Colombia Breaks up Underage Prostitution Ring

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Colombia Breaks up Underage Prostitution Ring
BOGOTA, Colombia — Oct 14, 2014, 6:43 PM ET
By LIBARDO CARDONA Associated Press

Authorities have broken up a major sex-trafficking ring in Colombia that used drugs to force underage boys and girls into prostitution, the chief prosecutor's office said Tuesday.

The operation resulted in the arrest of 11 Colombians in the cities of Armenia, Cartagena and Medellin and the rescue of 55 sex-trafficking victims, one as young as 11.

The prosecutor's office said some of the young people were drugged with ecstasy and cocaine. The ring operated out of clandestine sites and massage parlors, frequently relying on taxi drivers to bring in foreign clients looking for underage sex, prosecutors said.

During the raids, an 11-year-old girl broke down in tears, saying she had been sold for $1,000 because she was a virgin, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency said in a statement.

Colombian officials acted in conjunction with U.S. law enforcement authorities, who arrested a man in the United States who allegedly traveled to Medellin to have sex and film himself with underage prostitutes.


Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/colombia-breaks-underage-prostitution-ring-26198542

[KamaAina]

1. So I guess the Secret Service won't be back there for a while

[jwirr]

2. You have to wonder how many of the children who have come across the border into the US are

running from this kind of thing? Hopefully they will be safe here.

[closeupready]

4. Al-Jazeera recently did a terrific documentary series, "Borderland", in which

six (or seven) Americans of different political views - who were all fairly mainstream citizens - signed on to participate in a documentary mini-series intended to faithfully replicate the journey of a typical Central American. After visiting a morgue in Arizona (which is where a significant number of migrants end up), they began their journey in Honduras, I believe.

Anyway, the short of it is that on the way north, there is a large portion of the route which is via train, and most of the female migrants of all ages purchase birth control pills in anticipation of the nearly universal experience of being raped by men along the way.

It was eye-opening and horrifying to me to realize that this kind of violence is accepted as a fact of life by Latin American women.

On edit, sorry, I wasn't clear - the migrants being profiled by the show are those who come to the US illegally.

[jwirr]

5. I suspected as much. Over the years I have become really cynical about the treatment of women

and children in times of war. And in poverty. If we do not believe that there is a world wide war on women going on then just take a look at the fate of women and girls in almost all countries in times of crisis.

It makes one sick to their stomach at the treatment of the female sex by those in power. And one must ask the question - is there anything we can do about it? Religion certainly cannot be of any help - Christianity has many churches who do not value women so they are no help. Islam also has the same problem and I suspect that Judaism also. So religion has no answer.

More war will not make anything better. War is the seedbed for this problem.

Laws - in some countries this might work but not in a country where the male population does not want change.

So I have run out of ideas - anyone else have a clue what can be done?

That being said Ferguson MO shows us that young men can also be victims.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

3. So much for Limbaugh's next vacation.