Las Tunas, Cuba.- Many years passed and the phenomenon adopted different tinges and forms. The sexual exploitation of women, through their prostitution, became one of the main scourges of the Neocolonial Republic. It was not until 1959, with the revolutionary triumph, that the nascent Government took action, reinserting thousands of women into society with the closure of brothels, attention to their children and offers of jobs and study.
In spite of government efforts, prostitution continued to be exercised in isolation in order to obtain economic benefits. While this practice does not in itself constitute a manifestation of trafficking, it is the conduct that usually accompanies it: pimping.
Daysi Torres Álvarez, chief prosecutor of the Department of Family Protection and Jurisdictional Affairs at Las Tunas Provincial Prosecutor's Office, explains to 26Digital that the current Cuban Penal Code includes human trafficking and pimping as crimes. "It is a form of contemporary slavery and one of the most profitable businesses in the world, after drug and arms trafficking.
The Palermo Protocol on Transnational Organized Crime defines the phenomenon as: "The recruitment, transportation, transfer or receipt of persons with the use of threats, force or other forms of coercion (...).
Such exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labor or services (...) or the removal of organs".
INVISIBLE CRIME
A group of women is being sexually exploited under false promises of happiness and opportunities for a future without financial difficulties. The consequences are devastating and it is not easy to get out.
In her research, Damila Hechavarría Argudín, a Librarian and Information Science graduate, explains that women now have the possibility of marrying a foreigner and leaving the country, and those who are engaged in prostitution carry a high risk of becoming victims of trafficking.
The Cuban researcher says that there is no official data on how many Cubans who go abroad by this route end up being victims. However, it is a fact that for the sake of economic progress they may be the object of some kind of exploitation under deception, not only by criminal organizations but also by spouses.
She highlights that "the socioeconomic factors that subsist in the country today, the low perception of risk and the very invisibility of the crime place these women as vulnerable to being enrolled in trafficking."
ZERO TOLERANCE
Such a form of gender-based violence places the female sex first at the international level and in the Greater of the Antilles. "Here, the figures of known processes are tiny; however, a single damaged human being is cause for concern for the State, which maintains a policy of zero tolerance," says chief prosecutor Daysi Torres.
"In our environment, it does not constitute something massive or a social problem. We have a minimal incidence in comparison to other nations where the annual indices are abysmal. In the Island, it is not manifested with labor exploitation, nor in the extraction or trade of organs, but with sexual purposes, above all, in the pimp-prostitute relationship.
With the purpose of preventing, repressing and punishing this violation, the country ratified in 2013 the Palermo Protocol, which complements the Convention against Transnational Organized Crime. Other international instruments have also been confirmed to provide protection to the weakest segments of the population.
She explains that "By agreement of the State Council, a national plan for the period 2017-2020 was approved, as a fundamental tool in the coordinated attention between the State and civil society in order to address this crime."
The Attorney General's Office is developing a joint strategy with the Federation of Cuban Women, the Ministry of the Interior and other agencies. "One of the most important actions are the work to protect and assist victims, and communication activities on the subject in schools and public bodies.
"People can lodge complaints with the Public Attorney Office, in the Centers for the Attention to the Woman and the Family, and in police stations," says Torres.
From the family, which is the first socializing institution, values must be inculcated in order to avoid being linked to this scourge. It is a multidimensional task that demands the responsibility of the citizenry and the just denunciation of those who profit from other people's bodies.
There are other ways to achieve the goals, without the need to violate dignity. Besides, it is not precisely expensive clothing or other material goods that define our human quality, and they don't bring happiness.
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