COLOMBIA: Sex tourism booming on the Caribbean coast (3rd largest US foreign aid recipient)

[Judi Lynn]

Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

COLOMBIA: Sex tourism booming on the Caribbean coast

CARTAGENA, 18 November 2008 (PlusNews) - On the surface, the historic northern city of Cartagena on Colombia's Caribbean coast is an up-market tourist destination, with cruise boat passengers strolling through the old, walled city's maze of narrow streets as sight-seers duck into air-conditioned boutiques and cafés to escape the tropical heat.

But there is a seedier side to this travel-brochure charm. The backpacker hostels that line a picturesque street just outside the old city are in a notorious red-light district and many of the men dozing on benches in a nearby park are not having a siesta, but waiting to pick up sex workers.

According to Mayerlin Verqara Perez, a programme coordinator at Fundación Renacer, a non-governmental organisation working to prevent the sexual exploitation of children and adolescents, almost every other person on Cartagena's streets after a certain hour at night is connected in some way to the sex trade.

The man in the sleeveless black t-shirt, smoking a cigarette, is a well-known pimp, she says, and the girl in the tight, yellow dress with the European-looking man in shorts are almost certainly a sex worker and her client. Even the group of over-dressed teenagers loitering near the entrance to the old city, are probably selling sex.

"It's become a lot worse in the last 10 years," said Perez. "There are more children doing sex work and they're starting younger."


Read more: http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=81528

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[Night_Nurse]

1. Repug vacation destination, obviously.. nt

[Tempest]

2. Limpballs will be going there next on vacation

With his suitcase full of someone else's Viagra prescription.

[amdezurik]

3. probably, maybe, must be...

sorry that report is not very useful. "Oh teenagers in skimpy dresses WHAT WHORES THEY ARE! OMG!", uh yeah right...try any mall in the world

[Judi Lynn]

6. Spend some time below the surface. The report isn't sanctimonious. n/t

[amdezurik]

9. well, yeah it is, but beyond that

pretty simple to "solve". legalize it and regulate it it. Keeping religion in the mix, as per normal, only makes things worse.

[bitchkitty]

11. Legalize child sex trade? You

obviously did not read the article.

[Judi Lynn]

13. Seems like a bad idea, doesn't it? Oh, well!

http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu.nyud.net:8090/~aparsons/whoami/horrified_sarah.jpg

[bitchkitty]

16. LOL - sometimes all you can do is laugh! n/t

[amdezurik]

14. so many jerks here tonight

legalize prostitution. Simple and it works. Just being a red light district does not equal child sex moran. Go wash off all the sanctimony you splurged all over your keyboard.

[bitchkitty]

15. Nice debating tactic you've got there - name-calling

and attacks.

I repeat, you did not read the article, and it's obvious.

[BREMPRO]

4. curious how conservative governments seem to inspire the child sex trade.

perhaps Uribe is so focussed on the drug war, intimidating union bosses, and getting US military gear for his repressive regime, he's allowed the sex trade to flourish.

[Judi Lynn]

5. Bush's administration has spent more time than you'd expect naming leftist countries as

evil doers who participate in human trafficking, while a notable amount of that activity has been going on right here, in their own country.

It's good to point out whenever possible that with Colombia, _Bush has been pumping in BILLIONS of U.S. taxpayers' hard-earned (slickly handed off) dollars to a government which has direct ties to death squads, suppression of dissent, voter intimidation, massacres of entire villages, torture and slaughter of union workers, and now, even child sex trade workers.

[Oerdin]

7. Prostitution.

I personally wouldn't use a prostitutes serves but I do think it should be legalized and taxed. Not only would it increase revenue but then everything could be kept above board so that the girls can get regular medical checkups, under aged girls could be kept out of the business, and there would be no pimps. Let's face it prohibition hasn't worked so it's time to manage the trade, keep it only in certain designated areas, and keep it above board.

[bitchkitty]

18. Simply legalizing prostitution won't stop child sex trade.

There has to be something more to that plan.

[HooptieWagon]

8. I didn't see it when I was there...

although it was about 12 years ago. What I can say about Cartegena is that it's a beautiful and historic city, a great place to visit, and that the night life doesn't even start to get cranked up until 1 or 2 AM and then blasts until dawn.

[bluesmail]

10. Drugs Sex Rock'n Roll.

[High Plains]

12. If they're not selling sex, they're selling cocaine.

$14 an eight-ball last time I was there, or so I hear, anyway.

It is a beautiful old colonial city with neat forts where they used to try to fend off pirates, but there is, of course, a substantial impoverished population, and lots of them try to make a living off the tourists who arrive. When I went to the beach there once, I was immediately surrounded by people trying to figure out a way to sell me something. In certain districts, at night you can't walk a few yards without being offered coke.

[FedUpWithIt All]

17. I'm so sick of this planet...sigh. n/t

[Nihil]

19. I love this planet ... it's just the humans that spoil it ... (n/t)

:-(