Human Rights Commission warns of Human Trafficking in Puerto Vallarta

The Jalisco State Human Rights Commission (CEDHJ) warned raised the red flag in Puerto Vallarta for human trafficking through the "Special report on the situation of violence against women in correspondence with the warning mechanisms of violence against women and gender alert" that the Commission handed over to the municipality. According to the Executive Secretariat of the National Security System, at the end of April of this year, Puerto Vallarta is within the top 100 municipalities with the highest rate of violence against women nationwide. Through a communiqué, the CEDHJ indicated that this was considered a priority because of the problem of human trafficking and the number of cases of violent deaths of women registered by the Jalisco Institute of Forensic Sciences. For this reason, gender alert mechanisms, both local and federal, remain active. According to the National Diagnostic on Trafficking in Persons conducted in Mexico in 2014, Puerto Vallarta and Acapulco are some of the tourist centers that constitute poles of attraction for trafficking in persons for the purpose of sexual exploitation, including child exploitation. The CEDHJ found Puerto Vallarta negligent: "it was found that there is no specialized search and immediate reaction group ." The group requested coordination with neighboring states for the immediate search for disappeared women and girls, and there are no follow-up reports of protection orders," the statement said. The Commission concludes that three years after the local gender alert was issued and six months after the federal alert, in the municipality "there is a context of violence and disappearances that the authorities must address with greater efforts". It also urges the municipality to analyze the installation of a Unit for Attention to Victims of Violence, to have a reaction unit and immediate search for girls, adolescents and missing women to coordinate with the search work established by the Alba Protocol, and address the problem of trafficking in persons for sexual purposes.