Human Trafficking Is a Privilege That the US and Mexico Can No Longer Afford Ana Davila - The Huffington Post
go to original August 3, 2015

Fusion’s documentary, “Pimp City: A Journey to the Center of the Sex Slave Trade,” takes place on both sides of the border: in Tenancingo and in Queens, New York. (Fusion)

The drug cartel narrative is always the same. Whether the issue is the latest escape of the legendary Chapo Guzman, the decommission of tons of marijuana or the recent discovery of the Mexican government's collusion in the dirty business of drugs, when we hear about narco trafficking, we are hearing the same lines, which have lost track of the complexity of this activity and its widening reach. In this narrative, the reality of hundreds of thousands of men and women - victims of human trafficking - become the ugly story that no one likes to hear. Unfortunately, ignoring the increasingly intertwined relation between human and drug trafficking is a privilege that the U.S and Mexico can no longer afford, not when this activity promises to rise alarmingly in the following years as drug cartels continue to gain power and impunity in Mexico.

In 2010, 1.2 million people were victims of human trafficking in Mexico, according to the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women and Girls in Latin America and the Caribbean, and it is estimated that every year, approximately 70,000 people become victims of human trafficking in Mexico. In this context, it is no surprise that Mexico is the #1 destination of sex tourism in the hemisphere, and that the underdeveloped town of Tenancingo, the largest exporter of sex slaves to the U.S, has earned the title of the "sex trafficking capital of the world." And when we add the drug trafficking factor to the equation, the prospects can be nothing but catastrophic.

Mexico's geographically strategic location has ironically become a curse in the last decades, offering fertile soil for transnational criminal activities. Its geography, in combination with its porous rule of law and predominant institutional weakness, particularly in the northern and southern border regions, have turned Mexico into a criminality paradise. In 2014, Mexico was ranked as "highly corrupt" in the Corruption Perception Index, while its institutions were ranked as alarmingly "weak" in the latest Global Competitiveness Report. In this context, drug cartels who operate under economic and rationality principles, have exploited Mexico's institutional weaknesses with acuteness, successfully diversifying their economic activities and maximize their profits.

Read the rest at The Huffington Post

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