Identidades in English No 4, December 2014 | Page 43

texts and videos are included to illustrate the topics and observations.
Pavarini (2014) points to the testimony of a prostitute concerning the fact that movement was limited during the Confederations’ Cup, due to heavy
police presence. The police disallowed prostitution in order to prevent risks to tourists, something that would not be done at any other time
outside the period of the World Cup. According
to female sex workers, the police ignored them at
any other time. Not a single office of the prefecture restricted the sex work, unlike the evangelicals, who acted disrespectfully. Magnólia Said, of
the World Cup Popular Committee, in Fortaleza,
said that when she visited the Pinto Martins International Airport, she saw informational pamphlets available at the end of a hallway, and none
of them was printed in a foreign language. Even
so, the customs area is where all the information
on how Brazilians should behave when they’re
abroad can be found. As far as she could see, there
was no campaign to reduce the trafficking of
women or the exploitation of minors.
Tânia Gurgel, President of the Children’s Municipal Foundation, explains that there is a plan of
action for fighting the sexual exploitation of minors; it involves taxi drivers, the homeless and
Centro and Beira Mar business owners. In Fortaleza, it was in force throughout the World Cup’s
30-day period, and even included a special center
at which denunciations could be made and where
tourists and homeless people could talk to with a
member of its workforce—120 educator-employees working in shifts.
Figure 6 shows a young black girl; one should
look at her little hands. The image overtly shows
that the government’s measures are palliative, at
best, and that there is a lack of social and political
will to solve this problem. According to Portal
Terra (2013), 75% of the demand for child prostitution in Brazil comes from Brazilian clients in
the same state or from a neighboring one. The activity is greater in coastal cities and increases

when there are big events. The child sex industry
involved up to 500,000 children in 2012, having
increased since 2001, according to the National
Forum for the Prevention and Eradication of
Child Labor. Yet, the Secretary for Human Rights
reports that there were 8 million children involved in the World Cup’s major cities, but some
cities were not set up to utilize this project’s
funds. It is important to note that these cities’ investments and initiatives are still waiting for the
government to give them accurate statistics about
sexually exploitative activities.
With research carried out by Ana María Kehmann
and Dilma Felizardo, the CRPSP (Regional Psychological Council of São Paulo)9 shows that
Brazil did take some steps to combat the sexual
exploitation of girls and adolescents when EMBRATUR carried out a publicity campaign at restaurants, hotels, airports and travel agencies.
Brazilian embassies started identifying travel
agencies that sold packages for sex tourism. Starting in 1995, they began to remove posters with
women in extremely scant bathing suits, evidence
that even the Brazilian government was initiating
and stimulating sex tourism.
But the greatest problem is Brazilian racism,
which leads to social exclusion and poverty, and
which causes many black girls to succumb to
prostitution and child/adolescent sex tourism.
(Figure 5).

Figure 5. Source: Pavablog, 2014

43