Sex Trafficking: The “Other” Crisis In Mexico?

Abstract

SEX TRAFFICKING: THE “OTHER” CRISIS IN MEXICO? Amy Risley In recent months, criminality and violence within Mexico have reached crisis levels. More than 6,000 people were killed in drug-related violence in 2008, when “images of bloodied corpses, severed heads and bodies strung from bridges or dissolved in acid baths” shocked the world (Reuters 2009).1 Amidst concerns that Mexico was becoming a “failed state,” members of the Obama Administration announced plans to provide additional funding, equipment, and personnel to assist the Mexican government’s counter-narcotics efforts, to secure the border, and to prevent “spillover” violence into the United States (White House Office of the Press Secretary 2009). John Gibler, an independent journalist and author who was chagrined by the prevailing views on the situation within the U.S., noted that “drug violence is seen as spilling over from another country, instead of as something that is always transnational and related to the drug trade” (Democracy Now! 2009). He detected little moral outrage in response to similar forms of violence that are endemic in U.S. cities. Indignation over the trafficking of women and girls is also frequently directed at Mexico and other Latin American countries, while the forces within the U.S. that drive the sex trade attract less attention. Nevertheless, the demand for bodies in the U.S. fuels this illicit trade, just as the demand for narcotics is an inescapable cause of illegal drug trafficking. Indeed, these inter-relationships bring to mind the oft-cited quote attributed to Porfirio Dı́az: “Poor Mexico, so far from God and so close to the United States!”2 This article aims to contribute to the small but growing body of scholarship on sex trafficking in the Western Hemisphere by examining the case of Mexico, which serves as a country of origin, transit, and destination . I first outline the nature and scope of trafficking as it has come to be understood by the international community. I then summarize contending explanations of trafficking that analysts frequently mention in their work but rarely scrutinize with evidence.3 I go on to argue that a weak rule of law and deeply rooted forms of gender inequality contribute significantly to sex trafficking in Mexico. I conclude with a discussion of the relationship between these variables (and other causes of trafficking) and U.S. policies toward Mexico. I also call for research on trafficking that is more theoretically sophisticated and empirically rich. Such studies are needed to inform ongoing academic and policy debates over human security, women’s rights, immigration, and globalization. In fact, it has become increasingly difficult to analyze these themes without addressing the international trade in human beings. C 2010 Southeastern Council on Latin American Studies and Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 99 The Latin Americanist, March 2010 Trafficking: Defining the Nature and Scope of the Problem The United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children supplements the Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime adopted by the General Assembly in 2000. The Protocol defines trafficking as: the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation (United Nations 2000:3). The Protocol cites forced labor and sexual servitude as the principal motivations behind trafficking. Government authorities, officials in the United Nations and other intergovernmental organizations, and members of nongovernmental organizations who provide services to victims of trafficking and advocate on their behalf have identified patterns of behavior that characterize trafficking around the globe. In accordance with the Protocol , they insist that trafficked individuals are subjected to deception and false promises, coercion, intimidation, threats of violence, and actual violence (or a combination thereof). These features differentiate trafficking from smuggling, which involves the consent of the smuggled person to be guided or transported illegally across borders (Schauer and Wheaton 2006). The conventional wisdom on sex trafficking suggests that the “typical ” victim is...