A victim of human trafficking who was raped at least ‘43,000 times’ at the age of 16 – after being groomed at age 12 – now travels the world as a passionate human rights activist helping other young women escape the global pandemic of modern day slavery.
While narrating her ordeal,
The Mirror UK, quoted Karla Jacinto, from Mexico, as estimating that she was forced to sleep with at least 30 men a day for over four years as a young teenager.
In her recount, Jacinto said she was first targeted at the age of 12 by a trafficker who prized her away from her dysfunctional family with gifts and money.
She said: “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 was eventually rescued in 2008 as part of an anti-trafficking operation in Mexico City.
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.
CNN reports that Karla is now in fact “not just surviving, she’s thriving” as a human rights activist speaking out against modern-day slavery.