Mexico still struggling with child sex tourism

Despite recent crackdowns, there is still a large problem with child sex tourism and human trafficking in Mexico, particularly in the resorts of Acapulco and Cancun as well as border cities such as Ciudad Juarez. The numbers of child victims of commercial sexual exploitation has risen over the past five years to around 20,000. Many of those who pay for sex with these children are European, US and Canadian citizens.
The United Nations Children’s Fund, or UNICEF, has welcomed the efforts of the Mexican authorities, but wants to see more concrete results;
“Mexican authorities used to be in denial about the problem. Now they are starting to address it,” said Teresa Kilbane, the fund’s Mexico projects director. “But the authorities still fail to give out solid figures on things like the number of paedophiles actually arrested or convicted.”
Elizabeth Moreno, who heads a city government program to combat child prostitution is frustrated with the failure to effectively prosecute hose who abuse children;
“Even if we see suspects we can’t act. We just pass the information on” “Sometimes, nothing seems to be done with it.”
To read a full report on this issue, please click here.