Colombia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs defended Cartagena, “a city that lives on tourism,” after U.S. Secret Service agents hired 21 prostitutes April 12, just days before the start of the Summit of the Americas.
Minister Maria Angela Holguin places the blame squarely on the shoulders of the U.S. agents, after international media attention has been focused on the sex industry in Cartagena, an upscale tourist destination on Colombia’s Carribean coast.
“I was very sad because the blame has been placed on Cartagena, a city that lives on tourism, a city that is so important in this area. We have become the culprit, the culprit is the Secret Service,” said Holguin.
“Prostitution is everywhere, where there’s a man, there is prostitution,” Holguin added.
The minister’s comments come after a Washington Post article posited that the Secret Service men may be less to blame for the scandal than Cartagena itself, a city “swimming in prostitutes.”
