Selling Bodies for Pleasure and Work
by May’Ra Torres
Human trafficking is alive and well today. It is a billion dollar industry. After the weapons trade, human trafficking is the largest business in the world.
People become victims because they have limited access to social services such as police. No one country is free from human trafficking. The victims of these crimes are forced to work in sweatshops, farms, and as personal servants, sexual and non-sexual. The victims are promised employment, education, or a better life.
The statistics of human trafficking is complex because of the hidden nature of this market. According to National Crime Victims’ Rights Week: Justice Isn’t Served Until Crime Victims Are, April 10-16 2005 reports that “an estimated 600,000 to 800,000 men, women, and children are trafficked across international borders (some international and non-governmental organizations place the number far higher), and the trade is growing.” In the United States alone, each year an average 14,500 to 17,500 people are trafficked into the United States.
These numbers are increasing each day. Countries such as Mexico are a source of conveyance transfer for sexual exploitation and forced labor. Many of the victims are originally trafficked from Central America into Mexico until entering the United States. Many of the victims are lured from their rural home towns to urban centers. The victims are giving false promises of employment in the United States.
Such realizations came to surface in Mexico City around the 1960’s. Linda Salinas a former Independent Political Activist in the Department of Human Rights for El Foro De La Cuidad De Mexico says, “During about 1969 Mexico City was being hit with ongoing flow of organized crimes, specific kidnapping. These kidnapping were soon classified as international human trafficking. The suspects were Delfina and Maria de Jesus Gonzales two sisters known as the “Poquianchis,” because their signature look a nuns wardrobe.”
It was conformed soon after that the “Poquianchis” were contracted by an organization of human prostitution. Delfina and Maria de Jesus dressed up as nuns as a gimmick in order to lie about receiving good employment and a better life in the United States. This was done to lure their victims. When the victims were trafficked into the United States, they were placed in prostitution houses (“Any room, building or other structure regularly used for sexual contact for pay as defined in section 567.010 or any unlawful prostitution activity prohibited by this chapter is a public nuisance”).
“Public awareness grew in areas such as Calsada de Tlapa were most of these activities were taking place. The major lead in capturing these criminals was a woman who managed to escape the “Poquianchis,” but who later was murdered for testifying against the trafficking organization. It was a stressful situation, because we also learned that the police where involved in the vicious crimes as well. This caused trouble for the Mexican government. Many women and children were killed, abused, and sold knowing the police was involved caused panic. Society demanded that someone be held responsible for theses crimes. Much of my department and me had to stand back due to the complex nature of the allegations.”
According to the State Department’s Trafficking in Persons Report for 2004, about 17,000 people are trafficked into the United States from Mexico each year. The ball is being passed back and forth among the governments of the United States and Mexico. The State Department's Trafficking in Persons Report for 2004 said, “The Mexican government does not "fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so." The United States and Mexico are working together in order to combat against human trafficking.
One way both governments are doing so is by the Senior Law Enforcement Plenary (“which the State Department says serves as the "primary coordinating mechanism" for U. S.-Mexican law enforcement cooperation”). Many efforts have been made to eliminate the trafficking of humans, but nothing has come close. According to Ms. Salinas as she speaks with displeasure in her voice, “They’re too many flaws in our governments, too much self-interest going around. And it needs to stop.”
Take a closer look to human trafficking on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDkApCK9blw and for more information on this subject go to www.unodc.org, www.humantrafficking.org, www.usinfo.state.gov
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Fall 2007
Number One