez Chavez as the nation's attorney general, despite objections by human rights activists who assailed his record as prosecutor in the northern state of Chihuahua during the 1990s.

Chavez, 49, who was quickly sworn in, becomes Mexico's top law enforcement official at a crucial moment. The government of President Felipe Calderon is at war with drug-trafficking groups that have unleashed waves of violence across the country.

A lawyer from Calderon's conservative National Action Party, or PAN, Chavez picked up opposition support to win confirmation by a hefty margin, 75 to 27. He takes over for Eduardo Medina Mora, who resigned this month amid criticism by political opponents that the government's anti-crime offensive is foundering.

"I come with my head held high and will work the same way: with honesty, transparency and with a commitment to serve my country," Chavez said after his swearing-in.

Rights advocates charged that Chavez had failed as Chihuahua state prosecutor to properly investigate the killings of hundreds of women in the border city of Ciudad Juarez. Foes lobbied to defeat the nomination, and sign-toting protesters camped outside the Senate as the vote took place...

Ken Ellingwood

The Los Angeles Times

Sep. 25, 2009

See also:

Confirma el Senado a Chávez Chávez para titular de la PGR

Sin escuchar a las madres de las víctimas

México, DF - Con 75 votos a favor, 27 en contra y una abstención, senadores de la República ratificaron hoy a Arturo Chávez Chávez como Procurador General de la República, pese al escrutinio internacional que lo considera “un funcionario negligente y omiso” en la procuración de justicia durante los dos años que estuvo al mando de la Procuraduría de Justicia de Chihuahua, periodo en que se incrementó la impunidad en dicha entidad.

Arturo Chávez Chávez is confirmed by the Senate as Attorney General

The Senate did not hear testimony from mothers of the victims [of the Ciudad Juarez femicide]

Lourdes Godínez Leal

CIMAC Noticias

News for Women

Mexico City

Sep. 24, 2009

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Added: Sep. 26, 2009

Washington, DC

Mendelson, Lagon, Army of Me to Rally Against Human Trafficking in Washington, DC this Saturday, September 25, 2009

...As September comes to an end our Nation's Capital wraps up a successful Human Trafficking Awareness Month.  [Washington] DC has united to bring the face of modern slavery and human trafficking to the forefront.  ...The city is truly going to take the fight against child trafficking to the streets, as citizen politicians, musicians and activists unite for the first ever Walk Against Child Trafficking...

[Speaking] at the walk will be: [Washington, DC Council Member Phil Mendelson], Dr. Mark Lagon, former Ambassador-at-Large and director of the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons at the State Department and current Executive Director and CEO of Polaris Project; former U.S. Representative Linda Smith (R-WA) and current president of Shared Hope International; and Dr. Laura Lederer, former Senior Advisor on Trafficking in Persons at the State Department. Prominent non-profit officials will also be well-represented at the walk. Non-profit luminaries will include Sarah Symons, executive director of the Emancipation Network; Andrea Powell, co-founder and executive director of Fair Fund; and Ray Lian, lead organizer of the citizen activist group DC Stop Modern Slavery.  Prominent authors Aaron Cohen, author of Slave Hunter and Ben Skinner, author of A Crime So Monstrous will also speak following the walk...

Cassandra Clifford

The Examiner

Sep. 25, 2009

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Added: Sep. 23, 2009

Guatemala

Jesús Tecú Osorio at the site of the Rio Negro (town of Black River) massacre. Photo: Renata Avila

The Activism of Massacre Survivor Jesús Tecú

Maya Achí activist Jesús Tecú Osorio is a survivor. When he was a child, he witnessed the Río Negro Massacre, one of the most horrific massacres of Guatemala's armed conflict. Many of his friends, his 2-year-old brother, and his young parents were murdered. He spent some time forced to work, along with 17 other child survivors, doing domestic work for the man who killed his brother.

Years later, after he was released into the custody of his older sister, Tecú began to work to exhume the mass grave of those killed in the Massacre. Eventually, this work led to the convictions of 3 of the men who took part in the killings. This work has been crucial in the pursuit of justice and the preservation of the historical memory on local and international levels.

Tecú wrote a book called “Memory of the Río Negro Massacres” that tells his experience as a homeless child who survived the war. Tadeo explains more about the story that Tecú tells:

The military and paramilitary forces rounded up all of the women and children and accused them of collaborating with the guerrillas. Together they proceeded to rape, torture, and murder everyone. Some 177 human beings, including 107 children, were massacred on the 13th of March, 1982, in Rio Negro. The few survivors, mostly young boys, were forced into slavery.

In The Massacres of Río Negro, survivor Jesús Tecú described being enslaved by a leader of the Xococ PAC [civilian auto-defense patrol - a civilian collaborator of the armed forces], a man who ripped his youngest brother out of his arms and swung him by his feet, smashing his brains against rocks in front of his eyes because his wife was “not used to caring for [such] a small child."

Tecú's case is different from many others, because he stayed in his community helping... to fight for their human rights. He is leading a Legal Clinic to help poor and under-educated people to fight for their rights. This struggle by Tecú and other survivors of Guatemala's civil war led to the creation of the New Hope Foundation (FNE). Their mission can be found on their blog...

For his work, Tecú was awarded the Reebok Human Rights Award...

Despite the progress made by Tecú and the Achí community, the work continues. Survivors are still pressing the Guatemalan government to convict those responsible for the massacres, as shown by the Colectivo Guatemala Blog. Some of these individuals are being intimidated for their work.

Recently, Tecú has received threatening phone calls...

Global Voices

Sep. 22, 2009

See also:

LibertadLatina Special Section

About the Anti-Indigenous Genocide and the Aftermath of Ongoing Femicide in the Mayan Majority Nation of Guatemala

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Added: Sep. 23, 2009

Mexico

Mothers of some of the murdered women from Ciudad Juárez testify before a Mexican Senate panel. Photo by Jesús Robles

Mexico: Protests Against Nomination of Arturo Chávez for Attorney General

Human rights activists in Ciudad Juárez are opposing the recent nomination of Arturo Chávez Chávez as the Attorney General of Mexico. He was nominated by Mexican President Felipe Calderón. Protesters claim that Chávez’s track record regarding human rights work leaves much to be desired and point to the time when he was the Attorney General of the State of Chihuahua in the early 1990s.

This was a time when Ciudad Juárez erupted in a violent wave of femicides—mass murder of women. Most of the protesters and activists are the mothers, family members, and friends of the deceased or missing women. They claim that public officials from Chihuahua have been involved in covering up the crimes and have not done much to solve them.

As [the former] chief prosecutor for the state of Chihuahua, Chávez has been denounced by Mexican and international human rights organizations... [including] the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH), the Inter-American Human Rights Commission (CIDH), members of the European Parliament, and others from the international human rights community...

The death toll continues to climb and many crimes remain unsolved, leaving the community with little recourse but to take matters into their own hands by forming grassroots non-profit groups to shed light on the issue of the border city femicides. Nuestras Hijas de Regreso a Casa A.C. (May Our Daughters Return Home, Civil Association) is at the forefront of the current protests which have taken the streets in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, bordering the city of El Paso in Texas. They also held protests in Chihuahua's state capital and nation’s capital, Mexico City. Protesters who traveled to Mexico City on September 14, 2009 were unsuccessful in their attempts to speak directly with members of the Senate regarding Chavez’s human rights track record...

Chávez met with Senate on September 21, 2009 and admitted failures from some of his agents during his tenure...

However, the PAN political party has already nodded in his favor regarding the nomination. Ganchoblog writes that Chávez is likely to pass since three Senators who would be vital to derailing his nomination as Attorney General will not stand in his way.

Gina Cardenas

Global Voices

Sep. 23, 2009

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Added: Sep. 22, 2009

Mexico

Mexico Cartels Kidnap, Kill Migrants Headed to U.S.

Tecate - Mexico's violent drug gangs are increasingly kidnapping illegal migrants for ransom and forcing them to carry narcotics into the United States as they muscle into the lucrative trade of smuggling people across the border.

Traffickers armed with automatic weapons are snatching weary Mexican and Central American migrants on both sides of the border and holding them in cramped houses with little water or food until families pay ransoms of up to $12,000.

The Mexican army and U.S. border officials say that those who cannot pay are killed, stripped and dumped in shallow graves in remote stretches of the desert frontier.

"My sons were tricked, tortured and then killed by the smugglers," said Esmeralda Guerrero outside the morgue in the barren town of Tecate across from California, where she came to identify the bodies of her two sons in their 20s last month.

"They kidnapped them and demanded $4,000 to keep them alive. It took me two days to send the money. They didn't wait," said Guerrero, whose sons trekked up from Mexico City...

Mexican soldiers stormed a suburban house in the factory city of Reynosa across from Texas last month to rescue more than 120 kidnapped Central Americans who were huddled together and watched over by men with guns and baseball bats...

"The kidnapping of migrants is happening in both Mexico and the United States ... and it is on the rise," said Mexico's consul-general in San Diego, Maria de los Remedios Gomez...

Lizbeth Diaz

Reuters

Sep. 22, 2009

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Added: Sep. 22, 2009

Texas, USA

Suspected sexual assailant

Commerce Police Ask for Info After Attempted Sexual Assaults at Wal-Mart

On September 11,2009, an unknown Hispanic male grabbed a female from behind and attempted to sexually assault her.

He is described as approximately 5'6", 155 lbs, and at the time of the offense he was wearing blue jeans, light blue and white horizontally striped shirt and a maroon ball cap.

This occurred at Wal-Mart in Commerce.

While reviewing the video, police realized the man attacked another woman who did not report the crime.

If anyone has information on this crime, please contact Commerce Police Department, Detective Steve Scott at 903-886-1139...

Commerce Police Department

Sep. 22, 2009

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Added: Sep. 22, 2009

North Dakota, USA

Dru Sjodin

Alfonso Rodriguez Jr.

Prosecutors: Glad, Not Surprised Rodriguez Death Sentence Appeal Denied

Fargo - The team of prosecutors that made the federal case against Alfonso Rodriguez Jr. said at a news conference Tuesday they were glad but not surprised to learn that the Crookston man’s death sentence appeal in the Dru Sjodin case was rebuffed by a federal court in Minneapolis.

“We are gratified by this outcome,” acting U.S. Attorney Lynn Jordheim said. “But we know this is just a step on the road to the ultimate resolution of this case.”

The 2-1 decision by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals came down three years to the day that a jury decided Rodriguez should die for the kidnapping and murder of Sjodin, a UND student, on Nov. 22, 2003. It’s the first death penalty case in North Dakota, which has no death penalty law, in a century.

Rodriguez remains on death row in a federal prison in Indiana. His attorneys, Richard Ney, Wichita, Kan., and Robert Hoy, West Fargo, are expected to begin further appeals...

Stephen J. Lee, Grand Forks Herald

Sep. 22, 2009

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Added: Sep. 21, 2009

Peru

This map shows the cities of Iquitos and Pucallpa, centers of child prostitution and pornography in Peru's northeastern Amazon region.

Padres Prostituyen a Sus Hijos por Menos de Medio Dólar

Muchas familias pobres prostituyen a sus hijos por un nuevo sol (unos 0,34 dólares) en el interior de Perú, donde también se denunció que niños de hasta tres años son violados en vídeos pornográficos, informó hoy la prensa local...

Parents are Prostituting Their Children for Less Than Half a Dollar in Peru's Impoverished Amazonian Cities

Lima - "Many families in the interior of Peru, such as in the [Amazonian] city of Iquitos, 'rent-out' their children for money. In exchange for one New Sol (about $ 0.34) or a quarter chicken, parents prostitute their children in canoes," complained Maria Teresa Mosquera, director of Action for Children, in a column published in the newspaper Peru.21.

Mosquera, a children’s rights advocate, said that families are handing their children over to the mafia in exchange for better economic conditions or to acquire luxury goods.

The Peruvian Network Against Child Pornography (RPCPI) has reported that its specialists have discovered that several foreign networks take advantage of the availability of prostituted children in the poorest areas of Peru to record pornographic movies, which are then sold on the black market.

"We have information that recordings are being made in the jungle regions of Peru, in cities like Iquitos, Pucallpa and Madre de Dios [Mother of God]," said the executive director of RPCPI, Dimitri Senmache.

Senmache added that children as young as age three are used in pornographic films, that some children are killed, and that others are taken abroad for prostitution or to be used in many types of slave labor.

Trafficking networks also operate in the tourist cities of Cuzco and Puno, where child pornography videos are recorded by foreigners.

Peruvian police sources revealed that some of the videos containing child pornography are sold in retail shopping centers in Lima. They emphasized that it was difficult to combat these illicit materials due to delays in getting arrest warrants and because of the restrictions placed on obtaining wiretaps.

EFE

Sept. 20, 2009

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Added: Sep. 21, 2009

The United States

Linda Smith of Shared Hope International Photo: Roger Werth - The Daily News

Shared Hope: Repairing the Damage of Nation's Sex Trafficking

For more than a decade, Linda Smith’s Shared Hope International organization has rescued thousands of women and children around the world from the sordid world of prostitution...

In 2006, Shared Hope International received a grant from the U.S. Department of Justice to research the sex trafficking of American children. Investigation was made in 10 targeted locations — Dallas; San Antonio, Texas; Fort Worth, Texas; Salt Lake City; Buffalo, N.Y.; New Orleans, Independence, Mo.; Las Vegas, Clearwater, Fla.; and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. territory.

A private grant allowed further investigation in Atlanta and Washington, D.C. Smith presented the results, “The National Report on Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking: America’s Prostituted Children,” to Congress in July. She also wrote a book, “Renting Lacy,” which was published last month.

Shared Hope’s investigation revealed there are at least 100,000 American children being sexually exploited by pimps and traffickers and the “johns” who pay for them. The average “recruitment” age for the girls is 12 to 13 years of age.

“By the time we got done, between undercover footage and interviews, we pretty well had the nation,” Smith said. “What we found is I can go to Craigslist or a strip club or an adult shop anywhere and find a minor for sex. There’s no town, I don’t care where; if there’s buyers, there’s sellers. Pornography is driving the sex train for younger and younger girls.”

Shared Hope’s national report found that too often, the trafficked children were treated more like criminals than victims...

Cheryll A. Borgaard

The Daily News

Longview, Washington

Sep. 19, 2009

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Added: Sep. 21, 2009

Mexico

Photo: W Radio

Chávez No Hizo Nada en Chihuahua: Organización Justicia Para Nuestras Hijas

Patricia Cervante de la organización Justicia para nuestras Hijas, aseguró que “pensé que Calderón era un hombre honesto y justo, pero ahora veo que no”.

Para la Tercera Emisión de Hoy por Hoy con Salvador Camarena, Patricia señaló que Arturo Chávez Chávez “no hizo nada en Chihuahua, sólo le abrió la puerta a los delincuentes a cometer sus fechorías hasta el día de hoy”.

"Si hubiera trabajado como se debe nuestras hijas estuvieran en casa."

“Es machista y misógino”, finalizó Patricia Cervantes, de la organización Justicia para nuestras Hijas.

Chavez did Nothing in Chihuahua: Justice for our Daughters

Patricia Cervantes of the organization "Justice for our Daughters," said, "I thought that [Mexican President Felipe] Calderón was an honest and fair person, but now I see that it is not so."

Cervantes said, [federal attorney general nominee] Arturo Chávez Chávez "did nothing in Chihuahua [state, in which Ciudad Juarez is located]. He only opened the door for criminals to commit their atrocities [femicide], right-up through today.

"If he had done his job, our daughters would be [alive and] back home."

"Chávez is sexist and misogynist," concluded Cervantes.

W Radio

Sep. 21, 2009

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Added: Sep. 21, 2009

Mexico

A Wrong Sign in Mexico

The nomination of Arturo Chavez Chavez as Attorney General of Mexico (PGR) is disconcerting. At this moment, Mexico needs a person of impeccable credentials to lead the fight against organized crime and corruption. Yet, the government of Felipe Calderon has chosen to nominate an ultraconservative PAN [National Action Party] political operative who is tainted by the murders of hundreds of young women in Ciudad Juarez. There couldn’t be worse choice for a nominee.

There is a long list of complaints against Chavez stemming from his previous job as Under-Attorney General and as head prosecutor for Chihuahua [state]. The National Commission on Human Rights said he allowed agents to alter evidence, violate procedures, and frame suspects, among other irregularities. These investigations have been in relation to the murders of women and the disappearances of individuals, according to the Commission...

Calderon’s nomination is a slap in the face to those inside and outside of Mexico who — with good reason — are concerned by the abuses against civilians and the impunity of those responsible. The removal of the former attorney general has to do with Calderon’s concerns that Eduardo Medina-Mora Icaza had used the Office for political ends. Chavez represents PAN discipline, but nothing else. The price is a civil servant considered incompetent, suspected of negligence, and tainted by the horrific murders of hundreds of women about whom he said, "they were raped and murdered because they were prostitutes," as if this somehow justified the crimes...

La Opinión

Editorial

Sep. 21, 2009

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Added: Sep. 21, 2009

Indiana, USA

David Alex Flores

Man charged in Slayings of 2 Sisters, House Fire

An Indiana man faces murder, rape and arson charges in the slayings of two sisters after he attended a party at one sister's house in Griffith, Indiana, authorities said.

David Alex Flores, 35, of Griffith, was charged Wednesday with murdering Jennifer Evans, 28, and her sister, Kristen Evans-Kennedy, 25, and Evans-Kennedy's rape, as well as with setting fire to Evans' home after the slayings sometime late Sept. 10 or early last Friday, according to Lake County, Indiana, prosecutors...

In a statement, Flores told police he was at a small party in Evans' garage on Sep. 10 and fell asleep on the couch after drinking, according to the release.

When Flores awoke sometime late that night or early the morning of last Friday, he went into a bedroom where Evans-Kennedy was sleeping, and raped her when she resisted his attempt to kiss her; afterwards, he stabbed her in the neck and three or four other places with a knife he got from the home's kitchen, prosecutors said.

After stabbing the younger sister, Flores went to Evans' room and choked her into unconsciousness, then put her into a bathtub and brought Evans-Kennedy's body into the bathroom also, leaving it on the floor, where he covered it with bed linens, prosecutors said...

Flores... could face 130 years in prison, prosecutors said.

The Chicago Tribune

Sep. 17, 2009

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Added: Sep. 20, 2009

Texas, USA

Texas Senator Leticia Van de Putte and Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott at a Nov. 17, 2008 press conference [see video] to release the report, “The Texas Response to Human Trafficking” [PDF]

Tighter Laws On Traffickers Get Results

Advocates praise state’s progress against human smugglers

Advocates for human trafficking victims say Texas lawmakers have strengthened state legislation aimed at prosecuting traffickers, leading to the first batch of indictments since Texas first criminalized human trafficking in 2003.

San Antonio prosecutors in August secured multi-count indictments under the state law in cases involving the trafficking of two children, ages 13 and 15, said Sgt. Chris Burchell, a investigator with the Bexar County Sheriff's Office.

Burchell, who also heads up the Texas Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Child Sexual Exploitation Coalition, said prosecutors brought the charges against seven suspects in the two cases...

Law enforcement officials have long described Texas as a major corridor exploited by human traffickers. According to the U.S. State Department, between 14,500 and 17,500 people are trafficked into the United States each year, with nearly one in five victims of human trafficking traveling through Texas.

Texas gained the distinction of being the first state in the U.S. to criminalize human trafficking in 2003, but no cases were prosecuted under the original law in part because it lacked “teeth,” said Robert Sanborn, president of the Houston organization Children at Risk, which aims to combat human trafficking...

Houston is considered a hub for traffickers, officials said, in part because of its diverse population, proximity to the U.S.-Mexico border and international air and sea ports. Recognition of the growing human-trafficking problem locally has spawned coalitions and task forces that include law enforcement agencies and nongovernmental organizations.

“Houston has become the American hub for human trafficking,” Sanborn said. “Girls from abroad and girls from the United States are brought to Houston, and it's here that they are beaten and raped and drugged into submission before being sent to clandestine bordellos all over the country.” ...

Most traffickers generally are prosecuted under federal statutes, but since local authorities are often the first to encounter the victims in such cases, it made sense to give local law enforcement and prosecutors the power to present cases, said Jennifer Solak, a staff attorney with Children at Risk.

Susan Carroll

Houston Chronicle

Sept. 19, 2009

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Added: Sep. 20, 2009

The World

United Nations Report: Human Trafficking Likely to Rise Due to Economic Decline

United Nations - Human trafficking is likely to escalate because the global economic crisis has fueled its major causes - poverty, youth unemployment, gender inequality and the demand for cheap labor, the U.N. investigator on trafficking said Thursday.

In a report to the General Assembly, Joy Ngozi Ezeilo expressed concern that trafficking "continues to thrive" because these root causes are not being sufficiently addressed and "potential victims become more desperate to escape their unfavorable situations."

Ezeilo, a human rights lawyer and professor at the University of Nigeria who was appointed by the Geneva-based Human Rights Council job in August 2008, also expressed concern that trafficking victims are sometimes deported "without a sufficient period for recovery and reflection."

People who are trafficked should not be detained, charged, prosecuted or summarily deported, she stressed.

"Often, victims of trafficking ... have suffered severe trauma of a physical, sexual or psychological nature and require an enabling environment and the specialized services provided by trained personnel to trust, feel safe to talk about their victimization to, and assist law enforcement officials," Ezeilo said.

She expressed concern that governments are not paying adequate attention to the identification of women, children and men trafficked for sexual exploitation and cheap labor, and to measures to protect and assist them.

Only 24 of 86 countries that responded to a questionnaire she sent in 2008 indicated that those issues were a priority in the fight against human trafficking.

Overall, Ezeilo said, less than 30 percent of trafficking cases - both internally and across borders - are reported to officials...

Ezeilo reported on visits to Belarus, Poland and Japan and said each country needs to do more to identify and help victims...

The Associated Press

Sep. 10, 2009

LibertadLatina

Note

The above story is yet another example of coverage of global trafficking that omits any mention whatsoever of the mass gender atrocities that are occurring in Latin America.

End impunity now!

Chuck Goolsby

LibertadLatina

Sep. 20, 2009

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Added: Sep. 20, 2009

Arizona, USA

Andrew Robles

Missing Man Caught After Sexually Assaulting Young Girl

Scottsdale police are seeking a man wanted in connection with the sexual assault of an 11-year-old girl...

Officers said Andrew Robles, 54, is wanted on a charge of sexual conduct with a minor. Police said the girl was staying at his home in the area of Granite Reef and McDonald Drive.

Robles is Hispanic, about 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighs 190 pounds. He has a mustache and a scar across the bridge of his nose.

Investigators said he has been known to disappear for days and weeks on end and lives a transitory lifestyle.

People who know of his whereabouts are asked to call Scottsdale police at 480-312-5000.

KPHO

Sep. 18, 2009

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Added: Sep. 18, 2009

Mexico

Jacinta Francisco Marcial Photo: CIMAC Noticias

Tras 37 Meses de Prisión, Liberan a Jacinta Francisco

México, DF - Tras la liberación el pasado 16 de septiembre de la indígena otomí Jacinta Francisco Marcial, acusada con otras dos mujeres del secuestro de seis elementos de la Agencia Federal de Investigación (AFI) en 2006 --por lo que había sido sentenciada a 21 años de prisión--, Amnistía Internacional (AI) hizo un llamado a revisar completamente su proceso y a que sea resarcida por el daño causado por los tres años que permaneció en la cárcel, así como a revisar el proceso contra las coacusadas Alberta Alcántara y Teresa González...

See Also:
Las Otras Jacintas

"The 'Other' Jacintas"

CIMAC Noticias

News for Women

Mexico City

Sep. 17, 2009

See Also:

Jacinta Francisco Marcial, in her cell in San José El Alto prison, Querétaro state, Mexico, June 29, 2009 Photo: Ricardo Ramírez Arriola - Amnesty International

Freedom for Indigenous Mexican Woman Wrongly Imprisoned for Three Years

Amnesty International welcomes the release of Mexican prisoner of conscience Jacinta Francisco Marcial, who was held in prison for three years after being falsely accused of kidnapping six federal agents.

The mother of six, an Otomí Indigenous woman from Santiago Mexquititlán in the Mexican state of Querétaro, was sentenced to 21 years' imprisonment in December 2006.

Amnesty International is calling for a full review into her unfounded prosecution and for her to receive full compensation for unfair and wrongful imprisonment.

“The Mexican government has finally recognized that there was never evidence to justify Jacinta’s trial and conviction of 21 years imprisonment on charges of kidnapping,” said Kerrie Howard, Americas Deputy Director at Amnesty International...

The 46-year-old was released by the judge presiding over the retrial following an appeal won in her favour earlier in 2009. The judge’s decision was inevitable after the Federal Attorney General’s Office announced that it was dropping the case against Jacinta due to lack of evidence.

Jacinta Francisco Marcial was convicted of the kidnapping of six Mexican Federal Investigation Agency (Agencia Federal de Investigación, AFI) agents...

Amnesty International

Sep. 17, 2009

See Also:

Indigenous Mexican Woman Unfairly Accused of Kidnapping Agents

A Mexican market stall holder accused of kidnapping six federal agents has been adopted as a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International.

Mother of six Jacinta Francisco Marcial, 46, an Otomí Indigenous woman from Santiago Mexquititlán, Querétaro state, has been sentenced to 21 years in prison.

Amnesty International said she has been denied a fair trial and is in prison solely due to her marginal status in society as a poor Indigenous woman with limited access to justice. It has demanded that the Mexican authorities release her immediately and unconditionally...

"Jacinta's case is a scandal," said Rupert Knox, Mexico Researcher at Amnesty International. "This is a travesty of justice and a clear example of the second class justice Indigenous People often receive in Mexico.

"Jacinta's story shows how the Mexican criminal justice system is being misused to unfairly prosecute the most vulnerable. She has been targeted because of her ethnicity, gender and social status," said Rupert Knox...

On July 17, 2009, the National Human Rights Commission concluded that there were serious irregularities and fabricated evidence in Jacinta's case. Jacinta remains in prison pending the outcome of a retrial.

Amnesty International

Aug. 18, 2009

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Added: Sep. 18, 2009

Brazil

Policía brasileña desbarata red de pedofilia internacional 

La policía brasileña detuvo este martes a siete personas que integraban una red de pedofilia internacional que operaba por internet desde 24 países, informó la prensa local. 

En el marco de la operación Laio, contra la producción y divulgación de imágenes sexuales de niños y adolescentes, la Policía Federal (PF) detuvo a seis hombres en el Estado de Sao Paulo y uno en Minas Gerais...

Police Dismantle International Pedophile Ring

Sao Paulo - As part of an operation targeting the production and dissemination of sexual images of children and adolescents, Brazil's Federal Police (PF) have arrested six men in the State of Sao Paulo and one in Minas Gerais.

"The group distributed pictures, and later began to produce them," said the PF spokesperson Jesse Coelho.

"With court approval, our officers posed posing as pedophiles and connected with the group," added Coelho.

The investigation identified 11 pedophile suspects in Brazil and about 60 in 23 other countries. Coelho said that his agency does not yet know the outcome of the operations in other countries related to this case, which were to be conducted on Tuesday.

Agence France-Presse (AFP)

Sep. 16, 2009

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Added: Sep. 18, 2009

California, USA

Attacker Tries To Take Girl From Mother In San Rafael

A man tried to kidnap a 6-year-old girl who was walking in San Rafael with her mother, police said Thursday.

The incident occurred at 7:30 p.m. Sep. 4, but the woman, shaken and afraid after the attack, did not decide to report it until Thursday, said San Rafael police Sgt. Jim Correa.

The woman told police the man approached while she was walking with her daughter and 4-year-old son on Mission Avenue near Union Street, near San Rafael High School.

The man started to speak with them, but the mother walked away with the children. Then the man ran toward them and tried to take the girl away, Correa said.

As the woman and the attacker struggled over the child, the woman screamed and a bystander rushed to help. The man fled and was last seen running on Mission Avenue...

The man was described as Hispanic, 23 to 25 years old and about 5 feet 10 inches tall. He had a heavy build and a large belly, and wore a white shirt with black lettering...

Anyone with information about the man can call police directly at 485-3000 or place anonymous tips with Bay Area Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS, which is a multilingual call center...

Correa said the attack does not appear to be related to an incident on Aug. 15, when a 12-year-old girl said two men forced her into a car in Gerstle Park and drove away with her. The girl said she was able to get out of the car in the Bret Harte neighborhood and walk home.

Gary Klien

Sep. 17, 2009

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Added: Sep. 18, 2009

California, USA

La Habra Teen Grabbed on Way to School

Authorities today sought a man who grabbed a 16-year- old La Habra High School student as she walked to school along some railroad tracks about a half mile from the campus…

The man was described as Hispanic, in his 30s, between 5 feet 8 and 5 feet 10, with short hair and a stocky build, Knapp said. He was wearing a black jacket, blue jeans, and black athletic shoes.

The assailant "approached her from behind, grabbing her buttocks and then wrapping his arms around her in a 'bear hug' fashion," Knapp said in a statement.

"The victim screamed loudly several times and the subject released her," Knapp said. "The suspect then fled the location running away from the victim and down the tracks toward Beach Boulevard." …

Anyone with information about the case was urged to call police at (562) 905-9750.

Al Naipo

FOX 11 News

Los Angeles, CA

Sep. 17, 2009

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Added: Sep. 17, 2009

Mexico

Mexican Attorney General nominee Arturo Chávez Chávez Photo: Notimex

Senado Mexicano Debate Propuesta de Nuevo Procurador

El Senado mexicano se enfrascó el lunes en un debate inicial sobre los méritos del hombre propuesto por el Ejecutivo como nuevo procurador general, quien ha recibido severas críticas de activistas y organismos civiles por sus cuestionados antecedentes como fiscal de un estado que padeció el asesinato de cientos de mujeres...

Mexican Senate Debates Attorney General Nominee

On Monday the Mexican Senate began initial discussions of the merits of the man nominated by President Felipe Calderón to be the nation's new attorney general. Arturo Chávez has received severe criticism from activists and non-governmental organizations for his history as the head prosecutor in Chihuahua state, where hundreds women have been murdered...

The Associated Press

Sep. 14, 2009

See also:

With New Attorney General, Mexico Tries to Revamp Drug War

Mexico City - With a new attorney general, Mexican President Felipe Calderon is trying to get even tougher on drug cartels and those who protect them.

But critics say he tapped the wrong man for the job: Arturo Chavez was mired in controversy as attorney general of a border state where corruption ran rampant and hundreds of women were raped and murdered with impunity...

During his 1996-98 term as state attorney general, state police botched investigations into the murders of hundreds of women whose bodies turned up dead in the desert outside Ciudad Juarez so badly that former President Vicente Fox later had to send in federal prosecutors to take over the cases.

Activists accused Chihuahua state officials of torturing suspects, contaminating and falsifying evidence and harassing victims' relatives.

Chavez drew fire for suggesting the victims were partly to blame "for wearing miniskirts." He recommended women take karate classes and carry pepper-spray.

"God help us," said Victoria Caraveo, a women's activist in Ciudad Juarez. "He did nothing when faced with this problem in Juarez. What will he do as attorney general for Mexico?" ...

Julie Watson

Olivia Torres contributing

The Associated Press

Sep. 8, 2009

See also:

Barrio Terrazas: dejó atrás el feminicidio y es embajador en Canadá

Las víctimas ocasionaron su muerte, decía el ex gobernador

México DF, 16 enero 09 (CIMAC).- México ratificó como embajador ante el Gobierno de Canadá al hombre que afirmó que los asesinatos de mujeres en Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua --más de 400 hasta hoy-- era una situación “natural”, en virtud de que las víctimas caminaban por sitios oscuros y “se vestían de manera provocativa” con minifaldas: Francisco Javier Barrio Terrazas, del Partido Acción Nacional

(PAN)...

Barrio Terrazas has Left Femicide Behind and is Now Mexico's Ambassador to Canada

Congress has confirmed Francisco Javier Barrio Terrazas, of the National Action Party (PAN), as ambassador to Canada. Barrio Terrazas once declared that the murders of women in Ciudad Juarez, in Chihuahua state - of which there are over 400 to date - were "natural" because the victims were walking in dark places and had dressed provocatively in miniskirts...

[Javier Barrio Barrio Terrazas was the Mayor of Ciudad Juarez in the 1980s, and became Chihuahua state's governor in 1992.]

Gladis Torres Ruiz

CIMAC Noticias

Jan. 18, 2009

See also:

LibertadLatina Special Section

About the Femicide Murders and Impunity in Ciudad Juarez and Other Regions of Chihuahua State, Mexico

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Added: Sep. 16, 2009

Mexico

Mexican Attorney General nominee Arturo Chávez Chávez Foto: El Universal

Critics Blast Work History of Calderón's Choice to Lead Drug Battle [as Attorney General]

Mexico City – President Felipe Calderón's choice to lead the battle against drug traffickers is under attack by critics who question the nominee's previous work in the state of Chihuahua.

Arturo Chávez Chávez is set to replace Eduardo Medina Mora, who for nine years has been the face of Mexico's campaign against traffickers.

In announcing the change Monday, Calderón praised Chávez, who faces a tough nomination fight in the Mexican Congress.

...Critics in Chihuahua [state] and Ciudad Juárez, the violent border city across from El Paso, [Texas] took issue with Calderón's assessment. They include Oscar Maynes, a former forensics director for the state, and Esther Chávez, director of Casa Amiga, which has documented the killing and disappearance of women in Juárez.

"If there is one thing we're sure of in Chihuahua, it is Chávez's incompetence," Maynes said. "This is a very delicate time for Mexico - the massacre of Juárez and Mexico is under way - and Calderón names a person with a questionable history. This is a sad, terrible mistake."

Once known as a beacon of democratic change, Juárez is best known today as Mexico's murder capital. More than 1,500 people have been killed this year, including nearly 100 in the first eight days of September. Nationwide, more than 5,000 people have been killed in drug violence.

Between 1992 and 1999, when Chávez worked in different roles with the Chihuahua state attorney general's office, the Juárez drug cartel cemented its presence in the region and the cases of hundreds of slain women came to light...

Alfredo Corchado

The Dallas Morning News

Sep. 9, 2009

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Added: Sep. 15, 2009

Asia, Africa, The World

Half the Sky

Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide

Written by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn

New book abstract:

From two of our most fiercely moral voices, a passionate call to arms against our era’s most pervasive human rights violation: the oppression of women and girls in the developing world.

With Pulitzer Prize winners Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn as our guides, we undertake an odyssey through Africa and Asia to meet the extraordinary women struggling there, among them a Cambodian teenager sold into sex slavery and an Ethiopian woman who suffered devastating injuries in childbirth. Drawing on the breadth of their combined reporting experience, Kristof and WuDunn depict our world with anger, sadness, clarity, and, ultimately, hope...

Random House

Sep., 2009

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Added: Sep. 14, 2009

The World

Report co-author and Chief Executive of the Australian NGO Child Wise, Bernadette McMenamin

One Million Children Trafficked for Sexual Exploitation: Report

A new report on child sex slavery says nearly 80 percent of all global trafficking is for sexual exploitation.

The End Child Prostitution, Pornography and Trafficking (ECPAT)report released today says an estimated 1.2 million children are trafficked for sexual exploitation or cheap labor every year.

The report says the proportion of minors involved in all forms of human trafficking has increased between 2003 and 2007, from 15 per cent to 22 per cent.

Co-author of the report and Chief Executive of Child Wise, Bernadette McMenamin says there's also concern the global recession could result in a rise in child sex trafficking.

"There is new anecdotal evidence coming from many countries including Asia and the Pacific where we're seeing more children entering or being sold into prostitution because there are less jobs around - there are less opportunities for education," she said.

"And the global economic crisis has definitely increased this problem. So governments have paid a lot of lip service to this problem, they've signed declarations, they've introduced laws, etc etc, but they're not working."

The study is part of a global campaign involving 45 countries, aimed at raising awareness about the scale of the child sex trade.

Reuters

Sep. 14, 2009

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Added: Sep. 14, 2009

The World

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton

Clinton Urges Crackdown on Human Trafficking

Vienna, Austria - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton warns that human trafficking is flourishing in the shadows of the global economic downturn.

Clinton gave a video address to an international conference in Vienna examining the scourge of forced labor, sexual slavery and other forms of exploitation. She says urgent steps are needed to crack down on traffickers.

Clinton says she has seen the suffering firsthand: girls in Thailand who were trafficked as young children and are now dying of AIDS, and mothers in Eastern Europe whose daughters have vanished.

She warns that "new economic pressures are likely to aggravate the problem further."

Clinton's speech Monday kicked off a two-day conference of the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe.

The Associated Press

Sep. 14, 2009

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Added: Sep. 15, 2009

LibertadLatina

Commentary

Chuck Goolsby

Give Latin America and Especially its At-Risk Indigenous Peoples a Seat at the Table in the Global Fight Against Gender Oppression

Three recent news stories that have been prominently covered by the press include: U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's call to crackdown on human slavery; a new report by Australia's Bernadette McMenamin and End Child Prostitution, Pornography and Trafficking (ECPAT), identifying 1.2 million children as being made the victims of global sex trafficking each year; and a new book, Half the Sky, by Pulitzer Prize winners and New York Times veteran couple Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, which presents views of the crisis of mass gender oppression in Asia and Africa.

All of these events are important. They will no doubt raise awareness about modern human slavery. That consciousness raising is an important element in helping to build the public pressure that will allow truly effective action to be taken to end modern slavery.

The common theme across all of the above-listed events is an emphasis on addressing the gender rights crisis in Asia, and to a lesser extent in Eastern Europe and Africa. While these regions of the world do have critical women's human rights emergencies to contend with, Latin America is also one of the world's most serious hotspots for modern human slavery and gender exploitation with impunity.

We have previously called out the fact that the modern human trafficking movement in western nations started in the 1990s when the former Soviet Union disbanded, causing widespread sex trafficking to occur in Eastern Europe. In fact, Latin American women and girls had been sex trafficked into the U.S. for decades prior to these events, with no visible reaction from the women's movement in the West. Some aspects of the same problem, that of looking at gender exploitation issues through a lens that ignores Latin America, continue to concern us.

During a recent edition of the U.S.-based, nationally broadcast Diane Rehm Show, from WAMU public radio in Washington, DC, authors Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn discussed their new book, Half the Sky, that focuses on the mass rapes, sex trafficking and other forms of gender oppression facing women in Africa and Asia.

I called-in to the show, and mentioned that currently, Latin America, and specifically Mexico were, in addition to Asia, Africa and Europe, also hot spots for the oppression of women that need public attention. I mentioned that: 1) Hundreds of thousands of women and girls have been forced into prostitution in Mexico; 2) that Save the Children has identified southern Mexico as being the largest region in the world for the commercial sexual exploitation of children; and 3) that all along the southern border of Mexico, an estimated 450 to 600 women and girls are raped each and every day as they attempt to migrate from South and Central America to the U.S.

In response, Nicholas Kristof stated that he had done a minimal amount of work looking into Latin America, but that in his view, India was that largest hot spot in the world for sex trafficking. He added that women prostitutes are "bred" - and that their children are also forced into prostitution. Kristof mentioned that women trapped in prostitution in India are often caged, and are at times killed by their enslavers.

Sheryl WuDunn went on to acknowledge that Mexico was a growing problem that needed to be addressed. But, she said, something has to be done about India before it grows even further out of control.

We agree that India, the rest of Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe are crisis hot spots for the oppression of women and modern human trafficking. That is not in dispute. That does not mean that Latin America should be ignored as yet another critical issue.

We call upon the mainstream media and the U.S. administration of President Barack Obama to address the fact that the crisis of sex trafficking, labor slavery and other severe forms of the oppression of women  in Latin America constitute a regional emergency, and that many of the region's governments, such as that of Mexico, actually aid and abet criminal sex traffickers through their political stances, and by way of their actions and acts of omission.

Importantly, indigenous and African descendant peoples are made highly vulnerable to these abuses by a long history of continuing racial prejudice across Latin America, and especially in Mexico.

Many statistics can be presented to show that Latin America has a number of child and adult women victims of sexual exploitation that is roughly equivalent to the numbers of victims seen today in Asia. It is well known that the sex trafficking 'industry' 'mines' victims in Latin America as if they were coal in the ground, to be exploited locally or sent across the world to a life of torture and death in sexual slavery.

This ugly reality, one that continues to be partially hidden by the fuedal 'code of silence' that the misogynist 'El Yunque' movement and other ultraconservative, pro-feudal and pro-machismo forces promote in Mexico and the rest of Latin America, must be acknowledged by the movement to end modern slavery. Based on that knowledge, we as civilized societies and governments must stand-up and take action to end the mass gender atrocities that plague this region of the world.

Neither the modern anti-slavery movement nor the government entities that have been created to fight human trafficking in the Americas are set-up to address the problem of dealing with nations that actually support modern human slavery, directly or indirectly.

It is apparent from a number of political stances and actions taken by the administration of President Felipe Calderón that Mexico is in fact such a nation.

Is the global anti-trafficking movement ready to tackle the ultraconservative, misogynist and apparently pro-trafficking El Yunque movement, who hold significant power as a dominant faction of the ruling National Action Party (PAN)?

Does the anti-trafficking movement understand that a Mexico that is governed by the PAN will likely never lift a single finger to actually attempt to end the labor and sexual slavery that Mexico has relied-upon to sustain its economy for hundreds of years?

Significant international pressure must be put on the PAN to require it to change its course. Pro-women's rights activists in Mexico must also be supported in ways that send a message to the PAN and to El Yunque (who's Falangist fanaticism literally views all social activists, including women's rights advocates as the children of Satan),

that their violations of international norms governing the human rights of women will not be tolerated.

The victims, and those who are at risk in Latin America cannot await the procrastination of the United Nations, the Organization of American States and the United States Government in regard to these issues.

Women, girls and other victims of modern slavery and other forms of gender and race-based criminal exploitation in Latin America deserve our immediate attention.

There is just no excuse for allowing these horrors to continue uncontested.

End impunity now!

Chuck Goolsby

LibertadLatina

Sep. 15, 2009

Updated Sep. 17, 2009

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Added: Sep. 14, 2009

Illinois, USA

Sketch of attempted child abduction suspect

Police seek offender in attempted abduction on Far North Side

Police have issued a community alert following the attempted abduction of a 10-year-old girl last week in the East Rogers Park neighborhood on the North Side...

The girl was crossing the alley when a man driving a white pickup passed by and told the girl to get into his truck for a ride home. The girl reported the incident to a citizen standing nearby and the offender fled in an unknown direction.

The offender is described as a Hispanic man 35-45 with a mustache and a dark complexion. He was wearing a baseball cap and spoke only Spanish to the victim. The vehicle is described as a white pickup with a black strip, the alert said. It has a wood board surrounding the cab of the truck, which may be used for scrap or junk collecting...

Anyone with information should call Bemont Area detectives at (312) 744-8200.

Sun Times News Group

Sep. 14, 2009

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Added: Sep. 14, 2009

Mexico

Border Mothers Angry Over Mexican Nominee for Attorney General

Ciudad Juarez, Mexico - A group of women whose daughters were murdered in a violent Mexican border city are protesting President Felipe Calderon's choice for new attorney general.

Protesters say the nominee, Arturo Chavez, did little to solve dozens of rapes and murders of women in Ciudad Juarez when he was Chihuahua state attorney general from 1996 to 1998.

About 25 women picketed Wednesday outside the federal attorney general's office in Ciudad Juarez, across from El Paso, Texas.

Ester Luna, whose 15-year-old daughter was killed in 1997, said Chavez "didn't care about those killings, (so) what makes him fit for this post?"

Chavez was nominated... to replace Attorney General Eduardo Medina-Mora.

The Associated Press

Sep. 09, 2009

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Added: Sep. 14, 2009

Mexico

"El Yunque, no; PAN, yes.” Source: EFE/El Financiero

Cabinet Shuffle...

...[The] PAN [National Action Party], like the Republican Party north of the border, has come to rely heavily on a religious right “base” to turn out the vote. As happened in the United States, this has ended up costing the party in general elections, but unlike the Republicans, PAN is showing signs of being willing to jettison the narrow interests of that base in return for a chance to maintain more than a regional dominance. Eduardo Medina-Moro Icaza — a stalwart in the piety wing of the party, and said to have close ties to the shadowy Catholic fascist group, El Yunque, is out as Procurador General (Attorney General)...

The Mex Files

Sep. 09, 2009

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Added: Sep. 14, 2009

Mexico, The United States

[More background on the 'El Yunque' movement in Mexico]

‘Purge Anti-Semites from Mexican Government Before Giving U.S. Military Aid’ Friends of Brad Will Tells Congress

Denouncing the appointments of members of El Yunque, an ultra-right anti-semitic movement, to the highest levels of the Mexican government, Friends of Brad Will has told key [U.S.] Democratic Party leaders to reject the Bush military aid package called the Merida Initiative. Friends of Brad Will is a non-government organization advocating for accountability for the murder of U.S. journalist Brad Will, who was killed by Mexican government paramilitaries in October, 2006.