www.CostaRicaTicas.com

Page 3 of today's www.amcostarica.com ( someone provide the page 3 direct link since I am too dumb to do it) has a story about the upcoming trial of the owner of a low end MP in S.J. An interesting comment about how they treat the low-end places differently than the fancy ones.

It is from 2005 charges, Lol swift justice

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BKTUNA/Boyd
I am never going home

Looks to me like another editorial comment disguised as news reporting from AM Cost Rica. Translation: Garland Baker and friends would like some criminal charges filed against HLH.

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It's faster horses, younger women, older whiskey, and more money--Tom T. Hall
No man is a failure who is enjoying life--William Faulkner

While I agree that AM is prejudice concerning sex tourism I think the reporting in this case is factual. Most of the high end MP that have been raided are closed for some sort of civil violation while the lower end MP's are more frequently charged with criminal offenses.

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Pura Vida
Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four
essential food groups:
alcohol, caffeine, sugar and fat.
Alex Levine

ET: The writer may have a bias, but the article is mostly factual.

The writer also goes out of his way to say that it is infrequent for und***ge prostitutes to be found working in MPs. As responsible mongers, we would prefer that there are never any inappropriate chicas working at the MPs in Costa Rica which is in all of our best interests, although sometimes they manage to do so.

As most anti-sex crusaders often do, the writer could have lumped together legal adult prostitution along with illegal (as it should be) und***ge prostitution.

Most of us understand that the MPs are technically on the wrong side of the pimping law when they try to control the chicas personal lives (can't have sex outside of the MP) or treat them like employees (must work 6 days every week including that time of month). Personally I think that the MP owners ought to be found guilty of pimping if they are doing these things.

Of course this is Costa Rica and laws are applied even more haphazardly than here in the U.S.

As for which level of MP is targeted, I assume that ID is correct since I am not aware of any of the high end MPs remaining closed for pimping. I recall that when the HLH was raided several months ago, Isabel and another person were reportedly arrested for pimping. I do not know whether they were actually charged. Maybe we'll find out in 5 years

It is interesting that money for seeing the chicas in the HLH is now supposedly paid to the bartenders. I hope that Daisy and the others received raises from management for assuming the risk of being arrested during the next raid.

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"All them women gonna make me,
teach 'em what they don't know how..." TMIB

This is the article:

Woman faces pimping trial stemming from 2005 arrest
By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

A woman is going on trial Tuesday after a 2005 arrest for managing a prostitution establishment in a low-rent district of San José.

The location is in the same area where a prostitution raid took place in April, but the alleged owner of the operation was out of the country.

The woman who is going to trial has the last names of Araya Barboza. She was detained July 20, 2005, after an undercover investigator negotiated a deal at what was then a beauty parlor, said the Poder Judicial.

The raid last April involved a bar in the area, which agents said was a front for prostitution. The April raid also targeted a beauty parlor in Pavas. Three persons with Chinese names were detained in that operation as well as two Costa Ricans.

The La Castellana is best known as a gasoline station by that name on Avenida 10.

The Poder Judicial said that in April 2005 the beauty parlor was charging 10,000 colons for a sexual encounter. That was about $21 then. There also was an outcall service, the Poder Judicial said.

The cases show the uneven treatment of prostitution and pimping in Costa Rica. The arrests usually are made at the low-budget operations. When upscale massage parlors and similar are raided the case generally dissolves into a dispute over a business license.

Infrequently do investigators find an und***ge prostitute during a raid. Adult prostitution is legal. But pimping is not.

The Poder Judicial said that 19 witnesses have been called to testify at the Araya trial.

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"All them women gonna make me,
teach 'em what they don't know how..." TMIB

Here's my take on it. The article says "the arrests usually are made at the low-budget operations. When upscale massage parlors and similar are raided the case generally dissolves into a dispute over a business license."

Well there are only three upscale MP's that I'm aware of (HLH, NF, and Idem). As Kickstand said, HLH has had several people detained and investigated for pimping (and one person suddenly left the scene). What has or will become of the investigation at HLH is not clear. There's a good chance that it disappeared for some "consideration", but it was also recent enough that some charges could still be pending. All three upscale MP's have at one time or another been briefly closed for administrative reasons.

Since 2005, the year in which the woman in the AM Costa Rica article was arrested, there may have been at least 50 raids on a much larger number of Tico MP's. That would be about a conservative ten a year. I usually keep a pretty good eye on the local Spanish press, and can only recall two or three cases in which pimping charges have been brought. It seems to me that about 95% of the time the local MP's re-open after a couple of days with no-one be charged with pimping. And the percentage that have never been closed at all, is probably lower than the 100% for upscale MP's.

Comparing what happens in three upscale MP's to what happens in maybe three dozen Tico MP's makes it easy to play with the facts and numbers. It seems to me that, if nothing else, AM Costa Rica is spinning the facts.

And I totally agree that pimping laws should be enforced more vigorously.

_________________
It's faster horses, younger women, older whiskey, and more money--Tom T. Hall
No man is a failure who is enjoying life--William Faulkner