BUENOS AIRES: The brutal killing of a 16-year-old girl who was allegedly raped and impaled on a spike by drug dealers has sparked outrage in Argentina, where protesters plan a “women’s strike” Wednesday.
Lucia Perez, a high school student in the resort city of Mar del Plata, died on Oct. 8 after being brought to the hospital by two men who said she had overdosed on drugs.
But after doctors noticed signs of violent sexual penetration, investigators pieced together a different story.
Prosecutors say the two men drugged, raped and impaled her through the anus, causing pain so excruciating that she went into cardiac arrest and died.
The lead prosecutor, Maria Isabel Sanchez, could barely hide her disgust.
“I know it’s not very professional to say it, but I’m a mother and a woman, and I’ve seen a thousand things in my career, but nothing equal to this litany of abhorrent acts,” she said.
Argentine girl’s rape, murder spark new demonstrations
Argentine girl’s rape, murder spark new demonstrations
UN experts condemn US move to strip migrant children of legal aid
- Trump’s immigration crackdown, including an effort to deport hundreds of thousands of migrant children who entered the US without their parents
WASHINGTON: UN human rights experts on Tuesday denounced the Trump administration’s decision last year to cut legal aid for unaccompanied children in US immigration proceedings. The condemnation came days after UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk urged the Trump administration to ensure that its migration policies respect individual rights and international law.
“Denying children their rights to legal representation and forcing them to navigate complex immigration proceedings without legal counsel is a serious violation of the rights of children,” said the independent experts, who are appointed by the UN Human Rights Council.
The White House dismissed the experts and said it had made attempts to locate children it says were smuggled into the United States under the previous administration, without elaborating with specific examples.
“No one takes the UN seriously because of their extreme bias and selective outrage – they should be praising the Administration for protecting children, not lying about our policies,” Abigail Jackson, a spokeswoman for the White House, said.
In February, the US Department of the Interior ordered legal service providers working with the children to stop work and cut their funding. The providers sued over the move and a federal judge later temporarily restored the funding for the program. The cuts came amid President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, including an effort to deport hundreds of thousands of migrant children who entered the US without their parents.
The UN experts called the deportations unlawful and said they breached international human rights law prohibiting the removal of vulnerable groups, including children at risk of human trafficking. They also condemned the administration’s $2,500 offer to get the unaccompanied children to voluntarily leave the US
“Child-sensitive justice procedures should be guaranteed in all immigration and asylum proceedings affecting children,” said the experts, who have been in contact with the US government on the issue.
More than 600,000 migrant children have crossed the US-Mexico border without a parent or legal guardian since 2019, according to government data.
