Story: Girl Who Was Raped 43,200 Times Becomes an Activist
As girls her age enjoyed sleepovers with friends and after-school playtime, Karla Jacinto spent her younger years within rooms where she was raped for over 43,000 times in four years.
Jacinto is one of the victims of severe human trafficking in Mexico, particularly in Tenancingo, a village known among authorities as a breeding ground for pimps and rampant human trafficking industries.
At only 12 years old, Jacinto was lured by a man who told her he shared the same boat she was in. Unwanted by her mother and repeatedly sexually abused by a relative from the age of 5, Jacinto was made to believe that her new boyfriend who was 10 years her senior understood her pains.
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At first, her boyfriend was very nice and a gentleman, buying her clothes, bags, shoes, and treating her like a princess — something she never experienced from her family. She was also impressed with the man's "big car" and she started living in with him.
About three months later, the truths behind her boyfriend's monkey business came forth, and in no time, Jacinto was forced to be one of the women her boyfriend used to make money. She was told what to do, what positions to perform, how much she should charge, how much time she should spend with a client, and how to treat them "so that they would give me more money."
She told CNN that she started working at 10 in the morning and wrapped her shift up at around midnight. About 30 men per day, seven days a week for most of the days in four years would bring a total of 43,200 times she was abused by men from different races and corners of the country.
Tenancingo has a small number of residents compared to some other villages as it only has about 13,000. However, the U.S. State Department's Ambassador at Large to Combat Human Trafficking, Susan Coppedge, said the small town has a giant reputation for human trafficking and pimping. "This town raises pimps," she said.
Jacinto was rescued in 2008, 16 years of age and harboring painful memories of her past. She is now 25 and speaks in conferences and other events that aim to raise awareness on the massive prostitution and pimping in Mexico City that ruined her life and the lives of many other young girls.
