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Published in the ECPAT newsletter
(August 1999)

The study done by the Human Rights Ombudsman’s Office (PDH) in Guatemala reflects the alarming situation of hundreds of girls who are forced to prostitute themselves in nightclubs, said the head of the PDH’s Childrens Defense Office, Marilys de Estrada.

De Estrada said that it was impossible to calculate the number of cases, since many of the minors are threatened or kept locked up. Many of the girls, who range between 8 and 17 years of age, are Guatemalans, but there are also Silvadorans and Hondurans, De Estrada stated. In most of the cases, the girls are tricked into leaving their homes with the promise of a good job. Others have been kidnapped on the way home from school.

She also reported that the girls are forced to abort when they become pregnant, or to give up their babies for adoption, and that the girls are virtually enslaved, since they do not have freedom to go out and do not receive any kind of payment.

(Casa Alianza, July 6, 1999)