Torture in [Mexico] [other countries]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 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 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 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/report/freedom-world/2009/mexico [accessed 27 June 2012] 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 www.justice.gov/opa/pr/1999/January/013cr.htm [accessed 2 September 2012] 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
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ARTICLES. Cite this webpage as: Patt,
Prof. Martin, "Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery - |
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Torture in [Mexico] [other countries]Human Trafficking in [Mexico Street Children in [Mexico] [other countries]Child Prostitution in [Mexico] [other countries]