Venezuelan Catholic daily denounces “hunt for kids” in Tachira

Tachira, Venezuela, May 9, 2008 / 12:21 pm

The director of the Diario Catolico in Venezuela, Father Jose Laureano Ballesteros Blanco, has denounced the “hunt for kids” in the city of Tachira. The targeting of young people is done through radio commercials encouraging them to visit brothels and by religious sects that seek to “brainwash them, isolate them from their families and form fundamentalist groups.”

 

Father Laureano pointed out in an editorial that Venezuelan officials have turned a blind eye and a deaf ear to the Church’s condemnation of a host of evils that include the trafficking of children and young people, the spread of drugs and “the always-present male prostitution, especially of children.”

 

He also warned against the spread of sexually-transmitted diseases, which he said are a result of “deceptive and clever campaigns by some FM radio stations” to encourage young people “to go to prostitution motels on the outskirts of the city to find love.”

 

Father Laureano said these campaigns, as well as efforts by some religious sects to swindle the young into joining their groups, often go unnoticed by parents and teachers. He denounced these schemes as, “brainwashing them, isolating them from their families and forming fundamentalists groups that range from the pseudo-Christian to the satanic.”

 

“We are either asleep or bewildered by the improbable adventures of politicians while our city is sinking in its abandonment of young people, the trash of moral and spiritual contamination, the silence of teachers and the complicity of those who have the duty to protect the life, honor, possessions and security of all citizens,” the priest stated.