Human Trafficking: Virgin Auctions in Medellin, Columbia

The Independent, UK, has a shocking, an in-depth report (Link to full story here) on the traffic in virgins in the slums of Medellin, Columbia, former drug kingpin Pablo Escobar’s hometown.  The recruitment of the girls starts young, showering them with consumer goods, offers of clothes and money, and moves up to alcohol and cocaine. They are brought into the life of the gangs, which control large parts of the slums in this now-thriving cosmopolitan city.

 

Commune 1 - shantytown in Meddelin (Getty)

Medellin has come a long way from Escobar’s days of running the city.  It is generally much safer, the murder rate is lower and foreign trade and tourism are booming. This is feeding the rise in virgin prostitution (and prostitution in general). In Columbia, prostitution is legal as long as the woman is over 18 and there are no intermediaries.  That’s not what’s happening here, though.  Here, the girls are taken from their families, and once in the gang at a very young age, don’t go back to their families until they’re auctioned off to drug lords or foreigners for high prices at first, then lower and lower prices until they’re ordinary prostitutes.

The law is not involved.  The slums are de facto run the gangs which act as courts and police and collect their own extortionate taxes.  Families don’t complain or they’re shot.  Police don’t intervene because there are no complaining witnesses – again because the families will be shot.

The Independent reports on an investigation by a local NGO that says trusted clients are contacted through these networks and are offered brochures of the children on the auction blocks – either physical booklets containing a small selection, or online catalogues of up to 60 girls.

Customers are passed a secret PIN number, which grants them access to the auction website. Clients can then bid on the girls, with C3 registering prices as high as five million pesos (about £1,600) for the right to take the child’s virginity. When the auction is completed, the sites are taken down, and the brochures destroyed.

“This has become part of the landscape, part of the cruel reality of the other Medellin – the one that is not visible, the one that does not appear in the media, that does not involve grand construction projects and fancy restaurants,” says Pardo. “In the comunas it is lack of opportunity and poverty that reigns.”

Trafficking in all forms is evil.  This is an especially heinous sort.  Anyone who thinks it’s limited to Columbia hasn’t been watching Houston’s news.  A post on that very soon.

Photo credit (Getty)