Threat of crackdown on johns roils sex workers

Santo Domingo (eldia.com.do).- Justice minister Francisco Dominguez’s warning Thursday that johns (men) who seek sex partners in brothels and streets will be caught and booked has roiled the workers who hawk that service at the notorious downtown area of Centro de Los Heroes.

"There are customers who’ve called us to tell us that they won’t come. Most of them tell us that it’s better in some other place. This has been slow here today, not one customer has been here, and all those who pass say the same thing, "said Carla Matos, 23, who like other sexual workers rebukes the measure citing the children they raise as the result of their work.

Se said she had to become a prostitute to be able to raise her children.

For Jennifer Paniagua and Cynthia Garrido, the move could actually increase crime, since many of them would have to look to the underworld because of lack of opportunities and jobs.

"What we’ll have to do in a couple of days will be to go out and rob and kill people, because imagine, we can’t do nothing else. I will not let my children starve," Paniagua said.