* Global media focus on prostitute saga
* U.S. security staff accused of “misconduct”
* Colombians outraged at scandal
(Adds quote, details, background)
By Helen Murphy and Luis Jaime Acosta
CARTAGENA, Colombia, April 15 (Reuters) – Gracing the cover
of the latest Time magazine and trumpeting his nation’s security
achievements, President Juan Manuel Santos had hoped the Summit
of the Americas would showcase the modern face of Colombia.
Yet global media coverage from this weekend’s gathering of
more than 30 heads of state has focused instead on a scandal
after members of U.S. President Barack Obama’s security detail
were caught with prostitutes in historic Cartagena.
The hotel incident – which has seen 11 Secret Service agents
sent home and five servicemen grounded – outraged Colombians
proud of their often-vilified country’s push to become a major
regional player.
“Colombia is not just prostitutes, drugs and violence, it’s
much more than that,” said Maria Fernanda Martinez, 35, a
Colombian tourist on vacation in Cartagena. “There are many
better things to show the world.”
U.S. soldiers and contractors backing Colombia in its fight
against drug traffickers and Marxist insurgents have in the past
been involved in sex scandals in rural areas near army bases.
A largely successful decade-old offensive against the rebels
and cocaine cartels has allowed Colombia to begin shedding its
international notoriety for violence and crime.
“The Colombian Comeback” was how Time put it, below a
black-and-white portrait of Santos on its latest edition. “From
nearly failed state to emerging global player – in less than a
decade.”
“HOW SHAMEFUL”
Headlines over the weekend, however, were less flattering
for the host of the Organization of American States (OAS)
meeting.
“The only media coverage of the summit is the scandal of the
gringos and the prostitutes,” said one Colombian diplomat based
in Europe, who asked not to be named. “How shameful.”
Details of the saga unfolded just as the heads of state
began discussing weighty issues such as trade protectionism,
Cuba and the war on drugs.
“I never thought the summit agenda had much hope of being
achieved,” former opposition presidential candidate Carlos
Gaviria told Reuters. “But it turned into more of a media
sideshow, a ridiculous distraction, than a serious political
meeting of presidents.”
The incident unfolded when the Americans brought a number of
prostitutes back to a beachfront hotel near where Obama was due
to stay when he arrived the following day, a local police source
said.
At least one member of the security contingent flashed his
badge and demanded that hotel staff allow him to remain with a
woman, the source said.
Prostitution is legal in “tolerance zones” in Colombia,
though also widely practiced outside those areas without
sanction.
Cartagena residents, who had hoped to project an image of
warmth and hospitality to the world, tutted their disapproval.
“This links Cartagena with prostitution and that’s not
fair,” said Maria Consuelo Ortega, 33, who works in a store in
the colonial quarter of the city.
“How can it be forgotten when it’s linked to Obama?”
(Additional reporting by Daniel Wallis; Editing by Brian
Ellsworth and Xavier Briand)
