Department of Homeland Security, Operation Underground Railroad and the Colombian government.”Īccording to the Mormon-led OUR, which has no known policing or state authority, Galarza had “trafficked seven known victims and filmed sexually explicit conduct of several of these young women and distributed the illegal videos on the internet.” anti-sex work activists intervened with a peculiarly timed and phrased press release and blog post.Īs the local religious and conservative campaign attempted to sway local officials into denying LALExpo the Barranquilla permits, OUR issued a press release on June 3, written by in-house publicist Emily Evans, alleging that on May 24, an individual named Victor Galarza was “sentenced to 210 months in federal prison thanks to collaborative efforts from the U.S. That was when the religiously-inspired U.S.
Hosting LALExpo “means jobs, means growth, means raising awareness about our city - the same way that similar take place in Los Angeles, in Las Vegas, in Miami, in Europe - and they will also take place in Barranquilla.”Įnter the Religiously-Inspired U.S. “Welcome, all, to Barranquilla!” he added, following up by answering in the affirmative a question about the positive economic impact of LALExpo for the city. I wouldn’t be a mayor if I didn’t stress ‘Here, there’s room for everyone - as long as the rules are followed.’ That’s the only slogan we should give the people.” No only by conviction, but also because it’s what our constitution decrees. ”īarranquilla, Mayor Pumarejo added, “is an open-door city. If they pay their taxes, and abide by our regulations, we shouldn’t even be having this discussion. “It’s not even up for debate: the law says that every law-abiding person, subject to the constitution, has a right - and that is a right not to be discriminated against. “We shouldn’t even be having this discussion,” a frustrated Pumarejo told reporters. In fact, the mayor of Barranquilla himself had already expressed his support for LALExpo coming to his city.īarranquilla Mayor Jaime Pumarejo explicitly told the press that denying LALExpo the permits was “contrary to our constitution.” OUR became embroiled in the controversy between the LALExpo organizers and local Colombian religious conservatives seeking to ban the regional adult industry event as the trade show was about to receive approval from the city of Barranquilla.Īs XBIZ reported, Barranquilla was the backup location secured by the organizers after a similar religious conservative campaign had succeeded in expelling them from their original location, Cartagena. “Ballard’s Mormon faith also heavily influences his work,” the reporter wrote after his interview, adding that Ballard confessed he felt compelled to engage in these “missions” because “the other option was to face my maker one day and tell him why I didn’t do it.”Ī Colombian City That Wanted to Boast of ‘Open Doors’ The Vice report questioned the credibility of a group which “built its reputation on the image of highly polished, heroic rescues carried out by the best-of-the-best.”īallard told an interviewer for Foreign Policy magazine, for a 2015 profile, that his mission was religiously inspired One of the stories shared by Vice described Ballard arriving in Haiti on a “rescue mission” and revealing to local partners that his source was a “Utah psychic.” Last year, several in-depth reports by Vice titled “Inside the Shadowy Anti–Sex Trafficking Group OUR” revealed that some of the stories the nonprofit “tells its donors don’t hold up to scrutiny, and some of its so-called ‘missions’ to save women and children from sex trafficking have been described by insiders as amateurish at best.” OUR has been the subject of recent scrutiny for their activities and mission, which claims to be an “anti-trafficking” nonprofit with a mission to “shine a light worldwide on the global issue of child sex trafficking and exploitation, and in so doing rescue more children from slavery and assist law enforcement to seek justice for those who violate children.”Īlthough OUR, led by Mormon activist Timothy “Tim” Ballard, has no formal link with the Mormon Church (Latter-Day Saints Church, or LDS), anti- porn crusading groups originating or based in Utah are entangled in the peculiar network of personal, public and religious allegiances that characterize the relationship between “Church and State” in that Western state. organization Operation Underground Railroad (OUR), which was used by conservative members of the Colombian press to influence local officials to deny the necessary permits. AebnBARRANQUILLA aebn, aebnColombia aebn - aebnThe aebn aebnabrupt aebn aebncancellation aebn earlier this week of the Latin American adult industry conference, LALExpo, has been linked to a single press release by controversial, Mormon-led U.S.