Okay, a challenge has been thrown to back up certain allegations that the US is leaning on CR and other countries in the area of sex tourism and prostitution and that local efforts have been influenced by that pressure, particularly in CR. As I pointed out before, it is very hard to find a smoking gun proving CR has been effected by any such pressure. Not all information is readily available on the internet (the only practical research tool for me given my location) or in print, or if it is available is that current and obviously we are not party to back room political/diplomatic meetings between the 2 governments. However, I did manage to dig up the following.
Allow me to preface this by saying a few things. First, this is not meant to be alarmist. While certain events and trends may be occurring, none of this is meant to suggest that the death of CR as a destination for our "hobby" is imminent. Second, while I question the connection that these government agencies and NGO's make between trafficking, CST and prostitution, most of the effort is focused on the former 2 areas and I commend THOSE efforts very highly.
First, here is the proof that the official position of the US government is to link prostitution (and the tourists that utilize them) with the much more serious problems of Sex Trafficking and Ch*ld Sex Tourism.
From the US State Dept. Bureau of Public Affairs 11/24/04
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/rls/38790.htm
The Link Between Prostitution and Sex Trafficking
The U.S. Government adopted a strong position against legalized prostitution in a December 2002 National Security Presidential Directive based on evidence that prostitution is inherently harmful and dehumanizing, and fuels trafficking in persons, a form of modern-day slavery.
Prostitution and related activities—including pimping and patronizing or maintaining brothels—fuel the growth of modern-day slavery by providing a façade behind which traffickers for sexual exploitation operate.
Where prostitution is legalized or tolerated, there is a greater demand for human trafficking victims and nearly always an increase in the number of women and Ch*ldren trafficked into commercial sex slavery....
Women and Ch*ldren want to escape prostitution
The vast majority of women in prostitution don’t want to be there. Few seek it out or choose it, and most are desperate to leave it. A 2003 study first published in the scientific Journal of Trauma Practice found that 89 percent of women in prostitution want to escape....
Prostitution is inherently harmful
Few activities are as brutal and damaging to people as prostitution. Field research in nine countries concluded that 60-75 percent of women in prostitution were raped, 70-95 percent were physically assaulted, and 68 percent met the criteria for post traumatic stress disorder in the same range as treatment-seeking combat veterans and victims of state-organized torture.
State attempts to regulate prostitution by introducing medical check-ups or licenses don’t address the core problem: the routine abuse and violence that form the prostitution experience and brutally victimize those caught in its netherworld. Prostitution leaves women and Ch*ldren physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually devastated. Recovery takes years, even decades—often, the damage can never be undone.
Prostitution creates a safe haven for criminals
Legalization of prostitution expands the market for commercial sex, opening markets for criminal enterprises and creating a safe haven for criminals who traffic people into prostitution. Organized crime networks do not register with the government, do not pay taxes, and do not protect prostitutes. Legalization simply makes it easier for them to blend in with a purportedly regulated sex sector and makes it more difficult for prosecutors to identify and punish those who are trafficking people.
Grant-making implications of the U.S. government policy
As a result of the prostitution-trafficking link, the U.S. government concluded that no U.S. grant funds should be awarded to foreign non-governmental organizations that support legal state-regulated prostitution. Prostitution is not the oldest profession, but the oldest form of oppression.
A couple of footnotes: you might notice that some of the info on this government website is the same as the private article that started this thread. In fact the sources of information are largely the same including testimony to a congressional committee by Donna Hughes and various research articles by assorted feminist professors. Those are the views that are most likely to be presented to policy makers. Sex tourists and other persons sympathetic to the view that there is a distinction between traveling for the purpose of consensual commercial sex between adults and those much more reprehensible activities are far less likely to come forward to argue their cause. "All it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing" Edmund Burke.
=============================================
The next article is also selected comments from an official government webpage. It is part of an address by the head of a newly created office within the Dept. of State dedicated to this and related issues. It details some of the specific actions the US is taking internationally and mentions CR as one particular target of some of those efforts
http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&y=2005&m=March&x=20050310160147ihecuor0.9875299&t=gi/gi-latest.html
"Combating Human Trafficking: Achieving Zero Tolerance"
Ambassador John R. Miller, Director
Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons
U.S. Department of State
Wednesday, March 8, 2005
...As a result of leadership from the President and Congress with coordination among U.S. government agencies, and a bipartisan group of faith-based and feminist NGOs, efforts have accelerated to prevent this grave human rights abuse...
The office I lead continues to monitor worldwide human trafficking patterns and will issue the 5th" annual Trafficking in Persons Report in June in order to stimulate increased action by foreign governments and regional coordination. The report has become an invaluable diplomatic tool for prompting and lauding progress abroad. We have seen a surge in government activity around the world: the passage of new anti-trafficking laws, almost 3,000 convictions of traffickers last year, national public service announcements and much more. We don't think it is a coincidence that increased anti-trafficking efforts coincided with the imposition of sanctions in 2003: Thanks to the efforts of Congress, countries that do not make significant efforts to confront slavery face the threat of losing non-trade-related, non-humanitarian forms of U.S. assistance.
In addition to the report, a second core function of our office is coordinating U.S. financial assistance to support anti-trafficking programs around the world. With fiscal year 2004 funding, U.S. taxpayers provided more than $144 million, including the President's $50 million initiative announced before the UN in September 2003, to anti-trafficking in persons efforts, boosting our programming dollars to almost $300 million over three years. USAID and the Departments of State, Labor, Justice, Homeland Security, and Health and Human Services are involved in these efforts in foreign countries. In fact, 11 U.S. government agencies involved in anti-trafficking in persons efforts have developed a strategic plan to guide our government's anti-TIP efforts.
Finally. we take our mandate to increase public outreach very seriously. We are reaching hundreds of millions of people around the world through media, public speaking engagements, Digital Video Conferences, and e-mail alerts. This effort leverages the effectiveness of the report and assistance programs....
Through the combined efforts of my office and our colleagues at the Department of Defense, the U.S. military continues an aggressive, multi-pronged anti-TIP strategy that began in January 2004 with a "zero-tolerance" approach, including clear opposition to prostitution as a contributing factor of human trafficking. Anti-trafficking in persons training is now mandatory for all U.S. Service members and DoD civilians deploying overseas. Training is also available at the command level....
The United States is funding a major public awareness campaign, which is being implemented by World Vision -- in Costa Rica, Cambodia, Thailand, and the United States against Ch*ld sex tourism overseas.
Some additional comments here. I want to re-emphasize that any and all action to combat CST and exploitation of women, which is where most of this is probably focused, is highly commendable and desirable. To the extent they also target us is not and I think I've shown that globally there is at least some spillover. Second, this address mentioned partnerships with NGO's, specifically Covenant House, a religious based non-profit aid organization and advocacy group. I haven't even started on what their various agendas might be or the pressures they are bringing down on both the target countries like CR and our own government and in turn what support our government is giving them in their efforts.
===============================
I've shown that the US is highly active both with domestic actions and international programs in the areas of sex trafficking, sex exploitation of women and minors, CST and to a lesser but still present extent (due to, in our view, invalid linking) with adult prostitution and "normal" sex tourism. I haven't shown here but could provide statistics that also show that those efforts have accelerated in recent years under the Bush Administration. Less easy to document are actions being taken in CR, although one would have to think that, if such activity is going on globally, CR as one of the premier sex tourism destinations in the world would have to be one of the targeted countries.
U.S. Agencies involved in this international effort:
U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
U.S. Department of Homeland Security
U.S. Department of Justice
U.S. Department of Labor
U.S. Department of State
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
CR agencies involved:
Special Prosecutor on Domestic Violence and Sex Crimes
Judicial Investigative Police
National Institute for Ch*ldren
Foreign Ministry
Labor Ministry
Public Security Ministry
Tourism Ministry.
There is a lot of intergovernmental cooperation or collaboration going on between the US and CR. To what extent CR would be doing what it is at the behest of its own people and is only getting support from the US OR the extent that it is acting at the behest of the US government mainly to placate the US demands is hard to say. I suspect there is probably a little bit of both going on.
=====================
I'll close on a more hopeful note in regards to the situation in CR.
Currently CR is rated Tier 2 on the State Dept's scale of Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 2 Watch List, or Tier 3. Tier 2 is defined as countries that do not fully comply with the minimum standards but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance. for the full report see
http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2005/46613.htm
Login
Register
FAQ
Search
Calendar
Pura Vida 
