Rivers, Trains, Gangs and Death: A Perilous Migration to the United States Yemeli Ortega Luyando - Agence France-Presse
go to original April 3, 2013

For close to two decades, thousands of Central American migrants have lost their dreams, limbs and lives trying to illegally cross Mexican territory. Mexico represents a great challenge for those whose only goal is to reach the northern border hoping to incorporate themselves into the United States. Their Calvary begins in the state of Chiapas, the moment they step on Mexican soil. (Pedro Ultreras)

TENOSIQUE, Mexico - The morning mist cloaked the small boat as it carried 14 migrants across a river from Guatemala to Mexico at the start of a long and uncertain journey towards the United States - if gangs don't get them first.

“We left, but who knows if we'll come back,” one of the men whispered as the boat crept along the San Pedro river with a handful of the estimated 140,000 people, mainly Central Americans, who enter Mexico every year to pursue the distant American Dream.

Sailing from a remote location known as “Los Naranjos” in Guatemala, nearly all the travelers remained quiet, refusing to give their names, origin and destination to AFP reporters riding the single-engine boat with them on a river haunted by reptiles.

The passengers included one woman and seven youths who appeared to be minors. Their silence reflects a fear of being heard by one of the “halcones,” or hawks, who work as informants for the mafias that prey on vulnerable migrants.

At least 20,000 migrants are kidnapped each year on the perilous trek through Mexico, a nation plagued by violence perpetrated by drug cartels. Many are robbed, raped, murdered or forcibly recruited by the gangs.

Despite the dangers, migrants like the 14 on the river boat continue to take the risky route north, hoping to leave behind life of poverty and violence in Central America.

Read the rest at Times Online

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