Government Addresses Child Safety Concerns
The head of the Mexican attorney general’s office in La Paz recently traveled to Los Cabos to investigate reports of child trafficking, exploitation, and prostitution, according to a new story by the Gringo Gazette.
The national institution for integral family development, known here as Desarrollo Integral de la Familia or DIF, has a list of about 150 children who do not attend school and instead have been seen peddling gum or tchotchkes to tourists in downtown Cabo San Lucas and other high-density areas. Some of these children, according to the Gringo Gazette report, were sent to Los Cabos by their parents to earn money. Because they are “rented” to handlers, this is classified as trafficking and exploitation. Local businesses have complained that the children steal and upset customers.
The new efforts by the government follow multiple attempts to curb the trend by the downtown Cabo San Lucas merchants association, which has worked to lobby city and state government officials. The association has launched a new campaign asking visitors to avoid interacting with and patronizing the children. They have placed posters in windows, but the Gringo Gazette reports that the child vendors have torn several down.
To learn more about DIF, go to its website: http://sn.dif.gob.mx. Most browsers allow you to translate text.