Human trafficking continues to be an issue in Guatemala, the most frequent manifestation of which being the enticing of young girls into enforced prostitution…

On Friday, 20th of April 2007 Casa Alianza Guatemala in coordination with the National Police, Migration and Public Prosecution Offices raided a brothel disguised as a massage parlour suspected of housing minors for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation in Guatemala City. Two 17-year-old girls were rescued from the premises as a result of this joint raid operation and both were immediately referred to a judge who entrusted them to Casa Alianza for shelter and protection.

The parlour was licensed to operate as a bar and to offer massages but it was evident from the outset that it functioned as a full-scale brothel. The two-storey premises housed roughly thirty girls at any one time and boasted three bedrooms on the upper floor were paid sexual activity apparently took place. The property lacked basic sanitation, there was no running water and bed sheets were stained with blood.  

Those in charge were taken by surprise and several arrests were carried out, including a few individuals who were performing what they claimed to be “traditional Mayan rituals” on the roof of the building and who tried to flee the scene by jumping to adjacent houses.  

Twenty-five girls were found on site during this raid, including three foreign nationals, namely a Nicaraguan, Mexican and a Honduran girl, who faced immediate deportation, as they were not in possession of valid Guatemalan work permits. The case of the Mexican girl was particularly shocking as she was married to a Guatemalan national and had a nine months-old daughter with this man who married her only in order to obtain Mexican citizenship, according to the girl.

She stated she had been trafficked from Mexico at the age of fifteen at which stage she started working at a brothel in Guatemala City were she met her now husband, the son of the brothel’s owner. Despite being the real victim here, she was deported back to Mexico and guardianship of the baby was granted to her husband, who by all means knew about his wife’s prostitution and benefited from her earnings making it a typical case of pandering.     

The Migration and Prosecution Officers failed to properly execute their duties in this raid – by not ensuring that each girl had a legitimate id card proving that they were adults. Several girls appeared to be minors and in possession of fake identity cards but the agents, instead of extending the presumption of being underage privileges to these particularly young-looking girls and ensuring the validity of the documents presented, decided to take the girl’s id documents at face value in a clear violation of Guatemalan youth protection laws.
 In Guatemala, adult prostitution is not illegal therefore just moments after the agents left the premises, the music was put back on and business resumed as usual.

On Tuesday 24th of April 2007, In another joint raid operation, a seventeen years-old Guatemalan girl was rescued from a different brothel belonging to the same human trafficking network. She came from a small village and was lured into the Capital city and forced into prostitution in order to pay for debts she supposedly contracted vis-à-vis her traffickers.

Casa Alianza together with other leading Guatemalan NGO’s is constantly lobbying legislators for important changes to the Penal Code. Under the current Penal Code, those guilty of pimping and pandering offences get away with their crimes by simply paying an insignificant fine, which is low even for Guatemalan standards.

In the three years the Guatemalan Congress has failed to pass any legislation that benefit and protect Guatemalan youth. One example of which is the Adoption Act, which has not yet been approved, despite more than 10 years of continued civil society denouncing irregular adoptions presenting characteristics of human trafficking.

Casa Alianza is a non-governmental organization dedicated to the protection and promotion of children’s rights in the region.

For more information on the work of Casa Alianza please visit www.casa-alianza.org.uk