The 10 alarming numbers that reveal how human trafficking affects Guatemala and America

According to the latest US government report on human trafficking, Venezuela, Belize, Bolivia and Central America are on the "blacklist" .

The Office of the Prosecutor against Trafficking in Persons received only 254 complaints related to this crime during the year.

1. Guatemala

Trafficking has re-offended with more than 500 cases a year, which, according to humanitarian agencies, is due to "the existence of permissive social institutions and a patriarchal system that favors the relations of inequality, domination and exploitation. 19659005] 2. Peru

recorded about 6,000 complaints between 2009 and 2017, but the exact number of victims, mainly women, is unknown.

3. Venezuela

In recent cases, the number of Venezuelans has increased, for example the eleven women who were recently rescued from a bar on the border with Ecuador, where they were sexually exploited.

Argentina

Five thousand complaints have been received in the last two years, of which 40% are for sexual exploitation.

5. Brazil

Several international networks exploit women of various nationalities. According to a United Nations (UN) investigation, verbal, physical or sexual abuse was reported by Venezuelans

. El Salvador

Trafficking is linked to illegal migration. According to figures from the International Organization for Migration (IOM), 62% of minors who migrate to North America without the company of one of their parents and who are returned travel in the networks milking.

7. Costa Rica

At least 170 people have been saved since 2010, most of them being foreigners, and the most common modalities are sexual exploitation and exploitation through labor.

8. Honduras

Every month, there are an average of 14 victims of trafficking, most of them children, young people and women.

9. Panama

Between 2014 and January this year, 198 victims rescued from Venezuelan, Colombian, Ecuadorian and Panamanian nationalities, 16 international organizations dismantled and 50 people prosecuted for this crime are counted.

10. Paraguay

records about 300 cases of victims of trafficking a year, of which 1% are victims of other nationalities, the rest being Paraguayan.

Actions

For this year, the UN has chosen the response to trafficking in children and youth as a central theme to point out that nearly one-third of the victims are minors, as is the case of children in Central America. traveling alone to Mexico and the United States

Also the increase in migrations of Venezuelans fleeing the crisis in their country has triggered cases of human trafficking in the region, especially dozens of women who are sexually exploited and work

In the United States, the phenomenon is related to the arrival of immigrants mainly from the North Triangle of Central America (Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador ) who cross Mexico with the help of "coyotes" or "polleros" (traffickers of human beings)

Carlos Andrés Pérez, official in Colombia of the World Program of Action for the Prevention and the fight against human trafficking and smuggling of migrants from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), said that it is requested that "the national authorities of the countries of the region are articulated (…) and that campaigns are developed involving airports, airlines and immigration authorities ".