Going to Bolivia for "Carnaval"

[traveler1954]

This country is full of chicas advertising themselves ($20 to $30). Prostitution is perfectly legal. I cannot find any chicos. Does anyone have experience with male escorts there.

DP, NYC

[imrthr]

>This country is full of chicas advertising themselves ($20 to

>$30). Prostitution is perfectly legal. I cannot find any

>chicos. Does anyone have experience with male escorts there.

>DP, NYC

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You should read the below article that discusses prostitution in Bolivia. Both female and male prostitutes are mentioned in the article. Are you sure you want to go there? The article makes Bolivia seem far too dangerous and intolerant of gays to be any fun.

 

You could go to Brazil or Argentina where you would be guaranteed a better time.

 

Here is the article:

 

Prostitutes Strike in Bolivia

 

Wednesday, Oct. 24, 2007 By JEAN FRIEDMAN-RUDOVSKY/LA PAZ

As of Wednesday morning, Bolivia's "night workers" are on strike. Up to 35,000 prostitutes across the country have refused to report for the medical checkups required every 20 days to legally work the streets. By continuing to serve clients without ensuring they're disease-free, the sex workers' action raises the risk to public health. It comes in response to attacks in the city of El Alto last week in which citizens burned brothels and beat sex workers in protest against legal prostitution.

 

"We refuse to be STD-tested until we can work free from harassment," says Lily Cortez, president of the Night Workers of El Alto, the low-income city that borders La Paz, Bolivia's seat of government.

 

The rampage began after citizens demanded that brothels and bars be located at least 3,200 feet away from schools. Within 48 hours, angry mobs had taken matters into their own hands, burning more than 30 establishments. Hundreds of women and transvestites were forced to strip while their belongings were torched; dozens were beaten and mutilated as the police stood by and watched. "It was something we needed to do," says El Alto resident Roberta Quispe Mayta. "Now our husbands will behave better and the prostitutes will leave."

 

The municipal government responded by closing all brothels within 1,600 feet of schools, but took no action against those who had attacked the prostitutes. Left to work in the streets rather than in the relatively safety of the brothels, the sex workers have since become victims of police harassment, including physical abuse and arrest threats. The police have refused to comment on these actions.

 

The latest violence against Bolivia's sex workers is not surprising. Although the Supreme Court in 2001 legalized prostitution, which is widely practiced nationwide, the oldest profession has not gained the relative social acceptance it enjoys in some European countries. Instead, women and men in the sex industry have become scapegoats for everything from broken homes to the rising HIV-infection rate.