Tijuana Center of Sex Slavery Ring
PHILLIPS: Tijuana, Mexico. It's just across the border from San Diego, yet it's worlds apart. It's known as a party city to some, but it's also a hunting ground for people who prey on young children, some of whom are coerced or beaten into the underground world of sex slavery. CNN's Thelma Gutierrez takes us undercover, to some of the children caught up in the tragedy.</s>THELMA GUTIERREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): His voice echoes through this neighborhood in Tijuana, Mexico. It is a song without words, only melancholy, haunting sounds from a child who was once bought and sold. Tijuana sits on the U.S.-Mexican border. On the weekend, Americans flock here to party. Just five blocks away is a dark side few outsiders have seen. This is what police call the tolerant zone. It is a maze of dark alleys lined with small bars and young prostitutes. In this zone, prostitution is legal, but sex workers must be at least 18. Many don't look a day over 15 and some may be even younger than that.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I don't like it, but what can I do? I started this a year ago when I was 17.</s>GUTIERREZ: It's hard to know just how old this teenage prostitute really is, because they all say they're at least 18. We can't show you her face, because she'd be in danger from the men who control this zone and who enforce strict discipline on the young prostitutes who work for them. The teenager says she was lured to the border from another state in Mexico and that she's doing this to earn money to send to her family. Trafficking experts say young women like her would be even more profitable commodities in the</s>U.S. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I've had guys ask me to go with them. I would like to leave here if I could. Some people have even tried to take me to the United States.</s>GUTIERREZ: This is how international traffickers lure young women into the underground world of sex slavery, where they might disappear forever.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People will be promised different jobs or different opportunities to come here to the United States or they will actually be literally kidnapped and forced to come over here.</s>GUTIERREZ: Federal authorities say Mexico is predominantly a source country, where human beings are found, bought and sold by traffickers. According to CIA estimates, nearly 18,000 people are trafficked into the U.S. each year. A third are from Latin America. And no one knows how many are minors.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They range from ages 14 to 18, and maybe younger. They got a lot of makeup on. They're being surveilled by their pimps.</s>GUTIERREZ: Marisa Bava (ph) is a human rights activist who works with other groups to protect the most vulnerable, street children who work in the sex trade.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They have no place to go. So, they roam the streets. They do survival sex. They do other things that you don't want to mention, because they don't do them because they're bad, but because it's a need.</s>GUTIERREZ: The main thing children need is a place where they can feel safe.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a sleeping area. We have three sleeping area.</s>GUTIERREZ: We were granted rare access to this government-run shelter in Tijuana, where sexually exploited boys are counseled, educated and given a second chance at childhood. Jorge Bedoya is the director.</s>JORGE BEDOYA, SHELTER DIRECTOR: We are the -- most of the time full, because we have the problem of the street children and...</s>GUTIERREZ: It was here at this shelter, where I first met the boy with the voice, who sings songs that only have meaning to him. We'll call him Tomas.</s>TOMAS (through translator): When I sing, I forget everything, all the hurts, the rejection and the abuse. I express my feelings by singing.</s>GUTIERREZ: Tomas also expresses his feelings by writing. He showed me his journal. Inside is the tragic story of a mother who did not want him and the life of abuse that led him to the streets when he was only 11.</s>TOMAS (through translator): My mother and stepfather threw me out of the house. I was crying on the street, and a man came and took me home.</s>GUTIERREZ: Tomas ran away from a series of child molesters, until one day, he says, he met a women with whom he thought he'd be safe.</s>TOMAS (through translator): The woman took me home with her and fed me. Within a week, I learned it was brothel. I had nowhere to go, so I stayed there. The woman gave me things. In exchange, I had to prostitute myself.</s>GUTIERREZ: Tomas says he was forced to wear makeup and dress as a girl for clients, some of whom were American men. He says he lived this twisted existence for four years as a child prostitute, until he learned he was about to be trafficked.</s>TOMAS (through translator): I found out they wanted to sell me to the person. He offered to buy me, but I said no.</s>GUTIERREZ: This time when he ran away, he managed to find his way to Jorge's shelter. Sister Dora (ph) says there's no shortage of exploited children in her shelter either. She bought it and runs it with money she made in California real estate. This was a socialite who once owned beachfront property in San Diego and 120 pairs of designer shoes.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And here, we're going to show you the bedrooms.</s>GUTIERREZ: A far cry from how she lives now.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In here we have three beds, sort of crammed together, as you can see.</s>GUTIERREZ: She has space for six kids, but 16 live here.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We actually are hoping and started praying for a center that would house as many as 80 to 100 children.</s>GUTIERREZ: Sister Dora (ph) says it was a calling from above that compelled her to dedicate her life to the children. With her own money, she pays tuition, so that each one can go to school. For many here, it's the first time in a classroom. She says every boy and girl here has a story of heartache and stolen innocence, stories she's heard for 10 years.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And I cannot fathom or even understand how any man, whether it's your child or your present wife or what, that you would violate her. I cannot understand that. And it just breaks me up terribly. How, how horrible. How unjust. And what it does to their lives. They're just absolutely in shambles, and this is why we have so many that do attend, going to prostitution for that reason. They say, well, I'm not worth anything.</s>GUTIERREZ: In the tolerance zone, child prostitutes learn the tragic lesson, that the value of their lives is ultimately measured in the desires and wallets of strangers.