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Factbook
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Factbook on Global Sexual
Exploitation
Columbia
Trafficking
In Colombia there are two types of prostitution trade networks: Ones
which only works with women from within the country or the regional area, sending women to
Venezuela, Ecuador and Panama; the others deal on an exclusively international scale,
providing Colombian women for the markets in Spain, Britain, Germany, Belgium and the
United States. (Radhika Coomaraswamy, UN Special Report on Violence Against Women, Gustavo
Capdevila, IPS, 2 April 1997)
Prostitution
Cases
At least one, and as many as four United States Marines assigned to the U.S. Embassy in
Bogota are accused of assaulting a prostituted woman in Decmber 1997. The woman was
confined in a truck, and suffered severe bruises on her wrists, chest and knee from the
attack. When she went to the Embassy to ask for compensation for injuries and loss of
work, an official offered her $150 in exchange for not filing charges. ("U.S. Marine
investigated in Columbia," UPI, 20 January 1998) & ("U.S. Marines Beat Up
Woman In Columbia," Agence France Presse, 21 JANUARY 1998)
Child prostitution
rings working in sex shops throughout Colombia were raided in September 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 Cartegena, a busy sex-tourist destination. ("Colombia
launches crackdown on child prostitution," Reuters, 26 September 1998)
Organized and Institutionalized Sexual
Exploitation and Violence
20% of women who
live with a partner have suffered from domestic violence. (United Nations Study, "UN
proposes pact on family violence," ALC News Service, 24 July 1998)
Factbook Table of Contents
CATW
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Coalition Against Trafficking in Women
Factbook on Global Sexual Exploitation
Donna M. Hughes, Laura Joy Sporcic, Nadine Z. Mendelsohn and Vanessa Chirgwin
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