Mexican President Felipe Calderon is so intent on dealing with the serious problem of human trafficking in his country that he is attempting to push through changes to the constitution.
Calderon wants his congress to approve a new law, which requires an individual to be sent to prison during the trial period if accused of violating human trafficking laws.
The law also guarantees anonymity for the victims of human trafficking, a crime referred to in documents as the “new form of slavery.”
The changes in Mexico’s constitution would also require an individual to be sent to prison during the trial period if accused of violating human trafficking laws.
Calderon informed members of Mexico’s congress that criminal organizations that ship and sell drugs and weapons are now relying on human trafficking to make millions.
“Lawmakers and citizens alike must take action,” Calderon said in a speech to lawmakers last week. "We have to create a unified front to end human trafficking in Mexico. This front is not limited to police or officials, this front starts in the streets, in the neighborhoods and in the communities."
It is believed that approximately 10,000 women have been victims of human trafficking in Mexico's capital, but reports indicate only 40 investigations and three convictions in the city last year.
Tens of thousands of woman and children are pulled into sex rings through human trafficking, and thousands are sent over into the United States for the same purposes. Victims are lured away from their homes in poor rural areas using shady recruitment tactics, such as the promise of false jobs.
"There are thousands and thousands of cases, in a society that is still unaware of the seriousness of this crime," Calderon added. "We have to break through this curtain. We are hiding a criminal reality that is in front of us."
Human rights advocates say that in the last ten years, the issue of human trafficking has become a global phenomenon of unforeseeable proportions