GUATEMALA'S MARGINALIZED WORKERS: PROSTITUTES AND

UNCLAS GUATEMALA 000427

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

DOL FOR PCHURCH, KCOOK, AND EMUIRRAGUI
DEPT FOR WHA/CEN AND DRL/ILCSR
DEPT PLEASE PASS TO USAID FOR LAC/CAM KSEIFERT

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ELAB ECON SOCI PHUM KDEM GT
SUBJECT: GUATEMALA'S MARGINALIZED WORKERS: PROSTITUTES AND
CHILD TRASH-PICKERS


1. (U) Summary: Driven by economic hardship into
prostitution, women loiter in the doorways of dozens of
brothels lining the street in the seedy red-light district of
Chimaltenango. Driven by the same economic forces, children,
some as young as ten, toil alongside their parents in a
municipal landfill not far from the capital, salvaging
recyclable plastic from heaps of rubbish. On April 21,
poloffs visited a red-light district and a nearby landfill to
assess the incidence of child and forced labor. An NGO is
seeking to provide alternatives to these impoverished and
exploited workers. End Summary.


2. (U) On April 21, poloffs visited two brothels in
Chimaltenango, 50 kilometers from the capital, and a landfill
in nearby Alotenango for a closer look at Guatemala's
marginalized informal labor sector. Poloffs were accompanied
by the director and a social worker of "The God's Child
Project" (GCP),a well-established NGO that seeks to rescue
and assist victims of sexual and labor exploitation. Poloffs
spoke with prostitutes and child scavengers about their work
conditions and challenges.

NGO Assistance to Victims
--------------

3. (U) GCP opened its "Institute for Trafficked, Exploited
and Missing Persons" (ITEMP) in 2001 to provide greater
assistance to victims. According to Director of Operations
Charles Moore, ITEMP initially focused on raising public
awareness and did not formally begin to identify or rescue
trafficked and exploited victims until January 2008. GCP
currently employs six social workers who provide critical
tips on suspected victims to ITEMP for follow-up
investigation and rescue. (Note: ITEMP does not currently
receive any USG funding for its programs but is seeking G/TIP
funding. End note.)


4. (U) GCP provides shelter and services to the homeless.
Its shelter in Antigua has a capacity of 150 and separate
sections for single men and for families. It houses 100-125
homeless persons per day, with an average stay of six months.
There is no maximum length of stay. The only restrictions
on residents are prohibitions on weapons, drugs, and alcohol.
According to Moore, the shelter is GCP's most important
asset and its best source of information on victims.

Prostitution
--------------

5. (U) Chimaltenango's seedy red-light district is home to
some 40 brothels that service local residents as well as
traveling businessmen. With the constant rumble of
overloaded trucks on the nearby Inter-American Highway,
poloffs spoke with 26-year-old brothel manager "Max" and
21-year-old transvestite prostitute "Valeska." Max said he
supervises 12 sex workers )- nine women and three
transvestites ranging in age from 20 to 50 -- in the only bar
in the area featuring transvestites. Six prostitutes work
the morning shift, while the other six work the night shift
five days a week. During our visit, three were on duty.



6. (SBU) Valeska, a Guatemalan transvestite from
Chimaltenango, has lived and worked in the brothel for four
years. (Note: The legal minimum age for prostitution in
Guatemala is 18. End note.) She said she has 15 clients,
most of them regulars, and averages 3 to 4 clients per day,
at the rate of Q50-75 (USD 6-9) for every 15 minutes. She
said her clientele includes American citizens, but that most
of her clients are Guatemalan professionals, 18 to 40 years
of age, primarily from Guatemala City and Antigua. She is on
Qof age, primarily from Guatemala City and Antigua. She is on
duty from 8 a.m. to 9 or 10 p.m., earning Q100 to Q300 (USD
13-38) per day and extra money freelancing as a hairstylist.
Out of her earnings, she pays Q30 (USD 4) per day for food
and Q5 (75 cents) per client to the owner of the brothel.


7. (SBU) Valeska, who has six siblings, said she started
working in the brothel to help support her parents, neither
of whom is working. She gives her mother, whom she visits
once a week, Q200-300 (USD 25-38) per week. Valeska
acknowledged that she does not like what she does and would
prefer to work with computers or as a full-time hairstylist
if she could. She noted that she has a vocational degree in
computer science, but experienced gender discrimination when
seeking work in the capital, which she said was a common
problem for transvestites.


8. (SBU) Max has been working at the brothel for eight
months, as both a prostitute and a supervisor. He said he
left his previous job at a restaurant because of the low
salary. He currently earns Q50 (USD 6) per day, in addition
to what he earns as a prostitute, for supervising the other
prostitutes, booking the clients, managing the administrative
and financial operations, and reporting to the brothel owner,
a Guatemalan who lives in Antigua and owns several other
brothels in the area. Although Max is also a nurse and a
tour guide, his employment opportunities have been limited.
Max claims he cannot get a regular job because of
discrimination against gays.


9. (SBU) At another brothel, poloffs spoke with "Perla," a
22-year-old Salvadoran transvestite who has been working in
the brothel for one year. Perla, a high school dropout,
manages the brothel for the owner who pays her Q1,000 (USD
125) per month, and supervises eight employees, ranging in
age from 15 to 38. Each employee services an average of five
clients per day between 11 a.m. and 9 p.m. In addition to
supervising, Perla herself handles an average of 18 clients a
day, including some who pay only to converse and drink. She
starts working when the first client arrives and works until
10:00 p.m., or sometimes as late as 3 or 4 a.m., depending on
the traffic. Perla charges clients Q75 (USD 9) for every 15
minutes. Some days she earns nothing, while other days she
earns as much as Q600 (USD 75). Each worker sets her own
price. She said some girls earn more, some earn less,
depending on the extent of their sexual knowledge and
appearance.


10. (SBU) Although Perla has seniority, the trust of her
boss, and more freedom of movement than the other workers who
are fined Q100 (USD 13) if they roam in the street without
her permission, she said she does not like her job. She
claims she is free to leave but chose to return after being
deported to El Salvador five months ago. She said that
because she is a foreigner no one will give her work and she
has to bribe the police to work in the brothel. She claimed
she lost her passport two years ago in a robbery.


11. (SBU) Regarding violence and security, Perla said that
there are no security guards at the brothel and that the sex
workers have to fend for themselves. She alleged harassment
by police and immigration officers who arrive every Friday or
Saturday night around closing time to check for girls younger
than 18, whom they take to a homeless shelter. (Note: A
social worker accompanying poloffs contradicted this,
asserting that in fact the police rape them. End note.)
Perla claimed that the officers take some of the workers "for
a ride" and steal their day's earnings. She noted that once
every six months the police conduct a big raid with some 40
patrol cars, each with four officers.

Waste Recycling
--------------

12. (SBU) In Alotenango's municipal landfill, amid soot,
explosive chemicals, and scorching heat from fires smoldering
beneath mounds of decomposing garbage, four families,
including seven children under the age of 14, sort through
the trash for recyclable plastic, which they sell for Q .15
(2 cents) per pound. Amid the grime, six small children
supervised by one girl, about 7 or 8 years old, play in a
make-shift outdoor day care center. According to ITEMP
Director Charles Moore, ITEMP paid for the children to go to
QDirector Charles Moore, ITEMP paid for the children to go to
school and even developed a micro-finance chicken-raising
project as an alternative income source for the families, but
the parents forced their children to return to work in the
dump.


13. (U) According to "Salvador," a municipal employee
supervising the landfill, which has been in operation for
four years, private dump truck drivers arrive once a day,
each paying Q150 (USD 19) per load to dump their trash.
Twice a month, trucks come to pick up the recyclable refuse.
He estimated that the workers, who are paid Q30 (USD 4) for
every 100 pounds of the recyclable trash, earn an average of
Q500 (USD 63) per month. (Note: This Q30 figure, which
amounts to Q .3 (or 4 cents) per pound is double that
indicated by the workers themselves. End note.)


14. (SBU) Poloffs spoke with 14-year-old Maria Elena, who was
sorting through the trash without any protective gear
alongside her 35-year-old mother. Maria Elena, the oldest of
the eight children working at the landfill, finished second

grade but was forced to leave school to work in the landfill
to help her mother. She has six siblings, including a
13-year-old sister who also works in the landfill. Her two
other sisters, ages 3 and 8, are too young to work, she said.
(Comment: Both Maria Elena and her mother looked at least
ten years older than their chronological ages and had the
gravelly voices of chain smokers, presumably from their daily
prolonged exposure to harsh pollutants. End comment.)


15. (U) ITEMP offered free medical testing to the sex workers
we met, and negotiated with the parents of the children who
work in the landfill to sign an agreement to send their
children back to school. These offers, however, are not
always accepted. For example, in January 2009, Maria Elena's
mother agreed to send her daughters to school in exchange for
ITEMP paying her monthly rent (approx. USD 31). ITEMP also
built her a chicken coop and provided shuttle service for her
children to travel to school. However, the children quit
school and returned to the landfill after just three days
because their mother wanted the income from their scavenging.

Comment
--------------

16. (SBU) These prostitutes and child workers are among
thousands in Guatemala who are forced by poverty to resort to
demeaning and dangerous labor for marginal income. While
their situation could ultimately improve with a growing
economy, for now it remains intractable, with many poor
exploitable workers ready to take their places. The GOG and
civil society should take greater steps to try to break the
vicious cycle of poverty and to ameliorate the harsh
conditions under which they work. The Guatemalan state is
chronically underfunded, and while the GOG's modest new
social welfare programs show promise, they are not
commensurate with the scale of the problem. While civil
society may to some extent, be able to fill the gap betweenwhat needs to be done and what the GOG can do, it lacks
resources. USG-funded programs, such as the recently
completed DOL-funded "First I Learn" project, are seeking to
raise public awareness and to provide alternatives to child
labor through education.
McFarland