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Viewing cable 07MEXICO2520, CONFUSING STATISTICS AND CONFLICTING OPINIONS

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
07MEXICO2520 2007-05-18 14:39 2011-08-30 01:44 UNCLASSIFIED Embassy Mexico
VZCZCXRO9858
PP RUEHBI RUEHCD RUEHCI RUEHGD RUEHHM RUEHHO RUEHJO RUEHMA RUEHMC
RUEHNG RUEHNL RUEHPOD RUEHRD RUEHRS RUEHTM
DE RUEHME #2520/01 1381439
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 181439Z MAY 07
FM AMEMBASSY MEXICO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 7020
RUEHC/DEPT OF LABOR WASHDC
INFO RUEHXC/ALL US CONSULATES IN MEXICO COLLECTIVE
RUCNCLC/CHILD LABOR COLLECTIVE
RUEHXI/LABOR COLLECTIVE
RUEAHLA/DEPT OF HOMELAND SECURITY
RUEAWJA/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHDC
RUEHRC/DEPT OF AGRICULTURE WASHDC
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 MEXICO 002520 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR DRL/AWH AND ILCSR, WHA/MEX AND PPC, USDOL FOR ILAB 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ECON ELAB PGOV PHUM SOCI UNCHC PINR MX
SUBJECT: CONFUSING STATISTICS AND CONFLICTING OPINIONS 
COMPLICATE WHAT TO DO ABOUT CHILD LABOR IN MEXICO 
 
1.  SUMMARY: The child labor scenario in Mexico is 
complicated by out-of-date or confusing data about the 
magnitude of the problem and by ambivalent opinions as to 
what, if anything, can or should be done about the 
predicament.  The Mexican government, International 
Organizations and NGO,s all have their own statistics on the 
dimension of the problem.   The confusing data surrounding 
the issue of child labor has prompted labor lawyers 
affiliated with the country,s largest employers association 
(COPARMEX) to state that the problem, while real, is often 
exaggerated.  The matter of private sector skepticism only 
adds to the conflicting opinions as to whether child labor 
can, or even should, be eliminated given the extreme poverty 
that exists in so many parts of Mexico.  Much of the work 
done by child labor in Mexico can be divided into two 
categories; farm labor or the commercial the sex trade. 
Everyone concerned with the issue is in complete agreement 
within the GOM or elsewhere about the need to combat the 
sexual exploitation of children.  There is considerably less 
agreement about the need or desirability of eliminating other 
forms of child labor.    END SUMMARY. 
 
 
PICK A NUMBER. ANY NUMBER! 
-------------------------- 
 
2.  While there is no doubt whatsoever about the existence of 
the problem of child labor in Mexico it is often difficult to 
get a fact based understanding of the true dimensions of the 
problem.  Even the most cursory review of the existing data 
detailing the gravity of the problem quickly reveals that 
there is a wide range of figures on the subject.  All of the 
available figures give some idea of the magnitude of the 
situation but not all of the data on the problem can reliably 
be called current. 
 
3.  For example, one national study done on the problem by 
the GOM,s Mexican Youth Institute (IMJ), an executive agency 
attached to the Office of the President, reported that 55 
percent of all of Mexico,s boys and 25 percent of its girls 
between the ages of 12-14 are employed in some type of 
full-time wage earning activity.  Moreover, the IMJ study 
said, 85 percent of all of these youths earn less than the 
monthly minimum wage (roughly USD 80.00 assuming a five day 
work week).  This study is frequently cited, at least by 
local organizations, when discussing the issue of child 
labor.  The only problem is that the study was published in 
2005 based on data which may have been gathered as early as 
2002. 
 
4.  International Organizations looking at the child labor 
situation in Mexico have their own numbers.  According to a 
World Bank report published in late 2006, Mexico has some 3 
million children between the ages of 7-14 engaged in 
full-time (or nearly full-time) employment.  The World Bank 
report indicated that this figure represented 14.7 percent of 
all Mexican children in that age group.  Most of these 
children, the report said, worked in the agricultural sector 
with a significantly smaller proportion working in either the 
services or manufacturing sectors.  A study produced by the 
Mexican government,s National Statistics Institute (INEGI) 
closely coincides with the World Bank report.  The INEGI 
study states that there are at least 3 million minors engaged 
in child labor.  The INEGI study also mirrors the World Bank 
report in its breakdown of where these children are most 
frequently employed: agriculture ) 48.3 percent, services ) 
37.9 percent and manufacturing ) 13.8 percent. 
 
5.  None of the above figures include the estimated numbers 
for minors engaged in child pornography or child 
prostitution.  Figures for children compelled to work in 
these types of activities are almost always reported 
separately (see below). 
 
 
WHERE THINGS ARE WORST 
---------------------- 
 
6.  As noted above, the majority of Mexican minors compelled 
to join the country,s labor force are more often than not 
employed in the agricultural sector.  These children are all 
from desperately poor families and frequently work in the 
fields right along side their parents and siblings.  The 
 
MEXICO 00002520  002 OF 004 
 
 
Mexican states where the problems of child labor employed in 
the agricultural sector appear to be most prevalent are the 
states of Chiapas, Campeche, Puebla, Sinaloa and Veracruz. 
There are also reportedly significant numbers of children 
being employed in the agricultural sectors in the states of 
Michoacan, Colima, Guerrero, Yucatan and Coahuila.  A growing 
problem in all of these states further complicating the 
social ramifications of the child labor scenario in Mexico is 
the phenomena of younger children working in the fields with 
their mothers while their fathers and older siblings migrate 
to the US in search of employment.  The ultimate consequences 
of this type of family separation are not yet known but 
Mexican authorities are monitoring the situation. 
 
7.  The Mexican government at the federal and state levels is 
working to improve the lot of these child laborers but so far 
with only limited success.  Perhaps the most significant and 
sustained effort being carried out by Mexican authorities is 
a program to provide education to migrant child laborers, in 
the agricultural sector. Mexico,s Secretary for Public 
Education is running an initiative called the Primary 
Education Program for Migrant Children.  There are no 
reliable recent figures for this program but in 2003 it 
reportedly provided primary education in migrant communities 
to some 30,500 children between the ages of 6-14. 
Considering that such figures that exist on the overall 
problem indicate there may be at least 1 million child 
laborers in Mexico,s agricultural sector, the figure of 
30,500 children being educated is extremely modest. 
 
 
TO DO, OR NOT TO DO ) THAT IS THE QUESTION 
------------------------------------------ 
 
8.  Regardless of the real size of the problem of child labor 
in Mexico what does appear to be very real is public debate 
on what, if anything, to do about the problem.  Many 
children,s advocates affirm that child labor should be 
eradicated, at least to the extent that the situation can be 
made to comply with Mexican law.  These advocates site both 
national law and international treaties in making their 
argument.  In the case of national law both Mexico,s 
constitution (Article 123) and its &Federal Labor Law8 
(Article 173) expressly prohibit child labor for anyone under 
age 14. Child advocates (and occasionally some elements of 
the Mexican government) also site the fact that in 1990 
Mexico ratified the UN Convention on the Rights the Child, 
which also prohibits employing children below age 14. 
 
9.  Other activists involved with the issue of child labor do 
not see the problem in simple terms of complying with the 
law.  These activists state that it is unrealistic to try to 
eliminate or even significantly reduce the incidence of child 
labor in Mexico given the prevalence of severe and widespread 
poverty throughout the country.  The position of the 
activists is that very poor people will do whatever it takes 
to survive and that the goal of both the Mexican government 
and Mexican society should be to try and regulate not 
eliminate the phenomena of child labor. 
 
10.  A spokesperson for a Mexican NGO has publicly argued 
that what should be done is ensure that children forced to 
work because of their families, poverty should only be 
allowed to work a maximum number of hours per day, be paid a 
fair wage, allowed a work schedule that permits them to 
attend school, and not be made to work in hazardous job (as 
often happens with the use of pesticides in the agricultural 
sector).  The NGO spokesperson did not opine on how these 
regulations could be enforced any better than the current 
laws covering child labor. 
 
11.  In another area specialists in Mexican labor law view 
the problem from a very different perspective. COPARMEX, 
Mexico,s largest employers/business association (roughly 
equivalent to the American Chamber of Commerce), has a Labor 
Commission composed for privately employed labor lawyers who 
recently comment on the issue to post,s Labor Counselor. 
While not denying the existence of a child labor issue in 
Mexico these attorneys questioned the real magnitude of the 
phenomena.  In their view, the wide range of figures which 
purportedly describe the issue on service to show that no one 
really knows how large or how serious an issue the child 
labor problem is in Mexico.  As a group these lawyers 
 
MEXICO 00002520  003 OF 004 
 
 
expressed the view that the seriousness of the problem of 
child labor in Mexico was being exaggerated.  Overall these 
lawyers seemed to believe that the current steps being taken 
by the various levels of the Mexican government to address 
the issue were more or less appropriate given the country,s 
economic realities and until such time as more authoritative 
data could be established. 
 
 
THE WORST FORMS OF CHILD LABOR 
------------------------------ 
 
12.  The available figures on the problem of child 
pornography and child prostitution in Mexico are usually 
cited separately from the ones on other forms of child labor. 
 However, as with the figures for other forms of child labor 
the available data is either out of date or a best guest. 
For example, a fairly comprehensive study of the problem was 
carried out jointly by the Mexican government and UNICEF in 
2000.  Estimates based on that study currently calculate that 
at present there are somewhere between 16 - 24,000 minors 
involved in this form of child labor. 
 
13.  The problem of children forced into the commercial sex 
trade appears to be worse in the states of Chiapas, Jalisco, 
Guerrero and Quintana Roo.  In all of these states the GOM at 
both the state and federal level have launched a number of 
public education initiatives to try and combat the problem. 
Two of Mexico,s largest national labor associations, the 
Mexican Workers Confederation (CTM) and the Revolutionary 
Confederation of Workers and Peasants/Farmers (CROC) have 
also worked closely with state and federal authorities to 
address the problem of this form of child labor.  The CTM and 
CROC both have large associate unions in the hotel and 
tourist industries where their members are well positioned to 
observe and report on suspected incidence of children working 
in the commercial sex industry.  Despite the combined efforts 
of the unions and the Mexican federal and state government by 
all accounts there is little to suggest that serious advances 
are being made in addressing this problem. 
 
14.  The lack of success in addressing the problem of child 
labor in the commercial sex trade was recently highlighted by 
the Special Rapporteur on the Sale of Children, Child 
Prostitution and Child Pornography of the UN High Commission 
for Human Rights (OHCHR).  According to the OHCHR, the 
problems of children in the commercial sex trade is a growing 
one in Mexico and has so far been resistant to the best 
efforts of the Mexican government and civil society 
organizations.  The OHCHR indicated that outdated methods of 
dealing with the problem and the growing interest of 
organized crime in the profits to be made from employing 
children in the commercial sex trade were the two main 
reasons why the problem has been so resistant to most efforts 
to control and ultimately eliminate this worsening situation. 
 The only bright spot in the UN,s assessment of the 
situation in Mexico was that the government and the 
country,s civil society organizations were fully aware of 
the gravity of the situation. 
 
 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
15. Although the exact figures on the extent of the dilemma 
of child labor in Mexico may be open to interpretation no one 
at any level of the Mexican government or society denies that 
the problem exists. Moreover, there is considerable agreement 
on the need to do something about the worst forms of child 
labor.  In that regard Mexico,s national legislature has 
recently increased the penalties for employing children in 
the commercial sex trade. Unfortunately, there is nothing at 
present to indicate that a change in the law will have any 
real impact on the effectiveness of Mexico,s law enforcement 
agencies which are often poorly trained and short of 
resources.  With regard to the issue of child labor in other 
sectors of Mexico,s economy, it is difficult to predict when 
meaningful steps may be taken to address this problem simply 
because many in Mexico are divided on what, if anything, to 
do about the situation.  Given the widespread poverty in 
Mexico and the economic necessities that have forced families 
to push their children into the labor market, it is unlikely 
that there will be any significant change in the problem of 
 
MEXICO 00002520  004 OF 004 
 
 
child labor anytime in the near term future. 
 
 
Visit Mexico City's Classified Web Site at 
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/wha/mexicocity and the North American 
Partnership Blog at http://www.intelink.gov/communities/state/nap / 
GARZA