A woman and mother of 14 in Colombia tried to make ends meet by selling their daughters virginity for a couple hundred dollars.
Margarita de Jesus Zapata Moreno,
colombian, 45, was arrested this week together with a 51-year-old
contractor who police believe impregnated one of the young daughters.
She broke down in tears when she
stood in front of the cameras after being arrested in Bogota, the
Colombian capital. The Bogota Metropolitan Police say Zapata sold the
virginity of 12 daughters to much older men seeking to have sex with
young virgins.
Authorities also say the suspect
would begin selling her daughters to men as soon as the girls turned 12
years old. She charged anywhere between 300,000 and 400,000 Colombian
Pesos ($160 to $212) for a virgin.
But Zapata strongly denies the
accusation. Colombian authorities often show high-profile suspects to
the media shortly after arresting them. When Zapata was standing in
front of the cameras Wednesday, one of the reporters shouted a question
to her: "Did you prostitute your daughters?" She answered: "No, my
darling."
The investigation took more than a
year to complete because the only witness willing to testify, the
14-year-old girl, now 16, disappeared, apparently because she feared her
mother would kill her for going to the police.
After she reappeared, she also told authorities about a man who had sex with her and got her pregnant.
Police arrested a 51-year-old man who
investigators say fathered the son of the girl who was 14 years old
when the baby was born. The suspect declined to comment at Wednesday's
police presentation.
Police are asking the rest of the
daughters to provide more information about this case. "Those who are
watching or listening to us, we would like to ask them to come to the
police so that they give us information about transpired in this case,"
Melendez said.
Police investigators say Zapata also
forced her older daughters to drink alcohol and do drugs. Some ended up
working as prostitutes and are missing, police said.
Police say those two arrests are only
the beginning. Investigators say they will also build cases against the
men who were having sex with these minors.
According to authorities, only two of
Margarita de Jesus Zapata Moreno's 14 children were not forced into
prostitution. They were the two youngest -- an 11-year-old boy and a
9-year-old girl -- and they have been placed in the custody of a
Colombian government child protection agency.
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