Last weekend, an estimated 25,000 women descended upon the northern city of Posadas, in Misiones province. The sweltering heat was not enough to stop this yearly ritual, which has taken place every October since 1986: the National Women’s Encounter.

Women gather at the Encounter in Misiones. (Photo: Daniela Andreassi)

The first Encounter took place in Buenos Aires, and it has been moving to a different city every year. Based on a premise of democracy and horizontal organisation, its aim is to provide a pluralist space to debate issues that are specific to women and the feminist movement.

As debates develop and move forward in society, each year different topics become the banners of the Encounter. This year, the main issues under discussion were the legalisation of abortion and the problems of gender violence and human trafficking.

They were not, however, the only subjects broached. Around 200 workshops were carried out simultaneously in different schools throughout the city, with topics as varied as sexuality, feminism, identity, family, disabilities, health, addictions, prostitution, unionism, indigenous women, politics, human rights, education, sports, art, youth, foreign debt, etc.

The format of the Encounter is repeated year after year. As it takes place on the long weekend of October, the activities are spread throughout three days. On the first day, after the opening event, the workshops are carried out. They are not conceived as experts’ panels, but as truly open spaces for debate where everyone can have a say.

(Photo: Daniela Andreassi)

According to the organisers, “the workshops are the heart of the Encounters, they break with the usual structures where only some have the word and the others listen in silence, everyone participates. These workshops are sovereign, the discussions and the conclusions belong only to the women who take part in them.”

On the second day, the workshops are finalised and a traditional march is held in the centre of the host city. Unlike previous years, when the marching women were abused and attacked by religious groups, Posadas welcomed the Encounter with a mix of curiosity and indifference. There were also none of the usual conflicts during the workshops -especially those that discuss the issue of abortion- which ‘pro-life’ and anti-feminist groups have typically attempted to interrupt.

The day finishes off with a big party, in the form of a peña with music, dance, and theatre. This year’s big surprise was a performance by famous singer and musician León Gieco, who said he was there “to representthe many men who support [the women’s’] struggle.”

The third day sees the women off after a closing event in which the conclusions from all the workshops are read out, and the city for the next Encounter is chosen by way of applause. Next year, the 28th Encounter will take place in San Juan, a province deeply involved with one of the issues at the forefront of the agenda in Posadas: ‘mega-mining’. The organisation for next year’s event began as soon as this one finished.

Women gathered in the square (Photo: Daniela Andreassi)

As well as the scheduled activities, such as the workshops and the march, there is a lot of spontaneous activity on the fringes of the event. The streets and parks fill up with women who organise different activities like open radios, debates, and concerts. Whilst all the Encounters take place in Argentine cities, they attract an important number of women for other Latin American countries, such as Mexico, Colombia, Honduras, Paraguay, Brazil, and Chile.

Mónica Tarducci is an anthropologist, a feminist, and one of the founders of the Women’s Encounters. In a recent interview with Página 12 newspaper, Tarducci recalled how the experience of the Feminist Encounters of Latin America and the Caribbean in the 1980s were an inspiration to start something similar in Argentina.

The current Encounters, however, are unique, she says. “There’s nothing like it in the world. In fact, from outside the country it’s seen with curiosity and admiration, the fact that so many women meet up once a year to talk about the problems affecting them.” What makes the Encounters unique, according to Tarducci, is the number and diversity of women who take part, as well as the participative dynamics of the workshops and the impact the experience has on the participants.

Underwear on the wall (Photo: Daniela Andreassi)

This year’s balance is positive. As part of their conclusions, the organisers pointed out the importance of the many different issues discussed and brought to light over the weekend: human trafficking, declaration of a national emergency due to sexual and domestic violence, the “triple slogan” campaign (“sexual education to decide, contraception to avoid abortion, legal abortion to avoid dying”), the rejection of the construction of mega-dams, and the defence of the rights of the earth.

Posadas will be reminded of this extraordinary weekend by the graffiti left behind on walls and windows. “We give birth, we decide”, “I aborted, your mum too”, “No means no”, “Take your rosaries off our ovaries”. As the paint fades away and the city goes back to its quiet routine, the women go back to their cities and their daily struggles. But they do not go back the same. They go back stronger, empowered, with renewed energy. Because no woman is the same after the Encounter.

In 2002, Marita Verón disappeared. She was 23-years old at the time, and it is strongly suspected that she was abducted by women traffickers, and subsequently forced into prostitution. Her mother, Susana Trimarco, has been instrumental in raising awareness of the case, as well as the issue of trafficking of women.

Almost ten years later, the trial is underway in Tucumán. The case has brought the issue of female trafficking back into the public sphere, and has shed light on some of the realities of the problem highlighting corruption among the police force, politicians and within the judicial system.

How aware are Argentines of female trafficking and the networks that operate within the country? To what extent do they think that the police are complicit in the issue? What do they think needs to be done to stop female trafficking? The Argentina Independent hit the streets of Buenos Aires to find out.

Photos by Allison Kate Cherkis

Cecilia Maitland, 25, Environmental Engineer, Belgrano

I think there is a network that is a lot bigger than people suspect, and that they are doing a lot more than people know about. In other countries in Latin America, it’s clearer that these problems exist, so they give them more importance, but here it’s not as obvious. My opinion is that it’s all connected with drugs and the mafia, but it’s not something I have a lot of contact with – we don’t see a lot about it in newspapers, I don’t see it as something that they give a lot of importance to. To change things, we need to educate women more on the matter, it’s basic: education and for there to be more publicity, bigger campaigns, because I think there’s a problem of ignorance, that the people simply don’t know a lot about it. We should also be made aware of certain situations to avoid as women.

Ines Hernandez, 60, Teacher, Quilmes

Part of my family lives in Tucumán, where Marita Verón comes from. Her mother is working to fight against this issue. But I don’t think she has done a lot for raising awareness in the whole country, and neither has the government. The government should be doing absolutely everything that they can, in any way possible, to raise awareness of the issue, as well as to find Marita. She is either alive or dead. Unfortunately I don’t think she’s alive, but it’s not impossible. In Argentina, girls want to be rich, or to have everything, very quickly. I think girls have lost that sense of sacrifice doing things as they should be done, legally and by working at them. They are then misled; they [the traffickers] tell them that they’re going to Buenos Aires, to work. It’s very common in the north of Argentina, in Tucuman, Salta, Jujuy, Catamarca, that these people tell them that they’ll be staying with a rich family in Buenos Aires, and work as a nanny. They promise them a good job, but it’s a lie. They take them and put them in brothels. There are some unbelievable stories that I’ve heard of. This is a country where the citizens are never protected. There is certainly a connection with drugs. The people that take the girls are paid with drugs. I’m absolutely sure.

Federico Foieri, 35, Physicist, Almagro

I know about it from what I hear on the TV. I know that it exists, and that there is a lot of complicity with the police and the authorities. In my opinion, they receive money to not check certain things, or to look the other way, pay less attention. I don’t know exactly how they do it. I think they just receive money to stay quiet. I’m not so sure about the judicial system’s role, I think more than anything it’s the police, but then again I’m not a specialist in the judicial system. I think most of the time it works well. I think the thing is in lots of places in the provinces, many girls prostitute themselves, and the most important thing to remember is that something’s failing, it may the judicial system, but it seems to us that it’s the police.

Lucia Raffen Templi, 19, Student, San Martin

I think there’s a link between the police and trafficking of women. There’s a load of things that they let pass and don’t do anything about, or they pretend not to have seen. I know that there’s a lot of things going on, a lot of networks that trafficking of women, but it’s not something that people think about a lot here. There are so many cases that don’t get talked about, and people only really think about what’s reported in the news, and they don’t report everything – good or bad news. It’s not something that comes up constantly. I don’t think people are aware of the networks either; I’m not. It’s something that I try to keep very up to date with. I think we as women live in a gender dictatorship, we go out with fear about what could happen to us every day, which doesn’t happen to men. I mean, they may fear getting robbed or whatever, but we go out with the fear that we just might not come back; it’s a constant threat.

Santiago Lopez, 26, Student, Belgrano

They should be doing more to stop this, informing people more, controlling the borders more vigilantly, increasing the punishments for those caught, make them life sentences. There are networks everywhere, I’ve heard it’s especially bad in Missiones and that part, but it’s everywhere, also here in Buenos Aires. The question of prostitution here is contradictory, because people fight against it, but more and more people also pay to see prostitutes. The more people are paying for it as a service, the more they’re enforcing the way these people are treated. I think there’s a lot of corruption among the police, without a doubt. They have a lot to do with this, to me it seems they play a fundamental role. If the police weren’t at the centre of these business dealings, it wouldn’t be how it is at the moment. Police should be doing the job that they’re supposed to do, and should not be complicit in this business.

Oscar Flores, 55, Chef, Retiro

I watch the news, so I’m conscious of the Marita Veron case. I see that the mother is still fighting for her daughter, fighting to find her. I think the case has definitely done a lot to raise awareness about women trafficking here in Argentina. Because it hurts the Argentina that we believe ourselves to live in, it shows that there is corruption. This type of thing doesn’t have to happen, and it hurts more that it involves young women and girls. There should be real examples to show that there is a real and correct judicial system. This case should be used to clarify that, to help stop this happening. I don’t know anything about the actual networks that operate, but I think that a lot of the traffickers are very involved with drugs. Day by day, this aspect must be eliminated before the situation can get better, there are kids who are killing themselves by using drugs. With respect to prostitution, it has always, always existed, it’s another issue. But I think generally the government are doing enough in the fight against trafficking of women, they are concerned with it.

When Susana Trimarco’s 23-year-old daughter, Marita Verón, disappeared on the 3rd April 2002, little did she imagine the scale of the quest she would embark upon. Trailing the insidious path of Marita’s kidnappers, Trimarco’s decade-long pursuit has led her undercover as a prostitute in La Rioja, and as far as northern Spain, in an attempt to infiltrate the opaque networks of the sex trade. Ten years later, the trial is finally underway in Tucumán, with 13 of the accused due to appear in court over the next few months. But Marita’s whereabouts are still unknown.

Marita is just one of thousands of women in Argentina who are subjected to forms of sexual exploitation and trafficked into hellish conditions at the hands of human trade mafias everyday.

“These girls have no one to protect them, the state makes no effort to find them,” Trimarco told The Argentina Independent. “And so I’m left pursuing the case of Marita, and those of thousands of girls in Marita’s shoes, alone.”

Trimarco’s high profile campaign has been instrumental in catapulting the issues of corruption and impunity at the heart of human trafficking networks into the public agenda, exposing an industry which had remained unlegislated and thus unaccountable for years.

Stolen Lives

In 2007, Susana Trimarco set up the María de los Angeles Foundation, an organisation aimed at combatting human trafficking and providing legal, psychological, and social assistance to its victims. Andrea Romero, the director of projects, explains how the victims are lured with false promises of work.

“The trafficking networks take advantage of women, mainly from economically vulnerable backgrounds, in such a way that they leave their house on their own accord.”

Once in the grasp of the mafia, a wide array of psychological and physical techniques are administered so as to desensitise their victims. The women are maltreated, ill fed, and frequently enchained.

Removing documentation is a crucial form of domination in the mechanics of the trade. If women are exported without papers or money, it follows that they have no logical means of escape. Moreover, by divesting these women of their identity, the mafia creates the illusion that they simply never existed.

At this stage, the women are repeatedly assaulted with a brutality endemic to the trade and threatened into submission.

“The only way they will be released from this subjection,” says Trimarco, “is if there are organisations set up to empower these women and inform them of their rights. They need to speak out if they are to reclaim their identity and denounce their perpetrators.”

According to a report conducted by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, no prosecutions or convictions were recorded for trafficking in persons in Argentina between 2003 and 2007.

In 2008 an anti-trafficking law was passed, making the abduction and sexual exploitation of persons a federal offence in Argentina.

The Rescue Office, established that year under the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, oversees the prevention and investigation of human trafficking crimes and provides legal assistance to victims.

Since its implementation 2,774 victims have been rescued, with that number rising by 181% in the last year alone, according to statistics from the Rescue Office.

Fundacion Maria de los Angeles (Photo: Trillia Fidei-Bagwell)

In July 2011, President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner passed a decree banning the publication of “adult service” advertisements in newspapers and magazines with “implicit or explicit reference to the solicitation of people for sex” (widely known as Rubro 59). The law marks a crucial step towards addressing the exploitation at the heart of the mainstream media, questioning the “normalisation” of such means of procurement.

“2011 has been a critical year for national measures,” says Viviana Caminos, the national coordinator of the Stop Traficking and Trade Network (RATT). “It was the first time that we began to see significant changes with the Ministry of Security denouncing police forces implicated in the trade.”

Initiatives have been set up to train security forces to detect trafficking networks and assist victims. The schemes will also promote the exchange of data thereby strengthening the capacity of state agencies to prevent and investigate trafficking.

“We are principally an exploitative country,” Carlos Garmendia, Marita’s attorney, explains. “And we are, by that logic, also a recruitment country.”

Whilst many victims are trafficked from Paraguay, Bolivia, and the Dominican Republic, “internal trafficking” remains an acute problem.

According to the Fiscal Unit of Kidnappings and Trafficking (UFASE), 39 sentences were apportioned in 2011. While the majority of victims are imported, over 70% of the traffickers convicted are Argentine.

The global human trafficking market now has an estimated turnover of US$32bn. If that figure is accurate, it makes the industry more lucrative than the narcotics trade. Because, unlike drugs, people can be used and abused on multiple occasions. The figures are startling not only because of the ubiquity and the pervasiveness of these ‘invisible’ networks, but because their presence remains integral to the everyday functioning of a country’s economy.

The countries most vulnerable to human trafficking are those that have undergone periods of economic or political crises, leaving a power vacuum to be exploited by criminal networks. Viviana Caminos recalls how the sex trade first became visible in Argentina in 1999, becoming fully conspicuous in 2000, just as the economy took a nosedive and the burden of debt began to take its toll. Women began to be bartered, sold and exploited as commodities in an unregulated marketplace.

The widespread cultural endorsement of prostitution in Argentina is the principal obstacle in infiltrating these opaque networks. Garmendia is categorical: where there is a demand, the supply chain will continue to flow unabated. Raising awareness of the consumption of prostitution is the only way to staunch the supply at its source.

Vicious Cycles: Debt and Dependency

Despite the groundwork achieved by the 2008 law, campaigners are still fervent that the legislation lacks several key amendments. Firstly, the law does not take into account victims over 18 years of age who allegedly consent to prostitution.

Secondly, the legislation does not address the regnant topic of enforced marriages, according to Inspector Claudia Flores, who has overseen a number of trafficking cases in Córdoba. Women from Colombia, the Dominican Republic, and Paraguay, without the immigration papers required to enter the country, are lured into formal marital arrangements. In such circumstances, the women have to provide a dowry and thereafter they are set an unattainable monthly quota to sustain their husbands, ensuring they remain in a perpetual state of dependency.

Not only are these women an extremely lucrative form of currency in themselves, but they are forced to consume and pay for an exorbitant amount of drugs and alcohol, and to sell these substances on to their clients.

“The women need to be sedated simply to entertain the unfathomable number of customers – often 20 to 30 in six hours – that they are subjected to each night,” Flores explains.

A recent high profile court case, overseen by Flores, is that of Victoria P. A mother of two, Victoria was trafficked into the the region known as ‘tolerance houses’ in Río Gallegos, where she was drugged, sedated and forced into prostitution.

Victoria’s tragic tale took a turn for the worse when she fell pregnant to a client. Her pimp subsequently forced her to undergo an abortion, but it failed and she remained pregnant. After giving birth, her child was shipped off to Paraguay and into the hands of the pimp’s boyfriend. Since the brothel counted members of the police and security forces among its clientele, immigration never presented an obstacle.

Andrea Romero, director of the Maria de los Angeles Foundation, speaks on their work to fight sex trafficking (Photo: Trillia Fidei-Bagwell)

According to Flores, politicians, prosecutors and the police are heavily implicated in this trade whose lucrativeness and very existence depends upon their complicity and consent. Even when the brothels are raided and perpetrators convicted, only 6% of the establishments remain closed; for the rest business continues as normal – and the chain remains unbroken.

The case of Lorena Martins, who publicly denounced her father, Raúl, last year, is emblematic. An ex-agent of the state intelligence unit (SIDE), Martins has allegedly been involved in the sex trade for 20 years.

Accused of more than 12 crimes in Argentina, he still has several brothels to his name in Buenos Aires, including The One and Maxim. His notorious Cancún establishment, The Mix, visited by Buenos Aires Mayor Mauricio Macri on his honeymoon, was closed in 2011.

According to Martins, such clubs function as covert sites for the exploitation of dozens of women who are forced into prostitution and delivered straight into the hands of leaders of drug cartels.

Relentlessly searching for evidence to incriminate her father, Lorena Martins discovered a series of documents which allude to a payment made to the former head of the Buenos Aires government agency as a contribution to the electoral campaign of Mauricio Macri.

Accusations of corruption are all too common in these cases, and seem to indicate that corruption is entrenched in the system. When there is suspicion that the mafia may be financing political campaigns and bribing the police, who, it may well be asked, is left to hold them to account?

Trimarco remains vehement that “the only way trafficking victims will be released from this subjection is if there are organisations set up to empower them and inform them of their rights. They need to speak out if they are to reclaim their identity and denounce their perpetrators.”

Find out how aware locals are of the issue of women’s trafficking here.

Cristina Prohibiting Sexual Ads with Rubro 59

On 5th July 2011, President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner signed a decree banning all “adult services” sections published in the classified ads – known as “Rubro 59”– of Argentine media. In seven articles, Decree 936 spells out provisions to prohibit “explicit or implicit reference to the solicitation of people for sex trade, by any means”. It also orders the creation of a special branch of the human rights ministry called ‘The Office of Monitoring the Publication of Sexual Commerce Advertisements’ that will survey all classified ads to make sure that the law is followed.

“Newspapers can’t print headlines demanding that we fight human trafficking, while their back pages present ads that humiliate women” said President Fernández during the ceremony at the “Women’s Hall” in Casa Rosada. “This is a giant step forward in the fight against double morals and hypocrisy.”

The Fight Against Human Trafficking

Among the special guests at the ceremony was Susana Trimarco, founder of the Fundación Maria de los Ángeles, an NGO that fights against human trafficking. Trimarco started the organization in 2002, after her daughter Marita disappeared.

“In the search for my daughter I found the face of human trafficking in Argentina. Rather than being intimidated, I continued searching with much more momentum and strength, finding dozens of young women and providing them assistance to get out of trafficking networks and to reconnect with their families.” Trimarco expressed gratitude to President Fernández for what she saw as a step forward in ending human trafficking.

Fundación Maria de los Ángeles fighting human trafficking.

In addition to Fundación Maria de los Ángeles, dozens of other Argentine NGOs are incorporated in a network of Argentine NGOs called “Red No a la Trata”, or the Network against Human Trafficking. La Casa Del Encuentro, or the Meeting House, is one of the feminist organisations included in the Network. Fabiana Tuñez, administrator of the Meeting House, also spoke in favor of Decree 936. “The problem has been the absence of official figures on this activity in Argentina, and the lack of government work on the subject,” she explained.

Jane Kellum, a member of the team at the Meeting House, added, “From our perspective here in La Casa, we’re 100% in agreement [with the new decree]. We think every step made to stop trafficking is a step forward.” Though the Meeting House has a policy of not commenting on the presidency, Kellum added, “We do believe that there has been progress since 2008. That’s a statement I can make. Rubro 59 is a huge step.”

In April 2008, during the first half of Fernández’s presidential term, congress passed a law that formally and legally prohibited all forms of human trafficking. The law bans the collection of people, whether for sexual exploitation, slavery-like practices, forced labour, or illegal harvesting of organs and tissues. Convicted perpetrators face up to six years in prison, or up to 15 if the victim is a minor. The enactment of the law was followed by over a hundred raids within six months, which resulted in 120 arrests and 133 rescues. Controversially, though, only 33 of those arrested remained in detention by the end of 2008.

During her speech on 5th July, President Fernández reminded the attendees that ending human trafficking has been one of her priorities during her presidency. She recalled that since 2008, 2,221 people were released from captivity in various networks of sexual or laboyr exploitation, 1,044 of which were women.

This Tuesday, 19th July, another initiative in the campaign against human trafficking was put into effect: an emergency line exclusively dedicated to human trafficking. Any person suspecting or experiencing any activity related to trafficking, regardless of situation, and can call the number 145 and reach help. The line, dependent on the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, is completely free, anonymous and independent of the federal police, and will be open for calls starting 29th July. “There’s a level of transparency that’s a really positive step. This is something that’s been needed for a long time,” said Kellum about this latest initiative.

Sex Workers Feel Targeted

Though human trafficking was criminalised in 2008, prostitution remains legal in Argentina. According to Luis Jorge Cevasco, law professor and former Secretary of the National Court for Criminal Sentencing, “There are no laws that prohibit charging money to have sex, but it is not legal to carry out sex acts in brothels.”

In fact, in 1994 a group of sex workers in Argentina formed a union called the Argentine Union of Female Sex Workers (AMMAR) in response to constant arrests and police violence. The union, which now has over 1,700 members and is an integrated part of the Argentine Workers’ Center (CTA) and the Latina American and Caribbean Network of Sex Workers (RedTraSex), lists three principal demands: respect for their right to practice their profession freely, government assistance and recognition, and harsher punishments for human trafficking.

AAMAR Protesting in Buenos Aires

AMMAR opposes President Fernández’s decree, arguing in a press statement that “the government should not get carried away with alleged magical solutions. Banning ads is a measure that only succeeds in criminalising our business.”

The organisation was apparently unconvinced by the president’s insistence several times during her speech at the Women’s Hall that the ban on Rubro 59 “does not mean a condemnation of women who work in prostitution, but the defense of an inalienable human right.” The president expressed pity for the plight of female sex workers, saying, “This is just one of the many acts of discrimination against women, maybe even the most humiliating one. We will never condemn a woman [sex worker], because in most cases, no one has the chance to choose the life they lead.”

The Upcoming Election

Those who oppose President Fernández, such as alderman candidate for Rosario, Agapito Blanco, have argued that Decree 936 is an empty populist statement that targets women’s votes in the upcoming election. Blanco says that President Fernández’s solution is merely “cosmetic,” failing to consider the issue of regulating sexual offerings as a whole, taking into account the “broad spectrum and the simultaneity of social nuances.”