Venezuela alleges sex trafficking by Guyanese

Nov 06, 2018 News

A missing19-year-old student is the face of the outcry that has raised alarm in the state of Ciudad Guayana, Venezuela over reports of sex trafficking of women by Guyanese. Josephine Alexandra Marcano Gil, a Venezuelan national, has been missing since August this year. She had travelled to Guyana and after failing to return or make contact, her grandmother, Zulma del Carmen Almeida, started to worry. She reported her matter to the Representatives of the Guyanese Community in Venezuela (RCGV), who have been advocating for the investigation and resolution of this matter.
El Diario de Guayana, a Venezuelan media publication from the state of Ciudad Guyana, reported that Marcano was “deceived by a couple of Guyanese nationals named Catherin Marin and Natasha Benjamin, “La Loba”, who allegedly took her to work in Guyana without the consent of her relatives”.
Antonio Hamraj, representative of RCGV, told Kaieteur News that he reported the matter to diplomatic authorities in Guyana and Venezuela. Hamraj has been urging the Venezuelan ambassador to Guyana to take action, since there are multiple reports of Venezuelan women residents being trafficked from the port of San Felix in Ciudad Guyana to Guyana by boat, through the Orinoco River.
RCGV told Kaieteur News that Venezuelans travel without a visa through the port, while the authorities turn a blind eye. It is believed that criminals are currently capitalizing on the crisis in Venezuela to promise women a better life in Guyana, before trafficking them to Guyana to force them into sex work.
Hamraj said that there are Venezuelan nationals located in Bartica, who are subject to prostitution at Club Platinum. He reported that many Venezuelan women are threatened or blackmailed, while others come of their own accord to perform sex work. Other sex workers, he states, are in the city of Georgetown.

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