She worked for up to 17 hours a day, she could not talk to her family in Guatemala, she did not receive any payment, nor did she have established times for her food or a worker’s insurance.
That was the ordeal of a Guatemalan woman, who would have been a victim of human trafficking for the purpose of labor exploitation at a souvenir and handicraft shop in La Fortuna de San Carlos.
The main suspect in the case is a woman, also Guatemalan, who would have exploited her compatriot in the commercial premises of her property.
The woman named Martínez López, would have deceived her victim on a trip to Guatemala. There, she offered her a “decent job” in Costa Rican territory.
Martínez López managed and coordinated all the logistics related to his transfer to Costa Rica, covering the expenses of the passport, air tickets and later her terrestrial transfer (bus ticket) to San Carlos,”
indicates a report of the Professional Police of Migration (PPM).
The conditions of vulnerability in which the victim lived were verified by the immigration authorities.
Martínez used different means of coercion or threat in order to maintain control over the foreigner, so that she did not escape or denounce what she was living,”
said the PPM.
The police arrested the suspect and raided four commercial establishments from a corporation linked to the woman. As a result, two Guatemalan women were identified as potential victims.