Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking in Latin America

Chattel slavery has been abolished in Latin America for well over a century, but other forms of slavery have persisted and have continued to date throughout much of the continent in spite of legal abolition. While slavery is a practice associated with the past in the social imaginary, it has become a topic of concern for many governments, non-governmental organizations and the international community. Indeed, since the mid-1990’s, Latin American social activists, scholars and policymakers have begun producing a body of literature previously unseen on the subject. Surprisingly though, while scholarly interventions on contemporary slavery and human trafficking (the modern-day slave trade that feeds into it) have existed for more than a decade, the subject has been occupying a marginal place in North American literature. In fact, the literature in North America has been centered on trafficking and slavery of undocumented immigrant workers, sexual slavery of children and women and the link to prostitution, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) and slavery in others parts of the periphery, particularly in Asia.

In Latin America, slavery and trafficking are generally linked; either because prospective slaves with the participation of enganchadores, coyotes, polleros, or gatos initiate the trajectory to cross borders or migrate within the same country looking for economic opportunities, or because they are kidnapped/enticed en masse to perform contract work, as in the case of Brazil. Slavery has been documented in countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Honduras, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay and accounts for about 11 percent of the slave population in the world. Perhaps because Latin American slaves represent such a small percentage globally, or because Latin American scholars dismissed the existence of slavery in the 1970’s and 1980’s (the word “slavery” being perceived as exaggerated, subversive or Marxist terminology), the subject has been largely neglected in the North American literature. Moreover, the scholarly debate in Latin America centers on slavery and human trafficking in Brazil, the only country in the continent to have officially recognized the existence of slaves and human trafficking within its territory and designed public policy to address these crimes. One of the objectives of this issue, therefore, is to incorporate studies on slavery and human trafficking in other parts of Latin America, while updating the literature on Brazil.

Additionally, this issue seeks to make sense of the dissimilar definitions, meanings and debates evidenced in slavery and human trafficking discourses. Scholars in Latin America have been primarily concerned with documenting, describing and denouncing modern slavery, and secondarily in classifying and contextualizing it and analyzing its causes. Few studies have taken into account the gendered nature of slavery and trafficking, except as it applies to sexual slavery and forced prostitution. Studies which have focused at the gendered nature of slavery and trafficking in the continent have been centered on sexual exploitation (initiated by women or forced unto women and children) by transnational networks and child prostitution rings trafficking people within Latin America to Europe and other parts of the world. While these studies have had an important role in documenting, analyzing and in attesting to the overwhelming presence of women and children in sexual exploitation, there is a gap in the literature when it comes to studies focused on the women and children working in other sectors of the economy as slaves. Even fewer studies are centered on the use of slaves in deforestation and environmental degradation. No doubt, the lack of a uniform definition, the disagreement as to what constitutes slavery, and the fact that the object of study occurs clandestinely have posed a series of methodological challenges. Most studies are based on anecdotal evidence from former slaves, activists, and members of civil society working in the field. Hardly any studies look at slavery in Latin America comparatively or in an attempt to situate it within global slavery, and inquire whether it is a part of a global trend, the continuation of historical practices or the result of a system.

Papers in this issue should critically address slavery and human trafficking by providing theoretical explanations as to its existence, its causes or resurgence in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, the forms it takes or aggravating factors, such as the absence or involvement of the state and the role of a paternalistic and patriarchal culture. Papers should also take into account the changing and varied nature of slavery in the continent, hence, traditional categorizations of slavery or slave-like practices might not always be applicable to describe it. This issue welcomes papers discussing slavery in rural or urban sectors, and in economic areas such as charcoal production, deforestation for cattle-ranching, mining, textile production, forced prostitution, agriculture, sugar cane harvesting and domestic service, among other activities. Papers can address contemporary slavery, human trafficking or both. Human trafficking is not present in every context where slavery is practiced or does not always have a direct link with a particular type of slavery as in the case of restavecs: child servants/slaves in Haiti. Restavecs are children given to a host family by parents incapable of supporting them financially, and therefore are not part of the human trafficking chain that takes place with Haitian sugarcane cutters working in the Dominican Republic, or Haitian children kidnapped and sold to work in forced prostitution or illegal adoption, for example.

This issue of Latin American Perspectives is premised on the notion that capitalism in Latin America (and elsewhere in the periphery) employs non-capitalist relations, such as the superexploitation of labor in the form of slavery, to compete in the global economy. However, this issue welcomes diverging points of view, since the purpose herein is to update the literature on Latin American slavery and human trafficking and to encourage critical perspectives and scholarly debate. Prospective authors may wish to address other underlying factors that foster slavery, such as the role of culture, globalization, poverty and the growing income inequality in Latin American societies. Finally, being a relatively new subject, the literature on modern slavery could benefit from the creation of new conceptual categories that better address and describe current and evolving practices of slavery.

Articles could also address the following or other relevant issues, such as:

1. Who has been defining modern slavery? What are the consequences and potential challenges of unclear, disparate and euphemistic terminology, such as “forced labor,” in the creation public policy? Why were scholars uncomfortable using the word “slavery” in the fledging literature of the late 20th century, preferring instead more careful terminology such as “captive labor?” What are the consequences of such definitions and discourses for slaves and trafficked persons?
2. Why do slaves come mainly from the periphery? Even when slave labor occurs in the core, slaves are supplied from the periphery, because upon being trafficked their undocumented status makes them vulnerable to enslavement as opposed to those who enjoy a legal status. What are the structures that promote such a crime on a large scale in the periphery and to a lesser extent in the core? Why are there many more slaves today in the world than those resulting from the Transatlantic Slave Trade in the Americas?
3. Discussion of apparent contradictions and antithetical notions observed in modern slavery, such as the practice of slavery, a non-capitalist relation, in capitalist economies of Latin America, occurring in properties where state-of–the art technology is employed or in areas of mechanized agriculture.
4. Discussion of the gendered nature of slavery, power relations in Latin American culture, the vulnerability of women and children trafficked and enslaved in Latin America or elsewhere. The role of patriarchal conceptions of women as sexual objects and the omnipresence of violence in gender relations of slavery and sexual exploitation. Papers could discuss the link between sexual tourism and forced prostitution as well as the racial and ethnic composition of women enslaved and trafficked in the continent and the gendered nature of slave labor employed in sectors of the economy other than prostitution.
5. Discussion of the productivity and profits made from slave labor in the late 20th and early 21st century in seasonal or more enduring types of slavery, such as forced prostitution. Discussion of the minimal capital costs involved in the recruitment, kidnapping or enticement of prospective slaves. Analysis of how contemporary forms of slavery fit within the framework of neoliberal globalization.
6. The differences and similarities between historical (chattel slavery) and modern forms of slavery practiced in Latin America, such debt bondage, peonage, contract slavery, the truck system or “barracão”.
7. Discussion of the similarities and differences between slavery in Latin America and other parts of the world. A case study would be interesting to contrast a particular type of slavery practiced in Latin America and another type of slavery practiced elsewhere in the periphery, such as people born into debt bondage, forced marriage, and slavery as a result of war or militarized conflict.
8. The enslavement of Latin Americans in North America or other parts of the core. This may include, or be connected to, the networks of moneylenders, labor recruiters, and human smugglers associated with undocumented migration.
9. The role of violence in contemporary slavery.
10. The role of the state, its absence, contributions or perpetuation of slavery and human trafficking or conversely, state presence, public policy and attempts to address these crimes.
11. Historical comparison of slavery in the period starting from the late 19th century until the late 20th century, when slavery was legally abolished and therefore “inexistent,” and slavery occurring today.
12. Discussion of resistance to contemporary forms of slavery, both within societies where the practice occurs and through transnational activist networks
13. A review essay of the current literature on the topic.

SUBMITTING MANUSCRIPTS

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Managing Editor, Latin American Perspectives¸ P.O. Box 5703, Riverside, California 92517-5703
Editor contact information:  Daniela Issa – danielaissa@yahoo.com