Hilda Bustillos, a woman who won the title of Miss Puebla in 1991 near the Mexican capital, was arrested on charges of enslaving indigenous youth whom she hired as cleaning workers in her home.
The former beauty queen faces charges of human trafficking in the form of forced labor and deprivation of liberty, formulated by the local Prosecutor’s Office.
The victims. Among other things, Bustillos, 55, held Teresa, a 16-year-old indigenous adolescent, captive for 34 months, whom he hired as a domestic worker, and beat him frequently, including once with a hammer, causing burns that left him footprints, as well as forcibly cutting her hair and forcing her to sweep in the rain.
Likewise, the young woman, originally from the Sierra Norte de Puebla, was deprived of food and water, she was not paid a penny, and she was constantly threatened to kill her and make her disappear.
The girl’s ordeal ended when she managed to escape with the help of some neighbors and get to safety, to later report her to the authorities.
“He left the woman locked up at home when she, her husband and their children went out, in addition to having her under threat of harming her family,” said a neighbor who helped her escape and pointed out that the day he rescued her she had been two years old. weeks without eating any food.
Modus operandi. Teresa’s case is just one of many, according to the Kualinemilis Collective, which revealed that she used to hire indigenous people close to her home as domestic workers, promising them a salary of 1,800 pesos a week (about $90) that she never paid, in addition to food, roof and rest days, through seductive ads on the networks.
One of the victims, who also did not identify himself and remained under the control of this person for two months, said that he tried to commit suicide twice with bathroom cleaning products and when he fled he left “with nothing” but refused to file a complaint for fear that the authorities did not believe him.
More victims. Another case is that of a young woman who was locked up for 5 months in 2017 and suffered slave treatment, while a man who remained anonymous said that Bustillos threw hot oil at her mother and took away her identification.
Detention. After her arrest on March 19, the woman had her first hearing before a judge in which her evil actions were revealed. Margarita Garcidueñas, prosecutor for Attention to Crimes of Gender Violence against Women of the Prosecutor’s Office, said that Teresa filed her complaint on April 22, 2022, after her audacious escape from the house of the detainee, in the city of Puebla, state capital.
After interviews with witnesses, “in situ” inspections and expert opinions on forensic medicine, psychology, victimology, social work and social anthropology, the arrest of “Miss Torture” was achieved.
