Mexico Tightens Jail Terms for Child Abuse, IOL, February 21, 2007

Mexico Tightens Jail Terms for Child Abuse

IOL
February 21, 2007

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=122&art_id=nw20070221075301652C453764

Mexico City — Mexico, one of many developing countries tarnished by a clandestine but thriving child sex industry, moved on Tuesday to tighten jail sentences for abusers of minors to up to 30 years.

The law, approved by the Senate on Tuesday after passing through the lower house last year, will lengthen prison terms and end the classing of sexual exploitation of children as a minor offence where convicts often get early release.

Priests, offenders charged with abusing underage family members and public sector employees like teachers or doctors who used their position to access children will automatically be given a double sentence, meaning up to 30 years.

Clergy convicted of abuse of minors will be defrocked.

'Sex trafficking of minors and child pornography will now be classified as organized crime'

"In almost every case, the punishment is increased and every kind of offence that has to do with child pornography or exploitation of minors will be considered serious," said Senator Alejandro Gonzalez, head of the justice commission.

Some 20 000 children in Mexico, aged mainly from 12 to 17, are believed to be victims of some kind of exploitation, from pornography to physical abuse, according to a Congress report.

The once-glamorous Pacific coast resort of Acapulco is now sullied by foreign sex tourists who lurk behind beaches to pick up skinny boys or prey on underage girls in strip clubs.

The new law means sex trafficking of minors and child pornography will now be classified as organised crime. Promoting sex tourism could earn a 12-year jail sentence.

In one of Mexico's most notorious abuse cases, the Vatican last year ordered Father Marcial Maciel, the elderly founder of the Legionaries of Christ, to retire to a life of prayer after former trainee priests accused him of sexual abuses dating back to the 1940s.

Mexican lawmakers cited UN children'a fund UNICEF as saying that human trafficking for the sex trade is the third most lucrative activity after drug smuggling and arms trading. - Reuters