Human trafficking in Venezuela
In 2011 Venezuela was a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and forced labor.
[2] Venezuelan women and girls are trafficked within the country for sexual exploitation, lured from poor regions in the nation's interior to urban and tourist areas.
Venezuelan women and girls are trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation to Western Europe and Mexico, in addition to Caribbean destinations such as Trinidad and Tobago, Aruba, and the Dominican Republic.
Politically, in order for human trafficking to "thrive the slave trade requires the direct or indirect involvement of national governments, at both the source and the destination.
In addition, as political instability in Venezuela persists, and the opposition party to Nicolás Maduro continues to "openly and repeatedly [push] for regime change by any means necessary,"[13] the policy platform on human trafficking is not being dealt with.
[3] Public corruption "especially complicity between law enforcement and border agents with traffickers and alien smugglers," make it difficult to enact legislation on the issue because of its current governmental instability.
In fact, with "international reserves under USD 11.0 billion and a strong repayment commitment by the socialist government"[15] Venezuela's economic hardship predicted to worsen.
In particular, human trafficking is "explained by the extreme poverty, recent and massive rural to urban migration, the large numbers of conflicts, the low status of women, and the endurance of traditional rituals and beliefs.
[2] The economic state of Venezuela inherently impacts its political and social capability to fundamentally address and alleviate factors that lead to human trafficking.
[18] In a 2011 Congressional Research Report by Clare Ribando Seelke another social cause of human trafficking in the country is due to the "lingering machismo (chauvinistic attitudes and practices) that tends to lead to discrimination against women and girls."
[19] In addition to gendered social issues, other individuals factors that contribute to the rise of human trafficking include "poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, history of physical or sexual abuse, homelessness, drug use, and gang membership.
Article 56 of the new law prohibits the trafficking of women, girls, and adolescents for purposes of sexual exploitation, prostitution, forced labor, or slavery, and prescribes punishments of 15 to 20 years' imprisonment.
However, according to a later press release published in February 2008 by Venezuela's Ombudsman's Office (Defensoria del Pueblo), the TSJ announced it would only set up 7 courts instead of the originally proposed 92.
[20] As a result, despite the public efforts of Venezuela to pass the Organic Law on the Right of Women to a Violence-Free Life, many of the policy elements were never fully implemented, if at all.
In addition to the lack of concrete measures to enforce and implement the Organize Law on the Right of Women to a Violence-Free Life, the policy provisions do not address the trafficking of adult males or boys.
The Child Protection Act and various articles of Venezuela's penal code can be used to prosecute internal trafficking of minors, but many of these statutes carry extremely low penalties, mostly fines.
