Podcast | “They Are Going to Kill Us”: Sex Workers in Peru Face Extortion and Violence

Sex workers in Peru face extortion and violence at the hands of police officers and members of Tren de Aragua. *This episode is also available in Spanish. Listen on About This Episode The international success of Venezuela’s most infamous criminal export, Tren de Aragua, was built on a model of exploiting the vulnerable. In Peru, they arrived on the backs of migrants. Then, they built their business on the backs of sex workers. The gang’s takeover of the city’s sex trade has left a trail of dead women as they have killed women who refuse to pay their extortion fees, then used their murders to send a chilling message to those that remain. But amid the atmosphere of fear, there remain those willing to raise their voices in resistance against the terror—and in remembrance of those lost to it. In 2024, InSight Crime reporters met with Leida Portal and Ángela Villón, two activists who had spent decades defending Lima’s sex workers from a state that neglected them, police that abused and extorted them, and a society that didn’t care. Today, their struggle is not just for the rights of sex workers to a dignified life. It is for survival. Context: Tren de Aragua’s Expansion Across South America Combining ruthless violence with innovative criminal entrepreneurship, Tren de Aragua is the most successful Venezuelan gang of its generation. The gang was born in the prison of Tocorón, where leader Héctor Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, alias “Niño Guerrero,” colluded with Venezuelan authorities to turn the penitentiary into a thriving business and criminal headquarters. From there, it expanded its influence around Venezuela, building up a powerful network by allying with local gangs and exterminating rivals. In the late 2010s, the gang capitalized on the mass exodus of Venezuelans to expand around South America. By setting up human smuggling, extortion, and human trafficking networks along migration routes, Tren de Aragua was able to set up cells in Colombia, Peru, Chile, and beyond. Once established, these factions moved into local criminal economies such as extortion, drug sales, and the sex trade. As the gang’s notoriety grew, it caught the attention of the US authorities. And while claims of its presence in the United States were widely overblown, Donald Trump’s government declared it a terrorist organization and used the threat it posed to justify its policy of mass deportations. However, since Venezuelan authorities stormed Tocorón prison in 2023, the group’s leadership has scattered and its control over the broader network has loosened. In 2026, Niño Guerrero was reported killed in an airstrike, leaving its future as a unified criminal organization in doubt. Credits Research, Script, and Narration María Fernanda Ramírez and Lara Loaiza Editing Tomás Uprimny, Steven Dudley, and Liza Schmidt Production Steven Dudley and Elisa Roldán Creative Direction Elisa Roldán Sound Design Valentina Fonseca and Juan Felipe Pulido Graphic Design Isabella Soto Marketing and Social Media Paula Rojas and Isabella Soto Would you like to support Leida and Ángela’s work? You can do so through the organizations they lead: Rosa Mujeres de Lucha and Miluska Vida y Dignidad, where they support, represent, and defend the rights of sex workers in Peru.