SEXPLOITATION? What is at stake in Cuba?

[Xxxx Xxxxx Xxxxxx <xxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Brother Julio Pino was concerned with prostitution in Cuba. He may like
to read the second part of the article where the role of  "international
sex tourism" is mentioned. So, the Cuban government is not totally evil.
In fact, says the article, "the government has been aware of sex
exploitation for sometime". Not a perfect article, while sets the
background of the issue, me thinks--Xxxx


FOR ACADEMIC REVIEW: NOT FOR CITATION OR DISTRIBUTION

SEXPLOITATION?: SEX TOURISM IN CUBA

http://www.georgetown.edu/sfs/programs/isd/files/cases/Nhma.htm


***According to Leuchtag:

[begin bloc quote]In 1967, Thailand contracted with the U.S. government
to provide rest and recreation services to the troops during the Vietnam
War. Robert McNamara was then U.S. Secretary of Defense. In 1971, while
the war was still on, the World Bank, headed by the same Robert
McNamara, recommended the development of mass tourism in Thailand as a
way for the country to pay on its debts to the bank for agricultural
development loans. The economic initiatives consequent on the banks
report led directly to the $4-billion-a-year multinational Thai sex-tour
industry ....10[end bloc quote]

The existence of sex tourism industries in countries including Kenya,
India, Brazil and Honduras suggest the emergence of "prostitution as a
multinational growth industry."12 Exactly why sex tourism "touches down"
where it does is complex and contentious. Aside from roots in
militarization, sex tourism also commonly flourishes where governments
actively pursue more general policies to promote tourism to foreigners.
Countries desperate for foreign exchange and sources of revenue
increasingly are turning to tourism as a sure-bet export to increase
income as more traditional commodities prove unreliable revenue sources
and suffer from price instability in the global market economy.
Statistics demonstrate both the worldwide growth of the tourism industry
and its particular impact on developing countries. According to the
World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), tourism produces the most jobs
in the world and generates $4.4 trillion worldwide.13 Tourism exports
account for about $400 billion each year and more than a quarter of that
goes to developing countries.14 According to the UN Council on Trade and
Development (UNCTAD), "tourism is the only large sector of international
trade in services where poor countries have consistently posted a
surplus."15

Sex Tourism in Contemporary Cuba

After the revolution in 1959, the Cuban government instituted a number
of measures intended to rid Cuba of its reputation as "el burdel de los
Yanquis" - Americas brothel.37 The rationale was both nationalistic
(protecting Cuban women from foreigners) and in line with a
revolutionary ideology that at least nominally was inclusive of women.
Most important was the outlawing of all prostitution and an effort to
address the social conditions that made prostitution an attractive
option for women. Public policy also emphasized rehabilitation of sex
workers by offering housing, education and alternative employment
opportunities. Womens engagement in sex work had been seen as a twin
manifestation of imperialism and womens subordinate role in society. "By
closing down the brothels, Castro liberated Cuban women from the sexual
control of foreigners and
restored them to a position of respect in society."38

The long-term result of these efforts has been the emergence of a very
different prostitution industry in Cuba today. According to Davidson,
"there is no network of brothels, no organised system of bar
prostitution; in fact, third party involvement in the
organisation of prostitution is rare.... Most women and girls are
prostituting themselves independently and have no contractual
obligations to a third party. The sex tourist in Cuba, therefore,
typically deals directly with an autonomous prostitute."39 Perhaps
paradoxically, one consequence of the lack of third party involvement in
Cuban prostitution is that the cost of sex is extremely cheap. Some
reports suggest workers will sell sex acts for less than $10 and
sometimes for as little as $3.40 "Habitual sex tourists state that it
costs them less to spend two weeks indulging themselves in Cuba than it
does in other centres of sex tourism, such as the Philippines and
Thailand. This is partly because they are not paying a third party and
partly because competition between the mass of independent individual
prostitutes serves to depress prices further."41

The explosive growth of sex tourism in Cuba in the 1990s has coincided
with the island becoming a major destination for international tourists.
The Cuban government began to emphasize foreign tourism as a development
tool in the 1980s, in part as a response to a stagnant economy. The
number of hotel rooms on the island doubled between 1980 and 1988 and by
1987 tourism had become the third most important source of foreign
exchange.42 The fall of the Soviet Union and and Eastern Europe
contributed to turning economic stagnation into economic crisis. More
than 80 percent of Cuba's trade had been
concentrated with the communist bloc and in addition the U.S. government
estimated that Soviet aid to Cuba had reached over $4 billion a year by
1989.43 By 1992 that aid had disappeared and between 1989 and 1992 oil
imports dropped 86 percent and food imports fell by 42 percent. Aside
from the fall of the Eastern bloc, falling world prices for Cuban
products also contributed to the economic downturn. For instance, one
metric ton (MT) of sugar, Cuba's main export, bought 3.2 MTs of crude
oil, Cuba's main import, between 1984 and 1987. By 1992 that same MT of
sugar bought just 1.2 MTs of oil.44 The crisis has been described as the
worst blow any Latin American country has suffered in the twentieth
century (including the Great Depression) as the overall economy shrunk
by over one-third between 1989 and 1993.45 Finally, U.S. economic policy
toward has changed little since the 1960s. The U.S. embargo continues to
prohibit trade and investment with the island, and
U.S. citizens are prohibited from spending money on the island without
the granting of a special government waiver. The exact economic impact
of the embargo is difficult to measure, but few experts expect the Cuban
economy to flourish as long as it
remains in effect.

The crisis has had a severe impact on ordinary Cubans. Castro announced
the "special period in peace time" in 1991, which asked for individual
sacrifice in order to save socialism and the revolution. Access to
gasoline became extremely difficult and huge numbers began to ride bikes
and walk. Similarly, meat, soap and cooking oil have become luxuries.
Many basic staples had long been rationed in Cuba, but rationing in the
past also served to entitle everyone. With the crisis more and more
products became rationed, the portions of rations themselves shrank, and
many items completely disappeared from the rationing books or were on
the books as "guaranteed" but were in reality unavailable.46

Instead shortages created a bustling black market and many citizens have
taken second and third jobs in order to make ends meet. Most black
market goods are sold in dollars only, and the average monthly wage for
Cubans in 1995 was equivalent to just $10.47 "For large numbers of
Cubans, then, the pursuit of dollars has become a far more meaningful
economic activity than that which takes place in formal work
settings."48

Said one foreign diplomat of the boom in prostitution, "the decline and
fall of Cubas economy and the turn to attracting foreigners has made it
inevitable. The only way for most of these kids to survive is to sell
themselves."49 In addition, as Mirta Rodriguéz Calderón points out, the
ongoing crisis in Cuba, like most economic crises, has more adversely
affected women than men. It is generally women who are charged with
maintaining the household economy and therefore they must strategize and
sacrifice during shortages of soap, detergent, food, clothing, and other
necessities.50 In short, it is frequently women who must either make due
with less, or find ways to earn more.

Cubas economic crisis prompted the government to re-emphasize tourism.
The Fourth Party Congress in 1991 declared tourism to be "an important
source of revenue for economic development."51 The government has,
particularly through government agency INTUR and state-run corporations
Cubanacán and Gaviota, built up tourism infrastructure and welcomed
foreign investment through joint ventures in hotels. It has also
aggressively marketed Cuba as a tourist destination abroad, especially
in Europe and Canada. To at least some degree the government has used
sexuality to promote tourism. The three million member-strong Federation
of Cuban Women (FMC), the official or party-sponsored revolutionary body
representing women, protested government and industry advertisements
that featured women in bikinis, and yet in 1990 the government allowed
Playboy to photo topless Cuban women on the beaches of one leading
resort, Veradero.52

The governments effort at attracting foreign tourists has been quite
successful. Projections are for between 1.7 and 2 million foreign
tourists to travel to Cuba in 1998, three times the figure of a decade
ago, and they will leave well over a billion dollars in the local
economy (the net figure is likely to be much lower). Most tourists come
from Canada, Spain and Italy. Tourism has recently replaced sugar as the
single most important export in the economy. Much of this tourism,
however, centers on travel for sex. Foreign tour companies use code
words such as "Cuba Amor" to advertise package tours. At least one
Spanish travel
company offers a catalogue of Cuban women who would serve as companions
during a tourists stay.53 By 1995 the Italian travel magazine Viaggiare
recognized Cuba as the "paradise of sexual tourism," awarding it five
stars for its "general erotic level." According to the magazine, Cuba
beat out such competitors as Brazil and Thailand.54

The government has been aware of the explosion of sex tourism for some
time and officially has distinguished prostitution under socialism from
that of earlier periods: "this prostitution was different from that
prostitution: that prostitution was what women did to buy food for their
starving infants; this prostitution reflected a malaise born of boredom
and frustration rather than economic desparation."55 Reflecting the
official line Fidel Castro remarked in 1993 that thanks to socialism
Cuban girls must make the cleanest and best-educated prostitutes in the
world.56

Jineteras (the popular term for Cuban women prostitutes catering to
foreigners--literally jockeys) are in fact a diverse group who often
hold other jobs or attend school during the day. The collapse of the
Soviet Union and the subsequent end of Soviet economic assistance and
subsidies to Cuba has contributed to the need for additional incomes.
Further, the shortages that have resulted from the combination of the
fall of the Soviet Union and the ongoing U.S. embargo have made staples
like soap and a hot meal commodities in short supply to the local Cuban
population. Davidson notes that as sex tourism is concentrated in the
coastal cities of Varadero, Havana, St. Lucia and Santiago de Cuba,
there are differences between local jineteras and those who migrate from
the interior. Specifically, the former tend to do sex work on an
infrequent basis usually for specific ends while the latter, who are new
to the area and desperately need to find jobs, are frequently subject to
exploitation by local landlords along with the sex tourists themselves.
This leads to "intense economic pressure" on the woman to seek as many
paying clients as possible, "thus locking her into prostitution as a
means of day-to-day survival."57

Why male sex tourists choose Cuba as their destination may be explained
by a variety of factors including location, cost, sexual
fantasy/illusion and race. Cuba is not only a far cheaper destination
for sex tourists from Canada and Western Europe, but the lack of
organization, combined with the bidding down of rates among jineteras
and the general economic conditions in Cuba arguably make it one of the
cheapest sex tourism destinations in the world. As a result, some sex
workers report seeing the same foreign clients five or six times a
year.58

The tourists who buy sex are also not homogeneous. Davidson classifies
one group as "Macho men." These sex tourists "have a sexual preference
for multiple, relatively anonymous encounters"59 and travel globally for
that explicit purpose. On the other
hand, there is also what Davidson calls the "Mr. Averages" and "Right On
Backpackers." As situational sex tourists, they "can only attain sexual
and psychological satisfaction from a women's [sic] body if they tell
themselves that they are involved in a
genuine and reciprocal sexual-emotional relationship"60 rather than an
economic transaction. These are the sex tourists who may spend a week or
more with the same woman. In short, these men desire the illusion that
they are involved in a relationship
with a local. They are disgusted at the thought of sex for money and
instead see the money exchange as an act of generosity and chivalry in a
personal relationship between economic unequals. In their study of sex
tourism in Thailand, Bishop and Robinson observe a situation similar to
that noted by Davidson "in which the interaction not only extends beyond
the usual one night but begins to include elements of interaction beyond
the merely sexual: eating out, shopping, obtaining medical attention,
and so on provide the attributes of a relationship not based solely on
money for sexual favors."61

Sex tourists are also frequently drawn to Cuba because of the prospect
of exotic encounters that contain a racial component. This is especially
the case for those consumers who find it difficult to satisfy racialized
fantasies at home. As is the case elsewhere in Latin America, Cuban
women are viewed by sex tourists as caliente--hot. In addition Davidson
reports than many sex tourists are either openly racist and/or
fascinated with Black sexuality, which they imagine to be untamed and
uninhibited.62 Interestingly, the government of Cuba uses racial
stereotypes "showcasing 'traditional' Afro-Cuban religious
rituals and art, 'traditional' Afro-Cuban music, and of course,
Afro-Cuban women"63 in conjunction with other images of Cuba as
tropical, exotic and full of scantily clad native women. These same
stereotypes carry over to the sex tourism industry and
feed into the sexual fantasies of the male tourist. As Davidson notes,
many more jineteras are Afro-Cuban as opposed to
mixed race or white.64

For the most part the Cuban government has looked the other way with
respect to sex tourism, apparently viewing it as victimless and without
cost. Prostitution is illegal but few arrests are made. Reportedly the
number of abortions has grown, which some womens groups tie to the
growth in prostitution.65 In addition, Cuba, which traditionally has had
one of the worlds lowest levels of positive HIV cases, has seen an
increase there and in other sexually transmitted diseases.66

Contemporary issues and global activism in sex tourism

[begin bloc quote]The supply side of international organized
prostitution requires girls, young women, and families in Third World
countries to be economically desperate, uneducated, and with few
options. This desperation has frequently been brought about or
exacerbated by development policies that have cut back on social
services and have pushed rural families off their land. There must also
be a virtual army of recruiters, brokers, and traffickers who are able
to operate within and between countries with relative impunity and who
have at their command a variety of methods to obtain these economically
desperate
girls and women. Finally, there must be a system of indentured servitude
so that, once a girl or young woman finds herself in the sex trade, it
is difficult to leave.67[end bloc quote]

Three major issues dominate current discussions of sex tourism within
the international political community. First is the trafficking of women
and girls. Burmese women and girls, for instance, are commonly sold into
prostitution in Thailand. The process through which this occurs involves
"violence, rape intimidation and virtual imprisonment, aggravated by the
women and girls illegal migration status and the illegality of the
brothels in which they work. It documents, too, a high level of official
involvement in the traffic at the border, and in transportation,
organisation, and protection."68 Families of the Burmese women
and girls go into debt to an agent, essentially ridding themselves of
the burden of a girl or woman. This debt, which must be worked off by
the woman or girl, grows "with each transaction, in border crossing,
transport, re-selling, and to cover the girls
own expenses, including protection."69 In response to this trend,
non-governmental organizations including the US-based Coalition Against
Trafficking in Women, have worked with the UN in an effort to garner
more support for and re-work international conventions such as the 1949
Convention on the Suppression of Trafficking in Persons and the
Exploitation of Others.70

The second issue, child prostitution, tends to be the sole focus of
national and international policies aimed directly at the sex tourism
industry. While reports vary, the numbers associated with child
prostitution are staggering: 60,000 in the Philippines, 800,000 in
Thailand, 300,000 in the United States, 400,000 in India, 70,000 in
Zambia and 40,000 in Venezuela. The newest hot-spot for child
prostitution is Cambodia wherein The World Sex Guide, an Internet
resource in international prostitution makes note of the availability of
6 year olds for $3.71 The Economist estimates that 10-12 million men
visit child prostitutes
each week.72 Again, as in the case of the trafficking of women and
girls, NGOs and international organizations have been active in efforts
to eliminate child prostitution, especially in the sex tourism industry.
End Child Prostitution in Asian Tourism
(ECPAT) is one such organization that has teamed up with UNICEF and
others to both make people aware of child prostitution and to work with
the United Nations Commission on Human Rights to establish a United
Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child Concerning the Elimination
of Sexual Exploitation and Trafficking of Children.73 Other
international efforts include the historic international meeting in
August 1996 in Stockholm, organized in part by the World Tourism
Organization, the official UN body responsible for tourism.74 The World
Congress Against the Commercial Sexual
Exploitation of Children brought together governmental and
non-governmental officials and activists. Activism has also come from
countries themselves, both sending and host nations. Pettman notes that
Australia, Sweden and Germany now have legislation allowing for the
prosecution of their nationals for abusing children overseas.75
Countries wherein serious child prostitution exists have also taken to
prosecuting foreign sex tourists.76

The third issue-addressing the general sex tourism industry - has been
largely ignored by governments but is subject to much debate among
activists and non-governmental organizations. On one side are those who
argue for the abolition of prostitution.
This perspective links prostitution and sex tourism to the exploitation
of women and social and political gender stereotypes suppressing women.
At the 1994 seminar on Sexual Exploitation and Trafficking in Women, one
activist from Peru argued that "it is very difficult to speak of
voluntary or forced prostitution: how can we say that a girl chooses
prostitution when society offers so few options? What is clear is that
prostitution reduces women to male property and perpetuates their social
subordination. This means talking about relationships between men and
women and about power and economic relationships,
even at the State level."77

Others contend that prohibition would simply drive prostitution and sex
tourism further underground and ultimately would be more dangerous to
women. Additionally, outlawing prostitution would do nothing to rid
societies and polities of gender bias. Rather than attacking sex tourism
at the level of the individual prostitute alone, some argue that the
root causes of sex tourism also must be addressed. These include
underlying social, political, cultural, economic, class, race and gender
structures and stereotypes in society.78 The formation of the Third
World Movement Against the Exploitation of Women (TW-MAE-W), was based
on this perspective and used various militant and other forms of
activism to raise awareness of the issues surrounding sex tourism.
TW-MAE-W is committed to the emancipation of all women and has been
successful in raising issues
and achieving action in both international and national fora.

Finally are those who contend that efforts to curb the sex tourism
industry are fueled by racism, classism and sexism. These activists
believe women are agents who make their own decisions and a decision to
enter into prostitution is to be respected and, as important, understood
from the perspective of the prostitute herself. People from this
perspective agree that societies are patriarchal and that men have power
over women through creating and sustaining the economic, political,
social, cultural structures under which women must live. To survive
women must "in some way or another, sell themselves to men."79
Prostitution is, consequently, no different from any other job and "will
not end until the social structures that surround it end."80 One sex
trade workers rights organization, COYOTE (call off your old tired
ethics), represents and defends this perspective.
Two other organizations, the Prostitute Rights Organization for Sex
Workers (PROS) and Sex Worker Outreach Program (SWOP) not only embrace
the perspective above but go further in activism against anti-sex
tourism and anti-trafficking efforts. PROS and SWOP argue that
anti-trafficking campaigns are fueled by racism and views of non-white
women as "passive and coerced."81



--

Xxxx Xxxxx Xxxxxx
PhD Student
Department of Political Science
SUNY at Albany
Nelson A. Rockefeller College
135 Western Ave.; Milne 102
Albany, NY 12222



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