Whether or not the rebels stand and fight to support the coca growers and traffickers, whose protection money finances their war effort, tens of thousands of coca growers are likely to move far and wide, taking their seedlings and guerrilla protection with them.
Although laws like Saving the Girl Next Door are created expressly to target sex traffickers, the protection orders still enable police to make the decision about whether they lump sex work agencies in with that definition.
The Trafficking Victims Protection and Justice Act increases criminal penalties for traffickers, pimps and buyers.
Governments and their agencies urgently need to recognise that the prosecution of traffickers and the protection of victims are intimately intertwined.
Recently in Georgia, the General Assembly passed two bills designed to strengthen penalties for traffickers and expand protections for victims so that the true criminals are more likely to be punished.
Though the rebels deny it, drug-trafficking or, at best, protection money from traffickers, is a sizeable source of their income.
This would toughen penalties for sex traffickers and impose stronger protections for trafficking victims.
Others warn they are vulnerable to traffickers, describing the child protection issues as enormous.
In March the UK passed its first Modern Slavery Bill, designed to increase the prosecution of traffickers and give better protection to victims of modern slavery in the UK.
Smith said that she was "convinced that a federally led national action plan would address [the] challenges [of human trafficking] by implementing an integrated response to target the traffickers and provide relief and protection for the victims".
These rebels are gaining strength, in no small part because of the vast amounts of money they are receiving from trafficking in drugs or extorting protection money from other drug traffickers.
