Prostitution and the Law.
Below is a copy of a blog page I happened across related to prostitution and the legality of same in BsAs. Included is part of an interview on the topic with assistant DA Jorge Cevasco. I found it a good read.
Most evenings at around 8pm I exit the subway station at Congreso de Tucuman in northern Belgrano. When doing so, I often pass a scruffy young man who stands atop the station steps. He usually thrusts his hand in front of my chest, indicating he wants to give me something. It's a folleto, a little rectangular pamphlet. It has a photo of a voluptuous, scantily-clad woman on it, as well as phone numbers and sometimes even a colorful map on the back.
It's a map of my neighborhood, but not one that gives directions to a nearby restaurant or supermarket. Instead, it details the path to the neighborhood whorehouse. The pamphlet advertises "promotions" starting at 30 pesos. What do you get for that? I haven't tried to cash-in my "coupon," but it's not hard to imagine.
Depending on your mindset, you might think this is shameful - an outrage and an affront to family values and residential hygiene. But not everyone thinks this way, particularly those who grab the pamphlet and head straight to the house of pleasure. "Dude, I wanna live in your neighborhood," a friend jokingly said last week.
Whatever the case, this commentary is not about the morality of prostitution. It's about the legality and marketing of it. I have lived in Buenos Aires - and in many of its neighborhoods - for the better part of 12 years. Never have I seen a more pervasive proliferation of prostitution publicity than what I've seen over the past few months. It's nearly everywhere, it seems. Though not in all barrios, my guess is that it would be hard for a male to walk the city from day to night without encountering at least one - and perhaps many - ads for paid sexual services. In my neighborhood there are many such ads and many such places.
Of course, there is nothing new about escort services or male entertainment clubs in downtown, in Recoleta or in any other part of the world. After all, it's the oldest profession in the world, right? But based on my own (admittedly unscientific) observations of street-level propaganda, it appears that similar clubs - and even full-blown bordellos - are becoming somewhat more common in other areas, too. This is not even to mention the proliferation of "massage" parlors or "relax" services that are advertised in various parts of Barrio Belgrano, downtown, Nuñez, Palermo and elsewhere.
Journalist and Curious George that I am, I took my questions about this matter to the district attorney's office for an interview. I'll soon post the full interview, as well as a broader look at prostitution, on Scooping Argentina. For now you can see some of my questions - and the answers to them - here:
Scooping Argentina: Is prostitution legal in Buenos Aires?
Assistant DA Luis Jorge Cevasco: Yes, though there are certain ways of working as a prostitute that are illegal. There are no laws that sanction people for charging money to have sex. But it is illegal to carry out sex acts in whorehouses.
SA: Do you have an official estimate of how many prostitutes there are in Buenos Aires?
LJC: I don't. But I would say that for a city the size of Buenos Aires, which has around 3 million people, the number is not excessively high. I would think it's not more than 1,500 people, and even that number is probably exaggerated. Perhaps the number is that high or higher if you're talking about clandestine brothels.
Strip clubs, strictly speaking, are legal in Buenos Aires. So is prostitution, as long as it doesn't occur in an organized fashion in a whorehouse, said Cevasco. Whorehouses per se are illegal in the city. But women can voluntarily sell themselves at strip clubs, so long as they consummate their sexual acts at another location. Cevasco said that "The of Law of Prophylaxis" bans houses of ill repute or "casas de tolerancia" as they're known in Spanish legalese. The same law also bans prostitution in certain public places, namely in areas within 200 meters of schools, religious institutions or residential homes. In addition, the law bans "obscene sexual displays" that could "surprise" people who don't appreciate such sights.
This law has led to controversy regarding the well-known area of La Rosedal in Palermo. There, between the hours of 9pm and 6am, transvestites openly market their services to prospective clients. Anyone who has been to La Rosedal at night knows it is not a place for the prude or tame-hearted. Transvestites commonly stand naked as they market themselves or, more accurately, their bodies. But while some neighbors complain about these activities, legal authorities defend them, saying it is reasonable to assume that anyone who steps into La Rosedal after dark knows what he's getting into. As a result, visitors can't reasonably claim to be "surprised" by what they see there. "Because of this, it's very hard to imagine that any judge would condemn anybody for this type of act in this place," Cevasco said.
Cevasco said brothels such as those advertised in my neighborhood are illegal. Moreover, he noted that a recent law makes even the mere marketing of prostitution illegal. "The Buenos Aires Legislature just passed a law that imposes heavy fines and up to 90 days in jail for people who facilitate access to these kind of places," he said.
That is true for anyone who tries to market prostitution, he said. But this part of the law leads to an odd contradiction: A hotel clerk or taxi driver who advises a prospective John on where to find prostitutes can be punished for promoting behavior that is itself legal.
SA: Let me see here. You're saying it's illegal for a taxi driver to tell a tourist where he can find prostitutes even though prostitution itself is legal?
LJC: That's right.
SA: Isn't there a paradox here?
LJC: Yes, there is. Constitutionally, one can't prohibit people from using their bodies as they please. What the law tries to do is prevent the mass commercialization of this type of activity. I'm against prohibiting this kind of activity because doing so generally leads to legal and cultural contradictions, and ends up fostering corruption. These kind of places (whorehouses) tend to exist anyway. And when they do, they end up working under the auspices of police corruption. This is indisputable.
SA: Anything else you'd like to say?
LJC: When you have an increase in this kind of activity, it's because there are unresolved social problems behind it. You can't solve social problems with punitive laws. Prostitution rises when poverty rises. To reduce prostitution, you have to focus on improving social and cultural factors and not on penal processes that historically haven't rendered positive results.
Soja (Soy) as a substitute for cash.
A great article in the daily rag at my local coffee shop, 'Diario Popular'.
It seems that with the price of soya beans, the local prostitutes in Cordoba who service the truck drivers, accept payment in the beans. The paper reported that these reprehensible transactions were robbing the owners of the beans, a fact beyond dispute, and that the pimps were in effect dealing in stolen beans.
My mind being like it is, immediately transposed the other possible alternatives of paying prostitutes with agricultural products. Perhaps grapes. A great option for our 6 figure, potential grape investor. He could get a skin full of Mendoza wine and get laid without having to touch his frugally aquired 6 figure sum. Can't be bad. Just think about it.
Argento
You see him here, you see him there.
[QUOTE=Member #2041]Sure Exon, whatever.
After the fact note: I feel compelled to mention that Jackson actually apologized to me for deleting the expletives in my prior two posts in this thread, because despite the fact that I used offensive language in violation of forum rules, Jackson did acknowledge that the deleted expletives that I used were actually accurate descriptions for Argento and especially Exon123, even though the language I used was inappropriate and impolite - LOL! Fortunately, in quoting me, Argento has managed to memorialize the language that I did use, despite Jackson editing the posts that I actually made.[/QUOTE]Jackson is a mysterious and magical man. At much the same time as editing your drivel, not 30 minutes beforehand, we were discussing the much predicted slide in the Peso. Perhaps you could ask him his opinion on the matter as you have such a personal relationship with him.
Which O frugal one brings us back to the causes of your mouth-frothing. Of course the economy here is not sustainable. When will it collapse and how it will effect the Peso, is and was the issue. You said that you bet it will collapse, a reiteration of many other members who have repeatedly posted over the past year that the collapse is imminent. I asked for a time frame and subject to that, I would be interested in your bet. Now you may be a knowledgable person on wine and you may be knowledgable about a host of other stuff, but you have jack shit knowledge of this economy and the way it functions. But your unsubstantiated opinion about this economy ought to have been challenged and when you spat out your pacifier when challenged to substantiate it, you were fair game to take the piss out of.
You will, as is your want, have the last word, but this is my last on this matter.
Argento
