Prostitution is vying for second place with weapons trafficking as the illegal business that moves the most money after drug trafficking.
Trafficking women or young girls unfortunately has the advantage in that the logistical and investment costs are much lower than in other illicit businesses. The IOM chief for Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay said that a procurer "has a net profit of $13,000 per year" on each woman they exploit. In Argentina, "they pay between $32.50 and $1,623 for a , who can then generate $389 per day by being sexually exploited”.
Check out these horrifying statistics:
12 year old Central American girls are sold for $100-$200 each
50,000 people are trafficked INTO the U.S. annually as slaves. At least one-third of those victims are Latina women and girls.
Over half of all women in Latin America have suffered some form of violent act. 33% of these women have been victims of sexual exploitation between the ages of 16 and 49.
Children from Ecuador are commonly trafficked into Venezuela to serve as prostitutes. The victims are usually children who are kidnapped, sold by their parents, or deceived by false employment opportunities. These children are first exploited through prostitution at the average age of 12, but as young as 7 years old.
Of the 40,000 sexually exploited children in Venezuela, 78% are girls between the ages of 8 and 17.
Interpol has set the number trafficked out of Colombia each year at 35,000.
As if that is not bad enough, read this firsthand account…
Catalina Suarez was 9 years old when a grandfatherly neighbor lured her with a gift, kidnapped her and kept her chained to a bed in a rural Puerto Rico shack, forcing the child to have brutal sex with a succession of men.
It was the beginning of 18 years of sexual slavery throughout Latin America and the United States. By her own account, Suarez should have died several times from drugs, disease, beatings and neglect, but the San Francisco resident recently testified before the United Nations about her ordeal.
"I was always under the influence of some kind of drugs, or I was traumatized by the beatings or the pain or the fear," said Suarez, 36. "I was put into trunks of cars with rats and roaches. I screamed and screamed and screamed. No one would help me."
Suarez's testimony comes as officials and watchdog groups are forced to confront a booming international trade in women and children as slaves for prostitution.
So, you are thinking, I am an expat just trying to live a carefree life here…what does this have to do with me?
Two things. One: If you EVER are tempted to use a prostitute in Latin America, think twice, or three times, and not just for the usual reasons like safety, morality, etc. There is a good chance that she has been trafficked, and that is pretty sick if you have anything to do with supporting that. Two: Once you know about the problem, what are you doing about it? Is there something you can do in your adopted Latin American hometown? Can you volunteer at a local outreach center? Can you use your contacts to raise money to help efforts to save some young girls? (A reporter who just did an article on this was sickened by the fact that the girls he reported on would still be enslaved after the article ran. He bought their freedom for a mere $350).
To learn more about the issue, or find other ways to help, please check out:
http://www.libertadlatina.org/
http://www.humantrafficking.org/
by Cathy Brown - I would love to hear from you with your views and comments! Email me at cathy@expatdailynews.com.
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