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
See post 105, 115, 116.
JoJo and I seem to be getting along better.
Shameless plug, see my post 87 and read the vanity in it.
It doesn't look like it deals with sexual promiscuity, but it does...
Cheers!
I make no secret of my techno-dunce status. Not proud of it, but everyone can't know everything.
Now, why would I do that? The Mods are watching this thread, they already put out a warning for civility. They obviously don't care that all you offer is insults to a lot of good people.
Congratulations, you have degenerated this discussion into the usual emotional ravings. You accomplished what you set out to do.
It's all yours.
It is a screen name, hardly worth arguing about.
Dashwood was an English knight and Lord Despenser, Lord-Lieutenant of Buckinghamshire, elected member of The Royal Society, elected as Member of Parliament for Weymouth & Melcombe Regis, elected as Member of Parliament for New Romney, appointed Colonel of the Bucks Militia, appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer, Postmaster-General, and great friend of Ben Franklin, the American Deputy Postmaster-General.
Franklin wrote:
"I am in this house as much at my ease as if it was my own, and the gardens are a paradise. But a pleasanter thing is the kind countenance, the facetious and very intelligent conversation of Mine Host, who, having been for many years engaged in public affairs, seen all parts of Europe, and kept the best company in the world, is himself the best existing."
Dashwood also went to bat for Americans and tried to negotiate a favorable agreement for the colonies in Parliament.
I would just kill all the perps.
Allow me to set you straight once again. Thank you.
It was a "what if". I don't know anything about the poster and his/her family members, therefore how could I possibly aim anything directly towards a child? And even if I'd had, only someone like yourself wouldn't have seen it was in favor, not against. Nope, you just had to open your mouth and show yourself a fool.
According you you, we can't express ourselves by examples, by saying "let's imagine". I can only bow and genuflect to such an intellectual Krakatoa.
See ya around, Brainiac.
You want to play let's imagine games, use the term 'a' child. Don't you EVER make it personal by referencing a message board poster's child on a rape and porn thread.
AND you did it in an arguement with the FREEPER. I see that not only as foul; but as a threat.
Did Dr Sardonicus really dream 12 different times?
I really wasn't going to respond to you anymore, but this is too good to pass up.
As has been said so many times, what I said was in defense of the child. Now you're saying it was some kind of "threat"?
I'm honestly not saying this to belittle you, but your seeing what I said as a "threat" can mean only that you have severe mental issues.
Don't look for me to respond to you anymore, not at least until you seek professional help.
Stick up my behind, eh?
But that's okay. Some here are hypocrites, the social churchies who want to be seen, yet not walk the walk. When it comes to defending kids against the Fakers, I'll not apologize.
Perhaps someday your daughter will come up pregnant and fighting the tide of the Fakers who will ostracize her yet never contribute one thin dime to a nourishing meal or a diaper. But you'll know that JoJo Gunn won't look down his nose at her.
As I've already alluded elsewhere, Jesus came because of our imperfection, and I'll call on the carpet the Fakers who try and brainwash our kids into impossible ideals. Kids can and will screw up, and anyway, a perfect Utopia is an ideal, ultimately of stagnation, spouted by the Left. Like it or not, we're here to struggle and be tested, and we either encourage each other after the damage has been done, or hinder them in order to feel superior.
Comic Book Guy, is that you?
Post that again and you will be suspended.
You give me one damn good reason why.
You're Calpernia.
that the victims are mostly very young girls often very poor and young poor boys is a blot on any God-fearing human being...
what I believe is as long as we have men ( and women) who feel they NEED and DESERVE and have a RIGHT too unchecked pornagraphy, and prostitution and unGodly music and movies and magazines etc....then the abuse of young children and youngish girls and boys will continue....
this has nothing at all to do with Hooters, but you find grown men, supposedly Christian, who defend this silly but sad degradation of young women as acceptable and this folks, this cavalier attitude towards degradation is where it all starts.....
I wish. Unfortunately I am me, and have to pull my chit together for yet another year.
Right now it sux to be me, or what is left of what me wuz.
and it is snowing out.
raccoons live better than me on days like this.
I agree.
Caught your post after responding to something else, but truer words are rarely spoken.
Grown men treat every woman as they treat their mothers or daughters, with deference and ultimate respect.
The rest of us are mere horny boys who need a slap to remind them of the reality.
Jim, I thank you. Just your restoring my post speaks volumes to me.
And I hope the others don't see that as favoritism. On the contrary, I feel that.... well, I don't know how to exactly put it. Let's just say that before coming here this morning I'd expected to be canned, and I would have lost respect for a place that's billed as pro Life and pro Family, etc. I now find that I have even more respect for this site, just for being allowed to put up the Good Fight.
Happy New Year to all.
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