The judge at the Office of Permanent Attention for the National District, José Alejandro Vargas, handed down three months in protective custody sentences for two members of an alleged criminal organization that deals in human trafficking and sexual exploitation involving Venezuelan women who say they were forced into prostitution at a nightclub known as Pink Pony Bar in Los Prados in Santo Domingo.
The persons indicted are the owner of the bar, 39-year old Jarvis Guerra Rodriguez, and the manager, 33-year old Angela Campusano Santos. The magistrate ordered the owner to serve his time at la Victoria prison and the woman was sent to the Najayo Women’s facility.
Readers might remember that on Sunday, 24 June 2018, six Venezuelan women who were allegedly prostitutes at the nightclub were rescued after five of their fellow citizens escaped from the bar and alerted authorities, according to the Attorney General of the Republic. The Venezuelans that escaped from the Pink Pony alerted authorities regarding the conditions involving sexual exploitation being carried out at that business located in a residential area of the National District.
The Venezuelans say they were lured here with job offers as waitresses, and then their passports were removed and they were drugged and forced to prostitution at the bar.
“The women were not kidnapped, they spread the news about the job from one to another, they had a day off a week to leave and return to the place on their own,” said Guerra Rodríguez, who will now try to prove his innocence in court.
Guerra will also be charged for keeping two identities. At the moment of his arrest he had in his possession two IDs (cedulas), with different names and different personal data.
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Acento
El Dia
28 June 2018
