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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | February 2006 
Binational Accord Targets Sexual Exploitation
 Anna Cearley - Union-Tribune
Tijuana – Baja California's attorney general signed an agreement yesterday to work more closely with a binational group that is attempting to combat the sexual exploitation of children and women along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Under the accord, the Bilateral Safety Corridor Coalition will hold a series of workshops with the agency's police and staff on the special needs of sex crime victims.
“This formalizes what we have been doing for various years: Providing better attention to the victims of exploitation,” said state Attorney General Antonio Martínez Luna, before signing the document at his agency's Tijuana office.
Tijuana is considered a prime area for sexual exploitation due to its border location. Some young people come from other parts of Mexico because they can earn more money working as prostitutes for U.S. clients. Other U.S. citizens come to produce pornographic publications or Internet sites.
The Bilateral Safety Corridor Coalition, which is composed of more than 60 government and nonprofit agencies in the United States and Latin America, operates primarily in the San Diego and Tijuana region.
Marisa Ugarte, executive director of the coalition, said the trafficking of women and children for sexual exploitation is an international problem that requires better coordination with victims and law enforcement to identify such rings.
Maria Teresa Valadez, who oversees the Tijuana branch of the state Attorney General's Office, said the agency hasn't identified a criminal organization trafficking women or children for sexual purposes, but over the past three months her office has opened 79 sexual exploitation cases including pornography and sexual abuse.
The coalition is pushing for stricter legislation against sex crime violators in Mexico. In November, the Baja California congress adopted tougher penalties against pornographers and other sex crime violators, said Jorge Bedoya, who heads the Bilateral Safety group's Tijuana branch. However, the measures were put on hold over language some interpreted as criminalizing consensual sex between minors, he said.
Anna Cearley: (619) 542-4595; anna.cearley@uniontrib.com |
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