CHILDREN FORCIBLY TAKEN FROM THEIR HOME BY POLICE FOR
CFS / SS (MANITOBA, CANADA) NOVEMBER 2012
The
silence surrounding crimes against children shows institutional complicity
Trafficking: a good business
The macabre stories of "safe homes" in which vulnerable children and adolescents go to reveal the extent to which criminal organizations are capable of operating and how society is silent and tolerant. These aberrations happen not only in Guatemala, Argentina or Chile; also in more developed countries where the rights of children pass below the public eye and are violated without any control. The victims, since they belong to the weakest sectors of the population - poor children, abandoned and subject to the authority of others - do not have the least credibility with the justice systems.
This strengthens human trafficking networks in their different modalities in a system whose main characteristic is discrimination against the poorest sectors, women and minors. That is, population groups whose rights are not exercised freely, but depend on those who hold power in a scenario of machismo and patriarchy. What has happened with the recurrent denunciations of the journalist Mariela Castañón in Guatemala about the strong suspicions of the existence of trafficking networks in the safe homes of that country? Nothing. The research entities are silent. The government whose members float suspicions of sexual abuse and violations, shut up. And the citizenry insists on condemning the victims with their atavistic attitude of contempt for their marginalized status, because in their vision of things nothing is more despicable than a weak and impotent human being.
The cruel and unjust accusations against girls raped and burned in the Safe Home Virgen de la Asunción speak for themselves. They were labeled as prostitutes and criminals for the simple fact of having gone into a system of abuse, torture and death. The reasons why they had been institutionalized were not analyzed or understood by an urban majority, which always condemns its peers based on rumors and appearances, giving greater credit to the perpetrators than to the victims.
Risking life in front of such powerful criminal organizations is a brave bet of the few journalists who have given themselves to the task of investigating. The tentacles of these networks are firmly established not only in government entities and private and official security bodies, but impunity is also guaranteed thanks to the power of their clients. That is to say, if a fund campaign is not undertaken to eradicate them, the natural thing will be their consolidation because the money that flows from the trafficking business constitutes a powerful instrument to break down obstacles on all fronts, including the justice system, which is why denunciations remain in dead bundles accumulating dust.
One of the most worrying symptoms of the power of the trafficking business is the recurrence of disappearances of children and adolescents of all ages, especially in our continent. There are thousands of defenseless beings whose absence detonates alerts but of those who, despite the denunciations, never come back to know. However, innumerable brothels that offer sexual services for minors enjoy the protection of the police and other officials, who take advantage of this resource of illicit enrichment by closing their eyes to an aberrant reality. It is imperative to understand where the origin of this monstrous machinery lies and to begin to build societies whose main priority is the protection of children. The life of these vulnerable beings is not an exchange currency but the basis of a functional, just and inclusive society. A less judgmental and more empathetic society.
Trafficking: a good business
The macabre stories of "safe homes" in which vulnerable children and adolescents go to reveal the extent to which criminal organizations are capable of operating and how society is silent and tolerant. These aberrations happen not only in Guatemala, Argentina or Chile; also in more developed countries where the rights of children pass below the public eye and are violated without any control. The victims, since they belong to the weakest sectors of the population - poor children, abandoned and subject to the authority of others - do not have the least credibility with the justice systems.
This strengthens human trafficking networks in their different modalities in a system whose main characteristic is discrimination against the poorest sectors, women and minors. That is, population groups whose rights are not exercised freely, but depend on those who hold power in a scenario of machismo and patriarchy. What has happened with the recurrent denunciations of the journalist Mariela Castañón in Guatemala about the strong suspicions of the existence of trafficking networks in the safe homes of that country? Nothing. The research entities are silent. The government whose members float suspicions of sexual abuse and violations, shut up. And the citizenry insists on condemning the victims with their atavistic attitude of contempt for their marginalized status, because in their vision of things nothing is more despicable than a weak and impotent human being.
The cruel and unjust accusations against girls raped and burned in the Safe Home Virgen de la Asunción speak for themselves. They were labeled as prostitutes and criminals for the simple fact of having gone into a system of abuse, torture and death. The reasons why they had been institutionalized were not analyzed or understood by an urban majority, which always condemns its peers based on rumors and appearances, giving greater credit to the perpetrators than to the victims.
Risking life in front of such powerful criminal organizations is a brave bet of the few journalists who have given themselves to the task of investigating. The tentacles of these networks are firmly established not only in government entities and private and official security bodies, but impunity is also guaranteed thanks to the power of their clients. That is to say, if a fund campaign is not undertaken to eradicate them, the natural thing will be their consolidation because the money that flows from the trafficking business constitutes a powerful instrument to break down obstacles on all fronts, including the justice system, which is why denunciations remain in dead bundles accumulating dust.
One of the most worrying symptoms of the power of the trafficking business is the recurrence of disappearances of children and adolescents of all ages, especially in our continent. There are thousands of defenseless beings whose absence detonates alerts but of those who, despite the denunciations, never come back to know. However, innumerable brothels that offer sexual services for minors enjoy the protection of the police and other officials, who take advantage of this resource of illicit enrichment by closing their eyes to an aberrant reality. It is imperative to understand where the origin of this monstrous machinery lies and to begin to build societies whose main priority is the protection of children. The life of these vulnerable beings is not an exchange currency but the basis of a functional, just and inclusive society. A less judgmental and more empathetic society.
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