Dominican prostitutes celebrated their Second National Congress of Sexual Workers with the opening taking place at the National Library. The workshops are taking place at the headquarters of the Instituto de Formación y Acción Sindical (INFAS), a union training center. Movimiento de Mujeres (MODEMU) which has a membership of 400 sexual workers organizes the congress. On the opening day, Isabel Cuevas de la Cruz says that a study carried out by the Centro de Orientación e Investigación Integral (COIN) showed there are about 100,000 Dominican prostitutes on the job in the DR and abroad primarily in Panama, Spain, Switzerland, Austria and Germany. Modemu spokesperson said that Dominican women become prostitutes when they cannot get adequately paid jobs, due to the local macho man culture of Dominicans that do not provide for the mainstay of their children, and under the influence of today’s consumer society. Cuevas de la Cruz, who the Hoy newspaper report said spoke very well for a person who only had a second grade educational level, lamented that prostitutes are persecuted and rejected by Dominican society, while the owners of whorehouses are treated like respectable businessmen. While prostitution is outlawed, in the DR it is tolerated.
