Posted on 12/30/2005 7:04:29 PM PST by SwinneySwitch
Authorities want to rein in the prostitution that's rampant in resort areas
ACAPULCO, MEXICO - On a sweltering afternoon in this glitzy tourist resort, Alex Fernandez laughed and joked with a group of his fellow homeless teenagers until the subject of prostitution came up. Then his smile disappeared, and the face of the skinny 14-year-old turned to a cold, unblinking stare as he described how grown men, sometimes Mexicans and sometimes foreign tourists, regularly take him to hotels and pay to have sex with him.
"Yes, they buy me. The business gets me food. It gets me clothes," said Fernandez, sitting in the shade of a basketball stand to escape the blazing sun. "No one else helps me. What do you want me to do?"
Despite a concerted effort to crack down on pedophiles in both Mexico and the United States, child prostitution continues unabated in Mexican tourist resorts such as Acapulco and Cancun as well as border cities such as Ciudad Juarez. Investigators estimate the number of Mexican children who are victims of commercial sexual exploitation — including prostitution, pornography and human trafficking — has increased to 20,000 from 16,000 in the past five years. Many of those who pay for sex with the boys and girls are American, Canadian and European tourists.
Mexican authorities and child-protection advocates say a weak justice system, police corruption and a lack of facilities to help homeless children have hindered attempts in Mexico to curb the problem.
The United Nations Children's Fund, or UNICEF, has urged Mexican authorities to strive for more concrete results in the fight against the trade.
"Mexican authorities used to be in denial about the problem. Now they are starting to address it," said Teresa Kilbane, the fund's Mexico projects director. "But the authorities still fail to give out solid figures on things like the number of pedophiles actually arrested or convicted."
A sensitive subject
To be sure, pedophilia remains a sensitive topic in Mexico.
Lydia Cacho Ribeiro, a journalist and children's rights advocate, found that out after publishing Demons of Eden, a book that claimed links between a child-sex ring and certain government officials, politicians, drug traffickers and businessmen.
A Puebla-based businessman sued her for criminal libel and on Dec. 16, Cacho was arrested in Cancun, accused of ignoring repeated summonses from a judge.
Cacho, whose plight has won the support of Reporters Without Borders and other groups, could get four years in prison if convicted.
Now free on bond, she denies breaking any laws.
Meanwhile, child sexual exploitation continues throughout Mexico. Investigators say some of the worst abuses occur in the famous seaside resort of Acapulco. In strip clubs, cantinas, hotels and private houses around the beautiful bay, about 1,000 children are victims of the illicit trade, according to UNICEF.
Hundreds of homeless youths such as Fernandez hang out on the beaches, outside the discos and in the central plaza in the heart of the resort where they are picked up by pedophiles. Men pay between $10 and $50 for intercourse or oral sex with the children, said Elizabeth Moreno, who heads a city government program to combat child prostitution.
In many cases the children are sold by pimps, who are often older homeless people with histories of being sexually exploited themselves, Moreno said.
Barriers to prosecution
Attempts to prosecute the pedophiles in Acapulco have had limited success.
Under the law, Mexican prosecutors need someone to file a detailed accusation against a specific suspect before they can take action. "Even if we see suspects we can't act. We just pass the information on" to prosecutors, Moreno said. "Sometimes, nothing seems to be done with it."
In April 2003, federal police arrested 13 Canadians and Americans, including one Texan, who they say formed a network that organized sex tourism and child pornography in Acapulco. In August 2004, two of the suspects committed suicide in the city's prison. Soon after, the other 11 were released when a federal judge said there was insufficient evidence against them.
Miguel Lopez, head of child protection for the Guerrero state government in Acapulco, said the defense attorneys allegedly bribed key child witnesses so they wouldn't testify.
The suspects should have been sent to the United States for trial, he said. "They would have nailed them there," Lopez said.
The U.S. government has stepped up its efforts to catch sex offenders, with President Bush signing the landmark Protect Act in 2003.
The law clarifies and strengthens cases against American citizens who have sex with a minor outside the United States or have planned to go abroad to have sex with a minor, said Los Angeles Assistant Attorney Richard Lee.
"The law means we can arrest these people even before they get on the plane and do the damage," Lee said.
The 2003 act also increased the maximum sentence for child-sex tourism to 30 years from 10 for first-time offenders and to a life sentence for those with previous convictions.
The same year, the Department of Homeland Security launched so-called Operation Predator, an initiative to investigate and arrest all types of sex offenders in the U.S. So far, the operation has netted 6,500 people, including 13 men who planned to have sex with children abroad, said department spokesperson Jamie Zuieback.
"We are sending out a loud and clear message to predators that if you commit a sex crime here or anywhere else you will be caught and convicted," Zuieback said.
FBI operations
The FBI also has been increasingly aggressive in going after pedophiles.
In a sting operation in February 2005, agents in California nabbed seven men who had signed up to go on a holiday to the Baja California town of Ensenada, where they were promised sex with boys as young as 9. The supposed vacation was set up by an FBI undercover agent who had infiltrated a pro-pedophilia group called the North American Man/Boy Love Association.
"We need to be tough in getting these guys off the street, so they are not out hurting children," said FBI Special Agent John Caruthers.
One of those arrested, Gregory Nusca of Dania Beach, Fla., pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 14 years in prison.
Criminal cases are proceeding against the other six, who are incarcerated in San Diego and Los Angeles. South of the Rio Grande, Mexican lawmakers are battling to draft their own Protect-style act to overhaul their criminal code on sex offenders.
Under President Vicente Fox, Mexico's divided Congress has been gridlocked over major economic and judicial reforms. However, federal deputy Angelica de la Peña is confident that Congress can pass a reform law on sex offenders.
"This is not a politically divisive issue," said de la Peña, who is in the left-wing Democratic Revolution Party. "We all agree that abusing children should be stopped."
The bill proposes doubling maximum sentences for sex offenders to 18 years, making it easier for police to investigate and arrest pedophiles, and giving authorities the power to shut down brothels that have underage prostitutes. Under current law, the maximum penalty a brothel faces for employing children is a $3,000 fine.
Educating the victims
Acapulco officials say they struggle to persuade children to stay away from prostitution.
Moreno, of the Acapulco city government, has helped remove 22 child prostitutes from strip clubs and brothels in the past year. They were taken to a refuge on the outskirts of the city, but all left within a few days, she said.
"A lot of them can't stand the discipline and they can't get their drugs in the refuge," Moreno said. "We can't put them under lock and key because that would be a violation of their human rights."
Gustavo Lopez, director of a government-funded Acapulco homeless hostel, estimates that 80 percent of the city's street kids are addicted to drugs, most commonly industrial solvents and crack cocaine. About half of them become victims of prostitution, he said.
The majority of the homeless children come from families where they were physically and often sexually abused, he said.
Many do not see themselves as being victims when they are paid for sex, he said.
"A lot of them see the business as a good way to make money," Lopez said. "They are used to being at the bottom of society and their self-confidence is already shattered."
Mexico's social services system is failing the children, said anthropologist Elena Azaola, who has written several books about child sex tourism.
"We have no institutions teaching these kids what rights they have," Azaola said. "The key to solving this tragic problem is to rehabilitate the children and give them some hope and opportunity in their lives."
ibgrillo@yahoo.com
No, I meant I didn't think about the rape - abuse connection.
I live in an illegal alien network and am familiar with the high stats of male hispanic rape.
But I didn't stop and think about the possibility of them being abused as children which would add to tendencies to commit rape.
Gotta check on the shrimp. Back later.
Mmmmm, shrimp! I think I need to thaw some and have us a shrimp boil tonight!
Thanks, Calpernia, I'm all to familiar with these horror stories from too many places in the world. Fortunately, China is not on our border, well, yet.
Gotta check on the shrimp. Back later.
Shrimp?? You are just a tease!
Happy New Year, Calpernia.
That is right out of an early LP platform. So yes, straw, like the majority of their lightweight, sophomoronic arguments.
I clicked JoJo's profile page before he got banned and there was an odd little thingie at the bottom that read my ISP and what version of windows (or was it OE?) my computer is running. Is that weird?
I saw that, too. JoJo was a little much. Wonder how long he's been banned for.
I guess not gone for long. Oh well. C'est la vie!
It may very well have been over the top, but so are certain hypocrites calling 13 year old girls little whores. Just as the preacher said last night, they're all representatives of the Church, and what they do is what brings someone in or keeps them out. So, I couldn't and wouldn't let them have a pass. Their actions also reflect on the Freep too.
Yep, we all need someone every now and then. We're all just trying to make one more day.
If you and your little cabal of self righteous rants wanted to talk about how the border situation is awful, turns honest people into criminals on both sides of the border, causes resentment among Americans, breeds corruption, and various other problems, I would be right there with you. I am in agreement that we need a fence/wall/secure border, and I think the hissy fit that Vincente Fox is throwing is stupid, shortsighted (he is a politician playing to passions where he is) and bound to cause even more resentment over here.
What I despise about you and your buddies is your willingness to sieze on any thread, pull the most LAME, STUPID and HATEFUL connections, like saying that the existence of children expoited in the sex trade in Mexico is caused by the migration of men north of the border to send money back to their families. You cap off that bit of cultural gymnastics by sneering at the "family values" of those south of the border, as though the existence of perversion for profit existed only there, was not in evidence in the USA (or any other country, I guess) and the fact that it was there was evidence of the degeneracy of a culture.
You and you little band of haters come up with this crap constantly on immigration threads. Sneers and condescending remarks, wishing evil on people whom you never met and know NOTHING about, combined with your haughtiness and arrogance toward people who are on the lowest rung of our society would make anyone but the most self righteous bigot ashamed. Moreover, you and your buddies will make the most outlandish, unsupported allegations against anyone who challenges your line of junk. I have been accused of every kind of ideological deviancy, economic dishonesty, and unethical motivation, simply for saying that this kind of tripe is wrong, it is hateful, it is wicked and all of the horrid mess about the border (and it is a horrid mess) does not justify it. I have come to utterly despise it, and you and your buddies for your smug, arrogant, shriveled little souls on display.
There, go run to the mods and whine about that.
I was pretty calm until I saw your idiotic response, especially considering how I've been crying foul over the fakers.
Don't you ever dare try to publicly dress me down while the Fakers get passes over calling young girls little whores. I'll crawl all over you like stench on a hippie.
Naah, lots of people have that. Typically the Linux-oriented ones.
Cheers!
That's funny. Yesterday I thought of saying you were hitting the champagne bottle early, but didn't. Must've restrained myself somehow. ;)
You keep talking about fakers. What do you mean by that?
Do they say things like
"Let him who has run out of stones commit the first sin"
or
"Neither do I condemn you; go and sin some more"
Seriously now, peer pressure, ridicule, belittlement are a means of controlling people's behaviour which still come short of passing intrusive laws, which it appears you also object to.
Yes, you are correct "the kids have always done it", but that's something of a red herring. The questions which are left out of that are --
which kids;
How often?
Under what circumstances?
--are they shunned or glorified by their peers for doing so?
I suggest (see the last paragraph of the vanity you were kind enough to read!) that all of those metrics have "slid off of a cliff" since the 1960's "sexual banzai charge".
Sex is fun, but it used to be more people had more control: and greater society enforced greater external controls, so even if some kids were tempted, they couldn't consummate (there, is that better?) and had to settle for a stand-up double.
(Granted, teenagers have been known to try to stretch a bunt into a triple...)
But all of this probably belongs better on that other thread.
As far as the pedophilia issues, I think concentrating on DEMAND side here in the states would be better, based on stories from friends about how they fended of sexual "harrisment" in the workplace.
Cheers!
Here it is, in all it's scary and terrifying glory. It's an IMAGE file, a simple .jpg file, nothing mysterious:
http://www.danasoft.com/vipersig.jpg
However, children always have the right to establish their maturity by assuming administration and protection of their own rights, ending dependency upon their parents or other guardians, and assuming all responsibilities of adulthood. A child is a human being and, as such, deserves to be treated justly.
See? Since the LP considers laws against pornography and prostitution violations of individual liberty, and since children "always have the right to establish their maturity by assuming administration and protection of their own rights", then my point is valid, right?
I don't care what differences you have with what you consider a faker.
I will cry foul again and again for referencing someone's child that is not in a news article posted.
I came late to this.
A blessed New Year to you and I'm glad you didn't let the stinker get you down.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
