Activists march in Mexico's southern Chiapas state last week to demand an end to the sexual exploitation of migrant children, a growing and largely unaddressed problem.
Los Angeles Times
By Tracy Wilkinson
April 23, 2013, 1:44 p.m.
Mexico City - The flow of migrants from Central America across the Suchiate River into southern Mexico is steady but the journey perilous. Uncounted thousands end up at the mercy of drug-and-extortion gangs that hold them for ransom, force them into slave labor or kill them.
The dangers are especially acute for what officials say is a growing number of children and youths who cross into Mexico without adults. Many are kidnapped and made to work as prostitutes, with police and authorities turning a blind eye, says Ramon Verdugo, an activist based in Mexico's southernmost city, Tapachula, in the state of Chiapas.
And so, with a march and a hunger strike, Verdugo and supporters are demanding that the local government of Chiapas, which borders Guatemala, put an end to the child sex trade and punish police and others who allow it to flourish. Read more.
The MexicoBlog of the Americas Program, a fiscally sponsored program of the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), is written by Laura Carlsen. I monitor and analyze international press on Mexico, with a focus on security, immigration, human rights and social movements for peace and justice, from a feminist perspective. And sometimes I simply muse.
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