Searching for South America: Secret Agents, Police Officers and Pimps in the League of Nations in the 1920s

Abstract

This article examines the cultural encounters among League of Nations’ special agents and official authorities of Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro in the first international investigation on traffic of women. Marked by cultural distances, such encounters resulted in the emergence of an idea of “South America” as a specific region in a broader moral geography. Although they sought to create the conditions for international collaborative initiatives, the League of Nations’ agents did not recognize the local meanings of anti-traffic legislation and its utility for the same police forces they reputed inefficient.

Keywords

• Prostitution
• Traffic of women
• South America
• League of Nations