Prostitution in Mexico is legal under Federal Law. Each of the 31 states enacts its own prostitution laws and policies. Some Mexican cities have enacted "tolerance zones" "zonas de tolerancia" which allow regulated prostitution and function as red light districts.
Prostitution was first regulated in the country during the French occupation in the s. According to a study, economic concerns were the main reason for turning to the sex trade in Porfirian Mexico, at which time 15 to 30 per cent of Mexico City 's young female population was employed in the sex trade.
During the Mexican Revolution and civil war, supplies to the cities were severely disrupted and many women prostituted themselves for food in the period — In translocal border cities such as Mexicali in Baja California , local brothels and vaudeville theatres became spaces for American tourists, Asian laborers, and Mexican-American sex workers to intermingle in the s.
It has been argued that neoliberal reforms instituted in the late s under the PRI administration of Carlos Salinas de Gortari —including the signing of NAFTA in —incubated adverse economic conditions that caused the migration of indigenous women from southern Mexico to northern border locales to find work in the sex trade or in maquiladoras. Child prostitution is a problem in the country, and Mexico continues to be a destination for pedophiles who engage in child sex tourism.
Mexico is one of the leading hot spots of child sexual exploitation, along with Thailand , Cambodia , Colombia , India , and Brazil. Chiapas is considered one of the worst places in the world in terms of child prostitution.
