A few months ago, Tyler Schwab, a 33-year-old Wyoming native, was heading to New York to attend the trial of Angad Amit Beharry. Accused of pedophilia, he had paid a Venezuelan woman for pornographic videos that had been recorded in the Colombian province of Antioquia, in which this mother sexually abused her baby. Libertas International, the NGO that Schwab founded in 2013, was supporting the little survivor and her new caregiver.
This is just one of several cases of sexual exploitation that Schwab tracks in Colombia. He gave up his medical studies to dedicate his life to the fight against the sexual exploitation and trafficking of girls in Latin America. In recent years, he has focused his NGO’s efforts on survivors in Medellín, a Colombian city where several of his “countrymen” — as he calls them — have sexually exploited minorities behind the false curtain of tourism. His organization has supported more than 80 girls over the last two years. In addition to providing support to victims, Libertas International applies pressure so that perpetrators — especially those from the United States — are made to face justice.
Matthew Schwab says his fight against child sexual exploitation began when, at age 19, he witnessed young girls being exploited by foreign men in the Dominican Republic while serving as a missionary. After speaking with victims, including a 14-year-old girl forced into prostitution, he abandoned medical school, trained in anti-human trafficking work, and eventually founded Libertas International in 2013.
Schwab says sexual exploitation takes different forms across Latin America. In the Dominican Republic and Colombia, he has encountered families selling their children, while in Guatemala criminal gangs trafficked girls and women. In Colombia, particularly in Medellín, he says many cases involve foreign men—especially Americans—who travel to sexually exploit minors, often recording and sharing abuse online before returning home.
A turning point came when he helped a survivor linked to a case involving an American convicted of trafficking and abusing girls in Medellín. Since then, he has focused much of his work on supporting Colombian victims and pursuing investigations involving U.S. citizens.
According to Schwab, his organization currently has dozens of open investigations into Americans accused of sexually exploiting minors in Medellín. He argues that Colombian authorities have made progress but criticizes some prosecutors for setting unnecessarily high thresholds for opening investigations. He also believes society often fails to recognize exploited minors as victims, especially when people describe the abuse as “child prostitution” rather than exploitation.
Schwab contends that official statistics underestimate the scope of the problem. While Colombian authorities have recorded nearly 8,000 minors as victims of sexual exploitation-related crimes over the past five years, he says the true number is likely much higher, citing the steady flow of new cases his organization handles across Colombia and involving Colombian victims abroad. He also points to the role of transnational criminal groups in exploiting vulnerable women and girls.
