Honduran Human Trafficker Sold Sex Slaves To San Pedro, Belize

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Honduran Human Trafficker Sold Sex Slaves To San Pedro

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Tonight there is major news coming out of Honduras saying that a woman was arrested for trafficking teen girls into Belize for prostitution.
A report in La Prensa, a Honduran newspaper, say that Denia Suyapa Ochoa was detained in San Pedro Sula during an operation called "Fire Storm".

Ochoa, who works in the Honduras Ministry of Health and according to the Protection of Women Agency, she would enlist young females - minors - who would be taken to San Pedro, AMBERGRIS CAYE to work at a brothel. That's where, the taproot says, these teenagers would be exploited sexually and forced to do work.

The report says she personally took girls to San Pedro Sula, where someone else would pick them up and transport them to Guatemala and then to Belize.

Now, on the local side of this story, CEO in the Ministry of Human Development Judith Alpuche says Belizean authorities were involved in the operation, and her arrest was as a result of cooperation between Belizean n Honduran authorities. But, Alpuche says they haven't found any trafficked teens - though they did find others. She says, quote, "We identified Honduran nationals who were not trafficking victims but had been smuggled in by her network." She continues, quote, "4 women, not teens came in through her network. During screening for human trafficking they were found to have information on the network and so they were handed over to Honduran authorities for them to go through their legal processes to effect the arrest.

The screening conducted on these 4 by Police did not deem them to be human trafficking victims." End quote.

Ochoa has been charged for human trafficking and the commercial sexual exploitation. In Honduras, the penalty for that crime is a prison sentence of not less than 20 years.
 
S Gives Training In Trafficking Detection


It's left to be seen if Belize will score any points with the US for being a part of this successful operation. We say that,. because, as we've reported Belize is in the doghouse according to the Us State Department, this is one of only two countries in the entire western hemisphere marked as Tier 3 for human trafficking.
The Government is trying assiduously to get out of that dismal classification, and that's why it is accepting training from the Department of U.S Homeland Security. Today, they wrapped up training for over 65 officials from 5 departments on Forensic Interviewing Techniques for Victims of Human Trafficking.

The training went for three days where experts provided instruction in best practices on how to identify and successfully interact with victims.

Presently, when there is an immigration raid in Belize, the Police that are trained to handle trafficking in persons cases accompany the regular cops to help screen for trafficking. But most cases turn out to be illegal entry. Social workers are also on standby for those immigration raids, in case potential victims are identified.
 
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