Rosa looks at him still in front of you, in the Moment, as her sisters, Belen and Lucía, the house suddenly left, it was in April, the Argentine summer came to an end, the school year had begun, and it was something New in the air. A few weeks earlier the grandmother had died, which had been to them like a mother and kept the home of her migrant family, this small, fragile hut in the dusty outskirts of Buenos Aires, where a quarter have no official name, and the road has no Asphalt, and the police do not have access.
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her mother, Agustina was left behind years earlier, in Paraguay, her father, Luís worked from early until late, he took the bones of jobs, the Paraguayans do, built a display of the houses and cleaned apartments – all of the migrants toil, without which no industry does not require a state.
crumbs of the affluent society
So the three sisters were alone all day, which means in the sprawling settlements of the Poor, such as Cuartel V, you will quickly becomes the object of male desire, or to be prey in the eyes of the ruling Mafia, an investment, a commodity.
Cuartel V is one of those places where the state has the Power, but the organized crime – as in more and more areas of Latin America. The Mafia not only controls drug trade and Prostitution, but also the Transport, access, charges, rules, even the police, in short: the public life. There was a fourth Person, which was more common in the one-roomed hut, the three sisters, Ayelén, 21, the new girlfriend of a cousin, dazzling and curvy, the puppet copied the gestures like an older sister and came on that day in April 2017 with an idea, which appeared in Belen and Lucía attractive and Pink weird:
sisters, we could live together in my new apartment, just a few minutes away. You three can against a bag of money on my child care while I work at night, and otherwise we had a great time. She sprayed a touch of her life, the perfume smelled, and Grass, and fast money, adventure and freedom on the edge of the big city.
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The slum of Cuartel V on the outskirts of the metropolis of Buenos Aires, controlled by Narcos from Paraguay.
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Lucia, the Oldest, 15, said: Yes.
Belen, the Youngest, 13, said: Yes.
Pink, the Middle one, 15, said: no.
Today, all know that The Yes was a fatal error, which was soon the case 19701/2017 at the Prosecutor’s office 7 in Buenos Aires.
And a year more than 20 million cases of human trafficking, and forced prostitution around the world.
Originally, the three sisters from Encarnación, a soulless border town on the Rio Parana in Paraguay, the lives of smuggling and cheap products and the people to export to Argentina of all this, whatever is living on the edge of legality as come. They grew up together in an even smaller hut and since Childhood inseparable. They had suffered Hunger and disease, and about the parents ‘ marriage broke up, took my father and grandmother on the flight, 1200 kilometers to the outskirts of Buenos Aires, where hundreds of thousands of the Paraguayans street, to dispose of the crumbs of the affluent society.
Outer social edge Argentina
From the outer fringe of South America on the outer fringe of Argentina – a climb.
The migration route from the Slums of Paraguay in the poor district of Argentina is a much-used; more than two million Paraguayans live in today is solely in the province of Buenos Aires.
Actually the cousin of Belen and Lucía is Pink, but after the mysterious death of her mother, Gloria, whose brother Luis had taken her as a daughter. It is said Rosa, her mother, also an Immigrant, died in Cordoba, at a stroke, but today she knows that she was trafficked as a prostitute there. “My mother worked for me, so I can have a better life,” she says sadly. Because the pimp Gloria left to Christmas not for the family travel, it came to a dispute. The family believes she was beaten to death.
It was not this gruesome early death of her young mother, Rosa, taught: follow the easiest way, especially if he’s to perfume smells, and fast money.
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Lucia is now 16 years old
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You can say it in hindsight, so thanks to the murder of her mother, she remained, possibly before his own early death spared.
Pink Bogarín Ortiz, 15 years, identification number 95.294.587, looks more like 20. She wears a cut-away Jeans to see just as much skin is like fabric, and purple lipstick. It is November, 2017 is the first of four encounters of the photographer and of the author of the family Ortiz. Pink talks like an experienced woman, shaped by a life in which she has seen everything, what’s happening for Teens else only in movies: extortions, Robberies, murder, drug addiction.
“But nothing is as bad as my sisters,” she says quietly.
identification numbers
Pink is still vividly remembers the last discussion on that day in April 2017, which would make it so much undone. Lucía told your father that you have this life into tired of poverty and now how Ayelén money to earn. Belen said that they got sick of it to always stay in the hut locked up. Her father, Luis, tired of the drudgery, replied, if Ayelén to take care of you like a big sister, you could try that, and otherwise you should leave him alone.
He stormed out of the hut.
As Belen and Lucía went.
And Rosa was left alone.
“For me, it was infinitely hard,” she says. “For the first Time in my life without my sisters.”
Rosa had not only lost her mother early. Second, the biological mother of Lucía and Belén, remained in Paraguay. Your third mother, the grandma, died of a heart attack because the ambulance took too long for the how to get to Cuartel V. And now you threatened the sisters to their new sister to lose Ayelén.
“Because you went long.” Pink shows on the road, which is not much more than a moguls of Sand. “And there, behind the corner, they disappeared.”
And then?
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Lucia as a little girl,
©Karl Mancini/star
you hawed around now. “The only Belén Lucía answer.”
The new life with Ayelén in a room with a small window and many of the mattresses appeared to the two sisters short of Paradise, such as the early entry into the age of majority. Ayelén has behaved less like an older sister because, as a crazy aunt, which allowed all that remains of teenagers and otherwise denied, a life in total freedom, without school, without rules and limits.
Belen to fit on Ayeléns daughter, while this disappeared, allegedly for Cleaning and waitressing – and, increasingly, Lucía. Belén seemed to be the innocent, there the Jobs were, the Paraguayans so. In the company’s hierarchy migrants form the lowest level. You will be hated by the poor, exploited by businessmen, they live without any protection from gangs, but in constant fear of the state supervision, which are equipped with identification numbers, you mark them as migrants.
“Feeding”
But there are, to the knowledge of Belen and Lucía is not, yet another reason for the strong Migration of the Paraguay’s interior: they are, some of them lured a minor, in one of the 1500 brothels of the Argentine capital, or kidnapped. Or further transported to Mar del Plata and Patagonia, in the rough world of men to the mines and ports.
in fact, Ayelén and Lucía in the Morning came back to the room and brought the smell of perfume and Grass, but also money, alcohol, and hard drugs. Belén lists you like, of course:
“Rum and coke, and vodka, Porro (Joints), Merca, Falopa (cocaine).”
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In this proposal the pimp Mauricio Lucía and Belén is abused and many Free more.
©Karl Mancini/star
you have given, using the terms as a experienced consumer.
And you took that from?
“Everything. Abundant.”
What has it done to you?
“I was able to forget everything.”
it describes nothing other than the “Feeding” of young consumer or – as in the report to the court recorded the beginning of “their dependence on various psychoactive substances”.
As a cloud
Mariá Belén Bogarín Ortiz, 13 years, identification number 95.303.000, is a small, thin girl, only 35 pounds. She sits at the first interview in November of 2017, in a darkened room of the hut, arms crossed, looking stubborn. She responds in one-word sentences, as it has done to the state’s attorney, often just a Yes or a no, as she was in an interrogation.
Then, at the first meeting, was the approach of a conversation at least possible.
“I always wanted more drugs.”
And where was the money?
“The earned Lucía.”
And where she was?
“next Door. In The Furniture Trade.”
What a furniture commercial?
“A kind of Bar.”
Who was there else?
“Many men.”
you Know, what happened there?
she nods, but says nothing more. And one suspects now: The to come to Belén. It is the most fragile of three sisters.
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Luis Ortiz couldn’t protect his daughters.
©Karl Mancini/star
The so-called furniture trading is located only four street corners of the hut, the sisters away. It is almost impossible to identify as a house, more of a maze of shacks and boards, Look protected by Blankets and Plan, sand-brown by the dust. Behind the winding streets and spaces extend, as Lucia recalls the dark. But she barely remembers.
“It’s all like a cloud,” she says.
throughout The day on cocaine
Lucia Bogarín Ortiz, 16 years old, identification number 95.302.988, lies on a bench in a soup kitchen in the centre of Buenos Aires. Her face is bloated, her eyes turn more often than you lose consciousness.
It is a difficult conversation is the first of many over the next 15 months. It takes place in a secret place, where she is in front of the Mafia protected.
“they gave me a lot of drugs. I spent the whole day on cocaine. I don’t remember much.”
What do you remember?
“I got the stuff. Then I had to use the men’s. First Mauricio.”
Who is it?
“The owner.”
And then?
“Then have more. Three at a time. Five at once. I don’t know it. I have nothing more to feel.”
she now speaks about Details that do not need you expect readers to necessarily.
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Belen, 15 years old
©Karl Mancini/star
And Ayelén?
“the way it Was. She said, I must work as much to pay for our cocaine debt. You would not, I take it you are Belén.”
That was the equation: Because your new sister Ayelén Belén put on drugs, had to Lucía go to buy, in order to prevent the numerous Free rape the younger Belén.
An escape was not possible?
“We were not left out. They said they will send in a different country.”
Lucía and Belén Ortiz, then 13 and 15, were now prisoners or – in the eyes of justice: minors, victims of forced prostitution and trafficking in human beings, documented in the protocols of the child protection organization “Madres Victimas de Trata, page 1, under the slogans: “The Disappearance” and “Sexual exploitation”.
she went on all fours and moved from
From the year 20.9 million Victims of human trafficking are in accordance with UN 49 percent women, and another 23 percent of girls. The vast majority will be sexually exploited. It is the third most important source of income for organised crime after drugs and the arms trade: 150 billion dollars per year.
For Lucía and Belén was the big question: are you ever going to get out? Or will they be shipped before in another part of Argentina or even the world?
Lucia falls again and again in a short sleep, the result of the anesthetic through three different psychotropic drugs. Six months have passed since the events, four of which she was in inpatient treatment in the psychiatric ward of the children’s hospital Tobar García. She still goes daily.
The attending child psychiatrist, Dr. Gabriel Salorio says in the presence of a representative of the children protection organization “As Lucia came, she was like an animal. She went on all fours.” A condition you held in the report as “descompensada” festival decoration mpensiert. “She undressed in front of us male Doctors immediately naked, as if we were Free. No wonder, given what had happened to her. It is a severe case of schizophrenia, and trauma.”
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With the fate of Belen, and so many other Prosecutor Marcelo Colombo
©Karl Mancini/st is concerned Ren
Dr. Salorio is located in the waiting room of the hospital in the district of Constitucíon. It is located right next to the infamous red light district, from the many drug-dependent young people come to his Station. “We have a lot of such cases, but rarely so bad as in the case of Lucía. It’s like a car accident of the soul. She is seriously injured. Some patients we’ll never get more. In Lucía, we have tried many remedies without success. Now it is under the antipsychotic clozapine. It strikes quite well.”
The big question is, however, not only for him, is this: you can go and Get you again?
After two weeks without her sisters, Rosa began to Worry. On Facebook, they taught that everything is okay, reported, but less frequently. Belén once came home from Ayelén sent to calm the father, Lucía not at all. It’s all good, said Belén, but the drugs were noted. Pink knew the Little girl well, her reddened eyes noticed the nervousness.
logic of the Mafia
her father Luis appeared in those days as absent-minded, almost relieved, that after ten hours of work and four hours of Commuting in crowded buses, no Teenagers, and more problems waiting for him, but only sleeping, and numbness, a fate that millions of people in poor neighbourhoods is happening.
So forged Pink with a Plan. Together with her friend Patricia, she would penetrate in the furniture trade, and her sisters free. To the police she could not go, because everyone knows in the district and receives kickbacks for the Franchise and Allow brothels.
A daring plan, but Pink counters only succinctly: “What else?”
The following day, they went off in the Early morning. Her pulse raced like crazy, she says. They observed the plot, until the last customer seemed to be gone. Then they entered into a side entrance, went from window to window and saw Lucía and Belén actually sleep on the floor. Also, Ayelén slept off their intoxication.
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A map of the city shows where the girls disappeared.
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Rosa raised the dazed sisters and dragged her out. “You come with me now,” she commanded them.
In retrospect, says Pink on the exemption: “I wasn’t thinking big.”
Patricia says: “Rosa was not to be dissuaded.”
All the others say: “Rosa is a real heroine.”
In the logic of the Mafia, however, it was a robbery. Pink took the trade in the goods. And would probably inform the judiciary.
Luis Ortiz in the evening from work, came home, offered him a picture of horror. His daughter Lucia was naked, climbed on the water tank and did not want to go down. “It is foam from the mouth came,” he says. “You want to hang.”
His brother Victor helped and pulled Lucia from the Tank down. “She was like a piece of meat, not like a man,” he recalls. “I’m a strong man, but they fought back so that I could not overcome it.”
Freiwild
Luis called the ambulance, but dared not into this by the Mafia-ruled Slum. So, Luís borrowed money and gave Lucia by private car to the hospital to which you referred, finally, in the child psychiatry.
Luís Bogarín Ortiz, 38, identification number 95.182.142, is a tall, thin man, the public Prosecutor’s office States that “He has a few tools to communicate.” His answers come after a short Pause, as the words would only turn a few laps through the brain. He speaks simple Spanish, his native language is Guaraní, the indigenous language of Paraguay.
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From the border areas of Paraguay and Brazil, girls and women are trafficked to Buenos Aires, but many also come from there alone – in search of happiness. The Mafia distributes them to brothels in the capital, the large cities on the sea, and to Patagonia.
©infographic: Karl Mancini; source: Karl Mancini; Protex; Madres victimas de trata
It is February 2018, Luís sits in front of his hut, which he had built a small chapel with a statue of the virgin Mary. He makes Tereré circles, the Paraguayan drink from Mateblättern, and talk about football, to be able to the topic of sexual exploitation to be missed. He is unemployed because he lost, according to the court record – “his Job to escape lucía’s from the brothel. He had to take care of his daughter and their training and authorities.”
The big question is: Why hasn’t he paid more attention to his children? It gnaws at him.
“you need a mother,” he replies. “I’m not a mother. I never was.”
That’s not an explanation.
“I was at the end,” he admits finally, and a Blank is rising now in his eyes, which, however, often find the people in the Slums, exhausted from life on the margins of society, of depression that are not treated nor diagnosed because.
“The father seemed like a younger brother of the girl, as I experienced it,” says the psychiatrist, Dr. Salorio. “He had no authority and power after the death of his mother. The girls were free in the wild.”
parents that their children sell
In the life of Luis Ortiz, for almost 40 years, is like, such a break with any kind of moral standard – the systematic rape of a girl – not a rarity, so hard the sound. His sister died in a brothel. His cousin was retailers victims of people, but was able to escape from the brothel. Now it has taken his daughter. “There is in my country, parents who sell their children,” he says, as if that could exonerate him is the.
What will he do now?
“I’m just waiting for the justice to be punished. If not, I’ll do it myself.” He says nothing other than self-justice. “I don’t know how Lucía has survived,” he says breathlessly in front of him. “Ten types at once. The thought of killing me.”
His brother Victor adds: “I went to the police. The told me: We have more pressing cases. So what should we do?, I asked. They recommended me to Shoot the offender with three shots, and bring the corpse out of the district. We way to look.”
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Belen, after a rape, pregnant, waits in the hospital on abortion
©Karl Mancini/star
The most urgent question for Luis is: what to do with his daughters? Here in Cuartel V, you can’t stay. According to the court Protocol, on page 3, the men have parked a truck in front of his door and ask for Lucia. to protect
the Mafia, comes Lucia, temporarily at Margarita Meira, 64 years of age, identification number 4.644.183, the daughter of a Paraguayan, Chairman of the children protection organization “Mothers of the victims of human trafficking”. A resolute little woman, who is without fear through life. “To me, you can hold a gun to the head, I’m also with the Mafia,” is their Motto. “I’m a Kamikaze.”
Meira runs a soup kitchen in an old house in the middle of the red light district Constitucíon. Lucía helps here at work, but falls asleep again and again, bends away as a Branch, sedated by anti-depressants.
cheap goods, the consumer society
Almost a year has now passed since the rape. Lucía’s life consists not in the rhythm of school and leisure. It consists of the rhythm of sleep and medication, and the hope that time will heal the wounds.
What was going on in Cuartel V, explains Meira, follows the clear strategy of the Mafia. She pulls out a slip of paper and describes the people trading on the basis of a chart: The gangs send so-called “entregadoras”, girls as Ayelén, the minor daughters from the families curls. Then you put it under drugs and forcing them into Prostitution, the “slavery of the 21st century. Century,” as Meira called it. Brothels are “places of rape, torture and death”, which includes closed, as your organization has stated in their demands to the state, point one.
“It is a cold calculation,” explains Meira: With a girl, the pimp will earn 1500 Pesos a Free, 30 euros, the girls get four Euro. At ten suitors are 300 Euro. In ten of the abducted girls 3000 euros per night. “You can get with drugs hard to get on.”
The girls and young women from Paraguay are nothing more than a commodity, a disposable product of the sexual industry, a cheap goods of consumer society.
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Margarita Meira leads the Organisation “mothers of the victims of human trafficking”
©Karl Mancini/star
Meira speaks a sober and perceptive about the most cruel deeds. As you researched, there were plans to sell Belen and Lucía. Pink saved the two just yet. “Sell the girl to Mexico, Colombia, to Europe, but mostly within the country, from one place to another. Sometimes for only four weeks, and then leave the girl so it means that The Little one is burned with the friend. In the meantime, you have made almost 10,000 euros, with each of them.”
The crime does not occur approximately at locations such as Cuartel V are spaces of lawlessness, in which Latin America represents the culmination of the biggest problems: corruption and impunity. Gangs bring the district under their control and rule so arbitrary and tyrannical, as in feudalism. Where the perpetrator need not fear persecution, are most heinous crime possible, and the Weakest members of society are the first victims.
“The mob takes the law into their own hands,” says Meira. “But we are citizens also,” she adds.
Meira has taken up the case of the three sisters as a kind of private detective. First of all, she has brought Lucía in safety. Then Belén out of the police station, dragged for a witness statement. When she learns of a missing girl, currently more than 1000 in Argentina, researched them on your own. Wanted Posters Prints. Protested in front of the presidential Palace. Even through brothels, looking for her.
unreported
it follows a logic that prevails in many places of Latin America, whether citizens, indigenous peoples in Colombia, or women’s groups in the Favelas fight back in Mexico, If the state does not want to be in the state or are citizens themselves and the state.
It is also a kind of revenge to you. She lost her daughter Susana, 27 years ago, to human traffickers. Susana was kidnapped, taken to different brothels held and eventually murdered. Until today, the perpetrators are walking free. Since then, she knows: “The police is often associated with the Mafia under a blanket. I have to deal with my police work to the police. I only go directly to Colombo.”
Colombo is a kind of code word. It Prosecutor Marcelo Colombo is the state. He is leading a specially formed special unit, the PROTEX. She is looking for in this vast country, almost eight times as large as Germany, the kidnapped Victims of human trafficking. The Problem is so great that you have set up a Hotline, the telephone 145. Within Interpol, Colombo is also the coordinator for all of Latin America and Spain.
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Rosa’s mother lives in a Slum in Paraguay, and has three children
©Karl Mancini/star
It is March 2018, nearly a year has passed since the abduction lucía’s, and there are still no arrests.
“We have heard of the case,” says Colombo. “I can find out how far he is.”
He is a statistics rich. About 1000 cases of human trafficking there were in Argentina in 2014, plus a high number of unreported cases. More than half of them under the category of “Sexual exploitation”, ten percent of minors are covered. Less than half of the cases end with convictions. And the most surprising number: a 40 percent of Paraguay are on the inside.
“The level of poverty in Paraguay is the cause,” he says. In addition, girls were trafficked from Paraguay often “from the inner circle, even from mothers, sisters”. Many were kept in brothels in the periphery, for there are so many synonyms like for women: Whiskeria, Bar, Pub, VIP. Most, however, in “Privados”, private apartments used as brothels, as in the case of Lucía. To by the police difficult.
vicious circle
He leans now forward, as if he was going to reveal a secret. The police often work with pimps Hand-in-Hand, it is a mutual protection””. “Eight percent of the Convicted in trafficking in human beings are police officers,” he says. “Do not receive bribes, the acts of display, a perverse System.” It is a revelation are: The man, the law enforcement does not trust the law enforcement.
The case of Lucía Ortiz, he promises: “I’ll be in touch. I’ll give you what we have.”
The major crime cases in television have a clear end. In journalism, however, rare. Often, they never end. You are changing. It goes back months later to the place, the result is a new story.
In October 2018, a year after our first visit, has turned the situation. None of the three sisters is at home. Lucía lives in a children’s home in La Plata, 100 miles away, she’s out of the danger zone Cuartel V, but also from the safety of her family. She looks better, the eyes are more awake, the face is full of. She says that she wants to finish school, but the question is, how do you want to establish without regular school attendance.
Rosa, the heroine, moved in with a friend, she has dropped out of school and works in a beauty salon to earn money for the family, but the question remains: Is the entry in the next vicious circle?
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Lucia with her new friend
©Karl Mancini/star
Belen, the Youngest, is injured and pregnant on the first floor of the hospital in the suburb of Moreno.
, it appears to be absent, the hair is a mess, looking tired. Under your T-Shirt with the logo “Be a nice human” bulge of the belly. She is in the fifth month.
On the bed, her father Luis and Margarita Meira sitting. “The guys have done with Belen, the Same as with Lucia,” says Meira.
Belen is silent. You staring at your phone.
Meira continued: “The Doctors found infections, internal injuries. That’s why you can’t perform the abortion.”
Belen is now 14 and addicted to drugs. As in the case of Lucía, a year earlier, the question is: do you ever go back?
Is all this?, the photographer asks, Belén.
“I remember nothing,” she says.
Resignation
The suspicion is that Belén was forced into Prostitution, is not recorded in the report to the court, page 3: “Belén was several days at home and not went to school. She stayed in the house of a neighbor, known as Mauricio. In the same place, where a complaint has been filed because of the Prostitution of her sister.”
her father, Luis sits at a loss of the mark and is silent. He seems to need the most comfort. He knows as a devout Catholic He is against abortion.
“fortunately decide in Argentina women,” snarls Meira. “Your daughter was raped. In cases of rape is allowed to have an abortion according to the law. But you as a parent / legal guardian must agree to.”
Luis says nothing.
Belén pronounces the terrible sentence: “If I have to get the child, I’ll kill myself.”
do not Need to determine the state at last?
“Belén does not want to testify,” says Meira resigned.
Belen is silent. Makes you photos from the photographer, while photographing them.
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The life of Luis Ortiz and the three young women in danger, because Lucía and Belén apply in the case of the Mafia as the stolen
©Karl Mancini/star
Who was the culprit?
No answer.
Without an answer but no perpetrator and no charges.
“is she afraid of the guy,” says Meira.
There is a knock at the door. Three young women enter. They introduce themselves as members of an Evangelical Church. You want to Belén excuses the abortion. “Every life matters. Abortion is illegal. You’ll regret it.”
“she was raped”, and excite Meira.
“That must be proved.”
The Situation is unlikely to endure. There’s a pregnant child is apathetic in bed, in the bosom of the mobile phone, clutching a rosary. Around five adults argue about Argentina, duration of abortion.
power struggle
Eventually, Meira looks out of the window. In front of the clinic, believes you to observe the positioning of shadowy figures from Cuartel V. “want to ensure that Belén says.” Belén is silent. It gives the impression that she has chosen. The Mafia has won the power struggle.
Three days later, the Doctor writes a Protocol, which allows abortion for Belen Ortiz, the victim of a rape. Another three days later, after the abortion, Belen, suddenly disappeared. For a couple of hours of great anxiety prevails: brought the Mafia back?
rainbow village, a Slum, a tourist attraction> to be It was Pink. On the question of the reason, says Pink: “in order for Belen to go back to the Cuartel V. And not in a home. I feel responsible for you. Afraid I have nothing more.” As always, it is Pink, which makes the right decision. It is, as it seems to be the only adult. Maybe even a kind of mother. If there is any constant in the life of the three sisters, then it is poverty and violence and the absence of a mother. This is a nagging question that never gives rest such As you who put us in the world, could leave us in the lurch? Belen says: “I would never see them. “ Lucia says: “I would like to ask you, why you left us in the lurch.” Poor Encarnación is something like a large edition of Cuartel V, directly behind the border to Paraguay located. The Slums are not growing up here in the mountains, but deep into the quarter until in the land. A house on the road is in a poor hut and a ärmlichere hut to a shack from a couple of strips of wood and earth. Before one of these huts is a small, thin woman, the character of Belén, and the eyes of Lucía, sitting up. On the lap she is holding a Baby number six, she says. The number five was taken away from her by the youth welfare office just. The number four, for ten years, ready to power the bottle for the number six. In addition, a man who looks suspicious is. the father of The baby? “no, the died,” she says. Agustina Ortiz, 37 years old, identification number 4.114.463, don’t want to talk, they expected nothing Good of words. But since we have a chicken brought, talking to you. We come directly to you from your daughters, say. It is expected an outburst of emotion, many questions, but she just says: “you have not visited your poor mother.” her daughters have no money, we explain. They are dirt poor. “you live in Argentina,” says Agustina, as it was around the Paradise. she tells her boyfriend to fry the chicken, the first meat in a Long time. she now claims that she’s going to buy a house, when the girls return to you, but your earnings as a street vendor with not enough time to buy enough food for themselves. Your strength is not enough for your three girls here, as you should be enough for the three girls there? your daughters is not well. “I know what happened to them,” she says curtly. “It is the fault of the father. He shouldn’t have asked you.” He says, she gnawed at the hunger cloth. “are you now better?”, you replied. “He dragged her back to Argentina. He bears the responsibility. I have nothing to do do.” don’t Want you to visit their daughters, for real this time? A bus ticket costs 350.000 Guaraní, 50 Euro. “I’m not going. I have my Pride. The girls know where to find me. Here you are at least safe.” Dark circles The conversation does not continue, the visit is disturbing. We go. The photographer, a woman calls at the time of adoption: won’t you take my Youngest? at the end of January 2019, we will visit the three sisters and their father, Luis a for the last Time. It was a hot day in the Argentine is high summer. The Meeting is to take place, despite threats by the Mafia in their hut in Cuartel V. The Mafia has long been aware that investigations are underway. You also know that a Reporter reports. You know but most of all, that no one wants to testify against you. Neither Lucía. Still Belén. Also Pink is not. special investigator Colombo does not interfere. He leaves the work of the local Prosecutor’s office. He directs me to say: The case will be further investigated. Luis and his three daughters are sitting in front of the hut and drink Tereré. The girl doing the nails and the hair, you’re fooling around, the atmosphere is solved. So it seems to be. Luis is no longer out of the house. He is guarded around the clock Belén. She now lives as a prisoner. It is at the same time your withdrawal. “There were shots in front of the house to three o’clock in the morning,” says Luís. He does not see that as a warning, to speak with the police or journalists. “We gotta get out of here,” he says. “But to where? We have no money.” you should, he feels, on the next flight. To escape from the poverty in Paraguay, the escape from human trafficking and now the escape from the death threats follows. What do you have in life, we ask Lucía, the dabeihat your friend, Paraguayans, 18 years, day laborer. For the first Time in months, we see a tender Smile under her dark eyes edges. donations to the star readers for the organisation of Margarita Meira directs the Foundation’s star: Foundation star – help for people e. V. IBAN: DE20 2007 0000 0469 9500 01 BIC: DEUTDEHH the keyword “human trafficking”; www.stiftungstern.de “I want to be a Doctor,” she says, but it sounds like a distant dream as a racer. She still takes antidepressants. And Pink, which goes next to the Jobbing back to school? “psychologist”, she says determined. “To help my sisters,” and it sounds like a distant dream. And Belén, who is sitting apathetic, and limp, thin as a stick? “don’t Know”, she says. Back to Paraguay for the mother? you shake your head. This comes not out of the question. sibling love The three sisters disappear into the small kitchen to make the hair and talk about boys. They hug. You laugh even. They call each other “hermosa”, beautiful, “divina”, divine, and writing on Facebook: “love you, little sister.” their story of love is one of destruction, of rawness, but also of Retaining and Siblings. to separate The girls would be fatal. To the father, the mother and the state is not dependable. You only have yourself. They are the only people who trust each other. The loved one you want to move in together. Meira wants to create a home for girls like you, where you are safe from the Mafia life. Alone, the money is missing. For a brief deceptive Moment, on this summer day in 2019, the impression of a Happy ending. Time to finish the story before you device out of the joints.
