This one woman shows us the way forward. Sex slavery existseverywhere and is a profoundly criminal activity in its operation andorganization. It is one thing for the willing to participate and forthem legalization is necessary to avoid direct exploitation. That isstill insufficient to satisfy supply so long as it is criminalized.
Yet long before the laws are ever rationalized, here is the way. Onewomen has gone out and rescued nine hundred with no help. Nowsuppose this activity became church sponsored and suppose brothelswere confronted with a group of women demanding access and the timeto interview the victims. A dozen women on your doorstep soonchanges the political dynamic with the authorities. If one woman canaccomplish this much, how much can be accomplished by a volunteerfemale swat team.
The publicity alone will end most of the worst abuse quickly.
Argentine momrescues hundreds of sex slaves during long, failed hunt for kidnappeddaughter
By Emily Schmall,
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/argentine-mom-rescues-hundreds-sex-slaves-during-long-165510490.html
LA PLATA, Argentina -Susana Trimarco was a housewife who fussed over her family and paidscant attention to the news until her daughter left for a doctor'sappointment and never came back.After getting littlehelp from police, Trimarco launched her own investigation into a tipthat the 23-year-old was abducted and forced into sex slavery. Soon,Trimarco was visiting brothels seeking clues about her daughter andthe search took an additional goal: rescuing sex slaves and helpingthem start new lives.
What began as aone-woman campaign a decade ago developed into a movement andTrimarco today is a hero to hundreds of women she's rescued fromArgentine prostitution rings. She's been honoured with the "Womenof Courage" award by the U.S. State Department and was nominatedfor the Nobel Peace Prize on Nov. 28. Sunday night, PresidentCristina Fernandez gave her a human rights award before hundreds ofthousands of people in the Plaza de Mayo.
But years of exploringthe decadent criminal underground haven't led Trimarco to herdaughter, Maria de los Angeles "Marita" Veron, who was 23in 2002 when she disappeared from their hometown in provincialTucuman, leaving behind her own 3-year-old daughter Micaela.
"I live forthis," the 58-year-old Trimarco told The Associated Press of herongoing quest. "I have no other life, and the truth is, it is avery sad, very grim life that I wouldn't wish on anyone."
Her painful journeyhas now reached a milestone.
Publicity overTrimarco's efforts prompted Argentine authorities to make ahigh-profile example of her daughter's case by putting 13 people ontrial for allegedly kidnapping Veron and holding her as a sex slavein a family-run operation of illegal brothels. Prostitution is notillegal in Argentina, but the exploitation of women for sex is.
A verdict is expectedTuesday after a nearly yearlong trial.
The seven men and sixwomen have pleaded innocent and their lawyers have said there's nophysical proof supporting the charges against them. The allegedringleaders denied knowing Veron and said that women who work intheir brothels do so willingly. Prosecutors have asked for up to 25years imprisonment for those convicted.
Trimarco was theprimary witness during the trial, testifying for six straight daysabout her search for her daughter.
The road to trial wasa long one.
Frustrated by seemingindifference to her daughter's disappearance, Trimarco began her ownprobe and found a taxi driver who told of delivering Veron to abrothel where she was beaten and forced into prostitution. The driveris among the defendants.
With her husband andgranddaughter in tow, Trimarco disguised herself as a recruiter ofprostitutes and entered brothel after brothel searching for clues.She soon found herself immersed in the dangerous and grim world oforganized crime, gathering evidence against police, politicians andgangsters.
"For the firsttime, I really understood what was happening to my daughter,"she said. "I was with my husband and with Micaela, asleep in thebackseat of the car because she was still very small and I had no oneto leave her with."
The very first womanTrimarco rescued taught her to be strong, she said.
"It stuck with meforever: She told me not to let them see me cry, because theseshameless people who had my daughter would laugh at me, and at mypain," Trimarco said. "Since then I don't cry anymore. I'vemade myself strong, and when I feel that a tear might drop, Iremember these words and I keep my composure."
Micaela, now 13, hasbeen by her grandmother's side throughout, contributing to publicitycampaigns against human trafficking and keeping her mother's memoryalive.
More than 150witnesses testified in the trial, including a dozen former sex slaveswho described brutal conditions in the brothels.
Veron may have beenkidnapped twice, with the complicity of the very authorities whoshould have protected her, according to Julio Fernandez, who now runsa Tucuman police department devoted to investigating humantrafficking. He testified that witnesses reported seeing Veron at abus station three days after she initially disappeared, and that apolice officer from La Rioja, Domingo Pascual Andrada, delivered herto a brothel there. Andrada, now among the defendants, denied knowingany of the other defendants, let alone Veron.
Other Tucuman policetestified that when they sought permission in 2002 to search La Riojabrothels, a judge made them wait for hours, enabling Veron's captorsto move her. That version was supported by a woman who had been aprostitute at the brothel: She testified that Veron was moved justbefore police arrived. The judge, Daniel Moreno, is not on trial. Hedenied delaying the raid or having anything to do with thedefendants.
Some of the formerprostitutes said they had seen Veron drugged and haggard. Onetestified Veron felt trapped and missed her daughter. Another saidshe spotted Veron with dyed-blonde hair and an infant boy she wasforced to conceive in a rape by a ringleader. A third thought Veronhad been sold to a brothel in Spain — a lead reported to Interpol.
Trimarco's campaign tofind her daughter led the State Department to provide seed money fora foundation in Veron's name. To date, it has rescued more than 900women and girls from sex trafficking. The foundation also provideshousing, medical and psychological aid, and it helps victims sueformer captors.
Argentina outlawedhuman trafficking in 2008, thanks in large part to the foundation'swork. A new force dedicated to combating human trafficking hasliberated nearly 3,000 more victims in two years, said SecurityMinister Nilda Garre, who wrote a newspaper commentary saying thetrial's verdict should set an example.
Whatever the verdict,Trimarco's lawyer, Carlos Garmendia, says the case has already made adifference.
"Humantrafficking was an invisible problem until the Marita (Veron) case,"Garmendia said. "The case has put it on the national agenda."
But Trimarco wantsmore. "I had hoped they would break down and say what they'ddone with Marita," she said.
"I feel here inmy breast that she is alive and I'm not going to stop until I findher," Trimarco said. "If she's no longer in this world, Iwant her body."
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