Rampant Sexual Tourism Preys on More Latin American Children

Approximately 30,000 Spaniards travel to a Latin American country every year to engage in sexual practices with minors, several non-governmental organizations reported this week at the 2004 Speakers Corner Forum, citing stats provided by the International Migrations & Tourism Organization.

According to that entity, the aforesaid figure lays bare how quickly this international crime has been snowballing worldwide in recent years into a problem that´s now affecting over two million kids between 3 and 17 years of age everywhere.

The figures also bear out the jarring revelations that attendants to the First World Congress on Sexual Exploitation of Children made in Stockholm a few years ago when they said that roughly a fifth of all international travels are made with sexual purposes and that 3 percent of travelers are child molesters.

Experts believe one of the biggest snags standing in the way of both humanitarian organizations and children´s rights advocacy groups is police corruption in those countries where sexual exploitation of children, coupled with the trade of boys and girls, is a megabuck business run by organized crime syndicates.