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On going opinions from letters to the editor in AM Costa Rica
Dear A.M. Costa Rica:
Prostitution in Costa Rica is legal, and many establishments follow the letter of the law by renting rooms to visitors in a legitimate hotel while letting local women of legal age to enter and remain.
These hotels have no overt financial interest in any negotiated services outside of their own hotel, bar, restaurant and casino businesses.
Several “brothels†or “massage parlors†have been ignoring these same laws by having a financial interest in the prostitution, and the media attention has brought about some heat.
As you read, “no arrests were made†and television cameras were present — leading me to believe this was a publicity based police operation. If these brothels were to remain permanently closed, Costa Rica would definitely cut down on their "per seat" tourism revenue (i.e: each airplane seat occupied by a single middle-aged white male).
This is the Big Money tourism dollars as these types of visitors drop a couple thousand dollars in a week without using any of Costa Rica’s natural resources.
Moral arguments aside, these businesses put women to work in a structured and secure environment where their relatively high paying jobs end-up pumping cash into the local economy — benefiting all Costa Ricans.
Bottom line: Costa Rica knows adult services are good for the economy, and there are much larger criminal problems in need of Costa Rica’s limited law enforcement resources.
The brothels will reopen and conduct business as usual — perhaps with some changes to their operational structure, which may in fact be needed to ensure the workers are being paid appropriately.
Bill Clanton
Dear A.M. Costa Rica:
I am an American who has lived in Costa Rica for four years but has been coming here since 1971. Costa Rica is shooting themselves in the foot daily, firstly with closing massage parlors, and brothels. There is a fantastic amount of money that the sex tourist spends, and Costa Rica enjoys a friendly reputation for this.
The sex business is mainly located in the Zona Rosa district of San Jose and is as peaceful as any place of this nature in the world. This revenue will end. Costa Ricans should not be so offended as sex and fidelity are not to sacred in any socio-economic class for men or women here.
Secondly closing gambling 50 percent of the day will deterate further outside revenue. Has anybody told the government how gambling casinos work, on events i.e. how many times the slot is pulled, how many deals, or how many throws or spins, close the casinos 50 percent of the time and immediately 50 percent of the employees loose their jobs and with not enough events the casinos go broke and close.
Thirdly with the corruption, no standards, no enforcement, and lack of infrastructure planning, the oceans, the rivers, the streams, the rain forest, and the cities are all becoming polluted. My friends from the U.S., singles and couples, are looking for other places to go some to Panamá and some to Colombia as well as other places. Fourthly Costa Rica has become very expensive to eat, hotel, and travel in, which is also putting them out of the tourist market.
So Costa Rica is running sex tourism, gambling tourism, and eco tourism off, so what else is there? Costa Ricans better take a close look at where there revenue comes from and decide if they can do without tourism, as they have not much else but fruit and lite manufacturing to export and receive revenue from. It is hard to stand on one foot when the other is not available.\
John D. Norwood
Woman's point of view:
You're scum of the earth
Dear A.M. Costa Rica:
In response to letters from Norwood and Clanton, and I intentionally did not use "Mr." in addressing these men:
A few questions for these "visitors" to said establishments. If this is such a profitable business, then why don't you keep those resources in the U.S.? Could be it's illegal here? Do you really think this business isn't hurting anyone? How about the women themselves, who evidently have no self worth?
Do you think this is truly an occupation one aspires to? Have you a sister? Or what about your own mother? Why not bring them on down, set them up with their own little stall, e-mail photos back home for the rest of the family to view how business is flourishing? You're the scum of the earth, and it's men like you that I cringe at whenever I walk down the streets of San José, or sit in a restaurant and and hear your broken Spanish as you proposition some young woman, too naive or stupid to understand the snide, disgusting remarks you and your buddies mumble under your breath as your plan your evening with these women.
I'm sure no respectable woman would touch you with a 10-foot pole, which is perhaps why you advocate so intensely for these brothels. Prostitution may be the oldest profession in the world, but that doesn't make any more respectable.
Katie Mullins-Hall
Cincinnati, Ohio
Puerto Limón, Costa Rica
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or maybe have to sit through a dinner with her 
