Sex work on the Isthmus of Panama

Sexual commerce has occupied a central hallmark of the transit economy in Panama. During the Spanish colonial period, the isthmus became a strategic nexus for the Spanish commercial empire. Every year, sex workers joined merchants, sailors, soldiers and labourers at the annual Portobelo trade fair. That annual event transformed the isthmus from a sleepy backwater into a frenzied spectacle lasting a number of weeks. During that festive happening, drunken revellers filled makeshift brothels as Spanish merchants and bureaucrats oversaw the exchange of European manufactured goods and African slaves for Peruvian silver. Illicit contraband and attacks by rival foreign powers, however, eventually undermined the Spanish trade monopoly in the Americas. By the time of the wars of independence in Latin America, sex work had declined alongside the decreasing economic importance of the isthmus.

Sustainable Development Goals:

Gender Equality

Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions