A survey of material goods owned by the women shows that 84% of the sex workers have color T.V, 72% have a refrigerator, 69% own a washing machine, 20% have a microwave oven, an a third own a VHS. Other items such as telephones (11%), computers (4.5%), and cars (6.0%) are less available.
(Table 5) Ownership of such items indicates sex workers are not poor, nor they come from the lowest social backgrounds. In Costa Rican standards, they are mostly middle-class. While many women in the US and other countries become sex workers because of drug and alcohol addictions, rarely is that the case in Costa Rica (with the exception of the streetwalkers). Most sex workers in Costa Rica are there to better their economic situations and care for their families. Some will work only a few days per month, while others make it a career choice. You will find women from Nicaragua, Argentina, Venezuela, Russia, Romania, Colombia, Dominican Republic and even Nevada, USA, working the streets, bars and clubs of San José.
It is evident that prices have increased in the last five years and, consequently, so have the incomes of sex workers. The ones that work inside the sexual tourism industry have higher incomes than the ones shown in the surveys. In Hotel Del Buey, for example, the cost for one hour can range from $100 to $500 depending on the ‗characteristics‘ of the sexual worker. Between the sale of liquor and the price Con formato: Español
126 Ibid.
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from the sexual exchange, the women that are deemed the most attractive can earn around $1,000 to $2,000 per night. Mexpat knows that ―high quality poontang in the Del Buey can get expensive.‖
― More and more chicas are asking $100 an hour firm and some are coming off the top with $200 or $300 for a few hours or toda la noche. ‖ The reason, according to him is because ―Unfortunately a lot of tourists are paying these prices which is just aggravating the problem.‖ The solution he sees is to look for cheaper street sex workers: ― Yes, there are still lots of very fine chicas who will go for $50 or 20,000 colones. ‖ The only problem is to find them: ―locating the ones who will go for this and give great service is tricky.‖127
Depending on their sexual appeal, some women are able to charge more than that. There is a famous TV star, for example, which is able to demand $7,000 per night. But this is an exception. The majority will negotiate their prices but only a few will go down to less than $80 an hour. With these rates, many sex workers can pocket around $500 per night. The average income is around $2,000 a week, not bad for a country where a professional makes around $500 a month.
Girls who work at massage parlors are not so lucky. The average income in MP 6 –based on three clients a day- is around $1,600 a month. CapoD2 makes the following calculations on their earnings.
NOW lets sum up situation 3 of burnout and for arguments sake let us use MP 6. By no means are these #’s
accurate just a broad spectrum.
Girl works 6 days a week 3 weeks out of the month because of her Cycle. Throw in 2 more days during the cycle
front back that’s 20 days per month.
20 Days Per month!
Average amount of encounters 3 per day!
1⁄2 of House Take Averaging in CRT discounts $22.00 per encounter.
Tips per encounter Highs, Lows and Stiffs (No Pun) $5.00 per encounter
That’s 27.00 per session x 3 per day x 20 days or $1620.00 per month, give or take..NOT BAD in fact let us also
take into account that’s great money for CR.
But CapoD2 recognizes later on that perhaps this is not such a great income:
Top 10 Reasons for Burnout making that Kind of Money!
10.
She has to take 6-10 showers per day one before, one after, one before she gets to work, one after.
9.
She has to put her make up on 4-5 Times per day.
8.
She has to take average 2 Steams or Saunas per day.
7.
She has to give 3 massages per day!
6.
She has to entice you to a session and smile and be nice all day in the waiting room.
5.
She has to try to have a real relationship, and have sex with her novio and act excited about after she
has been doing all of the items below.
4.
She has to act all enthused giving BBBJ’s all day to Fat overweight Drkkunk, hung-over, gringos.
3.
She has to kiss Fat overweight Drunk, hung-over, gringos.
2.
She gets to be fondled all day by Fat overweight Drunk, hung-over, gringos.
1.
She has to have enthusiastic sex all day with Fat overweight Drunk, hung-over, gringos.
Maybe $1620.00 per month isn’t that much after all!128
Sex workers from Casa Mila and many other places do not make that much money. Contrary to the $100 asking price at Hotel Del Buey, women here charge ten times less. 129
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127 http://www.costaricaticas.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=1483
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128 http://www.costaricaticas.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=2615
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Sex workers who cater to tourists are making more money than the average Costa Rican doctor, lawyer, University professor or even the President of the country. Theses incomes, in theory, put them at the top of the income ladder. A look less rosy when you investigate the sex worker‘s spending habits. One of them is the woman‘s contribution to her home. María, for example, has to support her two children plus her mother, two sisters and two nieces. She pays their rent and also the children‘s education. Lupe supports her four brothers and her ailing father. Cristina pays her mother‘s medical costs and also her sister who is mentally challenged. Another large expense goes on their clothes and make-up. Sex workers who work for the American tourist cannot look cheap. They must buy their clothes at expensive boutiques and do their hair at the most sophisticated hair salons. Shoes, perfumes, jewelry and purses are also expensive. They also pay lots of money in transportation, as they need to use the discreet taxi driver who hides them from the public. Additionally, sex workers spend lots of money in gambling, drugs and alcohol. The ones who work in the ― fichaje” system are heavily addicted to crack and booze. Once you take all these expenses into account, plus the very short period of attractiveness (18 to 25 years old), the average sex worker does not live any better than the Latin American lower middle class.
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129 http://www.costaricaticas.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=1483
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5.
HIV in the Caribbean and Central America
The Caribbean, according to Kempadoo, ―defies static definition.‖ It is a region constituted through a violent history of Spanish, British, Dutch, French and Danish conquest, settlement, and colonial rule that involved the genocide of the indigenous peoples as well as the forced importation of million of African slaves.130 It is constituted by countries that range from Haiti, the first black republic to declare its independence in 1804, to Suriname and Belize, which gained independence during the last quarter of the twentieth century. In some instances it is defined only by the islands- the Antilles (Greater and Lesser, Dutch, French, and British). Other times it includes territories washed by the Caribbean Sea-the Circum Caribbean coastlands of Central and South America or El Caribe Insular. Throughout this flux of definitions, the Spanish-speaking territories- Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and the ―Caribbean‖ regions of Colombia, Venezuela and Suriname- have been included and excluded, sometimes isolated from the rest of the region as parts of Latin America.131 In the current UN structure, as well as that of regional political and economic organizations, the ―Caribbean‖ excludes Central America and Colombia. This means that epidemiological studies and prevention interventions on HIV
follow arrangements -that more often than not- don‘t follow the patterns of regional sex tourism. Costa Rica, for example, is included in Central America; the Dominican Republic in the Spanish Caribbean, and Colombia in South America. Nevertheless, both sex workers and sex tourists do not follow this arrangement, as the patterns of travel are influenced more by race and airline connections rather than geography. American and local tourists, as Kempadoo indicates, fly mainly to the Dominican Republic, Colombia and Costa Rica on the basis of the phenotype characteristics of the women (lighter skinned) rather than because of political or geographical considerations.
By reinvoking race here, I am insisting that historical social and processes and constructs that created social difference in terms of phenotype and ethnicity in the Caribbean continue to shape and inform social relations in the twenty-first century, despite the lack of single, homogenous, region-wide discourse on the subject, and in spite of the often-heard claims that racism no longer exists in the region.132
An estimated 1.9 million adults and children are living with HIV in this area. Twelve countries in this region, including the Dominican Republic and Haiti, several Central American countries (such as Belize and Honduras), and Guyana and Suriname, have an estimated HIV prevalence of 1% or more among pregnant women. In several Caribbean countries, adult HIV prevalence rates are surpassed only by the rates experienced in sub-Saharan Africa—making this the second-most affected region in the world. Recent projections for El Salvador, Guatemala, and Panama done with the Spectrum Model indicate that the epidemic could reach adult prevalence levels of close to 2% in these countries by 2010
on current patterns.133
130 Kamala Kempadoo, Sexing the Caribbean. Gender, Race, and Sexual Labor. London: Rooutledge, 2004, ebook edition.
131 Kamala Kempadoo, Sexing the Caribbean. Gender, Race, and Sexual Labor. London: Rooutledge, 2004, ebook edition, p. 148-150.
132 Kamala Kempadoo, Sexing the Caribbean. Gender, Race, and Sexual Labor. London: Rooutledge, 2004, ebook Con formato: Inglés
edition, p. 145.
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133 PASCA, Spectrum Model, 2002.
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Throughout the world, the unequal social status of women places them at higher risk for contracting HIV. Women are at a disadvantage when it comes to access to information about HIV prevention, the ability to negotiate safe sexual encounters, and access to treatment for HIV/AIDS once infected. In accordance with these inequities, the HIV infection rate among women is rising faster than the infection rate among men in the Caribbean and Latin America.134
The epidemic is spreading to an increasing proportion of women. Infection rates are generally highest in the cities and major economic areas. In San Pedro Sula, Honduras, for example, HIV infection hovers between 2-5% in pregnant women. 135 The primary mode of transmission is unprotected sex.
Female sex workers are at risk, with infection rates of 0.3 percent to 10.3 percent (0.6 percent in Nicaragua, 1.9 percent in Panama, 3.9 percent in El Salvador, 4.6 percent in Guatemala, and 10.3
percent in Honduras). Clients of commercial sex workers act as a bridge between high-risk groups and the general population, including foreign tourists. 136 (Table 22) Women‘s risk is further exacerbated because they are physiologically 2 to 4 times more susceptible to HIV. Women have a larger mucosal surface where micro-lesions can occur. Young girls and adolescents, whose reproductive tracts are not fully developed, are even more susceptible to STIs and HIV. Untreated STIs increase women‘s risk of HIV infection. Women who have been coerced into unprotected sex or raped are more likely to be infected with HIV since rough, forced sex causes more lesions in vaginal and anal tissues.137 Studies have also shown that girls and boys who are victims of physical and/or sexual abuse during childhood are more likely to exhibit high-risk sexual behavior later in life, and decreased ability to negotiate safer sex due to lowered self-esteem.138 Because many of the women enter countries illegally and commercial sex is usually illegal, they are not protected by law, experience social stigma, and have almost no access to social and medical services.139 Not having access to health and medical care, counseling, and information means that they are less likely to receive accurate prognosis and treatment of HIV.140
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Sex workers living with HIV are often stigmatized, leading to the loss of housing, employment, denial Con formato: Inglés
of health care and insurance, and rejection by family and community. The stigma surrounding (Estados Unidos)
HIV/AIDS causes most of them to choose not to be tested
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Central America has a history of intraregional and extra regional migration due to civil unrest, demand Con formato: Inglés
for seasonal labor, more open border policies, improved regional transportation routes, and proximity (Estados Unidos)
to the United States. The unstable economic environment provoked by Hurricane Mitch in 1998, Con formato: Inglés
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134 Women and HIV/AIDS, WHO Fact sheet 242 (2000) http://www.who.int/inf -fs/en/fact242.html
(Estados Unidos)
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135 . AIDS Epidemic Update, UNAIDS/WHO (2004)
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136 UNAIDS, Fact Sheet 2002: Latin American and the Caribbean, 2002.
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137 AIDS - 5 years since ICPD, UNAIDS (1999)
(Estados Unidos)
http://www.unaids.org/publications/documents/human/gender/newsletter.pdf
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138 . Ending Violence Against Women‖ Population Reports 27(4). JHUCCP (1999) (Estados Unidos)
http://www.jhuccp.org/pr/l11edsum.stm
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139 If Not Now, When? Addressing Gender-Based Violence in Refugee, Internally Displaced and Post-Conflict Settings.
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Reproductive Health for
(Estados Unidos)
Refugees Consortium (2002) http://www.rhrc.org/resources/gbv/wc_gbvcontents.html
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140 Gender and HIV/AIDS UNAIDS Fact Sheet (2001) http://www.unaids.org/fact_sheets/files/GenderFS_en.pdf
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combined with uneven growth and employment prospects in individual countries, have further increased mobility, including that of sex workers. Sex tourist destinations such as Costa Rica have large populations of illegal Central American and Caribbean sex workers.
Despite increased awareness of HIV/AIDS, senior policymakers outside of the health sector in many Central American countries have not yet integrated HIV/AIDS prevention into ongoing policy and programmatic activities.
The Costa Rican epidemic
The most recent statistics provided by the Health Ministry registered a total of 2,357 AIDS patients in Costa Rica as of July 31, 2002 (Tico Times, Nov. 28, 2003). According to UNAIDS, there is a low estimate of adults and children (6,000) with AIDS and a high estimate of 21,000 (it includes HIV
infections and full-blown AIDS). Women have a low estimate of 2,000 and a high of 6,600. Since 1985, 1,528 Costa Ricans are known to have died of AIDS-related complications. UNAIDS provides a low estimate of 400 AIDS-related deaths in 2003 and a high of 1,600.141
Though the Health Ministry's official numbers indicate 110 new cases of the illness in 2003, up from 90 in 2002, the AIDS Control Office of the Ministry told AFP newswire it records nearly 450 cases per year. Public hospitals reportedly receive 450 new AIDS patients per year, but the Health Ministry only has recorded a quarter of those cases and Ministry representatives say its statistics are the only ones that are considered official.
Chavarría, from the AIDS Control Office, said it is disturbing that the percentage of infected women in Costa Rica has risen from 7% of the total in the early 1990s to 20% of the total today. The trend is of an increased risk for women. In the latest report from the Caja Costarricense del Seguro Social, Costa Rica‘s social medicine agency, in the first 26 weeks of 2004, the number of new HIV and STI cases in the Metropolitan Area are almost the same for men and women. That signifies an increase of the epidemic among the heterosexual population and an expected increase in cases of infected newborns.
According to members of an AIDS support group in San José many women contract the disease from their husbands who have unprotected sex with others.142