Article

2004-07-28 Caribbean-Latin America

Castro responds to Bush's prostitution charges

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Posted by Super Hose 2004-07-28 12:00:00 AM|| || Front Page|| [5 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 You can only cringe when you see President Bush say something like this. Sigh...statements that are just blantaly wrong or false...well, it give steel to other matters he is accused of being less than truthful on. I don't know why Bush does something like this...even the Cubans in Miami know, as well as the people on the island, of the repeated and strong crack-downs on all forms of prostitution that Castro has ordered.

Castro's toughness on prostitution has been the talk on the Green Sheet, (a Cuban BBS), for years now. Everyone knows about it...

Bush does himself no good in...well...lying like this. Sorry, but that's the truth of it.

Posted by Traveller 2004-07-28 6:28:59 AM|| 2004-07-28 6:28:59 AM|| Front Page Top

#2 So you don't believe Bush? How about your friend, Fidel: Castro made the comment in a 1992 address to the Cuban National Assembly, when he spoke about the country's need for tourism and acknowledged the presence of prostitutes in Cuba, even though prostitution is illegal. His actual words, according to a transcript prepared by the U.S. Foreign Broadcast Information Service, were: "We can say that they are highly educated hookers and quite healthy, because we are the country with the lowest number of AIDS cases.''

Posted by Steve 2004-07-28 8:39:37 AM|| 2004-07-28 8:39:37 AM|| Front Page Top

#3 Traveller - there have been shows such as 60 minutes which discuss the high level of prostitution, particularly teens, in Cuba and that Cuba is a top destination for underage action. So I doubt Bush is making this up.

Posted by AWW 2004-07-28 8:41:56 AM|| 2004-07-28 8:41:56 AM|| Front Page Top

#4 Traveller:
It's pretty much an open secret in southern Florida that Cuba is the place to go if young hookers purchased in bulk are your thing. Crack-down on prostitution? You must be kidding.

Posted by Secret Master 2004-07-28 11:46:04 AM|| 2004-07-28 11:46:04 AM|| Front Page Top

#5 I'm sure that Castro wants to jail prostitutes but he needs the ... I just can't make a "hard currency" joke here.

Besides he can't jail the prostitutes as the jails are full of journalists.

Posted by Super Hose 2004-07-28 1:09:13 PM|| 2004-07-28 1:09:13 PM|| Front Page Top

#6 Besides he can't jail the prostitutes as the jails are full of journalists.

Here in the US you can't tell them apart.

Posted by Robert Crawford 2004-07-28 1:26:51 PM|| [http://www.kloognome.com] 2004-07-28 1:26:51 PM|| Front Page Top

#7 The true knock on Castro should be human rights abuses. It is my understand that the police simply do sweeps along the Macon' water front, picking up anyone they can find. They then hold them, almost as if in a communist re-education camp, for extended periods of time without access to a lawyer or even their families. These women have simply disappeared. As almost an inevitability, innocents are also swept up in these raids.

This would be the honest criticism of Castro.

Posted by Traveller 2004-07-28 2:48:10 PM|| 2004-07-28 2:48:10 PM|| Front Page Top

#8 The true knock on Castro should be human rights abuses
Yep.

The pross sweeps are only done "as needed" like Boston say....
Remits from familyTourismPross... where the hard currency comes from.... and often the last two are the same.

Posted by Shipman 2004-07-28 6:11:23 PM|| 2004-07-28 6:11:23 PM|| Front Page Top

#9 Way quicker, cheaper and easier for the European tourists to go to Cuba to get their kiddie action than it is to go to South East Asia.

Posted by Classical_Liberal 2004-07-28 8:01:10 PM|| 2004-07-28 8:01:10 PM|| Front Page Top

#10 Dear C_L:

I just don't think that's true, you'd be in a shit world of trouble messing with a kid in Castro's Cuba, (providing you got caught, of course). More importantly, the Eastern European countries of the former soviet block are much closer, and a much more tolerance for this kind of stuff.

No, if you were bent that way, I am fairly sure Cuba is Not the place to be.

Posted by Traveller 2004-07-28 8:18:46 PM|| 2004-07-28 8:18:46 PM|| Front Page Top

#11 Ok Traveller, I'll take your word on that. Potential sex trade issues aside, I do wonder about the appeal of Cuba to the Europeans and Canadians that flock there. Seems to be more than just the fact it's cheap. Do they get a bit of frisson (pardon my french) from vacationing in a spot where Americans can't?

Posted by Classical_Liberal 2004-07-28 8:34:58 PM|| 2004-07-28 8:34:58 PM|| Front Page Top

#12 Traveller, I don't know where your getting your "information," but it doesn't sound right.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union and lately, the EU donations, Cuba has been pretty dependent on sex tourism for revenue.
And from what I've read, the younger the better!
Not only will you not get in trouble for "messing with a kid in Castro's Cuba" but it's actively encouraged!
I can't remember the name of the Sex Resort outside of Havana, but it's about the only reason people go to Cuba these days.
There's some sex trade in Eastern Europe, I'm sure, but they have lots of other opportunities Cuban children, pre-teens and teens don't.

Posted by GreatestJeneration 2004-07-28 8:48:19 PM|| [http://www.greatestjeneration.com] 2004-07-28 8:48:19 PM|| Front Page Top

#13 Considering that this is such a flamable subject, I would like to thank everyone for being a little decent with me on this.

But I what I would really like to leave people with is the thought that sex-tourism, in the long term, really doesn't pay for the host country. Oh it can be wild and woolly for a while, but once a destination gets some infastructure up to speed, the authorites clam down on this pretty hard. This was true for Cuba from 1996 through maybe 1999, it was true for the NorthEast of Brazil, (where I know this from ties to the Government there), and I have even recently heard that the go-go bars in Bankok have been ordered to shut down by midnight. I'ver never been there, or at least not since the Vietnam war, but the howls of outrage at this closing order have been extreme from single men...lol. But the government doesn't care, they want a different kind of tourist...really.

Is there prostitution in Cuba, certainly there is. Will there continue to be prostitution in Bangcok, for sure, and in Brazil also. But the authorites are taking a very dim view of it and are taking steps to stamp it out...insofar as the oldest profession can be stamped out.

My humble view.

Best Wishes,

Posted by Traveller 2004-07-28 10:06:20 PM|| 2004-07-28 10:06:20 PM|| Front Page Top

#14 @ greatest generation. what have you been reading"the younger the better"?

Posted by smokeysinse 2004-07-28 10:12:06 PM|| 2004-07-28 10:12:06 PM|| Front Page Top

#15 "...sex-tourism, in the long term, really doesn't pay for the host country."

Same goes for socialism.

Posted by Classical_Liberal 2004-07-28 10:19:05 PM|| 2004-07-28 10:19:05 PM|| Front Page Top

#16 Dear C_L:

Well you're certainly right on Socialism..lol. Why do Europeans go to Cuba? It's a damn pretty country, everything is cheap, you are pampered to the Nth degree for very little money.

I haven't been to Cuba...it is illegal after all, and being caught could have unhappy consequences for myself, so I've avoided it like the plague.

But there are sooooooo many great reasons to hate Castro, Jesus, I can't even begin to list them...I just want us to topple him for the right reasons, that's all.

And the sooner the better.

Real Best Wishes,

Posted by Traveller 2004-07-28 11:27:26 PM|| 2004-07-28 11:27:26 PM|| Front Page Top

#17 smokey, these sex perverts like 'em young and of course, some of them want children or even toddlers as sex partners.
The book I read about Cuba--which wasn't political, BTW--said that prostitutes were certainly below 18.

Posted by GreatestJeneration 2004-07-29 12:00:10 AM|| [http://www.greatestjeneration.com] 2004-07-29 12:00:10 AM|| Front Page Top

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