-OpEd-
BOGOTÁ — Some years back, there were reports of murders of a number of Colombian women in Mexico that went unpunished. In three cases — of Mile Virginia Martín, Stephanie Magón and Alejandra Pulido — the victims were physically similar, having voluptuous figures often associated with "desirable" Colombian women. They had traveled to Mexico after entry rules for Colombians were relaxed, with the aid of putative modeling agencies with similar names.
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People who knew the girls said they were hoping to make it in Mexico as models or DJs. There were no prosecutions here perhaps in part for the way the murders were reported. Media simply parrotted the information prosecutors had given them, the girls were turned into stereotypes, if not objects, and their cases effectively dismissed due to their backgrounds and provenance. Being Colombian migrants, this must have been "just another" incident to do with cartels and drugs.
It seems prosecutors never looked into the possibility of this being a case of human trafficking, so we shall never know exactly why the three were killed. These and similar femicides often have interesting points in common, indicative of the practices of trafficking gangs working between the two countries.
Gangs and their clients
We compiled an extensive report on the website Volcánicas on the workings of such networks. Mexico is the third biggest destination for Colombian people traffickers, with the number of victims rising sharply since 2021, in parallel with the country's increased militarization.
The UN Office on Drugs and Crime reports a rise of over 67% in human trafficking in Mexico in 2022, with a rise of just under 33% in trafficking for sexual exploitation. The figure is important as the gangs running these networks have diversified their interests into drugs and arms, which in turn expands the objectives of human trafficking.
Sexual exploitation is just a part of the problem. We found that in Colombia, people were netted either with promises of employment — typically in modelling, acting or the hospitality sector — or through online dating, which has effectively turned social media into a sinister trap for many girls.
NGOs observe that tackling human trafficking has yet to become a government priority.
The recruiters can also be an acquaintance or even friends (including female friends) of the victim, and often will offer to take care of all paperwork for the trip. The victim will then be informed of the costs incurred or of a debt that may far outstrip the actual cost of their trip. In cases victims never realize how completely they are trapped.
The trafficking flashpoints in Mexico are its northern border, in the states of Baja California and Chihuahua and the center, in the states of Estado de México (around the capital), Puebla and Mexico City.
Worldcrunch 🗞 Extra!
Know more • Debate on the trafficking issue exploded in both countries in early January around one particular case, when several Colombian women went missing in the southeastern Mexican region of Tabasco. Colombian newspaper El Colombiano reported that the women were part of a group composed of 50 to 70 escorts that were trafficked into the country by the Mexican drug cartel “Cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación.” Eight women were eventually found in a hotel by the Tabasco state police on Jan. 14. Colombian President Gustavo Petro wrote on X that the Colombian citizens were “held by the Mexican mafia.”
But one day later, a video started circulating on the internet showing one of the women speaking into a camera from inside the Tabasco police department, declaring that all eight women went to Mexico voluntarily, and not as part of a human trafficking operation. Much of the evidence had been based on a voice message the same woman had sent to her mother, in which she could be heard saying in tears that she loved her, asking her to “pray a lot for me and for those girls, there are several of us.” But in the Tabasco police video, the woman explained that she was just “drunk.”
On Jan. 16, it was the turn of the mother of one of the other women involved to state her version of the facts. In an exclusive interview with Mexican radio channel Telereportaje XEVT, she confirmed that they were indeed detained and brought to Mexico against their will. The woman also said that in the detention period, which lasted nine days, her daughter was often in tears and apparently under duress, writes Mexican newspaper Debate.
Ultimately, seven of the women were repatriated to Colombia, while the other stayed in Mexico under refugee status. Mexican authorities said they deported the seven women as they had declared to be in Mexico for tourism, while they went there to be escorts, Mexico City-based Reforma reported. —Fabrizio La Rocca (read more about the Worldcrunch method here)
An invisible issue
For Liliana Orozco, a teacher and co-founder of Caminantas, a victims support network, trafficking networks are easy to spot, and everybody knows where and how they work. She says the problem is with clients, who are often powerful men, such as politicians or businessmen and who do nothing to help, or with even the policemen investigating such cases.
Yet there are barely any records to gauge the exact scale of the trafficking problem. Volcánicas sought information from 15 entities and of the nine that answered, four stated they had no "competence" in the field, and three including Colombia's National Institute of Women referred us to the state prosecution service, which did not reply.
Their silence is telling. NGOs working in this area observe that tackling human trafficking has yet to become a government priority. That can only mean that the state is losing control of parts of the national territory and the possibility of furtive pacts with criminals. As for the media, their sexism and misogyny are of great help to the governments aching to evade their responsibilities and duty to end the trafficking of human beings.