SWITZERLAND: THE IOM WARNS OF INCREASE IN TRAFFICKING OF WOMEN IN CENTRAL AMERICA
The Central American countries Nicaragua, El Salvador, Costa Rica and Honduras have become a zone of inter-regional exploitation, according to a report by the International Organization for Migration, a United Nations affiliate “dedicated to promoting humane and orderly migration fro the benefit of all.” Of the 46,000 trafficking victims that have received assistance from the IOM, 64 percent were women and minors. According to the report, Europe and the United States are the principal destinations for these Latin American and Caribbean victims, but Brazil, Colombia, the Dominican Republic and Mexico have also been classified as countries of destination. The main goals of trafficking these women are: sexual and work exploitation; the extraction of human organs; and the exploitation of the victims’ children.
SPAIN: THE GRANADA COURT DROPS PROCEEDINGS FOR THE EXHUMATION OF LORCA’S GRAVE
The Court of Granada, in southern Spain, has dropped the proceedings initiated by a petition to open the Alfacar grave in Granada. The grave supposedly houses the remains of the famous poet Federico Garcia Lorca, along with a teacher and two bullfighters—all of whom were alleged victims of the Franco regime. In 2009 the regional government of Andalucia financed the excavations in the Alfacar Park, but after months of looking, the remains were not found and the investigators concluded that there had never been graves in this location. Judge Aurora Fernandez closed the criminal proceedings to allow for a new opening of the grave at Alfacar. What remains available now is the administrative channel to be able to exhume from the gravesites.