A Mexican woman has opened up on how she was
coerced in sex slavery, and how she has been raped
around 43,200 times.
According to CNN, Karla Jacinto believes she has been
raped around 43,200 times after being forced to sleep
with at least 30 men every day for four years.
In speaking about her torment at the hands of Mexico’s
ruthless organised crime rings, Karla said her woes
began at age the age of twelve.
According to her, a trafficker lured her away from a
dysfunctional home life with gifts, money and fast cars.
At the time she was lured, the trafficker was only 22-
year-old. He convinced Karla to leave with him to
Tenancingo, a Mexican town in the state of Tlaxcala.
The town is known as a major centre for human
trafficking rings and a common place for victims to be
taken and forced into prostitution.
Karla said she lived with her trafficker for three months
before being taken to Guadalajara, one of Mexico’s
largest cities and there she was forced to work as a
prostitute.
She said: “I started at 10am and finished at midnight,”
adding: “Some men would laugh at me because I was
crying. I had to close my eyes so that I wouldn’t see
what they were doing to me, so that I wouldn’t feel
anything.”
She narrates how her trafficker always attacked her
after he saw kiss marks on her neck from a customer.
“He started beating me with a chain in all of my body.
He punched me with his fists, he kicked me, pulled my
hair, spit at me in the face… he also burned me with the
iron,” she disclosed.
According to Karla, an operation by the police to rescue
her and a group of girls being held at a hotel evolved
into horror as the officers began filming the girls, some
as young as 10, in compromising positions.
In 2006, Karla was rescued during an anti-trafficking
operation in Mexico City. She has become an advocate
against human trafficking, having spent about 11 years
in the hideous trade. Karla says she would not want any
other young girl to go through the horror which she
passed through.
According to a report by the International Organisation
for Migration (IOM), there are an estimated 20,000
trafficking victims in Mexico every year. A research by
the University of Tlaxcala shows that, one in five
children in Tlaxcala aspires to be a pimp.
The study further reveals that two-thirds know at least
one relative or friend working as a pimp or trafficker.