During the month of April of this year, following an anonymous complaint received by the Office of the Prosecutor for Trafficking and Exploitation of Persons (Protex), the federal prosecutor Enrique Senestrari launched an investigation and led a series of raids at two establishments dedicated to assisted fertilization, located in New Cordoba and in the northwest of the capital city. The objective of the investigation was to dismantle an alleged human trafficking network, focused on the recruitment of women in vulnerable situations in order to rent their wombs in exchange for a sum of money. As Senestrari explained at the time, this involved becoming pregnant through the implantation of embryos from third parties who requested this service to have a child that was not biologically theirs.
The investigation began after receiving an anonymous complaint detailing a specific case of a couple who had gone to one of these clinics due to fertility problems. Apparently, these institutions had “offered” them this possibility in a covert manner. At the beginning of July, the courts charged nine people in relation to the case, including doctors, lawyers and employees of the two clinics specializing in assisted fertilization treatments. On that occasion, new searches were carried out with the approval of the 2nd federal judge, Alejandro Sanchez Freytesat the request of Maria Alejandra Mangano of Protex and the Attorney General before the TOF2 of Córdoba, Carlos Gonellzwith the collaboration of the federal prosecutor No. 1, Enrique Senestrariwho is currently in charge of the case.
The legal qualification for which the criminal action was requested is human trafficking with aggravating circumstancesdue to the vulnerability and number of victims involved, as well as the number of people involved in the crime. The figure of ideological falsehood. Although it is handled with great secrecy, it was confirmed that there are 14 victims identifiedall from very vulnerable social backgrounds. One of the cases involves a woman whose pregnancy caused serious health problems, but she did not receive adequate follow-up. After giving birth, she was abandoned with her five children in a precarious economic situation and only a month later she made a statement to the court.
At the end of last month, the federal judge Alejandro Sanchez Freytes established a schedule of investigations for all the accused, which began on Tuesday, July 30 and will extend until Friday, August 9. According to the suspicion of the Public Prosecutor’s Office (MPF), the health centers came into contact with the victims through egg donations -a practice that, in many cases, was the initial form of recruitment- or because they were recruited by other defendants, taking advantage of their vulnerable situation.
Until now, the names of the clinics involved in these cases were not known. However, in the latest edition of CÓRDOBA The exclusive testimony of a couple who had their child through surrogacy and was treated in one of the institutions accused is presented: the clinics Fecundart y Born. Among the measures requested by the prosecutors at the time of filing the charges was the arrest of several of the accused, although the judge Sanchez Freytes did not allow it. For this reason, the MPF appealed the decision before the Federal Court of Appeals, which will have to determine whether or not the accused will go to prison.
