![\"\"](\"https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/trata01.jpg\")
\u201cMaybe we, as parents, should take more \nprecautions,\u201d Jorge questions himself. \u201cI always had so much fear and talked to \nher a lot to protect her, but my daughter had to learn it in the worst way. \nFinancial conditions make people desperate and then come these type of \nindividuals to offer quick solutions,\u201d he complains. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
A misleading job offer was the same bait \nthat recruited Zurima,* 29, a resident of Petare, Caracas. She and another woman \nwere recruited in 2019 by a man named Jonathan. Zurima held at that time a \nposition as a telephone sales executive for a courier company, but her salary \n?back then the minimum wage in Venezuela was equal to less than $6? was \ninsufficient to cover her expenses, especially those of her father, who was ill \nand lived in the State of Sucre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI used to send medicines to my dad, but I \ncouldn\u2019t manage it all. We had our friend Jonathan, who told us that he was \ndoing well in construction there, in Trinidad and Tobago. I even knew his \nfamily, his girlfriend. He always told us that there were job opportunities \ncleaning houses, or in bars or restaurants. Until he told us about the \nopportunity to take care of the mother of a Trinidadian, who, according to him, \nwas a serious man,\u201d recalls Zurima. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
To travel to Trinidad, they had to go to \nG\u00fciria, also in the east of the country, from where they would take a boat to \nthe island. The price of the ticket was US$ 500 for both friends, but they \nmanaged to raise the half only. The rest was to be covered by their employer, as \nthey agreed with the man in charge of the boat that would disembark on the \nisland. But once they arrived at their destination, their supposed employer \nannounced that he would not pay the full amount, so the captains withheld their \npassports, which they never got back. They had already become - without even \nsuspecting it - hostages of a human trafficking gang.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Journey<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Until a few years ago, Venezuelan \ntrafficking victims, on a smaller scale, used to leave the country on commercial \nflights to Trinidad. But in recent years, the States of Sucre and Delta Amacuro \nhave become the hot spots from which pe\u00f1eros<\/i> (small fishing boats) constantly \ndepart for the island, a situation that has not stopped despite travel \nrestrictions imposed during the covid-19 pandemic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
A friend who lived in G\u00fciria convinced \nMaritza* to make the trip to Trinidad and Tobago with the promise that she would \nget a job as a waitress. Born in Irapa, State of Sucre, she recalls that this \nperson assured her that her pay would be \u201cdecent\u201d and that they would even give \nher a place to live. He tried to persuade her to get three other girls to travel \nwith her, but she could not convince others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Irapa and G\u00fciria, two towns in the State of \nSucre, in eastern Venezuela, are among the places that the Caricom report \nidentifies as the most active in recruiting victims for trafficking networks. \nThe document puts the number of victims extracted from that area in the last six \nyears for sexual exploitation in Trinidad at 4,000. However, the victims taken \nto these departure points are also recruited in different Venezuelan cities, \nincluding Caracas, La Guaira, San Cristobal, Maracay, Maturin, Valencia and \nPuerto Ordaz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Survivors of human trafficking report that \nthey had to go through at least three stages within the Venezuelan territory \nbefore being embarked. In each of these stages, those involved play a specific \nrole, not necessarily connected to the next links. Once they have been recruited \nby a friend or acquaintance for the criminal organizations, the victims fall \ninto the hands of groups that will take them to the points where they will be \nheld for several days, waiting to board the transport that will take them to \ntheir destination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maritza set out on April 14, 2019, from her \nvillage to G\u00fciria, a coastal journey that takes about 50 minutes by car. She, who was then 17 years old, had had \nto wait a month while her recruiter rounded up his other victims. When she \narrived, her friend took her directly to Las Salinas, another coastal sector of \nthe State of Sucre, which has become one of the clandestine and early morning \ndeparture points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before boarding the boat, Maritza was taken \nto a house with open spaces and a patio with banana trees, where she met 20 \nother women, five men and the captain. They all waited under the shade of the \ntropical fruit tree until nightfall. But that day, they did not leave. A boy \narrived in the early hours of the morning to warn that the Trinidad Coast Guard \nwas keeping \u201cheavy\u201d watch in the area. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n Other obstacles would appear on the way, or \nrather, in the middle of the sea. The boat left Las Salinas at midnight and, \nshortly after leaving, the engine died. The captain returned to shore and \nMaritza specifies that the official time of their departure from Venezuela was \nat half past midnight and their arrival in Trinidad at six thirty in the \nmorning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Navigation between the Paria peninsula and \nTrinidad can be hostile and dangerous. Victims agree that traveling aboard these \npe\u00f1eros<\/i> is a chilling experience. The \nfear of waves crashing against an overloaded boat is present throughout the \njourney. In fact, there is word that four boats have been wrecked in the last \ntwo years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Even though this is a traditional trade \nroute in the area, its use as a migration route has consistently grown along \nwith the Venezuelan crisis, and has not stopped during the covid-19 pandemic, as \nit is estimated that one to two boats still depart every night, based on figures \nreleased in January by the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs of the United \nNations Organization. All in all, this has occurred due to the corruption and \nblind eye of Venezuelan authorities, who are responsible for supervising the \nboats both in Tucupita and in G\u00fciria, who fail to carry out the required \nmigratory and port registrations, or charge fees for each irregular pe\u00f1ero<\/i> leaving for Trinidad, according \nto testimonies of travelers and data from the OAS Working Group for Venezuelan \nimmigrants and refugees, consulted for this investigation. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was on that route between Paria and \nTrinidad that the boats named Jhonaily Jose and Ana Maria disappeared in April \nand May 2019, and so far, there is no information about 60 of their passengers, \nwho are still missing. It was known that several of the teenage girls and women \non those boats had been pre-sold to human trafficking gangs. In December 2020, \nthe boats named Mi refugio and Mi recuerdo, which also departed from G\u00fciria, \nwere shipwrecked ?33 people \ndrowned in a murky incident.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The pe\u00f1eros<\/i> usually arrive in Trinidad in \nthe middle of the night or at dawn, and as in Maritza\u2019s case, in desolate \nclandestine ports, where groups of armed men wait for the travelers. The \nteenager arrived in one of these sites in Carenage, in the northwest of the \nisland, an area where cases of human trafficking have been previously reported, \naccording to Venezuelan immigrants in Trinidad and local media. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n Testimonies from travelers indicate that \narmed men divide the disembarking migrants by sex, until those who \u201crescue\u201d them \nshow up. Some of these transporters may be local cab drivers or members of \nthe gangs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But the criminal organization that exists on \nclandestine beaches and in mountain areas also has tentacles in the island\u2019s \nlegal ports. In such cases, a new actor is added to the modus operandi that \nallows the triangulation between captains and armed groups ?the immigration \npolice?, as some victims affirm and as confirmed by the Caricom research and \nreports from the U.S. State Department. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Zurima has witnessed that passports do not \nmean much in these offices. When they arrived in the port of Chaguaramas, the \nimmigration officers did not stamp their passports and neither intervened when \nthe captains of the pe\u00f1ero<\/i> took their \npassports and left.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even if the women enter with their \ndocumentation, many of them are not formally registered in the immigration \nforms. As it happened in Zurima\u2019s case, officers may give the go-ahead or turn a \nblind eye to the gang leaders who pick up the girls in black vehicles, known as \n\u201cmaxi cabs,\u201d and pay the boat captains. The Caricom investigation indicates that \nthere are three modes of complicity: \u201cthose who are coerced or threatened into \ncollaborating,\u201d those who receive money to \u201cturn a blind eye,\u201d and those who \nactively participate in the criminal activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once the victim disembarks, the trickery \ndesigned by these criminal networks to trap them dissolves. When they set foot \non the beaches, they let them know that there is no turning back. That the job \noffer does not exist. What do exist are a debt and a contract that they never \nsigned with the criminal gangs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fernanda*, 19, born in Tucupita, barely \nunderstood English when she arrived in Trinidad. Hence, when she disembarked at \nPlaya Lucero, in the island\u2019s southwest coast, she did not realize that her \nfreedom had a price. \u201cA Trinidadian man handed some money to the friend who \nbrought us. I thought it was from previous passengers. The same man sat us down \nand asked if we wanted to take a bath. I still did not understand. And then, I \nsaw my friend getting on the boat back to Venezuela,\u201d she \nrecalls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Soon after, a woman arrived and took \nFernanda to a nearby hotel. It was there that the procuress of this cell, a \nVenezuelan national, appeared. She told Fernanda that she had acquired a debt of \nUS$ 1,500, and if she did not pay, she would be sold to another more dangerous \ngang, where she would be beaten, abused or killed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n The dreams of Fernanda, a teenager who \nworked in a family business until recently, shattered in an instant. She was in \na hotel in Lucero Beach, Trinidad and Tobago, when she learned the news. Her \ncaptors informed her that she would be prostituted. The announcement came from \nthe mouth of a man who said his name was Randel Jones and claimed to have \n\u201cbought\u201d her from the man who had taken Fernanda to the island. She was now to \naccompany him to Port of Spain. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The made-up debt that generates the trip to \nTrinidad is the original sin where the story of organized crime is born \n?from that moment on, the women can only live to prostitute themselves \nand, thus, they are forced to pay it. The amount of money that Fernanda \nallegedly owed was the amount that she expected to save during the following \nmonths in some job that she may get as a saleswoman or waitress - as she \nbelieved - to help her family in Tucupita. The notice from her captor was a slap \nin the face to her self-esteem. \u201cMy freedom was worth US$ 1,500. Just \nremembering it makes me angry.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Learning that she had been sold was just the \ngateway to horror. Fernanda had entered a \u201ccooling off\" period, a sort of \npreparation for her later sexual exploitation. Experts on how human trafficking gangs operate \ndescribe it as a moment in which criminals \u201cbreak\u201d the spirits of the victims, \nan intermission before taking them to sexual exploitation. The testimonies from \neight women who survived human trafficking, as well as four relatives of the \nvictims, who were interviewed for this Armando.Info and CONNECTAS investigation, \ngive an insight into the scope of this nightmare. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It can take days or weeks. Women suffer \nintimidation, threats, harassment, sexual abuse and violence\u2026 a strategy to \nbreak their will to escape, seek help or report the criminals. Extortion does \nthe trick. \u201cThey make you psychotic,\u201d Fernanda recalls to describe the mental \nstate in which she sunk, a mixture of terror, shame and despair. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n After more than 10 hours waiting at the port \nof Chaguaramas, Zurima and her friend were picked up by their alleged employer. \nHe immediately ordered them into his car. \u201cWe didn\u2019t understand English, just \nthe basics. We wanted to go back to Venezuela, but we had no money, so we got in \nthe car, scared,\u201d she recounts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As part of the strategy to \u201cbreak\u201d them, \nthey rotated the following days between two houses. On their first night in \nTrinidad, at three in the morning, two men burst into their room. Zurima \nremembers that they were high. They made advances and there were tense moments, \nbut in the end, they left. \u201cWe got out of that. I thought we had survived the \nworst night,\u201d she affirms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But she was about to find out that the worst \nwas yet to come. A few days later they were moved, along with three other \nVenezuelan women, to a house in the Diego Martin area, west of the capital. \nThere was a man called \u201cboss\u201d with other members of his gang. They were all \ndoing drugs and drinking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She and her friend were sent to a room with \nno doors and no furniture. There was only a mattress on the floor, where two \nother Venezuelan women were. At eleven o\u2019clock at night, the boss said to \nZurima\u2019s friend, \u201cYou go to the room with him.\u201d They cried their goodbyes. They \ndid not know if it would be the last time they would see each other. \u201cLet\u2019s \nforget about your children, your family,\u201d Zurima said to her friend before the \nman grabbed her from behind. \u201cWe hugged for a few seconds, crying nonstop,\u201d she \ndescribes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n A few minutes later the boss returned, \nyelled \u201ctrash\u201d at the other two women and grabbed Zurima by the arm, who would \nnot stop crying. \u201cDon\u2019t cry, don\u2019t cry,\u201d the man told her. \u201cI was crying and \nshaking. I was speechless.\u201d The man took her to the other room. He took off his \nclothes and cracked his knuckles as a sign for her to hurry. \u201cNo, please. I am \nnot a prostitute,\u201d she told him. The man grabbed her by force, pulled off her \nshirt and pushed her onto the mat that was on the floor. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \"I was shaking my head no, crying. He took \nout a condom, put it on and lay on top of me. It was the worst. It was horrible. \nHe covered my mouth and kept telling me not to cry,\u201d she recalls. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n Maritza and other Venezuelan women were \nintimidated for two days to explain them that their job was to prostitute \nthemselves without expecting any money in return. The women tried to resist, \nwhich resulted in an atrocious punishment. They were transferred for a week to a \nwooden plank house in the mountains, where they were isolated, beaten and \nraped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once the gangs ensure through intimidation \nand violence the silence of those who will become victims of sexual \nexploitation, a profitable \u201cbusiness\u201d begins for the criminals and hell for the \nwomen. After the initial tortures, the Venezuelan women rotate through different \nbars, brothels and hotels on the island. Fernanda\u2019s destination was a \u201cluxurious \narea\u201d in Port of Spain; Maritza\u2019s was a house on the main street of Diego \nMartin; and Zurima\u2019s night of horror ended the next day in a police \nraid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n When she arrived at the bar known as Spanish Harlem or at other called Hawaii Bar, Fernanda says she worked until dawn, \nnonstop, until all the \u201ccustomers\u201d left. Deceived by the recruiters who sold \nthem to criminal organizations, coerced through violence, without identity \ndocuments or regular immigration status, after days of \u201ccooling off,\u201d the \nVenezuelan women were finally subjected to sexual exploitation. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fernanda was taken to the bars in black SUVs \n?which have become the distinctive means to transport women for prostitution on \nthe island? every night during the five months she was held in a house in El \nSocorro, escorted by one of the procuress, a Venezuelan woman. For the victims, \nthe ordeal is not limited to the nights of sexual exploitation\u2026 it extends to \nthe before and after that moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The women are forced under threat to take \ndrugs. They are often isolated, cannot leave the houses where they remain under \nconstant surveillance, have no access to the Internet or a telephone line. They \nare forced to prostitute themselves every day. \u201cThere are no days off,\u201d one of \nthe women remembers. On a single day, they are forced to have sex with at least \nfive men, says Marlene,* from the State of Bolivar, who was prostituted at the \nage of 19, when she had just been awarded her associate \ndegree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n The crime of human trafficking goes hand in \nhand with a high domestic demand for prostitution in Trinidad, says Canadian \nresearcher Justin Pierre, who was responsible for Caricom\u2019s report. He affirms \nthat Trinidad concentrates more than 80% of the demand for sex trade and \nprostitution in the Caribbean, even though it is an illegal activity in the \ncountry. And he considers that the local consumption of prostitution \u201cis higher \nthan usual.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n As in Marlene\u2019s case, not all victims are \nunaware that they are destined for prostitution in Trinidad when they make the \njourney. But their extreme vulnerability, due to the Venezuelan humanitarian \nemergency and the obstacles to emigrate legally, as well as the slave-like \nconditions they are subjected to, also turn term into human trafficking cases. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cConsent was irrelevant in cases of sexual \nexploitation, as it often involved abuse of power and vulnerability,\u201d states a \nreport by the Parliament of Trinidad and Tobago on human trafficking in that \ncountry, released in 2020. \u201cSexual exploitation could also include \u2018debt \nbondage,\u2019 where victims participate in wrongful acts due to the perception that \nthey have no choice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In late 2018, financial needs forced Marlene \nto accept the offer of an acquaintance to travel to Trinidad to work as an \n\u201cescort.\u201d The salary she earned in Venezuela was \u201cpeanuts,\u201d she says, and she \nhad to help support a home where her mom and other relatives lived, including \ntwo young nieces. \u201cThe power outages back then burned out our refrigerator and \nTV,\u201d she recalls. Then, one night, five criminals broke into her \nhouse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Marlene was one of the women prostituted in \nthe brothels run by Jinfu Zhu, a Chinese man, and Solieth Torres, a Venezuelan \nwoman. The names of both were mentioned in the media in Trinidad because they \nwere arrested in a raid of several houses and bars in February 2019, in which 19 \nVenezuelan teenage girls between the ages of 15 and 19 were rescued. The court \ncharged them with 43 cases of sexual offenses, according to news reports \nreleased at that time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The dismantling of Jinfu Zhu exposed some \nfigures about the business. The cost of a \u201cone-time\u201d service was US$ 100, while \none night was US$ 250, recalls Marlene. Half of that money was kept by the \nbosses and the other half allegedly belonged to the women, but they never \nreceived it. It went into a piggy bank with which they were supposed to be paid \nat the end of their captivity. In her case, Fernanda says that each \u201ccustomer\u201d \npaid US$ 300.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The accounts are recorded in a notebook kept \nby the traffickers. They write down the total amount of the alleged debt and the \nprofits generated by the women each day. Should a woman be arrested, the bosses \nadd to her debt the fines they must pay for the bail bonds. They also deduct \nsums for food and the rent of the rooms. <\/p>\n\n\n\n One indicator of the surge in human \ntrafficking on the island is the increase in financial irregularities linked to \nthis crime. Figures from the Financial Intelligence Unit of Trinidad and Tobago \nindicate that in the last four years the crime of human trafficking has \nmobilized at least US$ 2.2 million in the financial system of the country. In \n2017, 11 transactions for a total of TT$ 9 million, equal \nto In 2018, the same number of cases were \nidentified through the tracking of irregular movements of TT$ 2 million, a total \nof US$ 294,000. The identified cases increased to 23 in 2019, which suspiciously \nmoved a total of TT$ 1.9 million, about US$ 279,000. There were other 11 \nsuspicious transactions identified in the 2020 latest report of FIU (Financial \nIntelligence Unit) equal to TT$ 2.6 million, approximately US$ 392,000. Further \ninformation on the characteristics of these transactions was requested to FIU, \nbut no response was obtained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These amounts are a glimpse of what the crime is generating. One of \nthe researchers who participated in the preparation of the report for Caricom on \nwomen trafficking on the island, and who asked to keep her name confidential, \nexplained that it is difficult to quantify the profits of the gangs, as well as \nthe number of victims or those concerned, \u201cbut the amount of money involved \nmakes it a highly profitable business, because the victims of trafficking can be \nsold over and over again.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the thick of this business, the violence \nexercised by \u201ccustomers\u201d and traffickers becomes part of the everyday life for \nVenezuelan women, who must survive in organized crime networks. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Reina*, 20 years old, was forced to get high \nand drunk every weekend in a house under construction in San Fernando, where she \nspent a little more than a month in sexual slavery with another young Venezuelan \nwoman. She says, \u201cA month, more or less\u201d because while she was kidnapped, the \ndays went by in a haze. She could hardly remember, as she was not allowed to be \naware of herself. <\/p>\n\n\n\n She had accepted in 2018 the offer of an \nacquaintance to travel to Trinidad in the midst of a precarious financial \nsituation that did not allow her to cover the expenses neither for her nor for \nher daughter, in Maturin, State of Monagas. The woman promised her that she \nwould receive lodging and food until she could find a job to settle down and be \nable to pay. But the man who came to pick her up in a boat in La Barra, Delta \nAmacuro, a dangerous place known as a transport point in the human trafficking \nbusiness, was a drug dealer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He forced her to use drugs; otherwise, he \nthreatened to send her to the police to be deported. Since she noted that he was \na man with potential contacts in the police and a member of a criminal gang, she \nrealized that there was very little within her reach to escape from that hell. \nShe remembers having a gun pointed at her head the day she refused to drink \nalcohol, while at the same time, she was trying to prevent her \u201cboss\u201d from \nraping her. <\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the modus operandi of the gangs is to \nrotate the women from place to place, generally every three to five months. \nAmong the names of the \nbusinesses that have been recognized as places where sexual exploitation occurs \non the island are Copa Cabana, Villa Capri, 4Play Bar, and Tzar Night Club. With the restrictions because of the \ncovid-19 pandemic, some of these places have temporarily closed their doors. \nHowever, the business has not stopped. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Survivors report that it has continued at \nprivate parties for which they are hired and in the rooms of hotels like Alicia\u2019s Palace Hotel and Dads Dan. \nThis last establishment was reported for cases of women trafficking at least six \nyears ago, when the owner and his assistant were arrested for trafficking two \nVenezuelan women in 2015 and for having a place engaged in prostitution. An \nattempt was made to ask the administrators of the above bars and establishments \nabout these facts, but they did not answer. In the case of Dads Dan hotel, they \nsaid that they cannot provide information because the case is still open in \ncourt. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Once the victims fall prey to human \ntrafficking networks, they face a maze with no way out. Escape routes are almost \nnonexistent. Some are rescued in police raids, but are then imprisoned in \ndetention centers under precarious conditions. Others take the risk of escaping. \nAnd in a few cases, the only hope left to the victims is to cling to the word of \nthe \u201cbosses\u201d that they will be released once they settle their debt. That is why \nthey keep thorough accounts of how much money they generate for each day of \nexploitation, in order to know when they will be free to leave. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fernanda, after working for five months for \nthe gang, learned that she had completed the amount they demanded as a quota. \nHer captors offered her to stay working as a prostitute, but she refused, acted \nquickly to leave and preferred to \u201cmove far away\u201d to another city in Trinidad. \nHowever, she lives in fear. <\/p>\n\n\n\n She had to change jobs because a man showed \nup asking for her, saying that she owed him money. \u201cI\u2019m afraid. I\u2019m very careful \nabout taking a cab, a car, walking. At some point I could run into them and I \ndon\u2019t know how they might react,\u201d says Fernanda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As to the case of Marlene, the raid on the \u201cChinese houses\u201d resulted \nin her leaving the human trafficking networks. She worked for a while in a \ncasino in Trinidad until she had enough money to return to Venezuela. She never \nsaw a penny of the US$ 9,500 she had been promised she would receive, with which \nshe had planned to buy a house for her family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The most far-off possibility of getting out \nof the sexual exploitation circuit is to escape, a decision that very few make \nbecause they know it could mean death. Maritza took the risk of running away from the \nsecond house of sexual exploitation where she was being held. One night, she \nmanaged to keep TT$ 100 from one of the \u201cservices.\u201d At two o\u2019clock in the \nmorning, she took advantage of her boss being asleep and took his cell phone. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n She jumped over the gate of the house and \nran as fast as she could to Diego Martin\u2019s stadium, where she saw a car pass by \nand flagged it down. The driver agreed to help her and took her to a fast food \nplace in Port of Spain, where she was to meet some friends who she texted to \ncome and pick her up. \u201cFrom that moment on, I started from scratch. Those were \ndreadful moments. I even was on the verge of dying. I don\u2019t wish this on any \nother girl.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n Once she paid off her \u201cdebt\u201d and managed to \nleave the house where she was sexually exploited for over five months, Fernanda \ntried to report her case to the authorities. In June 2018, she went to the San \nFernando Police and accused her captor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cEveryone was speechless like a statue, as \nif I was speaking nonsense,\u201d she says. The officers, she recalls, took some \n\u201cvery quick notes and never did anything else.\u201d Her captor is still at large \nand, as far as she knows, the \u201cbusiness\u201d remains operational, with at least \nseven women forced into prostitution. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Data show that the crime has enjoyed full \nimpunity in Trinidad and Tobago for almost a decade. There have been no judicial \nsentences throughout this time. A parliamentary report released last year \nindicates that from 2016 to April 2020 Trinidad\u2019s police services received \n484 reports of sexual exploitation, 119 of which \nwere officially confirmed victims. Fifty-seven persons have been charged and \nnine were brought into court for this crime during that \ntime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The research on women trafficking in \nTrinidad, conducted for Caricom, warns that \u201cthe lack of convictions and solved \ncases accentuates impunity, and in turn, the cycle of crime. The accused, after \nbeing released, reoffend because they know that there are low levels of \nprosecution, delays in trial process, lack of convictions and corruption in the \ndifferent institutions, states the report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the document prepared by the parliament, \nthe police argued that there are obstacles in detecting cases and insufficient \nevidence to secure charges. They mentioned, among others, the lack of CCTV \nimages and the difficulty to have access to DNA tests in Trinidad due to their \nhigh cost. They also argued the unwillingness of witnesses to testify and \naffirmed that \u201cthe victims were reluctant to cooperate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n But trafficking and sexual exploitation \nsurvivors constantly repeat that their cases are ignored by the police. Zurima \nsays that after her captors were arrested in a raid, she went for four months to \ntestify at police stations and in court. \u201cWhen we arrived, they frowned,\u201d she \nrecalls. She believes it was because they did not speak English. \u201cThe treatment \nwas blunt. When we had already made progress on the case, whoever was in charge \ntook a vacation and passed it on to someone else.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Police complicity is the elephant in the \nroom when it comes to the lack of efficiency in the prosecution of women \ntrafficking in Trinidad. Over the last three years, at least 36 police officers \non the island have been associated to this crime - according to local media - \nbut there have been no judicial sentences against any of them. Most of the \nvictims in these cases are Venezuelan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n David West, director of the Police \nComplaints Authority, an independent organization that oversees police work in \nTrinidad and Tobago, says that in some cases, the officers involved take \nadvantage of their position of authority to intimidate their victims and prevent \nthem from reporting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This was the case of two Venezuelan women \nwho filed their complaint with this office but then disappeared, making it \nimpossible to continue with the investigation, he says. \u201cThe women came and \npointed out the officers who took advantage of them, but no charges were brought \nand the officers are still wearing their uniforms,\u201d he points out. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even the Ministry of Security agrees in the \nreport made by the parliament that among the factors affecting the lack of \nsentences is \u201cthe public complicity of law enforcement and private sectors that \nparticipate in human trafficking and hamper the \ninvestigation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In August 2020 alone, 30 police officers \nwere under investigation for involvement in a human trafficking ring operating \nbetween Venezuela and Trinidad and Tobago. Survivors interviewed for this \ninvestigation affirm that police officers are aware of the bars, houses and \nhotels where the crime is committed. \u201cSome of them guard the house together with \nthe gang,\u201d says Maritza.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The research conducted for Caricom also \nindicates that police officers \u201cprovide transportation and work as security \nguards and even as pimps in establishments where prostitution and human \ntrafficking occurs.\u201d The report refers to cases where police have taken young \nwomen to a guesthouse elsewhere in Trinidad and charged people for \u201cusing\u201d \nthem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Maritza witnessed this situation. She \ndescribes how the police would come to the house, where she was being held \ntogether with about 50 women, and select some of them to take them on a \u201cdate.\u201d \nFernanda also witnessed several times the visit of police officers at the place \nwhere she had to offer sexual services. \u201cThere was no problem with the police \nbecause he (her captor) befriends with all of them. The police are fully aware \nof what happens in those houses,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n From time to time, there are police raids \nthat intervene sexual exploitation centers, but this does not guarantee progress \nin fighting the crime. \u201cIn fact, some interviewees stated that high-profile \nraids may be exaggerated to make it look like the Government is doing something, \nbut there are no real and serious procedures and protocols in place to address \nhuman trafficking,\u201d Caricom\u2019s research says about the cycle of impunity in \nTrinidad and Tobago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of such high-profile raids took place in \nNovember 2019, at the Yihai Entertainment Sports Bar in the Cunupia area, where \n46 trafficked Venezuelan women were found. Among the detainees was a policeman. \nIn February of the same year, as reviewed by local media, another officer had \nbeen arrested together with a Venezuelan man for being involved in trafficking \nof minor girls. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n This journalistic team requested the \nTrinidad Police to give information about these cases and, so far, no response \nhas been obtained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n The lack of prosecution of the cases fuels \nthe victims\u2019 fear of meeting again with those who sexually exploited them. In \nfact, some have been threatened by their captors from prison. Zurima says that \nthe criminals she had reported contacted her on Facebook or called her on the \nphone. They told her and other informers that they would kill them if they \ncontinued with the accusations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Eventually, she was forced to drop the case. \n\u201cWe had no protection whatsoever. We feared that if we ruin those men, they \nwould follow through with their threats. They have a lot of money and weapons. \nWe had no protection from the police. We told them about the threats and they \nwarn us to make the right decision, because otherwise the men would be out on \nbail,\u201d Zurima says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The report prepared by the Parliament points \nout that the slowness of the judicial procedures conspires against the \npossibility of imprisoning the culprits. The victims \u201care not willing to wait \nyears for trials to be initiated and completed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The vulnerability of Venezuelan immigrants, \nwho risk deportation if arrested, also favors human traffickers. In the last two \nyears, U.S. State Department reports have emphasized that the government of \nTrinidad and Tobago does not effectively screen illegal immigrants or refugees, \nas it does not establish whether they have been victims of human trafficking and \nif they require special protection before arresting them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This particularly affects the Venezuelan \npopulation that has massively migrated to the island in recent years. At this \ntime, according to figures from the Organization of American States, there are \n40,000 Venezuelans on the island, but only 16,000 have a regular migratory \nstatus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Activists, survivors and reports, like \nCaricom\u2019s, agree that trafficking victims have been imprisoned for up to three \nto five years on irregular immigration charges, after they are accused of being \nillegally in the country or on criminal charges, such as drug or weapon \npossession. These cases have occurred after the women are found in police raids. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Counter Trafficking Unit (CTU), created \nin 2013 to investigate and prosecute human trafficking cases and also to provide \nassistance to the victims, is not, however, immune to accusations. Lack of \ninvestigation, follow-up and even abandonment of cases, precarious conditions in \nshelter houses, lack of psychological care to victims, and little transparency \nin resources, are some of the complaints that activists and trafficking victims \nmake about this office. Since 2017, CTU has not reported its budget, based on a \nreport by the U.S. State Department, although there is an evident drop in the \nallocation of resources for victims. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Reina experienced the shortcomings \nfirsthand. Although she reported to CTU that she was kidnapped, drugged and \nraped, her case fizzled out, she says. After four months of statements, in which \nshe and another victim of the same criminal group gave the name of their captor, \nnicknames of the criminal gang and even photos, officials of this institution \ntold her that they did not consider her a victim and, thus, there was no open \ncase. They had to leave the protection house where they were staying. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n This journalistic team requested an \ninterview with Alana Wheeler, director of CTU, to verify these claims, but she \nsaid that she is not authorized to give statements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Deportation, without police and judicial \nresolution of the cases, is often the fate of Venezuelan women once they leave \nthe trafficking networks. An official document, which the journalistic team had \naccessed to, described the passengers of a \u201chumanitarian flight\u201d to Venezuela in \nlate 2020, and contained information about an 18-year-old victim who was \nrepatriated. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Different organizations handle information \nabout at least six other adolescent victims of sexual exploitation, who were \ndeported - one of them pregnant - in the first months of 2021. Lilia, the \n17-year-old teenager taken in Maturin, was repatriated at the beginning of the \nyear, after having spent 13 months in a detention center for adolescents and in \nthe home of a foster family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Reina affirms that her complaint was not \nonly abandoned, but also manipulated. \u201cI told them everything that happened. \nThat he (her captor) acted aggressively when he drank or took drugs, and that, \non one occasion, he pulled a gun on me to make me have sex with him. But then I \nwas able to read that CTU wrote in the file that I voluntarily had sex with him \nevery day. It was nuts,\u201d she says. In the end, Reina was also deported to \nVenezuela. <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n (*) The names identified in this report with \nan asterisk have been changed for security reasons.<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n **This story was written by Marielba N\u00fa\u00f1ez \nand Claudia Smolansky for Armando.Info<\/b> and CONNECTAS<\/a>, with the support of the \nInternational Center for Journalists (ICFJ) in the framework of the \nInvestigative Journalism Initiative of the Americas.<\/i><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/trata02.png\")
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The \u201cCooling Off\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Sold Again and Again<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
US$ 1.3 million, were identified as suspicious of being linked to this \norganized crime. <\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/armando.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/trata06.jpg\")
An Accomplice System<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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