Following the cancellation in Cartagena and then in Barranquilla, Colombia, for the Latin America Adult Business exhibition, Lalexpo has reported economic losses of more than $80 billion in revenue for the nation and territorial entities.
After what happened with Lalexpo in Colombia, they issued a statement on their official website indicating that “this Industry is powerful and is more current than ever. Despite all the blockades that they are trying to put on us to prevent us from holding our annual Congress, Lalexpo 2022 is a reality” leaving as a key point that there are more than 150 thousand families who live off the Adult Industry, and who reject the sexual exploitation and minors.
The exhibition was going to be held first in the city of Cartagena and canceled due to the danger that the message of an exhibition of this kind would have been distorted, and another of the reasons given by the district entities is the path they are taking to "position Cartagena as sustainable tourism, family, culture and nature”.
Barranquilla was the second option after the rejection and refusal of the city of Cartagena. With five days left until the Exhibition that was going to take place from June 12 to 15, 2022, the Mayor's Office announced that, due to the proximity of the dates to the second presidential round, on June 19, it could not guarantee the public force necessary to maintain the integrity of the population in the face of possible manifestation.
Lalexpo Defense
The Lalexpo exhibition has been held in three countries. In Buenos Aires, Argentina on April 27; Sao Paulo, Brazil on May 4; and in Mexico City, Mexico on May 11 and it was expected that in Colombia it would be just as successful as part of the Latam Tour as they had called it.
The adult entertainment exhibition is one of the opportunities for hundreds of companies that work in this medium to learn and exchange ideas from the industry to improve the environment and avoid any attempt at sexual exploitation. Different exhibitions had been planned during the 4 days which included experts in content creation, psychology, sexology, financial and tax advisor as well as references such as national and international models.
The legal representative of Lalexpo, Juan Carlos Rivera, in an interview for CTV Barranquilla, spoke about the industry and the environment, mentioning that the event has more than 5 thousand models and 150 thousand businessmen who are going to lose billions of dollars, and that They have to accept that “they judge us to be pimps or to promote child pornography, which is not true”.
Given the denials, Rivera mentions that from the city of Bucaramanga there are more than 500 guardianships ready to file for million-dollar losses and the lack of opportunity to explain what it is and what is done at the Adult Industry Exhibition that was going to be held in Colombia.
It is not yet known if there will be any attempt to hold Lalexpo in another city. At the moment there has been no rapprochement between the organizers and the entities that canceled, but they will respect the decisions by law without forgetting that there is already a lawsuit against the industry.