Mexico is the main supplier to the United States of girls and boys who are victims of human trafficking and is considered to be the producer of 60% of child pornography in the world, says the Freedom Foundation, directed by Fernando Landeros.
According to the organization, which was created a few months ago and presented its report yesterday, the country is also facing the disappearance of minors destined for all kinds of sexual exploitation. Every hour almost three Mexican girls and boys disappear in the country.
“A large part of them are destined for child sex trafficking and will be raped an average of 15 times a day,” he highlights.
“Trafficking is subjecting a person as merchandise to earn money by exploiting them or forcing them to commit actions, without their consent. Or using them as merchandise for sale in parts [trafficking includes illegal trafficking in human organs and fluids],” he notes.
It adds that during the pandemic, with the growth of conditions of vulnerability and economic instability, the conditions for traffickers and slavers to take advantage of the situation and subject a greater number of victims also increased.
In 2020, the production of child pornography increased by 117% in Mexico.
Landeros says that three years ago he saw a tape titled Sounds of freedom, which addresses the issue of sexual abuse and child trafficking, “which I did not know existed and even less that it was such a serious problem.”.
The association he heads will devote efforts to preventing these crimes and provide legal advice and rehabilitation: “We are going to carry out important, global, robust campaigns, with sensitive media, to make these issues visible. We are going to carry out awareness campaigns with mothers and fathers of families to prevent these illicit acts (…).
“In addition, we are going to push to improve the laws, to increase penalties and we will work on the issue of rehabilitation, to try to build that puzzle that was broken,” he explains. The Director of Fundación Teletón assures that, in just a few months, local authorities and Freedom have rescued 26 minors from the clutches of child trafficking in Cancún, Quintana Roo, where this foundation has its headquarters.
He says that Cancún, Cozumel, Puerto Vallarta, and Tlaxcala have become sexual paradises, where girls and boys are victims of trafficking: “We cannot be indifferent to this problem, much less remain idly by.”
