Mexico mayor cracks down on male prostitutes

The mayor of Torreon in northern Mexico is urging a crackdown on male prostitutes following the murder of a priest whom prosecutors say had patronized them. "Let them go to another city," said Mayor Guillermo Anaya Llamas in remarks reported Tuesday by several local newspapers. On Sunday the Coahuila state attorney general's office said that two 18-year-olds had confessed to killing Father Jose Reglio Carrillo Valenzuela. Prosecutors said the youths admitted robbing and killing Carrillo, 46, on Friday after accepting his offer of 400 pesos (approximately $36 U.S.) to each of them to have sex. They were arrested on Saturday while driving the victim's car, according to the attorney general's office. Anaya said the campaign in the city of 530,000 would be aimed at male prostitutes, not at law-abiding homosexuals. Asked how officials would determine who was a male prostitute, the mayor responded, "It's almost that one who seems to be, is, no?" He complained that some of the prostitutes lurk around the city center in a "suspicious manner." He said the city wants to make the center of town a safe area for families and cited health risks associated with male prostitution. Asked about proposals to control male prostitution as it does female prostitution--with health checks and officially issued cards--he said, "The best thing is to let them go to another city." "In January we arrested more than 50 homosexuals in the city," he was quoted as saying by the newspaper La Opinion-Milenio of Torreon. "The previous administration was very lax in that sense."