Puerto Vallarta (PVDN) – Sex tourism is rampant in Puerto Vallarta and other tourist destinations in Mexico, including Cozumel, Cancún, Acapulco, and Tijuana.
Mexico is facing a serious problem of child sexual exploitation, which has made the country rank first in child pornography production and second in sexual abuse of boys and girls.
Sadly, it has been impossible to stop these atrocities, and they have been increasing in recent years. More than 21,000 children are estimated to be sexually exploited in Mexico, either in the form of pornography, trafficking, or abuse. Even worse, there was a 120 percent growth in cases of children at risk of exploitation during the pandemic. This was due to children being more connected to the internet and online video games, where they were contacted by adults who sought to abuse them.
Fernando Landeros, president of the Freedom Foundation, points out that 70 percent of child sexual abuse occurs within the child’s closest circle. This is particularly tragic because those who should love and protect them end up being the ones who close their lives and future.
“There is a hell in Mexico with hundreds of bonfires that burn the dreams, souls, and bodies of thousands of Mexican children. Child trafficking, exploitation, and sexual abuse. Every hour, two Mexican children are kidnapped to be sold and sexually assaulted. Girls and boys who suffer this scourge up to 10 times a day,” described Fernando Landeros.
Eduardo Cruz Moguel, president and founder of PAS, is one of more than 20 million survivors of child sexual abuse in Mexico. Eduardo was a junior tennis champion, but he survived abuse at the age of 12, while living with a pedophile in Germany. Due to the high number of cases of child sexual abuse, the Citizen Council for Security and Justice of Mexico City maintains a national telephone number against human trafficking to provide all kinds of help to victims.
Unfortunately, only 2 or 3 percent of the cases of human sex trafficking are known, and there is a huge blacklist of people who go through this situation and do not see a way out. It is crucial to discuss this issue as the magnitude of the problem that Mexico faces must be known. Some Mexican airlines have joined programs of the United Nations Organization and foundations, such as Freedom, to train their staff and identify when an infant is in danger of being taken out of the country against their will. Still, much more needs to be done to combat this terrible problem.
Human trafficking and Sex tourism of minors have been identified in the municipalities of Puerto Vallarta and Chapala in Jalisco, according to recent reports. Shockingly, three out of every ten cases of human trafficking identified in Jalisco are children, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
Esther Montalvo Tavera, a specialist in strategic coordination of the UN in Mexico, compared Jalisco’s data on this crime with that of the rest of the world. She said, “In the case, for example, of the State of Jalisco, we understand that, of the total number of victims, 30% correspond to children. These are alarming figures.”
To address this issue, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has trained around 30 people from the Office for the Protection of Children and Adolescents (PPNNA) in Jalisco. The training aims to help identify, protect, care for, and channel victims to shelters or specialized facilities, as well as to restore their rights and educate on the characteristics of Trafficking in Persons, its variants and subtypes.
Víctor Hugo Escalante Juárez, the director of representation of Girls, Boys, and Adolescents in the prosecutor’s office, seeks to promote the culture of reporting this crime. He said, “We will seek to permeate this information in municipalities where cases of Human Trafficking have been detected, such as Puerto Vallarta and Chapala, so that society and public organizations have crime in their sights and can identify it and take actions to combat it.”
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in Mexico is operating a National Project for the Strengthening of Shelters and Halfway Houses. There are currently 13 spaces dedicated to the care of victims of Trafficking in Persons. If you suspect human trafficking, you can contact the complaint telephone line at 800 55 33 000, of the Intersecretarial Commission against Trafficking in Persons.
Puerto Vallarta (PVDN) - Sex tourism is rampant in Puerto Vallarta and other tourist destinations in Mexico, including Cozumel, Cancún, Acapulco, and Tijuana . . .
