They were taken every morning to ask for money and sell cigarettes outside a shopping center in the north of Guayaquil.
Four members of a family were arrested this Monday in Duran for alleged child labor exploitation after the National Unit for Investigation and Protection of Children (Unipen) raided two houses after two months of investigation.
Major Santiago Racines, head of the Unipen of Zone 8, said that the crime for which they are being investigated could be punished with up to thirteen years in prison., according to article 105 of the Comprehensive Organic Criminal Code (COIP).
The four defendants, identified as Carlos Paulino TI, Bolivar T. I, Marlene Rocío YV and María Beatriz CH. P. Ballots were issued and they were detained at their homes, where seven minors were rescued.
Four of the minors were transferred to a shelter of the Ministry of Economic and Social Inclusion (MIES) and the other three were handed over to relatives.
The rescued children are the children of the detainees, who, according to the Police, took the minors to Joaquín José Orrantia Avenue and to the commercial area of the neighboring buildings. The children stayed there during the day and until late at night. They were left there to sell cigarettes and sweets and ask customers for money, agents said.
The youngest is one year old and the oldest is 12 years old, Racines said, adding that while the children asked for money, their parents drove around the area in a car and watched them. They did not have a job, their job was to watch over the children.
The detainees were presented this Monday at the Model Barracks Prosecutor’s Office and waited for the hearing to be held. (I)
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