In the last 2 weeks we have successfully rescued 2 new daughters both of whom have extraordinary testimonies…I will share Monica’s in a bit. We also through the US Dept. Of Homeland Security successfully shut down a child porn site that had more than 500 videos involving hardcore acts with children many of whom have yet to reach 5 years of age.

I don’t think you can understand until you have seen this stuff the depth of evil that exists in mankind and while the acts are one thing what is causing me what may be more pain than I can handle is the faces of these children during the acts. I keep seeing them over and over in my mind. I find myself now at times in the middle of the day and night just stopping and crying. I can handle a lot as most of my work keeps me in the midst of hell but the enemy may have found the way to take me out of this battle.

On top of that we have identified 3 different middle schools in Baja California where girls yet to reach 16 years of age and many of whom are only 12 are willingly selling themselves not out of force but for money to buy things like cell phones, chips and soda, and the latest fashions. Many of the clients are Americans who either live here or come down specificially seeking these children.

Through an ongoing operation in the red zones of Tijuana we have also identified 42 minors who are being prostituted blatantly with seemingly no repercussion from law enforcement…yeah they do go in and arrest them from time to time but the next day they are back on the streets. It is a helpless feeling to see all this and only be able to act on a miniscule fraction.

We have been waiting for help from Mexico City for a long time now and are pretty much resigning ourselves that it is not coming. It is not like they don’t have other things to do…this country is in the midst of a full blown war that makes Iraq look like a playground. There are armed groups attacking each other daily and many of the attacks are happening in the middle of civilians and even in the middle of town squares. The numbers are staggering and it seems like the daily reports of multiple homicides at the hands of AK 47’s and AR 15’s are just another story. The US has shut down the consulate in Monterrey where the Zetas and Gulf Cartel have engaged in a full blown war.

In the middle of all this I often find myself asking God…where are you?????? I know He is here as my faith has not been completely stolen but those little 3 and 5 year old faces from the videos sure bring legitimacy to the question...

Now would be a good time to pray brothers and sisters…it is a season of almost unbearable pain. We need you now more than ever…we need your prayers, we need your financial support and we need more people to get off their butts and start doing something. There is a war going on …a war which is reaching a level of evil most of you cannot fathom or at least that you choose not to. I don’t have that luxury I have been called to fight for these kids and the images of those tiny faces is a double edged sword…it makes me want to quit and at the same time won’t let me.

"Enter at Your Own Risk" - A Study From Ontario, Canada

Fear of Being Fired Discourages Women Migrant Workers from Reporting Rape and Other Abuses

Mexico City - Hundreds of Mexican women who are participating in the Mexico-Canada Temporary Agricultural Worker's Program (PTAT) harsh working conditions in Canada. In addition to job insecurity and a lack of access to health services, these women suffer violence, and above all sexual assault, which they don't report for fear of losing their jobs.

Thee were the conclusions reached by Canadian sociologist Dr. Jenna L. Hennebry in her 2008 to 2009 research study of labor conditions for migrant workers in Ontario province, titled, Enter at Your Own Risk: Mexican Migrant Agricultural Workers in Canada. Dr. Hennebry recently presented the results of her investigation at the Institute for Social Investigation at the Autonomous National University of Mexico (UNAM).

Dr. Hennebry based her work on interviews with 600 migrants. Some nine percent of Canadian agricultural migrant workers come from Mexico, 7% are from Jamaica, and the remaining three percent are from Guatemala and Honduras. Migrant workers average 7 years on the job in Canada.

Of the 5,000 Mexican workers in the PTAT program, 400 are women...

...Canadian [farm managers] subject these workers to violence, and above all, to sexual assault. However, male migrant coworkers are the most frequent perpetrators of rape against women workers.

Many Canadian farm operators believe that migrant women workers are easier to control than men. In the PTAT program, farm managers can select the sex of the workers that they desire to work on their farms.

Women interviewed for the study stated that "If they [sexual assault victims] call the police, those authorities will take action. The problem is that they fear loosing their jobs if they speak up."

According to Adela Rico Arreola, a 43-year-old Mexican migrant worker, women women who report rape face a risk of loosing their jobs not only from their Canadian employer, but from the Mexico. Rico Arreola: "If you complain to a Mexican Consul in Canada about having been raped, he will tell you: 'Put up with it if you want to work. Because there are many people in line in Mexico waiting to come here.'"

In migrants complain about sexual assault to the Mexican Secretariat of Labor and Social Forecasting, which is the government agency that arranges employment for workers in the PTAT program, their response is: "Well, you won't be going back [to Canada]."

Full English Translation

Los Angeles - Giumarra Vineyards Corporation, one of the largest growers of table grapes in the nation, violated federal law by subjecting a teenage female farm worker to sexual harassment, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charged in a lawsuit announced today. Further, the EEOC said, the company retaliated against a class of other farm workers who came to her aid at its Edison, California facility. All of the victims identified in the lawsuit are indigenous Indians from Mexico, a minority among the Mexican farm worker community.

According to the EEOC’s suit (EEOC v. Giumarra Vineyards Corporation, et al, Case No. 1:09-cv-02255), filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, the young female worker was subjected to sexual advances, sexually inappropriate touching and abusive and offensive sexual comments about the male sex organ by a male co-worker.

The EEOC further alleged that after witnessing the sexual harassment, a class of farm workers came to the aid of the teenage female victim and complained to Giumarra Vineyards. However, just one day after reporting and complaining about the sexual harassment, the teenage victim and the class of farm workers were summarily discharged in retaliation for their opposition to the sexual harassment.

“What happened to this vulnerable young girl was intolerable and illegal,” said EEOC Acting Chairman Stuart J. Ishimaru. “And what this employer did to others who simply came to her defense was outrageous. Whenever workers alert their superiors about unlawful discrimination in the workplace, employers should act immediately to end the illegal mistreatment. If they don’t – if employers won’t protect their own workers from illegal harassment and instead retaliate against the whistle-blowers – then the EEOC will make sure they face the legal consequences.” ...

En el marco del Año Interamericano de la Mujer, la Organización de los Estados Americanos (OEA) y la Comisión Interamericana de Mujeres (CIM) realizaron hoy una sesión especial para recibir a la ministra de la Condición Femenina y los Derechos de la Mujer de Haití, Marjorie Michel, en la que la Organización reafirmó su compromiso con las mujeres y niñas haitianas...

Según datos del gobierno haitiano, en el último tiempo ha crecido la violencia contra las mujeres en los campamentos, ha habido un aumento en las violaciones y la prostitución es en muchas ocasiones el único medio para obtener comida.

En tanto, la Presidenta de la CIM, Wanda Jones, agradeció al Secretario General su pronta reacción después del terremoto, “comprometiendo a la OEA, llevando sus recursos y gestionando el de otras organizaciones para la reconstrucción de Haití”...

The Organization of American States (OAS) and the Inter-American Commission of Women (CIM) today held a special session in the framework of the Inter-American Year of Women at OAS headquarters in Washington, DC, to welcome Marjorie Michel, Haiti’s Minister of Women's Affairs....

According to information from the Haitian government, violence against women has grown in the camps, there has been a rise in rapes, and prostitution is often the sole means of obtaining food...

CIM President Wanda Jones thanked the Secretary General for his quick response after the January 12 earthquake, “committing the OAS, taking its resources and working with other organizations for the reconstruction of Haiti...”

La Organización de los Estados Americanos (OEA) inauguró hoy el Año Interamericano de la Mujer con una mesa redonda presidida por el Secretario General de la Organización de los Estados Americanos (OEA), José Miguel Insulza, y la Presidenta de la Comisión Interamericana de Mujeres (CIM), Wanda Jones, en la sede principal del organismo en Washington, DC.

El Secretario General reconoció “el orgullo que tiene la OEA de iniciar oficialmente el Año Interamericano de la Mujer con la presencia de un grupo tan distinguido que representa las luchas, los logros y los obstáculos que enfrentan las mujeres de nuestro continente en su trayecto a la representación y la incidencia política”.

“Aún hay obstáculos que vencer, estereotipos que eliminar, injusticias que corregir, marcos jurídicos que modernizar y aplicar, lenguajes sexistas que eliminar. Las mujeres políticas del Hemisferio y la OEA emprenderán un nuevo camino de colaboración para eliminar las dificultades que persisten en la lucha por los derechos y la igualdad de las mujeres. Cuentan ustedes con la OEA para lograrlo”, finalizó.

Por su parte, la Presidenta de la CIM aseguró que, a pesar de los avances en materia de igualdad en todo el continente, aún existen problemas. “Sabemos que el acceso real al poder y a la toma de decisiones en este país y en muchos otros es limitado. Si bien la mayoría de los países aquí representados han firmado los convenios que permiten que la mujer acceda al poder, seguimos enfrentadas a obstáculos en todos los ámbitos”...

The Organization of American States (OAS) today inaugurated the Inter-American Year of Women with a round table presided by OAS Secretary General José Miguel Insulza and the President of the Inter-American Commission of Women (CIM), Wanda Jones, at OAS headquarters in Washington, DC.

The Secretary General noted “the pride the OAS has in officially beginning the Inter-American Year of Women with the presence of so distinguished a group that represents the battles, the achievements and obstacles that women in our continent face in their trajectory toward political representation and influence.”

“There are still obstacles to overcome, stereotypes to eliminate, injustices to correct, judicial frameworks to modernize and implement, sexist language to eliminate. Political women of the Hemisphere and the OAS will undertake a new road of collaboration to eliminate the difficulties that persist in the fight for the rights and equality of women. You can count on the OAS for support,” he concluded.

For her part, the President of the CIM asserted that despite the progress achieved throughout the continent on the subject of equality, certain problems persist. “We know that access to real power and decision making in this country and in many others is limited. While a majority of countries represented here have signed agreements that allow women access to power, we continue to face obstacles in all spheres.” ...

Las más altas autoridades de las Américas en materia de Justicia, convocadas por la Organización de los Estados Americanos (OEA), concluyeron hoy su reunión en Brasilia con la adopción de una serie de conclusiones y recomendaciones encaminadas a fortalecer la efectividad, eficiencia y agilidad en la acción conjunta de los Estados para prevenir, perseguir y combatir la criminalidad en la región...

Los temas de la agenda incluyeron medidas concretas para fortalecer la cooperación jurídica y judicial en las Américas; promoción de herramientas para fortalecer la asistencia mutua en materia penal y de extradición; medidas contra el delito cibernético; asistencia y protección a victimas y testigos; políticas penitenciarias y carcelarias y cooperación hemisférica en materia de investigación forense, la lucha contra de la trata de personas y en pro del derecho de la familia y la niñez...

Ministers of Justice of the Americas Adopt New Measures to Strengthen Legal Cooperation in the Region

The highest authorities of the Americas in matters of Justice, brought together by the Organization of American States (OAS), concluded today their meeting in Brasilia with the adoption of a series of conclusions and recommendations aimed at strengthening effectiveness, efficiency and flow in the joint action of States to prevent, prosecute and fight crime in the region...

Subjects on the agenda included concrete measures to strengthen legal and judicial cooperation in the Americas; the promotion of tools to strengthen mutual assistance in penal and extradition matters; measures against cybercrime; assistance and protection to victims and witnesses; prison and penitentiary policy and hemispheric cooperation on matters of forensic investigation, the fight against human trafficking and support for family and child’s rights...

Organization of American States (OAS)

Feb. 26, 2010

Dallas - A new state task force will take an aggressive stand against human traffickers, who have turned Texas into a hub for international and domestic forced labor and prostitution rings, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said Tuesday in Dallas.

The Texas Human Trafficking Prevention Task Force will coordinate, fortify and expand law enforcement tools to prosecute traffickers and help better identify victims of "modern-day slavery," he said.

"We are not going to be defeated by human trafficking," Abbott said. "It is a horrific crime that affects far too many people."

Abbott spoke about the task force, which held its first meeting last month, at the Texas Summit on the Trafficking and Exploitation of Children, organized by Children at Risk...

While Texas already has several task forces related to human trafficking that are funded by the U.S. Justice Department, the new task force will connect investigations and intelligence throughout the state, officials said...

Major destination

Texas is considered a major destination for victims of domestic and international human trafficking. In 2008, 38 percent of all calls to the National Human Trafficking Resource Center hot line were dialed in Texas, according to statistics...

Victims' rights workers have called for more safe houses and increased public awareness. A common misperception is that victims are always forced into the sex trade. But, advocates say, more than half are forced into other types of labor, so clues about their situation are often ignored...

Rep. Paula Pierson, D-Arlington, who attended the conference, said abuse, particularly of women and children, has gone on for "years and years." 

"We can't just bury our heads in the sand and pretend it does not go on," she said. "We have to take a stand and stop it."

A massive earthquake has hit the coast of Chile, killing dozens of people, flattening buildings and triggering a tsunami.

The 8.8-magnitude quake, the country’s largest in 25 years, shook the capital Santiago for a minute and half at 3:34am (6:34am GMT) today.

A tsunami warning has been extended across 53 countries, including most of Central and South America and as far as Australia, Hawaii and Antarctica.

The wave has already caused serious damage to the sparsely populated Juan Fernandez islands, off the Santiago coast, and is now travelling across the ocean at several hundred km per hour.

The death toll in Chile has reached 78 and is still rising according to President Michelle Bachelet, who has declared a “state of catastrophe” in the country.

Calling for calm from an emergency response centre, the outgoing president said: “We have had a huge earthquake, with some aftershocks.

“Despite this, the system is functioning. People should remain calm. We’re doing everything we can with all the forces we have. Any information we will share immediately.”

With a confluence of climate and non-climate drivers, the ubiquitous presence of land degradation, and an irregular geographical population and land distribution, Mexico stands out as an exemplary potential hotspot for environmentally-induced migration in Latin America. Its adjacency to the United States has in part facilitated international migration as a viable coping strategy.... There has been a growing out-migration of environmentally induced migrants from the arid northern region, already estimated by the mid 1990s at 900,000 per year. When Washington decides to include environmentally motivated migration as a factor in its migratory policy, it might first address it in regards to Mexico, due to the latter’s status as the largest immigration feeder country into the United States. This may set a precedent for how the issue is approached in the rest of the Western hemisphere.

...The Mexican government’s unequal response in terms of hurricane relief may also have played a part in accelerating out-migration. Indeed, while authorities responded quickly and effectively to Hurricane Wilma that hit the Maya Riviera and its tourist attractions in October 2005, they provided practically no assistance to the impoverished victims of Hurricane Stan, which devastated [Mayan majority] Chiapas less than a month later...

...Environmentally-induced migrants, and in particular those abruptly uprooted from their homes due to sudden natural disasters, are “at greater risk of sexual exploitation, human trafficking and sexual and gender-based violence” than settled populations...

...Climate change will also certainly induce greater female out-migration. [In Environmentally induced migration and displacement: a 21st Century Challenge, a report by the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly, Tina] Acketoft reports that “while lone women migrants will face similar challenges to their male counterparts in finding employment, affordable housing, and accessing social services, they are in addition more likely to face difficulties due to gender-based discrimination.” This holds especially true in Latin America, where patriarchalism is still strongly prevalent.

Attendees at Congressional Anti-Trafficking Conference Proposed Penalizing Exploiters and Consumers

[English translation to follow]

México, DF.- La falta de homogeneidad legislativa penal, para castigar el delito de trata, tanto a nivel federal como estatal, profundiza el riesgo de mayor impunidad. A pesar de que en 25 estados del país tienen contemplado ese delito, esas diferencias hacen que desde la Ley se abra la puerta a la impunidad, coincidieron las y los participantes del Foro de Análisis sobre la Legislación Penal en Materia de Trata de Personas...

Para Rodolfo Casillas, especialista en el tema y maestro en historia por El Colegio de México, los estados que ya modificaron sus códigos penales apelaron a una gran diversidad de elementos lo que da como resultado una variedad en las conductas sancionables, en los medios comisivos, en los fines y en consecuencia en el régimen de sanciones...

México forma parte de la Convención de las Naciones Unidas contra la Delincuencia Organizada Transnacional (Convención de Palermo) y de sus tres protocolos: Protocolo para prevenir, reprimir y sancionar la trata de personas, especialmente mujeres y niñas; Protocolo contra el tráfico ilícito de migrantes por tierra, mar y aire; y el Protocolo contra la fabricación y el tráfico ilícitos de armas de fuego, sus piezas y componentes y municiones.

Casillas, señaló que pareciera que al ser México país de origen tránsito y destino de flujos internacionales de personas, mercancías y productos prohibidos, fuera justificante para que sociedad e instituciones podamos presentar excusas por el actuar contradictorio, ineficiente e insatisfactorio al aplicar políticas públicas de corto alcance.

Varias y varios de los ponentes coincidieron en que esta heterogeneidad en los marcos jurídicos ha permitido que los tratantes queden libres y que la impunidad se imponga ante el sufrimiento y el dolor de las víctimas, además de que crea desconfianza en las instituciones y en consecuencia, la falta de denuncia.

Sara Irene Herrerías Guerra, titular de la Fiscalía para los Delitos de Violencia contra la Mujer y Trata de Personas de la Procuraduria General de la República (PGR), externó que es necesario un marco jurídico que permita trabajar en los aspectos de atención a víctimas, políticas públicas y persecución de delitos.

“Hay algunos problemas como el de acreditar el tipo penal no sólo en la cuestión de la ley para prevenir, sino los tipos penales específicos. Se tiene que hacer un análisis jurídico que, “nos permita que no se recalifiquen las conductas delictivas, que se dé menos espacio a la corrupción y que en general todos los actores estemos en un mismo sentido combatiendo este delito”...

A pesar de que especialistas y legisladores demostraron con cifras el efecto de la trata de personas en el país, el secretario de Gobernación, Fernando Gómez Mont, aseguró que antes de pensar en federalizar el delito “hay que visibilizar la tragedia”...

Invitado a participar en el foro de análisis sobre la legislación penal contra la trata de personas, Gómez Mont afirmó que ese delito tiene su origen en el machismo, la pobreza y la violencia familiar, y se construye sobre lo más débil de los seres humanos...

Interior Secretary Mont Lays Bare His Opposition to Federalizing Mexico's Anti-Trafficking Legislation

Secretary Mont ignores PAN Congressional Deputy Rosi Orozco's Call For Immediate Actions To Help Victims

During the Feb. 23^rd and 24^th, 2010 congressionally sponsored Forum for Analysis and Discussion in Regard to Criminal Law to Control Human Trafficking, Mexico’s Interior Secretary, Fernando Gómez Mont, cautioned that, before consideration is given to the idea of passing federalized human trafficking crime legislation, “we must visualize this tragedy.”

The Fifth Inspector General of the National Human Rights Commission (CNDH), Fernando Batista, lamented that only 25 of 31 states in Mexico have passed legislation enacting criminal statues to address human trafficking. Batista noted that because of legal deficiencies in the existing state laws, only 1.7 percent of those who are responsible for trafficking crimes are exposed to the risk of prosecution. An even smaller percentage face a risk of being sentenced to prison if they are convicted.

Batista said that this stands in stark contrast with the fact that the sexual exploitation of adults and children is the third most profitable criminal enterprise in the world, after drug and arms trafficking.

National Action Party (PAN) deputy Rosi Orozco, Chair of the Special Commission to Fight Human Trafficking, recently formed in the Chamber of Deputies [lower House], declared that although a national anti-trafficking law has been in effect in Mexico since [late] 2007, “only one person has been sent to prison for trafficking offenses.”

Interior Secretary Mont, who was invited to appear at the anti trafficking forum, acknowledged that human trafficking in Mexico has its origins in machismo, poverty and family violence. He added that trafficking builds itself upon the backs of the most vulnerable.

Among the solutions that were presented at the forum was the idea of federalizing anti-trafficking law, to resolve the problem of inconsistency that plagues existing state criminal laws to control trafficking. In response to this proposal, Interior Secretary Mont expressed his opposition to the idea. He suggested that alternatives should be considered, such as involving educational, law enforcement and social service institutions in an effort to “detect the spaces in which this monstrous activity exists.”

Deputy Orozco proposed that, at present, at the very least, the federal government should open an emergency telephone hotline where kidnapped children and their families can call to seek help or file a complaint. Secretary Mont had no response to this proposal.

During the forum Deputy Orozco also stated that the sexual exploitation of women and children is the third most profitable illicit business for organized crime globally. She noted that in Mexico, government officials are involved in human trafficking activities. Deputy Orozco: “This crime involves the worst forms of slavery that have existed in the history of humanity.”

Deputy Orozco said that, according to national and international research reports, an estimated 16,000 to 20,000 minors are subjected to [commercial] sexual exploitation of children [CSEC]. Within that group, 80% of the victims are children between the ages of 10 and 14.

Fernando Gómez Mont, Mexico's Interior Secretary, spoke during the recent Forum for Analysis and Discussion in Regard to Criminal Law to Control Human Trafficking, hosted by the newly formed Special Commission for the Fight Against Human Trafficking of the House of Deputies in Congress. Secretary Mont said that he recognizes that [the government of] Mexico is organizing itself to fight human trafficking at an agonizingly slow pace. He offered his viewpoint, that efforts to combat trafficking should focus on creating prevention mechanisms, and not increased 'action' [law enforcement efforts]. The Secretary added that the roots of this problem in Mexican society involve the dynamics of family violence, machismo and extreme poverty.

Secretary Mont: "These are the factors that are the root of the surge in trafficking. For that reason, he said, we must develop a truly effective approach to prevention. We cannot stop fighting to resolve these aspects of the problem."

Secretary Mont continued by proposing that the educational and social service systems should be involved in the attack on these evils, and they should be used to detect the spaces in society where these monstrous activities exist.

All of us, declared the Secretary, should work to find the path out of this crisis in the most rational manner possible. We need to recognize that structural problems [in our society] must be addressed.

Mont: "The slow pace of the of consolidating the political will [to address this problem] is agonizing, but it is possible for us to visualize that at some point our society will reach an awakening, a point when we become aware of our conscience. At that point, empathy [for the victims] will take effect.

National Action Party (PAN) Deputy Rosi Orozco, Chair of the Special Commission, declared that the impact of improved laws, better equipment, specially trained law enforcement and sensitized and aware prosecutors will amount to nothing if the judges who are responsible for sentencing those who are convicted of these crimes do not use the correct criteria, to avoid impunity in these cases.

Deputy Orozco added that an estimated 16,000 to 20,000 children, [mostly]  between the ages of 10 and 14, have fallen prey to human trafficking networks in Mexico.