Prostitution laws in MexicoMéxico

The Código Penal Federal applies to federal offences (art. 1) and contains no offence of selling sex; its lenocinio offence targets third parties (art. 206 Bis). The trafficking law protects the person exploited: victims are not liable for offences committed under their exploiters' control (art. 37 LGPSEDMTP).

Art. 5 of the Constitution protects the freedom to pursue any lawful occupation; the 2014 Mexico City amparo relied on it, holding that treating prostitution as an administrative infraction negated the claimants' right to work. Local regimes:

• Tijuana: the activity is prohibited without a valid Tarjeta Electrónica de Control Sanitario or while having an STI (art. 10 of the municipal STI regulation); 30–60 UMA fine or arrest of up to 36 hours (art. 41).
• Cancún (Benito Juárez): offering prostitution in public places reported as an infraction under art. 534(VII) of the Bando de Gobierno y Policía (2015–2016 reports).
• Mexico City: the 2019 Ley de Cultura Cívica contains no prostitution infraction.

Art. 35 LGPSEDMTP punishes anyone who, knowing of the person's trafficking situation ("a sabiendas de su situación de trata"), acquires, uses, buys, requests or hires their services for any of the purposes covered by the law: 2 to 40 years' prison and 1,000 to 25,000 days' fine, raised to 12 to 50 years where the victim is under 18 or in another listed vulnerable group (paragraph added 7 June 2024).

At local level, Benito Juárez (Cancún) has punished soliciting prostitution in public places under its Bando de Gobierno y Policía (art. 534(VII), as reported in 2015). Mexico City's former infraction, which also covered "solicitar dicho servicio", was dropped in the 2019 Ley de Cultura Cívica.

Art. 206 Bis(III) CPF: lenocinio is committed by whoever "regentee, administre o sostenga directa o indirectamente, prostíbulos, casas de cita o lugares de concurrencia expresamente dedicados a explotar la prostitución, u obtenga cualquier beneficio con sus productos"; the penalty is 2 to 9 years and 50 to 500 days' fine (art. 206). State equivalents checked: Mexico City art. 189(III) (2 to 10 years, 500 to 5,000 days' fine); Baja California art. 267(III) (2 to 10 years, plus permanent closure of the establishment); Quintana Roo art. 193 (4 to 10 years, but only for habitually or repeatedly profiting from an adult's sex work that is not trafficking).

The trafficking law separately punishes lending or letting premises knowing they will be used for its offences (art. 34, 2 to 7 years) and gives municipalities the task of detecting trafficking through the licensing and inspection of bars, nightclubs, massage parlours, hotels and similar businesses (art. 115(IV)).

Despite the criminal ban, Tijuana's municipal STI regulation sets hygiene, age and register obligations for the "establecimientos" where sex is sold and fines establishments that hide the activity under another licence (arts. 32–34, 49), which amounts to administrative regulation of venues the penal code prohibits.

The federal lenocinio offence (art. 206 Bis CPF) covers whoever lives off or obtains any profit ("un lucro cualquiera") from another person's prostitution and whoever directly or indirectly runs or maintains a brothel. Tijuana's regulation distinguishes "domiciliados" (registered to an establishment) from "no domiciliados", who work in premises they own or rent or that clients provide (art. 15), without restricting how many may share.

Art. 206 Bis CPF (added 27 March 2007; former art. 207 was repealed on 27 November 2007) defines lenocinio as: (I) exploiting another's body through "comercio carnal", living off it or obtaining any profit from it; (II) inducing or soliciting a person to trade sex with another, or facilitating the means for them to engage in prostitution; (III) running brothels. Penalty: 2 to 9 years and 50 to 500 days' fine (art. 206). A separate offence covers minors and persons unable to understand or resist (art. 204, 8 to 15 years). The CPF only applies to federal offences (art. 1); most cases are prosecuted under state codes, such as Mexico City art. 189, Baja California art. 267 and Quintana Roo art. 193.

The Ley General para Prevenir, Sancionar y Erradicar los Delitos en Materia de Trata de Personas (LGPSEDMTP, 2012), adopted under Congress's power to set minimum offences for trafficking (art. 73(XXI)(a) of the Constitution), punishes whoever benefits from the exploitation of a person through prostitution or any other paid sexual activity by deception, physical or moral violence, abuse of power, taking advantage of a situation of vulnerability, serious harm or threats of it, or threats of denunciation to the immigration authorities (art. 13: 15 to 30 years). Means need not be proved for minors. Recruiting or harbouring for exploitation is punished separately (art. 10, 5 to 15 years), as is deceptively hiring someone for sexual services (arts. 19–20). Victim consent is never a defence (art. 40), and penalties also apply to whoever prepares, promotes, incites, facilitates or collaborates (art. 41).

Art. 106 LGPSEDMTP: "Queda prohibida toda publicidad o inserciones pagadas en los medios de comunicación masiva de cualquier índole, que incluya en sus publicaciones anuncios de contacto sexual o que promueva la prostitución y la pornografía que pueda propiciar la trata de personas". It sits in the prevention chapter and carries no penalty of its own.

The penal provisions are art. 32 (2 to 7 years and 500 to 2,000 days' fine for whoever, directly or indirectly, contracts space in any printed, electronic or cyber medium for ads amounting to "publicidad ilícita o engañosa" in order to facilitate, promote or procure any offence under the law) and art. 33 (see platforms). "Publicidad ilícita" is advertising used to bring about trafficking offences directly or indirectly; "publicidad engañosa" is misleading advertising meant to recruit people for exploitation (art. 4(XV)–(XVI)).

An ad by an adult for their own services, with no trafficking element, is not an offence on the wording of these provisions, but placing ads for another person can amount to lenocinio as facilitation (art. 206 Bis(II) CPF) or, with the art. 13 means, trafficking.

Art. 33 LGPSEDMTP: "Se aplicará pena de 5 a 15 años de prisión y de un mil a 20 mil días multa a quien dirija, gestione o edite un medio impreso, electrónico o cibernético que, incumpliendo lo dispuesto con esta Ley publique contenidos a través de los cuales facilite, promueva o procure cualquiera de las conductas delictivas objeto de la misma." Read with art. 106, this exposes operators of ad sites carrying sexual-contact ads that facilitate trafficking.

Art. 88(XV) gives the Intersecretarial Commission, coordinated with the Interior Ministry (Secretaría de Gobernación), the task of permanently monitoring classified ads published "por cualquier medio" under guidelines it is to issue. The law's eighth transitional article gave the Interior Ministry 90 working days from June 2012 to issue them. Art. 14, as amended on 7 June 2024, expressly includes the use of ICT platforms in the pornography-exploitation offence. According to the US TIP Report 2025, an NGO found that from 2022 to 2024 over 45% of victims calling the anti-trafficking hotline had first been recruited through websites or social media.

• Mexico City: the former Ley de Cultura Cívica (art. 24(VII)) punished prostitution where neighbours complained. The new law passed in May 2019 still had the infraction in art. 27; the head of government returned it, arguing that neither the federal nor the local constitution prohibits sex work, Congress removed the clause, and the law published on 7 June 2019 has none.
• Cancún: art. 534(VII) of the Bando de Gobierno y Policía (as reported in 2015–2016): inviting to, practising or soliciting prostitution in the street or public places; 418 sellers and 90 buyers detained 2013 to mid-2015.
• Tijuana: registration is compulsory for people found "en lugares públicos cometiendo actos de comercio sexual", without prejudice to other liability (art. 13(II)), and anyone found inducing another to trade sex is brought before the municipal judge (art. 9).

Tijuana (Reglamento para el Control de Enfermedades de Transmisión Sexual, 2005): registration requires proof of majority age, a questionnaire on sexuality and no STI (art. 12). The card carries a photograph and the words "no sirve para acreditar la mayoría de edad" (art. 18), is issued on payment of the fee set in the municipal revenue law (art. 19), and must be shown to inspectors and clients on request (art. 31). Checks are monthly and not free (arts. 26–27). People with an STI must stop working (art. 30). In 2015 ZETA reported a registration fee of 1,641 pesos and monthly renewals of 328 pesos in 2014, with registrations removed (bajas) after reactive HIV tests. In August 2022 a night-time inspection in the Zona Norte brought 27 women without a card before the municipal judge.

Mexico City: the 2014 ruling ordered the labour department to issue the claimants credentials as trabajadores no asalariados and to inform them of their rights to health, education, housing and to form unions. The credential is optional.

Art. 13(I) of the Ley del Seguro Social (as amended 1 December 2023) allows "trabajadores independientes o por cuenta propia" to join the compulsory social insurance scheme voluntarily. The 2025 bill (Mario Zamora Gastélum, PRI) would recognise sex workers as non-salaried workers with access to social security under that article and to free public health services (proposed art. 353-X LFT). Tijuana's card and medical checks are paid fees (arts. 19, 27 of its STI regulation).

Art. 52 of the Ley de Migración distinguishes visitors without permission for paid activities (up to 180 days) from those with permission, which requires a job offer or invitation. Art. 38 LGPSEDMTP: foreign victims of trafficking offences are not subject to Ley de Migración sanctions for irregular status or for holding false identity documents, and may not be held in detention centres before, during or after proceedings. The US State Department's 2026 report says authorities did not consistently screen migrants and "individuals in commercial sex" for trafficking indicators.