VZCZCXYZ0020
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHGT #0427/01 1252302
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 052302Z MAY 09
FM AMEMBASSY GUATEMALA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 7412
INFO RUEHZA/WHA CENTRAL AMERICAN COLLECTIVE
RUEHME/AMEMBASSY MEXICO 5171
RUEHC/DEPT OF LABOR WASHDC

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