The myth of the sex cult of the Argentinian yoga school

America is not alone in suffering moral panic over sex trafficking, as an Argentine case against a self-help center called Buenos Aires Yoga School (BAYS) suggests. Prosecutors are putting the school's founder, 85-year-old Juan Percowicz, and a number of its members on trial, alleging the school was actually a cult engaged in brainwashing and sex trafficking.

Authorities raided the group's headquarters and the homes of 50 members two summers ago, accusing the group of being a front for an international sex slavery ring. Seventeen people, including Percowicz, were arrested and imprisoned on suspicion of human trafficking for sexual exploitation and money laundering.

This was not the first time the Buenos Aires yoga school faced criminal allegations; a similar case was brought in the 1990s. But after an intense investigation that involved searches and wiretapping — which human rights groups called violations of civil liberties and some blamed on anti-Semitism – this previous case was dismissed without any convictions.

And it appears the new case could meet a similar fate. Last week, Argentina's Court of Cassation – the country's highest criminal court – upheld a lower court's ruling last December that the case would not be elevated to trial.

I don't pretend to have any particular insight into what's going on with BAYS. But in light of a recent New York Times article leaning heavily on the prosecutors' arguments, I think it's worth discussing here some of the evidence that challenges the official narrative and highlighting how the case mirrors many of the “sex trafficking arrests” that we have seen in the United States.

“Human trafficking without trafficking victims”

“Cults exist here, but we have never seen one that operated at this level,” Ricardo Juri, the investigator who oversaw the 2022 raids, told the newspaper. Times.

“Prosecutors say the organization exploited and drugged some of its female members, forcing them to sell their bodies and generating hundreds of thousands of dollars a month from clients in Argentina and the United States,” the newspaper reports.

Times Writer Ana Lankes suggests that the problem with the previous case was that “Argentina did not yet have laws on human trafficking or money laundering” and that “the country's justice system was still in course of overhaul after the end of the military dictatorship” – or at least that is what is happening. what prosecutors are arguing today. According to the authorities, these are bad guys who previously escaped but are finally brought to justice.

The government says at least seven women were forced into prostitution by BAYS. “But the women involved in this case denied having sex for money or being victims of any crime,” Lankes said.

“This is a case of human trafficking without victims of trafficking,” Percowicz’s lawyer, Jorge Daniel Pirozzo, said on television. Times.

Red walls = Damn?

An article published last year in The CESNUR Review (the Center for the Study of New Religions) questions the government's account of BAYS and details questionable tactics used in investigations into it. The article titled “The Great Cult Alert in Argentina and the Buenos Aires Yoga School” by Italian sociologist Massimo Introvigne – examines both the 2022 raids and the earlier case against BAYS.

During the 2022 searches, “a man was badly beaten by police for no reason (it later turned out they had mistaken him for someone else)”, and doors were broken down then that the inhabitants proposed to open them, writes Introvigne. “In total, twenty people were arrested and arrest warrants were issued for eight others.”

But police found little evidence of the alleged international prostitution ring they were searching for or an alleged sex museum linked to the group.

In the apartment of a “known musician”, where they were told that this “sex museum” existed, “they only found a small painting representing three naked people united in an embrace”, notes Introvigne. “They noted an abundance of red color in the decoration of the apartment, and noted in their notes that it was reminiscent of a brothel.”

As in many American “sex trafficking” cases, the whole thing turned into a big spectacle for the media:

The painting was duly displayed to the media, along with old, ruined commercial pornographic VHS videos found elsewhere in the building. Residents said they were part of the inventory of a nearby store that had been flooded by water. They had purchased the entire inventory to help the owner, who was their friend, and had forgotten about the mostly non-pornographic videos stored somewhere in the building – and who in 2022 would be watching pornographic VHS tapes from the 1980s of anyway.

In March 2023, “all the detainees were also released by an appeals court after almost three months spent in prison, in conditions they describe as horrible”, according to the CESNUR newspaper.

An all too familiar story

Was BAYS a cult? Some former members or members' families report strange antics, including extreme respect for the group leader, members participating in orgies, and forcing new members to do housework for established members. But even if such statements are true (and I have no idea), it doesn't necessarily mean there was anything illegal or exploitative going on. One person's “worship” may be another's spiritual salvation, life coaching service, or evil activity.

The BAYS situation reminds me a bit of the US lawsuit against members of the self-help group NXIVM, a prosecution that included charges against actress Allison Mack. Prosecutors broke the case in spectacular and sensational fashion, calling NXIVM a sex cult guilty of human trafficking. But the reality of the case was much more nuanced (and interesting) and had nothing to do with the story that initially made headlines. There was certainly evidence that the leader of NXIVM might have been cruel, manipulative, and selfish, and there were indications that he had begun a relationship with someone when she was under 18 years old. And there were women unhappy with the way the group's secret side group, DOS, operated. …as well as many women who still defend him today. But whatever was going on, it wasn't the simplistic black-and-white narrative presented by prosecutors, and it clearly implied that authorities were trying to pin down a range of behavior — some potentially illegal, some entirely illegal. simply unsavory, and others that seemed simply strange to the authorities. many people – in a fashionable criminal category. These days, a surefire way to draw attention to a case is to label it sex trafficking or human trafficking.

The BAYS situation is also reminiscent of many more discreet American “sex trafficking stings,” carried out in massage parlors or during boondoggles like “Operation Cross Country” and their ilk. As part of these attacks, adult sex workers are often portrayed in the media as “victims,” even though none of them actually report being victims.

In the BAYS raids, none of the female “victims” reported being trafficked, and none reported selling sex for money (which is largely legal in Argentina). But according to Argentina's anti-trafficking law, “if a trafficked prostitute denies being a prostitute… this constitutes further proof that she is a victim of trafficking and that someone is abusing her vulnerability,” according to the CESNUR article .

“It is expressly mentioned that the lack of legal relevance of the consent of the [alleged victim]”If in a particular case the public prosecutor's offices detect an activity that they qualify as a form of “prostitution”, even if it is carried out by adult and autonomous people, they will be objectively considered as victims and those who make the possible activity or benefit from it in any way, even occasionally, will be liable to prosecution.

Coming in the case of yoga school

The case against Percowicz and the other remaining defendants “is currently pending in court. No trial date has yet been set,” the court said. Times reports.

And no trial can take place. THE Times This article was published around the same time that Argentina's highest criminal court upheld a lower court ruling rejecting the government's request that the case go to trial.

“This is not the end of the case since it is up to the trial judge, but it is clearly a setback for the prosecutors,” write Introvigne (author of the CESNUR article) and Maria Varde in the Religious Liberty and Human Rights magazine. A bitter winter.

Introvigne and Varde also call the Times piece “a sensationalist attack” which repeats the arguments of the prosecutors.

They note that “the main reason the trial was canceled is that it ignored the opinion of independent experts, including those from the Supreme Court's forensic corps, who reviewed the case.” [women prosecutors say are victims] and concluded that they were psychologically normal and credible.” The court did not find convincing the prosecutors' assertion that the women had been brainwashed to deny their victim status – a narrative that US authorities use also conveniently to ward off sex workers or others who I have considered victims denying that they were actually being trafficked.

Introvigne notes that brainwashing theories of this type have generally been debunked, but “there is an international lobby made up of so-called anti-human trafficking agencies, no less powerful in the United States than in Argentina.” , who wants to bring them back into fashion. .

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