News · Migration

Guyana arrests a Cuban man on trafficking charges and rescues 14 Cuban women

Police in Bartica, in the Cuyuni-Mazaruni region, arrested a 33-year-old man who could face from five years in prison to life, according to the Demerara Waves newspaper cited by 14ymedio.

Police in the town of Bartica, in Guyana's Cuyuni-Mazaruni region, arrested a 33-year-old Cuban man accused of human trafficking and rescued 14 Cuban women, according to the online newspaper Demerara Waves, cited by 14ymedio. If convicted, the man faces sentences ranging from five years in prison to life imprisonment.

Officers went to the site after receiving information about a woman allegedly being held against her will, and found the group there. The migrants were taken to Georgetown, where they are receiving psychological support and are being interviewed by officers from the anti-trafficking unit, with assistance from the Ministry of Human Services and the Ministry of Home Affairs. The suspect remains in custody while the investigation continues.

In its 2025 Trafficking in Persons Report, the US State Department said Guyana's government lacked a formal mechanism to oversee labour recruitment and detect trafficking indicators, and that more effective supervision of agreements with foreign workers is needed, particularly in large construction and mining operations.

According to figures from the newspaper Kaieteur News reported by 14ymedio, in the last year counted Guyanese authorities opened 16 trafficking investigations and recorded 390 victims: 304 women sexually exploited, 85 adult men in forced labour and one child. Of those, 375 were foreign nationals from Cuba, Venezuela, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, India and Colombia, and only 25 received assistance that year.

Guyana has become both a destination and a transit point on the so-called "southern route" taken by Cuban migrants towards Brazil, Uruguay or Chile, and its construction companies are increasingly turning to Cuban labour, according to 14ymedio.

Sources: 14ymedio

Data updated: 2026-11-07T04:15:00.000Z

Guyana arrests a Cuban man on trafficking charges and rescues 14 Cuban women | Yamacoa Observatory