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Carlos Villalon - Photographer
Consuelo Cordoba begs at a fruit and vegetable market in Bogota. She was the victim of an acid attack by a boyfriend 11 years ago.
Consuelo Cordoba, 51, a victim of an acid attack "I have had over 40 surgeries. I ask God to take me with him during these interventions but he has not listen to me, Why do you thinks is that?"
Consuelo Cordoba at the place where she rents a room. “The truth is life is too hard and I am alone. I just do not see an alternative," she said. ' I’ve tried to commit suicide.”
Photographs of Consuelo Cordoba. Bogota city councilwoman Olga Rubio, an advocate for the victims of acid attacks, said about 100 of assaults, mostly on women, have taken place so far this year across Colombia. It is a pace that would easily surpass last year's total of 150.
“He had hit me because of jealousy, so I ended it,” Erica Vanessa Vargas, 20, said of the day she ended her relationship with a boyfriend four years ago. “He then said, ‘If you’re not mine, than no one will have you.’ ” Her former boyfriend paid a small boy $1.75 to drench her in acid. She wears a scarf to shield her scarred neck and chin.
Maria Cuervo at home in Bogota. She suffered an acid attack nine years ago by an unknown assailant and has endured 50 surgeries. The stranger shouted, “This is so you don’t think you’re so pretty,” and obliterated her face.
¨Beauty is inside¨, says María Cuervo, ¨With the love of my family and my new born grand daughter I can carry on through life¨. She has endured 50 surgeries after the attack.