The sexual reality of the country

PANAMA. Every country has a seedy side and Panama is no exception, like many other places in the world the sex industry is thriving and attracting visitors.

For many tourists that is one of Panama’s attractions. The so called “gentlemen’s clubs” offer not only beautiful women willing to do anything for the right price, but also the promise of forbidden pleasures.

Technically speaking sexual tourism is a crime, however there are Internet sites where the would be traveller will not only have all the their travelling arrangement taken care of, but also they throw into the package a lovely companion of whatever sex and age depending on the client’s preference.

In 2007, according to the daily El Siglo a group of Panamanian entrepreneurs were offering sexual tourism packages on the Internet while they were importing 50 women from different parts of Latin America to work as prostitutes.

The Tourism Authority, formerly known as the Panamanian Tourism Institute in 2005 presented a report about sexual tourism to UNICEF acknowledging that the problem exists.

Prostitution is legal in Panama and it is common knowledge that there are around 4,000 regulated female streetwalkers, but there are many who work under the radar, among them enterprising university students, who provided sex for money as a way to pay for their education.

These women are clandestine streetwalkers, who with the help of certain accommodating taxi drivers, night clubs and hotels employees, resort to the worl’s oldest profession as a way to supplement their income.

Many of them say that they do it out of necessity, others for pleasure and others as a way to find a man who will continue to support her.

Prostitution is a big business and organized crime gangs regularly bring women from Colombia, the Dominican Republic and other countries to work in the sex industry.

They bring the girls under false pretences promising them work. In reality the human traffickers take away their passports and use them asprostitutes in nightclubs and bars.

They are scared and lonely, in a foreign country, with nowhere to run to. They are terrified of the human traders and too afraid to go to the police because they know they are going to be deported.

Normally they get out of that situation if the place where they work is raided or if they have enough courage to go run away.

Not only young women prostitutes themselves Men also join the trade. Some of them are homosexuals, others act as toy boys for the lonely female, who want company without the commitment.

Unlikely their female counterparts, there is little known about male prostitution. They operate underground and in specific areas such as the Legislative Park,and Pedregal

Some of them are strictly heterosexual, a percentage are bisexual and others are gay.

Male prostitutes work independently and do not have pimps. Because they do not officially exist there are exposed to all sort of sexually transmitted diseases.

According to one male prostitute foreigners come to Panama attracted by the Panamanian young men, who have a reputation for being passionate and willing to fulfill their client’s fantasies.

Perhaps the worst part of the sex industry is the commercial sexual exploitation of children through on-line pornography and actual prostitution.

The Public Ministry is currently investigating 40 cases involving commercial sexual exploitation of children and pornography.

The Department for the Family, Chilhood and Adolescent of the Ministry of Social Development is trying to create programs to prevent sexual exploitation and help the survivors of abuse, but more resources are needed

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