There is enough evidence against Spanish pedophile network that operated in Cuba

Death of 12-year-old girl forces Cuba to confront sex tourism
http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/03/17/3292240/death-of-12-year-old-girl-forces.html

For the two Cuban girls, 12 and 13 years old, it was just another sex party with foreign tourists — videotaped, fueled with marijuana and alcohol and sometimes involving sex with both men and women.

But this time 12-year-old Lilian Ramírez Espinosa, an asthmatic, gasped and blacked out.

Her badly decomposed body was found five days later on the isolated outskirts of the eastern city of Bayamo.
The girls “had been prostituting themselves for six months, but one of them had to die before the authorities noticed,” said Havana lawyer Laritza Diversent, who is helping with the appeal by one of the defendants in the case.

Lilian’ death on May 14, 2010, is the best documented and most horrifying example of child prostitution to emerge from Cuba since sex tourism began to blossom there in the early 1990s.

Canadian, Spanish and other tourists are flying to the island for sex with minors, a joint investigation by The Toronto Star and El Nuevo Herald has shown, although the extent of the problem remains unknown.

Cuba’s government “resists discussion of issues that might suggest weaknesses in the governing and social system,” said one report on child sex trafficking, written by U.S. diplomats in Havana in 2010.

Diversent said she was not surprised that girls as young as the ones in Bayamo were having sex-for-pay in a country where kids generally start having sex at the age of 12 or 13 and families face shortages of everything from tomatoes to shoes.
“The only thing never rationed was sex,” she said.

What was surprising, Diversent added, was that three Italians and 10 Cubans were tried and convicted in Ramírez’ death.

Simone Pini, 45, and Angelo Malavasi, 48, are serving 25-year prison sentences for murder and corruption of minors while Luigi Sartorio, 48, was sentenced to 20 years. The Cubans received sentences ranging from 20 to 30 years.
Diversent, who is helping Pini’s appeal and has the documents from the trial in September of 2011, said that while aspects of the case remain unclear she does not doubt the two girls were having sex for pay.

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Paradise for sex tourists
Paradise for sex tourists | Toronto Star

Cuba: land of sun, sand and cheap child prostitutes: Editorial While Canada toughens its penalties for sexual predators at home, it lets known offenders slip out of the country to engage in sex tourism in Cuba.

LUCAS OLENIUK / TORONTO STAR

Detective Sergeant Kim Gross, of the Toronto Police Sex Crimes Unit, at police headquarters

Cuba has long been a favourite sun-spot for Canadians. It’s relatively cheap, loaded with resorts and just 2,300 km away.

But some tourists are drawn by more its unspoiled beaches and fine cigars. The Caribbean island has become a magnet for men eager to engage in sex with pre-pubescent girls, some as young as four. A confidential 2011 RCMP report on child sex tourism, obtained by a Star investigative team using Canada’s Access to Information Act, identifies Cuba as one of the most popular destinations in the Americas for child sex tourism.

The Canadian government, while acknowledging sex offenders are going abroad to exploit children, has done little to stop them. The Cuban government, eager for hard currency, denies that a problem even exists.

“There are no exit records that are kept of these individuals so it’s very difficult for us to know whether someone is in fact leaving the country for these reasons,” Vic Toews, the federal minister of public safety, told the Star. “My preference is that these individuals are prosecuted within the jurisdiction where they are discovered.”

That is not likely to happen. Cuban police are willing to look the other way, if their palms are greased. The government rarely prosecutes foreign sexual predators. It refuses to release records of child exploitation to international or domestic relief agencies. And Raúl Castro – Fidel’s younger brother who succeeded him as president in 2008 – insists that the island is a family-friendly tourist mecca.
Click link above for full article.

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Sandokan said:

Canada is the leading source of tourist to Cuba, accounting for 1.072 million visitors in 2012. The Canadian tourists are the larger source of tourist income for the Castroit regime, attracting Canadian pedophiles to the island for child sex tourism, where sex with young girls and boys is relatively cheap. It is encouraging that the Canadian government is taking steps to prevent pedophiles to travel abroad. But they cannot do it alone, they need the cooperation of the Castroit regime who so far refuse to cooperate with international organizations and denies that child sexual abuse even exist.

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Hicup said:

Wow, I had no idea this was happening. As a Canadian I'm shocked about this, but probably shouldn't be.

Tim-

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RAMOSS said:

I am not too sure if this person is a valid source of information. If you look, 95% of the posts on this thread are him, venting about castro. That seems to be his only activity.

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Toronto man, 78, guilty of sex crimes against children in Cuba
Toronto man, 78, guilty of sex crimes against children in Cuba

Brampton Guardian
ByTorstar Network

James McTurk
James McTurk, 78, pleaded guilty to child sex tourism charges in a Toronto court yesterday

TORONTO — After a Crown lawyer finished reciting the list of grotesque sexual offences James McTurk committed against Cuban girls as young as 3, the 78-year-old man was handcuffed and taken back to jail where he could spend the rest of his life.

McTurk, with close cropped hair and wearing a Canadian Legion jacket, had moments earlier uttered the word that Toronto police investigators have been waiting to hear since they arrested him last summer: “Guilty.”

Yesterday, McTurk became the first Canadian convicted of sex crimes committed against children in Cuba, admitting to one count of making child pornography, another of importing child pornography, three counts of sexual interference involving touching young girls with his mouth, hands and penis, and a final count of invitation to sexual touching.

Prosecutors are now considering seeking a dangerous offender order against McTurk — a move which could see various restrictions placed on him, including keeping him behind bars for the rest of his life.

The retired postal worker is the first person to be charged by Toronto police with the little-used child sex tourism offences, the first involving Cuban children and just the sixth known conviction under the law in Canada.

His case was the subject of a joint investigation by the Toronto Star and the El Nuevo Herald, which examined how sex offenders are largely free to travel abroad to commit crimes despite the amendment of Canada’s Criminal Code to allow the prosecution of people who travel abroad to seek sex with children.

Following the investigation, Public Safety Minister Vic Toews acknowledged a shortcoming in the law that required reform.

“We are consulting with experts in the field and on the ground and working toward preventing traffickers and offenders from travelling abroad,” Toews’ spokeswoman, Julie Carmichael, said in a written statement Friday. “We are committed to putting an end to the sexual exploitation of children, no matter where it may occur.”

Despite two previous convictions for child pornography — in 1995 and 1998 — and being placed on the sex offender’s registry, McTurk was free to travel. The court was told that he made 31 trips to the island, between 2009 and his arrest in July 2012.

Toronto police began investigating McTurk when he went to a North York Loblaws to have pictures from a trip to Cuba printed, and what the photo clerk saw — images of unsmiling, topless little girls — alarmed her.

“The employee at the photo lab became concerned about these photos because the girls appeared to be frightened,” said Crown attorney Anna Stanford. Police were called, and detectives executed a search warrant at McTurk’s address.
Officers arrested McTurk on July 24, 2012, at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport, as he returned home from yet another trip to Cuba.

“Shame on Canada for allowing this individual who was found with pictures from Cuba many years ago to just go back and forth willy-nilly,” said Roz Prober, president of Beyond Borders which fights global child abuse. “We have to do more with our hard-core pedophiles who are child sex tourists. because the damage they are doing is tremendous for children.”

Graphic evidence of the images and videos discovered in McTurk’s North York apartment and on digital cards he carried when he was arrested were entered into evidence in court. Stanford quietly read detailed descriptions of what detectives found.
For full article click the link above.

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RAMOSS said:

I am not too sure if this person is a valid source of information. If you look, 95% of the posts on this thread are him, venting about castro. That seems to be his only activity.

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Sandokan said:

Cuba has been compare to Thailand as a “paradise of sex tourism” (Sex Tourism and Child Prostitution in Cuba, Redirecting...). There is a very simple answer to the problem of prostitution: change the Castroit regime and the problem for the most part will solve itself, since the women will no longer need to prostitute themselves out of necessity. This is the result of the poverty created by 54 years of dictatorship.

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Independent March in Front of the Capitol Demands Gay Marriage
Independent March in Front of the Capitol Demands Gay Marriage / Lilianne Ruiz | Translating Cuba

By Lilianne Ruiz

HAVANA, Cuba, Lilianne Ruiz / Cubanet | Noticias de Cuba – Prensa Independiente desde 1994 In concurrence with Gay Pride Day, celebrated worldwide every 28th of June, a dozen activists marched past the Capitol last Saturday, led by Imbert Acosta, director of the LGBT community’s Rights Observatory. Afterwards, they continued the march towards the Paseo del Prado, carrying the rainbow flag.

At this event, the protesters wore slogans supporting marriage between persons of the same sex. Imbert Acosta had this to say:

“This year the march brings up the topic of marriage between persons of the same sex. We are announcing the beginning of a campaign to collect at least ten thousand signatures, in order to later present a legal initiative before the National Assembly of Popular Power to grant the right to enter into matrimony to same-sex couples.”
The LGBT Observatory of Cuba since 2011 has called for the march around Gay Pride Day, not only for people in the LGBT community, but also for any citizen who identifies with the cause of ending discrimination on basis of sexual orientation. Regarding this and other rights, Imbert stated:

“What we are asking for is not the right to be gays or lesbians… We demand that, being gays and lesbians, the State and society recognize the totality of our rights. One does not lose one’s religious dimension, nor political, nor legal personality by expressing a homosexual orientation. Sexuality is one human dimension, just as are all the others. Historically we have been discriminated against for cultural, religious, and political reasons. Nonetheless, a homosexual person must also have the right to share in culture, religion, and politics, as well as enter into matrimony, in the same way and for the same reasons as would a heterosexual couple.”

Asked about the role of the CENESEX official (National Center of Sexual Education) in this sense, Acosta comments:

“Mariela Castro, daughter of the Cuban president, serves more as a government spokesperson to the LGBT community than as a representative of the LGBT community to the government. It is a means of maintaining control. Hence many times the title of political group stigmatizes us because we are not in agreement with the Center that she directs. Nevertheless, we have tried to build bridges for dialogue and they are the ones who have refused, alleging that we visit diplomatic offices, to which we respond that Mrs. Castro also does the same. We have talked with transsexuals who are affiliated with the center and they tell us that they recognize that CENESEX does not authentically represent the interests of the LGBT community, but they allege that they need their operation (surgical sex change).

“On the other hand, Mrs. Castro does call on the march for World Day Against Homophobia to dance the conga with slogans in support of socialism, which as we all know is the political system which her family heads. So, she is making a political campaign with the interests of the community.”

Mariela Castro is currently deputy of the National Assembly of Popular Power. She has expressed on multiple occasions that CENESEX already put forth a draft bill before the National Assembly, “But,” comments Imbert Acosta, “in every case, it only contemplates civil recognition, not marriage as such. And that is another of the matters that we wish to clarify today. At the least, we, the non-officially allied LGBT activists of the island and many members of the community, want marriage, not just a civil union law which would leave us where we are situated, in a situation of disadvantage in matters of rights compared to heterosexuals.”

Although it is true that the authorities have not intervened directly against the protesters, it is known that they have made warnings to possible participants to keep them from marching.

A police warning can discourage many in a country with iron control by the State.
By Lilianne Ruiz

Translated by Russell Conner

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zyzygy said:

There was no prostitution in Cuba during the paradise of the Batista regime.

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Cuba’s Justice Minister says the government fights prostitution
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BY JUAN O. TAMAYO
JTAMAYO@ELNUEVOHERALD.COM

Statements by Cuba’s minister of justice that prostitution is not a social problem on the island and that cases of child prostitution are “minimal” are evidence the government is turning a blind eye on the serious problems, a dissident Havana lawyer says.

“Cuba has … the judicial mechanisms that guarantee a severe confrontation of these acts,” Justice Minister Maria Esther Reus told a group of journalists Tuesday in Havana , as reported by the Associated Press and the Agence France Press news agencies.

“How amusing,” said Laritza Diversent after hearing Reus’ comments. The Havana attorney has consulted in several prostitution-related cases, including one involving the death of a 12-year-old girl in the eastern city of Bayamo in 2010.

“The problem is real and the government turns a blind eye,” she told El Nuevo Herald. “The government does not want to recognize that it (prostitution) is a structural problem. Otherwise it would have to recognize that a good part of the tourism that reaches Cuba is sex tourism.”

Reus, who has seldom if ever addressed the issue of prostitution in public, spoke to the journalists seven months after a joint inquiry by the Toronto Star and El Nuevo Herald showed that foreign tourists, especially Canadians and Spaniards, are traveling to Cuba in surprising numbers for sex with underage girls and boys.

The minister reportedly said that 224 persons were convicted of pimping in 2012 and that seven foreigners are imprisoned on charges of abusing minors, but gave no details on the procurers’ sentences or the foreigners’ nationalities.

Cuba’s Tourism Ministry has taken steps to block sex tourism, she declared, prosecutions are difficult because prostitutes usually have a “consensual” relationship with their pimps and the number of cases of corruption of minors “are minimal.”

Diversent said many Cuban women clearly “chase after” foreign tourists for sex, paid in cash or gifts, and that while the government has never made public any figures on child prostitution, “the phenomenon is evident just walking down the streets.”

A Canadian man who phoned her recently for advice on how to file charges against a prostitute who had stolen some of his property gave her an ID card number for the prostitute that started with 99 — showing she was born in 1999 and was 14 years old, Diversent said.

AFP reported that Reus spoke to the journalists while “presenting a report on ‘the judicial-penal confrontation against the trafficking of persons and other forms of sexual abuse.’” The news agency added that the report had not yet been presented to any international organization.

Fidel Castro cracked down on prostitution after he seized power in 1959. But sex-for-pay returned with the island’s opening to international tourism and the grinding economic crisis of the early 1990s, sparked by Moscow’s decision to end its massive subsidies to Havana.

Prostitution is not illegal in Cuba, but procuring them for others is outlawed. The age of sexual consent on the island is 16.
Reus apparently also referred to the case of James McTurk, a 78-year-old convicted in Canada of traveling to Cuba several times to abuse young girls and possession of child pornography, according to the AP. McTurk featured prominently in the El Nuevo Herald-Toronto Star reports.

The minister “asserted that cases like the Canadian are often used politically against Cuba, where this type of crime gets ‘zero tolerance,’” the news agency reported.

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Star journalists win for coverage of sex tourists in Cuba
Star journalists win for coverage of sex tourists in Cuba | Toronto Star

By: Kim Magi Staff Reported

The series focused on Canadians who pay for sex with child prostitutes in Cuba, as well as why children are in the industry.

Reporters from the Toronto Star, in collaboration with el Nuevo Herald in Miami, have won an award for exemplary work covering child sexual abuse.

Jennifer Quinn, Robert Cribb and Julian Sher, with Miami journalist Juan Tamayo won a Beyond Borders ECPAT Canada Media Award for “The Ugly Canadians: Child Sex Tourism” published in March.

The series focused on Canadians who pay for sex with child prostitutes in Cuba, as well as why children are in the industry.

“The reason we got into journalism was to help the voiceless, and el Nuevo Herald’s partnership with the Toronto Star has led to critical reforms in Canada and Cuba and no doubt has saved children from sexual predators,” said Manny Garcia, executive editor of el Nuevo Herald, which is the Spanish-language sister publication of The Miami Herald.

Garcia said the partnership is a working model on the importance of leveraging two news organizations’ talents.
“This was a great partnership on an important story,” said Lynn McAuley, associate editor at the Star. “It’s gratifying to see that journalism continues to have the power to effect change as it has in Canada and, it appears, in Cuba.”¬

Beyond Borders ECPAT Canada is a non-profit organization which advocates for the rights of children to be free of sexual abuse and exploitation. They have been honouring journalists for their coverage of related issues since 2002.

“Incisive, no-holds-barred reporting helps to inform, break down stigma, and in turn inspires change in how society treats the victims and perpetrators of child sexual exploitation,” said Bev Wiebe, chair of the media awards in a release.

Other winners this year include CTV W5 for their series “The Throwaway Children,” and local2.ca for “The Story of a Child Prostitute.”

The winners will receive their awards on Nov. 18 in Winnipeg.

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From Havana to Quito: A refugee's fight for LGBT rights in Cuba
From Havana to Quito: A refugee's fight for LGBT rights in Cuba | MinnPost

By William Wheeler

QUITO, Ecuador — On her 15th birthday, a girl in Cuba gets a big party. A boy might get cash for a prostitute.
For Alberto Garcia Martinez's 15th birthday, way back in 1974, his parents gave him money to go shopping in Havana's city center. He was subsequently picked up in a police sweep targeting gays. For an effeminate teen who did not yet realize he was gay, the experience was both terrifying and confusing.

At his court appearance, his mother, a high-ranking Cuban bureaucrat, sat next to him, weeping out of shame.
We spoke in the office of Asylum Access Ecuador, a legal aid group helping the thousands of Cuban refugees in Ecuador’s capital, where Garcia says he fled after being persecuted in Cuba for his advocacy on behalf of gay rights. His story offers a window into the ongoing struggles of the LGBT community that challenges Cuba’s official narrative of progress on the issue. It also highlights the reluctance of Ecuador’s own government to recognize the limits of political dissent in Cuba.

In pre-revolutionary Cuba, many gay men became involved in a prostitution industry that catered to military personnel and tourists from the US, although homosexuality at the time was criminalized. In the decades following the Revolution, gays and lesbians faced official persecution in Cuba, including the threat of forced labor and prison.

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