Costa Rica Reporters Target Brothel

Investigative Reporting on the part of Rodolfo Gonzalez of Telenoticas prompted a series of police raids on sex businesses in the Barrio Amon section of San Jose.

Two adjacent venues known by various names includes Pension Flamingo, 70E, "The Dungeon", "Black Door" and Chica Dorada were the first targeted. The approach was simple, first an undercover reporter with a hidden camera chatted up some girls in each location, and he was followed by an official reporter with news cameras to make commentary.

The Setup

Pregnant Prostitute: Where is It?

Reporter: Escazu

Pregnant Prostitute: When?

Reporter: Could be Saturday

Pregnant Prostitute: What time?

Reporter: Could be at 8pm

Pregnant Prostitute: Sure, nothing more than pay the exit charge for the girls. How many do you need, two?

Reporter: Yes to take them out all night to party.

Pregnant Prostitute: 60,000 [c60,000 = $115]

Confrontation

Reporter: We showed you how places like this operated on Wednesday, el dungeon and chica dorado.

Reporter: So, one can bring their friends and make a party here.

Prostitute: Yes, just pick the girl.

Reporter: So, how does this work by the hour?

Prostitute: Yes, c10,000 [$19]

While Prostitution is Not Illegal in Costa Rica the business of being a pimp is against the law. The problem with this deal is that the reporter is not talking to the girls directly, and instead dealing with an intermediary. Further, there is talk of a "salida" or exit change, meaning some sort of fee that would be paid to the business for allowing the girls to leave.

One can be sure that based on this video the highly effective and efficient Machinery of Justice in Costa Rica is doing a crack investigation.

Closing

Although city police closed both 70E and Chica Dorada it soon became apparent that the legal basis consisted of violations of the health and safety codes. Prostitution is not actually illegal in Costa Rica, so police and news reporters are powerless to do anything of any lasting effect.

70E required extensive repairs and was closed for several months while Chica Dorada opened again in a few weeks. Eventually 70E opened again under the name of Jet Set, and Chica Dorada changed its name to Pension Flamingo. Both businsses are currently open in San Jose, Costa Rica and the average price of sex with a prostitute in either place is about $25.