“There were three of them. I was on a corner waiting for clients… and they abused me,” she said. “They pulled me onto the (police) van… They saw that the area was empty… They started to grope me, take off my clothes. They ripped my blouse…. One after the other.”

“’I am first’ [one said] and the other waited his turn…. From then on, they mistreated me. They forced me to do something I didn’t want to.”

“I was afraid. I was alone. I couldn’t defend myself. I had to let them do what they wanted with me… They threatened me, that if I wasn’t with them they would kill me. They [said] that I was a whore, and so why not with them?”

Words like this are echoed in a recent report by Amnesty International chronicling the cases of female sex workers in the Dominican Republic – including both those who were born female and transgender females.

The exposé detailed the shoddy behaviour of the country’s police – who routinely rape, beat, and abuse prostitutes as means of wielding control and grandiose machismo – with complete impunity.

Elina Castillo-Jiménez, Caribbean Campaigner at Amnesty International told InsideOver that Amnesty International collected multiple testimonies from women who described having been gang-raped by armed and uniformed police officers in similar circumstances – late at night, on dark street corners, often in the back of police vehicles.

Some of the women reported being raped by police officers at gunpoint. Transgender women said the police subjected them to discriminatory and violent actions, such as having their wigs burnt and verbal abuse thrown at them.

“It is important to step beyond the violence/abuse terminology and call this for what it is: gender-based torture,” Castillo-Jiménez said. “International and regional law clearly establishes rape by a state official as a form of torture. The testimonies collected show that the acts committed by the police against women sex workers cause severe suffering in them, and they answer to discriminatory causes, such as their gender identity. Acknowledging the gravity of these acts as torture – a crime under international law – ­is the first step to adopt proper measures to prevent them.”

Across Latin America and the Caribbean, gender-based violence is a growing epidemic. In this context, female sex workers are at heightened risk for violence from state officials and other individuals. Authorities are often ingrained with a sense of chauvinism, coupled with societal stigma and conservative religious values. This can act as a driving force for officials to unlawfully abuse their powers and punish women who engage in sex work.

“Dominican legislation sanctions torture as a crime and has aggravated penalties if committed by a state officer, like the police. Yet, in practice, this is poorly implemented, and our research shows one of the reasons is due to the stigma against women sex workers. Although the sale and purchase of sex between consenting adults is not a criminal offence in the Dominican Republic, aspects of the organization of sex work are. Even criminalizing aspects of sex work has a punitive effect on sex workers by imposing a criminalised status on them,” Castillo-Jiménez explained.

Since complaints from sex workers are rarely taken seriously, the acts of violence are seldom reported. Furthermore, the fear of repercussions or social humiliation also prohibits women from speaking out.

“We are urging the Dominican government to develop a national protocol for the investigation of potential cases of torture and other ill-treatment with a gender-based focus and consistent with international law standards, as the Istanbul Protocol,” Castillo-Jiménez added. “The Dominican Republic has the opportunity to become one of the first states in the Caribbean, if not the first one, to have specific legislation for the guarantee of equality and non-discrimination for all.”

Amnesty International has started a #FreeFromViolence petition in an attempt to better protect these women from gender-based abuse and mistreatment, which includes the approval of an anti-discrimination bill.

L'articolo The Police Routinely Raping And Abusing Sex Workers proviene da InsideOver.

It was 2012 when the Canadian mining company Barrick Gold started digging, drilling and extracting gold in what for decades had been a property of the Dominican Republic. Back then the Rosario Dominicana company had found the precious metal deep in the terrain of Pueblo Viejo de Cotuì providing work for thousands of Dominicans. Unfortunately Rosario was not equipped with sophisticated machinery and, above all, did not have the thousands of dollars necessary to continue extraction. They were forced to close down. In 2006 a tendering procedure was initiated to relaunch the mine and Barrick Gold beat all other competitors.

Reporting by Maurizio Faraboni,  Edited by Bobomatto

L'articolo The valley of the dead proviene da InsideOver.

“I invite you to stop going up and down the valley taking photographs and interviewing people. Be very careful, we could ask for your arrest.” This is how the phone call between myself and Mr Jorge Esteva, head of communications for the Barrick Gold corporation came to a close.

I am in the Dominican Republic, more precisely in Pueblo Viejo de Cotuì where, in 2012, the largest mine on the planet was opened, the number one leader in terms of extraction.

It is Saturday morning, rain is pouring heavily and, despite being February, it is extremely hot. I stop the car to take some photographs of the Maguaca River water. It is yellow/orange with the nasty sulphuric stench of some chemical product. In a matter of minutes my eyes begin to itch terribly and to water; my mouth is so dry that my tongue feels as thick as if I had chain-smoked a whole packet of cigarettes.

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I come across a small hut made of wood and metal sheets. It is light blue, two men approach and greet me. “How long has the river water been this color?” I ask curiously. “Since 2012. Since Barrick Gold began mining activities. They wash the metals and all the discharge ends up in the Maguaca”.

It was 2012 when the Canadian mining company Barrick Gold started digging, drilling and extracting gold in what for decades had been a property of the Dominican Republic. Back then the Rosario Dominicana company had found the precious metal deep in the terrain of Pueblo Viejo de Cotuì providing work for thousands of Dominicans. Unfortunately Rosario was not equipped with sophisticated machinery and, above all, did not have the thousands of dollars necessary to continue extraction. They were forced to close down.

“I worked for Rosario”, Mr Juan tells me,”We used shovels and pickets, we would set off dynamite and then dig using our hands 10/12 hours a day.”

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Unwilling to give in to the corporations which were pining to invest in this extraordinary adventure, things got increasingly tough and the company finally had to cease operations at the end of the nineties.

In 2006 a tendering procedure was initiated to relaunch the mine and Barrick Gold beat all other competitors. It took six years to move all the necessary machinery from Canada and the United States to the Dominican Republic. Since 2012 (the year work began) to the present-day extraction output has increased three-fold, meaning Cotuì has gone from fourth to first position worldwide. Every two months between 7 and 10 thousand kilos of pure gold are extracted and exported.

All this however has a cost. Not only in terms of millions of dollars but also thousands of human lives. There are approximately 1600 families living in three small communities, Naranco, La Pignita, and La Laguna – nestled on the banks of the rivers Maguaca and Jagal.

“Since 2012 over 200 people have died as well as thousands of animals such as cows and horses.” Over the following two weeks they take me to visit many families who have become victims of environmental contamination. Many of the children who have been swimming in the river have contracted fungi causing patches on their heads similar to alopecia. Many others suffer from light and dark patches covering their bodies, purulent sores and loss of nails from their hands and feet. 80% of women are afflicted by vaginal diseases.

The air in this area is unbreathable: the acid rains have killed off hundreds of coffee, tobacco and orange plants, all of which provided subsistence for the 1600 families. “Water is the most precious element to any living being, whether human or animal,” Maria tells me. “We live off three large bottles of clean water per week which we use to wash ourselves, cook, drink, wash our children and do laundry,” Ramon says.

The families have founded a committee and often rally during political campaigns and organize protest marches to let President Danilo Medina know that they can no longer go on living like this. They are asking loud and clear to be moved to areas further away from the mine, or preferably, for the mine to be immediately shut down for good.

However they are all well aware that considering the millions of dollars available, and hundreds of corrupt politicians willing to be bought, their battle will be a long and hard one and the finale an inevitable one: defeat on all fronts. “We would like to make an appeal to the Pope, to the United Nations and all non-profit organizations; please do something to help us otherwise we will all die.”

On their website Barrick directors speak of respect for the environment and human rights. They say they are trying to cleanse the rivers and reforest areas that had been destroyed and contaminated by Rosario Dominicana. But what I have seen with my eyes is a horrific environmental disaster, destined to destroy and pollute a consistent part of the Caribbean island which from “tourist paradise” is slowly and inexorably plummeting into a true “inferno”.

L'articolo We are all going to die here proviene da InsideOver.