Demonstration against human trafficking

On July 30, 2018, World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, families of victims and human rights organizations took to the streets to denounce the institutional slowness in the search for missing persons, most of whom are teenagers and young adults. Their families remain hopeful of finding them and demand government intervention to clarify what is happening around this crime.

The victims of this crime are kidnapped and taken to places far from their families to be forced into trafficking networks. Cultural prejudices and stereotypes minimize the seriousness of the situation; effective mechanisms for investigation and follow-up are lacking, leaving the victims completely unprotected.

In Bolivia, between 2012 and 2016, there were 2,591 reports of crimes of this nature. Of these, the Judicial Branch issued 44 sentences with imprisonment against the accused; every day, three people are reported missing (Page 7). The scarce information, institutional deficiencies, and the lack of investigative and follow-up tools leave families wandering anxiously from office to office, carrying a pain that is and is not grief, since they do not know if their loved ones are alive or dead.

The Organization of Families of Disappeared Persons in Santa Cruz states:

Given the slowness and institutional complacency, we demand that Bolivian laws include disappearance as a crime and not wait until the criminal classification is forced disappearance.

Waiting 48 hours or more to file a complaint is completely illegal and violates the constitutional rights of direct and prompt access to justice; it only leaves victims unprotected and helpless. Therefore, we demand swift action in cases of human trafficking and disappearances.