http://www.ipsnews.net/print.asp?idnews=34710 MEXICO CITY, Sep 13 (IPS) - The complicity in Mexico between child sex rings and the political and business elites "goes beyond what we can even imagine," says activist Lydia Cacho, who faces death threats and was even thrown briefly into prison for revealing those ties in a book. "What we have just seen is only the tip of the iceberg," Cacho told IPS, after the local media aired Tuesday recordings of telephone conversations between two prominent politicians and a hotel owner now in prison, and a wealthy local businessman. The number of Mexican politicians and businessmen involved in child pornography and sex rings "would shock us if we knew the real extent of the phenomenon," said Cacho. In one of the illegally taped conversations broadcast Tuesday, which apparently date back to 2004, the governor of the state of Veracruz, Fidel Herrera of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), and Emilio Gamboa, head of the party's bloc in the lower house of Congress, can be heard talking on friendly terms with textile mogul Kamel Nacif. Nacif, a Mexican of Lebanese origin, who in the obscenity-laced conversation can be heard asking Gamboa to block a gambling bill to be debated by Congress, is suing Cacho for libel. In her 2004 book "Los demonios del Edén" (The Demons of Eden), Cacho -- who is a journalist and writer as well as the director of a women's shelter in Cancún -- links Nacif with Jean Succar, a Lebanese-born hotel owner who is in prison facing charges of arranging paedophile parties in that Mexican resort town. In another of the anonymously recorded conservations leaked to the press and broadcast Tuesday, Nacif can be heard talking with Succar. Succar, under arrest in Mexico since July, after he was extradited from the United States, can be heard asking Nacif for a seven million dollar loan to purchase a hotel in Cancún, to which Nacif responds in the affirmative. Later, the two exchange information on "the girl from Miami," who they refer to as "putita" (little whore), and who they say they have paid 2,000 dollars. Succar asks Nacif when it would be best to bring the girl to Cancún, and the latter responds that "next week, you son of a b***h, but you bring her to fornicate." In Cacho's book, Succar is identified as the head of a ring of adults who subjected underage girls to sexual abuse in Cancún, in which Nacif allegedly took part. Succar was arrested in February 2004 in the United States on child abuse charges and was extradited to Mexico in July, where he also faces charges for money laundering and organised crime. "Los demonios del Edén" contains the personal accounts of minors who talk about the sexual abuse they suffered at the hands of a ring in which prominent figures were allegedly involved. The youngsters describe how the hotel owner sexually abused them himself, set up a prostitution ring to allow others to abuse them, and photographed them in order to sell the pornographic images on the Internet. A 2004 study by researcher Elena Azaola, which estimated that some 17,000 children under the age of 18 are victims of the sex trade in Mexico, is also based on interviews with minors who managed to escape, as well as visits to establishments where underage girls and boys are forced to work as prostitutes. The two PRI politicians, Herrera and Gamboa, denied having any illegal ties with Nacif, and said they did not even know Succar. From their point of view, the airing of the tapped phone conversations was a low political blow aimed at their party. The PRI, which ruled Mexico from 1929 to 2000, came in third in the Jul. 2 presidential and legislative elections. Gamboa is one of the lawmakers who have approached Felipe Calderón of the conservative governing National Action Party (PAN) over the last few days, since he was confirmed as president-elect by the electoral court. Javier González, a leader of the leftist Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) legislators, said the leaked conversations between Nacif and the PRI politicians showed that the political system "is rotten." The PRD argues that its candidate, Andrés López Obrador, lost the elections to Calderón because of fraud. Cacho agrees that corruption is rife. "Many businessmen like Nacif have amassed huge fortunes in exchange for dark favours to politicians." So far, no direct link between politicians or prominent businessmen and child porn or sex rings has been proven. But there are suspicions, which are fuelled by Nacif and his web of contacts. Cacho, who has been under police protection since last year, when she began to receive death threats, was referred to in earlier leaked conversations, between Nacif and Mario MarÃn, governor of the state of Puebla, near the capital. In the tapped conversations, MarÃn, a member of the PRI, can be heard telling Nacif that "I just gave a bump on the head to that old witch." The two men also discussed how they had the activist arrested and thrown into a cell with "nutcases and dykes (lesbians)," so that she would be raped -- something that did not occur, because in the prison, "the prisoners themselves and the guards protected me," the writer said in an earlier conversation with IPS. The tapes, which were sent to the press anonymously and broadcast in February, were apparently recorded in December 2005, after Cacho was thrown into jail for 30 hours, after a grueling 20-hour drive from her home in Cancún to Puebla. The activist was arrested in connection with the libel suit brought against her by Nacif. But when the news of her arrest broke, the rights watchdog Amnesty International, the World Organisation Against Torture, the Inter-American Press Association and other international groups raised an outcry, and Cacho was released on bail. After the scandal triggered by the leaked phone conversations in February, in which the governor of Puebla and Nacif -- who owns factories in that state -- are heard discussing actions to teach Cacho a lesson, the Supreme Court initiated an investigation to determine whether or not MarÃn had engaged in criminal activity. (FIN/2006)
Something interesting.... about a month ago I took a trip to Nogales, Mexico (about 2-3 hours from Phoenix)... not quite as touristy as some of the other places I've visited. When we got there we let this guy show us around (they take you to anything you want and you pay them a tip later on)... so after a while we all sit down and have a drink in a bar.. We get to talking and I ask him (becuase I'd seen a show about it on 60 minutes or dateline) about the whole child sex thing... he gets real serious and says "it's here"... but if a police officer or anyone tries stop it, they'll be dead before night falls, their entire family and all of their friends won't make it to morning. He also said they have a black market for organs..
I've been to Nogales (when I was a kid) - at least I think it was there. Name certainly rings a bell. I thought it was very weird, that when you crossed the border, it seemed like you were on a different planet. Maybe its different now, but I doubt it.
I don't know how long ago you were there... but it's deffinently not a big touristy place now. We arrived around 6 AM (before anything is open) and it was dirty.. syringes on the sidewalk.. bums sleeping in 80's cars, trash everywhere... police everywhere. When we came back around noon everything had been cleaned and it looked a lot better..
We were there in the evening, from what I remember. I thought it was dark and dirty, but I was young (younger than 10 I'm sure), so who knows how it really looked. I did get a real mexican marionette and some pottery (which mom still has), so that's something. I also remember walking down Bourbon Street on that same trip and I thought it was awesome. Going back a few years ago, all I could think of is "how many different peoples' pee am I smelling?" and "how many double ended hoozy-whatsits do people really need?" I'd love to go back to Mexico (not to a border town though, and not to a tourist place) at some point. But stories like yours (of the child rings and cops "vanishing") and others I hear makes me very wary. I believe that corruption is Mexico's #1 problem.
I've heard rumors they drug foreigners for them to only wake-up with a organ missing. I'm not sure that's true, but I wouldn't put it past them. Not all of Mexico is bad, but there's areas one wouldn't want to be alone.
It's probably ONE of the worst forms of capitalism/socialism/fascism one can call a democracy. Mexico's making slow progress, but I foresee us having simliar problems in the future e.g having a fairly large extreme left view in public thought, while having it's opposite view as well.
That's the big mistake... going to areas that 'gringos' don't normally go. My step grandpa used to live in colorado and he was telling me this story - a college professor went down to mexico alone, later they found the cheif of police driving his truck and his body was never found.... http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0DE4D61239F93AA15754C0A964948260
That is the start of the chaos, you are so right about corruption, once the corruption is locked into the society, then starts the 'add ons' to corruption all illegal activities ......................... OK you set up this activity............ you make money.......... you pay your controllers........... who then pay off the police and the authorities etc.........then the downward spiral suddenly escalates ........................ off come 'all the wheels'................... and then the Country just pitifully de-generates
That is a good question, probably deserving something more than a 'laymans reply' but here goes I have worked in many countries worldwide and in A Middle East Country example rampant corruption but very little poverty An Asian Country example rampant corruption but somewhere around 80% of the population living in near poverty Of course it is not this clear cut for analyzing, but corruption is not always the precursor for poverty