“Find the money. If you don’t, they’ll kill me,” José begged his mother over the telephone, from a building in Mexico where he was being held captive along with six other Cubans. Reaching the United States, after leaving Cuba illegally, was now the least of his worries. At that moment, he was focused on saving his life and escaping a nightmare of beatings, threats and forced labor.
The mother sold her house to get the cash they demanded and communicated this to her son’s captors. Their accomplice on the island was another Cuban woman, who collected the money and sent it to one of the members of the criminal network. For this operation, she received 100 CUC.
This woman’s husband, let’s call him Adrian, had gone from victim to victimizer. He left Cuba with a group aboard a speedboat, heading to Mexico. He expected that those transporting the group would provide lodging until they could cross the U.S. border. But they ended up in captivity, held for ransom.
Adrian said he didn’t have any money, but offered to trick other Cubans, and thus joined the network. He guarded, beat, and intimidated abducted migrants like José. Among the tasks he was assigned was calling their families, demanding money to spare their lives, and sending frightening images of the captives to add pressure.
Adrian, his spouse, and two Mexican citizens, members of the criminal organization, were prosecuted in Case No.91 in Artemisa’s Provincial People’s Court, which sentenced them to prison terms ranging from four years and eight months to 25 years, for trafficking in persons, in the modality of slavery.
This is one of the cases described in Cuba’s 2019 report on Prevention and Confrontation of Trafficking in Persons and the Protection of Victims, which includes 15 cases, with the following characteristics:
For the purpose of sexual slavery (12)
For the purpose of extortion (2)
For the purpose of slavery (1)
The 25 victims were:
10 women
8 girls
1 boy
6 men
The low incidence, no less inadmissible and deplorable, is the result of Cuba’s policy of zero tolerance, enforced with systematic rigor by the state. Cuba has ratified the Palermo Protocol (to prevent, suppress, and punish trafficking in persons, especially women and children) and has a mechanism to coordinate state actions with those of civil society: a National Action Plan to prevent and confront trafficking in persons and protect victims (2017-2020).
CRIMINAL DECEPTION
According to the United Nations, trafficking in persons is among the world’s three most lucrative crimes, along with illicit sales of weapons and drugs, and practically all nations are affected, either as points of origin, transit or destination of victims.
Although no criminal networks operate within the country, the fact that more than a few Cubans have been victims of foreigners with domestic accomplices - usually via offers to facilitate emigration or secure jobs abroad – reveals a low level of risk perception.
Given this reality, Cuba’s work is not focused entirely within our borders, and not only on containing the proliferation of trafficking in national territory, but also includes protecting Cuban victims in other countries through international collaboration
Eugenio Raúl Martínez González, a member of the Attorney General’s International Relations and Legal Cooperation Directorate, in a recent article reviewed several cases, from the past few years, that reveal the dangers implicit in supposed offers of work abroad and the importance of states working together to prosecute violators of the law.
In 2016, Camagüey’s Provincial Criminal Investigations and Operations Unit carried out an investigation of three suspects “who were contacting young women in the municipalities of Céspedes and Florida, to whom they promised work in Ecuador, offering to cover travel and passport expenses,” which would be considered a loan of between 2,500 and 3,000 USD.
Upon arriving in Ecuador, the women were forced to prostitute themselves to repay the loan. The amount owed continued to increase over time, and the victims were threatened. Their documents were withheld as collateral, adding pressure to comply.
The accused were convicted and sentenced to prison terms of 25, 15 and 10 years.
The following year, Martínez reports in his article, Cuba collaborated with the Plurinational State of Bolivia’s Public Ministry in prosecuting a criminal case.
He explained, “In a nightclub with the name of Katanas, located in the city of La Paz, prostitution was conducted, and toward that end, the accused traveled to several countries, including Cuba, with the objective of bringing women to work at the aforementioned establishment, forcing them to serve as prostitutes, mistreating them and threatening them with deportation if they refused to do as they were told.”
“Bolivian authorities requested information on the migratory patterns of the accused and any charges filed against them by Cuban authorities.”
Cuba’s broad international collaboration in efforts to stop trafficking, such as this, clearly expose political manipulation of the issue by the United States, which has placed Cuba, for the second consecutive year, in the level three category - the worst - on its list of countries allegedly not doing enough to fight trafficking in persons, using the absurd argument that our international medical cooperation is based on forced labor.
Other examples of Cuba’s collaboration include, among others, the 11 extradition treaties and 25 legal assistance agreements (16 of which include extradition) currently in effect; the Attorney General’s signing of mechanisms with counterparts in 20 other nations; as well as the exchange of information with international operational services, such as Interpol.
Cuba’s Ministry of the Interior, for its part, concentrates on direct action in cases of trafficking in persons with the purpose of sexual exploitation, of a transnational nature, detecting the crime in process during transportation of potential victims and interrupting their abduction.
Protecting women is a priority. Global figures indicate that 49% of the victims of trafficking are female, and the most common purpose is sexual exploitation (59%). This is a direct consequence, as well, of male chauvinism, that sees women’s bodies as territory that can be exploited and dominated.
Since July of 2018, the island’s authorities have disrupted 38 operations transporting young women to the principal destinations identified (Turkey and China, and to a lesser degree, Italy, Germany, Vietnam, Portugal, the Cayman Islands, Jamaica, Cyprus and Mali), events in which some 191 alleged artists were implicated.
Also frustrated were nine “castings” and other entrapment activities, during which 134 potential victims were identified, 24 Cuban organizers and 16 foreigners, in Cuba and abroad.
Social protection and citizen security; equality of opportunity for all persons; policies and programs to empower women; access to health care and education, free of charge; universal access to culture, sports, recreation; and current legislation, including the Constitution of the Republic, are strengths our country has in the battle against trafficking, recognized by the competent international bodies.
This social fabric allows for not only effective law enforcement, but also the prevention of such events and specialized attention for victims and those most at risk. Despite the low level of incidence, this is not an insignificant phenomenon or an issue of interest to police authorities alone. Trafficking in persons is stopped by the joint action of many sectors of society, and the building of capacity to identify and recognize it as a crime.
CHARACTERISTICS OF TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS FOR THE PURPOSE OF SEXUAL SLAVERY
-Non-standard artistic contracting practices are used, conducted over the internet or via intermediaries
-Contracts are written in a language other than Spanish, without legal foundation in Cuba or abroad, and are used to obtain visas in the destination country’s embassy in Havana.
-Travel is financed from abroad by Cuban businesspeople or intermediaries.
-Involved are organizations or nightclubs with a history of prostitution or exploitation of workers in the destination country.
-Trips are offered for the alleged purpose of tourism to countries that do not require visas or to others that serve as stopovers before continuing to the final destination.
Source:Cuba’s 2019 report on Prevention and Confrontation of Trafficking in Persons and the Protection of Victims
*Names used are fictitious, the identity of victims and criminals are protected in these reports.
