Karla Jacinto is sitting in a
serene garden. She looks at the ordinary sights of flowers and can hear people
beyond the garden walls, walking and talking in Mexico City.
She looks straight into my
eyes, her voice cracking slightly, as she tells me the number she wants me to
remember -- 43,200.
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 -- 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
"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."
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.
But there were red flags
everywhere also.
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. The first time she was forced to work as a prostitute she was
taken to Guadalajara, one of Mexico's largest cities.
"I started at 10 a.m. and
finished at midnight. We were in Guadalajara for a week. Do the math. Twenty
per day for a week. Some men would laugh at me because I was crying. I had to
close my eyes so that that I wouldn't see what they were doing to me, so that I
wouldn't feel anything," Karla says.
There would be several other
cities. She would be sent to brothels, roadside motels, streets known for
prostitution and even homes. There were no holidays or days off, and after the
first few days, she was made to see at least 30 customers a day, seven days a
week.
Karla tells how she was
attacked by her trafficker after a john gave her a hickey. "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, and that day was when he
also burned me with the iron. I told him I wanted to leave and he was accusing
me of falling in love with a customer. He told me I like being a whore."
One day, when she was working
at a hotel known for prostitution, police showed up. They kicked out of all of
the customers, Karla says, and shut down the hotel. She thought it was her
lucky day -- a police operation to rescue her and the other girls.
Her relief turned quickly to
horror when the officers, about 30 she says, took the girls to several rooms
and started shooting video of them in compromising positions. The girls were
told the videos would be sent to their families if they didn't do everything
they asked.
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.
Her testimony was used as evidence in support for H.R.
515 or Megan's Law that mandates U.S. authorities share information pertaining
to American child sex offenders when these convicts attempt to travel abroad.
Her message is that human
trafficking and forced prostitution still happens and is a growing problem in
our world.
Karla says: "These minors
are being abducted, lured, and yanked away from their families. Don't just
listen to me. You need to learn about what happened to me and take the
blindfold off your eyes."
Doing nothing, she says, puts
countless girls at risk of being trafficked for years and raped tens of
thousands of times, just like she was.
"I thought they were
disgusting. They knew we were minors. We were not even developed. We had sad
faces. There were girls who were only 10 years old. There were girls who were
crying. They told the officers they were minors and nobody paid
attention," Karla says. She was 13 years old at the time.
In her nightmare world even a
pregnancy was cause for horror not joy.
Karla gave birth at 15 to a
girl -- a baby fathered by the pimp who would use the daughter to tighten the
noose around her neck: if she didn't fulfill his every wish, he would either
harm or kill the baby.
He took the baby away from her
a month after the baby was born, and she was not allowed to see her again until
the girl was more than a year old.
Karla Jacinto was finally
rescued in 2006 during an anti-trafficking operation in Mexico City.
Her ordeal lasted four very
long and tormenting years. She was still a minor, only 16, when it ended -- but
she has endured a lifetime of horror that will stay with her as long as she
lives.
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