unknown in Caracas. Just a Colombian thing. (Except when the bellhop at the Caracas Hilton unsolicitedly offered to get me any of the above-mentioned, at 2 in the A.M.).

the UN is doing a report on Venezuela. And when it does it won't be for something as reporting the obvious: that a large metropolis has sex and drugs available for those sectors of the population who seek to purchase them.

in order to have a really good time. So many people handle their private lives without becoming evil, an embarrassing reality, apparently, to those degenerates who would even consider buggering little people under the age of conscious, legal consent.

From the article, brought back by popular demand:

The report examined the relationship between regular tourist services, such as those provided by hotel operators and taxi drivers, and the demand for illicit activities, including drug consumption and sex commerce in relation to the human trafficking of children and adolescents in the city of Medellin.

According to the investigation, many of those seeking drugs were more likely to purchase sex as well, as sex-purchasers were more likely to find drugs. The report argued that the “informality” of the “sexual service” industry in Medellin lent itself to connections with illicit drug markets and human trafficking of children and adolescents.

all uncommon for the poorest of the poor to exploit their children by using them for sex for money so I'm not sure why Colombia has been singled out for such an 'investigation'. This reprehensible activity has flourished for many years in Vietnam and Thailand where the child sex tourism industry is infamous. Perhaps the most blatant example of this in our hemisphere is not Colombia but Cuba with the jineteros (child prostitutes).

Colombia actually has very strict laws carrying heavy prison penalties against this which are enforced but, as in many other countries the resources available to effectively combat child sexual exploitation are extremely limited. In Colombia this is due in no small part to the enormous drain on the economy resulting from trying to protect the populace from criminal enterprises like the FARC.

I don't know if the UN report discussed the issue in other countries but it could have been. Nothing new here. And that particular poster doesn't like the Colombian government or the US support for the country so she posts articles that reflect negatively on the country. She prefers dictatorships like in Cuba or the wannabe dictator in Venezuela.




http://www.ultimasnoticias.com.ve/getattachment/71f42beb-bd55-446b-bb1c-98d72817e95d/.aspx

Happy ladies from Venezuela.

Listen Up, McClatchy
The most-honored Spanish newspaper in the United States is ethically challenged
By Chuck Strouse
Article Published Jul 27, 2006

[center]
[font size=1]
Clues to Deception: In the doorway in the background, there is a sharp variation in light between
the right and left sides; note the difference in perspective between the police officers and
prostitutes; the police officers cast shadows -- the prostitutes don't[/font] [/center]

A striking, five-column color photo was splashed across the Sunday, June 25 edition of El Nuevo Herald. It showed four spandex-clad prostitutes in Cuba hailing a foreign tourist. Just a few feet away, two policemen conversed with a little girl and a woman. The headline: "Hookers: The Sad Meat of the American Dollar."

The cops obviously didn't care about the working girls — a clear sign of the hypocritically wanton ways of Fidel Castro's Cuba.

Problem is, the picture was a fake. Indeed it was just the kind of manipulated combination of two images that prompted the Los Angeles Times to fire staff photographer Brian Walski in 2003. Walski, you may recall, altered two photos of an American soldier to make them appear as one, more dramatic image. Several papers unknowingly published the combo on their front pages, and Thom McGuire, a Hartford Courant assistant managing editor, said the incident made him "sick to my stomach."

El Nuevo's sin was worse. Its image — on page 27A — appeared with the caption "The government has proven incapable of confronting the dramatic phenomenon of prostitution" and a story about a book on Cuba's working girls by author Amir Valle.

More:
http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2006-07-27/news/listen-up-mcclatchy/

not based on any McClatchy (or any other) newspaper source, but on my own observation when my wife and I were in Cuba. We had more than ample opportunities to see wealthy (at least $ possessing) men wining and dining young Cuban girls in foreign exchange restaurants, some apparently as young as 13. But, I'm probably being unfair. I'm sure that these nice men were really from some Christian Group named 'Save the young girls for mr' and were just making sure that these children received adequate nutrition for the day. God forbid that there could actually be such a thing as child prostitution in a socialist paradise like Cuba.

Why is that something which has never been reported by other people who've been there?

We've had so many posters at DU who've been there, some of them many, many times, and not one of those people has EVER mentioned state-sanctioned child prostitution, or even covert, sly, slimy, sneaky child prostitution.

Maybe that's because they, including DU women posters, were all there themselves taking advantage of the innocent children. Or maybe NOT.

Never even saw that in the lowest down, dirtiest discussions at the old CNN US-Cuba Relations message board, before it was closed, and it was completely infested with Miami "exiles" who were on the board 24/7, fighting as if there were no tomorrow. Even they didn't try that leap into fantasy.

[center][/center]

Here's a helpful excerpt from a thread which ran earlier this year:

http://cuba-l.unm.edu/?nid=22258


Cuba to seize private property linked to drug trafficking or use

Story Filed: Wednesday, February 19, 2003 5:27 PM EST

Havana, Feb 19, 2003 (EFE via COMTEX) -- Cuban authorities will confiscate
the property of anyone involved in the traffic or consumption of illegal
drugs or linked to irregularities or corruption, the government said in a
decree published in the state-run newspaper on Wednesday.

Official Cuban newspaper Granma announced, "The confiscation of all those
residences or buildings in which drugs are produced, trafficked, acquired,
stored, consumed, hidden or are linked in any way, directly or indirectly,
to drugs,"

Earlier this year, the government launched a national campaign to combat
the consumption and traffic of illegal drugs on the island, after a surge
of drug-related complaints led to police operations, raids and arrests.

A spokesman for the prosecutor's office said the government will also
confiscate the property of anyone linked to corruption, prostitution,
procurement, pornography, people trafficking, corruption of minors or any
such crime.

This punitive measure will also apply to property owners who rent out a
residence or local without submitting the proper documentation to the
official registry or, after having registered, fail to notify authorities
of the presence of tenants.

you choose to believe it or not, I can testify to what I personally saw on many - repeat many occasions. I don't know if it has 'never been reported' as you so categorically assert - I assume it probably has been but, in any case that's irrelevant. Underage prostitution - driven almost entirely by foreign visitors with hard currency - is very prevalent in Cuba today. And it's not at all undercover or covert. As I mentioned, you just need to frequent restaurants/bars which cater to the foreign visitor and you will find many examples of slimy American (or Canadian or German) older men with their new, teenage temporary conquests. The authorities turn a blind eye to it, much as they do to other transactions (like private restaurants - also deemed "illegal&quot which bring in much needed hard currency. You really should try to not let your zealotry for regimes like Cuba's lead you into blind disbelief/denial of some very unsavory facts about the present regime.