8/5/2014
MEXICO CITY – The founder of the shelter in the western Mexican state of Michoacan where authorities found some 500 children living in squalid conditions on Monday “categorically” denied sexual abusing the kids there.
“It’s completely false that I engaged in sexual relations with any of those who were in La Gran Familia. I never did it,” Rosa del Carmen Verduzco, 81, said in a paid ad placed in several leading Mexican newspapers.
“Therefore, I ... categorically, completely and absolutely deny what is claimed in the anonymous statement that is circulating with the pseudonym ‘Claudia,’ as well as everything that could appear, because I never engaged in such conduct with anyone,” the text of the ad concludes.
Federal and state authorities raided La Gran Familia last month after receiving more than 50 complaints regarding the precarious situation in which the people – some 500 minors and about 100 adults – there were living.
Authorities arrested nine people, including Verduzco, and prosecutors have charged six of them with racketeering, kidnapping and human trafficking, among other offenses.
The director of La Gran Familia, known as “Mama Rosa,” managed to avoid prosecution due to her advanced age.
Two days ago, a woman calling herself Claudia who claimed to have escaped from La Gran Familia told Excelsior Television that Mama Rosa forced some of the children at the center to perform oral sex with her in exchange for clothing and food.
Since its founding 40 years ago, the center had housed more than 7,000 children who had lived on the street or who were delivered to the institution by their own parents.
Mama Rosa received donations for the center from a slew of prominent politicians, including three past presidents.
In an interview granted two weeks ago to U.S. television network Univision, Verduzco said that her age hindered her from taking note of the abuse and mistreatment at the center.
“If I, through omission of care, hurt the children not only do I regret it but it pains me. And I say to them: Forgive me,” she said.
source
MEXICO CITY – The founder of the shelter in the western Mexican state of Michoacan where authorities found some 500 children living in squalid conditions on Monday “categorically” denied sexual abusing the kids there.“It’s completely false that I engaged in sexual relations with any of those who were in La Gran Familia. I never did it,” Rosa del Carmen Verduzco, 81, said in a paid ad placed in several leading Mexican newspapers.
“Therefore, I ... categorically, completely and absolutely deny what is claimed in the anonymous statement that is circulating with the pseudonym ‘Claudia,’ as well as everything that could appear, because I never engaged in such conduct with anyone,” the text of the ad concludes.
Federal and state authorities raided La Gran Familia last month after receiving more than 50 complaints regarding the precarious situation in which the people – some 500 minors and about 100 adults – there were living.
Authorities arrested nine people, including Verduzco, and prosecutors have charged six of them with racketeering, kidnapping and human trafficking, among other offenses.
The director of La Gran Familia, known as “Mama Rosa,” managed to avoid prosecution due to her advanced age.
Two days ago, a woman calling herself Claudia who claimed to have escaped from La Gran Familia told Excelsior Television that Mama Rosa forced some of the children at the center to perform oral sex with her in exchange for clothing and food.
Since its founding 40 years ago, the center had housed more than 7,000 children who had lived on the street or who were delivered to the institution by their own parents.
Mama Rosa received donations for the center from a slew of prominent politicians, including three past presidents.
In an interview granted two weeks ago to U.S. television network Univision, Verduzco said that her age hindered her from taking note of the abuse and mistreatment at the center.
“If I, through omission of care, hurt the children not only do I regret it but it pains me. And I say to them: Forgive me,” she said.
source
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