Argentina's prostitutes get militant
At some point, Elena Reynaga lost track of the number of times she had been thrown in jail. For two decades she worked as a prostitute in this European-style city, paying weekly kickbacks to police officers, as much as £70 a day in the Nineties. If she missed a payment, or ran into a capricious cop, she would be thrown into a dank cell covered in urine and faeces, for one night if she was lucky, three weeks if not. One day she refused to co-operate. ‘We were in a bar, four or five of us eating,’ said the red-haired Reynaga, a loquacious 50-year-old. We’d follow like lambs while they took us to jail but that day I said no. We had a revolution in that bar. The policeman entered and told us to leave. I told him nobody moves from here.’ The women did not budge and the officer backed down. Full Story