By her own estimate, 43,200 is the number of times she was raped 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.
Her story highlights the brutal realities of human trafficking in Mexico and the United States, an underworld that has destroyed the lives of tens of thousands of Mexican girls like Karla.
Human trafficking has become a trade so lucrative and prevalent, that it knows no borders and links towns in central Mexico with cities like Atlanta and New York.
U.S. and Mexican officials both point to a town in central Mexico that for years has been a major source of human trafficking rings and a place where victims are taken before being eventually forced into prostitution. The town is called Tenancingo.
Karla says she was abused for as long as she can remember and felt rejected by her mother. "I came from a dysfunctional family. I was sexually abused and mistreated from the age of 5 by a relative,' she says.
When she was 12 she was targeted by a trafficker who lured her away using kind words and a fast car.
She says she was waiting for some friends near a subway station in Mexico City, when a little boy selling sweets came up to her, telling her somebody was sending her a piece of candy as a gift.
Five minutes later, Karla says, an older man was talking to her, telling her that he was a used car salesman.
The initial awkwardness disappeared as soon as the man started telling her that he was also abused as a boy. He was also very affectionate and quite a gentleman, she says.
They exchanged phone numbers and when he called a week later, Karla says she got excited. He asked her to go on a trip to nearby Puebla with him and dazzled her by showing up driving a bright red Firebird Trans Am.
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 says.
it didn't take long for the man, who at 22 was 10 years older than Karla, to convince her to leave with him, especially after Karla's mother didn't open the door one night when she came home a little too late.
"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," Karla says.
Karla says her boyfriend would leave her by herself for a week in their apartment. His cousins would show up with new girls every week. When she finally mustered the courage to ask what business they were in, he told her the truth. "They're pimps," he said.
"A few days later he started telling me everything I had to do; the positions, how much I need to charge, the things I had to do with the client and for how long, how I was to treat them and how I had to talk to them so that they would give me more money," Karla says.
It was the beginning of four years of hell.
Karla Jacinto was lured from poverty in Mexico by a man who befriended her with sweets and a story She spent four years being forced to have sex 30 times a day She has told her story to the U.S. Congress to get changes in the law, and to the pope
https://www.cnn.com/2015/11/10/americas/freedom-project-mexico-trafficking-survivor/index.html
view the rest of the comments →
GreenDell144 ago
"The town is called Tenancingo."
This town is mentioned a lot. There are posters everywhere of missing people. Its a mystery that anyone stays there, because the law enforcement is so corrupt. Juarez and tijuana are bad too, but this town isnt a border town, making it a weird exception.
new4now ago
I don't understand how they know what goes on there but doesnt do anything
I'm thinking It's the Cartels that own Mexico
Even the tourist are being attacked, and tourist are counted on for the money they spend
Would calling it a shithole be out of order?
GreenDell144 ago
I can’t disagree, and I live here. The whole world is becoming one, bit by bit.
new4now ago
And most places has a trail that leads back to the same people