ECPAT Guatemala: 20 years of work for a childhood free of violence and sexual exploitation
Leer la entrevista en español aquí
ECPAT Guatemala is a GAATW member in Guatemala. Jennifer Janssen from the GAATW Secretariat conducted this interview with the organisation’s director, Maria Eugenia Villarreal, in November 2022 to better understand their work, history and context. The interview was in Spanish and translated into English by Vivian Cartagena.
Jennifer Janssen: Thank you very much, Maria Eugenia, for taking the time to talk to me. I would like to start with a bit of history; when was ECPAT Guatemala founded and why?
Maria Eugenia: ECPAT Guatemala was founded in 2000. I had conducted research for Lawyers Without Borders/Abogados sin Fronteras, which included a review of the mass rapes of women during the armed conflict in Guatemala. I presented the findings during the First World Congress against Sexual Exploitation, in Stockholm, Sweden in 1996. There, ECPAT International invited me to establish an ECPAT organisation in Guatemala and this is how we began, with a focus on victims of sexual exploitation and human trafficking, mainly children and adolescents. Since then, we have become recognised as experts in these issues, both at national level and at the regional level in Central America.
ECPAT Guatemala works at the municipal level, at the provincial level and at the national level. And since trafficking is a transnational crime, we also work at the regional level. We work in the municipalities and districts that have the highest rates of these crimes.
In recent years, migration to the United States has increased and, unfortunately, traffickers have taken advantage of this situation to deceive migrants in order to exploit and enslave them. This is why we work at the borders, as well as along the migratory routes, to provide them with information and refer victims to protection. We also strengthen the protection services for children and adolescents, influence local and national authorities regarding victim care and protection, and we conduct trainings for prosecutors, police officers, judges, local authorities, educational institutions and others.
For the past eight years, we have also been participating in the Regional Coalition Against Human Trafficking, which includes all the Central American countries and the Dominican Republic. This Coalition is headed by officials and authorities who work in the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, as well as government agencies for migration and security. We meet periodically to discuss joint strategies to protect victims, improve legal framework and policies that support victims, and criminal investigation and punishment of traffickers.
In addition, in 2015, ECPAT, together with the specialised prosecutor on trafficking in persons of the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Guatemala, facilitated the creation of the Regional Network of Specialised Prosecutors against Trafficking in Persons. We feel very proud for having supported the creation of these two important regional bodies, which have shown that coordination and cooperation are essential to combat human trafficking and protect victims.
The Regional Coalition developed a protocol for direct assistance to victims and a protocol for rights-based repatriation of victims, among others. Likewise, in the Network of Prosecutors, participants discuss and coordinate specific regional cases of trafficking and exchange information. Currently, we are preparing research of the legal frameworks on the right to dignified reparation for victims and its application in the member states.
JJ: What are the main issues you are addressing at the moment?
ME: Human trafficking. Guatemala is a transit country for migrants from Central America, Venezuela and other countries who are going to the United States. For several years, this has been a priority issue since they are exposed to the crime of human trafficking, labour exploitation, sexual exploitation and other types of abuse.
ECPAT is a human rights organisation, where the victim is at the centre of our work and we are committed to preventing, protecting, supporting victims and strengthening the prosecution of the crime. We have found several scenarios in which possible victims can be deceived and trapped in human trafficking. In the past several years, we've seen an increase in online recruitment which leads to many other problems.
Lastly, we are also addressing human trafficking for child and adolescent pornography, which has increased during the pandemic. We are aware of the enormous challenges we are tackling, but as long as we can save a life, we will remain committed to the issue.
JJ: Can you share a bit about the learnings that ECPAT has gained over the years?
ME: It's been a process of learning about these issues over the last 20 years. We have learnt a lot about the migration situation, also in the matter of prevention, protection and assistance to victims of trafficking within this context. We have also learnt to address the issue of trafficking with different approaches such as human rights, intersectionality, gender, age, etc.
Trafficking is a crime of process, changing with new actors, with new political scenarios, circumstances, and contexts. This is why we have always been flexible in order to respond to these changing scenarios.
JJ: What are some of the biggest challenges that the children and adolescents you work with face?
ME: The challenges begin before making the decision to migrate. We talk about people who are forced to migrate because they have no alternatives, for different reasons - socioeconomic, due to climate change, political persecution, or being subjected to violence, including violence within the family. The risks start from the most basic: lack of food, a roof over their heads, clothes, lack of healthcare. This situation is very risky, not only because of what the travel itself involves, but also because they have to face corrupt authorities who extort them and take advantage of their vulnerability during their journey through different countries to reach their destination.
And then there often comes a time when migrants no longer have money to continue on their route and may be deceived by certain authorities and criminal groups that promise them work, food, etc. and by accepting, they expose themselves to being victims of trafficking for sexual and labor exploitation, or organ trafficking, among others.
JJ: Who are these people who take advantage of the most vulnerable?
ME: It has changed over time and depending on the region, the circumstances and the country where you are, as technology changes, as well. Most people have a cell phone and this is used by traffickers as a way to trick them.
Victims are trafficked for different purposes, such as sexual and labour exploitation, but also for drug trafficking, drug dealing, and forced recruitment into criminal structures. There are also many enforced disappearances and many of these disappeared are migrants and victims of human trafficking. Sometimes they refuse to join gangs or commit crimes and then they are disappeared. No one knows how many of the disappeared are migrants or victims of trafficking.
We face several sociopolitical issues in this context: the complicity of some police or immigration authorities, etc; lack of commitment from governments because the issue of trafficking is not a priority; judges who do not support the victims and who give low sentences or do not classify the crime as trafficking as established in the Criminal Code, so there is also a broad impunity for these crimes.
JJ: How do you incorporate the lessons learned from working with children and adolescents?
ECPAT includes children and adolescents in the implementation of all prevention and protection programmes that we carry out, children and adolescents, as our target group, are always at centre of our work, so they participate actively in our programmes. We listen to and answer their concerns, doubts, and comments, and we adapt our communication materials to their age and based on their feedback
JJ: I don't have any more questions. Would you like to add anything else?
ME: We are very proud to be a member of GAATW and we are interested in continuing to collaborate and work with the GAATW Secretariat and members, as ECPAT has received their support and opportunity to conduct joint research with other Latin American members. We want to continue working with GAATW and sister organisations to continue fighting this crime, protecting victims and advocating with governments.
JJ: Thank you very much, Maria Eugenia, for your time and sharing more about ECPAT with us. It was a pleasure meeting you.