As reported over the past five years, human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in Venezuela, and traffickers exploit Venezuelan victims abroad. As the economic situation continued to spiral into critical deterioration, more than 5 million Venezuelans have fled Venezuela to neighboring countries. The UN estimates approximately 6.5 million Venezuelans will have fled the country by the end of 2020. Traffickers have exploited Venezuelan victims in Aruba, The Bahamas, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Curacao, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guyana, Macau, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Spain, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago. Venezuelan women and girls were particularly vulnerable to sex trafficking in Colombia and Ecuador. An uncorroborated press report alleged the Spanish Ministry of Interior reported that by mid-2019, 391 Venezuelan victims of trafficking had been identified in Spain. While Spanish authorities did not confirm the exact number of Venezuelan victims identified, they reported in 2019, Venezuela was the number one source country for victims exploited in Spain. NGOs noted sex trafficking and forced labor in domestic service within the country increased in 2019. Traffickers increasingly exploit Venezuelan men in forced labor in other countries, including islands of the Dutch Caribbean. Dissident Colombian illegal armed groups, especially near border regions, subjected Venezuelans to forced criminality and forced recruitment. In 2019, the UN, foreign governments, media outlets, and credible NGOs reported Venezuelan government officials, including members of security forces and local authorities, mostly those near border regions, colluded with, tolerated, and allowed Colombian illegal armed groups to operate in Venezuelan territory with impunity. Venezuelan officials acting at the behest of former president Nicolas Maduro and his inner circle or in their own personal interests, including out of fear for their safety, reportedly provided support and safe haven described below to FARC dissidents and the ELN. These groups grew through the recruitment of child soldiers and exploitation of children in sex trafficking and forced labor. Illegal armed groups lure children in vulnerable conditions and dire economic circumstances with gifts and promises of basic sustenance, denied to them and their families by the humanitarian situation in the country, to later recruit them into their ranks. These groups, including the ELN and FARC dissidents, recruit children to strengthen their operations and terrorize border communities in Venezuela and neighboring countries, especially Colombia, in areas with limited regime presence. A report published in 2019 documented the presence of six dissident movements comprising ex-FARC combatants in at least seven of 24 Venezuelan states, including Amazonas, Apure, Bolívar, Guárico, Mérida, Táchira, and Zulia, five of which are border states. Colombian authorities estimated there were approximately 36 ELN camps located on the Venezuela side of the Colombia-Venezuela border. Members of the former Maduro regime heavily relied on ELN, FARC dissidents, criminal groups, and pro-regime armed groups’ criminal and terrorist activities inside of Venezuela, including human trafficking, to maintain their illegitimate control. According to documents reportedly from Venezuela’s intelligence agency (SEBIN), a senior commander of the Armed Forces ordered members of the Army, National Guard, and militias loyal to former president Maduro operating in four states along with Colombia-Venezuela border to avoid engaging Colombian illegal armed groups in Venezuelan territory and encouraged them to aid and support their operations. Members of Maduro’s former regime provided support and safe haven, which allowed the unhindered growth of these groups and threatened to destabilize the region, as they grow their ranks exploiting children in sex trafficking, forced labor, and forced recruitment. According to NGOs, forced labor is a common punishment for violating rules imposed by armed groups. Illegal armed groups exploited Venezuelans, including children, into forced labor in mining areas and women and girls in sex trafficking. Traffickers subject Venezuelan women and girls, including some lured from poor interior regions to Caracas, Maracaibo, and Margarita Island, to sex trafficking and child sex tourism within the country. Traffickers, often relatives of the victims, exploit Venezuelan children in forced labor for domestic service within the country. Venezuelan officials and international organizations have reported identifying sex and labor trafficking victims from South American, Caribbean, Asian, and African countries in Venezuela. Foreign nationals living in Venezuela subject Ecuadorians, Filipinos, and other foreign nationals to forced labor in domestic service. Illegal mining operations exist in some of the country’s most remote areas, including Bolivar state, where traffickers exploit girls into sex trafficking, forcibly recruit youth to join armed criminal groups, and forced children to work in the mines under dangerous conditions. In 2019, there was an increase in sex and labor trafficking in the informal mining sector. It was estimated roughly 45 percent of miners in Bolívar state were underage and extremely vulnerable to trafficking. Armed groups exploit civilians and kidnapping victims into sex trafficking and forced labor, including farming, domestic service, and construction. Workers recruited from other areas of the country were victims of forced labor and manipulated through debt, threats of violence, and even death. Traffickers exploited women and girls, especially those from indigenous communities. The Cuban government may have forced some Cubans participating in its government-sponsored medical missions in Venezuela to work. Some Cuban medical professionals posted in Venezuela indicated Cuban minders withheld their documentation and coerced them to falsify medical records.