MEXICO: Sex workers rally as authorities try to keep them of the streets because of flu

Record ID: 303882

  • Title: MEXICO: Sex workers rally as authorities try to keep them of the streets because of flu
  • Date: 2nd May 2009
  • Summary: MEXICO CITY, MEXICO (MAY 1, 2009) (REUTERS) SEX WORKERS GATHERED AT PROTEST, MANY WEARING FACE MASKS, HATS AND DARK SUN GLASSES SEX WORKERS HOLDING UP BANNER: UNION OF SEX WORKER FOR BETTER HEALTH AND WORKING CONDITIONS SEX WORKER SHOUTING OUT SLOGANS THROUGH MEGAPHONE MORE OF SEX WORKERS PROTESTING (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) SEX WORKER GUADALUPE LOPEZ, SAYING: "We want them to respect us as workers and as sex workers given that fact they are trying impose a work schedule on. They want us to get off the streets at 11pm and we don't want to. The government of Mexico City is ordering this, but we want to work all night because what we are earning in not enough." VARIOUS OF SEX WORKERS PROTESTING, MANY WEARING SURGICAL MASKS, HOLDING UP BANNERS AND WEARING DARK SUNGLASSES TO HIDE THEIR IDENTITIES (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) SEX WORKER KNOWN AS "CRISMA", SAYING: "This is how we look after our children, it's how we pay for their schooling and everything else. And they (the government) want us to get of the streets. But the streets belongs to those who work them." VARIOUS OF PROTEST PROTESTER SHOUTING OUT SLOGANS THROUGH MEGAPHONE SEX WORKERS MARCHING
  • Embargoed: 17th May 2009 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Mexico
  • Country: Mexico
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,Health
  • Reuters ID: LVA90G5P5M7JTCPTE9N17I8ZMDJK
  • Story Text: As Mexico went on a five-day lockdown on Friday (May1), sex workers took to the streets of the capital in protest at new measures to combat a deadly flu which they say are preventing them from making a living.
    The measures, which were introduced by Mexico City authorities after the new H1N1 flu strain outbreak, have brought their trade to a standstill, as their clients stay at home to avoid infection. The workers were also protesting rules demanding sex workers get off the streets by 11pm.

    "We want them to respect us as workers and as sex workers given that fact they are trying impose a work schedule on. They want us to get off the streets at 11pm and we don't want to. The government of Mexico City is ordering this, but we want to work all night because what we are earning in not enough," said Guadalupe Lopez, who like most of the protesters, wore a surgical mask to protect from flu infection and dark sunglasses, to hide her identity.
    Mexican President Felipe Calderon has asked Mexicans to stay home from May 1 to 5 over the long Cinco de Mayo holiday, and urged businesses to close except for those providing essential services to the population, such as pharmacies, petrol stations and supermarkets.
    During Friday's protest, which was attended by both men and women, sex workers held up banners and shouted slogans through megaphones calling for better working conditions and for the 11 pm rule to be scrapped.

    "This is how we look after our children, it's how we pay for their schooling and everything else. And they (the government) want us to get of the streets. But the streets belongs to those who work them," said one protester, a sex worker called Crisma.
    Although prostitution is illegal in Mexico, it is widespread both on seedy street corners and in swanky brothels in Mexico City, with local police often bribed to turn a blind eye.
    It is often only rated a misdemeanor or is tolerated by authorities.
    Mexico City's leftist lawmakers have attempted to legalize prostitution, the latest step toward making the sprawling capital the most liberal in Latin America, following laws allowing abortion and same-sex unions.
    The changes have outraged the Roman Catholic Church and conservative sectors of society and provoked Pope Benedict to threaten politicians with excommunication if they supported abortion. The abortion law has been challenged by the federal government in Mexico's Supreme Court.
    Most of Latin America is strongly Catholic and while many people disagree with the Church on issues like contraception, few places in the region have gone as far as to legalize abortion, considered by the Church to be a grave sin.
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