Officials fight growing reputation as haven for exploitation

By LAURENCE ILIFF and BRENDAN M. CASE / The Dallas Morning News

Until three years ago, Paulina Arias lived a quiet life near Cancún's white sand beaches and turquoise waters. She spent her days teaching at a Catholic school, attending Mass, visiting prison inmates and making a home for her husband and two children.

Then she was told that one of her students, a 17-year-old girl, had been sexually abused by a wealthy businessman since the age of 13. The student said she also had sent girls as young as 6 to the man, who referred to them as "fresh meat" on a covertly filmed videotape obtained by The Dallas Morning News.

The suspect, Jean Succar Kuri, sits in an Arizona jail, facing extradition to Mexico, where he is charged with statutory rape, child pornography and corruption of minors, according to authorities and Mr. Succar's lawyers.

Through one of his lawyers, Mr. Succar, 59, acknowledged having an extramarital affair with the teenage girl but denied engaging in sexual activity with younger girls. Mr. Succar has also said that the videotape on which he appears, which has uneven sound quality, was doctored.

Mr. Succar controls investments in everything from retail shops to restaurants to hotels in Cancún. There, authorities and activists view the developing Succar scandal as the most vivid example of how poverty and impunity breed child prostitution, pornography and sex abuse in Mexico's No. 1 tourist destination. But it's hardly an isolated case.Miquel Angel Ruiz Torres, a social anthropologist who has studied child sex exploitation in Mexico, said that Cancún could soon rival Acapulco, which has long attracted child molesters from Mexico, the United States and other countries.

"Cancún offers a lot of advantages to U.S. tourists. It's close, accessible and quite safe," he said.

Fighting back

Mexico is no Southeast Asia, where child sex exploitation is epidemic. But concern over such abuse has grown from Puerto Vallarta to Guadalajara to towns along the U.S. and Guatemalan borders. Many abusers are Americans.

Mexican police have started to fight back. With help from their U.S. counterparts, Mexican authorities have nabbed a number of Americans suspected of child molestation in recent months, prosecuting some and sending others to face charges in the United States.

But exploitation continues, experts say, because of Mexico's numerous poor children and weak justice system. Cancún, with its fabulous beaches and anonymity for foreign visitors, is a popular hotspot.

"In Cancún, you have the precise mix that pedophiles are looking for," said Bruce Harris, executive director for Latin America of Covenant House, an international charity devoted to street kids. "You have poverty, which means you have a lot of desperate kids. You have weak laws, and then you have corruption."

Authorities in the state of Quintana Roo, where Cancún is located, declined repeated requests for comment. The state attorney general's office, which is in charge of the local investigation, has been accused by activists and the media of foot-dragging and incompetence. So far, two special prosecutors have handled the case.

Mr. Ruiz, the researcher, investigated the child sex industry for a 2000 study sponsored by the United Nations and the Mexican government. That study found that thousands of Mexican children work in the sex industry.

In Cancún, Mr. Ruiz found hundreds of minors involved in the business at scores of establishments. He also found evidence of child porn operations.

Many youngsters migrate to Cancún from Mexico's poor southern states. Others come from Central America. Some end up prostituting themselves at strip joints and massage parlors near the resort and sometimes become the subject of child pornography. Both girls and boys are exploited.

Police say child sex exploitation has only grown since the 2000 study.

"Every time there are special operations [in bars], we find minors involved in prostitution. Every time," said a judicial official who spoke on condition of anonymity. "But authorities resist enforcement because there is so much money involved."

Once-distant problem

Child sex exploitation once seemed like a distant problem to Ms. Arias. Then one day three years ago, while she was teaching a morals class at a Catholic high school, a 17-year-old girl approached her and asked for help. The girl began by talking about an eating disorder. Then the secrets she had kept for years began trickling out.

The girl, who asked to be identified as Lorena for this article, told police she'd been sexually abused since age 13 by Mr. Succar, a naturalized Mexican citizen from Lebanon and a U.S. resident who divides his time between California and Cancún.

She was first taken to Mr. Succar's home by a teenage friend who also was being abused by him, she recounted. On Lorena's second visit there, he fondled her and gave her money, according to police reports, copies of which were obtained by The Morning News.

Soon, Mr. Succar was picking her up at school, buying her clothes and giving her money. He was also having sex with her – and asking her to bring over younger girls, she told police.

Lorena said she took her 6-year-old sister, who allegedly was also abused by Mr. Succar. Cousins and neighbors followed.

Ms. Arias urged Lorena to go to police. But Lorena initially declined to press charges.

"I thought that this was normal, that this was part of life," Lorena, now 21, said in an interview with The Dallas Morning News.

Mr. Succar's lawyer denied charges that his client had molested younger girls.

"People in Mexico will say he's a monster," said the lawyer, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "But this is false. He's a decent man. He doesn't have the profile of a pedophile."

Ready to act

Teacher and student lost touch. Last year, however, Lorena sought out Mrs. Arias again for help. Lorena's view of Mr. Succar had changed, and she was ready to act.

"Sometime later I saw him again, and I realized he was not a good person," Lorena said. "I didn't want any more girls to suffer."

With help from Mrs. Arias, Lorena rounded up several alleged victims and took them to police. Authorities set up a sting. Lorena arranged a lunch meeting with Mr. Succar, at which a hidden camera taped their conversation.

On the tape, the teenager asked him about his sexual attraction to young girls. Mr. Succar, who allegedly went by the nickname "El Johny," described sexual acts with some of the victims by name.

Authorities obtained an arrest warrant from a judge. But Mr. Succar fled Cancún before they could serve it, bringing a barrage of criticism from children's rights groups that authorities had tipped off the well-connected businessman. He was arrested in February near Phoenix by U.S. marshals.

Lorena's actions led to additional allegations.

One boy said in a police report that Mr. Succar tried to make him have sex with his younger sister when the boy was about 9.

Another girl charged that Mr. Succar fondled here and once raped her. She also said that he took pornographic pictures and video of her and other girls, according to police reports. She told authorities that Mr. Succar would sometimes give her money, perhaps $10 in a day, plus another $50 for her mother. And she alleged that Mr. Succar threatened to have her separated from her family if she told anyone about the alleged abuse.

Federal authorities declined to comment in detail on the case, but they confirmed some of the charges against Mr. Succar.

"The fugitive [Mr. Succar] is accused of raping three minors on repeated occasions after they went to his home to swim and watch television," the federal attorney general's office said in a statement. "Additionally, Jean Succar Kuri obliged two minors to engage in sexual activity in order to take photographs of them."

This week, the newspaper Que Quintana Roo Se Entere ran an obscured photo of a naked 6-year-old girl that it alleged was one of Mr. Succar's victims.

Parents accused

Some judicial officials and activists, including Ms. Arias, want some of the abused children's parents to be prosecuted as well. Ms. Arias says many mothers knew what Mr. Succar was doing to their daughters but turned a blind eye for money.

"It angers me tremendously to see how these little kids, who are a treasure, have been exploited by people who now want off the hook by blaming it on their ignorance or their poverty, or whatever else comes into their head," she said.

Ms. Arias even wants Lorena to be prosecuted, viewing her as both victim and victimizer, given her alleged role in leading younger girls to Mr. Succar.

The mother of two alleged victims – the boy and girl who were allegedly pressured to have sex with each other – said she initially thought Mr. Succar was doing a form of charity work for the poor neighborhood where she lives.

The woman said she never received money from Mr. Succar. Her kids, she said, went to his house perhaps five or six times and came back with only a few items of new clothing.

"In our ignorance, we didn't know," said the woman, who asked to remain anonymous to protect her children's identities. "He needs to be jailed. If let free, he will continue doing this."

Then she broke down crying.

"If it kills me, he will pay," she said. "Love has to prevail over money."

Laurence Iliff reported from Cancún. Brendan M. Case reported from Mexico City.