Federal police raids Friday and Saturday on bars, hotels, and boarding houses led to the arrests of roughly 530 women and 500 men, as well as the rescue of 20 young girls who are allegedly victims of human trafficking. The underage girls were reportedly being sexually exploited at the bars and hotels raided by police.
More than 300 federal police took part in the operation. According to authorities, the operation was in coordination with Mexico’s AMBER alert program, aimed at finding missing children, which the government implemented last year.
The city of Juárez is one of the most dangerous in the country, where more than 3,000 murders occurred in the past year. Some blame the violence on the increased fight against drug cartels that began in 2006. Mexican Officials have claimed that drug traffickers have been increasingly involved in human trafficking and sexual exploitation.
Juárez, a main route for drug trafficking into the US, has seen a total of 59 women go missing in the past year. Forty eight other women disappeared in the state of Chihuahua, where Juárez is located. In recent years human rights groups have drawn attention to the high amount of disappearances in the area.
This operation occurred only weeks after President Felipe Calderon approved changes to the country’s constitution to better fight human trafficking. One of the important changes guarantees anonymity of the victims in cases against traffickers. Another change requires that those on trial for human trafficking charges must remain in prison for the duration of the trial.
