A 9-year-old girl boarded an overnight bus in Spain's Barcelona in 2013—and what follows is a kidnapping, a jungle rescue, and a second betrayal back home. Writing for the Guardian, Giles Tremlett traces how Moroccan-born Spaniard Nada Itrab was taken by a trusted neighbor, Grover Morales, to Bolivia on what was supposed to be a one-week vacation, with her parents' permission. Instead, Nada was sexually abused, forced into farm and coca-field labor, and hidden in a remote village that even police hesitated to enter. Her rescue more than seven months later came only after a Spanish detective, Jose Manuel Hidalgo, cut a deal with local narcos to seize her captor and hold her until helicopters could swoop in. "Any other child would have died," Hidalgo later said of Nada's incredible survival in the clutches of Morales.
Tremlett also follows Nada's life after her rescue and the accompanying headlines: She was taken from her parents, who got suspended sentences for "abandoning" her to Morales, but then eventually sent back to the apartment they were squatting in. She drifted through depression and suicidal thoughts—until she was pulled into a new orbit by Catalan journalist Neus Sala, who helped her secure residency, therapy, and a path to law school. Now 21, Nada is turning her story into a campaign against child trafficking, even as she sues Catalan authorities for negligence. Morales, sentenced to 17 years for child trafficking and sex abuse, has since died behind bars—but Nada has also since forgiven him. "When you forgive, you don't do it because the other person deserves it," she said in a recent TV appearance. "I do this because my heart deserves to live free of rancor." More here.
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