Angie Lizeth Pinto Rocha, a 26-year-old woman, has been arrested by the National Police for recruiting young women aged 16 to 26 in Colombia, offering them jobs as waitresses in Mexico. However, upon arriving in the neighboring country, they were coerced into engaging in sexual practices.
The case was reported by one of the victims from Cumaral, Meta, who described how she was deceived in July 2019. Pinto Rocha promised her a job at a restaurant abroad, but instead, she was sexually exploited. Authorities believe that the detainee is part of a criminal gang involved in human trafficking and operated a sexual exploitation network between the two countries.
To gain the trust of the young women, Pinto Rocha provided the necessary resources for passport processing and airfare. Upon arriving in Mérida, Yucatán, the victims were received by members of an illegal organization who took them to a location where other women were present.
In the apartment, they were forced to undress and remain naked. They also had to share rooms with other victims living in deplorable conditions. From there, they were taken to a nightclub where they were subjected to sexual relations with different men. If they resisted, they were demanded to return the money they had been sent.
To prevent escape attempts, the criminals retained the women’s passports and forced them to consume large quantities of alcohol and drugs.
Pinto Rocha was arrested at El Dorado International Airport in Bogotá upon returning from Mexico. A specialized prosecutor in Villavicencio charged her with human trafficking, which she accepted, and a judge sent her to prison.
Labor Exploitation Reported in Spain
The Spanish Civil Guard arrested two individuals in the province of Seville, Spain, for their alleged involvement in human trafficking for labor exploitation. They had captured women in Colombia and offered them legal jobs in Spain to care for elderly people.
The suspects financed the victims’ travel, but once in Spain, they were forced into abusive economic debt. The captors kept them isolated, under constant surveillance, and in deplorable conditions that prevented their freedom of movement and communication.
In addition to retaining their personal documents and passports to prevent escape, they intimidated them with threats to their physical integrity and that of their families, according to Spanish authorities.
The Colombian women endured illegal working conditions and were deprived of a significant portion of their salaries to repay the debt they had incurred upon arriving in Spain. The lack of resources and pressure to meet payment deadlines forced them into precarious economic situations.
The detainees were brought before the competent judicial authorities for labor exploitation, while the victims were liberated and are now under the protection of the Civil Guard in Seville.
This case reflects the issue of migration in the Iberian country. According to the Spanish Civil Guard, in 2023, 1,466 victims were rescued from human trafficking and sexual or labor exploitation networks, representing a 24% increase compared to the previous year. Most of these victims were of Latin American origin.
During the same year, authorities arrested 923 individuals and dismantled 109 criminal groups, as reported in the 2023 statistical balance published by the Spanish Ministry of the Interior.
Of the 1,466 rescued victims, 18 were identified as minors, and there were several cases where an individual was a victim of multiple crimes—both human trafficking and sexual or labor exploitation.
According to the report, 294 victims were freed from human trafficking networks for sexual exploitation, including three minors. The majority of victims were women aged 28 to 32, originating from Colombia, Venezuela, and Paraguay.
Source: Infobae
