A Netflix series was made about the brutality of erotic adult jobs and prostitution in Mexico

The Netflix series about Mexican erotic adult jobs reveals enormous brutality

According to many, escort girls and prostitutes put themselves in danger when doing their adult jobs, so they are not met with sympathy even when they become victims of abuse, violence, or murder.

While some in wealthy societies choose this path voluntarily, for many women in Latin America sex work is a forced means of making a living or supporting their families, for which they pay a high price.

The Netflix documentary series Caught in the Web: The Murders Behind Zona Divas offers a glimpse into the brutal world of the sex trade in Latin America, showing that these women are not just sexually exploited:

often their physical and mental health, freedom and self-determination also suffer serious damage.

Compared to Europe, the situation of erotic adult jobs in Mexico is much more serious

Netflix's four-part documentary series explores the events surrounding the infamous Zona Divas website, while pointing out that women in Mexico and Latin America who do sex work are not protected by the law or the authorities.

Moreover, the often multi-level exploitation in the world of adult work ultimately leads to the death of many women.

The Zona Divas website was created around 2010 in Mexico, originally to provide an advertising platform for escort girls.

Although the website's operators claimed that the women featured were only adult models and that the site would help them find escort jobs, in fact

a sex-trafficking network was operating in the background.

The two founders of Zona Divas, Soni and Tony, forced women to work beyond their strength for low pay.

Those who tried to escape often faced death as punishment.

According to the recollections of the survivors, if they wanted to advertise on the front pages, they not only had to pay more money, but also sexually satisfy the cruel desires of the executives.

Once the door closes, your safety is up to you.

In the early 2010s, women who came to Mexico from poorer South American countries, hoping to support their families with money from prostitution, advertised on the Zona Divas website.

Most of them came from Venezuela, Colombia and Argentina, and although they were initially told that their fate was in their own hands, they soon realized that they had entered a nightmare.

At the very first meeting, they had to sign a declaration in which they declared that they were not victims of human trafficking, but only receiving escort management.

They took away their passports, restricted their movements and kept them under constant surveillance. They were only allowed to leave the house where they lived crowded, with dozens of girls in a room, accompanied by a driver.

Every detail of their lives was controlled, while significant amounts were deducted from their earnings from sex work.

It all started with the fact that they were already in debt upon their arrival: the costs of the trip, the first purchases, a change of clothes, food and housing were charged to them.

In addition, they had to pay serious amounts for professional photos and the opportunity to advertise on the site.

Many people worked for months just to pay off their initial debt before they could start "saving up".

However, this was almost impossible as housing and advertising costs remained extremely high.



The women mostly sent their hard-earned savings home, and since they had neither documents nor money, they had no chance to escape – their lives were often at stake because of sexwork.

This was especially true when their clients, including many lawyers, doctors, university professors, and business executives, brutally abused and raped them.

However, they could not stop doing sex work: they had to work even in such cases, when they felt pain in all parts of their bodies due to the beatings, or suffered from abdominal cramps and bleeding. There were times when they had to take ten clients a day in this state.

The men treated them as objects throughout, and some of their clients, who spoke behind masks in the documentary series, spoke of them as if they were not human beings but wax figures.

They were considered a luxury, not an everyday product.

- they said about the escort girls, whose "value" therefore could not be afforded by anyone. As the organization grew, more and more cartel members became interested in them.

There were men with whom they only had to appear at events where the girls acted as their girlfriends, while other men stared at their naked bodies for hours in a hotel room.

But one thing was constant: "when the hotel room door closed, women were responsible for their own safety."

According to them, they felt safe when they were together in the house, where deep friendships were formed.

Thanks to this, many prostitutes, despite all the circumstances, mustered enough courage to try to escape.

The brutal murders drew attention to adult work and prostitution in Mexico

As the organization grew, at least five of the Zona Divas escorts were murdered in a few years with a level of brutality that brought the eyes of the world to Mexico.

All of the victims were foreigners who accepted sex work in the hope of a better life.

Some worked to raise money for the medical treatment of their heart patient mother, while others wanted to create a safer future for their children.

In the end, they all became victims of violence and exploitation

Wendy Cortes, for example, fled Venezuela to Mexico because of the economic situation, as they no longer had money for basic food at home.

Thanks to her escort job at Zona Divas, her family got back on their feet, but after several attempts to leave the world of prostitution, her employers ended up killing her in a hotel room.

Her partner, Genesis Gibson, who initially dreamed of an erotic modeling career, was also murdered. Like Karen Grodzinski, who started her career with a striptease job, then continued in an adult club, and only then joined Zona Divas.

Andreina was also a victim of the network: after trying to start her own escort agency, a man attacked and threatened her, and finally shot her in her car.

Kenni Finol, the fifth victim who collected and hid the evidence that eventually led to the release of the models, came from Venezuela and was killed by an assassin.

Before that, however, her killer brutally abused her: he carved obscenities into her skin, cut her hair, and tortured her for several hours.

The audio recordings and videos on her phone contributed significantly to the work of investigative reporters and the authorities.

The country where the authorities work together with the criminals

In 2018, after the murders, the Zona Divas website was permanently shut down and the operators of the network were put on trial on charges of human trafficking.

The authorities launched an investigation, which revealed that the prostitution network was much larger than previously thought.



The head of the network, Ignacio Antonio Santoyo Cervantes (Soni), denied his guilt, but the testimony and evidence of the women made it clear that he controlled the entire scheme.

The Netflix documentary series shows through the tragic stories of women that sex trafficking is a global problem that is closely intertwined with human rights violations, exploitation and violence, and that destroys the lives of millions. The fight against this phenomenon is a difficult and complex task.

Especially in Latin American countries, where the authorities often cooperate with criminal organizations, it is difficult to end prostitution.

Due to corruption and shortcomings in law enforcement, justice in the Zona Divas case was achieved only partially and with considerable delay.

Although the website was shut down in 2018, those responsible and the operators of the network remained at large for a long time.

Ignacio Antonio Santoyo Cervantes, also known as Soni, was eventually convicted only of money laundering and organized crime, the sex trafficking and murder charges could not be proven.

Apart from him, not many of the direct perpetrators of the murders have been held accountable since then.

Source: WMN.