Angry protesters hold demonstrations across country after Tucuman court acquits 13 accused of trafficking women. 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 cannot believe it'," she said. 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.
In Buenos Aires, demonstrators gathered outside the local office for Tucuman province, the state where the ruling was passed. They threw rocks and other heavy objects at windows, smashing them. In Tucuman itself, where Veron went missing a decade ago, a large procession of people marched with a banner that read, "Justice for Marita".
In , Trimarco's campaign won a toughening of sentences for those convicted of sex trafficking, but she has yet to find her daughter, who vanished in at the age of Trimarco and fellow campaigners believe that Marita is among the victims of an alleged sex ring in Tucuman province in northern Argentina. Jose D'Antona, Trimarco's attorney, said he planned to seek the impeachment of the three judges who delivered the verdict, a call that was endorsed by several political leaders.
A disappointed Kirchner, a lawyer herself by training, said she hoped more "democratisation" could be brought to Argentina's court system. Other party leaders from across the political spectrum expressed similar disappointment with the verdict. Prosecutors in Tucuman had sought between 12 to 25 years in jail for those accused in the case. The grounds for the court ruling were not immediately made public. Prostitution remains legal in Argentina, but managing brothels and trafficking in people have been federal crimes since , under a law Congress passed after lobbying by Trimarco.
