Attorney general Francisco Dominguez Brito stressed the need for prosecutors to be aware that sexual exploitation and human trafficking is a crime only second to drug trafficking, as per Law 137-03, and Art. 3334 of Law 24-97. He said his department is investigating the case of foreign women that are abused and are being rotated among prostitution centers. He said that there are so-called massage centers that operate near schools and thus urged the prosecutors to combat human trafficking, as reported in Hoy newspaper. He said that the present prosecution is against the proprietors of the businesses that abuse people’s “vulnerability and the economic situation to exploit them sexually to obtain great benefits against their dignity”.
Dominguez Brito clarifies that while prostitution is not illegal, the law does penalize those who serve as procurers of prostitutes, even with the consent of the prostituted person. He said that the law states that any person who helps, assists or covers up for persons that promote prostitution or the recruiting of persons for sexual exploitation is considered a pimp.
He said that pimping is penalized with six months to three years in prison and a penalty of RD$150,000.
He claimed that prostituting minors is common in these centers and normally the centers have regular clients who repeatedly request these services.
Dominguez Brito’s office is pressing charges against the owners of several businesses including: Casa Blanca, El Paraiso, Looking Fly, Mambo Night Light I and II, El Camiannte, El Nuevo Milenio in Santiago; El Haren in Santo Domingo; La Sala Cafe Bar, Salon Blanco, The Pink House in Boca Chica; and 12 sex parlors in the area of Gazcue and Zona Universitaria in Santo Domingo. He also mentioned the arrest of Cristina Mendoza Coronado who allegedly operating a massage house as a cover up for her pimping activities and trafficking of minors from Cotui. Dominguez Brito said that the women had promised the girls a better life, but in reality was sexually abusing the youths for her convenience and personal enrichment.
Meanwhile, Hoy newspaper’s Que Se Dice column comments that the Boca Chica Association does not agree with the way the state prosecutors are confronting the problem. They say that the solution should have been to eliminate the complicities between the Police and Tourism Police first. “This is about confronting very powerful enemy that can only be defeated by joining all wills of the decent people in Boca Chica,” writes the columnist.