In 2015, only a handful of local media reported the disappearance of more than 55 sex workers in Tamaulipas, one of the most violent states in Mexico. They refused to pay “rights to the floor” to organized crime. So far it is unknown what happened to them.
Like this case, there are many more. Stories that do not appear in the media or in official figures of femicides or attacks against women and minors due to a corrupt system that makes sex work invisible, even though it benefits from it, concludes the report “Indicators of gender violence in the world of work of sex workers in Mexico.”
“ We ourselves made the report because there is a lot of violence behind sex work. It is worrisome that it is mainly exercised by the State. How will we end it, if we do not make visible what is happening?” This is the question asked by Elvira Madrid, president of the “Elisa Martínez” Women’s Support Street Brigade, the NGO author of the study, where they are described 31 indicators of the problems suffered by this sector, of which 22 are caused by servers and public institutions.
Systemic violence
The evidence is the testimonies of 55 women, who narrate -between pain and panic- their experiences with clients, pimps, partners, bosses, police officers and others , in 14 states of the country, plus its capital. DW spoke with some of them, whose identities have been changed.
Made in coordination with the International Secretariat of the Global Alliance against Trafficking in Women, the publication documents all kinds of violence: sexual , labor, psychological, physical, economic and patrimonial, as well as family, social and institutional.
The stories are from sex workers from 17 a 68 years, from countries such as Cuba, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and mainly Mexico. Among them are five trans women and nine Mexican and Guatemalan indigenous people. In parallel, they sketch the constant violation of their basic rights, impunity and collusion between aggressors.
“They portray a case of systemic violence, sponsored from the structures of the Mexican State, that privileges the obtaining of profits from businessmen and politicians and that ignores its responsibility to guarantee them a life free of violence”, says the document.
Lives that do not matter
“This report is a joint cry of ‘Ya basta’ because they are killing us and nobody does anything,” says “Alondra” during the presentation made in Mexico City, in eve of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women (30.11.2020).
“Where are the compañeras murdered on the street, in bars or hotels, who will no longer see the light or return home, raped and killed by police and pimps ?” Adds the transgender woman énero, who says that hate crimes against people of his sexual condition are alarming in the country .
Street Brigade ensures that the 12 femicides reported daily in Mexico are more, since the murders of sex workers or the product of trafficking in girls and young people are hidden.
“Mariana”, mother of seven children, fears for his life. Her partner, a merchant from the Mexican capital “who feels protected”, brutally beats her, threatens to harm her little granddaughters, takes her money, if she does not submit to her will . When she tried to file a complaint, the authorities “did not want to proceed because of who I am. They are letting us die, even though they buy our services ”, says the woman. “No one does anything to stop so many dead girls or women, it’s worth it. I don’t want them to kill me. We are worse than ever.”
Public servants
According to the report, one 90 percent of those responsible for attacking sex workers are public servants in the health and judicial sectors, ombudsmen, security or human rights institutions, among others.
“María”, from almost 73 years, she affirms: “They don’t give us scholarships or government aid (for single mothers and older adults), officials hinder that support. They also deny us care in hospitals when they know what you are.” The same happens with other free services such as HIV and Pap smear tests, condoms, access to education or legal assistance.
In the opinion of Elvira Madrid, a sociologist who does 33 years decided to fight for these women, “ nobody wants to lose the profits from extorting the compañeras, much less the owners of businesses such as hotels, rooms, canteens, bars and associated places because their money is going away”.
From the American dream to the paid sex
Migrating to Mexico, with or without papers, has led many women from Central and South America to resort to sex work. Some seek to reach the United States, others are only escaping poverty or conflicts in their country.
Del 17 to the 25 November , the National Institute of Migration reported the detention of more than 14,12 Migrants, most from Latin American countries.
“Carmen” , 55 years old, arrived five years ago legally in Tapachula, Chiapas, where the Callejera Brigade has another headquarters. She fled Honduras, threatened with death by the same gang members who murdered her husband, to steal from her. She left behind six children, in the care of her mother. She started as a helper in a kitchen, closed due to the pandemic. Later she was robbed of her documents, but she gave up on renewing them because (the immigration authorities) “charge for everything, money that I don’t have. Nobody hired me for being illegal”. In order not to starve and send money to his family, he sells sex, enduring beatings and extortion from “la migra” .
The report, In addition, it calls for the abolition of three fundamental pillars of the machinery of workplace violence against sex workers in current Mexico, that is, sanitary control, the loss of parental authority of their daughters or sons under the age of 14 years and the prohibition of sex work.
The case of “Claudia” is a sample. The father of two of her children took them from her nine years ago. Despite the fact that the Mexican never legally recognized them or maintained them, he managed to get the official institution for the protection of infants in Mexico to grant him guardianship “only for what I do,” says the Salvadoran from 30 years.
Before being a sex worker in a park in Chiapas, she was a domestic worker, then a waitress . However, receive 90 pesos (4.5 dollars) daily for 14 working hours was not enough to feed the family. “A waitress friend convinced me to work on that on my day off because she earns better”, 90 pesos (000 dollars), plus hotel. Later, “Claudia” met an electrician who got her pregnant, but other sex workers, jealous of having competition, forced an abortion on her.
The pandemic doubled sex work
A diagnosis of 2015, carried out by the Street Brigade, estimated at 7,800 sex workers on the streets of the Mexican capital. After February the number has doubled. To date, explains Elvira Madrid, “we have accounted for 14,90 because many women lost their jobs as a result of the pandemic. Close to 55 percent were fired from clothing stores, stationery stores, restaurants, and shops.”
In the collective imagination many social stigmas prevail around this trade, to which more than 800, women throughout the country, according to the NGO.
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