May 12, 2008

With a contribution of 50 thousand dollars
The United States Remodels and Equips Trafficking in Persons Office in El Alto

The Embassy of the United States in Bolivia, through its Narcotics Affairs Division (NAS), donated 50 thousand dollars to finance the remodeling, equipping, and the purchase of a vehicle and 5 computers for the Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Office in the city of El Alto, which was officially inaugurated today.

Ambassador Philip Goldberg emphasized that the support provided to the creation of this police unit is framed within the U.S. Government’s commitment to combat human trafficking throughout the world.

According to some estimates, El Alto women and children have become one of the main targets of the human trafficking networks. Of 814 reports of missing people and 64 cases reported as trafficking in persons in the department of La Paz, 50% happened in El Alto.

Not only has El Alto become one of the regions with the largest number of trafficking in persons cases, but it is also a zone where traffickers, organized in criminal networks, enjoy greater impunity.  To date, only two people have been sentenced for human trafficking in the entire department of La Paz.

Therefore, the beginning of operations of this unit, the fourth inaugurated in the country with NAS support, will fill a void that seriously limited the ability the Bolivian Police and the Public Prosecutor’s Office to bring to justice and to sanction the criminals operating in the city. Additionally, the office will work to protect the victims and it will speed up the procedures following TIP denunciations, which previously had to be filed in La Paz.

The professionals assigned to this office will be able to identify and rescue TIP victims, especially children, and they will return them to their homes or will place them in specialized institutions, so that they receive medical and psychological attention. Then, the former victims will be rehabilitated and reinserted to the society.

The Trafficking in Persons Unit will work in close coordination with the Minors’ Division of the Bolivian Police’s Special Force for the Fight against Crime, which last year worked on about 2,000 cases of rape, violent aggression, and attacks on the physical and psychological well being of the victims.