There's been a lot of news coverage recently regarding the increasing amounts of drug-related violence in Mexico. However, this is the first story I've seen where the impact on the country's strip clubs is considered.
Here are some of the key paragraphs:
"Daylight gun battles, beheadings and kidnappings have scared away tourists, forced layoffs and turned some areas of once-vibrant Mexican border cities into virtual ghost towns. The drug wars, which have killed more than 6,000 people in the past 2 1/2 years, have accelerated a decline that merchants also blame on the U.S. economic slowdown and delays at the border because of increased enforcement.
"In Tijuana, where at least 200 people have been killed in drug violence this year, merchants say tourism is down as much as 90 percent compared with 2005, when an estimated 4 million people visited. Half of the downtown businesses -- more than 2,400 -- are shuttered. Farther east along the border, empty markets have become the norm in Ciudad Juarez, where fighting between rival cartels has killed 200 people this year. In Nuevo Laredo, five hotels have shut down.
...
"The downturn has had less obvious consequences, even endangering public health. In Tijuana's now mostly empty strip clubs, prostitutes have grown so desperate that they are increasingly willing to engage in risky behavior such as having unprotected sex.
"'I'll do that now -- let the customer go without a condom -- if they pay me an extra $10,' Katia, a longtime Tijuana prostitute, said in an interview. 'I know I shouldn't, but I need the money.'"
You can read the whole story here:
rikk -
Thanks for the article... Gee, I knew things were bad but I didn't realize they were this bad....
It makes the modest crime wave in my Penna hometown look like small potatoes..