Incontro con l’attivista Pato Alma e la fotografa Claudia Borgia @Corto Circuito

March celebration of the 40th anniversary of the end of the dictatorship. In the photo the girls of the feminist collective Las Mariposas against gender violence cling to a collective embrace at the end of the march. They were marching showing the pictures of disappeared women, behind the Ngo Mothers Victim of Trafficking of persons with the purpose of sexual exploitation, that for the first time marched with their banner. They marched to give the visibility to the problem. One of their slogans was: “they are not lost, they are disappeared to be prostituted”.

Liz. 21. Paraguay. Deceived and sold by her half-brother and sister-in-law, Liz arrived in Buenos Aires convinced to work as baby sitter. Instead she was sold to her exploiter and owner of brothel. She lived with him from 16 to 17. She used to be prepared and brought to the brothel to “work”. Among all the men she had to stay with, about thirty every day, she remembers a stranger, a tomb merchant, and a police man of the neighborhood. She remembers that she was being doped both to stay awake and to sleep. She escaped from that slavery condition with the help of the housekeeper and spent several months in the street where she met her current companion, a cardboard collector (cartonero), who brought her home with him in a shantytown. In March 2016 she came into contact with Margarita who helped her by giving her some food, because Liz was hospitalized for malnutrition. With the help of Margarita she got the identity document. Now that she is legally in existence, she can ask for help, as the law on trafficking of persons with the purpose of sexual exploitation says: the government have to help the victims of trafficking by giving food and lodging. Today Liz begs for alms in the subway and lives with her partner’s family, in a room that has rented by her mother-in-law. Liz dreams of having a family and a home.

Nora, 17, Paraguay. Survived of trafficking in persons for the purpose of sexual exploitation. She thinks she has been sold by her father for an illegal business debt, because after being kidnapped she recognized one of the men who attended her father. She escaped twice. She arrives to Buenos Aires at age 10, with her sister and mother, looking for a better life. She was first seized at 15, it was on August 2015. She was waiting for a friend in a Carrefour, when two boys with a weapon arrived, threatened her and brought her into the car. They take her to a house in the district of Bajo Flore, then to Rosario for 1 month and finally back to Buenos Aires, in the district of Cavallito. Here she remembers that there was a 12-year-old girl. “They used to drug us with cocaine, marijuana, sleeping pills. we always worked at night,” Nora says. “I knew my mother was looking for me whatching television, but the security men just turned off it”. Nora managed to escape after about three months from Cavallito’s brothel because the guardians, who were drugging, forgot the door opened. She stole money and paid a taxi to get home. The second time she was seized on December 24, 2015, despite being included in a security program. They beat her, tortured her with cigarette strips and asked her the money back. She fled again, though she knew it was very dangerous. She had seen killing and burying a girl who had fled several times but was seized again. Now Nora never goes out alone and not even go to the school.

Nora, 17, Paraguay and her sister. Survived of trafficking in persons for the purpose of sexual exploitation. She thinks she has been sold by her father for an illegal business debt, because after being kidnapped she recognized one of the men who attended her father. She escaped twice. She arrives to Buenos Aires at age 10, with her sister and mother, looking for a better life. She was first seized at 15, it was on August 2015. She was waiting for a friend in a Carrefour, when two boys with a weapon arrived, threatened her and brought her into the car. They take her to a house in the district of Bajo Flore, then to Rosario for 1 month and finally back to Buenos Aires, in the district of Cavallito. Here she remembers that there was a 12-year-old girl. “They used to drug us with cocaine, marijuana, sleeping pills. we always worked at night,” Nora says. “I knew my mother was looking for me whatching television, but the security men just turned off it”. Nora managed to escape after about three months from Cavallito’s brothel because the guardians, who were drugging, forgot the door opened. She stole money and paid a taxi to get home. The second time she was seized on December 24, 2015, despite being included in a security program. They beat her, tortured her with cigarette strips and asked her the money back. She fled again, though she knew it was very dangerous. She had seen killing and burying a girl who had fled several times but was seized again. Now Nora never goes out alone and not even go to the school.

Nora, 17, Paraguay. Survived of trafficking in persons for the purpose of sexual exploitation. She thinks she has been sold by her father for an illegal business debt, because after being kidnapped she recognized one of the men who attended her father. She escaped twice. She arrives to Buenos Aires at age 10, with her sister and mother, looking for a better life. She was first seized at 15, it was on August 2015. She was waiting for a friend in a Carrefour, when two boys with a weapon arrived, threatened her and brought her into the car. They take her to a house in the district of Bajo Flore, then to Rosario for 1 month and finally back to Buenos Aires, in the district of Cavallito. Here she remembers that there was a 12-year-old girl. “They used to drug us with cocaine, marijuana, sleeping pills. we always worked at night,” Nora says. “I knew my mother was looking for me whatching television, but the security men just turned off it”. Nora managed to escape after about three months from Cavallito’s brothel because the guardians, who were drugging, forgot the door opened. She stole money and paid a taxi to get home. The second time she was seized on December 24, 2015, despite being included in a security program. They beat her, tortured her with cigarette strips and asked her the money back. She fled again, though she knew it was very dangerous. She had seen killing and burying a girl who had fled several times but was seized again. Now Nora never goes out alone and not even go to the school.

Milagros sister with her daughter and Sonia, mother of Milagros. Milagros, 18, is a survivor from trafficking of persons with the purpose of sexual exploitation. Tricked in the street by a girl she knew for a few days, Milagros was drugged, raped and prostituted. After ten days locked up, she does not remember why someone opened the door to let her go. Silvia, her mother, believes it was thank to the immediate search strategy and the “noise” that forced the kidnappers to get rid of her. After 4 years there are still no culprits. The whole family lives in danger so much that there is a police officer outside the house and even Silvia, her mother, has been assigned an agent, who accompanies her on the way home job. Milagros suffered a post-traumatic stress that also made her attempt to commit suicide. Today she lives in a hospitalized hospital help her go ahead. Milagros already had a delay in development at the time of seizure. After this situation, schizophrenia has been diagnosed.

Isabel (Paraguay) and his grandson Gustavo. Isabel is the mother of Diana, who disappeared on June 19, 2015, at 25, and has not yet been found. That day she went out to go to a neighborhood party, saying she would be back for lunch, but she did not go back anymore. Gustavo is her son, having had in a relationship now over. Gustavo’s father is in Paraguay and has problems with the drug. He has never ask news after Diana’s disappearance. However Isabel suspects Diana’s last boyfriend, who in fact denounced for her daughter’s disappearance. “Their relation was finished, but he was obsessed. He wanted to live with her, and perhaps seized her for revenge”, explain Isabel. The case is still open, there are 12 faldons that contain many informations that Isabel has tried to read without understanding. The lawyer of the Ngo Mothers Victims of Trafficking will deal with the case. Diana has her leg cut because she’s sick of diabetes.

Liz. 21. Paraguay. Deceived and sold by her half-brother and sister-in-law, Liz arrived in Buenos Aires convinced to work as baby sitter. Instead she was sold to her exploiter and owner of brothel. She lived with him from 16 to 17. She used to be prepared and brought to the brothel to “work”. Among all the men she had to stay with, about thirty every day, she remembers a stranger, a tomb merchant, and a police man of the neighborhood. She remembers that she was being doped both to stay awake and to sleep. She escaped from that slavery condition with the help of the housekeeper and spent several months in the street where she met her current companion, a cardboard collector (cartonero), who brought her home with him in a shantytown. In March 2016 she came into contact with Margarita who helped her by giving her some food, because Liz was hospitalized for malnutrition. With the help of Margarita she got the identity document. Now that she is legally in existence, she can ask for help, as the law on trafficking of persons with the purpose of sexual exploitation says: the government have to help the victims of trafficking by giving food and lodging. Today Liz begs for alms in the subway and lives with her partner’s family, in a room that has rented by her mother-in-law. Liz dreams of having a family and a home.

Liz. 21. Paraguay. Deceived and sold by her half-brother and sister-in-law, Liz arrived in Buenos Aires convinced to work as baby sitter. Instead she was sold to her exploiter and owner of brothel. She lived with him from 16 to 17. She used to be prepared and brought to the brothel to “work”. Among all the men she had to stay with, about thirty every day, she remembers a stranger, a tomb merchant, and a police man of the neighborhood. She remembers that she was being doped both to stay awake and to sleep. She escaped from that slavery condition with the help of the housekeeper and spent several months in the street where she met her current companion, a cardboard collector (cartonero), who brought her home with him in a shantytown. In March 2016 she came into contact with Margarita who helped her by giving her some food, because Liz was hospitalized for malnutrition. With the help of Margarita she got the identity document. Now that she is legally in existence, she can ask for help, as the law on trafficking of persons with the purpose of sexual exploitation says: the government have to help the victims of trafficking by giving food and lodging. Today Liz begs for alms in the subway and lives with her partner’s family, in a room that has rented by her mother-in-law. Liz dreams of having a family and a home.

Papelitos at the bus stop. Papelitos are like post-its, stuck on poles, bins or on the walls of the streets, with the innocence of a cartoon design or a picture of a half-naked woman, invite you to call the overwritten number, describing the “goods” available: new, younger than 21, in promotion or high level. They cover up some of the microcentre’s streets and are easily located in front of the Congress Palace or near the Court, just as in this case.

March celebratiing the 40th anniversary of the end of the dictatorship. For the first time the Ngo Mothers Victim of Trafficking of persons with the purpose of sexual exploitation, marched with their banner. Together wiht the feminist collective Las Mariposas against gender violence, they marched to give the visibility to the problem. One of their slogans was: “they are not lost, they are disappeared to be prostituted”.