A little more than a year ago, Romina Rosales, a Latin migrant 43-year-old sex worker, started “Queens of the Underworld”, a non-profit organisation based in L.A., California. According to their website, the organisation “provides community for women-identifying and femme sex workers that serves as a resource for learning coping-skills and self-care”.
Regional updates: Latin America
Our members are listed on the left or you can click the red umbrellas on the map.
Regional Board Members
Cynthia Navarrete Gil (APROASE), Mexico.
Miguel Angel Saurin Romero (Asociacion Civil Cambio y Acción), Peru.
NSWP Regional Network
The Plataforma LatinoAmerica de Personas que EjeRcen el Trabajo Sexual (PLAPERTS) is a Latin American platform for sex worker-led organisations representing female, male and transgender sex workers. It was founded in 2014 and is based in Machala, Ecuador.
News articles from Latin America region are listed below.
The 23rd-25th November was the 14th meeting of Encuentro Feminista de Latino América y el Caribe (Feminist Meeting from Latin America and the Caribbean, known as ‘EFLAC’), which took place in Montevideo, Uruguay. Many groups of women from all over the region attended, including more than 30 sex workers from different countries like Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Panamá, México, Honduras, and Nicaragua. The meeting’s motto was “Diverse but not Dispersed”.
20th December 2017 by NSWP
Three months ago, attorney and Columbian legislator Clara Leticia Rojas González (known as Clara Rojas), began campaigning for new legislation which would fine people who pay for sex with up to $23,000,000 Colombian pesos (around $7,500 US dollars). This proposal has been strongly condemned by Colombian sex workers, activists and academics.
16th November 2017 by NSWP
In June 2017, Nicaragua became the third country in Central America to have a sex workers’ union recognised by the Ministry of Labour, after Colombia and Guatemala. In Nicaragua, the sex workers’ union is attached to the Confederation of Self-Employed Workers.
19th October 2017 by NSWP
Many Latin American sex workers groups came to Cancún, Mexico to join the Organization of American States (OAS) 47th General Assembly from 19 - 21 of June. The Theme of the General Assembly was “Strengthening Dialogue and Concertation for Prosperity.” At the event there were speeches and several panels demanding the acceptance of sex work as work, removal of the laws that criminalise sex work and endangering the life, health, and safety of sex workers, and insistance on the importance of taking measures to ensure that the human rights, safety and dignity of sex workers are respected, protected, and guaranteed.
11th July 2017 by NSWP
On 10 November, Mireya Rodríguez Lemus, President of the Asociación Civil, Unión y Fuerza de Mujeres Transexuales Chihuahuenses, announced the first recommendation made by the State Commission on Human Rights on the rights of transgender sex workers in the state of Chihuahua in Mexico.
21st November 2016 by NSWP
NSWP’s Regional Correspndent in Latin America Ana Karen Lopez Quintana met with Aruba Williams Ortiz Nájera tells, a transgender woman, sex worker activist, and defender of human rights, gender equality, and sexual diversity. Aruba is the president of Tamaulipas Diversity Vihda Trans AC, member of the women's Committee of the National Center for Prevention and Control of HIV/AIDS (CENSIDA) and representative of the Plataforma Latinoamericana de Personas que Ejercen el Trabajo Sexual Chapter Mexico (PLAPERTS).
23rd September 2016 by NSWP
Thousands of women, including sex workers protested violence (physical, sexual, and psychological) that women face in Peru on the 13 of August. There was a national march in 24 difference cities across the country. Sex worker-led organisations such as "Mujeres del Sur" of Arequipa, " Movimiento de trabajadoras sexuales de Peru", "Miluska Vida y Dignidad", "Angel Azul" and "Cambio y Accion", and “PLAPERTS” participated in the march. They chanted in one voice, “Ni una mujer menos víctima de violencia” “Ni una trabajadora sexual menos.”
22nd September 2016 by NSWP
From the 1 - 5 of August a regional training on the Sex Worker Implementation Tool took place for sex workers in the city of Cancun, Quintana Roo, Mexico. The training occurred at the hotel Dos Playas and included representatives of sex worker-led organisations in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Mexico.
16th September 2016 by NSWP
Quito has many organisations of sex workers, including "Por un Futuro Mejor" association with 280 members, "Esperanza Futuro" with more than 60 members, and "1° de Mayo" with more than 60 partners. In April they created a coalition to engage in dialogue with national and municipal authorities. The municipality has proposed to displace sex workers outside of the city, including the Cantera brothel in the historic district of Quito. The municipality would like to move sex workers from outdoor and visible locations into indoor and private locations.
23rd July 2016 by NSWP