Wet Paper
From Martínez Roque v. USA by Samuel Martínez Roque
March 25, 2026 · 14 min · Season 1 · Episode 9
About this episode
The episode features a testimony from a human trafficking survivor, exploring the ongoing conditions of labor trafficking and systemic control mechanisms.
Wet Paper is a human trafficking survivor's testimony that examines labor trafficking not as a past event, but as a condition that can be resurrected through coercion, retaliation, and the intentional limitation of alternatives. Using the embodied metaphor of eating wet paper to survive hunger, Samuel Martínez Roque traces how deprivation, wage theft, digital interference, immigration threats, and abuse of legal process function together as a system of control. The narrative documents a multi-year pattern of labor exploitation and retaliation carried out by Ramon Ontiveros , spanning from 2021 through 2026. It argues that human trafficking does not require physical captivity to persist; it can continue through economic sabotage, platform manipulation, impersonation, and the strategic disruption of a victim’s ability to secure food, housing, medical care, or lawful income. Martínez Roque documents through this testimony how silence, procedural neglect, and digital infrastructures enable continued harm while rendering victims “free” in form but bound in practice.
People in this episode
Host: Samuel Martínez Roque
Topics covered
- human trafficking
- labor exploitation
- survivor testimony
- economic control
- coercion
- retaliation
Keywords
- human trafficking
- labor trafficking
- survivor testimony
- economic sabotage
- wage theft
- digital interference
- immigration threats
More episodes of Martínez Roque v. USA
- Ramon Ontiveros' Laundering of Immigrants' Labor Exploitation Through the Myth of the Drug Cartel Power: An Open Letter to the Juárez Cartel · April 8, 2026 · 6 min
- El Paso's House of Cards: The Police Department’s Architecture of Negligence and Complicity · March 22, 2026 · 16 min
- This Is What Human Trafficking in the Form of Ramon Ontiveros Looks Like · February 25, 2026 · 11 min
- Not If I Still Hunger · February 11, 2026 · 11 min
- Killed In USA, Part 2 · January 28, 2026 · 11 min
- Killed In USA · January 14, 2026 · 12 min
Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Martínez Roque v. USA podcast page.