(Article Image Source:latinasinlove.com)

“Haiti? You can’t even pick up a prostitute down there without genuine fear of AIDS .”  (Source : ThinkProgress Article)That’s a pretty horrible thing to say, right? And doesn’t it kinda imply that the person who said it has had the experience to inform an observation like that? (Let’s not even get into the fact that sleeping with a hooker is pretty much HIV Russian roulette.)

Well Rush Limbaugh was never caught with prostitutes, but a couple years ago he did have a run-in with the DEA after his vacation in the Dominican Republic (Source : Fox News Article). Why? Well I never figured the guy to be un super-bellaco but apparently the conservative radio host likes to carry Viagra bottles with other people’s names on the prescription whenever he visits DR. Go figure. And since he’d never go for a Haitian hooker…

But enough about that guy. At worst he’s just another hypocritical client. Allegedly. The real issue here is DR’s sex trade. As far back as 1996, the International Organization for Migration estimated that over 50,000 Dominican women were working in the international sex trade (Trafficking in Women from the Dominican Republic for Sexual Exploitation” IOM, June 2006 Report). The IOM report states that many trafficked women were lured by foreigners with false promises of marriage only to find themselves abused, addicted to drugs, and hopelessly lost in the global sex market. Makes you think twice about shady looking sites like www.dominicandreamgirl.com, advertising girls looking for marriage with a preference for foreign men. In any case, they have been trafficked all over Europe, including Holy Roman Italy and those nice countries where almost everyone is one color, prostitution is legal, there’s universal healthcare, and the economy is always stable: Switzerland and The Netherlands. Dominican women have also been trafficked to South America, Central America and the rest of the West Indies. And wouldn’t you know it? They’re in Haiti too…

But let’s not Rush to any conclusions. Guys with lawyers never lie.

Anyway, back on topic, those stats are from before the internet really blew up like it has now. By 2001 UNICEF was reporting that 25,000 Dominican boys and girls under 18 were being exploited for sex by tourists (“Profiting from Abuse” UNICEF 2001). DominicanToday.com reminded us a couple of years ago about a group of Spaniards busted for running an internet child prostitution ring out of DR in 2006 (Dominican Today Article). Early last year they reported an American promoting a “Hot and erotic trip to paradise” on craigslist.com was arrested in the Dominican Republic and charged with two counts of third degree prostitution (Dominican Today Article).

Image Source :latinasinlove.com

Hmm. Now how would that be connected to the AIDS problem in the Dominican Republic?

There could be reason to hope though, especially for the minors, as the industry becomes more sophisticated in the DR. The website for the currently operating “adult” resort Oxygen Retreat (not owned by Dominicans), for instance, features a disclaimer stating that none of their girls are under 18. So at the very least it is becoming important to look the part. The question for the future of DR will be whether the government eventually chooses to adopt and enforce American laws prohibiting prostitution, Swiss laws on legal, regulated prostitution, or Swedish laws, which actually only punish the clients, and not pimps and hookers. And before you get too liberal about it and go with the Swiss option, which the country leans towards right now, check these facts JusticeWomen.com posted from a University of London study of different legalization programs in the Netherlands, Ireland, and Australia:

Legalization and/or regulation of prostitution, according to the study, led to:

• A dramatic increase in all facets of the sex industry,
• A dramatic increase in the involvement of organized crime in the sex industry,
• A dramatic increase in child prostitution,
• An explosion in the number of foreign women and girls trafficked into the region, and
• Indications of an increase in violence against women. (Justice Woman.Com Article)

So maybe playing by the rules of the countries that Dominican women have been trafficked to isn’t such a good idea? Interestingly enough, the Swedish option is the only one proven to be highly effective at reducing and nearly eliminating sex traffic. Sweden wasn’t mentioned in the IOM report, after all.

The idea of Americans and Europeans being arrested as pimps in DR and the king of conservative talk radio being a potential john does seem to complicate conservative Christian and racialized politics a bit. I mean after all, Rush Limbaugh just recently tried to stir up racial tension on his show by referring to “Tiger Woods’ choice of [White] females.” (Huffington Post Article)

This from the guy who “had a great time in the Dominican Republic [and wishes he] could tell you about it.” Yeah. That sucks that he can’t talk about how he might like to get down with the brown minors (allegedly). That would be a very interesting story.