Check out this article! Hundreds of them slink, tense and nervous, through the streets lined with squat pink, beige and yellow buildings. Eyes are averted. Everyone knows what's on everyone else's mind. After all, there's only one reason to come here. Advertisement: Zona Galactica, just outside Chiapas, Mexico's southernmost state. Established in , it was this city's response to out-of-control street prostitution and the violence, disease and exploitation that accompanied it.
Gabriel Esquinca, who runs the city's health clinic at Galactica. Gates open at 9 a. Above the gates is a large sign reading "Zona de Tolerancia," accompanied by an ad for Coca-Cola. Men pay two pesos to enter used by the city to defray costs and are given a condom, purchased in bulk through a city contract. They're searched by the city police, checked for inebriation and off they go.
Although the government built the Zone and regulates its conditions, inside the free market is king. Madams and ex-prostitutes rent out the rooms. Two privately owned nightclubs -- Gitano and King Kong, sell alcohol and present late-night striptease acts.
The sexual favors of the women who work in the clubs are also available -- for a higher price. Samuel Hernandez, the city's health director. If they're healthy, they can work. Each week, the women are checked for venereal diseases. No one has ever showed up with AIDS -- Chiapas has had fewer than cases since the fatal epidemic started -- but the women are tested for it every two months anyway. Any woman with a sexual disease is suspended from working until city-supplied medication clears up the matter.
Few of the women match Hollywood's notion of what prostitutes look like. Some are well into their 40s, and bear a worn, leathery look. What they lack in looks, they make up for in price. Many of the younger women are supporting infants and toddlers. Maria, 25, has been hooking for about a year to support herself and her baby. The baby's father lives in Tabasco. The to pesos she earns on a good day is seven to nine times Mexico's daily minimum wage.
