I was raped severally, everyday for four years - Meet Karla Jacinto

A young lady has recounted her ordeal in the hands of human traffickers who actively used her for prostitution over a period of 4 years in the course of which she was frequently sexually abused.

Karla Jacinto. 

This is a pathetic story of a girl from Mexico named Karla Jacinto. She has shared her ordeal in the hands of criminal-minded people who used her for prostitution at a very tender age.

Her story sounds quite unbelievable but its real as she went through turbulent times for a period of 4 years.

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 johns a day, seven days a week, for the best part of four years which makes it approximately 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.

Even though it has a population of about 13,000, Susan Coppedge, the U.S. State Department’s Ambassador at Large to Combat Human trafficking, says it has an oversized reputation when it comes to prostitution and pimping.

“That’s what the town does. That is their industry,” Coppedge says. “And yet in smaller, rural communities the young girls don’t have any idea that this is what the town’s reputation is, so they are not suspicious of the men who come from there. They think they have got a great future with this person. They think they love and it is the same story of recruitment every time.”

When she was 12 she was targeted by a trafficker who lured her away using kind words and a fast car. Karla is now 23 years old. She has become an outspoken advocate against human trafficking, telling her story at conferences and public events.

She told her story to Pope Francis in July at the Vatican. She also told the U.S. Congress in May.