Earlier this week a 45 year old Colombian mother of 14 by the name of Margarita de Jesus Zapata Moreno was arrested after police found out she was essentially prostituting her daughters at a young age. The Bogota Metropolitan police say Zapata “sold the virginity of 12 daughters to much older men seeking to have sex with young virgins.” Authorities have also said that as soon as her daughters hit the age of 12, Zapata would begin selling them to men and charged anywhere from $160 to $212. Information of this abuse was brought to Colombian police by one of Zapata’s daughters who stepped forward and described to officers the “hell in which she lived when she was still a prepubescent girl, and about a life of abuse and neglect.” Although the young girl was brave enough to inform authorities of such an unfortunate situation, it took the investigation more than a year to complete because the girl feared her mother would kill her for going to the police. After disappearing for a year, the young girl did not return with more information until the age of 16, and it was then that she told of a man who impregnated her and how she gave birth to a baby at only 14 years of age, despite her mother’s constant insistence to get an abortion. The man 51 year old man who is believed to have fathered the baby refused to comment on the situation, but has since then been arrested. Police are begging for other daughters whose virginity’s were sold for money to come forward with more information about their situation in order to build more evidence about this case. This might be challenging however because quite a few of Zapata’s daughters are missing. When confronted about this incident by news reporters and asked if she was indeed prostituting her daughters, Zapata simply replied “No, my darling.”
This is truly an unfortunate situation as a child should be allowed to remain innocent for as long as possible. Giving up one’s virginity should be a personal choice, and should never be forcefully taken from someone no matter how much money someone stands to gain from it. I sincerely hope that in the future (specifically sooner than later) that more of Zapata’s daughters will be brave enough to come forward as well and help put an end to things like this from occurring to other young girls.