Sex Trafficking in Latin America

One of the most grievous and blatantly evil acts committed against street children is in sexual trafficking and exploitation. I'd like to take a minute and lay down some statistics that will hopefully motivate us all to become more active in putting feet to our religion and fighting this abuse on innocents.
1. ~ 1,000,000 children across Latin America have been entrapped by child prostitution and pornography networks. In many cases in Mexico these child victims are offered to wealthy businessmen and politicians.

2. ~100,000 women and children are trafficked for sexual exploitation annually. Interpol has set the number trafficked out of Colombia each year at 35,000. Other estimates are considerably higher.

3. Over half of all women in Latin America have suffered some form of violent act. 33% of these women have been victims of sexual exploitation between the ages of 16 and 49.
4. Women from countries like Colombia are trafficked into Venezuela through prostitution trade networks originating in Colombia. Children from Ecuador are trafficked into Venezuela to serve as prostitutes and work as street vendors and housemaids. The victims are usually children who are kidnapped, sold by their parents, or deceived by false employment opportunities. These children are first exploited through prostitution at the average Children as young as 7 years old have been found to be sexually exploited. age of 12. Of the 40,000 sexually exploited children in Venezuela, 78% are girls between the ages of 8 and 17. 5. Over 100,000 women and girls in Latin America are trafficked into sexual slavery each year. They are kidnapped or entrapped (offered so-called "legitimate" jobs overseas), and then they are trafficked & sold to brothels around the World. Latina women and girl children are literally enslaved by the thousands in Japan, Holland, Spain, across Latin America and within the U.S. 6. Over 35,000 women are trafficked from Colombia each year, bringing annual criminal profits of $500 million. Over 5,000 Colombian women are enslaved in Holland alone. 7. An estimated 15,000 young Mexican girls are trafficked into the United States each year, most are forced into sex slavery. Some of them are as young as 8 years old. 8. Covenant House-Latin America completed a ten month study in April, 2002, using 56 researchers to go undercover to document the fact that thousands of Central America's children are enslaved by well financed & highly organized pedophile sex trafficking gangs. 12 year old Central American girls were sold for $100-$200 each. 9. Child prostitution rings working in sex shops throughout Colombia were raided in Sep 1998 freeing 370 minors aged 12-16. Twenty-nine adults were arrested. The children where being held in slavery-like conditions, were abused and forced into prostitution. At least 145 of the children where found in the major city of Cartegena, a busy sex-tourist destination. These are but a few statistics you can find on the internet from a 10 minute pull. The phrase "sex-tourism" is simply inconceivable to me. What kind of monster can take a child for a few bucks, have their way with them and toss them aside with seemingly no thought that that was (and is) a person, and moreover, an innocent child. Children are to be protected, nurtured and taught about life. Instead, small self-indulgent "people" are using them for personal gain, be it physical or financial. Likewise, grown women are suffering similar situations. Where are the MEN that see this happening? Where are the MEN, Christian men, that hear about this and turn away; maybe angry and disgusted, but still go about life without doing anything? I've been that man. I knew about this years ago and have done nothing. Well, we can't work on every problem that exists...but have we worked on anything? "Religion that God accepts as pure and faultless is this, to look after orphans and widows in their distress ..." James 1:27 This is clearly something that the Lord wants us to do. Now what...

Introduction

Hello all and thank you for reading my mind. My name is actually Ken Leake, not Zorro. I have that as my display name b/c I like what the character stands for and the sacrifices he makes for the "little" guy. Fighting for the less fortunate is what we should all aspire to and Zorro motivates me. Actually, Jesus Christ is my real role model, I just didn't want to put down "Jesus" as my display name. I love James 1:27 b/c it seems to concisely state what our focus as Christians (Christ like folks) should be, both inward and outward. My wife and I have six beautiful children, which has added to my concern for children around the world, particularly those that are orphaned, abducted, mistreated, malnourished, etc. I believe our Father in Heaven desires our "Religion" be worth something not just ritualistic and self serving in nature. Of course the rest of the verse regarding looking after Widows is an area I believe the Church at large has failed in and handed responsibility over to the state or insurance companies. Granted some Church bodies have really picked up the torch on this and have honored our elderly in doing so. Lastly "to keep oneself from being polluted by the world" sets us believers apart. This one is really for us; if we keep ourselves and our families from being tied up in the world life seems to be so much more satisfying; God does know best.

I want to use this web space to collect my thoughts, document events, and open up a forum on how we followers of Christ can put feet to our "Religion" so that it is acceptable to our Lord. We were involved in mission work in Central America for about seven years then joined the Army as an Intelligence Analyst fighting the war on terrorism, we will now be getting out soon and are currently planning for the next chapter in our exciting life.

Topics will center around James 1:27 however, a large portion of the posts to this Blog will be applying Intelligence Analysis thinking to help in the rescue of missing and exploited children particularly in Central America.

Enjoy! Questions and comments are always welcome.

Ken (Zorro)