DIF President Ana Rosa Payán said in the news conference that child abuse has increased considerably in the country since 2000 when there were 16,000 cases of these violations reported.

These statistics "could well be understating the problem; so many cases are not reported because the networks involved in child prostitution don´t figure in any statistics," she said.

REPORTS NOT FILED

She added that the DIF system received around 13,000 reports on abuse of minors in 2005, of which only 10 percent were ever filed as complaints with the public prosecutor´s office.

The reason for the insignificant number of complaints is that "the first to violate a child in the home are its family members or their close friends and neighbors," which is why people choose not to believe the child and so avoid reporting a problem that would harm a close relationship, Payán said.

The official said that one of the goals of her office is getting the nation´s 31 states and the Federal District to consider "pedophilia and child prostitution as serious crimes."

STATE LEGISLATION

At the moment only eight states have adequate legislation for combating this crime, said the DIF president, adding that it is vital that a person under 18 years of age be considered a minor and not only those under 16.

"All the international agreements Mexico has signed consider people under 18 years of age as children," she said.

According to Payán, the cities where child abuse occurs most frequently are Tijuana, Acapulco, Cancún and Guadalajara.

Earlier this month, the mayor of Cancún, Mexico´s premier tourist destination, called for harsher penalties for pedophiles who travel to the resort to sexually abuse local youngsters and more and better means to investigate foreign visitors engaged in such crimes.

Mayor Francisco Antonio Alor referred to recent high-profile child abuse and pedophilia cases in which several foreigners were involved.

"We should investigate the potential clients who travel to destinations around the world looking for this alternative that I can´t fathom ... I demand that federal authorities extensively investigate, since there are many interests generating much money and organized crime," Alor said.