The relatives of the detained woman asserted that she only gave them food “on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9:00 am to 11:00 am, from then on she did not know more regarding the children.”
Courtesy | The next hearing for the detainees is scheduled for Wednesday, October 12
The preliminary hearing on the case of two citizens arrested for alleged labor exploitation of 16 minors in Caroní was held on Monday, September 12, with imprisonment as the court’s opinion. The next hearing was convened for 30 days -October 12- at the Palace of Justice in Puerto Ordaz.
Initially, the man and the woman had been charged with criminal association, human trafficking and begging, but the courts dismissed the first two, to which family members and close friends responded that the accused “fed children with the intention of helping them” and that said initiative was born from the Virgen del Valle church in the face of the street conditions and vulnerability in which the minors have found themselves, concentrating in different parts of the city to ask for food or money.
According to the statements of the relatives, this “service work” has been carried out since April 2021, the citizen and other volunteers prepared the food, moved to the Loreto Tower and delivered it to the children, on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.
This is how the conferences were held for several months, until the woman had to provide more attention to her 95-year-old mother for suffering from senile dementia.
“The alternative that she came up with was for the children to look for food at her house at the same time as always,” said a close friend, adding that “following the day, she did not know more regarding them until the next activity.” .
seized money
Regarding the 11 dollars and the 700 bolívares in cash seized on the day of the arrest -September 6-, the defense of the case indicated that the second arrested person works for a transport cooperative and that the lady was in charge of managing the income earned from that work.
“She kept accounts of everything, and for helping the man in this way, he gave her 10% of the money generated by the transportation. That is why they found envelopes and all the paperwork, because she accounted for everything” and pointed out that the man never met the children or dealt with them, however he also donated supplies, like the other members of the church.
Apprehensions
The statements regarding the arrests of the two citizens contrast with the version given by the Municipal Police of Caroní (PMC).
“No words were exchanged with her, nor did they give her the opportunity to clarify things, the officials broke into her house and took her prisoner in front of her mother, who, in addition to her mental illness, is in a wheelchair,” the relatives lamented.
About the other citizen, it was learned that “he was not in the house as they claim, he found out that the police took the lady prisoner and went to the police headquarters to see what had happened and they left him in custody,” they replied. .
Labor social
Jurists declared to scoop that the duty of the Municipal Police was to guide the citizen, who was unaware of the legal processes required by law to help a child, “it is not possible for social work to be criminalized, it is inconceivable that by giving food to a person of the street you have to be imprisoned ”, they concluded.
Support for
The parish priest of the Nuestra Señora del Valle church, Antonio Fuentes, issued a statement expressing his support for the aforementioned, because the initiative was born from that congregation, attesting that the citizen is “proactive, of good moral and religious customs, sensitive to the needs of the most deprived of our society”, he assured.
