Photo courtesy of Conapees. Now age 50 and a mother of six, she is an outspoken fighter against sexual exploitation of children and teenagers in Uruguay, a country reluctant to recognise this growing scourge. Karina proudly says she broke this family burden when her youngest daughter turned 12 as a smiling girl ready to go to high school.
I was 11 days in an intensive-care unit and three months unable to walk. Once I could, I returned to report the same crime. It was an assurance that her own children have a bright future, even though Karina still makes a living selling her body. In Uruguay, a countless number of children, mostly girls, have their childhoods stolen, to be sold for a pack of cigarettes, a cell phone card, food, clothes, shelter or plain cash.
Some are exploited by their own relatives, others by by neighbours or organised criminal networks. One grocer threw dance parties in her shop on the paydays of local rural workers and lured the men with 12 year-old-girls from the neighbourhood. The girls would spend the night drinking alcohol and having sexual relations with adults on the premises of a nearby chapel. A year-old owner of a hotel in a beach resort paid for the travel of a year-old girl, who lives hundreds of kilometres away, to have sex.
A provincial high-ranking public official organised a party with teenagers, alcohol and cocaine in a government facility, and was caught drunk while driving away with one of the girls.
And a network of lorry drivers and the fathers of two victims forced girls into sexual encounters with drivers in three different towns. These types of cases hit the news almost twice a week. Authorities established Dec. But they still have no accurate statistics on this crime, punishable by up to 12 years in prison under a law. Adult prostitution is legal and state-regulated.
