Human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation, especially of teenagers and young children, is a criminal trend that continues and has increased this year on the island of Margarita.
By La Patilla – Dexcy Guédez
Sep 27, 2022
This is evidenced by the 2022 Semiannual Report of the NGO Venezuelan Violence Observatory, Nueva Esparta chapter (OVV Nueva Esparta).
Ms. Hilda Mendoza, Coordinator of the OVV Nueva Esparta, indicated that according to the monitoring carried out between the months of January and June, four police procedures were carried out to capture sexual exploiters in this area of the country, while in all of 2021 just three gangs dedicated to human trafficking for sexual exploitation were captured.
She explained that this year, in two cases, the itinerary and final destination of a gang that operated outside the country, trafficking people specifically to Peru, were clearly identified.
In May, four members of a gang were captured, including two female traffickers, in La Asunción, Arismendi Municipality, who had been denounced by the relatives of a 17-year-old victim. Clients were recruited through a popular virtual messaging service.
The members of the band were identified as Johancarlos García (20), Jonathan Silva (32), Claribeth Marcano (28) and Daviadny Rodríguez (33).
The aforementioned sexual exploiters had as a modus operandi to locate and target young men and women, to whom they offered large sums of money.
On June 25th, the Public Ministry of Nueva Esparta charged the two women and three men who were arrested for sexually exploiting minors between the ages of 12 and 16 in Juan Griego.
Those captured were identified as Dorkys Sánchez, Génesis Elizabeth Sánchez, Guillermo González, Fernando Moreno and Víctor Noriega.
On August 24th of this year, the CICPC Human Trafficking Investigations Coordination team, after learning about alleged activities related to child prostitution, captured Margareht Rondón, 32 years old, and Jhorlyannys Presilla, 19 years old, in the Macho Muerto neighborhood, Mariño Municipality.
Presilla was in charge of coordinating the operational and documentary logistics necessary to send the young women by land to Cúcuta, Colombia, and later they were taken illegally by road to Peru, where they would be received by a brother of Jhorlyannys, identified as Yonaiker Alexander Presilla Sánchez, who was responsible for the young women and forced their prostitution activities.
“The involvement in these crimes of the parents of the victims shows the level of family and social decomposition in the context of the humanitarian emergency that the country is experiencing, which drives doubly illegitimate migration,” Mendoza commented.
She added that new technologies have facilitated the targeting of victims and the spread of these criminal activities that are not new but that seem to be evolving, not only in terms of recruitment, kidnapping, shelter, but also in relation to the transfer to other countries and exploitation, even through virtual means.
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