The Executive of the Institute for Children and Adolescents in Uruguay (INAU) made a request for information to find out if there is a real risk of an increase in trafficking and sexual exploitation of children and adolescents from the finals of the Copa Sudamericana and the Copa Libertadores, to be held on November 20 and 27 of this month. For her part, the director of the National Institute of Women (Inmujeres), Mónica Bottero, told The Observer that “this type of event can be provided for exploitation situations.”
The report was requested from the National Committee for the Eradication of Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Boys, Girls and Adolescents (Conapees). If the Executive receives a conclusive analysis regarding a certain danger, They plan to take measures in this regard and open spaces for coordination with other entities in order to avoid it.. From Inmujeres, they offer the Service of Attention to victims of Human Trafficking and Exploitation.
“You may be recruiting chiquilinas To those who may be proposing, in exchange for money that may be important to them, to enter a network of exploitation. Obviously not from that place: they offer them the money with the temptation that they can be in hotels. There are a series of situations, of little girls who are in an economic or psychological situation and can fall into that. It is good that citizens know it: it is exploitation and it is illegal, it does not matter if the little girl realizes it or not, “said Bottero.
Conapees reported 410 situations of child sexual exploitation in 2020.
The Ministry of the Interior did not respond to inquiries from The Observer.
Feminist organizations warn of the increase in the pimp business in the country. The Organization of Sex Workers (Others) of Uruguay and the non-governmental organization El Paso published a spot asking the population not to participate in the business. “In November, Montevideo is going to host two important international events. To do this, people who recruit young people, adolescents and minors are already preparing to be sexually exploited. Are you going to play that game?” They ask.
In 2014, the network of civil associations against exploitation and trafficking Ecpat carried out a campaign called “Don’t look to the side” in the run-up to the World Cup held in Brazil. It involved 15 countries and called to avoid child sex tourism. In 2010, the UN Children’s Fund asked the South African authorities to take appropriate measures to prevent the sexual exploitation of children for the World Cup.
Brazilian people identified as “violent” will be prohibited from entering Uruguay. The Minister of the Interior, Luis Alberto Heber, foresees that for these events the country will have a security device that gives it “prestige” and hopes, in turn, to receive “with open arms” those who attend to enjoy the show from the ground. Brazilian. “We want it to be a party for America and not for us to end up in acts of violence,” he reiterated at a press conference.
