Mexico tightens jail terms for child abuse

Mexico City, Feb 21: Mexico, one of many developing countriestarnished by a clandestine but thriving child sex industry, moved totighten jail sentences for abusers of minors to up to 30 years.

The law, approved by the Senate yesterday after passing throughthe lower house last year, will lengthen prison terms and end theclassing of sexual exploitation of children as a minor offense whereconvicts often get early release.

Priests, offenders charged with abusing underage family membersand public sector employees like teachers or doctors who used theirposition to access children will automatically be given a doublesentence, meaning up to 30 years.

Clergy convicted of abuse of minors will be defrocked.

''In almost every case, the punishment is increased and every kindof offense that has to do with child pornography or exploitation ofminors 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, arebelieved to be victims of some kind of exploitation, from pornographyto physical abuse, according to a Congress report.

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

The new law means sex trafficking of minors and child pornographywill now be classified as organized crime. Promoting sex tourism couldearn a 12-year jail sentence.

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

Mexican lawmakers cited UN children'a fund UNICEF as saying thathuman trafficking for the sex trade is the third most lucrativeactivity after drug smuggling and arms trading.

Reuters>