- Chuck Goolsby

LibertadLatina's Analysis of the  Impunity and Prostitution in Langley Park, MD, Where Brothels Earn Many Tens of Thousands of Dollars Weekly. Shut Down Langley Park's Mega-Brothels!

Prostitution dynamics in the Langley Park Latin American immigrant community

Excerpt #1...

In working class barrios around Washington, DC such as Langley Park, prostitution operations are commonplace.  It is 'traditional' for many men to ‘use’ adult and underage prostitutes in Latin America, and especially in Mexico and Central America where most Langley Park immigrants came from.  As an example, one Salvadoran friend, now an evangelical lay pastor, told me that his father took him to a brothel to be with three prostitutes, when he was 12 years old.

The fact that these communities are also gender imbalanced, with many more men than women being present, creates a large-scale demand for prostitution.

The exploding criminal industry of sex trafficking provides the 'supply' - women and underage girls, that the market demands.  In this case, criminal sex trafficking networks from Mexico, Los Angeles and New York City have for years saturated the Washington, DC region with adult and underage prostitutes working against their will.  A 1994 Washington Post story describes how such networks rotate prostitutes in and out of the Washington, DC region from New York City.  That pattern continues to exist 11 years later in 2005.

In 2003 I had a conversation with a local Latino personality who frequented Latin American immigrant brothels in both Washington, DC and in the suburban city of Gaithersburg, Maryland.  He described the fact that young women from Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Central America were sent to Gaithersburg from New York City.  The trafficking networks involved ‘rotated’ these women out every two weeks.  The source noted that these women had told him that they were being ‘exploited’ [forced into prostitution].

During a Spring, 2005 trip to New York City to speak to the group Latinas United for Justice at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, a Latina student who formerly worked as a cabbie related to me how cab customers all over New York constantly asked to be taken to the Latin American immigrant brothels that she noted are “everywhere” in New York.  The student stated that all of the cabbies know about these brothels, and she knew that the women ‘working’ in them were working against their will.  This New York source of women in prostitution slavery supplies at least part of the demand for prostitutes in the greater Washington, DC region.

In addition to forced prostitution, thousands of women and girls in the Latin American immigrant communities of the greater Washington, DC region engage in prostitution of their ‘own free will’ (arguably).  It is perhaps more accurate to state that women and teenage girls are forced to engage in prostitution because:

·         They have grown up in sexist cultures where intimacy was forced upon them as children, youth or young adults. 

      (An estimated 80% of child prostitutes in many Latin American nations were sexually abused at home before fleeing into a life of street prostitution.)

·         A 'machismo' based environment instilled in them the concept that their intimacy is a commodity, that is meant to be sold;

·         They live in immigrant communities where they are constantly barraged with unwanted, severe sexual harassment, and are propositioned on a daily basis; something that some women and underage girls 'give in to.'

·         The expansion of extremely violent Latin American immigrant gangs into Langley Park and other communities in the region are creating environments where women and underage girls are being subjected: to rape with impunity; severe sexual harassment; pressure to join gangs, leading to a gang-rape initiation; forced prostitution and coercive pressure on women and girls to work in prostitution.

·         Immigrant women and girls who complain to the police, and want to press charges for various levels of sexual assault and other forms of physical aggression are often turned away by the indifference, anti-immigrant hostility or bureaucratic rules of the law enforcement community.

·         Strictly enforced rules bar undocumented women and teens (and especially mothers) from receiving public assistance, forcing them into prostitution as their only means of survival. 

      This factor is a critical point to understand during times of recession in the United States.  Thousands of Latina women literally face a life without income due to a poor economy and increased immigration enforcement!  How can they and their children survive?

...Ms. undocumented Latina finds herself with no relief from comprehensive immigration reform, no green card, no work permit, no job (especially in this recession), little understanding of the details of federal, state and local laws, no protection from crime, protection that should be provided by police forces that today may arrest and deport her, no way to feed herself and her children, and no access to the social services that could help to alleviate those desperate circumstances.

In that situation, Ms. Latina will not report rape to police.  She will not say "no!" to a potential or current employer who says (in violation of the law) that sex is the price she must pay for employment, and she may not say "no!" to a pimp or sex trafficker who offers her 'la vida facil' (the easy life) as a prostitute. 

If she goes home to Bolivia, Peru, Nicaragua, Colombia, Mexico or the Dominican Republic, she will face exactly the same conditions of life, except for the fact that she will not be able to support her  family...

- Chuck Goolsby

In 2004 a U.S. federal law enforcement official informed me that, much to his surprise, a Latin American immigrant brothel operation existed in Langley Park that was raking in $60,000 per week.  The agent stated that such sums of money are usually earned only through large-scale illegal drug operations.

At perhaps $30.00 per act of prostitution, the above figure breaks down to an estimated 2,000 acts of prostitution per week.  That is the volume that just one of perhaps several Latin American immigrant prostitution operations is earning.

The agent had called seeking resources for women victims of these brothel operations who wanted to leave prostitution.  I referred the caller to Washington, DC's principal non-profit working in direct intervention for the rescued victims of trafficking.

Given that Latino prostitution operations are typically run by gangs, it would not be surprising to find additional prostitution networks operating in Langley Park on a large scale.

Do they transport Puerto Rican, Dominican and Salvadoran women en-mass to and from New York City, as brothel operations in nearby Gaithersburg, Maryland do?  Do they transport Mexican and Central American women en-mass to Langley Park from Los Angeles, California, by way of gang connections there?

These are questions that only U.S. law enforcement authorities are capable of answering for the public. 

Regardless of the origins of the women and girls trapped in prostitution in Langley Park, federal, state and local law enforcement have an obligation under both criminal and moral law, to act to shut down these criminal enterprises and rescue this large community of victims from prostitution.

A year after being told of this giant Latina 'rape-factory' in Langley Park by a federal agent, I have yet to see a news report or a prosecutor's announcement stating that this major criminal enterprise has been shut down, the victims have been rescued and the perpetrators have been given a date to see a judge.

Federal government officials in the current administration often talk about the need to rescue and restore trafficking victims.  Well, here, just 10 miles directly north of the U.S. Capitol Rotunda, is a good place to start...

- Chuck Goolsby

Ricky Martin at the

April 29th Inter-

American Develop-

ment Bank (IADB)

event kicking-off the

"CALL AND LIVE"

campaign in

Washington, DC

El cantante Ricky Martin ha decidido extender su lucha contra el tráfico de personas a Estados Unidos, donde se calcula que hay unas 20 mil personas [nuevas cada año] que son retenidas o han sido desplazadas contra su voluntad.

El artista, que desarrolla esta labor a través de la Ricky Martin Foundation (RMF) , presentó hoy en Washington la campaña "Llama y Vive"...