The Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported that the Paraguayan Consulate in Santa Cruz de la Sierra is assisting two compatriots who are victims of human trafficking.
According to the report, on June 3, two compatriots were rescued in a procedure carried out by the National Police, the Special Force to Fight Crime and the Human Trafficking and Trafficking Division, and the Public Ministry of the Plurinational State of Bolivia.
The follow-up of the procedure was in charge of the General Consulate of the Republic of Paraguay in the city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra.
In the operation, the Bolivian authorities managed to locate a property where the crime of pimping was allegedly committed, finding the compatriots ALPZ and ABCS in the place, who denounced Jorge Eduardo Montiel Núñez, Mariza Toledo Cabañas and Elva Toledo Cabañas, all of nationality Paraguayan. Subsequently, they were arrested and taken to the Human Trafficking and Trafficking Unit.
The rescued compatriots stated that they were transferred by bus from Paraguay to the city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra on May 11, 2022, to work as waitresses in a nightclub. However, when they arrived at the premises, they were forced to work as company ladies, stripping them of all their identity documents.
The compatriots were threatened, which motivated the prosecutor’s action to extend the declaration of the victims, and the investigation was finally classified as a crime of “Trafficking in Persons for the purpose of commercial sexual exploitation.”
The Consulate General assisted the nationals from the moment of the complaint, in order to safeguard their physical and psychological integrity, taking steps to protect them in a Shelter House in Santa Cruz and maintaining permanent contact with the Human Trafficking and Trafficking Prosecutor.
Similarly, the procedures were carried out before the Secretariat of Development for Connational Returnees and Refugees to be repatriated to Paraguay.
Finally, today, counselor Herminio Marín Salinas participated in the reception of the compatriots at the Viru Viru airport, carried out with authorities from the Public Ministry, the Special Force to Fight Crime and Migration of Bolivia, to later board them bound for Paraguay.
