July 30, 2022, 10:45 PM
July 30, 2022, 10:45 PM
In the brothels of the city of El Alto, a bottle of beer costs 60 bolivianos and comes with the right to a room, that is, with a girl included. In 2015, a study by the Munasim Kullakita Foundation identified six risk areas in El Alto in which it counted 105 brothels, lodgings, nightclubs and clandestine bars selling girls. One of those six zones is the 12 October. In these areas there is no control and crime walks like nothing.
The 12 de Octubre area of El Alto is divided into three levels that the researcher Ariel Ramírez identifies as the half clandestine, the clandestine and the super clandestine. All three have poor levels.
In these streets you see teenagers waiting for ‘clients’, sex workers, pimps stationed on street corners, monitoring their victims, and men in white overalls handing out flyers offering girls: They are the ones who act as a link between the sexual exploiter and the victim of human trafficking who offer their services in the so-called whorehouses or brothels.
There is no control or sometimes control passes by and the emergency for these networks only lasts a few hours. Then everything stays the same.
Unlike the same period in 2021, in the first half of this management human trafficking and smuggling cases increased by 23%. Until July 28, 2022, the State Attorney General’s Office handled 1,081 investigations related to human trafficking. Different institutions held fairs on the subject, but the victims regret that the authorities only remember this crime on the day that this international struggle is commemorated.
The director of the Specialized Prosecutor for Gender and Juvenile Crimes, Daniela Cáceres, explained that the main incidence occurred in the department of La Paz with 434 cases, followed by Santa Cruz with 239, and in third place Cochabamba with 160.
With a lower incidence, Cáceres reported that Tarija registered 56 cases, Potosí 52, Oruro 52, Chuquisaca 38, Beni 34 and Pando 24.
“We believe and are aware that the work has to be joint, not only the institutions called by law”pointed out the official in time to recommend that parents are a “very fundamental” factor to fight against this crime.
The highest crime rate is human trafficking with 420 cases, followed by corruption of a girl, boy or adolescent with 238, abduction of an incapable minor 186, pornography 108, among others.
Every July 30th, the International Day Against Human Trafficking and Trafficking is commemorated. In Bolivia, the different institutions held fairs to inform the results of investigations and also showed projections to confront this crime.
That is the case of the Ministry of Justice. The Deputy Minister of Justice, César Siles, announced that the signing of treaties with countries where there is an important Bolivian community is proposed and toughen the penalties against people linked to human trafficking and smuggling networks.
In Bolivia, 12 people were convicted of this crime and in 2021, 156 cases were closedaccording to official data on this transnational crime.
Siles also reported that Bolivia aims to begin negotiations with the United States, while negotiations with Spain are already underway. The deputy minister explained that another aspect to promote is the hardening of the sentences against the people involved in this crime and the strengthening of the Police, the Prosecutor’s Office and the Justice in this matter, in addition to involving society in this challenge.
According to data from the General Directorate of Human Trafficking and Trafficking, which depends on the Ministry of Government, in 2015 there were 370 cases, 444 in 2016, in 2017 there were 397 complaints, in 2018, 332. In 2019 the cases were 373; 305 in 2020 and 420 in 2021. And, in the first half of this year, 262 cases were registered. These figures are well below those handled by the Prosecutor’s Office.
The government of Luis Arce launched the “Joining Efforts” campaign, program that aims to eradicate human trafficking and smuggling in the country.
The Minister of Justice, Iván Lima, valued that there are people sentenced for the crime of trafficking and trafficking and expressed concern that there is labor exploitation reaching the limit of servitude.
The president of the Association for the Support of Family Victims of Human Trafficking and Related Crimes (Asafavittp), María Rita Hurtado, asked the Government and other entities to do their investigative work.
