Mexico exhibition

INVISIBLEVICTIMSMIGRANTSON THE MOVEIN MEXICO

Thousands of people every year travel as irregular migrants across Mexico.They carry with them the hope of a new life in the USA and an escape fromthe grinding poverty and insecurity back home.

Most irregular migrants are from Central America and many startthe perilous Mexican passage of their journey by crossing into the borderstates of Chiapas or Tabasco from Guatemala. Those that reach the USborder will have survived a journey fraught with dangers. Thousands willfall victim to beatings, abduction, rape or even murder along the way,their lives and deaths largely hidden from view. Many of their storieswill never be told.

Criminal gangs are responsible for the vast majority of crimes againstirregular migrants, but there is evidence that officials at various levels arecomplicit in these crimes.

Many Mexicans living along the migrants’ travel routes provide temporaryhumanitarian assistance to migrants in danger. The chain of shelters runby the Catholic Church offers temporary respite to some of those exhaustedby or injured on the journey. This solidarity with migrants has sometimesprovoked attacks and harassment against those trying to help.

Human rights abuses against Mexican migrants in the USA attract agreat deal of public concern, and rightly so. Public outrage over the crisisfacing migrants in Mexico, on the other hand, has been much more muted.However, the voices of Mexico’s irregular migrants are at last beginning tomake themselves heard.

Note: Some of the names of those featured in the photo exhibition have been changed for their protection.


Main routes taken by the thousandsof migrants, mainly from CentralAmerica, who travel through Mexicoevery year on their way to the USA.

Main routes taken by migrants travelling through Mexico

Principal route

Secondary route

Entry route

Sea route

Entry points by land

Entry points by sea

Entry points by air

Base map: INEGI. Topographic map 1:1 000 000. CONABIO. Mexico image from space.2002 mosaic of Modis images, without clouds, from the Terra satellite, on a digital terrain model.

Project: Present and future of Central American migrants in transit through MexicoProject manager: Rodolfo Casillas R. © Rodolfo Casillas R.Authors: Leticia Gerónimo Mendoza and Rodolfo Casillas R.

Pacific Ocean

Gulf of Mexico

United States of America

Mexico City

Belize

Kilometres


There are many routes north, but formigrants entering Mexico throughChiapas state, the Suchiate Rivercrossing is the first leg of the longjourney through Mexico.

Rafts made of chipboard strappedto plastic tubes regularly cross theSuchiate River carrying merchandise,day labourers and irregular migrantsbetween Guatemala and Mexico.

© Amnesty International



Sixteen-year-old José stands besidethe railway tracks in EstaciónChontalpa, Tabasco state.

José left home with his 14-year-oldbrother to find work in the USA andsend money back to support hisfamily in Honduras. When AmnestyInternational met him, he wastravelling alone. He explained howa few days earlier he had beenseparated from his brother whenimmigration officials raided the trainthey were travelling on. He said hehoped that his brother had beendeported and had not fallen into thehands of criminal gangs.

© Amnesty International(Photo: Ricardo Ramírez Arriola)


Migrants make their way towardsMexico’s northern border on foot,by bus and, most commonly, on thetop of a network of freight trains.Here, migrants in Tierra Blanca,Veracruz state, board “La Bestia”(The Beast) also known as “El trende la muerte” (The Train of Death).



Braving a ride on the freight trainsis fraught with danger. Migrantstravel sitting on top of cars, clingingto ledges and hanging from ladders.Many suffer from exhaustion anddehydration after spending 10hours or more in the blazing heator freezing cold. Accidents arecommon. The slightest slip canmean migrants lose a leg, an armor their lives as they are suckedbeneath the steel wheels.



Father Alejandro Solalinde Guerraand a team of volunteers run ashelter for migrants in the town ofCiudad Ixtepec, Oaxaca state. Theytry to provide a place of safety formigrants, away from the criminalgangs who exploit and abuse them.Gangs often operate under theprotection of local officials, some ofwhom are also implicated in abusesagainst migrants.

Because of his work defendingmigrants’ rights, Father Solalindehas been threatened and intimidatedby local gangs and officials. Here,Father Solalinde is held in CiudadIxtepec police station. He wasdetained for helping migrants trackdown relatives who had beenabducted while they waited by theside of the railway tracks.

© Martha Izquierdo


When the train whistle goes,migrants grab their backpacks andwater bottles and run.

The trains have no set schedule andmigrants waiting by the tracks oftenjump aboard moving cars. Manyhave been injured and some killedboarding moving trains. Robbery,beatings, rape and extortion areamong the other potential perils ofthe journey aboard the freight trains.



Donar Ramírez Espiral left Hondurasin 2004. His dream of reaching theUSA was shattered when he fell offa train and lost both of his lowerlegs. When Amnesty Internationalmet him, he had been living in ashelter in Tapachula, Chiapas state,for five years. The Jesús el BuenPastor del Pobre y el Migranteshelter was founded by Olga SánchezMartínez, a local volunteer, in orderto provide a place where migrantswho have lost limbs after falling offfreight trains can recuperate.



Agents of the Grupo Beta in Chiapasstate search for migrants in need ofassistance.

The Grupo Beta is a governmentinitiative to provide migrants withhumanitarian aid and warn them ofthe dangers ahead. It was startedin 1991 in Tijuana, Baja Californiastate, to protect northboundmigrants from criminals and hassince been established in southernborder states. The support andassistance provided are important,but the Grupo Beta does not havethe resources to cope with thenumber of migrants in need ofits help.



Deacon Miguel Ángel Ochoa is theco-ordinator of a shelter for migrantsin Tierra Blanca, Veracruz state.The small shelter in the centre oftown provides food and somewherefor migrants to wash and rest beforecatching another train headed north.



Migrants shower and wash theirclothes at a shelter in Tierra Blanca,Veracruz state.

Migrants can only stay for amaximum of two days at most ofMexico’s chain of shelters run bythe Catholic Church. Once theyhave caught up on lost sleep andeaten a few hot meals, they beginthe next leg of their journey tothe US border.



Inside one of the migrant sheltersrun by the Catholic Church,Tierra Blanca, Veracruz state.



Central American migrants live inthe shadows. Travelling throughunfamiliar territory and trying toavoid the attention of immigrationofficials, they are at risk of attacksby criminal gangs and unscrupulousofficials. Migrants in Mexicoroutinely face beatings, abduction,rape and murder. Those responsiblefor these crimes are almost neverbrought to justice.



Women make up a minority of themigrants travelling through Mexico.They are at particular risk of sexualabuse and rape by criminal gangs.Those responsible for the attacksare almost never brought to justice.



Lunch of tortillas and black beansat the migrants’ shelter in TierraBlanca, Veracruz state.



‘I left El Salvador becausethe economic situation thereis so poor. I have a family,a wife and two children and Imade them a promise thatI must fulfil. I am going tofight for them to give thema better life. This is a journeyfull of suffering but whenI get to my destinationeverything will be better.I’ve never been to the UnitedStates before, it is the firsttime I travel, and hopefullymy dreams and the dreamsof my family will come true.’

Migrant interviewed in the TierraBlanca migrants’ shelter, Veracruzstate, June 2009.



A freight train carrying migrantspasses through San Miguel,Veracruz state.



Migrants gather round to read anarticle in the local newspaper abouta mass kidnapping of migrants by acriminal gang known as the “Zetas”the previous day.



‘We want to change the viewthat migrants bring danger.We’ve always been told onthe television that the trainis where drugs and arms aretrafficked but this is all a lie.The train carries hundredsof lives, human beings whohave suffered. They leavetheir homes because of theextreme poverty of wherethey come from, the journeynorth is a nightmare forthem but they do it for thefamilies they have leftbehind.’

Rubén Figueroa lives by the railwaytracks in San Miguel, Tabasco state.He and his mother provide migrantsin need of assistance with shelterand food.



On 22 April 2009, more than 60migrants were resting and eating bya church in El Santuario, MacuspanaMunicipality, Tabasco state, whenimmigration officials arrived at thescene. According to several of thevillagers who live beside the churchand provide humanitarian aid tomigrants, one of the migrants waschased by an immigration officialwho shocked him with an electriccattle prod before detaining him.



A migrant lies on a piece ofcardboard by the side of the railwaytracks, waiting for his next ride. It isimpossible to tell when the train willcome as there are no schedules.



Young woman at a shelter formigrants in Tierra Blanca,Veracruz state.

Many migrant women and girls aresexually assaulted on their journeythrough Mexico. In June 2009,Amnesty International intervieweda young migrant woman in Chiapasstate. Margarita described how asoldier ordered her to strip and thensexually assaulted her when sherefused.

“You don’t imagine that yourdreams can end in a moment onthis journey… He [the soldier]pulled me by the hand and told meto walk further into the bushes.He took me far away from the traintracks until we were completelyalone. He told me to take myclothes off so that he could see ifI was carrying drugs. He said thatif I did what he said he would letme go.”



Honduran migrants gather round toread about the coup in Honduras on28 June 2009.



Rubbish gathers over the spot wheremigrants are buried in Tapachulacemetery, Chiapas state. The bodiesof migrants are buried in thepassageways between graves.Relatives in Central America maynever know what happened to theirloved ones.



Two women wait beside the railwaytracks looking to offer help tomigrants in Estación Chontalpa,Tabasco state.

At some villages along the freighttrain routes, local people hand outfree food to migrants riding thefreight trains. Some have opened uptheir homes to exhausted andhungry migrants.



A migrant jumps from one train carto the next, Arriaga, Chiapas state.

For many irregular migrants, thejourney through Mexico is a leap intothe unknown in the hope of fulfillingtheir dreams of a better life. Theobstacles and dangers they face aredaunting. That so many survive isa testament to the strength of theirdetermination and the defiantsolidarity extended to them alongthe way.

© Hauke Lorenz

Mexico exhibition

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Transcript of Mexico exhibition