More than two months after a five-year-old boy went missing in a northeastern Argentina, the Church continues to promote marches to demand his captors release him. Source: OSV News.
Loan Peña’s case is one of many concerns of Church groups in Argentina that combat human trafficking and the exploitation of people for labour and sexual purposes.
On August 26, Bishop Adolfo Canecín of Goya, about 70 kilometres southwest of the town of Nueve de Julio, attended a march and presided at a Mass in honour of the boy, who disappeared in June after a visit with his grandmother.
Members of Loan’s family, as well as activists of ecclesial movements that work against human trafficking, attended the gathering.
An organisation of Church groups that combat human trafficking has been growing in the South American country.
In July, a number of the groups gathered in Buenos Aires and launched the Argentine chapter of the Latin American and Caribbean Ecclesial Network on Migration, Displacement, Refuge and Human Trafficking – known in Spanish as Red CLAMOR, or CLAMOR Network.
Called by the Argentine bishops conference’s Commission for Migrants and Refugees, known as CEMI, movements fighting human trafficking came together for a street march on July 28, demanding attention from authorities to avoid new cases like that of Loan.
Banners with Loan’s name, along with the demand that he be sent back to his family alive and well, were the dominant elements of the protest.
Scalabrinian Father Juan Antonio Ramírez, CEMI’s secretary, said human trafficking is not new in Argentina, with hundreds of unsloved cases over the years.
“Many of such problems occur in a sphere of crime and violence, so they are invisible for most in society,” Fr Ramírez said.
FULL STORY
A missing boy spurs Church groups to fight trafficking in Argentina (By Eduardo Campos Lima, OSV News)
