The acquittal of 13 people accused of kidnapping a young mother and forcing her to work for years as a sex slave spread shock and outrage across Argentina on Wednesday, prompting street protests and calls by political leaders to impeach the three judges who delivered the verdict.
Many called the ruling a setback for Argentina's efforts to combat sex trafficking, which began largely as a result of Susana Trimarco's one-woman, decade-long quest to find her missing daughter, Maria de los Angeles "Marita" Veron. Her attorneys said she would pursue appeals.
Trimarco's search exposed an underworld of organized crime figures who operate brothels with protection from authorities across Argentina.
Security Minister Nilda Garre called the verdict "a tremendous slap in the face for the prospect of justice."
"It's not only a reversal for this particular case of the kidnapping and disappearance of Marita Veron, that made society feel deeply the drama of this kind of 21st century slavery, covered up for decades by the customs of a network of machista culture," she said.
It also "renders invisible the suffering of the victims of human-trafficking networks and sexual exploitation, who gave such courageous testimony during the trial, and consecrates judicial impunity for these crimes," Garre said.
President Cristina Fernandez, right, applauds as Susana Trimarco, left, lifts a human rights prize given by the president during a rally to mark the 29th anniversary of the return to democracy in Argentina, on the eve of the Human Rights Day, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Sunday, Dec. 9, 2012. Trimarco is known for her crusade to find her daughter, Maria de los Angeles "Marita" Veron, who disappeared in 2002, and who is believed to had been kidnapped by human traffickers. (AP Photo/Victor R. Caivano) Close
Other officials also rallied around Veron's mother, denouncing the verdicts and praising government efforts to save women from prostitution.
Trimarco said President Cristina Fernandez personally called her to express her surprise and outrage
"I don't have proof, but I don't have doubts. When there's money involved, the whole world can blow their trumpets and it won't bother them a bit," Fernandez said Wednesday.
She said the verdicts show the need to eliminate judicial corruption by reforming how judges are picked and allowed to remain in their jobs. Political rivals have called this campaign an attack on judicial independence.
Trimarco's lawyers said the verdict shows that impunity still reigns, and they said they would pursue appeals.
"The reality is that the police are not investigating Marita's disappearance. It's Susana Trimarco who is investigating and it's been this way from the beginning," attorney Carlos Garmendia told The Associated Press.
"The Marita case is emblematic. As a result, much was learned about trafficking networks, how they move (people), how they operate," he said.
"It's obvious that this process made mistakes," he acknowledged. "Above all, this ruling is a message that the trafficking business will continue as usual."
Some of Wednesday's street protests became violent, with people throwing eggs and trying to vandalize provincial offices in Tucuman and Buenos Aires. Trimarco called on her supporters to keep the peace, even as she expressed her anger at a news conference in the provincial capital.
When Veron disappeared a decade ago, sexual exploitation and people trafficking hardly existed on the national government's agenda, let alone in northwestern Argentina, where she was allegedly kept as a sex slave by an organized crime ring with close ties to authorities in the provinces of Tucuman and La Rioja.
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.