She is the Founder and Executive Secretary of AMMAR, the Argentinean Association of Female Sex Workers. Its major achievements have been an establishment of the syndicate, which gives the sex workers the status of workers. She is also an executive secretary of the Redtrasex, a network of female sex workers of Latin America and the Caribbean and a consultant on many international bodies.

‘We don’t want to sew, we don’t want to knit, we don’t want to cook. We want better work conditions. We want sex work to be recognized as ‘work’. We want to be free to do, free to make mistakes and free to learn. Free to decide what we, as sex workers, need. Free from repression – this is the best way to build an effective response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Sex workers are not the problem; we are part of the solution’ – these words by Elena were followed by a standing ovation of some 10,000 participants at the plenary, many of whom cried.