Human Trafficking in [Mexico Street Children in [Mexico] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Mexico] [other countries] |
Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery In the early
years of the 21st Century - 2000 to 2010 gvnet.com/humantrafficking/Mexico.htm
Mexico is a large source, transit, and destination country
for persons trafficked for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and
forced labor. Groups considered most vulnerable to human trafficking in Mexico
include women and children, indigenous persons, and undocumented migrants. A
significant number of Mexican women, girls, and boys are trafficked within
the country for commercial sexual exploitation, lured by false job offers
from poor rural regions to urban, border, and tourist areas. According to the
government, more than 20,000 Mexican children are victims of sex trafficking
every year, especially in tourist and border areas. - U.S. State Dept Trafficking in
Persons Report, June, 2009 [full country report] |
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CAUTION: The
following links have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in ***
FEATURED ARTICLE *** Details emerge in human trafficking case in San Antonio [PDF] Guillermo Contreras, Express-News online, 06/02/2007 [accessed 17 April 2012] How's $600 to buy what you'd like
simply for accompanying men on trips? We can make it happen, al otro lado — on the other
side. That pitch allegedly made by a
trio of women sounded like gold to some impressionable teens and a young
woman not making much in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. Three girls agreed to be smuggled to the
United States in mid-May and once they were in or near San Antonio, they were
primped, new clothes were bought for them and they were given English
lessons. Their understanding was that they did not have to have sex with the
men. But rather than the glitz they
were promised, they were sold in an underground world for prostitution,
according to prosecutors and documents filed in federal court Friday. The girls were delivered to a man in San
Antonio referred to in court records as the "boss," who had them
strip, inspected their bodies and told them they were going to be having sex
with men for up to five years to pay off their smuggling debt. The "boss" said he had paid
$3,000 apiece for two of the girls and said he would pay even more to get
them ready for other men, witnesses told investigators, according to their
statements. Anyone who fled would die, and their families would also suffer
the same fate, the statements said. - HTUSAMX ***
ARCHIVES *** Human Rights Reports » 2005
Country Reports on Human Rights Practices www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/62736.htm [accessed 20 February 2011] TRAFFICKING
IN PERSONS – CISEN
reported that trafficking is usually only one element of organized criminal
gang activities. Transnational and domestic organized criminal networks and
gangs were the primary perpetrators of trafficking in persons. Many illegal
immigrants fell prey to traffickers along the Guatemalan border, where the
growing presence of gangs such as Mara Salvatruchas
and Barrio 18 made the area especially dangerous for unaccompanied women and
children migrating north, whose numbers continued to increase. Most victims of trafficking were
poor and uneducated. Trafficking victims often related that they were
promised a good job, but once isolated from family and home, were forced into
prostitution or to work in a factory or the agriculture sector. Other young
female migrants recounted being robbed, beaten, and raped by members of
criminal gangs and then forced to work in table dance bars or as prostitutes
under threat of further harm to them or their families. Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Rights of
the Child (CRC) UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, , 8 October 1999 www1.umn.edu/humanrts/crc/mexico1999.html [accessed 20 February 2011] [32] While the Committee is aware of
the measures taken by the State party on the situation of repatriated
children (menores fronterizos),
it remains particularly concerned that a great number of these children are
victims of trafficking networks, which use them for sexual or economic exploitation.
Concern is also expressed about the increasing number of cases of trafficking
and sale of children from neighboring countries who are brought into the
State party to work in prostitution. Three people charged with human trafficking Erik Barajas , KTRK-Houston, June 04, 2009 abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/local&id=6848327 [accessed 20 February 2011] The bright lights of “Rape Trees” Frame Arizona-Mexico Border: Grim Reminders
of Human Trafficking Sue Michaels, ChattahBox News Blog, March 15,
2009 [accessed 20 February 2011] A recent report from the Cronkite
News Service, a student-run news service of These “rape trees” are becoming
more common along the Arizona border counties of Pima and Cochise, as coyotes
and drug cartel members find human trafficking more lucrative than drug
smuggling. Selling Brides: Native Mexican Custom or Crime? Ioan Grillo,
Time/CNN, www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1876102,00.html [accessed 20 February 2011] The case centers on an alleged
marriage arrangement that went sour involving Marcelino
de Jesus In the neighboring market town of Juxtlahuaca, Maria Bautista sees the practice as coercive
and barbaric. "It's like a form of slavery. They buy their women and
then treat them like their property," says Bautista, a single mother with
her own business. Bautista has a Triqui father and Mixtec Indian mother, but she speaks only Spanish and
follows few of the old traditions. She cites the cases of many older men who
came back minted from working in the U.S. and who bought themselves several
young wives. Down in the state capital of
Oaxaca, state human rights commissioner Heriberto
Garcia also chastised the custom. "Buying and selling a woman is a clear
violation of her rights," he says in his office decorated with
leather-bound law books. "And a young teenage girl does not have the
experience to make these decisions." Oaxaca state law permits marriage
of women at 14 and men at 16. Mexican officials have long
tolerated arranged marriages, Garcia concedes, adding that he doesn't know of
any cases of prosecutions. But he says he will also propose to amend a
"Treatment of People" law to include an article that makes
bride-selling a criminal act. Such action is opposed by many who see
indigenous traditions as a virtue of Mexico's cultural diversity. Sex Slaves: From 11Alive, [accessed 23 April 2012] The female victims were as young
as 14-years old. They expected a better life in America only to learn when
they got here that they were sex slaves. An indictment says three of the
men -- 31-year old Juan Cortez-Meza, 34-year old Amador Cortez-Meza and
25-year old Francisco Cortez-Meza -- travelled to
Mexico to seduce and befriend the females with promises of a better life in
America. "Once they started
dating them in Mexico they would get them to come to the US promising them
jobs in restaurants or cleaning houses and then when they got here they were
forced into prostitution," said Assistant United States Attorney Susan Coppedge. The indictment says "The
victims were beaten, threatened, or their families back in Mexico were
threatened in order to force the victims to work as prostitutes against their
will." Human smuggling ring with Derek Simmonsen, TCPalm, Scripps Interactive Newspapers Group, St. Lucie
County, March 3, 2008 www.tcpalm.com/news/2008/mar/03/30gthuman-smuggling-ring-is-back-in-court/ [accessed 20 February 2011] The girl was 14 years old when she
was approached by a couple in her hometown of From their home in Veracruz, three brothers, their uncle and other Cadena-Sosa family members recruited women from nearby
small towns, often promising them $400 a week (10 times the local salary) in
jobs picking fruit, house cleaning or working in restaurants. In a few cases,
they even were up front about the prostitution. After crossing into the United States, the
women were told the truth about their work, and those who resisted were raped
or beaten, according to court records and interviews with the victims
conducted by FSU. Most of the money
they earned went to the family or to pay off smuggling debts. The women also
were charged for food, lingerie and forced abortions, making it hard for them
to ever completely clear their debts. Details emerge in human trafficking case in San Antonio [PDF] Guillermo Contreras, Express-News online, 06/02/2007 [accessed 17 April 2012] How's $600 to buy what you'd like simply for accompanying men on trips? We can make it happen, al otro lado — on the other side. That pitch allegedly made by a trio of women sounded like gold to some impressionable teens and a young woman not making much in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. Three girls agreed to be smuggled to the United States in mid-May and once they were in or near San Antonio, they were primped, new clothes were bought for them and they were given English lessons. Their understanding was that they did not have to have sex with the men. But rather than the glitz they were promised, they were sold in an underground world for prostitution, according to prosecutors and documents filed in federal court Friday. The girls were delivered to a man in San Antonio referred to in court records as the "boss," who had them strip, inspected their bodies and told them they were going to be having sex with men for up to five years to pay off their smuggling debt. The "boss" said he had paid $3,000 apiece for two of the girls and said he would pay even more to get them ready for other men, witnesses told investigators, according to their statements. Anyone who fled would die, and their families would also suffer the same fate, the statements said. - HTUSAMX RIGHTS-MEXICO: 16,000 Victims of Child Sexual Exploitation Emilio Godoy, Inter Press
Service News Agency www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=38872 [accessed 20 February 2011] International organisations
fighting child sex tourism say Another chilling statistic is that
95 percent of Mexico City’s 13,000 street children have already had at least
one sexual encounter with an adult. Many girls and boys are lured to
Mexico City from small towns or rural areas by criminal networks, through
false promises of domestic work or other jobs. - htsccp Mask project combats human trafficking Sally Kalson, www.post-gazette.com/pg/06156/695733-28.stm [accessed 20 February 2011] A number of A new bid to halt toll of human trafficking Claire Cooper & Christina Jewett, s10.invisionfree.com/usedtobedoe/ar/t3984.htm [accessed 8 September 2011] Florencia Molina's sewing teacher in Mexican national pleads guilty to bringing sex slaves to
Houston-area bars Associated Press AP, Houston, January 17, 2006 At one time this article had been archived and may
possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 8 September 2011] Salvador Fernando Molina Garcia,
37, an illegal immigrant, has pleaded guilty to smuggling girls and young
women from The single count superseding
indictment re-alleges that Gerardo Salazar, 40, is the leader of a group of
men who smuggled minor girls and young women from Mexico into the United
States. Using deception, threats of harm, physical force and psychological
coercion, Salazar compelled their service for prostitution in Houston area
bars. Border Breakdown Paul Streitz, www.magic-city-news.com/Paul_Streitz_67/Border_Breakdown_37813781.shtml [accessed 20 February 2011] After the coyotes get the women
across the border, safely on Press Releases 05, www.usembassy-mexico.gov/eng/releases/ep050819TIP.html [accessed 20 February 2011] Under Secretary Gutierrez noted that “these programs are directed towards providing comprehensive attention for victims on our common border, as well as in southern Mexico; fighting sexual tourism involving minors; creating awareness about the risks of trafficking in persons and related crimes; and deepening the exchange of information and intelligence that will allow us dismantle, apprehend and prosecute criminal organizations, while strictly applying the laws of each country.” UN panel sees grave women's rights abuse in Mexico Irwin Arieff, Reuters, United
Nations, 26 Jan 2005 At one time this article had been archived and may
possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 8 September 2011] Some 320 women were the victims of
unsolved murders in News Investigation Into The Plight Of Young Women Forced
Into Horror Of Prostitution Nicole Bode, articles.nydailynews.com/2005-04-03/news/18300724_1_zona-rosa-prostitution-tijuana/2 [accessed 23 April 2012] Before the night is over, the
girls of "Zona Rosa" - a notorious
red-light district just a few blocks from the main tourist drag in this
Mexican border town - will make as much as $250 each by selling sex. It's cold-blooded sexual slavery - forced
prostitution that began when they were kidnapped from their small towns in Task force to prosecute sex-trade, slavery cases Mark Arner, The San diego Union-Tribune, March 30, 2005 www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20050330/news_1m30human.html [accessed 20 February 2011] Many of the girls and young women
had been promised work as maids and were smuggled into Three Defendants Plead Guilty To Charges Involving Forcing
Young Mexican Women Into Sexual Slavery In Press Release, The www.justice.gov/usao/nye/pr/2005/2005apr05c.html [accessed 20 February 2011] During the plea allocutions this
morning, the defendants Josue Flores Carreto, Geraldo Flores Carreto,
and Daniel Perez Alonso, acknowledged that they recruited young, uneducated
Mexican women from impoverished backgrounds, smuggled them from Report: Associated Press AP, www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1394126/posts [accessed 8 September 2011] When she arrived she was raped by
all three men and sold to a Yakuza organized crime boss, who branded her
across the chest with a 6-inch (15-centimeter) rose tattoo. He forced her to
provide sexual services to up to 40 clients a day, she said. Annual Report Of Activities By The Anti-Trafficking In
Persons Section Of The Organization Of American States - April 2005 To March
2006 [DOC] Sixth Meeting of Ministers of Justice or of Ministers or
Attorneys General of the www.procuraduria.gov.do/PGR.NET/RemjaVI/Informes/Ingles.doc [accessed 21 February 2011] The meeting “Trafficking of
Persons and the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Minors,” organized by the
executive committee the Inter-American Network of Parliamentarian Women, was
held in the Mexican city of Puebla on March 1,
2006. The OAS Anti-Trafficking in Persons Section was represented by its
Projects Director, Fernando García Robles, with his
keynote address on “Trafficking in Persons: A Transnational Problem.” The
conference brought together parliamentarians of both sexes, national and
international nongovernmental organizations, the international community, and
civil society in general. The OAS’s presence at this event was of great
importance, since the draft Decree Law to Prevent and Punish Trafficking in
Persons was then being studied by the Joint Congressional Committees on
Justice, Human Rights, and Legislative Studies. Freedom House Country Report - Political Rights: 2 Civil Liberties: 3 Status: Free 2009 Edition www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=22&year=2009&country=7661 [accessed 21 February 2011] Human Rights Overview Human Rights Watch [accessed 21 February 2011] Library of Congress Call Number F1208 .M5828 1997 lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/mxtoc.html [accessed 21 February 2011] Rescued From Sex Slavery Rebecca Leung, CBS News, Feb. 23, 2005 www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/02/23/48hours/main675913.shtml [accessed 21 February 2011] Olga got on the plane with four
other Russian girls. In that instant, they became the personal property of an
international slave trader. Olga's plane, however, was headed to Mexico. Rashkovsky was planning to smuggle the women across the
notoriously unsupervised border between Mexico and the United States. He
brought the women to a hotel in Tijuana. Olga, a consultant to 48 Hours on this report, returned to
Mexico to retrace her steps. "It’s just old memories," she says.
"The older I get, the more scarier it is to think about, what could
happen to me." Girls like Olga are sometimes put
to work in Mexican strip clubs before heading north. But Mexico is more than
just a transit country and training ground for Eastern Europeans. In its own
right, Malevolent Bargains: Slavery Continues in the Form of
Forced Prostitution Ed Vitagliano, News Editor, American
Family Association AFA Journal, April 15, 2004 At one time this article had been archived and may
possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 8 September 2011] AMERICAN TASTE FOR TRAFFICKED GIRLS - Virtual sex is not the only
decadent delicacy for some Americans; the simple fact is that thousands of
trafficked women and girls are ferried into the In an article for The Weekly
Standard, Hughes wrote about the extent of the sex trafficking industry that
shuttles girls through Mexico to brothels outside San Diego, California.
"Over a 10-year period, hundreds of girls, 12 to 18 years old," were
brought into the U.S. by Mexican nationals.
"The girls were sold to farm workers -- between 100 and 300 at a
time -- in small 'caves' made of reeds in the fields. Many of the girls had
babies, who were used as hostages with death threats against them, so their
mothers would not try to escape," Hughes said. Mexican Minors Prostituted To Farmworkers
Near La Frontera News, Click [here]
to access the article. Its URL is not
displayed because of its length [accessed 21 February 2011] Told that they were going to work
in US factories or restaurants, these women and others like them from poor
Mexican communities were smuggled into the Lead defendant in prostitution ring pleads guilty findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_pjus/is_199901/ai_3464815138/ [accessed 21 February 2011] The lead defendant in a forced
prostitution case pleaded guilty today to charges that he and fifteen others
lured women from Globalization University of California, Berkeley, School of Law,
Clinical & Skills Programs, International Human Rights Law Clinic,
Projects & Cases At one time this article had been archived and may
possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 8 September 2011] U.S.-MEXICO ANTI-TRAFFICKING
WORKING GROUP - In
April 2004, the Clinic and the Human Rights Center convened a conference of international
anti-trafficking experts to strengthen protections for Mexican victims of
human trafficking. Clinic research on forced labor in the United States
indicates that hundreds and possibly thousands of Mexican men, women, and
children are trafficked into this country each year and forced to work in
brothels, agriculture, and sweatshops as modern day slaves. Yet even when
victims manage to escape or are rescued, their ordeal is not over. Family
members of survivors who prosecute their perpetrators have been intimidated
or attacked in home countries. Fear of reprisal against family members in the
survivors' home country once perpetrators are released from prison in the
United States is an on-going concern to survivors and delays their
rehabilitation. Similarly, fear that law enforcement will be unable to
protect them or their families discourages many victims from assisting in
prosecution of their traffickers. ACLU Sues Manhattan Hotel Under 'Victims of Trafficking
and Violence Protection Act' Press Release, American Civil Liberties Union ACLU, [accessed 21 February 2011] The plaintiffs
seeking legal relief and damages include: Juana Sierra Trejo, Gabriela
Flores Viegas, Ines Bello Castillo, Carmen Calixto
Rodriquez and Lucero Santes Vazquez, all
of whom are originally from Trafficking Alert - Vital Voices, March 2004 At one time this article had been archived and may
possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 8 September 2011] RECENT NOTABLE PROSECUTIONS BY THE
DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE INCLUDE - Sentencing of Florida Man on Human Trafficking Charges: On March 2,
2004, Ramiro Ramos was sentenced to 15 years in prison for conspiring to hold
migrant farm laborers in involuntary servitude. Ramos was also ordered to
forfeit property valued at more than $3 million, and was ordered deported to
Mexico. His brother, Juan Ramos, was also convicted on charges of involuntary
servitude, and will be sentenced on May 3. The brothers reportedly transported Mexican men and women to
Florida and forced them to work until they paid off "transportation
debts," and subjected them to threats and beatings. Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (CSEC) and
Child Trafficking Youth Advocate Program International -- Edited by Carol Smolenski, Executive Director ECPAT-USA, & Joanne Selinske, International Social Services (ISS) [accessed 21 February 2011] WHERE
CSEC IS OCCURRING TODAY? - Child sexual exploitation of children occurs on every
continent, except Antarctica, and is most prevalent in countries stricken by
poverty, political turmoil, and corruption. In Cambodia , a nation still
recovering from the war, famine, and brutal dictatorship of the 1970s and
‘80s, sex tourism thrives. The prostitution of girls as young as 5 years old
is prevalent, particularly with many tourists visiting Cambodia with the
specific purpose of having sex with prepubescent girls.[5] However, the
practice is not limited to developing countries. For example, girls and young
women from many countries are trafficked into the United States, often
through Mexico, to become sex slaves. Abducted, sold or abandoned by family,
or lured by hollow promises of jobs, school, and a better life, girls and
women find themselves trapped, earning no money, and living in highly
restrictive settings with no personal freedoms. State ripe for racket in human trafficking Daniel González, The At one time this article had been archived and may
possibly still be accessible [here] [accessed 8 September 2011] In the past six years, the federal
government has prosecuted five slavery rings involving a total of 1,500 immigrants
from Mexico and Guatemala, many of whom were recruited in Chandler and
Marana, to work in slavelike conditions picking
tomatoes and citrus on farms in south Florida, according to Lucas Benitez,
co-founder of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers based in Immokalee, Fla. In some cases, the workers were
held against their will by armed guards and paid $40 to $50 a week after
their wages were garnisheed for housing, food and transportation from Arizona
to Florida, Benitez said. Dying to Leave Thirteen, www.pbs.org/wnet/wideangle/episodes/dying-to-leave/human-trafficking-worldwide/mexico/1456/ [accessed 21 February 2011] VICTIMS - Migrants from Central America
or residents of the Mexican highlands hoping to get work on farms or
construction sites in the Nor do children escape from Some foreign household workers enslaved Stephanie Armour, www.usatoday.com/money/general/2001/11/19/cover.htm [accessed 21 February 2011] AMONG RECENT CASES - • In a middle-class subdivision
of Laredo, Texas, known for brick homes and manicured yards, a 12-year-old
Mexican girl sent by her family to clean and provide childcare in exchange
for schooling was found shackled in a backyard, according to prosecutors.
Police were summoned after a neighbor doing roof work looked down, saw the
girl and called 911. The girl had been chained after
finishing her work, starved until she became so hungry she ate dirt and
tortured by having pepper spray blasted into her eyes when she dozed off,
prosecutors say. She was so weak, she had to be carried on a stretcher,
prosecutors say, and her skin had been seared red from days in the sun. Penn News, [accessed 21 February 2011] New information from the study
reveals that more than 16,000 children in "In many cases the intended
destination of these children is the U.S.," Estes said, "but, owing
to the more relaxed law enforcement practices toward sexual predators in
Mexico, many traffickers find they can make substantial profit by exploiting
the children through pornography or prostitution in Mexico City or in Mexican
resort communities frequented by Mexicans and foreigners." Agenda Item 9: The human rights situation in Mexico UN Commission on Human Rights, Fifty-fifth session, Palais des Nations, At one time this article had been archived and may
possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 8 September 2011] The human rights situation in All material used herein
reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107 for noncommercial,
nonprofit, and educational use. PLEASE
RESPECT COPYRIGHTS OF COMPONENT ARTICLES.
Cite this webpage as: Patt, Prof. Martin, "Human Trafficking
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Human Trafficking in [Mexico Street Children in [Mexico] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Mexico] [other countries]