Sex Trade and Human Slavery Legal in Argentina

[link to www.aljazeera.com]

Angry protesters have clashed with police and smashed windows after an Argentine court acquitted 13 people charged with running a sex slavery ring.

Demonstrators furious over the legal ruling took to the streets of Buenos Aires and in at least seven provinces on Wednesday.

Susana Trimarco, an activist who personally freed many sex slaves as she searched for her missing daughter Marita Veron, spoke with President Cristina Kirchner, who was among those angered by the verdict.

"I had a call from the president and she was shouting 'I cannot believe it. I cannot believe it'," she said.

"Even the wife of [US] President [Barack] Obama voiced her support to me. I thank her from the bottom of my heart and assured her that we are not going to stop fighting," she added, referring to the US first lady, Michelle Obama.>>>>



Prostitution remains legal in Argentina, but managing brothels and trafficking in people have been federal crimes since 2008, under a law Congress passed after lobbying by Trimarco.

Trimarco's search for Veron exposed an underworld of organised crime figures who operate brothels with protection from authorities across Argentina.

The security ministry says that since the passing of the new law in 2008, 938 people were rescued from trafficking rings - 215 of them from the sex trade, and 723 from other workplace exploitation.