I am an Honduran national who was taken to Belize when I was 17 on a promise of

work and hope for my family.

Most of the stories you hear about women like me are about how we are voluntary
prostitutes and that we came to Belize of our own free will. This is hardly the
case. A man came to our village and talked about the chance to make money workin
g in the resort island of Ambergris Caye in Belize. My family needed money and I
was at an age that school did not matter as much as money to feed our family. I
decided to go.
During my travel to Belize this man picked up a number of other girls along the
route. Some with papers other without. When we arrived at the border we were tol
d to get into the trunk of this taxi and we would be driven across the border in
to Belize and met on the other side.
Like most girls and women that end up in Belize we were held and forced to work
in bars not resorts. By being held it was more of a threat, my travel documents
were held, I had a debt for the job, I owed for food, rent everything.
The work was bad. Men wanting to drink with you touch you. I did not agree. The
bar owner told me that if I did not have sex with men or women he would turn me
in, which he did.
I was arrested for immigration violations. Placed in jail in San Pedro, at least
separated from the men in a cell, with other women. No bathroom, shower, food w
as okay. I had no legal help, no one to call just alone without any money. Yet t
he police in the jail did say for sex I would be treated better. I did not.
On my court day it seemed to be a few minutes and that was it. I was stupid. I p
leaded not guilty, the mistake all victims make. So you understand, if I had ple
aded guilty the fine was small and I could have had a chance to be free. Even wi
thout money, I had a small chance. Pleading not guilty bail had to be set, $3000
Belize plus two assurances. I knew no one. Off to Hattieville.
You are convicted at that time, ordered to Hattieville prison for three months t
hen deported out of the country. No trial, no right or wrong you, are done over.
I was taken by boat from San Pedro to Belize City, I spent the night in the Albe
rt Street sewer of a police station. The smell of urine, people screaming, polic
e beating people. No bed. Slept on the floor in a corner with 15 other women cra
mmed in a cell that was 10 by 6 feet. No bathroom. Had to ask to be taken out a
nd then no door on the bathroom and the police stand and stare at your body.
The next morning we are loaded up and off to Hattieville on a bus chained togeth
er for the short ride to the prison. At first view the prison is in the country
out of the city eyes. A large sprawling complex with many buildings added on ove
r the years of all different size and shape. A large farm with open areas surrou
nding the prison.
The guards take you through a process of registering you, taking fingerprints, p
hotos and the like.
Then you are placed out in a holding area to wait to be taken to your new home f
or the next three months. That is when it starts. The trustees, as they are call
ed, are the long-timers and the lifers in Hattieville. They run much of the work
inside Hattieville while the guards sit in their offices with prisoners who hav
e money and influence, pimping money off the prisoners.
I finally was taken to what is called the womenâ s detention center, or as most calle
d it the womenâ s play pen. You have a mix of every crime, murder, guns, thieves, you
 name it, they are all in one happy place as the Kolbe Foundation would have the
world believe.
We are separated from the men, other then the guards that come in to review the
fresh fish as you are branded. I was in a cell with 8 other women, a piece of sm
elling foam as your bed cover, no sheets, nothing supplied. You have to wait til
l a girl leaves then fight over her shit till you find enough stuff to live.
You are fed like animals, fed through your cage door, breakfast, well, mild tea,
lunch rice with a dollar size piece of something, a piece of bread in the after
noon. You do not have anything to eat with, you scrounge anything to hold food i
n. Otherwise you do not eat or drink.
The water is like salt water fed from the pool of a lake in the center of the pr
ison. No toilet I mean the fixtures are there the seat is gone so you have to sq
uat over this filthy toilet that smells. No doors on the bathrooms or showers, w
ell, not a shower a pipe with cold water.
The long-timers are the bosses of the womenâ s center, they have nothing to lose, the
y have a TV, Game Boys, drugs, real water, money, they have all needed to make y
our life not live-able, just able to exist. They are the boss when the guards ar
e gone.
At night, 7:00 is the last time you see the guards â til in the morning they are in t
heir little shack sleeping. You cannot sleep. Every night is a party. Drugs flow
freely inside. It is also cheap, just pot in most cases. Music playing we are l
ocked down no matter, a string, a plastic bottle and you can pass everything aro
und from cell to cell. Get high. Some have cell phones.
The outside world has no access to us inside. Kolbe and Woods control everything
going in and out. According to what I was told or what the world was told blank
ets, uniforms, supplies all came with a new prisoner â a lie. Mr. Woods you may hav
e had money for it, obviously spent on the needs of those in high places, not fo
r us prison bitches.
I settled in. I had no choice being a tall woman. I had my fights to deal with a
nd settled my place so no one screwed with me. The girls inside all talked about
how to get help when you got out how to get home. The big boss, Oboma, was her
name. Not really, that was her rap name. She had connections to the outside. She
made arrangements for me when I got out I could get help.
The day I was released I was told I had two days to leave the Belize, and was du
mped in downtown Belize City with no money, no clothes, nothing and told if I wa
s found in Belize after 48 hours I could spend a year back in Hattieville.
I went to a meeting place that had been arranged, I was questioned taken to the
embassy, documented and then taken out of Belize that same day. Not by aid from
Belize in any form.
How Hattieville prison is presented by the Kolbe Foundation and Woods is not tru
e. The only people that understand the truth about Hattieville are prisoners and
as prisoners you have no rights and who would believe a criminal?
37.850489 -122.406214
Tagged: Human Trafficking Central America, Human Trafficking Belize, Belize Immi
gration Corruption, Belize News, vivian trill, bars belize, Belize Human Traffic
king, Hattieville Prison, Kolbe Foundation
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