Mexico's wealth divide keeps kids on street

By Catherine Bremer
REUTERS

PUEBLA, Mexico – When night falls, 34-year-old Ernesto Portillo takes a bag of toy cars, board games and sweets, jumps on his moped and weaves through the dark streets of the colonial Mexican city of Puebla.

An unconventional charity worker, his job is to roam around trying to befriend the scrawny kids as young as 6 who live under the city's bridges and squat in open-air market stalls.

In 10 years, Portillo has got some 200 kids off the street and into care. He has also been chased off, taunted by drunks, called a pervert and threatened by a terrified 11-year-old boy wielding a rock.