Women are being bought, sold, and used as sex slaves to generate profits for the sex industry around the world. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 72 percent of trafficked persons are women and girls. Of this number, 83 percent of women and 72 percent of girls are used for the purpose of forced commercial sexual exploitation. These victims are beaten, raped, and threatened with violence. They are forced into a situation that is difficult to escape.
In Mexico, the most common form of human trafficking is when women and girls are forced into sex work. Many Mexican women are disappearing at the hands of pimps. The majority of traffickers in Mexico are Mexicans. Revenue from the business fall into the hands of Mexican cartels.
Sex trafficking is the second most profitable industry in Mexico, only behind drug trafficking. Many cities in Mexico have Zonas de Tolerancia—a red light district where prostitution is allowed. These districts have made Mexico one of the largest destinations for sex tourism in the world. The zonas of Tolerancia presents favorable opportunities for pimps to commercialize their victims. Popular tourist destinations, such as Cancún and Playa del Carmen, are also hubs for sex trafficking.
There are many structural causes of sex trafficking in Mexico. One of the major causes is poverty. Every day, many women are lured with promises of a better job and life for their families. Believing that they are going to work as dancers, singers, models, or even in local businesses, these women have their dreams of a better life transformed into a nightmare. Their documents are confiscated, and they become victims of sex trafficking. Mexico’s proximity with the United States exacerbates this issue as many of them are lured into believing they are being sent to the United States for better job opportunities. These victims have their passport and other documents taken by the pimps, so they are unable to escape, and are manipulated and forced into sexual exploitation. Mexico is the main source of trafficking victims to the sex industry in the United States.
The majority of the victims come from impoverished regions in Southern Mexico, although many of them are also illegal immigrants running away from political instability, gang violence and poverty encountered in Central American countries such as El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. Illegal immigration creates ideal conditions for them to be victims of sex trafficking once they enter Mexico as illegal immigrants are often vulnerable and unprotected.
In many parts of Mexico, such as in Puebla and Tlaxcale, sex trafficking has turned into a family-owned business. These family-owned businesses are managed by local gangs and every member of the family has a responsibility. The head of the family or “godfather” is responsible for keeping the business running. The victims have to fulfill daily commercial sex quotas in order to avoid physical, emotional, and psychological punishment. Many of these victims become pregnant—a coercion technic used by pimps to prevent mothers from running away. Their children are taken away from their mothers and become property of the gang. These children are held hostage in order to force their mothers to work. Eventually, these children will become the next generation of sexually exploited victims when they are five or older. They live under terrible conditions, such as in over-crowded rooms and sometimes they are even tied up. Many of these children grow up thinking that prostitution is the only future for them. Some of them even aspire to become a pimp.
Mexico is making efforts to prosecute more traffickers, provide support to trafficked victims, and promote awareness about the issue. However, the U.S. Department of State rates Mexico as a Tier 2 because it has not met the minimum standards to monitor and combat human trafficking yet. In addition, there is still a need to reform Mexico’s anti-trafficking legislation to better identify and convict traffickers. Eradicating sex trafficking in Mexico will require the collaboration of not only the government, but also civil society and law enforcement, as well as increased awareness regarding the issue. Awareness will prevent many victims from falling into the hands of sex traffickers.
