Cuban Sex Tour.com

From north to south, Havana to Santiago de Cuba, amidst the decaying buildings, propagandizing billboards and food stores with empty shelves there are two things in Cuba which are always in full supply: prostitutes and sex tourists.
In a country with few employment options that offer enough upon which to subsist and an embargo that contributes to substandard living conditions for the majority of the population, women and girls flock to densely populated Havana in search of sexual employment in hotels, bars, restaurants and on the streets. Sex tourists flock to Havana and other cities in search of a form of escapism that is cheap, safe and exotic. In Cuba, foreign men can command Cuban women and girls with the same ease used to order cocktails.



In the meantime, the U.S. placed an embargo on Cuba aimed at bringing down its political structure. The embargo greatly weakened, and continues to weaken, the Cuban economy by banning trade and investment in Cuba. Consequently, the Cuban government strengthened its attempts to lure tourists to Cuba in order to promote revenue. As a result of its dependence on tourism, Cuba has once again turned into a playground for those in search of cheap cigars, rum and prostitutes.
Cuba's greatest lures to the male tourist is its booming sex tourism industry. Sex tourism, a sub-sector of Cuba's prosperous tourist economy, is a significant industry and a major employer for many Cuban women and girls. This is obvious by the number of women seen in the streets, bars and hotels openly soliciting foreign men. It is difficult to obtain statistics on the number of sex tourists and sex workers since it is considered illegal but what is known is that one-fourth of the investments in Cuba have been made in the tourist industry, making it one of the country's most dynamic economic sectors.
Tourists from all over the world pre-book, and in some cases booking on the spot, tours that are thinly disguised weekend sex tours to Havana. In addition to Mexico, the Bahamas serves as a conduit for those tourists, particularly Americans, who are unable to legally travel to Cuba.
Nobody is prohibiting the business and although it is illegal, the Cuban government does nothing to stop it. Sex tourists bring money into the Cuban economy by drawing money to hotels, restaurants and other state-run businesses. This is healthy tourism, and that is what they want.

To help the industry thrive, Cuban authorities and government officials look the other way so that the local economy can receive the foreign currency and foreign men that sexualized travel attracts.
Sex tourism has bloomed in part as a result of "dollarization," which is the legalized use of the U.S. dollar in Cuba in addition to pesos, the national currency. The U.S. dollar was legalized in Cuba as an attempt to boost the stagnant economy but instead has created a two-tiered society in Cuba: the privileged foreigners and the underprivileged locals.
In an effort to get more tourist dollars, the government created tourist stores, restaurants, nightclubs, hotels and even taxis that are accessible to foreigners with hard currency. Dollarization, in conjunction with the embargo, has opened the door to a proliferation of prostitution called "jineterismo" (a derogatory word translated literally to "horseback riding", in colloquial form translating to "gold-digger").

Working the industry
Unlike prostitution in the U.S. and other wealthy nations, Cuban sex workers are not organized or integrated into networks controlled by "pimps" and it is not just a direct exchange of sexual relations for dollars. "Jineterismo" often means the exchange of sexual favors for food, clothing or other basic needs.
At a rooftop restaurant overlooking the Malecon, Cuba's shoreline which runs almost the entire length of Havana, scores of Cuban men can be found working as translators for the women and their potential clients in hopes of getting a small cut, perhaps a drink and on a successful day a full meal. On the streets some men remind the passing tourists that they know beautiful Cuban women who would like to know foreigners and also make the introductions between the foreign men and Cuban women.
One such man is Edwardo who explained that he passes entire days trying to make such introductions. "I become richer by introducing foreign men to Cuban ladies than I would working any government paid job. All day I do this work. It is more money than working in a store or anywhere else," he remarked. When asked if he controlled the women's business he laughed and added, "No, they control my business. They give me something and the tourist gives me something for making the meeting."
Horse jockeys and gold-diggers
In Cuba, one would find that many of the "jineteras" are young and most are of African descent. Some are medical students, some used to be professors or doctors. A few continue to hold professional positions during the day and work as prostitutes in the hotels and bars at night. One thing most have in common is that they are well educated and multi-lingual.
While others call them "jiniteras", they call themselves "Cuban girlfriends" for foreigners and their job duties range from accompanying lonely businessmen on tours of Cuba to escorting them to dinner and then often back to their hotels. Generally, one of the only times a Cuban woman is let into a "tourist" hotel is when she is accompanying a foreign man.
Another thing these women have in common is their choice of prostitution as a profession is out of necessity. None of them appear to work to support drug habits or college education; they work to survive and ensure their families' survival.
Dollars are the means of survival in Cuba, where one in eleven people holds a university degree and there are more doctors and teachers per capita than almost any where else in the world.
His view is not unique. In fact, proponents of sex tourism bring up such arguments remarking that sex tourists are giving a kind of foreign aid. They reason that for a change the money does not disappear into the pockets of corrupt politicians and bureaucrats, and it is not being spent on weapons or senseless prestige projects. Instead, it goes straight into the pockets of the poor population.  
Not only does Lucy speak perfect English, she also speaks German, French, Russian and is learning Turkish so she can have an edge on the "Turkish market," as there has been an influx on Turkish men seeking Cuban women. When asked what she did before sex work she smiled, ignored the question, and mumbled that all this talk was ruining her business. Lucy said she was working that day for a $10 phone card to call her mother in southern Cuba.
In any case, it is the women who must either make do with less, or find ways to earn more. In the struggle to survive as well as keep culture and family alive, many women will turn to whatever means are available in order to persevere. And as men leave their families and flee Cuba in search of work and better lives in richer nations, women are left with the burden of providing for themselves and their families in a society that pushes them into a way of life that it shuns.