US embassy cable - 05BOGOTA11256

UNCLAS BOGOTA 011256 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV, PHUM, ELAB, CVIS, CO 
SUBJECT: G/TIP REPORTS OFFICER REVIEWS COLOMBIA'S EFFORTS 
TO COMBAT TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS 
 
 
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Summary 
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1.  On November 6-7 G/TIP Reports Officer Linda Brown and 
Poloff conducted meetings with the GOC, international 
organizations and NGOs regarding trafficking in persons from 
and through Colombia. Colombia continues to prevent 
trafficking through programs with heavy involvement of NGOs, 
international organizations and foreign donors to raise 
awareness, educate vulnerable groups, create regional plans 
to combat exploitation and set up early warning systems.  A 
new law against trafficking passed in August promises to 
increase prosecutions; the law provides broader coverage for 
trafficking crimes and defines the responsibilities of the 
agencies involved in combating the problem.  Three cases are 
now awaiting trial.  Efforts to identify, repatriate, 
reintegrate and protect victims are improving.  Various 
interlocutors said victims who had been trafficked would feel 
more comfortable filing charges if they had additional 
guarantees about their physical security.  End summary. 
 
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Prevention Efforts Are Broad And Deep 
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2. (U) The GOC conducts public outreach with a broad range of 
organizations at the national and local levels through radio, 
television, internet, print media and seminars to prevent 
recruitment of victims for trafficking.  For example, the 
Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) and the International 
Organization for Migration (IOM) placed flyers within newly 
issued passports with information about how to identify if a 
person is being trafficked.   The non-governmental 
organization The Hope Foundation (Fundacion Esperanza) worked 
with IOM, the Embassy of the Netherlands, the Ministry of 
Foreign Affairs, the Civil Aviation Authority and the 
Department of Administrative Security (DAS) to place 
computer-automated information kiosks in the Bogota and 
Barranquilla airports so travelers may get information on 
legal migration and Colombian Government points of contact in 
their destination country. 
 
3. (U) Fundacion Esperanza also worked with the Civil 
Aviation Authority and airport bookstores to distribute 
anti-trafficking bookmarks in literature sold, and put 
posters in bathrooms and waiting areas to sensitize 
travelers.  It also worked with the Ministry of Communication 
to broadcast short TV ads explaining trafficking, with a 
toll-free number of an IOM call center for inquiries.  The UN 
Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Bogota worked with 
Fundacion Esperanza and the Ministry of the Interior and 
Justice (MININT) to underwrite inclusion of a plot line in a 
popular daytime soap opera about a girl who was trafficked. 
The Ministry of Communication developed a campaign to promote 
the "healthy" use of the internet by kids and to detect and 
prevent recruitment of children by traffickers over the 
internet. 
 
4. (U) The Office of the Human Rights Ombudsman (OHRO), along 
with the Colombian National Police (CNP) and IOM, conducted 
sessions in schools to educate children of all ages who might 
be vulnerable to trafficking.  MININT, OHRO, and the Office 
of the Inspector General (Procuraduria) conducted seminars 
with GOC officials to raise awareness of the crime and how it 
is executed.  MININT worked with the Procuraduria, UNICEF and 
OHRO to enforce the legal requirement that municipal and 
departmental governments include actions to combat 
recruitment for trafficking in their annual resource plans. 
According to the Procuraduria, at present less than one third 
of 32 departments have included action plans to combat sex 
exploitation or abuse.  UNICEF worked with the National 
Office of the Registrar to improve legal registration of 
births and identity documents for children so they will 
become less vulnerable if they become displaced.  Finally, 
IOM developed a free call center to accept inquiries and help 
identify trafficking cases for police action.  Since it 
opened in January 2004, the call center has received 8,135 
calls related to trafficking, of which 118 led to police 
(CNP) investigations. 
 
5. (U) The DAS, MININT and MFA held meetings with border 
policing authorities in Brazil and Ecuador in 2005 to improve 
prevention of trafficking across international borders.  In 
2006 the GOC is planning similar meetings with Panama.  The 
MFA and the Family Welfare Institute (ICBF) have also trained 
Colombian Foreign Service Officers and consular staff from 
embassies in Bogota to better identify Colombian trafficking 
victims. 
 
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Prosecution Gaining Momentum, Awaiting Results 
 
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6. (U)  Colombia's laws make trafficking illegal and set out 
guidelines to prosecute the crime; however, Colombia's 
officials are still acquiring equipment and training to 
enforce the law.  In August 2005, a new law on trafficking 
(Law 985) went into effect.  Law 985 defines exploitation as 
being principally for forced labor, sexual exploitation, 
domestic work, or illegal recruitment.  It creates 
punishments for each link in the circuit of trafficking -- 
recruitment, transport, reception and exploitation -- and 
provides protections for the victims.  It establishes an 
interagency committee to fight trafficking in people and 
outlines the responsibilities of each of the 14 member 
agencies (MININT, MFA, Ministry of Social Protection, 
Ministry of Education, DAS, CNP, Office of the Prosecutor 
General, Procuraduria, OHRO, Interpol, ICBF, the Presidential 
Advisor for Equality of Women, The Department of Defense 
organization FONDELIBERTAD, and the Special Administrative 
Unit for Information and Financial Analysis).  Law 985 
designates IOM, UNODC and the President's Program on Human 
Rights and International Humanitarian Law as observers to the 
interagency committee. 
 
7. (U) The law removes a previous Colombian legal requirement 
to show that the crime was committed through violence, 
coercion, or trickery, or was committed without the victim's 
consent (e.g., agreement to become engaged in prostitution). 
Now, "consent" of the victim is not a defense, and 
prosecutors are only required to prove that the trafficker 
benefited in some way from the exploitation of the victim. 
It does not differentiate between trafficking within Colombia 
and internationally.  The law requires Governors and Mayors 
to designate a point of contact to coordinate with the 
interagency committee and to include provisions against 
trafficking in their annual resource plans. 
 
8. (U) Gloria Guzman Duque, a prosecutor from the Anti 
Trafficking Unit in the Office of the Prosecutor General 
(Fiscalia), said that judges and prosecutors need training to 
be able to identify trafficking crimes and apply the new law. 
 While prosecutors can quickly spot the crimes of coercion 
and exploitation in internal trafficking cases, they don't 
always trace the origin of the crime to a recruitment in 
another location, and don't always try to prosecute the whole 
circuit of traffickers because of the complexity of the case. 
 Guzman also found international cases were difficult to 
prosecute because the victims were discovered in another 
country, and the law enforcement authorities there might not 
have a designated and accessible anti-trafficking point of 
contact or be forthcoming with local requirements for 
requesting evidence needed to investigate the circuit of 
traffickers.  Adriana Ruiz Restrepo from UNODC said that the 
GOC worked with the U.K. Embassy and the Fiscalia to set up a 
series of mock trials to train judges and prosecutors on how 
to prosecute trafficking crimes.  By the end of the series, 
Ruiz said the judges and prosecutors believed they were well 
prepared to prosecute the cases, but that more officials 
should receive the training. 
 
9. (U) The Fiscalia's National Anti-Trafficking Unit (ATU) 
opened in February 2005 with 5 investigators.  According to 
Guzman, the Unit is currently investigating 250 cases.  Of 
the 250 cases, the Unit found that 33 were related to 
trafficking.  Three 3 cases have resulted in indictments. 
Trials are pending.  The well-trained but heavily burdened 
ATU focuses on international cases as local Fiscalia offices 
are not set up to handle them, but prosecutors around the 
country that could be prosecuting more domestic cases require 
additional sensitization and training on trafficking laws. 
According to MININT, there have been 137 arrests thus far in 
2005 for alleged trafficking crimes. 
 
10. (U) In 2005, the interagency committee created a database 
to monitor trafficking cases that should go on-line in 
December.  The database will help agencies to collect 
statistics and help to focus interagency investigations.  The 
data will be stored in the Fiscalia and will be maintained by 
each of the agencies.  Database records will indicate which 
agencies have information in a case.  While full access will 
not be granted to any agency, limited permission can be 
granted to members of the Committee to view the file. 
 
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Protection: Underfunded 
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11. (U) Colombia has a good system to identify and repatriate 
or resettle Colombian victims, but according to the CNP, 
MININT, Fundacion Esperanza, The Rebirth Foundation 
(Fundacion Renacer, an affiliate of the NGO End Child 
Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children 
 
for Sexual Purposes, or ECPAT) and the Fiscalia, resettled 
victims do not feel they will be protected from reprisals, 
and so do not file charges against their traffickers.  In 
August 2005, the newly appointed Prosecutor General, Mario 
Iguaran Arana, committed to improving the protection program 
for victims of trafficking.  Under the current program, the 
GOC can provide limited anonymity at the beginning stages of 
an investigation, but the person filing charges will 
eventually have to appear in court.  The identity of a 
witness giving testimony in court is not protected, and in 
the new oral accusatory system the witness must appear in 
court and give oral testimony, facing the accused.  The GOC 
does not provide security for testifying witnesses in such 
cases.  The Interagency Commission is currently preparing a 
policy document on assistance to victims, which will address 
the physical security problem as well as social services. 
 
12. (U) Overseas, the IOM, Fundacion Esperanza and the 
Colombian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) work with 
authorities in foreign countries to identify Colombian 
victims of trafficking and repatriate them.  The MFA conducts 
courses for new consular officers on identifying trafficking 
victims, and it emphasizes the legal requirement of officers 
to report trafficking as a crime if they suspect it has 
occurred.  The MFA is working through its embassies and 
consulates overseas and with embassies based in Bogota to 
analyze whether legislation in those countries defines 
trafficking as a crime.  When repatriated victims arrive, the 
DAS interviews them in a separate room at the airport with 
the help of Fundacion Esperanza staff, and encourages them to 
consider filing charges against their traffickers. 
 
13. (U) Domestically, Fundacion Renacer and Fundacion 
Esperanza have programs to identify and resettle domestic 
trafficking victims, and they work with the Fiscalia, DAS, 
and the CNP's special anti-trafficking unit, Humanitas. 
MININT is currently working on an agreement with the Hotel 
Association CotelCo and DAS to allow recently found victims 
to receive initial shelter in participating hotels.  MININT 
is also working with Colombia's Office of Drug Control 
Police, the DNE (Direccin Nacional de Estupefacientes) to 
set up some secure, anonymous shelters for trafficked 
victims.  In both domestic and international cases, MININT is 
responsible for providing safe passage for victims to return 
to their homes, lodging if it is needed, medical and 
psychological attention, financial assistance and help 
finding employment, and information and legal support for the 
entire judicial process.  MININT provides most of these 
services through its "Casas de Justicia" (Justice Houses) 
program.  MININT has to work closely with Fundacion Esperanza 
and Fundacion Renacer because victims often prefer to 
approach a private organization rather than a government 
office. 
 
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Room for Improvement 
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14. (U) A number of the representatives Brown and poloff met 
agreed that Colombia needs to: 
 
-- prosecute and convict more traffickers; 
 
-- increase the amount of resources allocated to combat 
trafficking, especially to the Fiscalia's Anti-Trafficking 
Unit, the interagency committee, and the Departments and 
municipalities that need to include strategies to combat 
trafficking in their annual resource plans; 
 
-- train officials in how to detect trafficking crimes, 
investigate the individual acts of the entire chain of 
traffickers, and prosecute trafficking crimes under Law 985; 
 
-- work on improving information sharing and coordination 
between regions and agencies within Colombia to facilitate 
work on domestic trafficking; and 
 
-- better protect victims of trafficking so they can feel 
more comfortable to file charges against their aggressors. 
 
15.  This cable was cleared by G/TIP. 
WOOD