Email: gcorrea75 gmail. Email: arthur. In the past few years, Mexico has taken a number of measures to further prevention, protection, and prosecution of trafficking in persons. However, Mexican lawmakers have interpreted human trafficking in their own terms. The present analysis demonstrates the imperative necessity to modify the current anti-trafficking legislation in Mexico and provides some basic suggestions for this much-needed reform.
Keywords: Mexico; Palermo Protocol; human trafficking; anti-trafficking legislation; reform; Tapachula. We visited Tapachula since it is a well-known hub for human trafficking and particularly because it is located in Chiapas, a state that has in recent years received a number of domestic and international accolades and awards for the apparent progress it has made in terms of prevention, protection, and prosecution of trafficking in persons.
In fact, what we witnessed on the ground differed starkly from the positive figures present in official speeches and reports. In the course of our interviews with eleven female prisoners charged and convicted of human trafficking, we became increasingly skeptical about the validity and consistency of the charges pressed against them.
All the inmates we interviewed showed very high levels of vulnerability. It is hard to envision any circumstances under which these women would be able to misguide, mislead or transport victims, and thus commit human trafficking. It was also clear that they were not the main beneficiaries of the very significant revenues that this industry generates in Tapachula.
Academic, governmental, civil society and media sources have often reported on the recurring abuses undocumented migrants endure in Mexico, including those experienced while in the custody of the Mexican government. Abusive employers, exploitative criminals, and corrupt state agents are known to threaten irregular migrants with deportation if they report abuses suffered at their hands.
