The Sorrows of Mexico is a collection of essays from the leading writer-journalists of Mexico, each one concentrating on a single issue among the many which afflict their country. So – in the words of Lydia Cacho, Anabel Hernández, Juan Villoro, Diego Enrique Osorno, Elena Poniatowska, Sergio González Rodríguez and Marcela Turati – this will be a crucial testimony and proof of the bravest voices in a country which needs this courage to denounce the depth and range of corruption and violence.

The contribution of each writer consists of a new essay along with passages of previously untranslated text. We will be joined by two of the book’s contributors, Anabel Hernandez and Lydia Cacho, who will discuss their experiences as female journalists working in one of the most hostile environments for human rights reporting.

Chair:

Ricardo Gonzalez: Ricardo is the Global Protection Officer at Article 19’s offices in Mexico. Article 19 as a charity campaigns for freedom of expression wherever it is threatened and champions freedom of information and pluralism in the media. 9 journalists lost their lives in Mexico in 2016, making it the third deadliest country for journalists to work in. This reflects the staggering lack of protection journalists are provided with. With offices in Bangladesh, Brazil, Kenya, Mexico, Tunisia, Senegal and the UK, Ricardo and Article 19 work on improving these efforts.

Speakers:

Lydia Cacho is a Mexican journalist, author and a feminist activist against violence. Ms. Cacho herself has been imprisoned for her work and has put her life on the line on behalf of women and children in Mexico. As a consequence of her unwavering defense of human rights and journalistic freedom, her own life has been repeatedly threatened. Despite these dangers, she continues to champion the advancement of human rights.

Anabel Hernández is one of the most important journalists in Mexico. She bravely confronted narcotic gangs and state corruption often at a great risk to herself and her family. She is the author of many books including Narcoland: The Mexican Drug Lords and Their Godfathers; La IRA de Mexico: Siete Voces Contra La Impunidad and most recently La Verdadera Noche de Iguala: La Historia Que El Gobierno Quiso Ocultar, an investigation into the disappearance of students in Iguala.

The international sex trade criss-crosses the globe using a sinister network made up of criminal masterminds, local handlers, corrupt policemen, wilfully blind politicians, eager consumers, and countless hapless women and children.

In a ground-breaking new work of investigative reporting internationally renowned Mexican journalist and campaigner Lydia Cacho follows the trail of the traffickers and their victims from Mexico to Turkey, Thailand to Iraq, Georgia to the UK. She exposes the trade’s hidden links with the tourist industry, internet pornography, drugs and arms smuggling, the selling of body organs, money laundering, and even terrorism.

Lydia Cacho will be joining us at the Frontline Club in conversation with executive director of Article 19, Dr Agnès Callamard to talk about her expansive investigation into this world and the work she does reporting on domestic violence, child prostitution, organised crime and political corruption, whilst teaching workshops on how to help victims of trafficking.

In Mexico over the past decade, several dozen journalists have been killed, abducted, and tortured.  Crime flourishes, and ties between cartels and politicians are deeply intertwined.

Yet journalist Lydia Cacho has persisted in uncovering these networks, risking her life to tell the stories of their victims and reveal the businessmen and politicians involved.

She was raped and beaten in 1999, an act alleged by some to be retaliation for her reporting; she was abducted and tortured by police for 20 hours in 2005; her car wheels were tampered with in 2007, nearly leading to a fatal crash; and she has received numerous death threats, the most recent of which appeared to come from a very high-level military or cartel source.

On Friday evening, she came to the Frontline Club to discuss her latest book: Slavery Inc.: The Untold Story of International Sex Trafficking.

Cacho spent five years documenting the global sex trade, at times playing roles such as a nun, prostitute, pole dancer and client.

“I found it incredible how similar the culture in Vietnam is to the culture of Mexico,” she reflected.  “Families that are living in extreme poverty … [coming] from generations of people that have never had a real chance, they never had a break.”

The story seemed universal: sex traffickers promising poor families to employ their children as maids in a big city, giving them an education, income, and chance at a better life.

“Which parent wouldn’t want that to happen?” Cacho asked.

But the price that sex workers pay – giving up their sexual subjectivity, and with it their integrity, to a clientele of mostly older and more powerful men – Silvio Berlusconi famously among them – is nearly always demanded when they are too young, and too deprived, to recognize the transaction taking place.

Throughout the world, Cacho lamented:

“People are becoming commodities … trained that it’s alright to become an object, [because] you know, this is just a business.”

On 30 April of this year, Cacho’s friend and fellow journalist Regina Martinez was found beaten to death in her home in Xalapa. Martinez, too, had made a career of exposing crime and corruption in Mexico.  Still, Cacho continues.

“I know my job is useful,” she explained.  “Sometimes it’s hard.  And sometimes it’s really good, when you get a [criminal] sentence, or when you get the time to go salsa dancing, and have some tequillas, and just laugh about everything, including the death threats, and just remember that there are a lot of good things in life:  love, and good sex, and all that.  Then you just combine the whole thing.”

“One thing I learned after I survived jail and torture was … I would never give these Mafias my happiness.”

As the event concluded, Cacho was met with a standing ovation.

Watch the event here: