Tenancingo: The Town Where Boys Are Trained for a Different Kind of 'Vocation'
In a small town in Mexico, young boys don't ride their bikes or play soccer with friends — they enter the world of training for a vocation that ruins the lives of many young girls: human trafficking.
Tenancingo is a south-eastern town in Mexico where only about 10,000 people live. Statistics reveal that around 1,000 of the entire population have made human trafficking their vocation. Aside from exploiting young girls, the town is also known to home organized crime operations that local authorities seem to be unable to stop.
Bradley Myles is the CEO of Polaris, an anti-human trafficking organization that aims to help lessen the number of young girls and women being sold into sex slavery not only in Tenancingo but all across the country.
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Myles told the story of Rosa (not her real name) to CNN. Rosa met a man who claimed to sell clothing when he was just 17. Being young and at the edge of vulnerability, she fell in love with the man and allowed him to bring her to his hometown in Tenancingo.
Promised to have a nice home of her own in the future, she went with the man to New York City when she turned 18. The promises turned out to be lies when they arrived in the big city. Rosa was forced into prostitution and was locked up in brothels in New York and New Jersey, selling her body for money.
Rosa is just one of the thousands of girls who were lured into a tunnel where apparently, there is no exit, except for some who were rescued from the atrocity. According to Myles, Tenancingo was founded on the aims of exploitation and other related crimes. "Powerful networks of traffickers operate out of the region, where boys are groomed to become pimps from a young age," he said.
As the number of human trafficking cases continues to increase, Polaris and Consejo Ciudadano also pushes for the rescue of girls who suffered from the hands of expert traffickers.
Those who would like to escape the chains of human trafficking are encouraged to give the groups' hotlines a call. Representatives from the United States and Mexico are available to help victims through these numbers: (1-888-373-7888) and (01800 5533 000).
The road to recovery is long and bumpy, but Polaris, Consejo Ciudadano, and other anti-human trafficking groups promise to walk with victims into a better and more peaceful life away from the wiles of exploitation, away from Tenancingo.
