VZCZCXYZ0000
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHBU #2244/01 3250842
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 210842Z NOV 07
FM AMEMBASSY BUENOS AIRES
TO RHMFIUU/DEPT OF HOMELAND SECURITY WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 9750
INFO RUEHAC/AMEMBASSY ASUNCION PRIORITY 6701
RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA PRIORITY 6587
RUEHLP/AMEMBASSY LA PAZ NOV 5014

UNCLAS BUENOS AIRES 002244 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
G/TIP FOR BARBARA FLECK 
G/TIP FOR KATIE BRESNAHAN 
WHA/PPC FOR SCOTT MILLER 
WHA/BSC FOR JANINA SLATTERY 
DHS PLEASE PASS TO ICE OFFICE OF INVESTIGATION KATERINA 
KAROUSOS AND ICE INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS LAURIE WEEKS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ASEC ELAB KCRM PHUM PREL SMIG KWMN PGOV AR
SUBJECT: ARGENTINA: 2007 TIP INTERIM ASSESSMENT 
 
REF: A. SECSTATE 148925 
     ¶B. BUENOS AIRES 1723 
     ¶C. BUENOS AIRES 1245 
     ¶D. BUENOS AIRES 1185 
     ¶E. BUENOS AIRES 1030 
     ¶F. BUENOS AIRES 965 
     ¶G. BUENOS AIRES 881 
     ¶H. BUENOS AIRES 838 
     ¶I. BUENOS AIRES 814 
     ¶J. BUENOS AIRES 799 
     ¶K. BUENOS AIRES 753 
     ¶L. BUENOS AIRES 2095 
 
¶1. (SBU)  Post, through the combined efforts of the political 
section and ICE office, continues to coordinate with 
Argentine authorities to develop local capacity to 
investigate and prosecute trafficking crimes.  We also 
continue to work with Argentine partners in government and 
civil society to advance anti-TIP legislation (Refs B-K) and 
to develop comprehensive victim's assistance programs.  We 
raised the issue with U.S. Representative Chris Smith when he 
visited Argentina November 11-12 and at an Embassy-hosted 
lunch with local women's rights leaders and the organizers of 
the Vital Voices summit which will be held in Argentina in 
¶2008. 
 
¶2.  (SBU) Per Ref A instructions, below is our interim 
assessment of Argentina,s progress in its efforts to combat 
trafficking in persons (TIP).  Our response is keyed to 
points found in reftel. 
 
A) ENACTING COMPREHENSIVE FEDERAL ANTI-TIP LEGISLATION TO 
CRIMINALIZE AND PUNISH ADEQUATELY ALL SEVERE FORMS OF 
TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS 
 
The Argentine Congress continues to debate trafficking in 
persons legislation, with the Senate passing its version in 
December 2006.  A more comprehensive bill was introduced in 
the Deputies in October 2006, and the two bills have yet to 
be reconciled.  A key difference between the two bills is 
whether or not trafficking victims can &consent8 to being 
trafficked.  According to NGOs, the Senate bill makes consent 
irrelevant only for persons under the age of 18, while the 
Deputies bill makes consent irrelevant.  GOA officials 
continue to assure us that passage of anti-trafficking 
legislation is forthcoming and will be a priority for 
incoming President-elect Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, who 
will be sworn in December 10. 
 
There have been efforts in Buenos Aires City and the province 
of Santa Fe to pass legislation criminalizing TIP.  On 
September 14, the Buenos Aires City Legislature approved a 
reform to the city,s criminal code that provides for strong 
fines and prison sentences for people involved in the 
trafficking of minors.  The law covers those directly 
involved in TIP, as well as persons who provide any 
assistance to individuals who intend to sexually exploit 
children or adolescents, even if the service provider is not 
involved in the actual sexual activity.  The law obliges 
suppliers of tourist services to follow codes of conduct, 
including reporting to authorities tourists that abuse 
minors.  Services must display signs at their agencies 
advising of penalties for the abuse of minors and phone 
numbers for relevant government authorities.  The law also 
requires the Government of Buenos Aires to both enforce these 
requirements and conduct a TIP information campaign through 
public and private media.  The province of Santa Fe has also 
introduced legislation to speed up the legal process when 
dealing with trafficking-in-persons cases. 
 
B) INCREASING LAW ENFORCEMENT EFFORTS TO INVESTIGATE, 
PROSECUTE, CONVICT, AND SENTENCE TRAFFICKING OFFENDERS, 
INCLUDING CRIMINAL CASES AGAINST ALLEGEDLY COMPLICIT PUBLIC 
OFFICIALS 
 
In 2005, the Prosecutor General's office established a 
special unit charged with investigating human trafficking 
cases and crimes against sexual integrity.  As of December 
2006, the unit became operational.  However, the unit's 
jurisdiction is limited to Buenos Aires city and the majority 
of its budget is financed by the city government.  It is 
authorized to open investigations based on leads it receives 
from civil society, NGOs, the PG's Office of Victim's Assistance 
(OFAVI), and a hotline run by the National 
Institute for Anti-Discrimination (INADI) to report 
trafficking cases.  It does not investigate trafficking cases 
that have been reported directly to the police, since those 
cases are assigned to a prosecutor that has jurisdiction over 
that police station.  (Comment: Although it is too early to 
evaluate the effectiveness of the unit, the Director and 
Deputy Directors of the unit have received anti-TIP training 
from our International Law Enforcement Academy in Lima, Peru. 
 Both seem to be very capable professionals.) 
 
INADI's hotline was first established as a hotline to report 
discrimination complaints and took on the additional 
responsibility of taking complaints or tips on people or 
locales involved in human trafficking in April 2007.  Since 
April, OFAVI has looked into 92 TIP-related complaints 
received by INADI in coordination with the PG's special 
anti-TIP unit. 
 
The provinces of Tucuman and Santa Fe have established 
specialized police units that investigate human trafficking 
cases and crimes against sexual integrity.  The Tucuman 
police unit works very closely with TIP activist Susana 
Trimarco and her NGO, the Maria de los Angeles Foundation. 
Santa Fe Province recently sponsored a working group in its 
capital city to highlight the provincial government,s 
anti-TIP successes and discuss the means for build on the 
gains.  The meeting was attended by high-level officials from 
the provincial government of Santa Fe and surrounding 
provinces.  Together the provinces are working on a plan to 
increase coordination between provincial and national 
agencies. 
 
The Argentine government continues to investigate and arrest 
individuals involved in human trafficking and related crimes. 
 In March, the Argentine Federal Police (AFP) arrested a 
Bolivian couple for subjecting 14 Bolivians, ranging in age 
from 17 to 30, to slave-like conditions and depriving them of 
their liberty in a textile sweatshop.  In April, the AFP 
arrested 17 individuals for running 14 sweatshops in Buenos 
Aires City, rescuing a total of 174 undocumented workers from 
deplorable conditions.  According to the press, Buenos Aires 
city has received 2,702 complaints of sweatshops operating in 
their jurisdiction and has closed 713 sweatshops over the 
18-month period of January 2006-June 2007.  Given the 
relative ease with which sweatshops can relocate to another 
area outside of the city's jurisdiction, the Buenos Aires 
city government signed a cooperation agreement with the 
Province of Buenos Aires and the federal government. 
 
In April, the National Gendarmerie, Ministry of Interior's 
Victims Against Violence program, and the NGO Red Alto a la 
Trata y Trafico (RATT) worked together to rescue a group of 
14 Paraguayan minors from a brothel in Pergamino (Buenos 
Aires province) where they had been forced into prostitution. 
 In late August, an international pedophile ring snared 
individuals from various Argentine provinces. The police 
operation, called &Children,s Hell," confiscated more than 
10,000 pornographic images and videos.  Fifteen people from 
eight provinces have been implicated for publishing and 
exchanging child pornographic material.  The operation 
involved coordination among the different provincial police 
departments and was supervised by a Federal Justice.  A new 
investigation has been opened to determine the images, 
source and location. 
 
In September, the first documented case of child smuggling in 
Argentina occurred at the border of La Quiaca, Argentina and 
Villazon, Bolivia.  An Argentine woman using false travel 
documents was arrested at the border for attempting to cross 
with two Bolivian girls, ages 14 and 15.  The victims were 
promised work in Argentina as nannies, but it is believed 
they were going to be sold into prostitution.  The 
individual,s arrest occurred due to the combined efforts of 
the Argentine and Bolivian Consulates, the Argentine 
Gendarmarie, the Argentine Public Ministry,s Defenders of 
Minors, and immigration officials from both countries.  These 
agencies form part of the Argentine-Bolivian Integration 
Committee, which works to share information on cases 
involving minors more efficiently.  In October, 9 individuals 
were arrested in Buenos Aires province for sexual abuse, 
child pornography, and child prostitution using minor 
relatives ages 4 to 17. 
 
COMMENT:  It is important to note that Argentina's judicial 
system is extremely overburdened, and members of the Supreme 
Court as well as NGOs deem the system's administrative and 
budgetary support as inadequate.  As a result, suspects are 
often held in pre-trial detention for an average length of 
three years before their case is tried.  At present, 
Argentina's judicial system is modeled after Europe's 
inquisitorial system.  Although the 1994 constitution 
provides for oral trial, implementing legislation has not 
been passed.  Argentina's transition from an inquistorial to 
an accusatorial judicial system began 10 years ago and has 
advanced most notably in Cordoba and Buenos Aires provinces. 
The GOA's goal is to implement the system at the federal 
level, which would transfer investigative responsibilites 
from federal judges to the prosecutors and help improve due 
process.  In addition, there are efforts to improve judicial 
efficiency and improve case management, but the system needs 
a significant increase in the number of judges and 
prosecutors in order to make a real dent in the caseload. 
Trials for trafficking in persons cases are subject to these 
constraints.  As such, efforts to prosecute the trafficking 
offenses listed above and previous reports will take time. 
END COMMENT. 
 
C) IMPROVING EFFORTS TO GATHER LAW ENFORCEMENT DATA ON 
TRAFFICKING CASES THROUGHOUT THE COUNTRY 
 
In July, the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights (MOJ) 
issued a resolution to create a combined government and 
private sector program which would work with public and 
private organizations to maintain a current database of TIP 
cases, among other things.  In October, President Nestor 
Kirchner signed an executive decree establishing the 
"National Program to Prevent and Eradicate Trafficking in 
Persons and Provide Victims Assistance" which will be 
administered by the Ministry of Interior's Office of Judicial 
Affairs.  The program also includes the establishment of a 
national database that will register human trafficking crimes 
using data compiled by local police, judicial and Public 
Ministry officials.  See section D for more details about 
these programs. 
 
COMMENT: Since the decree was signed, President-elect 
Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner has appointed Interior 
Minister Anibal Fernandez to head the MOJ.  It is a new and 
enhanced Ministry, however, as Fernandez brings with him his 
security portfolio (Federal Police, Border Guard, Coast 
Guard, and Airport Police) from Interior.  There has been 
speculation that Fernandez will also bring the newly created 
National Program to the MOJ, and combining it with the MOJ 
program created in July.  END COMMENT. 
 
D) DEDICATING MORE GOVERNMENT RESOURCES FOR THE PROTECTION OF 
TRAFFICKING VICTIMS, PARTICULARLY SHELTER SERVICES 
 
In October, TIP Hero Susana Trimarco launched the Maria de 
los Angeles Foundation, named after her daughter who was 
kidnapped in 2002 and believed to have been trafficked for 
the purpose of sexual exploitation (Ref L).  The GOA has 
committed itself to covering half of the foundation's annual 
operating budget.  The foundation 
 
As noted in section C, the MOJ issued a resolution in July 
establishing a program aimed at TIP prevention and 
coordinating interagency efforts to provide comprehensive 
assistance to victims.  The program will also organize public 
awareness campaigns to educate the population about human 
rights and both national and international legal statutes 
concerning TIP.  In October, Kirchner signed an executive 
decree to create a "National Program to Prevent and Eradicate 
Trafficking in Persons and Provide Victims Assistance" 
administered by the Ministry of Interior.  The program aims 
to: 
 
     o  coordinate anti-trafficking efforts among the federal 
government, the provinces, the capital, NGOs, and 
international organizations; 
 
     o  conduct public awareness campaigns and provide 
training to school teachers in coordination with the Ministry 
of Education; 
     o  train government officials to strengthen 
the capacity of judicial and law enforcement officials to detect, 
prosecute and dismantle trafficking rings; 
 
     o  provide victims with a brief overview on how to 
access free medical, psychological, social, and legal 
services; 
 
     o  provide training opportunities and offer information 
on employment opportunities to help reinsertion of 
trafficking victims into society; 
 
     o  prevent revictimization; 
 
     o  inform victims of their rights as well as the status 
of investigations and trials against their captors in the 
native language of the victims and in a manner that is 
appropriate for their age and level of maturity; 
 
     o  conduct research and publish studies on the extent of 
the human trafficking problem in Argentina; 
 
     o  monitor institutions to ensure compliance and 
implementation of anti-trafficking policy; 
 
     o  coordinate public and private resouces to prevent and 
assist victim, provide financial support or guarantee free 
housing to assist victims in the first days after their 
initial rescue; 
 
     o  create partnerships with regional and international 
organizations to prevent and monitor human trafficking; 
 
     o  promote international cooperation and the adoption of 
bilateral and multilateral measures to monitor, prevent and 
eradicate human trafficking; and 
 
     o  create a free national hotline that will receive 
complaints and tips of the public. 
 
E) RAISING PUBLICLY THE ISSUE OF TRAFFICKING BY STATEMENTS 
FROM SENIOR GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS 
 
In September, Argentina's National Public Defender, Eduardo 
Mondino, stated that Argentina needed to pass legislation 
criminalizing human trafficking, stressing that a victim can 
not consent to their own exploitation at the National Public 
Defender's first annual conference concerning human 
trafficking in Mar del Plata.  The National Public Defender's 
Office is a GOA agency responsible for advocating general 
public issues.  They co-organized the conference with the 
Argentine NGO "Women,s Equality Foundation".  The 
conference,s main objectives were to raise awareness of TIP 
and provide a forum where federal and provincial government 
agencies and NGOs could coordinate their efforts to combat 
TIP.  Post helped to bring down Senior Special Agent Katerina 
Karousos, an expert on TIP issues from U.S. Immigration and 
Customs Enforcement (ICE), to give a presentation at the 
conference, where she discussed ICE's involvement in TIP 
investigations, victims, rights, and successful prosecutions 
of TIP offenders in the United States.  The conference 
attracted over 100 participants, including provincial public 
defenders, judges, lawyers, and the general public. 
 
F) OTHER SIGNIFICANT DEVELOPMENTS 
 
The United Nations, International Office of Migration (IOM), 
in conjunction with Save the Children Sweden and the Catholic 
Church's Center for the Study of Latin American Migration 
(CEMLA), has developed a program called "Prevention of child 
trade, trafficking and sexual exploitation in the Tri-Border 
area: Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil.8 The focus is on 
education as a means of prevention, primarily through use of 
learning materials at schools.  These materials ) TV and 
radio ads, printed brochures, and signs on the streets ) 
have been produced in Portuguese, Spanish and Guarani, and 
will provide basic information about how the victims are 
usually captured, security measures to prevent that 
situation, and contact information in the three cities of the 
Tri-Border area where the victims can request assistance. 
WAYNE