Sex trafficking sequels: New meaning to physical and emotional pain

Sex trafficking is not something reserved for non-industrialized countries, nor is it something out of a creative fiction novel. Sex trafficking is very real, and according to LibertadLatina.org, Hispanic women in the United States are bought and sold through international sex trafficking rings and local gang networks.

The practice is not a new phenomenon, either, and back in 1997, the San Francisco Examiner interviewed Catalina Suarez, a young woman who was held captive for 18 years and trafficked around Latin America and the United States.

“I was always under the influence of some kind of drugs, or I was traumatized by the beatings or the pain or the fear,” Suarez at the age of 36 told the San Francisco Examiner. “I was put into trunks of cars with rats and roaches. I screamed and screamed and screamed. No one would help me.”

Source: VOXXI

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Calle 13 Joins UNICEF To Campaign Against Human Trafficking (VIDEO)

After sweeping this year’s Latin Grammys with a record nine awards, Calle 13 is turning to humanitarian causes.

Calle 13 has created a partnership with UNICEF, MTV Latin America and Tr3s to launch the global campaign “MTV EXIT” in Latin America and Spanish-speaking communities in the U.S. “MTV Exit” seeks to raise awareness about human rights, exploitation and human trafficking.

Calle 13 teams up with Radiohead, The Killers, Muse and Angelina Jolie as advocates for the “MTV EXIT” Campaign.

“MTV Exit” started in 2004 to raise consciousness among students through TV programs, online exposure and live events. It is “a campaign about freedom — about our rights as human beings to choose where we live, where we work, who our friends are, and who we love”, according to the project website.

(The Huffington Post > Cultura LatinoVoices)

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The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) launched a jointcampaign with MTV Latin America, the television network Tr3s and rock band Calle 13 to raise awareness about human trafficking and exploitation of youth in Hispanic communities. The campaign ‘MTV EXIT’, which stands for End Exploitation and Trafficking, features a documentary and a song by Calle 13, and includes mass media broadcasts, online initiatives and local events and activities with young people, encouraging them to participate in the campaign. “Increasingly adolescents and young people are vulnerable to being trafficked and exploited in the region. We can reduce the risks they are exposed to if we provide them with the necessary education and tools to protect themselves,” said UNICEF Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean, Bernt Aasen, at the launch yesterday. (UN Centre)

UN, MTV and award-winning band launch campaign against human trafficking in Latin America

After two weeks of surveillance, the Special Prosecutor for Children and the National Directorate of Special Investigation Services (Dnsei) carried out a raid at a massage parlour in the Jardines del Valle area in the northwestern city of San Pedro Sula. At the property, which was operating as a brothel, police discovered two young women, a 21-year-old and a 22-year-old and one minor under 16 years of age. The two older women have been released while the minor has been sent to a center run by the Honduran Institute for Children and Families. A woman believed to be managing the business was arrested. Julian Hernandez, head of Dnsei in San Pedro Sula, said police have evidence that a network operating in the country was recruiting women from rural areas, luring them with the promise of legitimate jobs in the city. “All the indications are that the traffickers are recruiting young people lured from rural parts of the country,” said Hernandez. Hernandez also said evidence suggests that women and girls working in the brothel were being sent abroad, to Mexico, other regions of Latin America and possibly Europe. The minor rescued from the brothel, Hernandez said, had a false identity card and passport, which showed that she has travelled to Nicaragua and Panama. (Ronan Graham for InSight Crime)

Honduras Breaks Up Suspected Sex Trafficking Ring

“In Latin America alone, the number of human trafficking victims is around 700,000. I am talking about estimates because we know data, in most countries, are imprecise,” said Bo Mathiesen, UNODC’s regional representative for Brazil and the Southern Cone, during the Second Ibero-American Summit Against Trafficking of Human Beings, held recently in Santiago, Chile. Women, girls and boys represent 90% of human trafficking victims worldwide, according to the International Labour Organization (ILO). (The Costa Rica News)

Latin America fights human trafficking

The U.S. government offers roughly 5,000 visas a year to illegal immigrants who agree to testify against the traffickers who brought them to this country and then forced them into prostitution or other servitude. But in the first eight months of this year, only 524 victims applied for the visas and less than half were issued. Federal prosecutors and officials say they want to raise awareness about predatory human traffickers and put them in prison. U.S. Citizens and Immigration Services officials are conducting a national tour, speaking to immigrant advocates and law enforcement officials about the visa program. “Someone who came illegally and knew they were coming illegally might think they have no redress, and they are mistaken,” immigration services Director Alejandro Mayorca told The Associated Press. Just because someone agreed to be smuggled into the country doesn’t mean they should be victimized, he said. (LAURA WIDES-MUNOZ for AP via Miami Herald)

Officials seek out more human trafficking victims

Mexico’s El Universal has highlighted the work of anti-human trafficking activist Marisa Ugarte, who in 2008 began an investigation into sex trafficking along border cities in BajaCalifornia. According to her research, there are more than 5,000 human trafficking cells in the cities of Mexicali, Tecateand Tijuana in which women and children are sold for the purpose of sexual exploitation. For those skeptical of this figure, Ugarte shared an experience she had nearly four years ago, when a cab driver in Tijuana offered to sell her a 5-year-old boy. “He said I could do whatever I wanted with him,” Ugarte told El Universal. (Geoffrey Ramsey for InSight)

The Many Forms of Sex Trafficking in Central America

“It’s not going to be a question of passing the law, but implementing the law,” said Omar Pardo, a lieutenant in the Panama National Police, also a representative at the discussion. Panama’s own efforts to combat human trafficking have been limited, Pardo said, with very few laws on the books that actually deal with human trafficking, versus only sexual exploitation, or smuggling. And in the absence of government-sponsored support or feasible legal safeguards, the task of assisting victims in Panama falls largely to the police, Pardo added. “In my country, if we as policemen have managed to save someone from a trafficking situation, we have to take care of all their needs,” Pardo said. “We have to find where they’ll spend the night, we have to find them something to eat, and we have to find where to send them abroad, as most are foreigners.” (Rosemary D’Amour for IPS)

Human Trafficking Scourge Needs More Than Policing

Mercedes Arce has worked for decades as a lawyer in Peru, advocating for victims of domestic violence and human trafficking. Now part of a Latin American delegation on a three-week tour of the United States — including several days in Kentucky — she says Americans and Peruvians can learn from each other. “There is much more protection for victims here,” she said. “The systems work better. We can’t provide as many services. There’s such a large demand (in Peru) that there isn’t enough for everyone.” (Peter Smith for Courier Journal)

Human trafficking, domestic violence a shared problem, Latin American group says