The arrest of three Mexican women accused of trafficking more than 20 children from within their extended family has been criticized by rights activists, who say they are being punished for being poor. Prosecutors found the malnourished children during a raid last month on a house in Chiapas, the country’s poorest state, and said they were being forced by their relatives to hawk souvenirs and other trinkets in the streets.
But campaigners and family members reject the trafficking charges, saying the three indigenous women – who are mothers to some of the children – simply took the youngsters to work with them occasionally, as many low-income parents do in Mexico. The prosecutor’s office did not respond to a request for further comment about the case, which received renewed scrutiny following the death in custody of Adolfo Gomez, an indigenous Tzotzil man and the grandfather of most of the children.
Labor trafficking expert Monica Salazar said it was important to consider the conditions that the three detained mothers were living in themselves, and what benefit they got from the situation.Mexican law uses a very broad definition of trafficking, which has led to calls for it to be changed, including from the current government. Salazar, who supports reforming the law, said it should be updated to reflect the reality of poor families.
More than three quarters of people live in poverty in Chiapas, a southern state bordering Guatemala. Thousands of children, including some of those found in the raid, do not have birth certificates or go to school, Haza said.Twenty of the children who were found are now in a government shelter and Melel Xojobal is trying to reunite them with grandparents and other relatives. Chiapas prosecutors said last week they had arrested two public servants for breaches of their duty of care of Gomez.
Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation
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