Country Report: Costa Rica

Young girls prostituted to and exploited by foreign tourists

A Victim’s Story

In 1999, several underage Costa Rican girls testified to being lured to a party by Boston physician Arthur Kanev and Oklahoma City dog trainer Joe Baker. The girls, aged 11 to 16, were each bribed with $40 only to later be drugged, raped, and have over 300 nude photographs taken of them. Both Baker and Kanev were arrested only to post bail soon after. Today they are free, still in possession of child pornography (which is legal in Costa Rica) and regularly visited by underage girls at a house in Costa Rica.

The girls abused by Baker and Kanev are certainly not alone. Costa Rica hosts the fastest-growing network of sexual exploitation and trafficking of children and the largest number of child prostitutes in Central America.

Country Background

Located in Central America, just north of Panama and south of Nicaragua, Costa Rica, literally “Rich Coast,” has a population of 4,016,173 with an economy relying mostly on agriculture and tourism. Often considered Central America’s success story, the country boasts a relatively high standard of living and widespread land ownership.

For three centuries Costa Rica was part of the Spanish Territory of New Spain until declaring its independence in 1821 and joining the Mexican Empire for a short while. In 1823 the country became a state in the United States of Central America until 1839 when it proclaimed itself a sovereign state. The following year the capital was moved from Cartago to San Jose. Since gaining independence only two short periods of violence have scarred the country’s history. The latter of the two, a brutal civil war that left more than 2,000 dead, led the country to abolish its military in 1949.

Causes of Slavery

Although often deemed Central America’s success story, 10% of Costa Ricans live in absolute poverty, 40% of young females do not attend school, and 28% of adolescents between the ages of 12 and 19 work for wages below the poverty level. It is estimated that in San Jose alone over 2,000 girls are involved in prostitution, many involuntarily, 80% of whom are believed to have been victims of child abuse.

In addition to the vast poverty and lack of education that exist for many Costa Ricans, the country also remains the number one destination in Central America for sex tourism. It is estimated that out of over a million tourists visiting the country each year, at least 5,000 are pedophiles or people who decide that by having sex with minors they are less likely to contract an STD, specifically the HIV virus. The majority of these tourists come from the U.S. and Western Europe.

Costa Rica is also a source and destination for the human trafficking of forced labor victims both internally and from countries such as Guatemala and the Philippines. It serves as a place of transit for sexual exploitation victims being trafficked to the United States, Canada and Mexico, among other nations. The commercial sexual exploitation of children is a continuing problem in Costa Rica, fueled by the success and popularity of its child sex industry. In addition, hundreds of cases of child labor have been found in both the coffee and commercial agriculture industries.

However, the most pressing issue in Costa Rica today stems from the vulnerability and poverty of children who are coerced into joining sex networks. Since prostitution is both legal for and popular among adults of age 18 and older, a highly organized prostitution network can easily hide minors within its line of work. San Jose’s multitude of sex bars, strip clubs, and escort services can be easily located through tour guides, making prostitution easily accessible and profitable. The large profits of the sex industry, and a growing demand for children, have led to the enslavement and exploitation of thousands of minors who are forced to work in sex rings by network managers or even abusive and impoverished family members.

The Process of Enslavement

Costa Rican children are often lured from home or from the streets by promises of well-paying jobs only to end up being sexually exploited and forced into prostitution. There are an estimated 8,000 street children in San Jose alone, for whom the proposition of work can be all too enticing. Some children end up working independently or out of small brothels, while others work out of larger, more organized sex rings. But the fact that’s most shocking is that most forced child prostitutes live at home. They work along the streets at night and go home to their parents in the early hours of morning, giving them much if not all of their earnings. When 13-year-old prostitute Ivette was asked the question “What kind of work do your parents have?” her response was “Me.”

Response on the Ground

Patronato Nacional de la Infancia, the main child welfare agency in Costa Rica, is required by law to provide social services for children, with the government supposedly giving the agency 7 % of all tax income; in reality PANI sees somewhere between 4-6%. The agency runs a program to feed, bed, and counsel abandoned and street children in San Jose. It also operates and supervises foster homes for children who are victims of child abuse and sets up adoptions both locally and internationally.

Casa Alianza, a branch of Covenant House in New York, has held its Latin American headquarters in San Jose since 1993 and just reopened its doors in early 2005 after a scandal surrounding the previous director forced the organization to shut down. Casa Alianza is a nonprofit organization serving homeless children and at-risk youth in Central America.

More Information

Child Exploitation in Costa Rica »

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