Alleged Sexual Abuse At Texas Immigration Detention Center
By Lyndsey Kelly
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America
WASHINGTON D.C., UNITED STATES of America – The Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF) and attorneys from the University of Texas School of Law, have issued a complaint alleging ongoing abuse at the Karnes County Civil Detention Center in Karnes City, Texas. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, (ICE), opened the Texas facility along with a facility in Artesia, New Mexico after a 500 percent increase in the number of illegal immigrants crossing the border from Central America last year.
The detention center for families was opened in Texas just two months ago. The complaint filed on 25 September, alleges that the 500-plus-bed center has failed to provide adequate food, health and mental health services. More serious allegations revolve around numerous instances of sexual abuse of women at the center.
The complaint was based on interviews with women in the Karnes City facility. The women allege that at least three employees engaged in abuse of the female detainees. The abuse includes numerous instances of the guards removing mothers from their cells at night to engage in sexual acts, in exchange for promises of immigration help. The complaint alleges that these women were harassed and groped in front of other detainees, including children. The female detainees claim that the perpetrators referred to the women as their “girlfriends.”
MALDEF asks the federal government to close the center and find alternative ways to detain immigrants with a criminal record, while releasing those whom are being detained for no other reason than illegal entry into the United States. Staff attorney for MALDEF, Marisa Bono, made a statement regarding the allegations stating, “This is exactly why the federal government should not be in the business of detaining families.”
ICE has stated that the agency is unable to discuss the ongoing investigation, but has implemented protections in accordance with Prison Rape Elimination Act regulations. A spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security and ICE stated in an email “Ice has a zero-tolerance policy for all forms of sexual abuse or assault,” “Accusations of alleged unlawful conduct are investigated thoroughly and if substantiated, appropriate action is taken.”
For more information, please see the following:
BALTIMORE SUN – Texas Immigrant detention Center Rife With Abuse, Groups Say – 2 October 2014.
HUFFINGTON POST – Complaint Alleges Sexual Abuse In Immigrant Detention Center – 2 October 2014.
NBC NEWS – Sex Abuse Alleged At Immigrant Family Detention Center In Texas – 2 October 2014.
REUTERS – Texas Immigrant detention Center Rife With Abuse, Groups Say – 2 October 2014.
Venezuelan Politician Found Dead
By Mridula Tirumalasetti
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America
CARACAS, Venezuela—Robert Serra, the 27- year old Venezuelan politician, was found dead on Wednesday, October 1st alongside Maria Herrera, who is believed to have been Serra’s partner. Both were murdered in Serra’s home in the working class Caracas neighborhood of La Pastora, and both died from a loss of blood. Interior Minister Miguel Rodriguez Torres said the two were “vilely killed here in their house…on the ground floor lay the woman and the upper floor lay Robert Serra.”
Although the motive for the attack was unclear, the attack has been blamed on the far right opposition groups and on Colombian parliamentary groups. President Maduro said, “Terrorist groups encouraged by sectors of Venezuela’s ultra-right and Colombian parliamentary groups are behind this [effort] to bring violence to our country.” He added, “In the course of this week…We have detained four different groups that came to attack our country’s central cities, including Caracas, and fill them with violence.” Torres called the attack “a planned assassination, organized in detail and executed in the course of 15 to 20 minutes…We are not talking about a random occurrence.”
Elected in 2010, Serra was one of the youngest members of the National Assembly for the Socialist Party (PSUV) in Venezuela and the leader of the youth section of the party. The PSUV was founded by Hugo Chavez, and Serra was known for delivering passionate speeches in support of deepening Chavez’s Socialist policies.
After Honduras, Venezuela had the second highest peacetime murder rate in the world in 2013, according to U.N. statistics, although some sources argue the actual statistics are much lower. The U.N. relies on figures from non-governmental organizations because of the absence of official statistics.
The Venezuelan government responded to the high violence statistics last year by introducing tough penalties for illegal weapons possession, such as sentences up to 20 years in jail. Additionally, a smartphone app was released last month. The app divides Caracas into quadrants, which lets civilians contact police officers for these specific areas directly. Also, Maduro announced an increase in funding of $47 million for a program aimed at disarming civilians and stationing military troops in high-crime areas.
Still, despite the tough regulations, correspondents argue there is a perception of insecurity among Venezuelan civilians. This argument is supported by the series of anti-government protests earlier this year, in which increased security and improving the economy were two of the main issues.
For more information, please see:
The Wall Street Journal–Young Venezuelan Lawmaker Killed in Attack–2 October 2014
Latin America News Dispatch–Venezuelan Lawmaker Stabbed to Death Under Mysterious Circumstances–3 October 2014
BBC News–Venezuelan lawmaker Serra’s murder blamed on far right–3 October 2014
BBC News–Venezuelan lawmaker Robert Serra killed in Caracas–2 October 2014
Bloomberg–Venezuela Says Lawmaker Murdered in a Planned Attack–2 October 2014
The Whole World is watching *China Excluded: Media Censorship Ramped up in China
By Kathryn Maureen Ryan
Impunity Watch Managing Editor
BEIJING, China – As Hong Kong’s youth take to the stress to defy Beijing’s attempts to reign in the former British Colony the Chinese government has been actively attempting to silence the demonstrator’s online social media presence. In the wake of Hong Kong’s Umbrella revolution the People’s Republic of China has ramped up censorship of social media and news websites inside of the China preventing real-time coverage of the events unfolding on the streets of Hong Kong. Like many modern democratic movements online social media has played an important role in the Hong Kong demonstrations as young people take to the streets armed with umbrellas to protect themselves from teargas and smart-phones to share their stories with the world. However, the majority of people living in mainland china will not have access to the posts of their countrymen.
Chinese state-run news outlets not covered pro-democracy demonstration except to call the demonstrators extremists. A story from the state-run news outlet Xinhua featured the Hong Kong chief executive CY Leung denounced the demonstrations as “unlawful.” The Chinese government has been actively working to ensure that the protests are not only kept in the dark by state-run media but by social media platforms as well.
The Chinese government has been using its online censorship program to scrub Chinese social media of pro-democracy posts from Hong Kong, especially on Weibo, china’s version of Twitter and one of the largest social media platforms in the world. The government, which has extensive control over Weibo posts, has removed posts containing key-words indicating a relationship to the Hong Kong demonstrations including pro-democracy phrases.
Photos of the protests and clashes between police and demonstrators have flooded the internet over the past two days. The flood of posts has come in at a faster rate than the Chinese can apparently handle and in response popular photo sharing websites like Instagram have been blocked in the country. “In the past two days, we can see a lot of people holding phones and taking pictures of different (Hong Kong protest) scenes on Instagram, Facebook and sharing it around,” King-wa Fu, an assistant professor at the University of Hong Kong, said. China observers have noted that while the app can’t be accessed in China for most citizens, the country’s First Lady Peng Liyuan’s official Instagram account posted a picture of her and her husband, China’s President Xi Jinping, on Monday.
Twenty five years ago Chinese youths took to the streets in Beijing to demand a movement towards democratization. Much like today the Chinese government actively worked to keep the majority of the Chinese populous in the dark by stomping stories of the Tiananmen Square protests and the government massacre that silenced them. It remains unclear what the future will bring for the Umbrella Revolution and the people of china but what is clear is that the proliferation of social media and internet access around china and the world has made it nearly impossible for the Chinese government to stop the signals coming out of Hong Kong and to keep its people in the dark.
For more information please see:
The Economist – HK Backspace, Backspace – 4 October 2014
CNN International – China’s Internet Firewall Censors Hong Kong Protest News – 30 September 2014
The New York Times – Chinese Web Censors Struggle with Hong Kong – 30 September 2014
Foreign Policy – In China, the Most Censored Day of the Year – 29 September 2014
Fighting Continues in Ukraine Despite Cease-Fire
By Kyle Herda
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe
KIEV, Ukraine – The already shaky truce between Kiev and the pro-Russians in Eastern Ukraine has been faltering lately. Fighting has intensified in Donetsk and the death count is beginning to climb yet again.
Fighting has particularly focused on a strategic airport in Donetsk, where it appears that pro-Russian rebels may be close to capturing it. Capturing this airport would allow easy access for bringing in supplies to the rebels’ territory. While Col. Andriy Lysenko, a military spokesman speaking for Kiev, has claimed in a briefing that Kiev holds control over the airport, the rebels dispute this claim. The rebel leader, Alexander Zakharchenko, claims that the rebels controlled 90 percent of the airport, and that “[i]n two or three days, we will take control of the Donetsk airport.”
Fighting near the airport has taken the lives of at least 9 soldiers in the Ukrainian army and wounded 27 more, all in just one day of fighting.
Six civilians were killed near the airport as shelling hit a minibus. A school near the airport was also hit by shelling over 200 people were believed to be at the school when it came under shelling that left at least 10 dead. This was the first day that students in rebel-held land returned to school, as heavy fighting in Eastern Ukraine over the past month or more has made it too dangerous.
Amid all of this renewed fighting in the East is the news that on October 26 will be national parliamentary elections that could either heal or hurt the country. While new officials may aid in bringing everybody together to come to peace, the players in the election appear to be separating to their respective corners. The pro-Russians have taken their stance against Kiev and the West, while the pro-Western side has seen a split between mere pro-Westerners and more extreme Ukrainian nationalists.
Two former members of the former President Viktor Yanukovich’s Party of the Regions were attacked this month by protestors. First, Vitaly Zhuravsky, known for his bills against anti-government protesting, was thrown into a dumpster by an angry mob.
Now, Nestor Shufrich, also a former member under the former President’s Party of the Regions and a defender of the pro-Russian rebels, was attacked by a mob in the Black Sea port of Odessa. While out campaigning against pro-Western and Ukrainian nationalist parties, angry protestors mobbed Shufrich and beat him until he was hurried into a van to be taken away.
While both parties maintain that the cease-fire continues to hold, it appears more and more by the day to be only in name.
For more information, please see:
The Washington Post – Fighting intensifies in Ukraine as pro-Russian rebels move on Donetsk airport – 1 October 2014
DW – Shells hit school in Donetsk – 1 October 2014
The New York Times – Ukraine: Politician Is Attacked While Campaigning – 30 September 2014
Vice News – Ukraine Clashes Kill 12 as Donetsk Airport Battles Threaten Fragile Ceasefire – 29 September 2014
CNN – 9 Ukrainian soldiers killed in Donetsk fighting – 29 September 2014
NBC – Angry Mob Tosses Ukrainian Politician Into the Trash – 16 September 2014