Mexico City: Karla Jacinto, a 23-year-old from Mexico, was raped by 43,200 men over a span of four years. The ordeal started when Karla was only 13, according to a report in CNN.
By her own estimate, 43,200 is the number of times she was raped after falling into the hands of human traffickers.
According to Karla, a victim of human trafficking, she was made to sleep with 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 such a lucrative business, especially in a town in Mexico called Tenancingo, that most of the calls made by victims to helplines in the United States say that Tenancingo is where they were taken in from by traffickers.
Susan Coppedge, the US State Department's Ambassador at Large to Combat Human trafficking, says that Tenancingo 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."
Karla’s story
Karla said she was abused for as long as she can remember and felt rejected by her mother. She was sexually abused and mistreated from the age of 5 by a relative.
When she was 12 she was targeted by a trafficker who lured her away using kind words and a fast car.
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. Karla left with the man the next day.
Her first three months with him were like a dream. He bought her clothes, gave her attention, bought her shoes, flowers, chocolates.
One fine day, he started telling her everything she had to do; the positions, how much she needed to charge the customers, the things she had to do with the client and for how long, how she was to treat them and how she had to talk to them so that they would give her more money.
Karla said her boyfriend would leave her by herself for a week in their apartment and his cousins would show up with new girls every week.
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.
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.
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 it to the US Congress in May.
Her testimony was used as evidence in support for H.R. 515 or Megan's Law that mandates US authorities share information pertaining to American child sex offenders when these convicts attempt to travel abroad.
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