Human trafficking survivor says she was raped more than 43,000 times

After falling into the hands of human traffickers in Mexico, one woman has estimated she was raped 43,200 times in a span of four years.

Karla Jacinto is now sharing her heartbreaking story in the hope of raising awareness about the horrific trade that is destroying the lives of countless girls around the world.

Jacinto claims that she always felt rejected by her mother and suffered abuse from a young age.

‘I came from a dysfunctional family. I was sexually abused and mistreated from the age of five by a relative,’ she told CNN.

At the age of 12, a sex trafficker targeted her while she was waiting for friends near a subway station in Mexico City and lured her away by using kind words and a fast car.

The older man claimed to be a used car salesman and told her that he was also abused as a boy. She says he became very affectionate and they exchanged phone numbers.

He asked her to go on a trip nearby to Puebla a week later after calling her. She says he showed up to her home 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 told CNN.

The man, who was aged 22 at the time, quickly convinced her to leave with him.

‘I lived with him for three months, during which he treated me very well,’ she told CNN.

‘He loved me, he bought me clothes, gave me attention, bought me shoes, flowers, chocolates, everything was beautiful.’

She explained that his cousins would show up to the apartment with new girls every week, so she asked finally asked him what business they were truly in.

He told her that they were ‘pimps’.

‘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 told CNN.

Her first time working as a prostitute was in Guadalajara, one of the country’s largest cities.

‘I started at 10am and finished at midnight. We were in Guadalajara for a week. Do the math. Twenty per day for a week,’ she told CNN.

‘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.’

She added that she was sent to a number of cities, brothels, roadside motels, homes and streets known for prostitution.

After her first few days of working as a prostitute, she was forced to see at least 30 customers a day, seven days a week.

In one instance, she was attacked by her trafficker after a man 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,’ she told CNN.

‘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.’

In another instance, she claims about 30 police officers showed up at a hotel known for prostitution and kicked out all of the customers.

She thought she was being rescued until the officers took the girls into a number of rooms where they reportedly started shooting video of them in compromising positions for about four hours.

Karla, who at the time was 13, claims that they were told the videos would be sent to their families if they didn’t do what they asked.

‘I thought they were disgusting. They knew we were minors. We were not even developed,’ she told CNN.

‘We had sad faces. There were girls who were only ten years old. There were girls who were crying.

‘They told the officers they were minors and nobody paid attention.’

The pimp who abused her got her pregnant, and she gave birth to a girl at age 15.

Karla says he took the baby away from her a month after she was born, and that she was not allowed to see her daughter again until the baby was more than a year old.

In 2008, she was finally rescued during an anti-trafficking operation in Mexico City, when she was aged 16.

Now, at 23 years old, Karla has become an advocate against human trafficking and has shared her story of survival at public events and conferences.

Earlier this year, she spoke with Pope Francis at the Vatican in July and also told the United States Congress her story in May.

According to CNN, portions of her story have been verified by senior officials at Road to Home, a shelter where she lived for one year after her rescue.

U.S. and Mexican officials say that Tenancingo, a town in central Mexico, is a major source of human trafficking rings. It’s known as a place where victims are taken before being eventually forced into prostitution, CNN reported.