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Factbook
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Factbook on Global Sexual
Exploitation
Mexico
Trafficking
16 and 17 year old girls from Central America are being trafficked to
Chiapas, Mexico for prostitution. ("Women and Low Intensity Warfare," SIPAZ
Report, Vol 3 No 1, January 1998)
The United Nations now lists
Mexico as the number one center for the supply of young children to North America. Most
are sold to rich, childless couples unwilling to wait for bona fide adoption agencies to
provide them with a child. The majority are sent to international pedophile organizations.
Many times the children are snatched while on errands for their parents. Often they are
drugged and raped. Most of the children over 12 end up as prostitutes. Hector Ramirez, a
former deputy, or Mexican Member of Parliament, stated that "many of the state and
city authorities [are] doing absolutely nothing to stop what is going on." (Allan
Hall, The Scotsman, 25 August 1998)
Case
16 Mexicans have been indicted in Florida on trafficking charges. Between August 1996
and February 1998, at least 20 young Mexican women and minors were trafficked into Florida
and South Carolina, United States under false pretenses of jobs, and forced into
prostitution through debt bondage of US$2,000. The brothels were operated by
"ticketeros" who collected fees and sold "tickets," usually in the
form of condoms, which were exchanged for sex. The charge was usually US$20, of which the
women received US$3 toward paying off the US$2000 debt. The brothel operators used
violence to control the women. ("16 indicted in Mexican prostitution ring,"
United Press International, 23 April 1998) & (Jim Loney, "US indicts 16 in
Mexican prostitute slavery ring," Reuters, 23 April 1998)
Prostitution
The majority of the homeless girls assisted by Casa Alianza programs in
Mexico are victims of prostitution. ("The Situation of Street Children in Latin
America," Bruce Harris, Executive Director, Latin American Programmes, Casa
Alianza/Covenant House Latin America, 9 October 1997)
Military personnel are prostituting Mexican women in Chiapas. Soldiers pay 100 pesos
for virgins, 50 pesos for other girls, the prettiest are sold to high-ranking officers.
Girls, 11-13 year olds, are sold by their fathers into prostitution. The girls are
dishonored, while their fathers are not. ("Women and Low Intensity Warfare" SIPAZ
Report Vol. 3 No 1 (January 1998)
Case
Twenty women who once worked in the lower house of Congress accuse the woman in charge
of the pages of running a prostitution ring for lawmakers. Two former pages said Montes de
Oca trained the women to "stick out their chests, hike up their skirts and smile at
lawmakers." (Niko Price, Associated Press, 18 November 1997)
Health and Well-being
A large proportion of the minors used in the sex industry, catch sexually transmitted
diseases which leave them infertile, others contract AIDS. Some 25 homeless children
contracted AIDS in the past two years after being forced to engage in sexual activities.
Many girls get pregnant, and are forced to have abortions. All suffer serious
psychological consequences. Children in Mexico City and cities along the US border are at
highest risk of sexual exploitation. (Ser Humano, Diego Cevallos, "Sterile at Age 12,
AIDS at 14," IPS, 10 February 1998)
Policy and Law
Mexico has no laws defining or sanctioning child prostitution and pornography as
criminal activity. (Diego Cevallos, "Sterile at Age 12, AIDS at 14," IPS,
10 February 1998)
Prostitution is legal in Mexico except in brothels, bars, nightclubs or cabarets, thus
forcing it onto the street. Pimping is against the law. (Rene Villegas, "Mexico City
prostitutes protest new rules," Reuter, 3 September 1997)
Women in prostitution in Mexico City now must follow a dress code, and are limited to
within two main districts. (Associated Press, 3 September 1997) [catwlog9709a]
The World Agency Against AIDS, a group claiming to represent 800 women in prostitution,
signed a code of conduct agreement with Mexico City’s Cuanhtemoc district government.
The new rules ban solicitation on the street from 6 a.m. to noon. The code does not
address extortion from police, violent clients and the commissions demanded by hotel
owners. (Ana Maria Casimiro, leader of La Merced prostitute’s group People of the
World Against AIDS, Rene Villegas, "Mexico City prostitutes protest new rules," Reuters,
3 September 1997)>
Prostitution Tourism
Mexico is one of the favored destinations of pedophile sex tourists from
Europe and the United States. ("Global law to punish sex tourists sought by Britain
and EU," The Indian Express, 21 November 1997
An estimated 5,000 children are currently involved in prostitution, pornography and
sex-tourism in Mexico. Nearly 100 children and teenagers a month fall into the hands of
the child prostitution networks which are mafias or organized crime syndicates. (Elena
Azola, Diego Cevallos, "Sterile at Age 12, AIDS at 14," IPS, 10 February
1998)
NGO Action
300 participants of the National Meeting of Sex Workers in Mexico called for an
end to police abuse and discrimination that has denied them everything from health care to
basic dignity. One person said that they receive death threats from police. Prostitution
is legal in Mexico, but brothels are not. (Dan Trotta, "Mexican prostitutes band
together to demand rights", Reuters, 22 July 1998)
Pornography
In 1996 U.S. Postal Service announced that Mexico City was one of the
leading producers of child pornography videos. (Diego Cevallos, "Sterile at Age 12,
AIDS at 14," IPS, 10 February 1998)
Case
Over Sea Service Mail Company produced pornographic videos using 7-11 year old
children. Videos sold for $250 each. The list of clients included some 2,000 addresses all
located in the U.S. (Diego Cevallos, "Sterile at Age 12, AIDS at 14," IPS,
10 February 1998)
In 1996 Mexican authorities discovered a house in Acapulco where pornographic videos
were filmed using children ranging in age from newborns to 18 year olds. Two U.S. citizens
and four Mexicans were implicated. (Diego Cevallos, "Sterile at Age 12, AIDS at
14," IPS, 10 February 1998)
In 1996, Mexican police broke up an international child pornography ring based in
Acapulco which had at least 4,000 clients from the U.S. ("Mexico under fire over
child abuse," BBC, 14 November 1997)
Policy and Law
Mexican justice system is inadequate to protect children from abuse such as child
pornography. (Ofelia Calcetas-Santos, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Sale of
Children, Child Prostitution and and Child Pornography, "Mexico under fire over child
abuse," BBC, 14 November 1997)
Organized and Institutionalized Sexual
Exploitation and Violence
From June 1994-early January 1998, 45 females have been sequestered,
wounded, tortured, raped, or murdered by military and paramilitary fighting in Chiapas.
(Synopsis by Gloria Huretas de la Doble Jornada, 11 January 1998, Masiosare, 28 December
1997, the Information Service of Centro Agustin Pro Juarez & testimonies collected
from women of San Cristobal"Chiapas: The Silenced Death, Geometric increments of
violence against women in Chiapas")
Policy and Law
In mid-1997 the Mexican Supreme Court ruled that violently forcing a spouse to engage
in sexual relations was not rape but the "undue exercise of a right." (Eduardo
Molinay Vedia, "Mexico: Supreme Court Legitimises Rape of Spouses, Critics Say,"
InterPress Third World News Agency, 16 June 1997)
On July 1991, Mexico revised its rape law, eliminating a provision that allowed a man
who rapes a minor to avoid prosecution if he agrees to marry her. (Report of the Special
Rapporteur, "Women and Violence," United Nations Department of Public
Information, February 1998)
Official
Corruption and Collaboration
Two Mexican Federal police officers have been jailed for
the rape of a fourteen-year-old street girl, in a case pursued by Casa Alianza on behalf
of the young girl, with the support of the Public Ministry. A recent court ruling, by the
12th Penal Judge of Mexico City, sentenced officer Perez Davila to eleven years
imprisonment and officer Sanchez Ramirez to nine years and six months imprisonment.
"In all too few cases these public figures are arrested and punished for their
crimes. This is a sad reminder that the sexual abuse of children continues, but it is good
to see that at times justice can prevail," said Bruce Harris the Regional Director of
Casa Alianza in Latin America. ("Two Mexican Federal Police Officers Jailed for
Raping Street Child," Press Release, Casa Alianza, 17 August 1998)
Factbook Table of Contents
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Coalition Against Trafficking in Women
Factbook on Global Sexual Exploitation
Donna M. Hughes, Laura Joy Sporcic, Nadine Z. Mendelsohn and Vanessa Chirgwin
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