Pandemic, hunger forces thousands into sex work in Mexico

(28 Feb 2021) The coronavirus pandemic has forced thousands of women in Mexico City into sex work, including many who had left the trade behind. But whether through exploitation or violence, their work is fraught with danger. The economic impact of the pandemic caused many businesses to close, but the shutting of restaurants and bars, where many poorer women found work, was catastrophic. Claudia, who like most of the sex workers asked to be identified only by her first name, had stopped working the streets a decade ago after she married one of her former clients. But when her husband lost his job early in the pandemic, the couple fell four months behind in the rent on their apartment. The only way out was for Claudia to go back to sex work. “It was an income in order to eat, to pay the rent we owe,“ she said. But along with veterans of the trade, there were thousands of new sex workers on the streets.   Elvira Madrid, who leads the activist group Brigada Callejera,