Organized criminal groups make an estimated $1.6 billion a year from sexual exploitation in Guatemala.
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.
