More suspicious ties in Haiti missionary arrest case - Repost NYT

More Baptist missionary arrest fallout - some ugly suggested links (see NYT Times story following this post)- and my own ongoing concerns....

Laura and Me...

As some of you know, I met the Laura Silsby Baptist missionary group that was arrested for possible child trafficking when I was in Santo Domingo, on the eve of my (and their) entry in Haiti. We met by chance in a hotel there, the Hotel Lino on Sunday, January 24th. After introducing myself and my work monitoring the post-quake orphan crisis (on this blog), we later met and chatted for a half hour in their hotel room. They told me they were a relatively new group to the orphan scene, and were motiviated by God to try to help Haitian children. They'd already had a plan to have an orphanage in the Dominican Republic, and with the quake, their plan went into fast-track.

They'd rented rooms in a large hotel, and had chartered a bus that could pick up 100 kids and hoped to bring at least that many - but hopefully more -- maybe 200 -- to a hotel in the Dominican Republic for temporary housing, while they finished building a permanant orphanage where the children would live. They had a 'letter' authorizing them to do this from some Dominican 'minister.'

I wondered then: official or religious?

Either way, I knew that letter - from the Dominican side - wouldn't be enough. These were Haitian children, and they required Haitian official permission, and paperwork that adheres to the protocol for tranferring Undocumented Refugee Children across national borders. I told them that, but they were convinced they might overcome this 'red tape'.

At the time, I thought they were trying to be legit, but were misguided - though my suspicions were raised. We discussed Haitian concerns about trafficking, which she knew all about. For my part, I was seeking more information about the neeeds of orphanages they might be working with, to see how to link medical and food aid to such groups. Silsby informed me that her group was going to find 'native' orphanages - or centers - that had 'children others wouldn't want to adopt.' I thought she meant perhaps 'special needs' children, but didn't quite understand.

(Later, I learned that her group had targeted a community she had already visited in the past, and she had worked with a local pastor who asked parents to turn over their children for a 'better life' in the Dominican Republic.)

She repeatedly told me her group would not be putting the children up for adoption, which is why. she inferred, some Dominican had helped her with paperwork to transfer them 'to safety.'

She told me they were on a mission from God and if God wanted them to succeed, they would. She also told me they hoped to cross the border later that night, or the next day, or so on a Monday and be back in the DR the same evening....)

Hearing that, had an immediate 'red flag' moment, but also thought: 'well, the situation has been in flux, maybe they're not aware of the rules, even if they should be'... My gut told me they knew they weren't doing it right, but they were driven by a religious missionary fervor and wouldn't listen. They wanted the kids, and they clearly planned to act as quickly as possible.

(As I later told a number of media reporting on this story, I later informed the UN authorities and orphan advocates that I had told Silsby and two colleagues them that their plan as stated would likely be deemed illegal, possibly viewed as trafficking, and that they risked arrest and possible jail time in Haiti.

To do it right, they needed documents and they had to inform Haitian authorities and UN people at the Protection Cluster who were in charge, post-quake. I gave them this information and referred them to my blog, which had these contacts. Laura Silsby said she would look at the blog, and get that information, and we agreed to meet in the morning.

By morning, they were gone.

The next day, in Haiti myuself, I discovered that their group had clearly disregarded the advice and protocol I'd offered, and instead, seemed to be racing to round up children as they'd planned. When I got to the capital, and started visiting orphanages, I met the director of His Home for Children in Haiti who said a bus had turned up at his orphanage (near Delmas 60) late the night before, unannounced, with a missionary group that asked him to turn over remaining children in his care. He declined, telling me 'it smelled fishy.'

(Much later, post-arrest, a Christian school representative in Haiti confirmed that his school, which had taken in orphans, had been visited by Silsby's group and asked for children, but been turned away. He emailed me to say Laura Silsby had branded their response as 'heartless' for refusing to hand over the children to her.)

The DR Connection - and History....

My initial concern - shared with UN and Haitian officials - was the four days in between their arrival in Haiti and their arrest on Friday the 29th.... and the purported Dominican angle... Who had helped Silsby? Was it a government or religious group? Was there a trafficking angle?

I worried that the Silsby group had succeeded in picking up and transfering Haitian children to the DR PRIOR to their arrest. So was the UN when we spoke. The UN Protection Cluster sent an investigator to the Dom Rep the same day I met with their team to find out - the day after the arrest.

No word yet on any findings....

As many know, and as I saw on the Internet, Silby's statements to me were false.

Her group is in fact affiliated with an international adoption outfit of the same name, New Life, and in her own Trip Plan, accessible on the Internet for all to read, her group clearly states a plan for future adoption of the children brought from Haiti to the Dominican Republic.

I've since dug around a bit on the Internet, like many journalists, and found that others in her religious community have been active in the Dominican Republic since 2006, it appears.

So it's critical now to look more deeply at the activities and history of the Falls Church people, and not just her smaller group, I feel.
There are journalists from the UK and US who've been poking around in Idaho, but not turned up too much.

Within all this, I have received my share of tips and emails, including one from someone who filled me in on the prior sexual trafficking history of groups in that state. But her information was from the 1960s and '70s, so I haven't pursued it....

To date, I- we- have no information that she succeeded in actually transferring any children prior to the Friday arrest to the Dominican Republic, but clearly her group tried...and almost succeeded - before their arrest. So it's something that must be pursued, along with more information on who/what in the DR was colluding with her to help her group make this happen (almost).

More damaging evidence.....

Media stories since confirmed that a Haitian policeman privately told the Haitian prosecutor overseing this case that he was tipped off by a concerned citizen early in that fateful week to a bus ferrying 40 children in the Petion Ville section - and ordered them to get off. (See CNN story from this past Tuesday).

He directed Silsby to the Dominican consul to 'prove' she had authority to do this. But that didn't work. The consular officer told her quite pointedly that she had no adequate authorization to take Haitian children across the border, despite her claims that she had a letter from a Dominican representative allowing her entry. The children were Haitian, period. Haitian authority was required. He too, warned her that her actions would constitute trafficking (I'm paraphrasing here). But she was undeterred, it appears, and continued until she'd picked up the other 33 children - not orphans.

Who's Zooming Who?

As I told investigators, though the Silsby group's lawyers claim that only she and her assistant were the ringleaders in this affair, I actually spoke to three people from their group, and it was clear from my conversation with them that their clearly-stated mission had been excitedly prepared. Silsby may have convinced members of her group they had authority to take children, but I definitely told at least two other members they were likely to be stopped. Moreover, when a policeman stops your bus with 40 children aboard, orders them to get off, then tells you you're breaking the law, and you still continue to try to do it - again- then what part of the message are you not understanding?

I don't presume to be other members of that group, but they cannot claim the type of total innocence as has been portrayed by their lawyer OR to the media. They clearly knew that others felt their actions were or might be wrong, even if she may have convinced them those other people were misinformed. So yes, they may have been duped - convinced by Silsby, and by the evocation to do God's work and follow God's law above man's (or human's) law.

But it's important for people following this story to know that a group was involved, with open knowledge of their church/parishes in the US, and it was a planned trip, and it engaged Dominicans with prior ties in the Dominican Republic.

ENTER THE LAWERS.. and MORE UGLINESS....

Now comes a new layer of what I actually initially (for one day) thought was a case of severely misguided missionaries, that may actually prove to have far uglier layers. Let's hope not. But it won't surprise me at this point. I'm just very grateful for the Border and UN authorities and Haitian justice officials, and that lone policeman, who acted with such concern and alacrity to prevent a crime from succeeding. (Let's hope they or any affiliates didn't succeed before, of course....)

See today's story on the latest, below...

As I have said to inquiring media colleagues and to Haiti-lovers, the greater story here is the ACTIONS taken by the Haitian and outside orphan advocates to prevent this from succeeding, and for insisting on the rule of law, even in this case of catastrophic instability post-quake. I'd love to see articles about that, and articles focusing on how to HELP, legally, and quickly, the tens of thousands fo children who have been orphaned or displaced.

As I posted recently, to me the concept of provisional FOSTER placement, working with through the international Unaccompanied Refugee Minor program -- NOT ADOPTION -- offers a appropriate provional LEGAL avenue to quickly helping Haitian children, especially those who are amputees and need onoging medical care outside Haiti, to get to quick safety and care, while allowing Haiti and Haitian officials and orphan groups the time to reorganize and reintegrate these displaced or orphaned children. A mandatory two year period is already the norm required for international adoptions to look for possible living relatives or others that can take in children. Two years would give all parties time to organize this while keeping the urgent needs of children now foremost in mind.

Congratulations to Haiti - to Haitian advocates - for their vigilance, and their insistence on the rule of law. That protects everyone.

Now here's the possibly bad news that has cast more shadows on the Silsby mission....


Adviser to Detained Americans in Haiti Is Investigated
NYT by Mark Lacey and Ian Urbana
Published: February 11, 2010 PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — The police in El Salvador have begun an investigation into whether a man suspected of leading a trafficking ring involving Central American and Caribbean women and girls is also a legal adviser to the Americans charged with trying to take 33 children out of Haiti without permission.

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Lynsey Addario for The New York Times
Jorge Puello, who has been providing legal advice to a group of Americans jailed in Haiti.

Related
In Idaho, Questions on How Aid Mission Went Awry (February 6, 2010)
Room for Debate: Haiti’s Children and the Adoption Question
When the judge presiding over the Haitian case learned on Thursday of the investigation in El Salvador, he said he would begin his own inquiry of the adviser, a Dominican man who was in the judge’s chambers days before.

The inquiries are the latest twist in a politically charged case that is unfolding in the middle of an earthquake disaster zone. A lawyer for the group has already been dismissed after being accused of trying to offer bribes to get the 10 Americans out of jail.

The adviser, Jorge Puello, said in a telephone interview on Thursday that he had not engaged in any illegal activity in El Salvador and that he had never been in the country. He called it a case of mistaken identity. “I don’t have anything to do with El Salvador,” he said, suggesting that his name was as common in Latin America as John Smith is in the United States.

“There’s a Colombian drug dealer who was arrested with 25 IDs, and one of them had my name,” he said, not elaborating.

“Bring the proof,” he said when pressed about the child-trafficking accusations in the brief interview, which ended when he said he was entering an elevator. Reached later, he became angry and said he had broken no laws.

The 10 Americans have been imprisoned since Jan. 29 in the back of the same police station used by President René Préval as the seat of Haiti’s government since the earthquake. They had been told by their lawyers that at least some of them would be on their way home on Thursday. But the judge overseeing their case, Bernard Saint-Vil, recommended to the prosecutor that they be tentatively released from custody and permitted to leave the country as long as a representative stayed behind until the case was completed.

Mr. Puello has been acting as a spokesman and legal adviser for the detainees in the Dominican Republic.

The head of the Salvadoran border police, Commissioner Jorge Callejas, said in a telephone interview that he was investigating accusations that a man with a Dominican passport that identified him as Jorge Anibal Torres Puello led a human trafficking ring that recruited Dominican women and under-age Nicaraguan girls by offering them jobs and then putting them to work as prostitutes in El Salvador.

Mr. Puello said he did not even have a passport. When Mr. Callejas was shown a photograph taken in Haiti of Mr. Puello, Mr. Callejas said he thought it showed the man he was seeking. He said he would try to arrest Mr. Puello on suspicion of luring women into prostitution and taking explicit photographs of them that were then posted on Internet sites. “It’s him, the same beard and face,” Mr. Callejas said in an interview on Thursday. “It has to be him.”

Judge Saint-Vil also said he thought that the photo of the trafficking suspect in a Salvadoran police file appeared to be the same man he had met in court. He said he intended to begin his own investigation into whether a trafficking suspect had been working with the Americans detained in Haiti.

“I was skeptical of him because he arrived with four bodyguards, and I have never seen that from a lawyer,” the judge said in an interview. “I plan to get to the bottom of this right away.”

The judge said he would request assistance from the Department of Homeland Security to look into Mr. Puello’s background. A spokesman for the department said American officials were playing a supporting role in the investigation surrounding the Americans, providing “investigative support as requested.”

An Interpol arrest warrant has been issued for someone named Jorge Anibal Torres Puello, according to the police and public documents.

There were questions about whether Mr. Puello, the adviser, who said the Central Valley Baptist Church in Idaho had hired him to represent the Americans, was licensed to practice law. Records at the College of Lawyers in the Dominican Republic listed no one with his name.

Mr. Puello said he had a law license and was part of a 45-member law firm. But his office in Santo Domingo turned out to be a humble place, which could not possibly fit 45 lawyers. Mr. Puello’s brother Alejandro said that the firm had another office in the central business district, but he declined to provide an address.

Mr. Puello said in the interview that he had been representing the Americans free of charge because he was a religious man who commiserated with their situation. “I’m president of the Sephardic Jewish community in the Dominican Republic,” he said. “I help people in this kind of situation. We’re not going to charge these people a dime.”

But other lawyers for the detainees said that the families had wired Mr. Puello $12,000 to pay for the Americans’ transportation out of Haiti if they were released, and that they had been told by Mr. Puello in a conference call late Tuesday that he needed an additional $36,000. Mr. Puello said that he had not participated in a conference call.

One lawyer for the families said that Mr. Puello had told him that he was licensed to practice law in Florida, but the lawyer said he had checked and found no such record. Mr. Puello said in the interview that he had never said he was licensed in Florida.

Mr. Puello said that he had been born in Yonkers, N.Y., and that his mother was Dominican. He said that his full name was Jorge Puello and that he had no other names. But then in a subsequent interview he said his name was Jorge Aaron Bentath Puello. He said he was born in October 1976, and not in October 1977, which the police report indicates is the birth date of the suspect in the Salvadoran case.

The report said the police had found documents connected to the Sephardic Jewish community in a house in San Salvador where the traffickers had held women.

Blake Schmidt contributed reporting from San José, Costa Rica, and Jean-Michel Caroit from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Kitty Bennett contributed research.