The Court in Tucumán are meeting today to discuss the banning of brothels across the province, in a bid to end the persistent issue of trafficking and prostitution in Argentina.

The proposed law has 11 articles and prohibits all places where any form of sex work takes place, including cabaret clubs, saunas and nightclubs.

According to the official text, the law will prohibit “the installation, operation, management, maintenance, promotion, publicity, administration and or exploitation in a any form, mode or denomination of places which facilitate, tolerate, promote, manage, organise, develop or gain from the exploitation of prostitution…”

The Commission of Human Rights, Justice and Security have approved the text and given it their full support in anticipation of the debate today.

A key aspect of the law focuses on the protection of trafficked people and will ensure they are able to escape prostitution and receive protection. Any persons found without fixed addresses or identities are to be assumed victims of tracking and will receive protection while their situations are resolved.

The law will also punish those involved in the setting up or management of locations exploiting prostitution with arrests. It will not be possible to avoid prison sentences by paying fines.

“We aren’t just advancing women’s rights, but also breaking links between woman and exploiter by overcoming and reducing servitude and, in many cases, this benefits from the work of women,” explained head of the Commission of Security and Justice, Gerónimo Vargas Aignasse.

Susana Trimarco, mother of kidnapped Martia Verón has been very involved in the development and promotion of the new law. Verón disappeared in 2002 and her mother has since become a figurehead for the struggle against trafficking in Argentina.

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. Since her daughter disappeared in 2002 she has led a ten year hunt as as far as northern Spain, in an attempt to uncover the insidious sex traffic network which spans Argentina. 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.

She met with governor José Alperovich to offer her help.

“We want to be a part of this because we’ve worked hard to counter these crimes,” she said.

“We know about the problems and the needs to be faced in the closure of brothels, and we know how to go about it,” she added, saying “the governor is a good listener and a hard worker and for that reason, things are going to go well.”

Although the ruling will depend on each individual case, legislator for the Tucumán Crece bloc, Reynaldo Jiménez has said that the main power of implementation will lie with the Ministry of Public Safety.

Speaking to state news agency Telám, lawyer for María de los Angeles, Carlos Garmienda said that there are currently 17 brothels.

“Some have already been closed but reinvented with new names, while others operate on a temporary basis to avoid being identified,” said Garmienda.

Colombia’s foreign minister, María Angela Holguín, sought to defend Cartagena from allegations made by the US media in connection with the recent prostitution scandal.

At a news conference on Tuesday, Holguín stated that Cartagena is “paying the price for an anomalous act committed by the US Secret Service.”

“Where there’s a man, there’s prostitution,” Holguín added in a statement which triggered controversy across the country.

Holguín emphasised that the phrase was not negative, nor did it just “slip out”. She added that the statement was intended to contextualise the issue and not make Cartagena the centre of the attention of the US media.

The prostitution scandal erupted when 11 Secret Service agents and five members of the US army special forces allegedly hired prostitutes at one or more bars in Cartagena, prior to Obama’s arrival for the Summit of the Americas.

The men allegedly took 20 women back to their hotel room, some of whom are believed to have been minors.

“It causes me great sadness that the blame has been apportioned to Cartagena. It is a city whose livelihood is generated by tourism, a city that is so important in that area, and has been made to look like the culprit. But it is the Secret Service who are guilty.”

Holguín stated that the agents did not comply with the stipulations of their duties. “This is an issue of the Secret Service which has not complied with its rules of conduct. Their superiors should judge them accordingly and we trust that they will do so.”

Holguín admitted that the issue was not treated with much importance at first since it was considered to be solely an internal problem within the US Secret Service.

The foreign minister’s address comes in the wake of a series of controversial articles, included one in The Washington Post which states that Cartagena is “the right place to get into trouble.”

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.

Mexico expelled eight players from their Copa America squad due to a scandal involving prostitutes yesterday. The players were visited by four women on at least two occasions between 24^th Friday 2011 and Sunday morning 26^th June 2011.

“The players confessed and returned to their clubs,” said Hector Gonzalez Iñárritu, director of the national team.”The rules were broken, the code of discipline was broken and I have to act.”

The expelled players are Israel Jiménez, Néstor Vidrio, David Cabrera, Jorge Hernandez, Jonathan dos Santos, Marco Fabián, Javier Cortes and Nestor Calderon. They are ineligible to play in the team for six months and will also be fined $50,000 for violation of internal rules.

To replace these eight players, coach Luis Fernando Tena decided to call Kristian Alvarez, Antonio Gallardo, Edgar Pacheco, Alan Pulido, Emilio Orrantia, Ulises Davila, Diego de Buen and Oswaldo Alanis.

The Mexican national team will play their first game in the Copa America on 4^th July 2011 against Chile, followed by Peru and Uruguay in Group C.

Photo by Daniel Estrada

If you go down to the woods today, you’re sure of a big surprise…

Instead of teddy bears, you could be sharing your tartan throw and cream teas with some of Buenos Aires’ transvestites.

In the sprawling Parque 3 Febrero, by day, you will find families walking, laughing, feeding the ducks, splashing around on boat rides and strolling through the rose gardens. By night however, the park, or more specifically the so-called ‘Bosques de Palermo’, host a far more shady enterprise: transgender prostitution.

The transvestite prostitute community (or travestis as they are known) of the bosques has developed in a typically turbulent way. In September 2004, a government bill prohibited prostitution within 200 metres of a school, church or residential building. This left them with very few options, but the relative peace and quiet of the bosques continued to house them, in spite of the restrictions.

In August 2007, following complaints by local residents and park users, the prohibition was extended to this patch also. The travestis reacted in angry protest and an uneasy meeting in the rather unlikely location of the Palermo Golf Club ensued. Residents and prostitutes have now agreed to disagree and government bodies are currently negotiating some kind of peace.

As the travestis struggle to gain ground, business continues as usual, and unashamedly. It has become a well documented part of the Buenos Aires experience. The whispered words ‘Bosques de Palermo’, mean only one thing to the taxi drivers, and with a wink and a ‘si, señor’, you’re off into the depths; no questions or sideways glances.

Photo by Daniel Estrada

I brave the woods to discover more.

We drive past the trees, and a row of streetlamps slides into view. There, sure enough, lining the streets, are the feathers, the legs and the hand bags. Scantily-clad, whistling and beckoning anyone who passes by or dares to catch their eye. I am struck by its unambiguous, explicit organisation. It’s far from the threatening, clandestine practice that it is traditionally seen as.

Here, there are as many curious onlookers as there are clients; revellers from the nearby electronica club, ‘Crobar’, wander through, as well as the occasional jogger and pedestrian. The way is well lit and open, noisy and vibrant; not the ‘forbidden forest’ I was expecting. I also notice a distinct lack of police patrols through the area. I zip my rucksack up and venture in.

I approach a happy-looking young ‘lady’, who turns out to be Luna, aged 18, with a cigarette in hand as a kind of peace offering. For, though not naturally shy by any means, they have learnt not to trust too quickly.

“The life of a transvestite is very complicated,” she offers, wistfully, “you don’t know if you will make it home alive at the end of the night.” Her story is typical, though she is younger than most. She works the streets for money, even in the winter when it snows, because there is less money for call girls. Like many of the community, she gets hassled by taxi drivers and the police, who have been known to take advantage of their vulnerability.

Despite an obvious Adam’s apple and hands that are bigger than mine (as she lights her cigarette), you could certainly be forgiven for mistaking Luna’s sexual identity. She has flowing red hair, and incredible legs; though she admits that she is ‘pretty macho’, and that, after all, she ‘has balls’.

She is ambitious and is currently studying English, though, perhaps disappointingly, this is more as a way to reach the tourists than as a way out. Foreigners and English people, she says, are more upfront, looking for an adventure; whereas Argentines are often more shy.

She worries about making money, and the cold in winter. She is afraid of getting diseases. “If I continue with this …[I] won’t live until I’m 35,” she says. With each point she ticks off, she gives a flick of her hair and a smile. She is incredibly defiant in the face of these problems.

Photo by Daniel Estrada

A report in 2006 by the association of the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo surveyed over 300 transvestites. The report said that nearly 70% of these had died between the ages of 22 and 41. Of these, 62% died of HIV/AIDS, 17% were murdered and the rest committed suicide, were killed in traffic accidents, or were ‘the victims of drug overdose, illnesses or medical malpractice in cosmetic surgery carried out in unhygienic conditions’.

Ninety percent of those surveyed said they had suffered physical or verbal abuse because of their gender identity.

‘Precila’, the next girl along, wearily loiters, then eventually comes over and introduces a new topic. We discuss the ‘provincial girls’ from outside Capital Federal. Life outside Buenos Aires, I learn, is harder still; here at least the girls look out for one another. They have strength in numbers, and this is attracting many to the city.

This influx, however, means increased competition. After all, they are competing for clients in a supply-and-demand market. Zula Lucero, from ‘Las Mariposas’ website, articulated in blunt terms the market nature of the job, saying: “we are bodies on a corner which are consumed like a cigarette.”

Despite this constant objectification, Luna and Precila remain sentient, thoughtful and respectful. Precila tells me that as a youngster she was taught to treat people with respect, and that she always has done so as a result.

The travestis are developing a public profile. Argentina’s most famous transvestite Florencia de la V, has done a lot to make the public more aware. “People have become more tolerant,” she says.

A new magazine, ‘El Teje’, run by the Centro Cultural Rojas, is devoted to the transvestite community. Despite some teething problems (most of the community have little formal education), the first issue print run of 1,000 copies quickly ran out. They are currently looking to raise funds through advertising, and are hoping to develop the magazine in the coming months.

Photo by Daniel Estrada

This tolerance is allowing them a voice that they have lacked for so long. A draft law on transgender identity, which has been introduced in Congress, would allow transvestites to legally change their name and thus their official gender identity. This will allow them access to the public facilities which we often take for granted, and also applications to work.

The movement may be getting a reputation in court, but until they are allowed equal access to the porteño life, prostitution will remain their principle source of income.

Luna and Precila have quickly overturned my preconceptions. They are not scary or freakish; they are strong-minded, charismatic and funny. But they are badly misunderstood and vulnerable in their dangerous profession.

As we go to leave, someone screams ‘puto!’ from a passing car, as it booms out the obligatory boy-racer reggaeton. Luna shrugs again, puffs on her cigarette and struts over to their open mouths and wide eyes.

Bosques de Palermo: between Av. Libertador and Av. F.Alcorta. 11pm-6am.

Photo courtesy of Casoveron.org

Marita and her daughter.

Numbers are sometimes such a hard thing to work out. So abstract, so lost in translation that they seem hard to comprehend in a practical way.

What does half a million people really mean? How can we imagine that amount? We couldn’t possibly picture each single person and we would have to settle for a blurred impression of a big mass.

Perhaps it would help if we put it in context. For example, cities like Tel Aviv or Mar del Plata have around 500,000 inhabitants.

But more than just a figure, in Argentina this number expresses the amount of people who are directly or indirectly involved in people-trafficking networks, according to the International Work Organisation.

An entire city of criminals dedicated to kidnapping, selling and sexually exploiting thousands of victims across the country.

An alarming 90% of the abducted are woman. In 2006 alone, 476 females were reported missing.

Taken in broad daylight

On 3rd April 2002 Marita Verón, 23, left her house to go to the doctor. She didn’t make it to her appointment as she was kidnapped on the way.

It was broad daylight when, according to witnesses, she was taken from a street in Tucumán’s capital city San Miguel de Tucumán, pulled into a remise (private car that works as a taxi) and vanished into thin air.

The car company allegedly belonged to the Alé family, a powerful clan in the province, who own 3,000 cars that work through as backup vehicles for the police through a decree signed by the local government.

Three days after the abduction Marita was seen about 30km from the city, stumbling, and looking like she was drugged, no longer wearing her tennis shoes but high heels.

A police car picked her up and she hasn’t been seen since. The police officer said they took her to a bus station to catch a bus home but their version is said to be vague and confusing.

With time, it became clear for her family that Marita, like many other missing women across the country, had fallen into a prostitution net.

Susana Trimarco, Marita’s mother, has battled to find her daughter since the day she went missing. She has knocked on doors carrying her picture, marched every 3rd of the month; she has even dressed up as prostitute and walked into dangerous places to contact other girls and gather any helpful information. She has consistently been on the receiving end of death threats, and has travelled the length and breadth of the country following any possible leads.

Photo courtesy of Casoveron.org

Marita and her daughter.

But more importantly, through her fight, Susana has managed to dismantle several brothels and set over 100 women free (some of whom had shared their time in captivity with her daughter).

These women are living proof of how they were sold and kept under key to work as sexual slaves. They are a testimony to a reality that can no longer be hidden.

Susana’s persistence led the FBI to become involved in the case, and she was even presented with the ‘Courageous Woman’ prize by US Secretary of State, Condoleeza Rice.

Although such recognition is encouraging, the 12 people currently being prosecuted for Marita’s kidnapping have not provided enough information for her to be found, and Susana has to explain day after day to her eight-year-old granddaugther why her mother is still away.

Police involvement

On 23rd October 2006, Otoño Uriarte finished playing volleyball and headed home on foot but she never arrived.

After six months of desperate search, the 16-year-old was found dead in a canal about 150m from her home in Fernández de Oro, Neuquén. The advanced state of decomposition of her body made it difficult to determine the cause of death.

But further investigations did bring some conclusions, and determined that the teenager had also fallen into the hands of sexual exploiters.

Even more, Otoño’s case represented a breakthrough, as it was the first time that proof of a connection between the police and a prostitution network was found.

The evidence consisted of a recorded telephone conversation between a sub-commissioner from Choele-Choel in Río Negro and a brothel owner in which they talked about ‘checking the new girl into the brothel’.

Although several organisations, such as ‘Red no a la Trata’ and ‘Missing Children’, work every day to locate the disappeared woman, they find themselves on the hard side of the fight as these trafficking networks are organised and work on an international level.

The fact that some of the women have been smuggled across the borders not only makes everything harder, but may also indicate that these networks operate either with the authorities cooperation, or through their negligence.

Argentina’s legislation leaves a lot to be desired, as legal experts and families have been fighting for it to be changed, as often the abducted woman are asked to prove they didn’t agree to leave.

Roberto Uriarte, Otoño’s father, has denounced several irregularities on his daughter’s case. He has explained that bureaucratic hold-ups delayed the case being opened, such as the necessity to filing the case as if it was about a runaway child instead of an abduction.

As a result of his accusations, the Magistrate’s court in decided to lead an investigation against the Judge, Maria del Carmen Garcia.

As for the way these bands work, legal experts and witnesses explain that not only are women kidnapped, but sometimes taken under false pretences of a job opportunity. Later on, their documents are confiscated and they remain locked with no contact with the outside world.

Right under democracy’s nose, disappearances and torture are still a reality to some.

Someone waits for them in their homes, where they are remembered for their names, their likes and dislikes, for the tone of their voice, for whatever made them happy or sad.

For them taken lives are not just a statistic, they are not a figure, they are not just another abstract number.