Unfortunately, for the town of Cartagena, much attention has been brought upon them for all the wrong reasons. This region in Colombia will go down in history for the unraveling of the American Secret Service.
According to new reports, getting an escort in this town, if you have money, is like picking up the phone and calling room service.
Here’s some new facts coming out of Cartagena…
Underage prostitution is rampant in the sinful seaside city, where finding illicit companionship is literally a walk on the beach.
Visitors to Cartagena, including the agents and U.S. servicemen embroiled in the salacious scandal, simply have to visit one of its seedy shorelines, where they will almost certainly be approached by a “fixer.”
“Anything you need, amigo,” said one such carnal concierge, Ramon Morales, who slyly eyed nighttime strollers. “Beer, cigarettes, girls. I can get you girls.”
Morales said the Americans on President Obama’s advance team made quite a splash before the scandal broke.
“They were partying at the beach,” said Morales, 34, with a grin that was missing several teeth. “They were having a good time with the girls, drinking.”
Morales said extra ladies were ordered up like room service when those at the Pley Club weren’t enough to meet the Americans’ demands.
“They were tall and strong,” said Morales, 34. “Lots of muscle. We got a few cab drivers to bring them girls.”
Hookers can also be easily found in bars or clubs, sometimes with the establishment getting a cut of the john’s fee.
“There are many ways to find us,” said one woman, 21-year-old Rebecca, who worked at Angeles, a dingy bar in the city’s El Bosque neighborhood.
“The guys have to pay a fee to take us out of the bar,” she said. “We feel pretty safe.”
Hotel staffers also almost always turn a blind eye to the hookers that parade up to guests’ rooms.
“Americans are shocked that these guys took girls into their rooms, even if it’s fancy like Hotel Caribe,” said a Cartagena cop patrolling outside the hotel. “This is every day here.”
“There are so many ways to getting girls into the room,” said Alejandra, 24, who works at the Dolce Vita Hotel. “Some of us walk the beach at nights to meet guys. Or the cabs call us. The tourists come here for us.”
The Latin American summit, which drew dozens of world leaders and their entourages, was a particularly good time for business, according to sex workers.
“When the city has big events, they (the pimps) bring girls in buses to the city so they can walk around,” said Morales. “That way the town looks better, sexier. These (guys) knew that we could get them girls.”
It’s a scandal that has all the makings of a blockbuster movie: Sex, drugs, and….escorts.
Today we revealed more photos of Dania Londono Suarez, the woman who found herself on the front page of every publication around the world, after she was identified as the person who essentially brought down Obama’s Secret Service after a wild night out in Columbia.
Is she too blame? Hardly? The big rich fat cats whose wallets were bulging with American dollars, who were married, got their just deserts. And, it was down to the lone ranger, who refused to pay the standard rate, whose blame for the most embarrassing Secret Service Scandal in history rests firmly on his shoulders.
Tomorrow, we will examine this more, but we found this article below rather bewildering…. we would like to know what you think.
(CNN) – So a bunch of guys away from home, who should know better, take off their wedding rings, mix testosterone with alcohol and hookers — an appalling combination — argue over the price of a lady’s company and, all of a sudden, the entire culture of the U.S. Secret Service is thrown into question.
All of a sudden, this is the worst disaster for the Secret Service, ever. All of a sudden, the Secret Service is out of control. All of a sudden, anything might have happened, like one of the 11 agents could have been blackmailed to open a door for a sniper or to look the other way as a bomb-carrying terrorist walks up to the president.
All of a sudden, the men and women of the Secret Service are no longer the best and the brightest. Especially the men.
All of a sudden… Stop!
It’s time for a reality check.
The 11 agents who were sent home from Colombia in disgrace before the president even left Washington were there in a support role. Whether they were manning metal detectors or handling dogs that sweep rooms, whether they were part of a sniper team or standing post at 3 a.m. along a barricaded street, they were not members of the Presidential Protective Division (PPD). They were not on the president’s shoulder. At no time was the president’s security in danger.
What damage did their stupidity do? Obviously, a lot to their personal lives, their marriages and their careers. Obviously, also, a lot to the image and reputation of the Secret Service.
The legislation creating the Secret Service was sitting on Abraham Lincoln’s desk, waiting to be signed, on April 15, 1865, the night he was assassinated. In those days, the Secret Service was housed inside the Treasury Department, and its job was to protect and defend the currency and monetary instruments of the United States. It didn’t get the supplementary duty of protecting the president and vice president until after William McKinley was assassinated in 1901.
No agent I have ever met was hired for his sense of humor. These are very serious men and women who do their jobs very seriously.
They have always been the best and the brightest.
And they still are.
You can see it in the way they stand a little taller and walk with a different gait than others in law enforcement. You can see it in their pride. Frankly, I can’t think of any other law enforcement agency where pride counts as much as it does with the Secret Service. It’s the same pride that is always so visible with the U.S. Marines.
That’s the reason why this scandal matters. Not because someone thinks the agency is out of control. It’s not. Not because of wildly exaggerated threats of blackmail. No, Chicken Little, the sky is not falling. It matters because the idiotic actions of 11 agents who forgot who they are and what their badge stands for deeply affects every active duty agent and tens of thousands of retired agents. Pride has been dented. And agents are, rightly, furious.
These are men and women who have made — and continue to make — huge personal sacrifices for their share in that pride. The divorce rate among agents is high. That’s not because they party with hookers, but because for the privilege of wearing that special five starred badge, they abandon any thoughts of their time being their own. They miss birthdays and Christmas, Little League games, graduations, school plays, first teeth, first steps, first words.
When the president travels, especially overseas, it’s a flying circus with 800-1,000 people, limousines, helicopters, communications equipment, big guns, small guns, sometimes food, and often 20-30 planes.
As an integral part of this, Secret Service agents have two main concerns: To create and to maintain a tightly controlled environment in which the president can do his job safely and to bring everyone home at night.
Anything short of that is, the way the Secret Service defines the word, failure.
Just as those two things are true, so are these: What happened with those 11 agents is defined as stupidity. They will be dealt with quickly by the Secret Service. The president’s opponents will pretend that there are political ramifications and invent whatever capital out of this that they can to embarrass the president. It will take a long time before pride is fully restored, and, if this ever happens again, it will definitely not be soon.
CNN Editor’s note: Jeffrey Robinson is the co-author of ”Standing Next to History – An Agent’s Life in the Secret Service,” the autobiography of former United States Secret Service Special Agent, Joseph Petro. (St. Martins/Thomas Dunne Books. Available in both Kindle and Nook.) Follow him on Twitter
We’ve just written extensively about Dania Londono Suarez, the high-class escort, who unwittingly triggered the Secret Service Sex Scandal, and how she has fled her tiny two room in apartment in Cartagena.
But we just stumbled upon her dating profile. Take a look at the woman who is bringing the Secret Service to their knees (no pun intended there).
Dania Londono Suarez, the high-class escort, who unwittingly triggered the Secret Service Sex Scandal, has fled her tiny two room in apartment in Cartagena.
As the Spanish media descended upon her modest home yesterday, when the photos of her hit the internet, they were told by relatives, that she had left with her 9-year-old son.
“We were told that she had gone to stay with relatives in another town, ” one told us.
Until now, in the American and British press, she had largely been refered to by her first name.
Even her neighbors in Cartagena were unaware of both her surname, and her profession. Though, some did suspect that she could have been an escort due to the fact she was “living well”.
A neighbor says that she has now fled to the country, and her lawyer, Marlon Betancourt, confirmed this morning that she was no longer in the city.
Dania Londano Suarez and another “friend” who was at Cartagena’s Hotel Caribe fled in wake of the media frenzy.
“They are outside the city but I can’t tell you where they are,” Marlon Betancourt said.
Photos of Suarez were made public on Thursday afternoon, and the 24-year-old already spoke, prior to going underground, that she feared a retaliation, saying she was “scared”.
Her lawyer stressed that Dania didn’t want the photos released.
“She is annoyed. She didn’t want that photo to be published but she is prepared to collaborate with the authorities to clear up the situation.They haven’t done anything wrong,” Betancourt said. “The media really abused [the photos].”
The news comes on the back of the heels that three more Secret Service officers involved on Colombia prostitution scandal are expected to be fired today. And, in what could be the most damaging suggestion yet, the congressional committee is investigating whether any of the females involved were underage.
The U.S. agents and military personnel involved could also face criminal charges if is proven that they had sex with girls under the age of 18.
Two of the 11 Secret Service supervisors have been named.
David Chaney was forced to retire over his alleged role in the incident, while Greg Stokes was “removed with cause”.
If the current Secret Service Scandal wasn’t bad enough, what with the hookers and allegations of drug use, they have now taken a turn for the worst… if that is possible,
One of the agents who has been named in the Colombian prostitute debacle is David Randall Chaney, a 48-year-old supervisor.
Now photos from his Facebook page have come to light, and one in particular has caught the attention of former vice-presidential candidate, Sarah Pailn.
In 2008, during her campaign run, Randall was in charge of ensuring her safety. Instead, he posted the photo above and wrote that he was “really checking out” .
He posted numerous pictures with her in the foreground and him standing in the background wearing a suit and dark glasses.
After a friend suggested that Chaney had “real chemistry” with the Alaska governor, he replied: “I was really checking her out, if you know what I mean?”
Ms Palin yesterday hit back at the married agent’s inappropriate comments.
“This agent was kind of ridiculous in posting pictures and comments about checking someone out,” she said on Fox News. “Well check this out, bodyguard – you’re fired! And I hope his wife… sends him to the dog house.”
“A lot of people will say this is boys being boys, and boys will be boys, but they shouldn’t be in positions of authority. I think it’s pretty embarrassing.I’ve had enough of these men being dogs and not being responsible.”
She also said it was “a symptom of government run amok”, adding: “The president, for one, he better be wary, there, of when Secret Service is accompanying his family on vacation. They may be checking out the first lady instead of guarding her.”
The other supervisor who has been forced out of the service has been identified as Greg Stokes, who was in charge of the K-9 division of the agency.
Chaney was forced to retire amid the Colombian hooker scandal, but evidently always had an eye for the ladies, posting these other snaps on his Facebook page
In one, Chaney’s seen grinning mischievously as two pretty blondes plant kisses on each cheek, and he writes: “Chicks really dig Secret Service Agents.”
None of the other nine suspended agents – one of whom has resigned – have been named. But, that however, will just be a matter of time.
Yesterday, it was revealed that this is the escort, known only as Dania, who is at the centre of the scandal.
We feel, before this debacle snowballs any further, Obama must address it again. His silence over the new allegations doesn’t do him any favors, especially now that Sarah Palin is involved.
Here is the first look at the bikini-clad escort, known only as Dania, who is the women at the centre of the Secret Service controversy after her cheapskate date tried to rip her off by paying $30 for her services and she got the cops involved.
The mom-of-one caused a ruckus, demanding her full payment and got the police got involved. Word then reached the US Embassy and with it, begun the downfall of 11 (married) agents and their sordid tales are just coming to light.
The photos came as the mother of a 9-year-old son, broke her silence.
Speaking about the tawdry episode that has seen three agents ousted from their posts after a wild night of partying in Cartagena last week, the 24-year-old high-end escort claims she was offered $30 – a fraction of her $800 fee – for a night with one of the men..
The New York Daily News were the first to get their hands on these photos, and it is sure to add more fuel to this rapidly growing fire.
The big question, is: Who was the dumbass agent that refused to cough up the money? That has to be next on the news agenda.
It was a wild night of partying that included whiskey, hookers, and possibly, drug use. And for President Obama’s Secret Service men living it up last week in Cartagena, they could have got away with it… if it hadn’t been for one man’s refusal to pay the $800 fee for the prostitute.
Instead, he offered her a mere $30, which led to police being called to the luxury hotel where the agents were staying at, and all involved, being busted.
Now, the woman who was involved in the scandal is speaking out, saying she is “scared”.
The 24-year-old escort recalls that she and one of the agents agreed the agent would pay her $800 for sex at the hotel.
But the next day, the agent in question offered her a fraction of the price and a heated exchange took place.
In an interview in Colombia with The New York Times, she said the two argued after the agent initially offered to pay her about $30 and the situation escalated, eventually ending with Colombian law enforcement involved. She said she was eventually paid about $225.
Days later, she said a friend told her the argument had made the news, and to her shock, she discovered the man was a Secret Service agent.
“I’m scared,’ she said, adding that she did not want the man in question to be reprimanded, and fears retaliation, the Times reports.
“This is something really big,’ she added. ‘This is the government of the United States. I have nervous attacks. I cry all the time”.
This comes on the back of the new that three Secret Service men have been fired in the wake of questionable behaviour at the Hotel Caribe last week, with some now under investigation for possible drug use, ABC News reports.
The details of the current scandal engulfing President Obama’s Secret Service officials are now making their way into the public domain.
ABC News is reporting that the 11 men sent home from Colombian town of Cartagena over the weekend, were all married.
And shockingly, the men entertained the pricey prostitutes in their expensive hotel rooms, where they had copies of Obama’s schedule for his trip to the Summit of the Americas.
The scandal came to light after police were called to the agents’ luxury hotel after one man refused to pay for the services of the prostitute, who he had spent the night with.
According to the latest reports, the Secret Service operatives hit up a Cartagena brothel called the Pley Club, where they were seen downing expensive whiskey, sizing up the prostitutes and were heard bragging how they “work for Obama” and were “here to protect him”.
The group choose the prostitutes from the “highest category” and the men paid $200 or more for each woman.
All 11 men have had their security clearance revoked and have been banned from Secret Service buildings, while an investigation into their conduct is carried out.
The scandal has also involved more than 10 members of the military, and a top American soldier said he was “embarrassed” on behalf of the Armed Forces for “letting the boss down”.
New images have emerged of Hillary Clinton knocking back beer and dancing at a Colombian nightclub.
The 64-year-old is seen in this series of photographs having the time of her life, with a grin from ear-to-ear at Cafe Havana in Cartagena on Saturday night.
Hillary, who was in South America for the Sixth Summit of the Americas, showed up at the popular Cuban bar about 12.45am with a group of friends and bodyguards.
According to the local newspaper, El Universal, Hillary and her group ordered 12 beers, two glasses of whiskey and bottles of water,
Cafe staff said she stayed for about 30 minutes and she got up and danced the rumba as the band played a series of Cuban tunes before her group left the venue, leaving a $40 tip.
Meanwhile, President Obama addressed those scandalous accusations about his secret service.
Over the weekend, he made his first remarks about allegations that Secret Service agents hired prostitutes, said he’ll be angry if they are proven true by an investigation. The agency sent 11 agents home, placing them on leave for misconduct.
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