Dania Londoño Suarez, the woman at the
center of one
of the biggest scandals
to hit the U.S. Secret Service since
its inception under
President Abraham Lincoln in 1865.
Dania Londoño Suare: The Woman Who Rocked the U.S. Secret Service (El Espectador, Colombia)
“She didn’t seem upset while in my cab … She even laughed from
time to time. She said the man was from Obama’s security detail, that he told
her this while at the disco, and that the man was rude, not only because he
only paid her $30, but because he slammed the hotel door in her face.”
Dania Londoño Suarez: Her life turned upside down, she is learning what a difference one tight-fisted client can make when he works for the U.S. Secret Service.
With Washington again atwitter over the 2012 Secret Service prostitution scandal that emerged during President Obama's trip to Colombia for the Summit of the Americas, we thought it timely to post this column from Colombia's El Espectador, which focused on the woman at the center of the conroversy, Colombian escort Dania Londoño Suarez.
Cartagena:
Few people know Dania Londoño. Some say she is reserved and meticulous – and that
sheisnow in Caracas.
The last time Dania Londoño Suarez
walked the quiet streets of Cielo Mar in Cartagena, it
was with Valentino, a white French poodle, a playful and friendly dog she took
for a walk every afternoon. She was careful with money and was polite - just a
good morning or good afternoon. At 24, she said little in the neighborhood she
lived.
She is medium height, bronze skin and straight hair.
“Beautiful, simply beautiful,” recall those who saw her at bars in the walled
city of Cartagena.
Dania no longer resides in CieloMar, a neighborhood of three square acres near the beach and
the Rafael Nuñez Airport, which now attracts an endless
stream of TV crews and photographers. She has either left or fled. She got lost,
along with Valentino and her son of nine-years-old Mateo, with whom she lived.
She said nothing and no one saw her leave.
Dania lived in Cielo Mar for a
year and three months, on the second floor of a picturesque white house. She
paid 900,000 pesos [$510] a month in rent. She studied to be a plastic surgeon.
She is known to be a single mother with no boyfriend, has
a handful of friends, is not talkative, and every morning she waited with her
song for his school bus.
She has a reputation as a hard-worker who is cordial, a dedicated
mother and well-educated. At night she is known to have frequented bars in Cartagena’s
historic downtown looking for clients, she has a taste for handsome men, she is ambitious, loves wearing clothes from Studio F, and only drinks whiskey or
champagne. That speaks volumes about Dania.
“She’s a darling. Very sophisticated and relaxed. She was
not one to make noise or rumba in her apartment. Sometimes she went out alone, and
at other times she went out with her child. Everything I know about her I have
already told the media,” said a neighbor who requested that her name not be
revealed.
According
to U.S. newspaper The New York Post,
Dania is the woman who sparked the scandal that now has the U.S. Secret Service
on tenterhooks. Two days
before President Obama arrived in Cartagena for the Sixth Summit of the
Americas, Dania charged an agent $800 for a night at the Caribe
Hotel. The next morning she complained because the presidential bodyguard
wanted to pay her just $30.
To Jose Peña, the cab driver who drove her home on the day
of the incident, Dania “seemed a young woman like any other, just a
good-looking university girl - very, very pretty.” Peña learned of the
incident, according to him, from the conversation he had with Dania and one of
her friends who shared the cab ride. Following the incident, Dania and more
than 20 U.S. Secret Service agents ended up being publicly pilloried.
“She didn’t seem upset while in my cab”, Peña said. “She
even laughed from time to time. She said the man was from Obama’s security
detail, that he told her this while at the disco, and that the man was rude,
not only because he only paid her $50, but because he slammed the hotel door in
her face.”
There is no certainty about where Dania was born. Those that
heard her postulate that her accent was from Cali, and say his son was born in
San Andres.
Gutenberg Mendoza, a local construction worker in the area, was
hired by Dania a couple of weeks ago. “She wanted a new coat of paint in her
apartment. It was an easy job for which I was paid 80,000 pesos [$45]. It was
three days work”.
Dania was meticulous, organized and detail-oriented. “Her
apartment was always tidy. She was always well groomed and looking terrific,”
says Gutenberg.
She dressed in black, white and florals.
She always wore very high heels, sometimes in petite dresses and other times in
low-cut tops, but she almost always dressed in tight jeans. She always wore her
hair loose - always free. Her skin had a deep and health-looking tan that made
her feel good.
Now she is rumored to be in Caracas, Venezuela. She had her luggage
sent from Cartagena last weekend, paid her bills and left.
Posted by Worldmeets.US
The U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security has responded to the
scandal.
The sex scandal involving the U.S. Secret Service and a
group of prostitutes in Cartagena on the eve of the Summit of the Americas
continues to grow. Before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Secretary of Homeland
Security Janet Napolitano said that she would not allow the good name of the
Secret Service to be stained and that her agency would continue it thorough investigation.
Due to the scandal, nine Secret Service agents have been fired or resigned so
far.
The incident has also had an impact on Cartagena’s political
scene. Cartagena City Councilman Cesar Pion said that
it’s time to “turn the page” andconcentrate on other
issues of concern to the city.
For his part, Cartagena Government Secretary Nausícrates Perez demanded that the United States
compensate the city, arguing that Cartagena is certainly not, “a city of
whores.”
University research confirms his assertion.
According researchers at the University of San Buenaventura,
only two percent of Cartagena’s female students aged between 18 and 27 offer escort
services, and are commonly known as “prepaids.” According
to one woman who wished to remain anonymous, they earn between five and eight million
pesos[$2800-4,300] a month, and prefer foreign clients.
