Prostitutes in one of Brazil's biggest cities are beginning to sign up for free English classes ahead of this year's Confederations Cup and the 2014 World Cup.
Cida Vieira, president of the Association of Prostitutes in the city of Belo Horizonte, said Tuesday that 20 have already signed up for the courses and she expects at least 300 of the group's 4,000 members to follow suit. The association is organizing the classes and seeking volunteer teachers.
“I don't think we will have problems persuading English teachers to provide services for free,” she said. “We already have several volunteer psychologists and doctors helping us.”
She said classes are expected to begin in March and last up to eight months.
“It will be important for the girls who will be able to use English to let their clients know what they are charging and learn about what turns them on,” Ms. Vieira said by telephone.
Maybe it’s the caiprinhas, but just when it seemed the media mills were running short of pulp on United States civil servants behaving badly in the tropics, now comes word that another bunch of America’s top guns may have stepped over the line with sex workers in one more Latin American port of call. Except this time the setting, circumstances, and fallout were far more serious and nearly created a diplomatic incident.
According to local police, attorneys, and media, three U.S. marines went on an afterhours romp late last year that started at a strip club in Brasilia, spilled over to the police blotter, and landed Romilda Aparecida Ferreira, a 31-year-old exotic dancer, in the hospital with multiple injuries. This story comes in the wake of scandal over Secret Service personnel carousing with call girls at the Americas Summit in Colombia in mid-April, as well as reports of a similar episode at a strip club in El Salvador. But the imbroglio in Brazil was a jolt.
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Romilda Aparecida Ferreira, 31, and her lawyer said they plan to file suit for injuries, medical expenses, lost income, and psychological trauma after an embassy van ran over her and left her stranded in the club parking lot with a broken collarbone, punctured lung and other injuries. The incident occurred December 29 when an embassy driver was dispatched to the club to pick up three marines and one civilian staffer.
A civil suit would compound a case in which Brazilian prosecutors have already said they are considering criminal charges, including assault and failure to provide assistance to an injured person. It also threatens to further tarnish the image of overseas U.S. personnel in the wake of a separate scandal involving U.S. Secret Service members and prostitutes in Cartagena, Colombia, earlier this month.
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