Human Trafficking in  [Cuba]  [other countries]
Street Children in  [Cuba]  [other countries]
Child Prostitution in  [Cuba]  [other countries]
 

Child Prostitution

The Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children

Republic of Cuba                                                                     [ Country-by-Country Reports ]

The Republic of Cuba [map] consists of the island of Cuba and numerous adjacent islands in the Caribbean Sea.  Havana is its capital and largest city.  The government continues to balance the need for economic loosening against a desire for firm political control. It has undertaken limited reforms to increase enterprise efficiency and alleviate serious shortages of food, consumer goods, and services. The average Cuban's standard of living remains at a lower level than before the depression of the 1990s.

 

CAUTION:  The following links and accompanying text have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in Cuba.  Some of these links may lead to websites that present allegations that are unsubstantiated, misleading or even false.   No attempt has been made to validate their authenticity or to verify their content.

ECPAT – On-line form for reporting child prostitution and other sexual offences against children

Quick Search for Missing Children - Select Gender, Country (Cuba), and Years Missing

Bur of Democracy, Human Rights & Labor - Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2005

CHILDREN - Child prostitution was a problem, with young girls engaging in prostitution to help support themselves and their families.  Children may marry with the consent of their parents at age 14, but the law provides for 2 to 5 years' imprisonment for anyone who "induces minors under 16 years of age to practice homosexuality or prostitution.

TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS - While underage prostitution was widely apparent, there were no reliable statistics available regarding its extent. Although the police generally enforced laws on underage prostitution, the phenomenon continued, with cabarets and discos catering to sex tourists. The government prosecuted persons involved in child prostitution and child pornography and assisted other countries in international investigations of child sexual abuse

Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) - 1997

[42] The Committee further recommends that the Criminal Code provide for the protection of children up to the age of 18 from sexual exploitation. The Committee also recommends that further measures be undertaken in order to address matters relating to the sexual exploitation of children, particularly through tourism, taking into account the recommendations adopted at the World Congress against the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children held in Stockholm.

ECPAT: Fifth Report on implementation of the Agenda for Action [DOC]

[B] COUNTRY UPDATES – CUBA – At the Latin American Regional Consultation on Sexual Violence in February 2001, the Cuban Government issued a statement via its Consulate General. The statement claimed that allegations that Cuba was one of the Latin American countries most affected by CSEC were profoundly untrue.

Restless in Havana

Europeans took over where the Soviets left off: They showered him with aid, investment, and tourism. Under-age prostitution is not the least of the delights of Castro’s island. It pulls ‘em in by the planeload.

Sex Tourism And Child Prostitution In Cuba

Cuba is attempting to right its economic problems by permitting the sexual trade of its children for badly needed monetary resources.  A generation of young people may have been invested to make Cuba’s tourism more appealing to foreign tourists.

Tourism In Cuba: Breeding A Nation Of Hustlers

Tourism can also be thanked for creating thousands of jobs in the sex trade.  ECPAT’s study, Child Prostitution and Sex Tourism: Cuba says, "In Cuba, the link between tourism and prostitution is perhaps more direct than in any other country that hosts sex tourists."  A higher ratio of tourists are drawn to Cuba for prostitution – rather than for the beaches, the shopping or the cultural experience – than to any other country in the world.

Bush Says His Restrictions on Travel Will Stamp Out Prostitution in Cuba!

Is prostitution, including child prostitution, on the rise? As anyone who travels regularly to Cuba will tell you, the answer to that is definitely not. True, prostitution was indeed rampant going into the mid-1990s, but then a government crackdown got into high gear in 1998 and now they are gone.

Castro refutes Bush’s charges against Cuba

Fidel responded as follows to the State Department document: “No country in the world has given as much physical and moral protection, as much health and education to its children as Cuba has.

Bush, Electoral Politics and Cuba's "Illicit Sex Trade"

It should be noted that in Cuba prostitutes are not considered criminals, but those who foster, benefit or help prostitutes are considered participants in a criminal activity.

Cuba's Real Record On Child Prostitution

Cuban lawmakers have opted to not criminalize prostitution but, rather, to focus on sexual procurement (i.e., pimping) by increasing the penalties. The sentence for pimping was increased to four to ten years, increasing to seven to fifteen years if minors are involved. Prison sentences were increased for the corruption of minors in an effort to stop the activities of sex offenders and pedophiles. The penalty for pedophilia was set at fifteen to thirty years.

Cuba's Prostituted Revolution

Add one more issue to the debate about lifting U.S. restrictions on travel to Cuba: the exploitation of Cuban woman and children.  Prostitution exists in many countries, but Fidel Castro's communist polemics and repressive controls compound the problem in Cuba.

Protection Project Report - Cuba [DOC]

FORMS OF TRAFFICKING - According to one report, Cuba is one of many countries that have replaced Southeast Asia as a destination for pedophiles and sex tourists.  This trend is attributed to a concurrent drop in political restrictions on travel to Cuba and a crackdown on sex tourism in Southeast Asia, causing sex tourists to seek alternative destinations.  In addition, Canadian and American tourists have contributed to a sharp increase in child prostitution and in the exploitation of women in Cuba. Canadian sex tourism is cited as being largely responsible for the revival of Havana brothels and child prostitution.

Cubans refer to the girls who go with tourists as jinteras.  The beach resort of Varedero is a popular area for sex tourism, and sexual exploitation of adult and child is particularly common. Young girls coming from the interior of the island to urban and tourist areas are the most vulnerable to exploitation, because they lack language and negotiating skills. Prostituted children are vulnerable to abuse by pimps and corrupt policemen.

Destination Cuba

COMMERCIAL SEXUAL EXPLOITATION OF CHILDREN IN TOURISM - Expanding tourism, together with other factors, has led to a growth of the leisure infrastructure. In connection with this, there has also been a growth of prostitution and cases of trafficking in humans, promoted by the difficult economic situation of the country since 1990. Every day, new children are driven into prostitution, in order to earn something to contribute to the survival of their family. Many street children are abducted and subsequently become victims of commercial sexual exploitation. In their desperation, some fall for promises of well-paid jobs in the towns and cities. In recent years, the number of children in the towns and cities that are being sexually exploited has increased markedly. The press reports of cases in which foreign tourists have particularly asked for children below the age of 14.

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Human Trafficking in  [Cuba]  [other countries]
Street Children in  [Cuba]  [other countries]
Child Prostitution in  [Cuba]  [other countries]