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Factbook
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Factbook on Global Sexual
Exploitation
Honduras
Trafficking
Honduran girls, 13 and 14 year olds, were trafficked by organized crime
groups in central America from the cities of Tegucigalpa, San Pedro Sula and El Progreso
under false pretenses, such as job offerings and scholarships and sold to brothels in
Guatemala, El Salvador, and Mexico. (Interpol, "More Honduran Girls
Prostituted," Reuters, 28 February 1998)
As many as 100 Honduran children have been
smuggled overland into Canada from Honduras, by a professional drug ring trafficking
children to Vancouver. The Honduran smugglers pay the childrens’ transportation costs
and help them across the Canadian border. Once in Vancouver, the traffickers put the
children in apartments, help them file refugee claims and sign up for welfare. In return,
the children are turned out on the street as indentured drug dealers. (Adrienne Turner,
"Drug ring lures kids as dealers: Hondurans as young as 11 deal crack in
Vancouver," Ottawa Citizen, 20 July 1998)
Case
In May 1996 Guatemalan Dora Silvia Barrios Melendez was arrested for attempting to
traffic five girls to Guatemala for the purpose of prostitution. She was taking the girls
to the Palace brothel in Guatemala City, reportedly owned by Mario Aguilar, who was to pay
her 150 quetzales (US$25) for each of the girls she delivered. In December 1997 she was
sentenced to 2 years, 8 months in prison, and to immediate expulsion from the county upon
her release. ("Guatemalan Child Prostitute Trafficker Receives 2-Plus Year Prison
Sentence," El Heraldo, 3 December 1997
Prostitution
The majority of the street girls seen by Casa Alianza in their programs
in Honduras are victims of prostitution. ("The Situation of Street Children in Latin
America," Bruce Harris, Executive Director, Latin American Programmes, Casa
Alianza/Covenant House Latin America, 9 October 1997)
All homeless girls in Honduras, who engage in "survival sex" in exchange for
basic necessities, were initially victims of sexual abuse in their homes. (Casa Alianza
study, "Former Honduran Street Girls Travel to Canada for International Summit of
Sexually Exploited Youth," 2 March 1998)
Health and Well-being
Of 143 homeless children interviewed, 100% had at least one sexually transmitted
disease, and 48.1% had been sexually abused by a member of their family. (Casa Alianza
study, "Former Honduran Street Girls Travel to Canada for International Summit of
Sexually Exploited Youth," 2 March 1998)
Policy and Law
Local laws often support sex abusers. Only if the abuser is with children under the age
of 12 is it a 'public' crime where anyone can file a formal complaint. But if the child is
between 12 and 18 and does not want to file a complaint, or if the parents are receiving
economic benefit from their child's prostitution and so do not complain either, being a
'private' crime, no prosecution is possible. (Gustavo Escoto, Legal Aid Office, Casa
Alianza Honduras, "Casa Alianza Warns That Central America is New Sex Tourism
Destination," 17 November 1997)
Prostitution Tourism
Honduras has been the site of sex tourism, paedophilia, and trafficking
by Americans and Australians. (Casa Alianza/Covenant House Latin America, "Casa
Alianza Warns That Central America is New Sex Tourism Destination," 17 November 1997)
Case
American Daniel Gary Rounds, is under arrest in la Ceiba, for sexually abusing two 12
year old boys in his hotel room. (Casa Alinza/Covenant House Latin America, "Casa
Alianza Warns That Central America is New Sex Tourism Destination," 17 November 1997)
Two men have been accused of
sexually abusing a Honduran girl, after having drugged her and forced her to drink liquor.
Agrinder Kurt Borje Peter (aged 58) and Svensson Ake Lennat Chister (aged 55), are being
held without bail, after having been arrested and jailed on August 22nd, 1998 in Tocoa,
Honduras, adding to a growing list of foreign nationals who are being arrested in Central
America for sexual abuse of children. ("Swiss sex tourists arrested in
Honduras," Casa Alianza Release, 28 August 1998)
An American
sex tourist was sentenced to ten years in jail in Honduras for raping two Honduran boys.
Daniel Gary Rounds was arrested in La Ceiba, a port town known as a center for sexual
exploitation of children by foreigners, in August 1996. ("American Sex Tourist in
Honduras Jailed for Raping Two Little Boys," Casa Alianza, 22 September 1998)
Five Honduran boys to testify against an American sex tourist.
The boys will travel to Florida to testify to the sexual abuse they received from Marvin
Hersh, a Florida University professor jailed for sexual abuse of children in Honduras, and
for the trafficking of one Honduran teenage boy to Florida. One boy was approached by
Hersh’s representatives and reportedly offered money if he would refuse to testify.
("Five Honduran Boys to Testify in Florida Case Against American Pedophile,"
Casa Alianza, 22 September 1998)
Pornography
Case
Interpol Honduras arrested Australian Joseph Dunn, who has 85 outstanding charges
against him in his country for pedofilia, one of child pornography and five more for
facilitating drugs to children. (El Dia, Honduras, "Dangerous paedophile
arrested," 11 November 1997)
Factbook Table of Contents
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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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