After the unfortunate interruption to the 2nd days events of the LALExpo events this past July (as we reported here) organizers released this statement.
“Despite our best efforts and advance planning, the government and its leadership violated our constitutional rights as workers and citizens by ordering the Convention Center not to provide Service to LALExpo event. This act was illegal and discriminatory against our company and industry. LALExpo absorbed great financial costs to find other venues to satisfy the international and national participants already in Cartagena. The claim that “explicit pornography” was on demonstration is a complete falsehood, and is evidence by the attendance on the first day of representatives of the Attorney General’s Office and public advocate of Cartagena de Indias who verified true the nature of the event. Additionally, the journalist, Emiro Jose’ Pico, writes from first-hand experience saying the event was “a quality, respectful, private and dedicated encounter to the online adult industry with no explicit porn in its schedule.”
“What happened to our event last week represents a loss of millions of pesos to tourism, taxi drivers, business owners, restaurants, hotels and other establishments, because the international attendees did not feel welcomed. I hope the politicians learn an important lesson and do a better job in the future,”
We fully expect to the LALExpo return next year stronger than before. This adult entertainment conference is an important one with widespread support and large attendance numbers that have grown each year. Likewise, the website http://lalexpo.com/ is now back online and their social media presence on Twitter @vivelalexpo and Facebook page is back as well. The temporary downtime was most certainly necessary to evaluate the unforseen regulatory issues given the circumstances. From all reports we got, there was little inconvenience as this past years events moved to offsite locations and all functions carried forward including the LALExpo Awards.
LALExpo is an adult industry conference in Latin America which has a heavy focus on the live cams business. The events are held in Cartagena Colombia.
It should also be noted the former mayor of Cartagena Colombia Manuel Vicente Duque who was the person responsible for ordering the shutdown of the LALExpo this past year was most recently arrested and removed from office for alleged influence peddling.
