THIS WORLD Child Rescuers Tx Date: 20th June 2004 This script was made from audio tape – any inaccuracies are due to voices being unclear or inaudible 10.00.00 This World Theme Music 10.00.02 Title Page thisworld 10.00.10 Music 00.00.17 Narrator La Reforma Prison, San Jose, where many of Costa Rica’s toughest criminals are housed. Including Tony Max. 10.00.24 Music 10.00.26 Narrator He’s serving eight years for pimping young girls to tourists. This man put him there. 10.00.32 Music 10.00.33 Tony Max Subtitles Tony Max: First of all, I would hide myself so that he doesn’t realise that I’m near him. And then I would kick him straight into his testicles. 10.00.43 Music 10.00.48 Narrator Bruce Harris is the director of a children’s charity. He faces death threats. He works under armed guard. 10.00.55 Music 10.00.59 Tony Max Subtitles With my own hands, I will take two of his eyes of his face. I will leave him blind for the rest of his life. Harris owes me… and Harris will have to pay me. 10.01.12 Music 10.01.16 Bruce Harris This man is dangerous. It’s good for society that he’s locked up. He can cry all he wants but he is a convicted felon for sexually exploiting young girls and he is in jail because of that. 10.01.33 Music 10.01.37 Narrator These young girls are now free. Rescued from years of abuse in Costa Rica’s child sex trade. 10.01.44 Music 10.01.46 Girl 1 Voice over I’m thirteen and I’m from Limon. 10.01.51 Girl 2 Voice over I’m fifteen and I’m from Guanacaste. 10.01.55 Girl 3 Voice over I’m thirteen and I come from Guasima. 10.01.58 Girl 4 Voice over I’m twelve and I’m from San Martin, Guanacaste. 10.02.01 Girl 5 Voice over I’m thirteen and I come from Carrera Pocosi. 10.02.04 Music 10.02.09 Title Page Child Rescuers 10.02.16 Music 10.02.17 Narrator Costa Rica in Central America; it’s one of many exotic holiday destinations springing up around the globe as cheap flights bring easy travel. Tourism is its number one industry. 10.02.28 Music 10.02.29 Narrator It’s helping lift the country out of poverty. Costa Rica is selling itself as an eco-paradise; a land of rainforests, volcanoes and palm-fringed beaches. 10.02.38 Music 10.02.40 Narrator But selling yourself as the latest tourist hot spot can come at a heavy price. 10.02.44 Music 10.02.46 Narrator When Bruce Harris arrived nine years ago he found a big problem in paradise. Thousands of children were prey to sex tourists. 10.02.54 Music 10.03.02 Bruce Harris Sex tourism is big money. In a country like Costa Rica we get plane loads of sex tourists coming in. They leave millions of dollars a year in the country. 10.03.21 Narrator Costa Rica’s been caught up in what is now a major world problem. The UN estimates that over a million children are commercially sexually exploited every year. 10.03.36 Narrator It’s the height of the holiday season and tourists enjoy a slice of Costa Rican culture at a popular restaurant above the capital San Jose. It’s full of American visitors. 10.03.45 Music 10.03.48 Narrator There are all the trappings of tourism gloss; friendly locals, traditional food, music, dancing and a panoramic view over the city. 10.03.56 Music 10.04.05 Narrator But down in the city centre itself it’s a very different atmosphere. Sex is the main commodity on sale around the tourist hotels. The night is just hotting up. Prostitutes tout for business. Groups of men crowd the clubs and bars looking for action. And amongst the whole mix there are young girls for sale. 10.04.28 Music 10.04.30 Man 1 Subtitles There’s a lot of child porn and all that… A lot of gringos come here for that. 10.04.41 Man 2 Subtitles Well, the gringos all say it’s a candy store. 10.04.48 Man 3 Subtitles It’s a little bit expensive. Girls here, they say they want 100 dollars for one hour… but you can probably get them down to, like 80, maybe 70, 60. 10.05.00 Man 4 Subtitles She was one of the most beautiful little girls I’ve ever seen. She used to do 10 clients a night. 10.05.12 Man Subtitle 100 dollars? Girl Subtitle Yes. 10.05.14 Man Subtitle 100 dollars. For how long? 10.05.17 Girl Subtitle One hour. 10.05.20 Man 2 Subtitles For one hour they’ll massage you, fuck you, suck you… you can get anything, anything you want. 10.05.26 Narrator Since a crackdown in the Far East on child sex tourism, abusers have been seeking new destinations. 10.05.33 Narrator Costa Rica is attractive because it’s an easy and safe place to visit. The laws on child sex have been weak and the chances of being caught and punished almost none existent. 10.05.45 Bruce Harris This is the Morecon Park. This is one of the, sort of the centres of sexual exploitation of children here in San Jose. This is right in front of the Holiday Inn over here, the, you know, this side is what we call Gringo Gully or Gringo Gulch, where a lot of the hotels, where it’s very open prostitution, mostly of adults but apparently also of, of, of under age girls. 10.06.11 Bruce Harris They’re old, they’re bald, they’re ugly, they’re fat and they come here with twenty dollars in their hand, they think they can buy the innocence and the beauty of the children here. 10.06.30 Narrator Bruce Harris came to Costa Rica as the Central American Director of a children’s rights charity called Casa Alianza. 10.06.39 Narrator He was appalled at not only the openness of child sex but that the authorities were turning a blind eye. When he first spoke out he was dismissed. 10.06.49 Bruce Harris The first reaction of the authorities was one of, you know, you’re making this up. 10.06.55 Music 10.06.59 Narrator Bruce decided that the way to force the Costa Rican authorities to confront the problem was by exposing the pimps and paedophiles and getting them in prison. 10.07.06 Music 10.07.08 Narrator No one was going after the perpetrators so Bruce decided to do it himself. 10.07.11 Music 10.07.15 Narrator One of the most infamous pimps was Tony Max. 10.07.17 Music 10.07.20 Narrator He’d been operating quite openly for years; offering girls for sex from his house in San Jose. 10.07.26 Music 10.07.28 Narrator His calling card was an American flag outside his home. 10.07.31 Music 10.07.35 Narrator Bruce decided to pose as a sex tourist seeking young girls. He rigged up a secret camera in his bag and knocked on the door. It was his first time as an undercover investigator. 10.07.49 Bruce Harris Once I got in there it was sort of scary. He had several Doberman dogs in the courtyard. I was on my own. I was actually getting rather worried. 10.08.05 Narrator Tony Max himself answered the door and showed Bruce into his living room. 10.08.10 Narrator Before Bruce was introduced to the girls, Tony Max produced a blackboard with the rules of the house. No drugs, no personal research, no reimbursement. 10.08.22 Bruce Harris Subtitles They’re pretty. I didn’t ask you how much you charge? 10.08.29 Tony Max Subtitles For these, I’ve got 6 hours, 12 hours and 24 hours. 10.08.36 Narrator The third girl was well under eighteen. And when Bruce asked if he had any younger, Max apologised and offered to get some as young as thirteen and deliver them to Bruce’s hotel. 10.09.00 Narrator Bruce’s undercover film was key evidence in Tony Max’s trial. He was the most high profile pimp to be jailed for selling children to sex tourists. 10.09.12 Narrator Getting convictions is the crucial step for any country in deterring abusers. It took an outsider, Bruce Harris, to do it. 10.09.25 Narrator Bruce is an unlikely undercover detective. He comes from Dorset in England, where he worked as a postman, a lorry driver and a miner before getting into human rights issues and arriving in Central America. 10.09.41 Bruce Harris When I was growing up I wanted to be a policeman, perhaps I’ve become a non-official cop and trying to use that motivation and skills into investigating issues against children. 10.09.57 Aston PATRICIA HARRIS He gets into conflict a lot of times because of that, usually with government officials. Confronting them with the truth that, you know, they don’t like. He wants to investigate many things and I think sometimes it’s very risky. He does things people normally wouldn’t do. 10.10.23 Bruce’s wife If you don’t take risks you don’t change things; that’s why I think he does it. 10.10.30 Music 10.10.51 Bruce Harris Every day when we come into the office there are more and more calls. Over the last several years we have more than six hundred criminal cases that we’re following and the great majority of them come in through phone calls that are taped here. We got an interesting call from a gentleman who’s been noticing that there’s a family who is actually prostituting two of their daughters according to his report, very young children. We try to tell people to call the authorities but people have called the authorities and all too often there has been no response which is why they call us out of frustration. 10.11.32 Narrator There’s a new case involving an American tourist who’s staying in an apartment in San Jose. The tip has come from his landlady. She’s concerned about the young girls he’s bringing to his room. 10.11.44 Bruce Harris She dropped off the passport. Ok. So let’s do this, check his migratory status. Do the database search as far as Megan’s List. Do the search on the Internet to see if his name pops up with anything. And let’s plan in the next couple of days to do a stakeout. 10.12.11 Narrator It’s one more case for the Casa Alianza team to pursue. 10.12.17 Narrator Reports have come in about problems in a tourist town on the Pacific coast. 10.12.25 Narrator Bruce is worried that child sex tourism is going unchecked in remote areas after a clamp down by the authorities in the capital. He’s off on another undercover investigation. 10.12.38 Bruce Harris We’re now on our way now to a beach community called Quepos. As more and more we crackdown on the sexual exploitation of kids in San Jose, the, the illegal activities spread out to other towns. The idea is to check out what’s going on, to see if we see any activity, talk to some of the people and see what we can find. 10.12.59 Bruce Harris Quepos is a nice town, right here by the side of the bay you have the yachts out, you can go on fishing trips, there’s some good deep-sea fishing close by. I mean as a tourist attraction it’s, it’s a sleepy little town but it’s a pretty little town. But at night it changes character. 10.13.20 Music 10.13.23 Bruce Harris There are two groups of people who sexually exploit children. 10.13.27 Music 10.13.29 Bruce Harris You have the hard core paedophiles who come to Costa Rica specifically looking for little boys and girls. And then you have, what I consider to be the bigger group, people who take advantage of a situation when they see it, the opportunists. 10.13.44 Music 10.13.46 Bruce Harris At night when you’re wandering around downtown Quepos and the bars are open and the clubs, especially if you’re a foreign male, they think you’re looking for something more than a cappuccino. They start to sell the, the seedy part of Quepos. 10.14.04 Music 10.14.11 Narrator As the nightlife hots up Bruce was ready to go undercover. He wandered into town to check out just what might be on offer. 10.14.23 Narrator Within a few minutes of arriving in the main street, a man approached Bruce to offer girls. 10.14.30 Pimp 1 Subtitle You like her? 10.14.32 Bruce Harris Subtitle How old’s she? 10.14.33 Pimp 1 Subtitles Sixteen, seventeen. How old do you want? 10.14.39 Bruce Harris Subtitle We like 13, 14. 10.14.42 Pimp Subtitles If you pay me a taxi, I can get two, one of 13 and one of 14. 10.14.49 Man You won’t let us down, you’ll be back. 10.14.51 Pimp No, out front, here. 10.14.52 Man Ok. 10.14.54 Bruce Harris When I was talking with him outside, I said; are you going to go to a bar to get them or what. He said; no, I’m going to their home and they’re going to, you know, have to get washed and changed and such like. 10.15.08 Narrator On the main street there are also other pimps looking for business, including a transvestite. 10.15.15 Transvestite Subtitle Do you fancy it? 10.15.17 Narrator This pimp was offering two young girls aged just thirteen, who were waiting across the street. 10.15.25 Pimp 2 Subtitle What will you pay for her? 10.15.28 Man Subtitle Eighty…for two? 10.15.32 Pimp 2 Subtitles Fifty for one – not for two. 100 dollars – 50/50. 10.15.40 Narrator It had been a while since the first pimp had disappeared to find young girls at their home. Bruce spotted he’d returned and went over to speak to him. 10.15.50 Pimp 1 Subtitles Those two girls are with somebody… some two guys. Their mom says that they live with two guys, two tourists. 10.16.01 Bruce Harris Subtitle How old are they? Pimp Subtitle 11, 12 or 13. 10.16.08 Narrator There’s a story behind each of the young girls being offered to tourists in a place like Quepos. A lucky few have been rescued and brought here to Tia Tere; the country’s only hostel for victims. Nadia was just seven when she was first sold to men. 10.16.28 Nadia Voice over My mother decided I should be a prostitute. I didn’t like it; I tried to escape. I started working on the streets but the police found me and sent me back home. 10.16.45 Aston MARIA DAVILA Director, Tia Tere Voice over We have girls here from all over Costa Rica. They’re anything from nine to thirteen years old. 10.16.58 Narrator Tina is just twelve. 10.17.04 Tina Voice over My mother would tie me up and undress me. Then four men would arrive. They’d do the canchi-canchi to me; well that’s what I call it. Most of them came from abroad; from California, Canada, France, the rest were local. Sometimes they made me bleed, I felt so dirty. I was abused and exploited all my life, since I was five. 10.17.46 Maria Davila Voice over In this hostel there are three or four girls to each room. Each room has its own bathroom. Here’s one of the rooms. They’ve got their things; they can arrange the room the way they want. At the moment they’re choosing colours to paint their walls. 10.18.09 Girl Voice over They were ugly. They were old. I was scared; I felt repulsion, I couldn’t sleep because I was so scared of what they would do to me. 10.18.23 Nadia Voice over My mother used to beat me up and I went back to the streets to work as a prostitute. She told me that I had to beg on the streets and if I didn’t bring any money she wouldn’t give me any food. I just wanted to die. One day I got a knife and I said I was going to kill my parents. 10.18.49 Tina Voice over I just wanted to be happy. I just wanted to play like any other child. They could have let me play like a child at least for a day. They took my childhood away from me; I’m not happy. 10.19.04 Narrator Refuges like Tia Tere can only ever be a safety net for victims. Bruce soon realised that it was tougher laws that would really protect children. You have to deter the sex tourists in the first place. 10.19.19 Music 10.19.25 Narrator Costa Rica was seen as a soft touch. Five years ago it wasn’t even illegal to have sex with a man. There were no laws banning child pornography. Brothels and massage parlours using underage girls operated freely and even when raids happened owners were often tipped off. This one was staged in the full glare of the national media. 10.19.49 Music 10.19.52 Narrator It was supposed to result in the rescue of numerous underage girls and show that the authorities were tacking the problem. But as armed police stormed the front with a massive show of force the bar owner was being helped over the back wall by a police officer. No one was prosecuted and no girls were found. 10.20.09 Music 10.20.12 Narrator Bruce campaigned for change. 10.20.14 Music 10.20.18 Narrator Enter Liliam Gomez. She was appointed as a Special Prosecutor. Her task was to change the climate by getting abusers behind bars. The government introduced tough new laws making it illegal to have sex with anyone under the age of eighteen. 10.20.34 Music 10.20.38 Narrator When Bruce stumbled across a new case, he decided he could work with the new regime and he teamed up with Liliam. 10.20.43 Music 10.20.46 Narrator It would be a case which would test his skills and nerve to the limit. It would highlight just how ill prepared countries around the world like Costa Rica can be in dealing with organised child sex abusers. 10.20.59 Aston LILIAM GOMEZ Special Prosecutor for Sex Crimes Voice over Casa Alianza discovered a site on the Internet called the Anonymous Paedophiles Association. There was a lawyer, an historian, an IT engineer and two more people who weren’t professionals. 10.21.21 Narrator The gang operated from San Jose University where one of them worked in the IT department. As their own footage shows they brought boys here to abuse and film. They began publishing their pictures on the Internet. The Internet is notoriously used to promote sex tourism. This is one of the most difficult things for countries like Costa Rica to tackle. It requires high level training of police and costly technology. Liliam Gomez’s investigators didn’t even have a single computer at that time. 10.21.52 Liliam Gomez Voice over They would introduce the children through the Internet to their paedophile friends so that they could come and have sex with them here in Costa Rica. 10.22.00 Narrator Liliam and Bruce decided they had to infiltrate the gang to get the evidence they needed. It was a difficult and risky business. 10.22.13 Liliam Gomez Voice over We did a lot of surveillance work following them. We had to see what their every day movements were. They were just normal working people. But at the end of the day or at the weekend they’d look for children and organise parties with them. 10.22.37 Narrator The boys were picked up from the streets of Cristo Ray, a poor area. Families here scrape a living the best they can. Kids wander the streets and are easy prey. Members of the gang would cruise the back streets in their cars to find their victims. Many were schoolboys, lured away with the promises of food, videos and money. 10.23.02 Narrator Bruce and his colleagues then came up with a sting to trap the group and get the final evidence to convict them. They posed as an American sex tourist over the Internet. 10.23.13 Music 10.23.16 Narrator The gang invited the fictitious character to Costa Rica for an initiation party. The meeting place was a church in San Jose. Bruce’s friend Colin agreed to play the tourist. 10.23.31 Music 10.23.34 Colin I came round the corner, came up the steps, it was a very crowded afternoon, there were lot of people around. I just sort of stood here with the bag and waited and soon a person came up the steps, said are you, are you the name of the person that I was playing. And I said yes, so, oh well the others are coming along soon and we’re, we’re trying to get the party organised. 10.23.56 Narrator It was crucial to get film of what happened at the party. So Colin brought along a camera as a present to the gang. 10.24.02 Colin Clearly this was the thing that defined their lives and this was their special activity, this was their hobby, this was something that brought them together and they formed an association. 10.24.16 Narrator The party was organised in an apartment near Bruce’s offices. The police had set up a hidden camera to record everything. Together with prosecutors they watched in secret from a room above. 10.24.30 Bruce Harris Basically we were all hiding up here for about three hours before the party was supposed to begin. We couldn’t go to the loo; we couldn’t make any noise because the idea was that nobody else was living here because otherwise they wouldn’t have had that party. 10.24.46 Bruce Harris And we were viewing through a very small view finder in black and white, there was one small hidden camera that they had downstairs and it was getting hot inside, we were hungry and then finally once the people started to arrive then sort of the adrenalin started pumping so you were really keeping an eye on what was going on. 10.25.09 Narrator The boys had been recruited by the lawyer. He was found with a contacts book containing hundreds of names of young boys. 10.25.17 Colin This is the apartment where the party took place. It’s actually the floor below where the Casa Alianza offices were. 10.25.28 Narrator The ploy to get the gang to film themselves with the camera Colin brought worked. They took turns in filming the party. 10.25.37 Colin There were seven, six, seven boys, most of whom were in this area over here. They were sitting right here watching TV, watching movies, they put some pornographic movies played on the TV for them to watch. They were stripped down to their underwear; there was a bit of dancing going on, some music. 10.25.55 Colin The hidden camera, the police camera was up over here in this corner. He was giving out cocaine; he had set up here some marijuana and cocaine on the table and was helping the kids. 10.26.08 Narrator Then the police’s secret camera went dead. The battery was flat. Upstairs the prosecutors and police panicked. They were now blind to what was happening below. The only way to see the party was by peering out of a window. Bruce risked being spotted. 10.26.24 Bruce Harris And it was like looking up on this on tiptoes and you could see down into the, the window down below of the flat. One of the five men was taking this little kid in and he had him naked and he was about to jump on him. So I called the judge in quickly, I said; Judge, look. And then she said to the police, ok, go, go. 10.26.51 Bruce Harris They came through the doors with the guns levelled like this. Some are down low, some are up high and it was unbelievable how everything just stopped dead. I ended up on the kitchen floor beside the lawyer, they were doing their homework and there was three of them that were doing their schoolwork. 10.27.09 Narrator Casa Alianza had pulled off an elaborate sting and trapped a sophisticated gang of paedophiles. The case hit the headlines and big sentences were handed out. 10.27.21 Narrator The gang’s own footage proved crucial in their own conviction. Two of the gang got thirty years in prison. The message was out; somebody was finally monitoring the Internet sex trade in Costa Rica. 10.27.34 Music 10.27.43 Aston LILIAM GOMEZ Special Prosecutor for Sex Crimes Voice over Casa Alianza has done a job here in Costa Rica that no one else is doing in this society. You know, the problem of commercial sexual exploitation is a problem that people tend to take no notice of. They see it, they know it’s there and they know it’s a crime. 10.28.00 Narrator People are now beginning to report child sex crimes after this successful prosecution. So much so that Liliam now has a backlog of four hundred cases. 10.28.13 Liliam Gomez Voice over I wouldn’t say that we take long to carry out the investigations; we only have eight investigators for all the cases we get. I wouldn’t say that I’m happy with our results but if we had more resources we’d be able to investigate more people. 10.28.29 Narrator Her eight officers face an in-tray of over forty cases each to investigate. Most of them involve time consuming surveillance of premises and suspects. The whole team only has two cars, one camera and often has to borrow bits of kit from other units, simply to operate. They have almost no formal training. 10.28.50 Narrator But skills and resources are only part of beefing up police efforts. Paedophiles are known for operating across borders. Without international co-operation they can easily stay one step ahead of the law. 10.29.01 Music 10.29.14 Narrator This paradise beach was the scene of one of Costa Rica’s most challenging cases. It would test political will between America and Costa Rica on tracking down child sex tourists. 10.29.26 Music 10.29.27 Bruce Harris This house here is where an American dentist and an American vet, two men brought girls here and according to the allegations against them they were sexually abusing them here and they were giving them drugs. 10.29.42 Narrator Arthur Kanev and Joe Curtis Baker organised sex parties by the pool of their luxury chalet. Girls as young as thirteen were lured by the promises of food and money and often kept here for days. 10.29.57 Narrator Neighbours became worried by what was going on and tipped off the police. The Prosecutor for Sex Crimes started to investigate; a raid was planned and the two were arrested. 10.30.11 Bruce Harris Casa Alianza started hearing about this case, we participated in part of the investigation and when they were finally arrested we started looking for the victims to try and help get more evidence against the accused. 10.30.23 Narrator Thirty girls are believed to have been victims. One was Anna, who was thirteen at the time. 10.30.33 Anna Voiceover We just want justice. He took advantage of the fact that we haven’t got any money and he has a lot. He used that. He used his money to get to us and make us do what we did. 10.30.53 Narrator Kanev and Baker were charged before the laws in Costa Rica were changed to make sex with girls under eighteen illegal. 10.31.01 Narrator That meant that if they could successfully argue the girls were working as prostitutes, in other words already corrupt, they would get off. 10.31.10 Aston ARTHUR KANEV I believe it’s legal if they comport themselves as professionals. 10.31.17 Brian Ross Even if they’re kids? 10.31.19 Arthur Kanev Even if they’re young. 10.31.21 Brian Ross And you were fifty-two. 10.31.23 Arthur Kanev Approximately. 10.31.25 Narrator Kanev was so confident that he’d get off that he brazenly went on TV whilst on bail in Costa Rica. He didn’t mince his words with US reporter Brian Ross. 10.31.33 Brian Ross Do you feel badly for the girls? 10.31.35 Arthur Kanev No. I don’t think I did anything incorrect. 10.31.39 Brian Ross Would you have done that in the United States? 10.31.41 Arthur Kanev No. 10.31.43 Brian Ross So, why did you do it here? 10.31.45 Arthur Kanev Because I knew it was legal. 10.31.50 Brian Ross But was it right? 10.31.53 Arthur Kanev Is it a sin; maybe. Is it illegal, was it illegal; I don’t believe so. 10.32.00 Brian Ross No qualms? 10.32.01 Kanev I have no qualms. 10.32.03 Narrator Weeks before the trial, Kanev skipped bail and disappeared abroad. Baker was only found guilty of drugging minors. For Kanev, it was out of sight, out of mind. But Bruce wouldn’t give up. 10.32.17 Narrator He decided to use one of the most powerful tools available to further his cause. The media. 10.32.26 Narrator Playing to the repulsion in mainstream America about child sex crimes, he turned to the popular television crime programme; America’s Most Wanted. 10.32.34 Presenter …right away, we got a whole bunch of tips on one creep that I really wanted to nail. And with a lot of hard work by some tough cops we tracked him down. 10.32.48 Narrator Bruce had struck lucky. A viewer recognised Kanev and phoned the police. 10.32.53 Policewoman Put your gun away Ronnie, I got him. 10.32.58 Narrator Police caught up with Kanev in Florida. He was taken to an American prison to wait for an extradition hearing. 10.33.16 Narrator All eyes were on what would happen next in this landmark case. Would international co-operation really succeed in getting him back before a Costa Rican court? That’s a question his alleged victim Anna wants answered. She’s still living in fear of facing Kanev after speaking out. 10.33.37 Anna Voice over It has affected me a lot. I sometimes think about what happened and I don’t like it. I feel repulsive, I feel horrible. I think I’m mentally damaged forever. 10.33.50 Narrator But Anna has an even greater fear than that of facing Kanev again. 10.33.57 Anna Voice over If ever I had a little girl I would be quite worried that the same thing would happen to her. It’s a temptation if you are poor and someone who’s persuasive comes up to you offering a lot of money. 10.34.10 Presenter Arthur Kanev thought the world had forgotten about what he was accused of… 10.34.15 Narrator If Kanev isn’t extradited Bruce is determined to get him under tough new extra-territorial laws in America. 10.34.21 Music 10.34.23 Narrator It’s now a crime in America to travel abroad with the intention of sexually abusing children. More and more countries, including the UK, have introduced similar laws. What this means is that you can be tried in your own county for a sex crime abroad. 10.34.38 Bruce Harris It was one of the first cases that started to show foreigners coming to Costa Rica that times are changing. We’re now able to enforce laws and get people in jail. 10.34.49 Music 10.34.52 Narrator But with the pulling power of tourism cash, in a country like Costa Rica, there’s an army of foot soldiers from taxi drivers to tour guides willing to put tourists in touch with children for sex. 10.35.02 Music 10.35.04 Narrator And the tourism industry worldwide is under fire for profiting from the trade. 10.35.09 Music 10.35.17 Narrator In Costa Rica, taxi drivers in particular have been criticised. On the streets of central San Jose, it’s easy to enlist their help to find very young teenage girls. 10.35.27 Bruce Harris If you can help us to find some younger girls and maybe get a motel for us. Say two younger girls. 10.35.33 Driver 1 Two girls. It’s pretty, pretty woman. 10.35.39 Bruce Harris How much for you? 10.35.41 Driver 1 Yes, for one girl is three hundred. One hundred for the girls and one hundred for… 10.35.47 Bruce Harris For your service. 10.35.48 Driver 2 You pay the money and you is busy with Senorita, yeah. 10.35.56 Narrator This taxi driver offers tours to help tourists find young girls. He stops and calls them over to show them to his clients and negotiate price. 10.35.05 Driver Subtitles They’re young – he wants them very young and tasty, doesn’t he? 10.36.14 Driver Subtitle Hey, sweetie, how are you? How much? 10.36.19 Girl Subtitle How many are there – one or two? Driver Subtitle Only him. 10.36.23 Girl Subtitle Only him? 20 dollars. 10.36.28 Narrator The taxi driver boasted he could fix anything for his clients and began pulling out numbers. 10.36.33 Driver Subtitles I’ve got a telephone number of a girl I met some time ago. Elena – she’s very pretty, very tasty. She’s a very tasty little thing. She gave me her number to call when I’ve got a client. I’ll call her – she’s lovely. 10.36.59 Music 10.37.00 Narrator Many underage victims live in dire poverty and face a daily struggle to simply eat. Careena’s one. She’s been on the streets for three years and lives on her own in a desperately poor shanty town. She’s one of a group of girls as young as thirteen in her area who are often picked up for tourists by taxi drivers. 10.37.23 Careena Voice over They come round and toot. Then they stop at the next corner. They pay and then they go. To be honest, I don’t do what I do because I like it. I just do it for the money and because I have to survive. I need the money. I want to get away from this. One day I will. One day I will. 10.37.55 Music 10.38.07 Narrator Back in the city centre a taxi driver has just delivered a girl of around fourteen he’d picked up from her home to a tourist. 10.38.15 Driver Subtitles How much do you want? Do you want to earn something? 10.38.23 Girl Subtitle 100 dollars? 10.38.26 Driver 100 dollars? Fifty dollars. 10.38.29 Girl Subtitle It’s OK, but… 10.38.33 Driver Subtitle It’s up to you. 10.38.38 Narrator Hundreds of taxi drivers in San Jose are one-man bands desperate for any business they can find. But Erik Vargas works for a big firm ferrying tourists from the airport. He’s now in the frontline of efforts to tackle child sex tourism on the ground. 10.38.55 Erik Vargas Subtitles Look! It’s the Teletubbies. It’s so pretty. It’s your favourite programme. 10.39.05 Narrator Erik’s going back to the classroom today. His company has booked him and his colleagues on a training course run by Paniamor, a local children’s charity. 10.39.19 Erik Vargas Voice over When tourists arrive from other countries and get into my taxi, the first question is; where are the girls, where are the little girls, where can I find girls? 10.39.29 Narrator The training is part of the Tourism Code of Conduct; an international initiative drawn up by the industry together with children’s rights campaigners. 10.39.40 Narrator Costa Rica is the only country so far to adopt the code throughout its tourism industry. 10.39.47 Teresita Ramellini Voice over Good morning. We want the tourists to come to our country to invest and spend money. We want them to come with their families. But we want to make it clear that our children are not part of what the tourists can buy. Ok, let’s get into groups. 10.40.10 Erik Vargas Voice over It’s not only about the airport; we have to talk about the whole country. 10.40.15 Man 1 Voice over It’s easy for them to get that service. 10.40.24 Man 2 Voice over Listen Erik, if a tourist comes here looking for under aged and we say no but someone behind us says yes, I can provide it, then they’ll get that service. Then the tourist will tell his friends that he got it. That’s why the service will always exist. 10.40.46 Erik Vargas Voice over So we’re talking here about corruption, those corrupt people who will always give those services. 10.40.52 Aston TERESITA RAMELLINI Paniamor They’re worried that they may lose some, some people who are clients but also that they feel sometimes that it’s like why I have to put all the effort and what is other people doing. Taxi sector is really like sometimes a tough sector because they are very near to the problem and sometimes they don’t want to acknowledge it. 10.41.17 Music 10.41.21 Narrator New opportunities are being created for child sex tourists as the boom in travel opens up more and more destinations in developing countries. 10.41.28 Music 10.41.32 Narrator Nearby Honduras is regarded as an emerging problem. Antiquated laws, weak policing and chronic poverty make it an ideal place to exploit children with immunity. Bruce has spotted the danger signs and is determined to force changes as he has in Costa Rica. 10.41.48 Music 10.41.50 Narrator Bruce is visiting Casa Alianza’s headquarters in Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital. 10.41.56 Music 10.41.59 Bruce Harris Honduras is now becoming a focus for sex tourism. We’re starting to see a crackdown in Asia, not sufficient but a crackdown. We’re cracking down in Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic and other countries that are well known for the problems of sex tourists. And so they’re looking for other countries such as Honduras where it’s a new phenomenon and the authorities really are not yet organised to attack this problem. 10.42.25 Music 10.42.29 Narrator Bruce is trying to force them to act. His colleague Rafael spent six months investigating Honduras’s child sex trade. He went undercover into brothels, bars and nightclubs across the country posing as a customer. He was one of several investigators. 10.42.46 Music 10.42.49 Narrator The operation involved a string of informers and long hours of surveillance of businesses and customers. 10.42.54 Music 10.42.58 Narrator Over one thousand underage girls were found. 10.43.00 Music 10.43.03 Narrator But Casa Alianza believes this is only a fraction of those suffering. The number could be ten times higher. 10.43.09 Music 10.43.16 Narrator The dossier was handed to the government three months ago with an ultimatum to act. Bruce has come to Honduras to find out whether they have. Presenting the dossier has spurred some action. The police raided a handful of brothels in the weeks before he arrived. Bruce has been told in confidence that more raids are planned. 10.43.49 Narrator Rafael is married with a young son and is a former drugs cop with years of experience in the Honduran police. He gave up last year to work for Casa Alianza. 10.44.04 Narrator Bruce and Rafael are posing as customers to check for themselves what’s happening now at the brothels and clubs investigated for their dossier. 10.44.14 Narrator Their campaign has not gone down well with some parts of the government. Security Minister Oscar Alvarez believes they’re exaggerating the problem. 10.44.24 Oscar Alvarez Casa Alianza is misleading the population. We have talked to Bruce Harris several times and I explain him, I said, I invited him to go on a walk the streets. For he comes here, stays a couple of days and leaves. I mean, how come he can be an expert for what is going on in Honduras. He has to live, I’m talking live, by heart looking at the real situation in our country. 10.44.49 Music 10.44.54 Narrator Bruce and Rafael are returning to some of the bars and brothels in the dossier where underage girls were found. The first was one of the few raided by the police two weeks earlier. 10.45.03 Music 10.45.06 Narrator Tonight there are no underage girls inside but it was still very much open for business. As they toured more places they were puzzled at how few young girls were around. 10.45.17 Music 10.45.20 Narrator Next was the nightclub Illusions which has also been raided. Bruce was amazed it was still open for business. 10.45.27 Music 10.45.33 Bruce Harris Well we went to this club. We were there for quite a while. We didn’t find any underage girls at this point in time. We don’t know whether it’s because we came too early because one of the young women did tell us that there were underage girls there mostly on a Saturday night or about three or four o’clock in the morning. But, it’s good that we didn’t find any in the sense that perhaps they aren’t there anymore. 10.46.01 Narrator Bruce wants to get the brothels and clubs that were raided closed. Casa Alianza has a legal team at its Honduran headquarters. 10.46.14 Bruce Harris Subtitles So what can be done about closing down these centres? 10.46.22 Lawyer Subtitles They could prosecute the owners for sexual abuse and pimping… if they are found guilty. 10.46.33 Bruce Harris Subtitles I want to know who the clients and abusers are. 10.46.45 Lawyer Subtitles Many are public figures, like politicians and congressmen. 10.46.52 Bruce Harris Subtitle And people from other countries? 10.46.54 Lawyer Subtitle Yes, a lot of foreigners. 10.46.56 Bruce Harris Subtitles And the Prosecutor’s Office has rescued girls? 10.47.03 Lawyer Subtitle Yes, they rescued 15 just last Friday. 10.47.11 Maria Voice over I was dancing when the police came. They took us to the shelter and from there, they brought us here. 10.47.18 Narrator Maria, who is fifteen, is one of several girls rescued in the raids and brought to Casa Alianza’s new hostel – Cherubs. 10.47.27 Maria Voice over We would dance, attend clients. It was a bad life but we did it. I didn’t like it but I did it. They were horrible. Just because they were paying for our services they thought they could treat us badly. Sometimes the clients wanted to take us away with them. The owner didn’t care. If he got the money he didn’t care what they wanted. 10.47.52 Narrator Bruce opened the hostel after the dossier was drawn up to give a stable home to any girls who could be rescued. The girls here have a chance of a normal childhood routine again including a place at the local school. 10.48.09 Maria Voice over You lose your self-esteem, you risk your health, you get depressed, you put everything at risk, your spirit and your life. But now I feel a lot better, thank God and that’s thanks to Casa Alianza who’ve helped us very much. 10.48.31 Girl 2 Voice over At first I didn’t want to go out. I had a bath everyday because my body repulsed me. I just pray to God to erase it from my mind. I have a little girl. I want to give her a good example and I want to repair my past. 10.48.52 Narrator Bruce had hoped more girls could have been rescued after his dossier was handed to the authorities. 10.49.01 Narrator Back at the office Bruce gets a phone call from a journalist. It’s bad news. She reveals she’s been handed his full dossier; the one he presented in confidence to the Honduran Government. Bruce also learns the press have been tipped off about new raids planned for that night. Details have been plastered all over the papers. Casa Alianza’s investigation is now an open secret. 10.49.26 Narrator Any crackdown on bar and brothel owners is in jeopardy. 10.49.35 Narrator It’s now clear to Bruce why he and Rafael found few signs of underage girls on their undercover tour. 10.49.43 Bruce Harris They’ll probably be trying to say oh, the information that Casa Alianza gives us isn’t true. Of course they won’t find any kids because it’s come out in the damn newspaper. It’s so frustrating because there are every level that we take the investigation to there’s a problem. We do six months of investigation; we get names and addresses of places where we have seen with our own eyes that children are being sexually exploited. We produce that evidence in a document; we present that confidential document to the Attorney General. This morning a newspaper reporter comes to me with a copy of the document with all the names and addresses of the places that we were going to raid. 10.50.28 Narrator Bruce goes to see Nora Urbino, the new Specialist Prosecutor in charge of ordering the police raids. He wants to find out who’s leaked his dossier. 10.50.43 Aston NORA URBINO Special Prosecutor for Children Voice over We didn’t give the information to the press. The leak must have come from somewhere else. We’re making a huge effort to find out how this happened and where the information came from. 10.50.55 Narrator Nora’s been forced to postpone the planned raids and is determined to find out what happened. She’s also concerned that officials haven’t closed down the brothels and bars where girls have been found in the earlier raids. 10.51.08 Nora Urbino Voice over We all know the levels of corruption in this country. We at the Child Prosecutor’s Office will be checking for places being closed down. If it hasn’t we’ll inform the Anti- Corruption Prosecutors so that they press charges against the civil servant for not closing it down. 10.51.31 Narrator She wants her own squad of dedicated officers to carry out raids so she doesn’t have to rely on regular police. But Oscar Alvarez, the Minister of Security, denies his police officers are tipping off bar and brothel owners. 10.51.44 Aston OSCAR ALVAREZ Minister for Security The situation is when we are doing a raid is that there will be press gets the news and they go and cover it but it’s not that they knew what they know in advance like saying that we are sending a signal to the owners of the brothels to hide the children, that’s not, that’s the point. I mean, I think that’s misleading opinion. The reality is that we are doing the best efforts. 10.52.12 Narrator It’s been a long hard day. Bruce is wondering if his work has all been for nothing. 10.52.18 Bruce Harris There are times where I get frustrated I think I should go back to being a lorry driver in Dorset. But then when I snap out of that then there’s nothing else you could do. I’ve been offered jobs in other places but they’d be jobs and there’s still so much that needs to be done here. 10.52.35 Bruce Harris One of the most difficult things about what I’m doing is getting the balance between the drive to help more kids and borderline sometimes neglecting my own boys whom I love dearly. You know my, my wife is great because she’ll pull back the reins and say; no, you can’t go away again, what about your family. And for me, my family is, is what’s important. 10.53.12 Narrator Bruce is on his way home to Costa Rica. Presenting the dossier in Honduras is a first big step in changing attitudes there and highlighting the scale of the emerging problem. But Bruce realises he has a battle on his hands. So far the authorities have carried out a handful of raids but there have been no arrests. 10.53.31 Narrator Special Prosecutor Nora Urbino says she’s committed to fighting corruption and will start going after the brothel and bar owners. And its prosecutions above all which have really changed the situation back in Costa Rica. 10.53.47 Narrator This year there’s the biggest test yet of Costa Rica’s commitment to tackling international sex tourism. It’s made big headlines. The stakes couldn’t be higher as public figures are implicated. There are allegations of corruption. 10.54.01 Bruce Harris It’s a very difficult one because once you have names of people in power then politically you get a lot of interference on these cases. 10.54.10 Narrator This woman, Madam Sinai is at the centre of the scandal. 10.54.15 Narrator This is the suburban house from which she’s alleged to have run a high-class business supplying underage girls to well connected clients and sex tourists. 10.54.27 Narrator Complaints were made, some to Casa Alianza. Bruce began to investigate and once again used the power of the media to apply pressure. 10.54.37 Narrator A journalist posed as a client. 10.54.40 ‘Robert’ Subtitle Hello, Sinai? Madam Sinai Subtitle Yes. 10.54.42 ‘Robert’ Subtitles Hello, good evening. My name is Robert. I’m from Spain - I just arrived two days ago. 10.54.47 Madam Sinai Subtitle Oh, how are you? ‘Robert’ Subtitle Very well, thanks. 10.54.49 Madam Sinai Subtitle You’re enjoying yourself? ‘Robert’ Subtitles Very much. I was given your number by a taxi driver at the airport. 10.54.55 Madam Sinai Subtitles Oh yes, of course. I’ve got a few beauties…real lovelies. 10.54.58 ‘Robert’ Subtitle What ages can you get me? 10.54.59 Madam Sinai Subtitle I can get you whatever you want. 10.55.01 ‘Robert’ Subtitle Well, 13, 14 years old, maybe? 10.55.05 Madam Sinai Subtitle Yes, of course - just tell me where. 10.55.08 Narrator Madam Sinai is now in prison waiting trial. She says it’s all a big misunderstanding. 10.55.19 Aston Madam SINAI MONGE MUNOZ Voice over I used to introduce them to my girlfriends but they were over age. I didn’t have any big business on the go or anything else because I have nothing, I haven’t got any business or anything at all. 10.55.33 Narrator But then there was a shooting incident at the hostel where one of the main witnesses against Sinai had been taken. She was an underage girl who was allegedly sold by Sinai to tourists. An armed man broke into the compound and made for the girls’ houses. 10.55.49 Narrator But the hostel security guard confronted him. 10.55.55 Aston MARIA DAVILA Director, Tia Tere Voice over He gets out a gun and fires. Thank God he didn’t manage to hit anyone. Then the guard gets his gun out and he shoots. Then the man starts running, he jumps the fence and runs towards a car that’s waiting for him. 10.56.11 Narrator But what has made this case really hit the headlines is the existence of a list of Madam Sinai’s clients. It’s said to include top politicians and influential figures in Costa Rican society. 10.56.25 Madam Sinai Voice over God knows I don’t anyone from such circles. I know them from television, when they’re on telly but at no time did I get to know them. 10.56.37 Bruce Harris I hope we’ve reached the point in Costa Rica in the application of the law to protect children, that some of the big fish will finally get caught in the net. 10.56.49 Aston President ABEL PACHECO Voice over In the past, pimps here were given a kind of protection. One of them used to boast about how proud she was to be able to say that she was protected by powers in the government. But this lady is now in prison. It’s a clear sign that our government is completely serious about prosecuting anyone who abuses our children. 10.57.08 Policewoman Put your gun away Ronnie, I got him. 10.57.12 Narrator And that determination has helped bring about another milestone in Costa Rica’s fight against child sex tourism. 10.57.20 Narrator Bruce gets the news he’s waited six years for. 10.57.24 Narrator The American dentist, Arthur Kanev, is back to finally face justice. 10.57.31 Bruce Harris The fact that Kanev is now back in Costa Rica is nothing short of a miracle. It’s the first ever American who has been extradited from the United States to Costa Rica. 10.57.42 Bruce Harris For the victims, the girls, it’s important for them to see that justice can be served as hopefully it will. 10.57.50 Narrator It’s a landmark decision by the US court. Kanev’s trial is set for August. He faces a prison sentence of thirty years. 10.58.01 Narrator There’s constant temptation for sex tourists as more and more countries are opened up to travellers. Costa Rica is one country trying to show how to stem the tide. 10.58.11 Bruce Harris People who travel abroad to have sex with children need to understand there is a high risk and we will get you. It may take a while but we will go after you. 10.58.22 End Music 10.58.32 Voice over Have your say on tonight’s show and explore a world of extra information, news stories and features by visiting our web site at: bbc.co.uk/thisworld Credits 10.58.30 Narrator NICOLA WALKER Dubbing Mixer CLIFF JONES Camera JONATHAN YOUNG VT Editor GARETH WILLIAMS Production Team JULIA DANNENBERG SARAH HANKS AGNES TEEK PILAR MEDRANO Production Manager JANE WILLEY Unit Manager SUSAN CRIGHTON Film Research NICK DODD Research OLLY BOOTLE GORDON DURNIN Assistant Producers EMMA RIPPON LEYLA HAYES Picture Editors GERAINT EVANS SUSAN BRAND Produced and Directed by PHILIP WRIGHT 10.58.55 THIS WORLD Editor KAREN O’CONNOR © BBC MMIV 10.58.57 End BBC This World 1 1