Mexico City —
On a cloudy afternoon this week, a few dozen sex workers gathered outside a subway station in downtown Mexico City to remember their longtime leader.
Wearing surgical masks to protect against the coronavirus, the women prayed and sang and lighted candles around a photo of Jaime Montejo, who had devoted his life to giving these women a measure of dignity.
“He fought for us,” said Carla Enriquez Perez, who cried as she handed a white rose to each new arrival. “He fought for us until the very end.”
Just a few weeks ago, Montejo was here helping workers who had seen the sex trade dry up almost overnight because of the pandemic.
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In the past, a worker might have had 10 paying clients on a good day. But that had dropped to one or two or none at all.
Unable to afford the $5-a-night hotels where they had previously resided, dozens of women were forced onto the streets. About 70 of them began living together in a makeshift camp near the subway station.
Montejo and co-workers from his nonprofit brought the women meals and face masks and tarps so that they would be sheltered from the rain.
