Latin America and the Caribbean often is not noticed in the huge public discourse about sex trafficking and exploitation. The significant exploitation and trafficking problems that exist there appear small next to the massive debt bondage of South Asia or the rampant child sex tourism in Southeast Asia, areas where much attention and many resources are deployed to fight against those huge problems. Yet, slavery of all kinds has a long history in the region and the first international study of modern slavery done after World War I called Latin America and the Caribbean the “traffic market of the world”. Although the countries in the region are diverse, they do share some common history and cultural values, some of which relegate women and children to secondary roles in society that contribute to their vulnerability and potential victimization. In many areas, transit across international borders is very easy, facilitating the work of traffickers. Additionally, a series of natural disasters, internal and cross-border conflicts and economic booms and busts in recent years have produced numerous people who are easy prey for sex traffickers and exploiters. In our discussions with others involved in victim rescues and protection on the international level, it was clear that a substantial gap existed in focusing resources on this massive problem in Latin America and the Caribbean, so that is where we plan to launch our work beginning in Costa Rica in 2011. |
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Costa Rica: Costa Rica is the sex tourist capital of the region, rivaling Thailand and the Philippines in Southeast Asia as child sex tourist destinations. It has the largest and most complex child prostitution problem in Central America. While public outrage and government focus on these problems was great after the arrest of a large group of U.S. sex tourists in 2003, apathy and a passive denial have now returned, even as the traffickers and exploiters have become more sophisticated and moved underground. Those who continue to confront this evil in Costa Rica are literally crying out for our help. Read More... |
Dominican Republic: The Dominican Republic, our proposed second destination after completing our work in Costa Rica, is one of the countries in the region most impacted by sex trafficking and slavery. It shares the island of Santa Domingo with Haiti and along with it, child exploitation growing out of Haiti’s restavek system. Economic circumstances that have brought vast wealth to a few and deep poverty to many have caused huge numbers of Dominican women to fall victim to traffickers who serve markets overseas. At the same time, the rising sex tourist trade in the country provides a forum to cull, train and break the will of victims bound overseas, a place for traffickers to make additional income from those deemed unsuitable for overseas sex markets and a demand by child sex tourists for child victims that fuels internal sex trafficking. The few actively working on these problems there are desperate for our help. Read More... |
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Brazil: Countries like this would be our ultimate goal. Brazil is world’s 4th largest country and 10th largest economy and is the epicenter of human trafficking in Latin America and the Caribbean. Fueled by a vast supply of potential victims among the many women and children displaced by the economic ramifications of Brazil’s increasing involvement in the global economy, civil unrest and family dysfunction, Brazil’s sex trafficking and slavery problem is the largest and most complex and diverse in the region. Strong laws and law enforcement efforts, massive attempts to provide adequate care and protection of victims, widespread public education and creative strategies in all of these areas have addressed all aspects of the dynamics of sex trafficking and slavery, but to date have been inadequate to halt the great impact that the problem is having on the country. Do they need our help and will they accept it? |