Authorities in Mexico rescued 23 children from child labor after police raided a house during their search for a missing 2-year-old boy, who was allegedly abducted 3 weeks ago from a market in southern Mexico.
The children were discovered at a house in the colonial city of San Cristobal de las Casas in the Mexican state of Chiapas, according to a statement published by the Chiapas state prosecutors’ office.
The children were aged between 3 months old and 15 years old and were allegedly abducted and ordered to sell trinkets in the street, according to the office. All 23 children have been handed over to child welfare authorities.
“[They] were forced through physical and psychological violence to sell handicrafts in the center of the city,” the release stated, The Associated Press reported. The prosecutor said the children showed signs of “malnutrition and precarious conditions.”
“According to the children, many of them were forced to go out on the streets to sell things, and moreover they were forced to return with a certain minimum amount of money for the right to get food and a place to sleep at the house,” a Chiapas prosecutor said.
Mexican police arrested three women in connection with the discovery who are all facing charges of human trafficking and forced labor.
The raid was prompted by officials following the disappearance of Dylan Esaú Gómez Pérez, who vanished from a public market on June 30, authorities said.
Pérez was together with his mother at the market, who works at a vendor stand there. She said her son would sometimes wander off to play, but there hasn’t been a reported abduction at the market prior to Pérez.
During an interview on Tuesday, the boy’s mother Juana Pérez said her son was not located after the discovery of the 23 abducted children, according to The Associated Press.
“None of the children is my son,” Pérez told officials. “I haven’t heard anything about my son.”
Chiapas is the southernmost state in Mexico and sits on the border with Guatemala.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
