In a June 2020 Mexican Senate bulletin, Congresswoman Verónica Beatriz Juárez Piña said that Mexico was exporting 60% of child pornography worldwide and that the rate had shot up to 73% during the lockdowns.
According to UNICEF, child pornography is one of the most lucrative businesses in the world after drug trafficking, with earnings estimated at $7 billion a year.
Sister Teresa Santillán, a Xaverian religious and also a member of Rahamim, explained that this network of religious in Mexico “was started in 2013 out of concern for how human trafficking was growing. Sometimes it’s associated with prostitution or farm work, because [the victims] can do field work. But it has many purposes; it mainly affects women and girls.”
“Our network is for the prevention of human trafficking. We don’t work directly with the victims. There are other congregations that do. We give talks, workshops, etc.,” explained Cámara, who belongs to the Daughters of Charity.
Norma Angélica Landa, a mother who works in the network, commented that the most common forms of trafficking are “sexual exploitation, forced labor, slavery, begging (it’s very likely that children who beg for money on street corners are victims of trafficking), forced marriages, organ selling, illegal adoptions, and surrogacy.” The number of victims of human trafficking increased by 67.3% in Mexico from 2020 to 2021, according to a report by the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
Santillán explained that this scourge “means that traffickers see people as merchandise. Trafficking occurs inside and outside of our country.”