Child labor rises in Central America

Children collect waste at a landfill in Managua, Nicaragua, Sept. 20, 2012.

Hector Retamal, Getty Images — Child labor is a growing problem in Central America, a region plagued by poverty, where statistics show 13 percent of children in Nicaragua between the ages of five and 17 are forced to work, 21 percent in Guatemala, 15 percent in Honduras, 10 percent in Belize, seven percent in Panama, and five percent in El Salvador and Costa Rica.

A boy collects waste at a landfill in Managua, Nicaragua, Sept. 17, 2012.

A boy drags a sack of waste collected at a landfill in Managua, Nicaragua, Sept. 20.