Venezuelan Catholic daily denounces “hunt for kids” in Tachira

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.”