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ARGENTINA:
Trafficked Women
- an Invisible Problem
Marcela Valente
BUENOS AIRES, (IPS) -
"They simply vanish, as if the
earth had swallowed them up,"
said activist Juan Carr,
referring to the girls and women
who fall prey to trafficking
rings in Argentina that sell
them into forced prostitution.
According to activists like
Carr, the head of the Red
Solidaria (Solidarity Network),
and the families of missing
women and adolescents, the
victims are kidnapped by
organised crime networks that
operate with the complicity of
political and judicial
authorities and the police.
Thirteen-year-old Fernanda
Aguirre was kidnapped in July
2004 in San Benito, a town in
the northeastern province of
Entre Ríos. While the legal
investigation has been focusing
the search on finding a buried
body, Fernanda's mother has come
across evidence that her
daughter fell into the hands of
a prostitution ring.
People who claimed to have taken
the girl demanded 600 dollars.
But although the small ransom
was paid, Fernanda never
reappeared.
Fernanda's mother, Maria Inés
Cabrol, told IPS "I believe she
was taken away to be forced to
work as a prostitute."
The desperate mother, whose
search has taken her to seven
different provinces, said "there
are no words" to describe the
pain of a mother whose young
daughter was suddenly whisked
away from a street near her
home.
"Every day that goes by, the
suffering is worse. I can't
imagine how she might be doing,
my little girl who was so
attached to me, who has no one
she can trust now," said Cabrol.
Although the police arrested a
suspect with a criminal record,
in connection with the case, he
reportedly hung himself in the
police station lock-up a few
days later.
The suspect, whose death was
reported as a suicide, was the
cousin of a well-known pimp from
Entre Ríos who is in prison, but
has provided no information that
would assist the investigation.
In December, a hand-written
letter asking for help was found
in the town of Las Termas, in
the northern province of
Santiago del Estero. Although
the expert analyses came up with
contradictory results,
Fernanda's mother said she has
no doubts: "It's my daughter's
handwriting."
The police and legal authorities
have carried out a number of
searches and raids in Las Termas
that have led to arrests in
connection with the sexual
exploitation of minors, but
there has been no sign of
Fernanda.
Cabrol has made two trips to
Santiago del Estero. "In Las
Termas, local residents,
chauffeurs, the police, everyone
told me my daughter was there,
but that the mayor's brother had
her, and the federal police were
involved," she said almost in a
whisper, as if she were afraid
of being overheard.
In her desperation, Cabrol has
met with President Néstor
Kirchner, government ministers,
lawmakers, governors, judges,
the police and non-governmental
organisations. "They have all
told me that they'll give me
whatever I need, but all I want
is my little girl," she said.
Sara Torres, a representative in
Argentina of the international
Coalition Against Trafficking in
Women, told IPS that "For nine
years we have been trying to
draw attention in Argentina to
the trafficking of women, but
society does not want to open
its eyes because it sees
prostitution as a necessary
evil, and prefers to blame the
victims."
The nature of the phenomenon
makes it impossible to obtain
reliable statistics, and
whatever information is
available is based on the
missing person reports that are
filed by families.
Carr told IPS that the Red
Solidaria is currently seeking
190 missing persons. Of that
total, 67 percent are girls and
women, and 63 percent are girls
between the ages of 13 and 18.
He added that in the past seven
years, of the more than 300
missing adolescents reported, 90
percent have been found, and
"Among those who have shown up
were 10 girls who said they had
been sexually exploited."
The cases occur only
sporadically, in an isolated
fashion, and the media draw no
links between them. After a
short fruitless search, the
stories fade from the headlines.
Nor do police and legal
investigators or government
authorities talk about a
pattern.
The most recent case was that of
24-year-old Florencia Penacchi,
who was seen for the last time
leaving her Buenos Aires
apartment on Mar. 16. Her
smiling face shines out from
posters plastered all over the
city. There have been no
requests for ransom or any other
signs that she may still be
alive.
Another case involves Marita
Verón, 23, who was kidnapped in
2002 in the northwestern
province of Tucumán. A woman who
escaped from a prostitution ring
in that province reported that
she had seen and talked to Verón.
But as usual, the police arrived
late to the place where she was
reportedly being held.
Young tourists have also gone
missing, like Nikola Henkler, a
28-year-old from Germany, who
disappeared in Bariloche, a ski
resort in the southern province
of Rio Negro, in December 2002,
or 23-year-old Annagreth Wirgler
from Switzerland, last seen in
the northwestern province of La
Rioja in August 2004.
Torres pointed out that in 2002,
Argentina signed the United
Nations Convention against
Transnational Organised Crime,
as well as its Protocol to
Prevent, Suppress and Punish
Trafficking in Persons,
Especially Women and Children.
"The sale of people for sexual
exploitation purposes has become
widespread, and is tolerated,"
she said. "There are even
judges, prosecutors and police
who admit the existence of
brothels that are theoretically
illegal under local legislation
and the conventions signed by
the country at the international
level."
"Society has the impression that
these places are legal, but they
aren't," noted Torres, who
accused certain media outlets of
acting as "accomplices" in the
"flesh trade." She pointed out
that the newspaper Clarín
publishes classified ads selling
sex in the "useful services for
men and women" section.
Women's groups hold workshops
and seminars to give visibility
to the question of the
trafficking of women, but they
have not made contact with th e
families of missing girls and
women, who often have more
clues, information and knowledge
on the issue than the
professionals who have received
training in that area.
Cabrol has been in permanent
contact with Susana Trimarco,
Marita Verón's mother. Thanks to
Trimarco's unstinting efforts, a
number of clues were found
pointing to the existence of a
network of pimps that operates
in the provinces of La Rioja,
Tucumán and Buenos Aires, the
central province of Córdoba and
the southern province of Santa
Cruz, and that has ties in Spain
as well.
In an open letter published in
April, Verón's family, with
backing from human rights
organisations, reported that
their investigation, along with
police work, led to the rescue
of 17 young women in the hands
of this network, in the cities
of Bilbao and Burgos in northern
Spain and Vigo in the northwest.
"In Argentina those who commit
these crimes enjoy impunity, and
thanks to the complicity of the
justice system, the police, and
many politicians, these mafias
operate in a huge area where
they are free to negotiate the
lives of our daughters and
sons," adds the letter.
The police intelligence
commissioner in the province of
Tucumán, Jorge Tobar, has played
a key role in investigating the
trafficking in women, although
he has sometimes been
reprimanded by the police force
for his outspoken declarations.
His zeal in fighting the
phenomenon appears to be the
result of a personal commitment.
"In Argentina there is a system
of organised crime that captures
women, sells them, and puts them
to work as prostitutes in
slave-like conditions," Tobar
said in an interview with the
Buenos Aires daily Página/12.
"They are sold as cattle, taken
away, exploited, and all of this
is done with complicity."
Tobar has taken part in the
Verón case and in joint
operations carried out by
Interpol (international police),
which have led to the rescue in
Spain of a total of 25 women
from Argentina who were being
sexually exploited.
The police commissioner said
there was an enormous difference
between Spain and Argentina in
the resources available for
cracking down on the trafficking
of women.
Referring to the case of
Fernanda Aguirre, he said "I
tracked her down in Santiago del
Estero and reported the exact
spot where she was being held.
But the legal authorities and
police carried out 19 raids
before finally going to that
spot." And when they did
eventually arrive, he added, the
girl was no longer there.
In April, a report by the U.S.
State Department warned that
Argentina had serious problems
with respect to trafficking in
people for sexual and labour
exploitation purposes.
The Kirchner administration
issued an angry denial, with
Interior Minister Aníbal
Fernández saying the report was
extremely damaging to
Argentina's image, and that the
authorities are working hard to
clamp down on trafficking.
He also said the report may have
been linked to offers by U.S.
companies working on computer
programmes for migration
security, which the Argentine
government had refused to
purchase.
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