{"id":2562,"date":"2019-05-12T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-05-12T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/armando.info\/?p=2562"},"modified":"2019-05-12T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-05-12T12:00:00","slug":"mexican-cartels-control-the-caravan-of-venezuelan-escorts-on-the-way-to-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/armando.info\/en\/mexican-cartels-control-the-caravan-of-venezuelan-escorts-on-the-way-to-death\/","title":{"rendered":"Mexican cartels control the caravan of Venezuelan 'escorts' on the way to death"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Venezuela \r\nis known for two export products: beauty and oil. <\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

As \r\nthe country has crumbled politically and economically, these two products have \r\nremained important for the country\u2019s survival. Oil is the bedrock for the \r\neconomy, and beauty which in the past often elevated Venezuela\u2019s position in \r\ninternational beauty contests is today a cash economy that is rescuing \r\nVenezuelan families from starvation. <\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

With \r\nthe country\u2019s fever-high interest in beauty, and beauty contests held every year \r\nto find the next Miss Venezuela, beautiful women are an ample commodity in \r\nVenezuela that is today being exploited by international criminal gangs.  \r\nMexican and Colombian organized crime groups, which operate in Venezuela and out \r\nof the country, seek Venezuelan women out because of their reputation for \r\nexquisite looks and their potential for huge earnings as sex slaves. \r\n<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

Until \r\n2014, Venezuela was classified as a transit corridor for women trafficked from \r\nother South American nations.  But in the last four years, the country has \r\nturned into a producer of women for the sex trade. <\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

The \r\nwomen\u2019s experiences have been catastrophic. A total of 19 Venezuelan women who \r\nworked as escorts or, barmaids, have been murdered since 2012 in various \r\ncountries. The number of murders had a 200 percent increase after 2017 when the \r\neconomic crisis pushed more Venezuelans to migrate to neighboring \r\ncountries.  Sixty percent of the murders occurred in Mexico. But others \r\ntook place in Colombia, Peru, and Ecuador.
<\/p>\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n

For \r\nwomen, the situation is direr because of their reputation as beautiful. \u201cThey \r\narrive with zero protection, and they are exploited because they are considered \r\nbeautiful and are vulnerable,\u201d said Beatriz Borges, of the Caracas-based Centro \r\nde Justicia y Paz, Cepaz.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

In \r\nMexico, Venezuelan women and girls arrive recruited under false expectations. \r\nTen Venezuelan women were killed since 2012 in various cities,  including \r\nMexico City. The murders occurred at a time when thousands of Venezuelans were \r\narriving in the country, and many women only found work as barmaids or escorts. \r\n<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

However, \r\nour investigation has found that Mexican drug cartels have carefully identified \r\nVenezuelan women as an important money-making commodity. According to a \r\nVenezuelan analyst, Mexican cartels have understood the value of Venezuelan \r\nwomen since 2010. Each woman working for a cartel as an escort can have the \r\nearning potential of up to $200 thousand a year, according to independent \r\naccounting by a former escort in Mexico City. (5a) Hence since 2010, news items \r\nbegan appearing in Mexican media detailing the presence of Venezuelan women who \r\nwere found working at bars in various Mexican \r\nstates.<\/p>\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n

In \r\nthe early years, the Sinaloa Cartel led the way with this new trafficking model. \r\nBut soon another cartel, the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion,<\/B> and its \r\npartner Los Cuinis\u2014Mexico\u2019s most powerful criminal groups today\u2014created the most \r\nsophisticated networks to entangle women.  They even hired a Venezuelan \r\nphotographer to specifically recruit former Venezuelan beauty queens and models \r\nfor their sex network. The photographer was identified by the U.S. Treasury \r\nDepartment in early 2018 and flagged in one of the department\u2019s Office on \r\nforeign Assets control bulletins.(5b) A former U.S. official who served in \r\nVenezuela said the trafficking of Venezuelan women, unfortunately, grew \r\n<\/B>from Venezuela\u2019s international reputation of having beautiful women. \u201cThe \r\nnational mindset has contributed to the current exploitation,\u201d he \r\nsaid.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

The \r\nU.S. State Department\u2019s Trafficking report (1) has now placed Venezuela in the \r\nTier 3 level, the highest\/worst ranking, because of continuing in-country \r\ntrafficking of women and the government\u2019s failed efforts to \u201csignificantly\u201d \r\ncombat the crime.<\/p>\n\n\n

The Venezuelan Government<\/h2>\n\n\n

The \r\nupsurge in the numbers of victims of this phenomenon appears to have caught the \r\nVenezuelan government unprepared. Local and international human rights groups \r\nhave raised the alarm about the new trend, but, to date, the government of \r\nPresident Nicolas Maduro has issued few clear policies that could potentially \r\naddress the problem. <\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

While \r\nthere have been some efforts, such as a raid in September 2018, where the \r\nVenezuelan Attorney General busted a Caracas-based local criminal ring that had \r\nvictimized 26 women. The government\u2019s efforts overall, at both the enforcement \r\nand policy levels, have been inadequate. <\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

In \r\naddition, official statistics are limited. Venezuela\u2019s Fundamental Law on the \r\nRight of Women to Live Free of Violence is supposed to legislate against the \r\ncrime of women trafficking, but it is a toothless effort.  It does not \r\nprovide effective procedures to fight against the practice, according to human \r\nrights observers.  <\/p>\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n

Similarly, \r\ntwo of the country\u2019s statistical organizations, the National Office against \r\nOrganized Crime and Financing of Terrorism, ONCDOFT, and the National Institute \r\nof Statistics, INE, have not issued new data on this crime.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

International \r\ndatabases, which depend on local data, are incomplete because of the difficulty \r\nof gathering information in the country, according to human right \r\nmonitors.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

Media \r\nand non-governmental organizations have identified the presence of international \r\ncriminal rings that specialize in transporting women for sexual exploitation \r\nfrom Venezuela to other Latin American nations, Europe and Asia<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

Investigators \r\nsay the situation has worsened since 2016 when Venezuela's electoral council \r\nsuspended the opposition's campaign to hold a recall referendum against \r\nPresident Nicolas Maduro.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

Human \r\nrights observers said the suspension escalated the crisis and there was a \r\nbreakdown in the institutional protection mechanisms, which accelerated a larger \r\nexodus of Venezuelans.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

The \r\nUnited Nations estimates that more than 3.5 million Venezuelans have fled the \r\ncountry because of the economic and institutional breakdown in the last few \r\nyears.  And by the end of 2019, the United Nations calculated that up to 5 \r\nmillion people\u201416 percent of the population - <\/B>could well leave the \r\ncountry because of the crisis(footnote).  Colombia alone has already \r\nreceived 800 thousand Venezuelans, according to the United Nations High \r\nCommissioner for Refugees, (UNHCR).<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n



<\/p>\n\n\n

On top of the Escort Life\u2014Then Death<\/h2>\n\n\n

Kenni \r\nFinol was a major attraction in the online sex escort circuit in Mexico City. \r\n <\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

Her \r\nlong blonde hair and sparkling green eyes were attention-grabbers. Never mind \r\nthat the hair was dyed, and the shapely body had been improved with surgery. She \r\nwas featured prominently in the now-defunct X-Rated website zonadivas.com<\/A>, \r\nan upscale escort service, where Kenni, and dozens of other young women from \r\nVenezuela and Argentina, pinned their pictures and offered sexual favors for a \r\nhefty fee.  The 26-year-old former university student was a dream come true \r\nin this country where blondes exist but are not accessible to every man. \r\n<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

Her \r\nclientele included Influential politicians, actors, and local drug traffickers. \r\n <\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

Kenni \r\ncame to Mexico in 2015, with dreams of becoming a model or an actress. She \r\npeppered her multiple Facebook accounts with pictures of herself as a diva, in \r\nprivate jets, striking provocative poses with fancy goods she obtained from her \r\nsuitors. It was the image she wanted her family and her followers to believe. \r\nThen there were her pictures of herself with a kilo of pure cocaine, or sporting \r\nan AK 47 rifle.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

Kenni \r\nwas winning.  She received several proposals to marry--a Mexican senator \r\nasked her to move in with him. <\/p>\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n

But \r\nMexico City\u2019s underground world is dangerous. Kenni knew it, but her fascination \r\nfor bad boys led her astray.  In a Facebook account, she confessed: \u201cwhen \r\nyou are beautiful but you like malandros.\u201d In Venezuela, she had been the \r\ngirlfriend of a prison gang member who was killed by police in 2014. She \r\ntattooed his name on her right shoulder.  Born and raised in Primero de \r\nSeptiembre, a rough barrio in Port of Maracaibo, Kenni was street-smart. Her \r\nbrother Terlis Finol says his sister was happy, easy-going and smart. \r\n<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

But \r\nhe realizes she went too far. \u201cShe put her head in the lion\u2019s mouth,\u201d said \r\nTerlis Pinol in a telephone interview. Apparently, some of the escorts in Mexico \r\nCity are asked by cartels to seduce their clients and sell drugs or guns, hence \r\nthe photos. <\/p>\n\n\n

Kenni \r\nbegan dating a sicario, <\/B>or hired killer soon after her arrival in \r\nMexico.  He worked for Union Tepito, a murderous organized crime group that \r\nruns Mexico City\u2019s underworld, according to journalists and government \r\nofficials.()   She became the girlfriend of the sicario, named Brayan, \r\nand nicknamed \u201cPozole\u201d\u2014a name given to killers who disappear their victims\u2019 \r\nbodies by diluting them in chemicals\u2014shortly after her arrival.  The new \r\nboyfriend was nice, but then he turned jealous of Kenni\u2019s work. <\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

When \r\nshe witnessed Brayan killing people, Kenni realized she was out of her \r\ndepth.  She taped two phone videos that she circulated among her friends. \r\nShe talks to the camera and comments on how Brayan kills with glee. These two \r\nvideos helped Mexican police detain Brayan.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

In \r\nOctober 2017, when their relationship had soured, Brayan kidnapped Kenni and a \r\nfriend and beat <\/B>them up badly.  He cut the back of Kenni\u2019s head with \r\na machete.  Her arm was broken. In her last private video released soon \r\nafter the beating, she showed her swollen face and fingered Brayan incriminating \r\nhim in any future violence against her.  In the same video, Kenni begs him \r\nto give her some time so her bruises heal. Brayan had threatened Kenni to leave \r\nMexico, or he would kill her.<\/p>\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n

Terlis, \r\nher brother, says she stopped telling the family what was going on.  But \r\nshe had said she was ready to leave Mexico. But she lost her Venezuelan \r\npassport. When the passport was returned to her a month later, it had expired. \r\n  <\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

Then \r\nin February 2017, she was abducted from a music festival she attended with a \r\nVenezuelan escort friend.  The friend, not identified nd who was not \r\nabducted with Kenni, said seven men burst into the concert\u2019s VIP area and nabbed \r\nKenni. The other woman was spared, after, according to Kenni\u2019s brother, Kenni \r\nbegged she be let go.<\/p>\n\n\n

The End<\/h2>\n\n\n

Kenni\u2019s \r\nmangled body was dumped on a side street in Colonia Jardines de Santa Clara in \r\nEcatepec, a low-income, crime-ridden barrio known for narrow callejones and boxy \r\nadobe houses in the State of Mexico, next to Mexico City. For the last 20 years, \r\nthe area is a known body dumping area where women who have disappeared are \r\nfound.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

Kenni\u2019s \r\nbody was broken. Her face was disfigured with acid. She had been gang-raped. \r\n<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

Kenni \r\nFinol was the tenth Venezuelan escort killed in Mexico in the last five \r\nyears.  Her murder was shocking, even in this country known as the Thailand \r\nof Latin America because of its statistics on women trafficking. <\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

Mexico \r\nis a conservative country where sex workers can exist but are not accepted by \r\nthe general population. Prostitution is legal and an estimated 20,000 persons \r\nfall victim to sex trafficking every year, according to the International \r\nOrganization for Migration, OIM.  The Mexican Senate estimates that 50-500 \r\nthousand people are being trafficked in the country today.<\/p>\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n

High-class \r\nescorts are being murdered as Mexico\u2019s public safety has dipped to its lowest \r\npoint in a decade\u201425 people per 100 thousand inhabitants were killed in the \r\nfirst half of 2018. In Mexico City, where most of the Venezuelan escorts live \r\nand work, there were 3.3 murders per day during the same time. <\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

The \r\nstories about Kenni\u2019s death, however, have enraptured this nation. Young, \r\nbeautiful high stakes escorts, who charge US$100-200 per hour (in a country \r\nwhere a secretary earns US$300 a month) should have been protected, some \r\nobservers say. <\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

Kenni\u2019s \r\nstory hit a popular nerve\u2014a poor girl does well\u2014mirroring the tales enacted in \r\nsoap operas popular in both Mexico and Venezuela. <\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

But \r\nKenni and her murdered colleagues failed to understand the rules regulating \r\nMexico\u2019s sex trade.  Even high-end escorts become the gang\u2019s private \r\nproperty.

<\/p>\n\n\n

The Venezuelan Exodus<\/h2>\n\n\n

Since \r\nearly 2006, <\/B>more than <\/B>100 thousand Venezuelans <\/B>have moved \r\nto Mexico to escape the political and economic uncertainty in their home \r\ncountry, according to the United Nations. <\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

Young \r\nwomen like Kenni, who arrive in Mexico to work as sex escorts,<\/B> are not \r\nincluded in these statistics because they largely apply to migrants seeking \r\nresidency.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

The \r\nescort women, however, arrive sponsored by smugglers with connections to \r\nimmigration officials who provide temporary tourist visas, and even residency \r\nfor the women after a few years. <\/p>\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n

From \r\ncases tracked for this investigation, the trafficking networks that nab \r\nVenezuelan women and girls operate out of Venezuelan regions where Mexican \r\ncartels such as the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion, CJNG, a young punkish \r\ncriminal organization known for its violence and financial acumen, exert \r\ncontrol.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

The \r\ngroup has taken over territories and drug trade once held by the traditional \r\nSinaloa Cartel, which is in disarray after the arrest of its leader Joaquin \r\n\u201cChapo\u201d Guzman. <\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

The \r\nCJNG has a partnership and family ties with the Cuinis, a clan of 18 brothers \r\nand sisters who were former Haas avocado growers from Mexico\u2019s Michoacan State, \r\nand then turned drug traffickers. The Cuinis have involvement in Venezuela, and \r\nin other Latin American cities.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

The \r\nCuinis had the business sense to export more European-looking South American \r\nwomen to Mexico for middle-class consumption.  Mexican women who have traditionally \r\nengaged in sex work come from a more mixed and indigenous local population. \r\n<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

Between \r\n2006 and 2010, three of the Cuinis brothers had their home base in Argentina and \r\nUruguay. Eventually, two of them were arrested in Uruguay and Brazil.  The \r\noldest brother, Abigael Gonzalez Valencia, was captured <\/B>as he vacationed \r\non a yacht in Cancun.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

United \r\nNations officials say that another 47 criminal groups are  vying for \r\ncontrol of the sex trafficking business in Mexico. <\/p>\n\n\n

Lured in Venezuela<\/h2>\n\n\n

The \r\nwomen who end up caught in the sex trafficking networks are recruited by people \r\nthey know in their hometowns in Venezuela. Some of them have participated in \r\nlocal beauty pageants, a national pastime in Venezuela, so they already have had \r\nsome plastic surgery, which is the norm for contestants, according to a local \r\nanalyst. Some Mexican traffickers are now asking former escorts who turn 30 and \r\nare considered too old for the trade to work as promoters. \r\n<\/p>\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n

Until \r\nrecently, most Venezuelan women tracked in this report and trafficked in Mexico \r\ncame from Maracaibo and Valencia, populous cities with important shipping ports, \r\nwhere Mexican drug traffickers have always had criminal connections. (15) As \r\nthe <\/B>trade of smuggling women <\/B>has burgeoned, Colombian drug cartels \r\nhave moved into it, transporting women who arrive in the province of Cucuta to \r\nBogota from where they are sent by commercial planes to Mexico and other Latin \r\nAmerican countries. (15a) Colombian journalists say the movement of people is \r\nunder the aegis of the Mexican cartel, CJNG. (Hector de Mauleon)<\/p>\n\n\n

Impact of the violence in Venezuela<\/h2>\n\n\n

The \r\nwomen\u2019s sordid stories have reverberated in Venezuela, but they have not had a \r\ndeterrent impact. With the breakdown of Venezuela\u2019s economy more young women \r\nwant the chance to travel to other countries to work as anything, including sex \r\nwork. <\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

The \r\ntrafficking of young women and girls has become widespread, according to \r\nAsociacion Paz Activa, a local NGO that tracks this activity.  What is \r\ntroubling for NGOs that track this criminal enterprise is the involvement of \r\nVenezuelan businesses in the flow of women for sex work. The women are \r\napproached through modeling agencies, nightclubs, and bars. \"They are selected \r\nunder fake offers,\" according to Luis Cedeno, director of Paz Activa in Caracas. \r\n<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

In \r\nrecent reports Paz Activa has alluded that local Venezuelan police and military \r\nofficers are in the pocket of sex traffickers.   In one state, a local \r\nmayor was identified by Paz Activa as the leader of a women trafficking network, \r\naccording to one source. <\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

Beatriz \r\nBorges, who earlier this year released a study on women trafficking from \r\nVenezuela,<\/B> said Colombian drug trafficking groups have started moving \r\nVenezuelan women as young as 12 years old through Bogota.  According to \r\nBorges, the trafficking rings have the participation of corrupt immigration \r\nofficials in both countries. Some of the women end up trafficked to Asia and \r\nEastern Europe. <\/p>\n\n\n

They offer you the sky<\/h2>\n\n\n

A \r\nColombian escort who lives in Mexico City and knew Kenni Finol described the \r\npath of a sex worker\u2019s life in Mexico City.  <\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

First, \r\nthey ask scouts to identify the women who fit certain requirements in target \r\ncountries. Then, they seduce them with fancy meals, gifts, and promises of \r\nbeautiful apartments and private drivers in Mexico.  Once the women arrive \r\nin Mexico, they get an invoice. Every cent the traffickers spend on them is \r\nlisted as debt. In the Colombian\u2019s escort case, her account tallied up to \r\nseveral thousand dollars for airfare, clothing and other expenses.  They \r\nhad promised her work in telenovelas and as a model. But she was forced into sex \r\nwork. She shared a room with six other women from Venezuela and Argentina in a \r\nlower middle-class neighborhood. Her movements were controlled by women with \r\nlinks to Zonadivas and related to the Tepito drug \r\nCartel.<\/p>\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n

According \r\nto the Agencia de Investigacion Criminal, a federal investigative unit in \r\nMexico, Tepito has a relationship with the CJNG and controls the illegal sex \r\nwork in Mexico City and the surrounding area of the State of Mexico.  The \r\nsex workers like Finol have to pay a fee to Tepito, sell drugs and sometimes \r\nkeep guns. <\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

A \r\ncab driver under Tepito\u2019s control picks the women up at their apartments and \r\ndrives them to visit clients. The Colombian escort said she serviced several men \r\na day who paid ZonaDivas US$100 an hour. When she returned to the apartment, she \r\nwould turn over most of the money to the women in charge and just keep a small \r\namount for herself.  The traffickers held her passport until she paid off \r\nher debt. In the end, she estimates, the traffickers netted about $200 thousand \r\na year in profit.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

It \r\ntook two years of working seven days a week to gain her freedom.  Today she \r\nis independent and still lives in Mexico City. She is an independent \r\nescort.  Her time with Zonadivas taught her how to avoid trouble and \r\nprotect herself. She told a journalist friend she can gross up to US$10 thousand \r\na month.  \u201cIt is hard work and we have learned to put up with fear and \r\ndisgust, but where else would I earn this money?\u201d she told the journalist. The \r\nwoman is now ready to ensnare others in the business. She told a journalist \r\nfriend she knows a young 18-year-old Colombian who wants to be introduced into \r\nthe trade. <\/p>\n\n\n

The detective who was a relative of Mar\u00eda F\u00e9lix<\/h2>\n\n\n

The \r\nphenomenon of the trafficking of Venezuelan women has sprouted throughout Latin \r\nAmerica and Europe. Rings have been busted in Spain, Colombia, and Panama. But \r\nin Mexico, the trade is insidious because of the violence linked to it and the \r\nlack of a legal framework to protect the women. Federal anti-trafficking \r\nlegislation that sanctions women trafficking exists since 2007, but the legal \r\nframework is complicated by competing state laws that often do not sanction sex \r\ntrafficking. (22)<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

After \r\nFinol\u2019s murder,<\/B> Mexican police found the YouTube video she created four \r\nmonths before her death.  She named Brayan Mauricio Gonzalez, her one-time \r\nboyfriend, as the principal suspect.  <\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

She \r\nfilmed herself after he beat her severely in October 2017, breaking an arm and \r\nslashing the back of her head with a machete.  According to the video, \r\nwhich was widely circulated after her death, he told Finol to stop working as an \r\nescort and to leave Mexico. In the video, Finol accuses Brayan of killing an \r\nArgentine escort who was also murdered in a third-rate motel in Mexico City in \r\nDecember 2017. <\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

With \r\nPinol\u2019s death, four escorts related to Zonadivas.com were killed between \r\nFebruary 2017 and February 2018. The murders and the publicity forced Mexican \r\nauthorities to shut down the X-rated website.  In the process, they \r\narrested two men and a woman working for the outfit. But the owner, Antonio \r\nSantoyo Cervantes, remains at large. It is believed he has protection from \r\ninfluential politicians in Mexico City.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

According \r\nto Mexican police, sicarios like Pozole from the Tepito Cartel canvassed \r\nZonaDivas.com to find foreign women they could date. Police say they have \r\nevidence that the sicarios would beat the women and forced them to sell drugs \r\nand hide weapons.  The women would keep quiet because of fear. Two of the \r\nescorts killed in the last year\u2014both Venezuelans - were <\/B>murdered by \r\nanother hired killer--sicario--with links to the Tepito cartel.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

The \r\nwebsite had operated in Mexico since the early 2000s under the name \r\nDivas.com.  It went underground when another police investigator came close \r\nto deciphering the website\u2019s business model, and was ready to make arrests. The \r\npolice investigator was ambushed and killed in February 2007.  Following \r\nhis murder, the website disappeared. It was reborn in 2014 with another namer, \r\nsame business: Zonadivas.com.<\/p>\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n

Jose \r\nNemesio Lugo Felix, a nephew of the legendary Mexican actress Maria Felix, and a \r\nhigh-level Mexican police investigator, with expertise on people and arms \r\ntrafficking networks, was the investigator who followed Divas.com until his \r\ndeath.  His murder was then buzzed over by anonymous remarks from \r\ngovernment colleagues who sullied his reputation and told the media he was \r\ninvolved in illegal activities. Family members who have kept a website about his \r\nmurder refused to talk about his murder. But several entries in a Facebook page \r\nunder his name show how dangerous were his investigations. A hard-nosed \r\nofficial, Lugo was shadowing the website and its owners.  He had a solid \r\ncase proving how the website\u2019s owners and its financial backers lured young \r\nwomen from South America and enslaved them in sex work. <\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

Lugo \r\n<\/B>was so sure of his investigation and na\u00efve about the official links the \r\nwebsite owners could have had, that he gave an interview to the Mexican magazine \r\nProceso, predicting a future shutdown of the site. <\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

Lugo\u2019s \r\ninvestigation was jump-started when Mexican immigration authorities were alerted \r\nabout dozens of South American women, including Venezuelans, entering the \r\ncountry irregularly with work contracts with the online site. The website had a \r\ncomplicated network of immigration officials who helped it navigate the flow of \r\nnew arrivals.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

Then \r\nLugo was ambushed and gunned down as he drove to his office in downtown Mexico \r\nCity. His case investigation was shelved after they arrested two sicarios for \r\nhis murder. But no explanation was given as to <\/B>the identity of the \r\nintellectual author of his murder.<\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

According \r\nto one investigator, his murder indicated that the network running ZonaDivas had \r\nprotectors in the Mexican federal government.  Lugo\u2019s murder was never \r\nsolved. And Divas.com changed its name to ZonaDivas.com and began operations \r\nonce again in 2011. <\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n

When Daisy came to Guadalajara<\/h2>\n\n\n

The \r\ntrafficking of Venezuelan women to Mexico has been booming since 2010, as the \r\neconomy in Venezuela waned and Mexican drug cartels gained more of a foothold in \r\nthat country\u2019s drug trafficking networks.  <\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

In \r\nthe early years, Venezuelan women were trafficked to Mexican cities like \r\nGuadalajara, Ciudad Juarez, on the U.S.-Mexico border, and Monterrey, among \r\nothers.  <\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

Guadalajara, \r\nin Jalisco state, a city in western Mexico known for mariachis and tequila, \r\nbecame a special center for voluptuous Venezuelan escorts. Upscale bars and \r\nnightclubs began to specialize in Venezuelan girls and women <\/B>in the early \r\n2010s, according to a local lawyer.  It was then that the bar Bandidas, a \r\ntheme-based establishment on Avenida Lopez Mateo across the street from the \r\nPlaza del Sol shopping area in Zapopan, arose to great success. \r\n <\/p>\n\n\r\n\n

Bandidas \r\nwould host cowboy nights, Hawaiian Fiesta nights, and other special \r\nevents.  Venezuelan girls would dress up and dance on top of the bar, ala \r\nCoyote Ugly. Every Friday the bar was packed with men drinking tequila and beers \r\nas towering young Venezuelans paraded in tiny outfits. A hidden part in the \r\nbusiness was the women\u2019s participation in prostitution.  In the beginning, \r\nit was an elective decision and only those who wanted to have sex with clients \r\nwould do so, according to one <\/B>woman who worked at the bar. The women were \r\nprotected by burly bouncers who milled around the bar. \r\n<\/p>\n\n