Thousands of Women Still Trapped in Colombia's Sex Trade After Maduro's Fall
Lorena arrives at the Medellin coffee shop in a light blue top and jeans, appearing like any other young woman in her late twenties. Yet her life has been anything but ordinary.
At 29, the Venezuela-born mother of two has spent the better part of a decade selling her body to foreign tourists in Parque Lleras, the upscale nightlife district of Medellin, Colombia, where Americans and Europeans gather in pursuit of pleasures both legal and otherwise.
“I basically never have a period,” she tells me, explaining how she uses drugs from local pharmacies and cotton tampons inserted deep enough that clients won’t notice. “I rarely take a break.”
More than a month after United States forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in a January 3 raid on Caracas, Lorena represents the human cost of a migration crisis displacing nearly eight million Venezuelans since 2014.
While American officials urge Venezuelans to return home, interviews across Colombia reveal thousands of women and girls trapped in sexual exploitation. Economic desperation persists, and Mr. Maduro’s infrastructure of human suffering shows no signs of dismantling.
“Since 2022, we have observed an upward trend in mass tourism involving sexual exploitation — both of adult women and children,” the regional director for the government body Migración Colombia at Medellín, Paola Salazar, tells me.
