MEXICO: Prostitution Rings Flourish at all Levels

MEXICO CITY, Jul 23 (IPS) - “Diamond VIP” class prostitutes, who are mainly from Eastern Europe, Argentina, Brazil or Cuba, can charge as much as 2,000 dollars in Mexico, while sex workers from southern Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador or Honduras earn a mere 15 dollars. The price indicates which mafia is handling the women.

The high-class prostitutes are “administered” by Russians, Ukrainians or Cuban-Americans linked to global human trafficking rings, while the lower-priced are controlled by local pimps. Both organisations operate in a network of corruption in which authorities are involved.

A large proportion of the women in the VIP (very important person) class, which is subdivided into platinum, gold and diamond, come to Mexico after being drawn in by prostitution rings that promise them work as models or aides. The others form part of the waves of migration from Central America and the south of Mexico to the country’s main cities.

In both cases, the women are kept in small groups whose leaders answer to the mafias. Their documents are seized, they are not allowed to make phone calls, and they live in houses where they are watched constantly and are sometimes locked up.

“The mafias are very tough organisations, and they only work because of the collusion between the authorities and groups that have no compunction about killing,” Jaime Montejo, founder of Brigada Callejera, a non-governmental organisation that has been working with sex workers in Mexico since 1995, told IPS.

Source:
MEXICO: Prostitution Rings Flourish at all Levels
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