Brazilian bishop receives death threats for denouncing human trafficking
A Roman Catholic bishop in Marajo, Brazil, has been threatened with death for denouncing human trafficking rings. Bishop Jose Luis Azcona stated that “politicians, businessmen, and police officers” in the Brazilian state of Para are involved in abducting girls and selling them into slavery.
“They snatch girls from school and take them away to sexually exploit them, especially in French Guyana and in Spain,” he stated.
In a telephone interview with Europa Press, the bishop said he is taking the threats “with calm.”
“Thanks be to God I don’t feel any anxiety or anguish,” he said.
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“A police officer in Marajo was found to be engaged in human trafficking, sending 178 women, many of them minors, to become prostitutes in French Guyana,” he noted.
Two other bishops and some 200 priests have also received death threats for speaking out against human trafficking. The Bishops’ Conference of Brazil has expressed its full solidarity with the targeted clergy and trafficking victims.
[...] BRAZILIAN BISHOP receives death threats for denouncing human trafficking; UN agency launches campaign against human [...]