City authorities struggle to squeeze out trashy flesh pots

LETTER FROM BRAZIL:A once bohemian resort has been taken over by a sex trade fuelled by European tourists

IT IS a common enough lament among a certain type of cranky Dublin drinker that mass tourism has spoiled Temple Bar, turning a once bohemian quarter into a drunken mess of stag and office parties.

But such a drinker might consider the far worse fate of Iracema Beach, which was once the Temple Bar of the northeastern Brazilian city of Fortaleza.

In the past it was where local families came to dine out by the sea on crab, shrimp and prawn, taking advantage of the constant breeze in this city just below the equator where the local authorities promise to refund tourists a day's expenses if it rains for more than three hours at a time. (It doesn't.)

In a place with a small middle class it was in late-night bars along Iracema's sea front that everyone who was anyone came to meet up; journalists and politicians mingling with students and local artists, drinking, arguing and flirting the night away.

Now the seafront is deserted, boarded up and beginning to fall into disrepair. The clue as to what happened lies a block or two back from the coast. There the nightlife is more hectic than ever with bars blasting out music all night as European punters drink, chat and dance with local prostitutes.

It does not take long to realise that most of these women are young and that many are underage. My local host was in tears after a 3am tour through the area revealed middle-aged men sitting at tables on the pavement while young teenagers gyrated in front of them touting for business.

This transformation of Iracema Beach has all happened in little more than a decade. Prostitution is legal and present in Brazil. But it was the advent of budget long-haul air travel in the 1990s that led to the realisation by many European men that a cheap Third World holiday of endless sun and sex was now well within their budget.

As Fortaleza is one of the closest points in Brazil to Europe many descended on this city. The more that came, the more prostitutes congregated here to serve them. As the city's most agreeable nightspot, they met up in Iracema.

For locals there is a bitter irony in this. Iracema Beach is named after the heroine of a 19th-century Brazilian literary classic. An anagram for America, she was an Indian woman who had a child with a Portuguese conquistador - the first Brazilian.

Now the dregs of Europe come to pay for sex with Iracema's descendants. As disgusted locals fled the area, bars and restaurants went out of business unless they switched focus and cashed in on the sex trade.

Tourism was supposed to be a route for Fortaleza to drag itself out of its all-too-obvious poverty. But instead of European families interested in sandcastles and pony treks along the seafront, the city found itself inundated with charter flights from Italy, Portugal and the Netherlands. On these up to 80 per cent of passengers are male.

The city government is now belatedly trying to reverse the tide, even studying the possibility of banning charter flights landing at the city's airport. It has also bought up the abandoned properties along Iracema's seafront which it plans to revitalise while it tries to squeeze out the trashy flesh pots. But it is surprisingly easy to come across defenders of the sex trade.

During our tour of the area one taxi driver insisted that the girls are all there willingly and the city should be happy that so many tourists are prepared to come and spend money in Fortaleza. When my host answered angrily that no development is worth prostituting the city's young girls, the driver just shrugged.

Such tolerance or inertia is opening the door for the sex problem to spread, despite the authorities' best efforts.

On a recent Friday night in the nearby Dragão do Mar cultural centre, the outside tables of the bars and restaurants were jammed. It was a lively, friendly atmosphere - mates watching the local team on a big screen at one bar while families dined all around and young couples had their first drink of the night.

But there was one table that was totally at odds with this scene and it was a table that made customers all around it uncomfortable - three middle-aged Italian men entertaining two young prostitutes to beers.

One Italian insisted on putting his hand down one of the women's skimpy top and groping her while less than 10 feet away a table with three young children tried to go on with their dinner as if it was not happening.

Dragão do Mar is a great cultural amenity and popular nightspot. But unless something is done quickly to see off guests that are unwanted by most residents, the question is: how long before it starts to go the way of Iracema Beach?