INTRODUCTION
The phenomenon of trafficking of women and children for
purposes of commercial sexual exploitation is not new to the Americas.
In the wake of World War I, the League of Nations embarked on a
three year investigation of trafficking around the world, concluding that
"Latin America is the traffic market of the world...".1 Markets have
shifted over time, moving the trafficking trade through different
regions, but the practice is well entrenched and remains a significant
problem in the hemisphere.
Despite its long history in the region, trafficking in persons
has failed to receive government attention or be the subject of
coordinated action toward its eradication. The international
community's early efforts to curb trafficking in women for the
purposes of prostitution through the passage of the Convention for the
Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the
Prostitution of Others (1949) passed largely without notice in or
participation of the Latin American and Caribbean states.2 Similarly,
these early international efforts failed to trickle down into the national
laws and policies of Central American countries.
The failure of governments in the region to acknowledge
and/or respond to trafficking activity over the years has resulted in the
near invisibility of the issue in policy, official records, and state action.
None of the countries included in this study have mechanisms in place
that permit trafficking activity to be accurately registered. This absence
of record has fortified a willful ignorance of reality; policy priorities
have followed the belief that "if I don't see it, it doesn't exist" ("si no
lo veo, no existe").
Despite the lack of concrete data, the trafficking of women
and children for sexual exploitation in Central American and the
Caribbean has become a very visible phenomenon on the ground. It
affects each country individually and the extended Central American
region as a whole. Women and children are being trafficked into
sexual exploitation within countries, within the region and
internationally.
In interviews, both governmental and nongovernmental
sources alike noted patterns of trafficking: young women
and minors being promised employment in factories or homes, or being
offered educational or modeling opportunities only to be pressed into
sexual servitude. These offers have become more attractive as labor
alternatives remain unavailable in many areas, especially for women.
This increase in supply of women and adolescents is met with an
unchecked demand for sexual services. In addition, the lack of
governmental response, particularly in the area of law enforcement, has
allowed trafficking networks and individual traffickers to practice with
impunity.
A myriad of factors contribute to these characteristics,
producing a wide range of sex trafficking scenarios and posing
challenges to finding an adequate response. On the supply side:
continuing gender stereotypes limit options for women and minors in
the workplace; prevailing attitudes toward women and children
contribute to their vulnerability; cultural tolerance of sexual abuse and
domestic violence limit access to social services; and the pursuit of the
"American dream", combined with limited possibilities for legal
migration to the United States, Canada and Europe generate a market
for illegal immigration.
On the demand side: the legalization of adult
prostitution and other commercial sexual activities creates an open
market for sexual services; male migrants (seasonal workers, truck
drivers, undocumented migrants en route to the United States, Canada,
and elsewhere) contribute to demand; and the existence of sex tourism
in some areas has generated new needs.
Smuggling and trafficking networks mediate supply and
demand by readily exploiting the region's most vulnerable citizens
through their economic needs and ambitions for a better life. The
behavior of these criminal networks at all levels of organization and
sophistication remains largely unchecked, further fueling the trafficking
trade. Children, many who have suffered past sexual abuse, remain
particularly unprotected against domestic and international exploitation
rings, encouraged by a growing child prostitution market.