Costa Rican prosecutors have charged Paniagua with “proxenetismo”, which translates roughly to “pimping” or more technically earning income from the prostitution of other persons.
While prostitution is not illegal in Costa Rica it is illegal to be a pimp.
The club owners will almost certainly assert they are simply selling drinks and motel rooms by the hour, and have no direct involvement in prostitution.
This defense normally works, and when the OIJ attempted to Close New Fantasy Spa in 2007 it ultimately failed to send anyone to jail or close any of the businesses for very long.
The report in La Nacion suggested that the OIJ had conducted a complex investigation of activity at Las Margaritas, and had on multiple occasions collected sufficient evidence during undercover visits to the club.
It’s unclear at this point if the three month impediment baring Paniagua from runing the business will actually close the night club. There was no mention in the news report of action on the part of the municipality, and while the OIJ closed the businesses to collect evidence there doesn’t seem to be anything apart from the possible need to make management changes that would keep the club closed.
Perhaps the recent police crackdown is related in part to the Election of Laua Chinchilla as the new president of Costa Rica. During her campagin she promised to take a stand against the sex industry.
Of course the challenge she is facing is that there is no law in Costa Rica to explicitly prohibit prostitution. Some might suggest the best she can hope for is to close the various strip clubs, masage parlors, and cheap motels that function as Defacto Brothels.
This post is actually from Feb 12, 2010. It was moved here recently so sorry for the email update.
ReplyDeleteFor the sake of media accuracy, I am not aware of any stated position by Laura Chinchilla related to: "During her campaign she promised to take a stand against the sex industry." Of course I many have missed something however I did follow her campaign closely and collected material from her campaign and also reviewed her campaign website.
ReplyDeleteFor some time what I refer to as "Urban myths" have been floating around in reference to an answer then Vice President Chinchilla made more than two years ago in response to a question from a news reporter about her position related to reducing hours of casinos. VP Chinchilla was quoted at that time as saying that she favored reducing casino hours because of concerns about gambling addictions and the presence of prostitutes in casinos.
While it can be argued whether there are really many prostitutes working out of casinos or not; it appears to me as her one response on this is all that I am aware of her publicly speaking about the issue of prostitution.
I am aware that some "gringo media" picked up on her comment and have suggested that she would attempt to reduce or abolish prostitution in Costa Rica.
Perhaps she may attempt to do this.
However, in all fairness to the President-elect I am not aware of any position/s she has taken related to prostitution as either a candidate for President of Costa Rica or as the President-elect.
If I am mistaken I will be glad to apologize.