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,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, of which the women received US toward paying off the US00 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)

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 0 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)