Migrants from Venezuela, Colombia and Jamaica were also working in the bar.

14ymedio, Ángel Salinas, Mexico City, 14 April 2025 — Immigration authorities in the state of Quintana Roo are reviewing the status of nine Cuban women, two Venezuelan women, two Colombian women, and one Jamaican woman who were rescued last Saturday by Navy personnel from the King bar, located on Bonampak Avenue in the Benito Juárez municipality of Cancún, where they were engaged in prostitution and offered escort services to clients.
“The crime of human trafficking is being investigated,” an official who requested anonymity told 14ymedio. According to official data, 31 cases for this crime were opened in the first two months of the year. So far in April, 72 searches have been carried out. “None of the women stated they were being held there against their will, although there is one anonymous complaint, so the investigation is ongoing.”
Initial investigations confirmed that prostitution was taking place there. “The women were offered like fruit in the market. Entry to a private establishment cost 5,000 pesos ($248), and the fee for a single encounter reached 15,000 pesos ($745). A quarter of that was given to the migrants,” the police officer said.
The place was promoted near Bonampak Avenue near Superblock 6 as “a VIP place to enjoy drinks for discerning palates,” the source told this newspaper.
The women who weren’t in the private rooms “signed up (escorted customers at tables). The cheapest drink in the place cost 500 pesos, according to one of the migrants; they were given half of the customer’s bill. A bucket (of beer) was sold for 600 pesos.”
There is additional information about the place, such as that “the migrants had to offer dances to clients in exchange for 250 pesos, which was continue reading

“The end of the American dream—this is important to emphasize—without money or papers, job opportunities are minimal. Desperation has led many migrants to seek work in beer halls, bars, and cantinas, and in these places they are targets for trafficking networks.”
Activist María Ángel Vielma explained that another way women are lured to Mexico is with the promise of jobs and other false promises. “The abuser sees what their needs are and manipulates them. It’s bait disguised as love,” she said.
This was the modus operandi of Cuban-Mexican Cristóbal Paulino Fernández Viamonte, who was extradited to the country last March, where he faces charges of human trafficking and sexual exploitation.
Fernández Viamonte was arrested by Interpol last July in Medellín, where he presented himself as a successful businessman. The investigation indicated that the detainee led a network based in the state of Yucatán (Mexico).
Those close to the Cuban-Mexican would “cast the bait” to young women—mainly from Cali, Medellín, and Bogotá—and offer them jobs as waitresses in Cancún and Mérida, where the Cuban-Mexican is listed as the owner of supposed entertainment establishments.
Behind that facade were the Candela, Bandidas, and Tropicana Angus nightclubs, which were raided by Mexican authorities last July, resulting in the rescue of eight Colombian victims. In one of these operations, Soledad “A,” alias La Capitana, who operated the trafficker’s illicit businesses, was arrested.
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