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Uruguay: six people accused of trafficking Venezuelan migrants

Among those charged is the chief notary of the Uruguayan Ministry of Defense, Sonia Mora Pintos. The victims were more than 30 Venezuelans who were exploited for labor.

Venezuelan migrants walk along a highway in Cucuta, Colombia, on the border with Venezuela, on February 2, 2021, amid the COVID-19 pandemic. / AFP / Schneyder MENDOZA

Migrantes venezolanos

Published by
Verónica Silveri Pazos

The head of the notary of the Ministry of Defense of Uruguay, Sonia Mora Pintos, has been indicted - along with five other people - on charges of "criminal association" and "human trafficking" due to her participation in a grid of "labor exploitation" who was looking for Venezuelan citizens to work in "different activities that undermine their human dignity."

According to the formal text, the victims were more than 30 Venezuelans who worked in a gemstones quarry, and one of them was the one who filed the complaint.

The Venezuelans were transferred to Uruguay with the promise of receiving payments of between $1,500 and $2,000. The job offers were spread through the Telegram network and they had interviews via video calls where the defendants offered them payments, accommodation, meals and even medical insurance. The working hours would be 8 hours, but people worked almost 12 hours a day and received a maximum payment of $250. That is, the working conditions were never met.

Request for preventive detention for the accused

The The Prosecutor's Office requested preventive detention for all the accused. But the judge in the case made the decision to apply the measures of "obligation to establish domicile, prohibition of leaving the national territory and retention of their travel documents, prohibition of communication and approach to the victims, night house arrest and the use of electronic monitoring devices"

In the Department of Artigas (bordering Brazil and Argentina), prosecutor Sabrina Massaferro was the one who made the accusation and narrated the events:

Thus, this group of deceived migrants accepted the proposal due to the economic crisis they are experiencing in their country, leaving by bus on January 9 from the City of Anaco to the City of Santa Elena. They crossed the border with Brazil, and after four stops, they finally arrived in San Pablo where they boarded a plane to the city of Montevideo.

The Tickets from Venezuela to Uruguay were bought by the defendants. Prosecutor Massaferro assured that Mora Pintos appeared in front of the victims at the airport "as the company's lawyer." A few days later, he withheld their documents and "made them sign an affidavit and the contracts had to be signed without prior reading."

The text of the case concluded:

The defendants are part of an organized criminal group for the purposes of labor exploitation; that seeks economic profit from trade with human beings, participating in the recruitment, transportation, and reception of migrants of extreme social vulnerability who were subjected to different activities that undermine their human dignity.
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