Prison for woman who sexually exploited a teenager she moved to neighboring Haiti

The processed woman, who took her victims to a business in Pétion-Ville, faces another similar process

Santo Domingo.- After accepting the request of the Public Ministry, a court in Santiago imposed a three-month preventive prison sentence on a defendant for crimes of trafficking, and sexual and psychological abuse to the detriment of a Dominican teenager whom she transferred to neighboring Haiti to sexually exploit her. The accused María Estela Fajardo Liriano (la Patrona), a repeat offender subjected to the same crimes in the judicial district of Valverde, headed a network of traffickers that was organized to recruit their Dominican adolescent victims in different demarcations of the country. The teenagers were taken to the cabaret bar La Patrona, a business owned by the defendant, located in Pétion-Ville, Haiti. The coercive measure was imposed due to the material, expert, testimonial, and documentary evidence collected by the prosecuting body through its Department of Trafficking in Persons, which was empowered in the case in which the victim, then a minor, was taken to Haiti, where she was held and subjected to abuse, sexual assault, and other forms of abuse. The investigation, in which prosecutor Juan Osvaldo García was employed, states that the victim was contacted and moved from Santiago to a villa in Santo Domingo by several young women acting on behalf of the accused. The Public Ministry has evidence that the victim's captors demanded the payment of cash from her relatives, in exchange for returning her to the country.

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The Santiago Prosecutor's Office charged Fajardo with the provisional charges of violation of articles 265 and 266 of the Dominican Penal Code; article 1, letters A and C, and article 3, of Law 137-03, on Illicit Trafficking of Migrants and Trafficking in Persons. In addition, he is charged with violations of Article 396, letters A, B, and C, of Law 136-03, on the System of Protection and Fundamental Rights of Children and Adolescents, which punish the association of wrongdoers, human trafficking, and physical, psychological, and sexual assault against a minor. Fajardo Liriano was also subjected to the action of justice in the jurisdiction of Valverde province, where, likewise, she was imposed as a coercive measure of preventive detention by resolution 103-2025, of February 24, 2025, for having sexually exploited a minor in Haiti, whom she also savagely beat to force her to receive clients, to the point of having caused her a wound on her face, which demonstrates the unlawful, criminal and antisocial conduct of the accused.