Rights Activists Claim Private Railroad Guards Killed Central American Migrants The Associated Press
go to original December 17, 2015

On August 11, 2014, two trains approached each other in a cornfield south of the Querétaro International Airport, Mexico. On one train was a group of 8 undocumented Central American migrants traveling north through Mexico. On the other were heavily-armed men wearing what looked like Mexican Federal Police uniforms. As the gunmen came upon the migrants, they fired at least twelve shots, injuring one of the migrants and killing another. This video captures the first shot. Read more about this incident at The Nation

Mexican rights activists said they have reports of three cases in which private railroad guards have killed migrants trying to ride freight trains to the U.S. border.

Leticia Gutierrez of the Scalabrinian religious order said the organization also has evidence that five migrants were killed by state or local police in recent months.

Central American migrants used to crowd north-bound freight trains until Mexico cracked down in 2014, sending police and migration agents to raid the trains.

But activists say armed guards from a shadowy private company based in Mexico state have pulled migrants from trains, beating them and shooting at them with shotguns.

Scalabrinian migrant mission activist Carlos Aaron Rodriguez said that the bodies of three young migrants were found near the train tracks in a stretch between the central Mexico cities of Queretaro and Celaya.

Rodriguez said that other migrants claim to have witnessed the black-clad security guards shooting at the victims.

Read the rest at Tuscaloosa News

We invite you to add your charity or supporting organizations' news stories and coming events to PVAngels so we can share them with the world. Do it now!