Migrants to Re-Enact Way of the Cross in Southeast Mexico Protest EFE
go to original March 27, 2013

Martha Sanchez Soler, an immigrants' rights activist, is among the organizers of a planned Way of the Cross re-enactment this week in southeastern Mexico. (EFE)

MEXICO CITY - Migrants from several countries are planning a two-day re-enactment of the Way of the Cross in southeastern Mexico, a demonstration aimed at calling attention to the dangers they face in trying to reach U.S. soil, organizers said.

The religious ceremony and protest, organized by migrants' rights defenders, will begin on Holy Thursday in La Palma, a community in the southeastern state of Tabasco, with the traditional foot-washing ceremony, the activist behind the initiative, Marta Sanchez Soler, told Efe.

The demonstration, which will end on Good Friday in the town of Tenosique, Tabasco, is aimed at raising awareness among authorities and the society at large about the "ordeal suffered every day by undocumented migrants who traverse the country, putting themselves at risk of being victims of organized crime and corrupt authorities," Sanchez said.

The protesters want the perilous route transformed into a "zone free of attacks, kidnappings and forced disappearances," she added.

One undocumented migrant will be chosen to play the role of Christ during the procession, which will follow a route that includes some migrant shelters and railways and is covered by hundreds of thousands of Central and South American migrants every year.

Officials estimate that 300,000 migrants - most from Central America - enter Mexico each year in an effort to reach the United States, walking part of the way or riding aboard freight trains, buses and cargo trucks.

The trek is fraught with danger, with criminals and corrupt Mexican officials preying on the migrants, who often pay traffickers as much as $10,000 to get them to the United States.

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