By Lorena Bornacelly.
Freddy Bernal, the protector appointed by the Nicolas Maduro regime in the border state of Táchira, reported that three people have been arrested on the green roads, linking Venezuela and Colombia. He said they could face eight to 12 years in prison for human trafficking.
These people, called trocheros because they work in the trocha, the illegal road among the border of both countries, charged illegal migrants up to $50 per person for entering them into Venezuela without following the epidemiological rules. The regime is sending returning migrants to quarantine shelters for 15 days.
“We are investigating several organizations that have contacts in Norte de Santander department (Colombia) and San Antonio, San Cristobal, Maracay, and Valencia and are complicit into this crime. Any individual found to be trafficking in human beings will go to prison,” explained Bernal.
You must read Returning migrants are quarantining as in military barracks
Venezuelans who are returning through Táchira state must use the Simón Bolívar International Bridge in San Antonio del Tachira, and comply with a five to 14-day quarantine as a preventive measure against COVID-19, which is what those who pass through illegally are hoping to avoid.
“Those unscrupulous individuals who have given themselves the task of bringing in nationals through the irregular passages, because that has become a business, will be prosecuted for trafficking in persons. This is provided for in the Criminal Code, which is why they will present one female and two male citizens, who were arrested in the flagrant crime”.
Bernal estimated that 600 people entered the country through the irregular trails or passages, which had to be transferred to the Points of Integral Social Attention (Pasi in Spanish) and currently, due to the presence of the Armed Forces in the forest areas, the number has been reduced to 100 people.
