Guatemala: Nearly 50,000 people -- most of them girls aged 12 to 17 -- are direct victims of sexual exploitation in Guatemala, two UN entities said in a joint report presented on Thursday.
Research by the UN children's agency UNICEF and the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) found that poverty -- which affects 60 percent of Guatemala's population of 15 million -- as well as a patriarchal society and domestic violence are chiefly responsible.
The report found that 64 percent of the 48,600 recorded victims were women, most under 18. Twenty-three percent of the victims were men and 13 percent were not registered by gender.
Not only Guatemalan women were ensnared by prostitution rings in the country: Colombians, Hondurans, Salvadorans and Nicaraguans were also exploited.
UNICEF's deputy representative in the Central American nation, Mariko Kagoshima, highlighted the case of a 12-year-old girl forced to provide 30 instances of sexual services a day.
Organized criminal groups make an estimated $1.6 billion a year from sexual exploitation in Guatemala, equivalent to 2.7 percent of the country's GDP, the report revealed.
The activity amounted to "modern slavery," CICIG chief Ivan Valesquez said, urging greater penalties for property owners and business people who profited from such people trafficking.
