Costa Rica Sex Trade Thrives During Global Recession

The Miami Herald reports that the global recession has boosted Costa Rica's sex trade as more women from countries throughout Latin America travel to the country seeking work. Costa Rica, where the sex trade is legal and government-regulated, continues to be an "international hub for prostitution," it reports.

But the increase in supply has also driven prices down.

But not everyone is happy about the increased competition, which, along with a contracting economy, has required some prostitutes to lower their prices by as much as 40 to 50 percent.

"Business is bad. The problem is competition. Sometimes I don't even make enough to take a taxi home after work,'' said Costa Rican prostitute Mayela, as she lingers by the bar at Key Largo in search of a client.

Across the globe in Southeast Asia, the recession has also led to an increase in the exploitation and trafficking of children as sex workers, IRIN reports.

Commercial sexual exploitation of children is booming in Southeast Asia, with governments failing to do enough to protect young people, experts say.

"The recent economic downturn is set to drive more vulnerable children and young people to be exploited by the global sex trade," Carmen Madrinan, executive director of End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual purposes (ECPAT), said.

Comments

[joeyfoto]

Why hasn't anyone commented on the competition in Manhattan since the layoffs... no pun intended, but since the massive corporate down-sizing prostitutes in NYC are complaining about the entry into the trade of new competition. Some people want to act as if the laws of economics are suspended by their moralizing preoccupations. Any society with the capacity to reason would legalize the personal business of prostitution and enforce in the most serious manner possible the abuse of women by kidnappers, thugs and pimps. How can people continue to act as if the making of that distinction is not possible? Or, is it somehow easier for us to employ armed clergymen to abuse and incarcerate prostitutes? We act as if we are so superior to the Taliban, while we remain brothers under the skin.

[tbirdalum]

I noticed that they said that competition had driven prices down at least 40 to 50 %. Seems like this would work pretty well for the healthcare debate doesn't it? Then competition might drive down prices. You can bet your booty on that. Lets get it going. NOW, NOT 2013.

[Mnemanth]

No no, silly rabbit. Competition for HEALTHCARE will only exascerbate the problem. Don't you watch television? The television told me so!

[outnow]

The Costa Rican women are naturally friendly. Many are quite beautiful. I predicted that women in general would free the economic downturn and take steps to become more financially secure. Young women are hard hit economically.

I went to Costa Rica 15 years ago. The women were very friendly then. Cuban and Brazil have been scenes for entertainment for many years. I'm from Nevada so nothing surprizes me.

It is too bad that times are tough but in 1840, the streets of London were filled with street walkers. Why is this a difficult concept for people? Human nature has not changed.

[bismillah001]

Are you suggesting that the commodification, trafficking and sale of human beings is "human nature"?

[Mnemanth]

Yes, yes, trafficing of people.
Like drugs, once legalized, and overseen by government, there's no more "trafficing". Generally, only by keeping anything illicit do we realize crime, corruption, and abuse.

Psst... a little secret. There a lot of these "victims" who're professional and self managed. Just like here in the good old USA. I'm sure your intentions are good, and I'm sure there's a lot of ugliness going on in this particular culture, but it's no different from the government, police, schools, military, and even your Sunday morning worship group.

[Omegaomni]

Oh you mean WORK? Oh Capitalism? wait, did you have a point?

[Whitley2009]

Jeez, we Democrats don't have any problems in getting se.x.

It's those an.ally repressed, ultra-right wing Re.thugs who crave se.x with a skilled ho. Consider the s.ex drives of the average Rethug wife. And, it's hard to have sex with a Rethug wife when you go to b.ed with your three-piece suit, lace up wing-tip shoes, and metal american flag on your lapel. Most Rethug men do this because the have a fear of lu.st in their hearts. So, it's off to Costa Rica or Honduras or Nevada for a quicky with a ho.

When Sean Hannity was interviewing a legal ho and her manager from Las Vegas a few years ago, he was cocksure and confident that he could one up the Democrats. He asked the ho whether the liberal or conservative men were the kinkiest? She replied that the ultra-right wingers were the kinkiest of their customers at the ho-houses in Vegas. He almost choked.

Now that the word is out about Costa Rica, don't be surprised if you see a line of Rethugs at the travel agencies for tickets.

[bismillah001]

Can we move past these tired cliches about republicans and democrats? The more you dehumanize and homogenize another group of people, the more violently reactionary many of them will become. When will the west learn that? At least our president has a grip of this principle.

[Omegaomni]

Grip? more troops in Afghanistan? Permanent force is Iraq? Lies: like no signing statements? Guantanamo? No lobbyists? He has continued every Bush Era policy and then some. What Obama gripping is our Money.

[Paulo1]

Horridly written piece.

Legal prostitution exists in Nevada among many other places in the world and women who engage in this activity do so for a variety of reasons. That the writer conflates it with economics is an interesting but hardly novel twist.

However leaping from legal prostitution to child sex is a not so subtle way to equate the two which is NOT the truth and if the writer wished to do a piece on that horrible exploitation they should have done so separately.

This writer should have their one course in journalism revoked.

[bismillah001]

I would disagree. What connects prostitution to human exploitation (e.g. trafficking, exploitation of children etc.) is the global market's very nature, which dehumanizes people by seeing them in terms of commodities only. Just look at the situation in Eastern Europe that developed since the breakup of the USSR... truly scary. But hey, that's the 'invisible hand' of the market for you...

[KIVPossum]

Thankfully our sex trade is waning. Six or eight years ago you to the airport and be assured half the Brits or Germans hailing taxis were in town for a sex tour. Many other women were victimized and taken to other countries to feed the brothel labor demand. Now there are enough jobs the girls don't have to enter the trade unless they want to - they don't have to be prostitutes to buy food for their kids. And with the lower demand for sex workers in western Europe, many girls are returning home.

A big issue for us now is trying to get the repatriated women back into society. They come back psychologically scared and 3-4 years missing from their resume. That makes it impossible for them to find work or housing. My wife works with one of several semi-underground groups that helps them create an honorable background for those missing years.

[duxguts]

We had a pretty good sex trade going on in Cuba until those darn communists came along.

[yankees]

I wonder if ACORN has an office down there since they are into child prostitution.

[Palemoon]

Speaking of child prostitution, didn't that involve the Bush family?

[ChangeurMind]

maybe the contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan can go there and get much more for their $1.

[armadillo]

How does it feel to be manipulated by the dark side?

[JiminNC]

Looking for a job in a country without extradition are we?

[ObamAtomic]

The last information,members of your party are flocking the country.(R­)

[ObamaFan02]

If a woman has the right to abort and destroy a human life, it should be legal to prostitute oneself out. It is all about having the right to control one's body, right?

[amipoetry]

I agree...pr­ostitution should be legalized, taxed and regulated. One should have complete control over the se%ual and reproductive aspects of their bodies....­but I'm sure that's not exactly where you're coming from or why you posted this considering you think abortion is murder.

[duxguts]

In Hong Kong, young girls don't call it prostitution. They call it enhanced dating.
Enhanced interrogation, enhanced dating. A rose by any other name.

[biglith]

Remember Limbaugh being busted in Customs of having Viagra without a prescription? He had just gotten back from Costa Rica. Hmmmm?

[Elbrando]

No he came back from Honduras. Which is known for its underage prostitution.

[ObamaFan02]

Not Rush but maybe Roman Polanski?

[Palemoon]

I thought it was Puerto Rico, the US based human trafficking colony of ours.

[tploomis]

Rush was coming back from the Dominican Republic when he was arrested for having viagra without a prescription.

[StopMakingSense2]

People sell them selves in many ways every day. Are you in a job you hate? Because this involves sex it is different? Why? Do you get excited by the coal miners who die doing their job or years later of lung disease? Is that exploitation better somehow? Often sex is purchased with a few drinks and faked interest down at the local bar. As long as sex workers male or female of legal age do what they do of free will then it's nobodies business. Prostitution has always been with us and likely always will. In Costa Rica prostitution is legal but pimping isn't. The sex workers work for them selves no one makes them do it. I have been there but since I'm happily married did not take up any of the numerous opportunities. This is like the drug war, long since lost..

[SteveDenver]

Ever watch an episode of The Real Housewives on Bravo? Prostitutes, every one of 'em.

[Palemoon]

You know, I will have to go out of my way to agree with you on that! LOL, even a Best Post Ever from me too! I see so many, especially women, throwing themselves at someone simply because the person has money, fame or power. In effect, selling themselves to that person. A paid concubine I guess.

[gbee]

No, those are HOES - there IS a difference!

[armadillo]

Have you ever seen more disfunctional people in one location. Real Housewives is a sign the apocalypse is coming.

[Tyler-Durden]

one of the greatest tools in the elitist tool box is DESPERATION. once people are desperate, you got 'em by the cojones.

(THE greatest tool is FEAR)

[Hdaryl01]

Or, "tatas" in this case.....

[davidwayneosedach]

Americans do not have to go to Costa Rica. We have legal sex here in Nevada - which considering air fare to Costa Rica is a lot cheaper.

[SolarPowerGuy]

Ummm, we have legal sex everywhere in America -- just not the kind you can pay for.

[hidenout]

Ahh, but the ladies down south are latin, not the bleached blond, silicon laden, fakes you have in Vegas.

Big difference.

[SteveDenver]

And it's COSTA RICA, not the desert. Vegas sucks.

[chavo]

They don't have the Hispanic booty in Nevada.

[Khirad]

Irony, I assume. ;-)

[pipetoe]

really degrading comment.

[avvocato]

Play for pay is also legal in the great white north - Canada. No pimping however.

[Palemoon]

I dispute that. For what it would cost for Vegas airfare alone you could shack up for a few months with one in Costa Rica. Remember, this is Costa Rica where minimum wage for a DOCTORATE DEGREE is only $4.15!!

[hidenout]

Cuba even more so...Thank­s Fidel!!

[tuberider]

Americans have always preferred to do their dirty work in someone else's neighborhood. Nothing has changed in "Gringo Gulch" except there are more desperate women in the world, Costa Rica is a great country and the Gringos are cutting their salaries 40 to 50 %. What's news is Costa Rica just sent an ex-president to jail for 5 years. They actually believe in a thing called "accountability".

[JiminNC]

So, Americans and only Americans are doing this?

[ObamAtomic]

Peru ex-president 20 years plus incarcerat­ed,Fujimor­i.

[robbyJ]

They believe in accountability enough to legalize the sex trade, and elect a president but send him to jail.

Your argument doesn't jive dude

[Hdaryl01]

It's happening everywhere. Supply is up. Demand is constant or down. Prices have dropped. Service offerings and perks have expanded. Basic economics.

Been to a Marriott of Hilton lately in middle America? In the last three weeks I have been to such hotels in Denver, Kansas City, St. Louis, Des Moines, Omaha, Fargo, Sioux Falls, Minneapolis, Madison, Milwaukee, Chicago, and the Quad Cities. Notice the number of attractive professional age women (late 20's to early 40's-to blend in) that will uncharacte­ristically not only engage, but welcome your glance? Completely incongruent with the typical icy response a mid 40's male normally receives for such a glance. What precisely do you think they are doing? You don't have to go to Costa Rica to find women that have elected to work in prostitution. You need merely go to Omaha.

Unfortunately, Costa Rica, like the vast majority of the countries on the planet, has the civilized common sense to legalize and regulate the profession to make it as safe as possible for all participants, while the puritan United States still criminalizes it, doesn't regulate it, and creates and maintains a very uncivilized and unsafe environment for all participants.

It's time the United States protects its participants in this activity that will not go away, and is happening everywhere by legalizing it, regulating it, and taxing it.

[Tyler-Durden]

sad but true!

[Caliwoman]

Wow ,so my friends and I on a business trip can't check out the male booty in the bar lounge or we are prostitutes? I thought we were architects, advisors, doctors, business owners, travelling for legit business, but no I guess we're hookers and didn't know it because we cant be 30 something, attractive, and on a business trip ourselves. What BS!

[Hdaryl01]

You miss the point hair trigger. And, you are the wrong gender to understand the dynamic.

1) You and your American yuppie female friends, sitting together, checking out male booty in a hotel bar would never be mistaken for prostitutes. First, prostitutes typically sit by themselves which draws attention to them, and makes them approachable. Second, even the most unobtrusive glance by any "non-booty" male in your direction would invariably be met with the iciest of icy indignant return eye contact, and absolutely no smile.. Third, you and your compadres wouldn't look at, or attempt to visually engage any non-booty male.

2) Obviously, notwithstanding your extensive travel experience, you remain completely oblivious to the service offerings being plied, and transactions being consumated in your very midst. This is precisely the way it is supposed to work. You're right, it doesn't and can't REALLY happen in the Marriott in OMAHA....e­xcept, it happened to me last week....

3) You, being female, have in all likelihood never plopped open your laptop, and had a conversation initiated by a female reading and sitting on the couch across from you in the lounge, which ultimately leads to "would you like some company...­", or other variation on the same theme.

The point of my post, if you can read it with a modicum of objectivity, is merely that as a 40ish male, I have experienced the same exact trend discussed in the article with increasing frequency in the US on my travels.