Feb 9 2012

US allocates more money to Colombia and Mexico to fight anti-crime

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US allocates more money to Colombia and Mexico to fight anti-crime!

USAID spends about $ 180 million to that country and between 50 to 60 million dollars to Peru, Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala

MIAMI, Feb. 8. – Latin America and the Caribbean received U.S. assistance for more than one billion dollars annually for programs in various sectors and Haiti is a priority in the region following the devastation caused by the earthquake of January 12, 2010 , said a U.S. official.

The administrator for Latin America and the Caribbean of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Mark Feierstein said in Miami that after the Caribbean country, Colombia, Mexico, Central America and Peru are on the list of priorities of the agency.

The agency provides assistance in education, agriculture, security, judicial, health and the strengthening of democratic institutions, among other areas.

“The priority is Haiti in terms of budget, the biggest budget we have. We have implemented a major program and Congress approved additional funds,” said Feierstein.

: united states currency eye- IMG_7364_web (Photo credit: kevindean)

The U.S. government has sent to the Caribbean nation nearly $2 billion 200 million is USAID about a $1.3 billion dollars since 2010 to present, according to figures from the government agency.

Haiti was hit by a powerful earthquake of 7 degrees on the Richter scale that killed 300 000 people, many injured and 1.2 million homeless.

Property damage was estimated at 7.9 Billion$ and reconstruction costs about 11.5 Billion $, according to data from the Haitian government.

“We are very” happy “with the progress being made in Haiti, said Feierstein to mention that the number of people living in tents down from 1.5 million to 500 thousand, but considered that this figure is still” too high. “

“In the area of agricultural production, where USAID has been working with farmers, we could double or even triple the production in the last two years,” the official said.

Showed much enthusiasm for an industrial park to open in northern Haiti soon and is expected to be the largest private employer in the Caribbean country with the generation of about 65 000 jobs.

This is a joint project of the United States, the Haitian Government and the InterAmerican Development Bank (IDB), said.

With regard to Colombia and Mexico said that USAID provides assistance in security issues.

In Mexico, he said, the battle being waged against drug trafficking, while highlighting the efforts of Colombia to strengthen their security gains.

“These issues now have become priorities for USAID. And the reason for this is twofold: one, because the impact may be great potential for the United States when there is instability by criminal violence. But also because to consolidate gains in the development is essential to address the issue of security, “he said.

USAID spends about $ 180 million in Colombia and from 50 to 60 million dollars in Peru, Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala.

A very important sector for the agency is related to democracy and therefore implements programs to strengthen institutions in almost all countries of the region.

In the case of Venezuela are allocated five million dollars in technical assistance to “promote and protect democracy and human rights.”

Feierstein also stressed that Latin America, compared to other developing regions, “has evolved much more economically and politically is more advanced,” and the matter said: “As a result, programs that one usually associate more with USAID are much less common in Latin America.”

In fact, the agency plans to close its office in Panama this year “in recognition of the progress we (the country) has had on economic and political terms in the last 20 years.”

“We’re 20 years devoting $ 400 million to Panama and now will drop to zero,” he added.

Nov 22 2011

Children forced into slavery!

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There are at least 8.4 million child slaves in the world today. Nearly two million of these are forced to work as prostitutes, while almost half a million are child soldiers.

But the largest proportion of child slaves – more than five million – are held as forced labour. In some countries, these child slaves are simply juvenile victims of a thriving adult slave culture, but in other countries children are bought and sold specifically as child labourers.

In this episode of Slavery: A 21st Century Evil, Rageh Omaar investigates the plight of child slaves in Haiti. They are known as ‘restaveks’ from the French words ‘rester avec’, meaning ‘to stay with’. This is the practice of poor families giving their children as domestic help to wealthier acquaintances or relatives. As well as taking place within Haiti, this form of slavery can also involve children being sold or trafficked to the US. Our investigation exposes the slave traders who lure these children from isolated villages and then sell them to wealthy families.

“It’s like living in a family, but you’re not a part of the family. It’s like living in a home that’s not your home, because eventually you know they’re going to tell you to get out. It’s living in fear – fear of the adult and fear of the unknown.”

Child Slaves Made Your Halloween Candy. Stop Buying It. – Kristin Howerton (underpaidgenius.com)

Sep 25 2011

Haiti; haven for Human Trafficking and illegal adoptions!

Poverty, endemic corruption, and lawlessness are the norm in what is the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere. The void of authority has made Haiti a key transit point for drugs going to the United States, and, to a lesser extent, Europe, as well as a haven for myriad other criminal activities including human smuggling, human trafficking, and illegal adoptions.

Things have gotten worse since the earthquake in January 2010, which left entire cities in rubble, the country’s little infrastructure in tatters, and over 230,000 dead.

What was already a difficult place to live has also become a nearly impossible place to police. To cite one example, nearly 6,000 prisoners escaped from a maximum security prison following the quake, only eight per cent of whom have been recaptured

The UN mission adds that it’s worried about security forces’ connections to organized crime and noted that the murder rate “did not stop going up” in 2009 to 2010, according to EFE’s account, without specifying by how much or where homicides were increasing.

Amidst the chaos are thousands of children. The United States Department of State estimates that close to half a million children were displaced by the quake, adding to a culture of people inured to the death and destruction around them.

The State Department qualifies Haiti as a “special case” in matters of human trafficking, the highest alarm bell it can sound. And in its 2010 report on human trafficking, it says most of those trafficked are “restaveks,” a term used for domestic child servants who form part of an extended family.

“Restaveks are treated differently from other non-biological children living in households,” the State Department says. “In addition to involuntary servitude, restaveks are particularly vulnerable to beatings, sexual assaults and other abuses by family members in the homes in which they are residing.”

Haiti has created a special Brigade for the Protection of Minors, but this has done little to curb trafficking since the brigade does not pursue forced labour or forced prostitution cases because there is no existing law against these activities, the State Department adds. It noted an increase in the number of restaveks found in shelters since the quake.

The UN’s report may indicate that other children are also being bought and sold in large numbers on the black market, as desperate, entrepreneurial parents seek to lower their burden. Much of this market, it appears, is in the Dominican Republic, which shares the Hispaniola Island with Haiti.

Haitians are trafficked to work on Dominican sugar plantations, in brothels and other forced servitude, the State Department says.