While no country in the region has legislation against all forms of trafficking in persons, or specifically against trafficking for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation, virtually all countries in the region with the exception of El Salvador do have laws in their penal codes that punish trafficking activity for the purposes of prostitution. While these laws bear a general resemblance to one another, they do vary from country to country.
Notable differences in these laws include: various countries definition of what acts constitute
trafficking; the characteristics a victim of trafficking must possess to
receive protection under these laws; the scope of geographic coverage
contemplated by each law; the purposes for which trafficking is
prohibited; and the strength of the penalty imposed when trafficking
has occurred. The crime of trafficking is not explicitly identified in all
countries. For example, in Belize and the Dominican Republic,
trafficking is best characterized as a modality of the crime of
"procurement". Other countries have criminalized trafficking for
prostitution in name trata de personas or trata de blancas.
Trafficking Victims
The various pieces of trafficking legislation contemplate three
basic characteristics an individual might need to possess to be
considered a victim of trafficking. These characteristics consider
gender, age, and nationality. Regarding gender, all laws except for
those of Belize are gender neutral; that is, both males and females can
be victims of trafficking. Some laws establish this gender neutrality via
express provisions in the trafficking law; for example, Honduras's and
Costa Rica's laws explicitly include "people of either sex", and the
Dominican Republic's law includes "persons, men or women".
Laws which do not contain such express gender provisions, such as
those of Nicaragua and Panama, contain general terms such as
"victim", "foreigners," and "nationals," which can all be read to be
gender neutral. In contrast to the rest of the laws in the region, Belize's
trafficking legislation applies only to "women".
Without exception, the trafficking provisions in these criminal
codes contemplate that both adults and minors can be trafficked. As
with the provision on gender, different countries use different statutory
language to include/acknowledge minors as potential trafficking
victims. For example, the Dominican Republic explicitly refers to
"minors" in the text of the law, while Honduras explicitly offers
protection to "people of ...any age".
Guatemala, Nicaragua, and
Panama do not expressly refer to minors in their codes; however, as
mentioned above, the general language used in these countries
trafficking provisions can be understood to include both adults and
minors. In many cases, age and/or status as a minor is considered as an
aggravating factor in the crime as described below.
Most of these trafficking provisions can be understood to
apply both when certain acts are carried out upon nationals of a country
and also when they are carried out upon foreigners. In Belize, Costa
Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, and Panama's legislation, this is implied
by the fact that the provisions contemplate that trafficking can include
both a person's entry into and exit from the national territory. In the
cases of Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic, it is less clear whether
these countries' trafficking provisions apply both when the victims are
nationals and foreigners.
Nicaragua's law includes those who are
trafficked for prostitution "within or outside of the country", and the
Dominican Republic's law encompasses those situations where victims
of procuring have been submitted or incited to engage in prostitution
"outside of national territory", "upon their arrival abroad", or "on their
location prior to their arrival abroad".