BY ASHA JAVEED
A 14-year-old Colombian prostitute is claiming that a police officer had sex with her in exchange for not arresting her during a raid at a hotel in Chaguanas, last week.
In the pre-dawn hours of April 9, police officers staged a raid at the Santa Maria Hotel at Bagna Trace, Chase Village, Chaguanas.
Twenty-nine Colombian women were piled up into police vehicles and taken away.
One was left behind.
Maria (not her real name) said two police officers found her under the bed of her room while the raid was taking place.
She was told if she had sex with an officer, she would not be taken to the police station.
Maria, who arrived in the country 15 days before by boat, hesitated.
She was scared to be deported back to Colombia but her greater fear of the police won out.
She submitted.
A police officer stood guard while the other officer had sex with her.
She was left in her room while the other women were taken away.
The women are now at the Golden Grove Prison in Arouca awaiting deportation.
Maria had paid for her freedom with sex.
Now she felt violated and scared.
The public relations department of the T&T Police Service said it “would comment on the veracity and truthfulness of the allegation in due course.”
The Guardian met Maria on Tuesday.
She was dressed in a simple purple dress which highlighted her milk-like complexion framed with a curtain of jet black hair. She sat straight while she spoke guardedly (via translator) about her experience.
She appeared more concerned than calculating.
She did not smile.
She has not and will not press charges.
The plain truth is, she is a sex worker, in the country illegally, who is underage.
Her act of submission can simply be viewed as a job without pay.
Maria is here to make money to go back home. She said she was not feeling well and feared for her life. She said friends in her home town in Colombia convinced her to come to Trinidad as it was an easy place to make money. She has four siblings. Her dreams are simple. She wants to own a motorbike when she goes back home.
She said when she first started to work, it was hard. She has to drink alcohol before she begins to work.
She expects to leave Trinidad by May.
She has resumed work. A customer is charged $200 a session.
Salorne McDonald, a representative of the Society of Family and Health, contends that Maria should have some legal recourse.
“The police and the immigration officers were there to conduct their jobs...The act, while on duty, was unlawful,” he said.
Gary Hughes, manager of Santa Maria, said it was the first time that a worker was taken advantage of while a raid was being carried out.
Hughes, who sat in the armrest of a couch in the bar of the hotel, said that police officers visited his place all the time.
To the right of the bar was a red-carpeted square stage with chairs around.
The place is heavily burglar-proofed and dark.
Hughes said his business was above board.
He has a hotel, the women pay for their rooms and what they do is up to them.
He runs a bar, he said.
“Many police officers come here...From superintendents and upwards,” he claimed.
“They come here and buy girls.
“Look at this...It have about 75 to 100 girls in (name called) which is just a few blocks down from the Police Administration Building in Port-of-Spain.
“You don’t hear about that place being raided.
“Officers does come here, leave their gun in the office and go upstairs,” he said.
A 21-year-old Dominican Republic girl, who sat in on the interview said officers from South and Port-of-Spain also visited the hotel.
“They come here while they on duty,” she said.
“Sometimes, they will talk to one of the heads who will send them up with a girl.
“And they does want to do all sort of things.”
She said that a girl can earn between $1,500 to up to $2,000 a night. She is not complaining about her job. During the day she is learning French and is free to do as she pleases. Work begins at 7 pm.
“I does have to drink before I go downstairs. Otherwise I can't do it. So I drink everyday,” she said with a shrug of her shoulders.
©2005-2006 Trinidad Publishing Company Limited
boy ah waiting for this underage Columbian prostitute ring to buss. somebody paying for these children to get here and ah nex body turning ah blind eye to the boats that bringing them. and in the mean time they arresting the girls, and fellahs like Hughes running their bar no problem.
