In the case of minor women, they would become trafficking victims and of sexual exploitation through a romantic partner; Men would be recruited for criminal activities through family members and employers.
Those who would recruit minors would be people admired in their circles because criminals manipulate their images with children and adolescents with actions such as giving toys and gifts on dates such as Three Kings Day or the Children’s Dayas has frequently been documented.
Although the first response of adolescents to participate is an economic aspiration, they would continue with criminal activities to consolidate themselves in their communities where violence plays a significant role.
Respect for these figures is also reinforced by various examples of narcoculture such as corridos and other multimedia content found on social networks such as podcasts and videos created by influencers who use codes with which the cartels identify themselves.
Grupo REFORMA documented the use of these signs and codes that cartels use on social networks to discreetly introduce themselves to young people.
Just search for the hashtags #maña and #trabajoparalamaña on networks like TikTok to find supposed job offers, often commented on by users asking for information.
From that front, the federal government has taken action: on April 23, it reported the elimination of at least 200 social media accounts that allegedly recruited children and adolescents for organized crime.
Sanctions have also been imposed against musical groups that sing narcocorridos in their performances, as happened with the group Los Alegres del Barrancowho last May were linked to proceedings for alleged advocacy of crime after projecting images of drug trafficking leaders at concerts in Jalisco.
However, the experts specified, the fertile points for drug recruitment are a mixture of criminal presence, lack of income, low educational level and little access to health services added to an abandonment of young people in their families, but not the use of social networks.
The document Childhood Account in Veracruz of REDIMwhich investigates the methods of racketeering to swell its ranks in that entity, specifies that the phenomenon has its main origin in the lack of protection of young people, who resort to organized crime also to escape from a family environment marked by negligence, abuse and included sexual assaults.
“These experiences (abuse) have a significant impact on the rights of girls, boys and adolescents, creating an environment of defenselessness that can be taken advantage of by organized crime,” the document states.
In addition to the neglect of homes, the report adds that young people are often helpless because their parents or guardians had to leave their homes to go to the United States in search of a more stable source of income.
School dropouts are also a key factor, since in addition to the fact that young people abandoned their studies after committing a crime or having been detained in a reformatory center, a significant percentage had ruled out school from the beginning as a path to social mobility.
27.5 percent of those surveyed indicated a lack of interest or taste for studies; 27.3 percent decided to leave school to enter the labor market.
Other factors mentioned included family problems (17.1 percent), drug consumption (15.1) and some completely discarded the education as something “useful” for their future (15.1 percent).
The way in which the media and some federal government strategies address the recruitment of girls, boys and adolescents by the racketeering reveal a “civilizational crisis,” he says Daniel Hernandez Rosseteresearcher of cinvestav.
“I’m talking about a very evil civilizational crisis, it is not a moral issue, but an ethical one. The relationship between ethics, political power, and journalistic power is becoming alarmingly thin,” he warned in an interview.
Aspects such as the exposure of data, images and sensitive information by the press are practices that both the researcher and different groups have criticized regarding this issue.
Cases like the same murder of Mayor of Uruapan, Carlos Manzoin which the young man’s face circulated both in traditional media and on social networks, are examples of a type of “morbid commercialization” in the face of this problem.
“I’m talking about a morbidity about violent death. We are facing an anonymous spectacle about violent death and it is becoming a commodity. It is a product that is sold and bought,” he criticizes.
“I think we require a lot of reflection on the phenomenon of drug trafficking and violence, but not only from the morbid, almost pornographic point of view. But from the way in which we are proposing the relationship with this phenomenon as an object of study.”
On the other hand, the doctor specialized in urban sociology regretted that more technical and specialized information about the contexts of young people is often biased by the very nature of the racketeering.
“We have not been able to enter communities in a more open way for more than 15 years. Not only anthropologists, but sociologists, and even Inegi has a history of interviewers entering and disappearing them,” he said.
Even this type of work, he pointed out, is carried out with another framework of respect for the rights of girls, boys and adolescentsas well as the protection of their identities.
“Interviews (in investigations) have to be anonymous and confidential. And not only as a matter of people’s rights, that is, people have the right to confidentiality and anonymity,” he said.
The lack of a legal framework that punishes child recruitment for criminal activities is another reason why Mexican cartels look for young people for hitmanhe falconlas extortions and other criminal activities, states Jaime Laines Potisek, director of the Juan Antonio Montesinos Center.
In an interview, he highlights that civil organizations have called for the creation of a judicial framework that protects girls, boys and adolescents who are involved in crime networks.
“The crime is not the one committed by the minor while in a situation of recruitment. That is, a minor who goes and commits a crime, steals, mistreats or even kills another person having been captured for the crime, is actually in a situation of victim. As there is no crime of ‘recruitment’, he cannot be classified in that sense.
“One way to protect it would be to say: ‘all crimes committed by that person are committed as a victim,'” he says.
In addition to the lack of a legal framework with this perspective, the researcher warns that responsibility not only falls on the guarantees that the State must provide to this sector, such as security and access to educational and medical services, but also on the creation of a social fabric that involves the population.
“It is not that they are not my sons or daughters. They are our sons or daughters because they are socially generated, created and cared for or neglected. As a civil society it is important to promote an ethic of care, attention and hospitality.”
Having a critical perspective regarding the promotion of aspirational cultural products of crime, such as narcocorridos, and admiration for characters who promote these expressions, he affirms, are an issue that corresponds as a society.
“It is society’s responsibility not to play into these types of invitations about what is good, what is desirable, what is aspiring, etc. It is incredible if one listens to certain music, certain culture, in places with a very high incidence of crime,” he says.
Laines Potisek highlights the creation of social programs aimed at this population; However, note that the coincidence of the violence and the poverty It forces girls, boys and adolescents increasingly to look for “jobs” in criminal activities, despite the fact that there are cases in which school does represent a path to social mobility for young people.
“The offer that organized crime It can give a young person a much higher salary for a much more – I’m going to put quotes – simpler, less complex activity. The programs are supports, but they are not the underlying solution to the problem,” comments the researcher.
Although the issue is complex, he says, a plan to address the child recruitment It would include job training programs, the creation of real work alternatives, strengthening education and an effective fight against impunity.
The expert cites an African proverb: “The child who is not embraced by his tribe, when he is an adult, will burn down the village to feel its warmth,” and warns that organized crime tends to take a paternalistic role in communities with high crime.
“Organized crime has very skillfully seen and specialized in presenting itself as a benefactor, a substitute for a father, a mother, a caregiver, a person who cares.
“They become a trustworthy person, who gives attention, who cares about others. It is terrible, because it is effectively one of the reasons why many minors are going to fall into these networks,” he warns.