Words: Josefina Salomón
In 2005, Argentina implemented a judicial reform, called defederalization, that transferred crimes related to the commercialisation of illicit drugs from the federal courts to the provinces. Nearly 20 years later, the system is now implemented in 11 of the country’s 24 jurisdictions.
Part of the reasoning behind the reform was that by prosecuting people who commit minor crimes, there is a better chance of reaching those who lead criminal organisations. But in practice, this is not happening.
Moreover, the lack of systematised and detailed information on the implementation of the system, particularly in relation to the involvement of marginalised women in illicit markets, illustrates a vicious circle of vulnerability and violence.
Through more than 100 requests for information from all jurisdictions in the country, the Network of Argentinean Judicial Journalists worked to build a map of how the country’s judicial system deals with micro-trafficking crimes, and the impact it has had.
We spoke to Camila Grigera Naón, one of the journalists who participated in the research about the stories behind the figures, the punitive policies and the impact of the current economic context.
Josefina Salomón (JS): What aspect of the research finds were most surprising to you?
Camila Grigera Naón (CGN): By far the lack of transparency in terms of information on the way local and federal bodies apply the law in drug dealing cases in Argentina. This was something on which all members of the network agreed. For this investigation we sent more than 100 public information access requests to five bodies: the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the Council of the Judiciary, the Ministry of Security, the Ministry of Human Capital and the Public Ministry of Defence. The only ministry that answered in a relatively complete manner, although it was unable to address all the points, was the Public Ministry of Defence.
JS: How does the lack of systematised information translate into the lives of women affected by the justice system?
CGN: The lack of disaggregated and detailed information on the impact of the defederalization law really makes the most vulnerable people, particularly women, invisible.
Organised crime in Argentina is a very relevant and worrying issue, especially in certain parts of the country, for example Rosario, and in neighbouring provinces.
But if we don’t even know how women are affected by drug trafficking or drug dealing, how can we really plan, think and design solutions that will put an end to the drug trafficking that is affecting Argentina so much at the moment?
Without detailed information it is impossible to design effective public policies.
JS: These women occupy the last link in the chain of production and commercialisation…
CGN: Yes, not only that. If they are convicted and put in prison, on the one hand, it has no impact on the production and distribution chain, because the role they play is completely fungible, dispensable and replaceable, but they also find themselves in an even worse situation compared to the situation they were in originally. Their vulnerability is increased.
JS: Why do you say that these women are a ‘blind spot’ for justice?
CGN: We spoke to a lot of people for this research, judicial operators, public defenders, prosecutors, judges, NGO representatives, affected people, and the one word that kept coming up was bureaucracy. There is a lack of humanisation in this process, where there are so many cases, so many cases that people end up being treated as a file number and not as human beings.
In the case of Camila (one of the women interviewed) she said something that affected me a lot. She said that judges and prosecutors tend to focus on the events that happened at the time and not what happens behind the scenes. Because she always accepted that she had committed a crime, but she also always maintained that nobody bothered to really look at what was going on behind the scenes, that she suffered a very severe situation of gender violence, she lived in a situation of economic and social vulnerability, she was in charge of three daughters, among many other things.
JS: Another of the women you spoke to, Maribel, who was imprisoned after transporting drugs to pay for an operation for her daughter and who was eventually released, said that during her legal process, nobody asked her where the drugs had come from, who her boss was.
CGN: Yes, absolutely. When the defederalisation law was pushed through, part of the reasoning they used was that by prosecuting people who commit minor crimes, there is a better chance of getting to the people who commit major crimes. But as Maribel rightly said, that is not happening. On the one hand, because they don’t ask them and, on the other hand, because these women often don’t have the answers. They sit at the lowest echelons and then there are those who occupy the highest, but there are many, many levels. So, surely not even the person who gave her the drugs is the head of the whole criminal organisation.
JS: What role does the economic crisis in Argentina play in all this?
CGN: Although the stories we documented, in many cases, had been resolved some time ago, what I can say is that talking to NGO representatives and judicial operators, what they say is that they would not be surprised if these cases (of people who get involved in drug dealing out of necessity) continue to increase, if there are more and more people in situations of economic desperation, most of whom are women single heads of households, who get involved in this type of crime in order to be able to feed their children.
This interview was edited for length and clarity.
Check out the ‘invetsigation “Women and drug micro-trafficking, a blind spot in the Argentinean justice system” in full here.
