Children in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, face a grim existence shaped by drug trafficking and factory work. At just 14, they choose between laboring for $150 weekly in maquiladoras or engaging with organized crime. Many assist in smuggling migrants while others stand by observing. They experience exploitation, including being turned into sexual commodities. This reality reflects the city’s larger history of violence and neglect, marked by the government’s failure to provide adequate social infrastructure amidst rampant crime and poverty that followed the free trade agreement with the U.S.
In Ciudad Juarez, children grow up with limited options: work long hours in factories for low pay or succumb to the pressures of organized crime.
These children, some as young as 14, guide migrants across the border, often risking their lives and personal safety in a landscape defined by violence.
The city, shaped by economic promises of free trade, failed to provide essential infrastructure like schools, leaving children vulnerable to exploitation and violence.
Under siege from organized crime and state failure, a generation of children has emerged, plagued by violence, exploitation, and a lack of protection.
Collection
[
|
...
]