Death of Fatimih Dávila in Mexico City could be linked to human trafficking

Fatimih Dávila, former Miss Uruguay 2006

, was found dead in a hotel in Mexico City ’s Nápoles neighborhood, Benito Juárez borough , according to public prosecutors.

The Attorney’s Office informed in a press release that police forces had found the woman on Thursday morning “in the bathroom of one of the hotel bedrooms.”

A police investigation reported that the body of the 31-year-old woman had been found hanging from a sprinkler pipe in her bedroom.

The Mexico City Attorney’s Office established that Fatimih had arrived in Mexico City on April 23, and that an acquaintance had helped her get settled for a job interview. The government body started an investigation for homicide and is now working to determine whether Dávila was murdered or committed suicide.

However, the Attorney’s Office later found that Fatimih Dávila had had dealings with José Miguel Acosta, better known as “El Negro,” who is the alleged leader of a human trafficking and forced prostitution organization.

Acosta was being investigated by police forces by order of the investigative judge Graciela Gatti , who had started an operation to take down the human trafficking operation.

Acosta hobnobbed celebrities and agents from Río de la Plata ’s world of entertainment and had access to the most exclusive summer parties, convincing young women that prostitution could catapult them to stardom.

Police forces wiretapped the trafficker’s phone and found a conversation with Fatimih Dávila. “I have been talking to Leandro, and he said that I should get involved in something like this to boost my career, because no one seems to care about the whole Miss Uruguay thing anymore,” she said to Acosta.

Acosta had promised her that she would participate in a TV show in Uruguay and another in Argentina, in 2020.

Uruguay authorities were able to arrest the model manager Leandro Santos , who was allegedly the leader of the VIP prostitution organization, in 2017.

Santos was incarcerated on December 1, 2017.

In the past few years, there has been an increase in cases where foreign women come to Mexico hoping to work as models and end up falling victim to human trafficking networks. In some cases, the women are murdered.

Lydia Cacho, the journalist fighting child abuse and human trafficking

dm