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American "Dream" Feeds New Slave Trade
By W. E. GUTMAN
For Casa Alianza
LOS ANGELES -- On Thursday, April 7, a federal grand jury indicted four people
on charges that they smuggled young undocumented Mexican women into the U.S. and
forced them to work in a south-central L.A. brothel.
At least 12 females -- including two girls ages 14 and 15 -- had been forced
into sexual bondage in return for being smuggled into the U.S.
Among those charged was Jenny Valle-Maldonado, the 26-year-old Mexican madam and
three accomplices, all Mexican nationals. According to the indictment, unnamed
co-conspirators who operate in Mexico and Central America recruited the young
women, and Valle-Maldonado arranged to have them transported across the border.
The victims had been promised "well-paying jobs" and "a bright future."
DECEPTION AND INTIMIDATION
Despair subverts good judgment. Worse, it stimulates false hopes. Myth, for lack
of a more reliable enticement, takes on the appearance of reality. One such myth
is that the streets of America are lined with silver and that every rainbow
leads to a pot of gold. This fiction, magnified by misery and discontent, and
further stoked by false promises of a better life, is less the product of
ignorance than a skewed and often fatal assessment of reality. It is this flawed
perception of the future, coupled with an overreaching survival instinct, that
draws thousands of Mexicans and Central Americans to the U.S. every year.
But this exodus is not always voluntary. Every day, newspapers and police logs
report the disappearance, abduction and kidnapping of young children and youths.
Sought for a variety of illicit purposes, bought or lured away from their
families, they are often transported across international borders and sold.
"Deception is the traffickers' tool of choice," says Bruce Harris, director of
Casa Alianza, an advocacy group that works with street children in parts of
Central America and Mexico. "And when that doesn't work, they resort to ruthless
forms of intimidation to force minors and young adults into situations of
extreme exploitation."
Gaining their confidence, traffickers often seduce poor families into believing
that their children will be taught a useful skill or trade. Some even promise
parents that they will marry their daughters. As a last resort, they kidnap
their victims who end up enslaved in sweatshops, on farms, in domestic servitude
or in brothels.
Trafficking in minors is a crime that is increasing in scope and complexity as
criminal networks and racketeers recognize the profit to be derived from this
activity. Perhaps the most widespread, or at least the most recognized, form of
trafficking is that which involves the commercial and/or sexual exploitation of
minors and youths. As with other forms of trafficking, poverty stokes this
commerce and a growing number of children surrender to or are sold or traded
into debt bondage to sweatshops or brothels.
Human trafficking is the modern practice of slavery. It is the world's third
largest criminal industry -- after gun-running, and narcotrafficking. Generating
more than $10 billion a year, it is also the fastest growing. According to the
Central Intelligence Agency, every year, millions of young women and children
are consigned to a Diaspora of no return. Between 45,000 and 50,000 are
trafficked into the U.S. by small crime rings and loosely connected cartels.
There is also some evidence to support the widespread belief that children are
traded for the removal of vital organs, tissues and other body parts.
Victims of human trafficking are forced into labor and sexual exploitation,
including prostitution and pornography. Approximately 50 percent of the victims
are children. Traffickers operate with almost total impunity.
Global in scope, this problem has reached alarming dimensions in Central
America. According to Interpol, the isthmus is serving as a conduit for the
"irregular movement" of people, notably young women and minors of both sexes.
Significant numbers of Central Americans contribute to migrant trafficking flows
headed for the U.S. through Mexico. Central America is also increasingly being
used as a transit zone for migrants from beyond the region, a phenomenon that
has U.S. authorities on edge, as terrorists are known to be attempting entry
into the U.S. from Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. Such journeys are often
facilitated by traffickers who supply -- for a fee -- transportation, guided
border crossings, fake documents, and temporary shelter. Powerful smuggling
rings, and hundreds of "freelance" traffickers and "travel agents," are now
operating throughout Central America.
Honduras has been cited as a source and transit point for the trafficking of
youths and minors, many of whom are smuggled into the U.S. and sold into
prostitution. Strapped by inadequate resources, half-hearted law enforcement
efforts and lax judicial standards, the government of Honduras does not fully
comply with the protocols governing human trafficking. Although aware of the
problem, the Maduro administration has made no effort to educate the public. Nor
does the country have stiff anti-trafficking laws but relies on an assortment of
loose penal statutes that are very rarely enforced.
As a result, many Honduran women and children are trafficked into the
international sex trade and into forced labor situations. Women are lured by
promises of employment as shopkeepers, maids, seamstresses, nannies and
waitresses only to find themselves forced into prostitution. Victims are unaware
that their travel documents will be seized, that they will have to repay an
enormous debt or that they will be subject to brutal beatings if they balk or if
their earnings do not meet their handlers' expectations. According to the
Ministry of the Interior, nearly 30,000 minors fled Honduras in 2003. Fewer than
400 were repatriated.
REQUIEM FOR A DREAM CUT SHORT
Thousands of children and young adults embark on their trek "up north" with
little more than a longing to escape poverty and hunger. For some, the American
dream ends with abrupt finality. So it was for Edgar Chocoy Guzmán a 16-year-old
Guatemalan deported on March 10 by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization
Service. Ten days later, Guzmán was summarily executed by members of the gang to
which he had once belonged. He was buried as "XX" [unknown] in a cemetery for
the homeless.
"When Edgar pleaded with INS agents that he was going to be killed if sent home,
he wasn't joking. Instead, he was handed a death sentence," said Bruce Harris.
Representing Guzmán at his asylum hearing, pro-bono lawyer Kim Salinas said,
"from my point of view, Edgar was sent to his death by our immigration system.
It condemned him for his past and failed him in every possible way."
Mexican immigration officials report that more than 10,000 minors trying to
cross into the U.S. were repatriated.
"Most were not old enough to cross the street on their own," said Harris, "let
alone a border where hundreds die from dehydration, heat exhaustion and
starvation."
Every year, scores of young migrants share Guzmán's fate, some at the hand of
trigger-happy law enforcement agents. Caught in an ever-tightening vise of
exploitation, many are never seen again.
"Human trafficking is likely to spread," says Bruce Harris. Citing "weak
economies, dwindling job opportunities and growing discontent in the countries
of origin," he also blames a slothful and inept constabulary, and the enormous
profit potential that emboldens traffickers.
"We must do a better job to protect the young. We must also encourage them to
keep dreaming -- but with their eyes wide open."
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W. E. Gutman is a veteran journalist. He has been on regular assignment in
Central America since 1991. He lives in southern California.
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