Document Type

Article

Disciplines

International Law

Abstract

For two years, twelve Mexican and Guatemalan field workers in south Florida were enslaved by the Navarretes, a family of traffickers. The family beat them, chained them to a pole, and at night, locked them in boxes and truck trailers, with little food and no plumbing, while keeping them in ever-increasing debt. During the day, they were taken to work in the tomato fields of two of the state's biggest growers-Six Ls and Pacific, both members of the Socially Accountable Farm Employers program, SAFE for short, which was created to prevent worker abuse. When their day's work was done, they were taken back to their prison. Finally, one of the workers pounded a hole through the trailer and crawled out; he got a ladder, and helped the others to escape. The Navarretes were arrested and indicted on trafficking charges. They pled guilty, and three months ago, were sentenced to jail, and ordered to pay their victims $240,000 in restitution. Officials at Six Ls and Pacific could not be reached for comment. The chief Assistant U.S. Attorney on the case, Doug Molloy, called it one of southwest Florida's "ugliest slavery cases ever," and added, "We have a number of similar-and ongoing-investigations." And yet, despite the successful prosecution of seven slavery cases involving over 1000 workers, and despite pressure from such organizations as Amnesty International USA, until two days ago, Governor Crist refused to acknowledge the presence of slavery in Florida's fields.

American humorist Will Rogers once said, "It's not that we're so dumb, it's just that what we know ain't so." Certain things we know to be true. We know that the South kept slaves, and the North fought a righteous war of liberation. We know that the slave trade was legal until the Civil War. We know that the Emancipation Proclamation freed all the slaves, and that the United States has been slavery-free ever since. These things we know-and none of it is true.

On the other hand, most of us do not know that slavery not only exists throughout the world today; it flourishes. Slavery is legal nowhere in the world, and yet it is practiced everywhere. With approximately twenty-seven million people in bondage, it is the second or third most profitable criminal enterprise of our time, after drugs, and maybe guns. Slavery is responsible for tens of billions of dollars in revenues worldwide. More than twice as many people are in bondage in the world today as were taken in chains during the entire 350 years of the African Slave Trade. And you'll say, "Well, it's all those backward Third World countries-those 'emerging nations."' And you'd be partly right. But it's also such "civilized" countries as England, France, Spain, Italy, Israel, Scotland, Ireland, Greece, Sweden, Denmark, Japan, China... and the United States. Most Americans do not know that slavery is alive and more than well right here, thriving in the dark, and practiced in many forms in places you'd least expect. The simple truth is, humans keep slaves; we always have. Historically, we Americans see ourselves as the world's foremost messengers and practitioners of personal freedom. And yet, there has always been bondage here. Always. There has never been a single day without slavery on this continent, from its European discovery right up to the present moment.

Accessibility Requirements

1

Download

Share

COinS