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A human trafficking victim who was r*ped “43,000 times” as
a teenager now travels the world as a passionate human rights activist
helping other young women escape this global pandemic of modern day
slavery.
Karla Jacinto, who already had been s*xually abused at 5-years-old
by a relative, was r*ped 30 times a day, seven days a week from the age
of 12 to 16.
She was first lured by a trafficker who promised gifts and a better
lifestyle, and who also sympathised with her by telling her he had also
been abused as a child. He later convinced her to leave her family who
had disowned her.
“When I saw the car, I couldn’t believe it. I was very
impressed by such a big car. It was exciting for me. He asked me to get
in the car to go places,” she told CNN.
Young Mexican women and minors are prostituted and treated as
sexual slaves in the southern border of Mexico.(Photo: Ronaldo
Schemidt/AFP/Getty Images)
“The following day, I left with him. I lived with him for three
months during which he treated me very well. He loved on me, he bought
me clothes, gave me attention, bought me shoes, flowers, chocolates,
everything was beautiful.”
Disaster broke when he then started telling her to service clients
on a regular basis, how she had to treat and talk to them to get more
money.
She then became a prostitute in Guadalajara, Mexico’s largest city.
By her own estimate, 43,200 is the number of times she was r*ped after
falling into the hands of human traffickers.
She says up to 30 men a day, seven days a week, for the best part of four years – 43,200.
The 24-year-old Mexican said she was eventually rescued in 2008 as part of an anti-trafficking operation in Mexico City.
Pope Francis talks with Karla Jacinto (left) during the
Modern Slavery and Climate Change conference at the Vatican on 21 July
2015. (Photo: Reuters/Tony Gentile)
She recounted her past, showing photos of herself at the age of 12, saying, “I was first targeted at the age of 12 by a trafficker who prized me away from my dysfunctional family with gifts and money.
“I was eventually taken to Guadalajara, one of Mexico’s biggest cities, and forced to work as a prostitute.
“They would beat me with sticks, they would beat me with
cables, they would beat me with chains. They forced me into prostitution
at age 12.
“There were people who would laugh at me because I was crying. I
had to close my eyes so I wouldn’t see what they were doing to me.
“Some of my attackers were uniformed police officers as well as
judges, priests and pastors. I thought they were disgusting. They knew
we were minors; we were not even developed. We had sad faces.”
She now travels the globe helping other women to recover from being
trafficked and even met Pope Francis to raise awareness of the pandemic
affecting her home city where an estimated 20,000 women fall prey to
traffickers, according to the International Organisation for Migration.
Credits: IB Times / CNN
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