Central America's drug cartels turn their attention to trafficking people
Deadly combination of migration, poverty and lawlessness prove fertile ground for thriving trade in people
Tenancingo has been at the centre of human trafficking claims, but many people in the Mexican town dismiss reports that young girls are being held there. Photograph: Peggy Peattie/Alamy
The offer was tempting. Francisco needed work. His friend assured him that his contact in the US would pay for his transport and give him a passport and a well-paid job, no questions asked. And so, just as many others in the same position would, Francisco took the chance.
The decision almost cost him his life. Francisco fell into the hands of a people-trafficking ring. He was taken to an unknown location near the Mexico-US border, stripped of his possessions and forced to work at gunpoint dismantling stolen cars for no pay, with barely any food and suffering terrible violence.
Francisco fell prey to the vast criminal network that controls modern-day slavery in Central America, a business so big it is estimated to be the third-largest illegal economy across the region, behind drugs and counterfeiting (pdf).
Across the region, a deadly combination of mass undocumented migration, poverty, and the breakdown of law and order are proving fertile ground for a thriving and increasingly unbreakable trade in people.
"We are a region in which migration is a part of the mental landscape, where leaving the country for work always is, and always has been, an option," says Ana Hidalgo, regional counter-trafficking project manager at the International Organisation for Migration.
"Human trafficking, in any of its manifestations, responds to the laws of economics worldwide, to the supply and demand in the labour market … and it is amid these uncontrollable forces that the trafficker appears."
Asahac, an NGO based in northern Mexico, estimates that more than half of Central American migrants trying to cross into the US fall into the hands of trafficking or smuggling rings, or end up in sexual or forced labour.
In the past decade, Central America has become one of the most dangerous regions in the world. Mexico's widely reported drug war has left about 70,000 people dead. Honduras has a murder rate of 86 per 100,000 inhabitants – San Pedro Sula is the most dangerous city in the world, with 173 murders per 100,000 people.
This rise in violence has been attributed largely to the growing power of drug cartels, who are expanding their business from trafficking drugs to trafficking people, says Marcela Chacón, Costa Rica's deputy minister of interior and police.
"Why? Because a dose of drugs can be bought and consumed only once, but the same human being can be exploited in many forms over and over again throughout a lifetime," says Chacón.
In 2010, 72 Central Americans were found murdered in northern Mexico, allegedly by the hands of the Zetas cartel. The Mexican army recently rescued 165 people who had been travelling as undocumented migrants when they were kidnapped by a drug cartel near the US border.
In a report on Latin America and the Caribbean (pdf) last year, the UN Office of Drugs and Crime warned that human trafficking was likely to become an increasingly lucrative revenue stream for Central America's drug cartels.
Teresa Ulloa, director of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women and Girls in Latin America and the Caribbean, says her organisation believes that Mexican drug cartels made $10bn last year from the enforced sexual exploitation and slavery of thousands of girls and women.
"The Latin American convention remains that women are to be used for men's pleasure. This means that if they can't access our bodies through force, they can do so with money, creating a demand for women and girls," says Ulloa.
"If we could create policy on human trafficking that has gender equality at its core, then we would be tackling demand. If there was no demand for slaves, there would be no supply."
While governments across Central America have revised anti-trafficking legislation in recent years, they continue to be outpaced and outgunned by the increasing power of the cartels in controlling people trafficking across the region.
"[Cartels] are organisations that have no limits," says Hidalgo. "They have amassed such power that they bend and violate the rules with reliable impunity … and also, they have millions [of dollars] in resources."
"It's easy to see how they can remain one step ahead of any police, especially in these countries where police forces usually lack resources and have to follow many bureaucratic steps and rules. If these organised networks didn't exist, we would have many poor, excluded people here but we wouldn't have slaves."
The only real prevention, says Hidalgo, is if people like Francisco are made aware of the real dangers they face. "People need to familiarise themselves with these stories, the stories of other people who are just like them," she adds, "because it could happen to anyone."
The decision almost cost him his life. Francisco fell into the hands of a people-trafficking ring. He was taken to an unknown location near the Mexico-US border, stripped of his possessions and forced to work at gunpoint dismantling stolen cars for no pay, with barely any food and suffering terrible violence.
Francisco fell prey to the vast criminal network that controls modern-day slavery in Central America, a business so big it is estimated to be the third-largest illegal economy across the region, behind drugs and counterfeiting (pdf).
Across the region, a deadly combination of mass undocumented migration, poverty, and the breakdown of law and order are proving fertile ground for a thriving and increasingly unbreakable trade in people.
"We are a region in which migration is a part of the mental landscape, where leaving the country for work always is, and always has been, an option," says Ana Hidalgo, regional counter-trafficking project manager at the International Organisation for Migration.
"Human trafficking, in any of its manifestations, responds to the laws of economics worldwide, to the supply and demand in the labour market … and it is amid these uncontrollable forces that the trafficker appears."
Asahac, an NGO based in northern Mexico, estimates that more than half of Central American migrants trying to cross into the US fall into the hands of trafficking or smuggling rings, or end up in sexual or forced labour.
In the past decade, Central America has become one of the most dangerous regions in the world. Mexico's widely reported drug war has left about 70,000 people dead. Honduras has a murder rate of 86 per 100,000 inhabitants – San Pedro Sula is the most dangerous city in the world, with 173 murders per 100,000 people.
This rise in violence has been attributed largely to the growing power of drug cartels, who are expanding their business from trafficking drugs to trafficking people, says Marcela Chacón, Costa Rica's deputy minister of interior and police.
"Why? Because a dose of drugs can be bought and consumed only once, but the same human being can be exploited in many forms over and over again throughout a lifetime," says Chacón.
In 2010, 72 Central Americans were found murdered in northern Mexico, allegedly by the hands of the Zetas cartel. The Mexican army recently rescued 165 people who had been travelling as undocumented migrants when they were kidnapped by a drug cartel near the US border.
In a report on Latin America and the Caribbean (pdf) last year, the UN Office of Drugs and Crime warned that human trafficking was likely to become an increasingly lucrative revenue stream for Central America's drug cartels.
Teresa Ulloa, director of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women and Girls in Latin America and the Caribbean, says her organisation believes that Mexican drug cartels made $10bn last year from the enforced sexual exploitation and slavery of thousands of girls and women.
"The Latin American convention remains that women are to be used for men's pleasure. This means that if they can't access our bodies through force, they can do so with money, creating a demand for women and girls," says Ulloa.
"If we could create policy on human trafficking that has gender equality at its core, then we would be tackling demand. If there was no demand for slaves, there would be no supply."
While governments across Central America have revised anti-trafficking legislation in recent years, they continue to be outpaced and outgunned by the increasing power of the cartels in controlling people trafficking across the region.
"[Cartels] are organisations that have no limits," says Hidalgo. "They have amassed such power that they bend and violate the rules with reliable impunity … and also, they have millions [of dollars] in resources."
"It's easy to see how they can remain one step ahead of any police, especially in these countries where police forces usually lack resources and have to follow many bureaucratic steps and rules. If these organised networks didn't exist, we would have many poor, excluded people here but we wouldn't have slaves."
The only real prevention, says Hidalgo, is if people like Francisco are made aware of the real dangers they face. "People need to familiarise themselves with these stories, the stories of other people who are just like them," she adds, "because it could happen to anyone."
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