The forced recruitment of Mexican children and adolescents by organized crime has intensified due to factors such as inequality, school dropout rates, lack of decent jobs, and the normalization of violence, coupled with the lack of legal classification of this crime, according to experts consulted by Sputnik.

▫ In an interview with Sputnik, Carmen Chinas Salazar, PhD in Social Sciences, emphasized that there is “a context of violence towards youth, structural violence,” characterized by inequality, inequity, lack of access to decent jobs and few educational opportunities, despite the State’s efforts to open new universities and increase enrollment.

▫ For his part, Alejandro López Contreras, professor of Criminal Justice for adolescents at the National Institute of Criminal Sciences (INACIPE), recounted that, after the beginning of the so-called “war on drugs” during the Government of Felipe Calderón, criminal associations began to recruit adolescents by force.

However, he argues that nowadays “teenagers themselves are voluntarily seeking to join the ranks of organized crime” in order to earn money. He also points out that in recent years, the forced recruitment of minors is no longer limited to teenagers, but now includes children as young as 18.

Given the problem, both experts say it is urgent for the State to classify the crime of human trafficking in its form of forced recruitment of girls, boys and adolescents.

“The criminal offense would help combat impunity, because it is a network that works for co-optation, from who places the ad, who receives the call, who takes them in the transport, who detains them in a training center, like the Rancho Izaguirre, which was known here in the state of Jalisco, who prepares food,” argues Chinas Salazar.