Tuesday, April 16, 2024
News and Views from the Global South
RIGHTS: Child Traffic in Venezuala Tip of the Iceberg
Estrella Gutierrez
- New evidence of trafficking in children from Ecuador to Venezuela should serve as an alert to the disturbing phenomenon growing in Latin America, says Venezuelan parliamentarian Vladimir Villegas.
The lawmaker became involved in the latest scandal affecting the traffic in children when two young Ecuadorean girls turned themselve into the police recently and told of 200 other minors they knew about. Police managed to trace another 15 children last week.
The children work in virtual slavery conditions as street vendors, domestic workers, prostitutes or in other illegal activities. They come here after either being abducted, or turned over to unscrupulous operators by their parents, who were fooled with false promises.
Villegas, a lawmaker of the leftist party Fatherland For All and the president of the congressional Social Affairs Commission, told IPS that there was no evidence that the trafficking of Ecuadorean children involves other countries, although similar networks are present elsewhere in the region.
“There is fear in police and diplomatic circles of a breakdown and violation of human rights because of the illegal migration around Latin America,” said Villegas, who has presided over Venezuala’s congressional Human Rights Commission.
The Ecuadorean children brought into Venezuela were all smuggled through Colombia, he said and alleged there was probably collusion between criminal cartels and police in some areas.
Villegas said regional cooperation waa needed to combat the vulnerability of children from other countries and proposed that the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino) – of which he is a member – introduce legislation to participate in uncovering the networks trafficking in minors.
The recent case of the Ecuadorean children here showed Venuezula had an “ostrich-like” reaction of putting its head in the sand and ignoring the situation, which first came to public notice 11 months ago.
Ecuador’s consul in Venezuela, Luis Teran, was ignored when he denounced in February 1997 that hundreds of children from his country were enslaved in Venezuela, some of whom were forced to work as vendors in Caracas’ large street markets.
Villegas said the case not only highlighted negligence, but also corruption among Ecuadorean and Venezuelan law officials. He accused both governments of being involved in a “cover-up.”
He pointed out that Teran was temporarily removed from his post, and that an Ecuadorean national, Antonio Chito, arrested at the time with six children who were not members of his family while attempting to cross the Colombian border, was released shortly afterwards.
Chito, according to Venezuelan police commissioner Nerio Rengifo, was arrested again, this time in Caracas, along with his brother, two of 10 adults detained by police last week for alleged involvment in the trafficking network.
Villegas said authorities had to realize the youngsters were brought from Ecuador by force or with the permission of their guardians, who were deceived, and there was a connection with officials responsible for issuing identity documents.
The traffic in children underlined the economic and social poverty of many people in the region and the the loss of values and hope. The children rescued from several residences in poor neighbourhoods of Caracas came from the even poorer indigenous Jatari peasant community, located some 80 kms from Quito.
Maria Marta and Maria Gladys, cousins who after two years of exploitation, were finally able to escape shed some light on child smuggling network after turning themselves over to the police Tuesday.
The two girls, aged 14 and 17, explained that their parents turned them over operators who promised they would receive 130 dollars a year, and that their daughters would receive training, food, clothing and “a clean bed to sleep in.”
But in Caracas they worked as street vendors for more than 12 hours a day as well as carrying out many other tasks in the continually changing places where they lived, in exchange for two stuffed cornflour pies a day.
Police calculations after the initial detentions and rescues is that the illegal network had been operating for at least five years.
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RIGHTS: Child Traffic in Venezuala Tip of the Iceberg
Estrella Gutierrez
- New evidence of trafficking in children from Ecuador to Venezuela should serve as an alert to the disturbing phenomenon growing in Latin America, says Venezuelan parliamentarian Vladimir Villegas.
(more…)
Print
|
RIGHTS: Child Traffic in Venezuala Tip of the Iceberg
Estrella Gutierrez
- New evidence of trafficking in children from Ecuador to Venezuela should serve as an alert to the disturbing phenomenon growing in Latin America, says Venezuelan parliamentarian Vladimir Villegas.
(more…)
Print
|
