Pedophile tourists under fire in Tijuana
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/tijuana/20060102-9...
By Pablo Jaime Sainz
January 2, 2006
TIJUANA ? A nonprofit group based in the United States is sponsoring a campaign of advertisements and billboards across Tijuana that targets foreign
visitors looking for sex with children.
Messages, written in big letters in English and smaller ones in Spanish, are direct: "Exploit a child sexually in this country and you will go to jail
in yours." A man behind bars appears in a photo.
Another ad, bearing the sad face of a child with dark hair and eyes, reads: "I am not a tourist attraction and it's against the law to turn me into
one."
In all, eight billboards and 80 smaller ads have gone up in areas heavily traveled by tourists, such as near the San Ysidro and the Otay Mesa border
crossings, Avenida Revoluci?n and the Zona Norte. They also are in Rosarito.
"We know that the majority of the abusers come from abroad," said Miriam Hern?ndez, coordinator of the campaign, which was organized by World Vision
International, a U.S.-based nonprofit that works to improve the quality of life of children.
"The foreigners, most of whom come from the United States, go to other countries to commit these crimes because they believe that once they leave
Mexico, nothing will happen to them. We are telling them that's not going to be the case anymore."
The campaign, which began in late November and will last a year, has the support of the U.S. Consulate General in Tijuana, the Tijuana City Council
and the Human Rights Commission of Baja California.
Marisa Ugarte is director of the Bilateral Safety Corridor Coalition, a nonprofit that works with law enforcement agencies on both sides of the border
to help exploited children and women. She said that under laws approved in the United States last year, Americans suspected of committing sexual
crimes against a child in countries such as Mexico can face prosecution back home.
Michael Scollan, assistant agent for regional security at the U.S. Consulate in Tijuana, said that complaints from Mexican authorities to the
consulate will be forwarded to U.S. law enforcement agencies for investigation. A suspect could be charged in the United States or extradited and
charged in Mexico, he said.
He said several cases of pedophiles and "sexual tourists" are under investigation, but declined to give details.
There are no statistics on the number of minors engaged in prostitution in Tijuana, but Victor Clark Alfaro, a human rights activist in the region,
estimates that 8,000 children live in Tijuana's streets.
"This makes Tijuana a fertile ground for child molesters and pedophiles," he said. "Children face challenges because they are more vulnerable and
cannot defend themselves."
Mar?a Elvira Amaya de Hank, the wife of Mayor Jorge Hank Rhon and president of the government's family protection agency, which also in participating
in the billboard campaign, said that children who engage in prostitution range in age "from 6 to 17 years. Eighty percent are males and the rest are
females."
"Most are from Tijuana, the children of migrant parents who abandoned them when they crossed to the United States," she said. "The majority are the
children of single mothers." All are from families with problems, she said.
It is common that in exchange for a plate of food or a toy, a child will sell his body, campaign coordinator Hern?ndez said.
The Center for the Social Protection of Children is a temporary shelter for children who live on the streets and those who have engaged in
prostitution.
Government officials say most of the homeless children have not finished elementary school and suffer from malnutrition, skin infections,
gastrointestinal problems and sexually transmitted diseases.
This year, six children were found to be infected with HIV.
The homeless children roam the streets in areas with the most economic, commercial and tourist activity.
Hern?ndez said Tijuana has a toll-free phone number, 075, that people can use to report adults who are sexually exploiting children.
"For this type of campaign to work, we must all participate," she said.
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