The "Brothers on the Road" shelter in Ciudad Ixtepec, Oaxaca

[Transcript and audio of a report produced for The World]

ANCHOR: Many undocumented migrants from Central America travel through Mexico on their way to the United States. It’s a perilous journey. The migrants face lots of dangers, from exposure to the elements to murder. And now Mexico’s drug cartels have gotten involved. They control the smuggling routes for profit and they often kidnap the migrants and force them into work. About the only protection migrants can count on is that offered by shelters. The shelters offer services such as free meals and a safe place to sleep, but these shelters themselves have become targets. Shannon Young reports.

REPORTER: A recent incident in the southern Mexican city of Tenosique illustrates just how brazen criminals have become in targeting migrant shelters. A staffer at the “La 72″ shelter received an anonymous tip that the shelter would be the target of a mass kidnapping. And indeed, in the early hours of July 6th, men pulled up to the shelter in three vehicles and tried to force their way in. Migrants fled over the back wall.

The incident occured shortly after the shelter’s coordinator, Friar Tomas González and other religious figures, had met with the top United Nations human rights official – precisely to speak about the dangers facing migrants and those who defend them.

(Friar González speaks, reporter interprets)

Friar González says in addition to providing food and water, the shelters also document human rights violations suffered by migrants. That

invites intimidation or retribution from those who abuse the migrants, which González says includes both immigration authorities and organized criminals.

“La 72″ in Tenosique isn’t the only shelter that’s been targeted. Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission recently documented threats or security breeches at five other facilities. Among them is the “Casa Belén” shelter in the northern city of Saltillo, which was granted a protection order last year from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Casa Belén coordinator, Father Pedro Pantoja says the government has stood idly by as the attacks have intensified.

PEDRO PANTOJA (voiceover): “Organized criminals have come inside our migrant shelter. Despite the protection order, there were no police patrol cars outside. We see that not only as incompetence, but disdain. The authorities couldn’t care less about the disaster, the cruelty to which these people are subjected. They are completely invisible as victims. Even more invisible are those who victimize. And in all of this, there’s not only silence, but also zero action and a total lack of respect for the lives of these people.”

Two European volunteers had to abandon the Saltillo shelter last month after an act of intimidation by men who identified themselves as members of the Zetas cartel. A shelter in the border city of Nuevo Laredo closed its doors in late June citing threats and a lack of security guarantees.

The rails where migrants wait to catch a freight train

(Roll Solalinde tape – reporter interprets)

Father Alejandro Solalinde – who runs a shelter in Ciudad Ixtepec, Oaxaca – says profit is the motive behind many of the attacks against the shelters. He says the drug cartels would love to see the shelters disappear because they hinder the criminals’ ability to make money by controlling the migrant routes. The most notorious hallmark of this cartel expansion is the mass kidnapping of migrants.

Mexico’s Human Rights Commission says more than 20 thousand migrants are kidnapped each year in Mexico, generating upwards of 50 million dollars in ransom revenues. Father Solalinde has himself received multiple threats, but seems unfazed in his work.

(roll Solalinde tape, reporter interprets)

He says despite the dangers, his life is in God’s hands. He adds that’s he’s well aware that he can be killed at any moment, but that the work will go on with or without him because it’s part of God’s plan – a plan he’s willing to carry out whatever the consequence.

In a country where dozens of human rights activists have been killed over the last five years, it takes a special kind of conviction to continue the dangerous work of protecting migrants, one of the most vulnerable – and transitory – groups in Mexico.

Migrants riding a cargo train in Mexico (credit: Hermanos en el Camino shelter)

Armed men kidnapped what witness say were at least 60 migrants who were travelling on top if a cargo train through southern Mexico. The incident occurred Friday just before the train rolled into the station at Medias Aguas, Veracruz.

Migrants who escaped the kidnapping attempt told staff at the Brothers on the Road migrant shelter that the conductor stopped the train in an area where armed men were waiting with three Suburban style vehicles. The armed men ordered the migrants to get off of the train and get into the vehicles. Many ran into the surrounding countryside and hid. They eventually made their way back to the shelter in Oaxaca to report the incident.

A statement issued Sunday by the Brothers on the Road shelter said it was the first case of a mass kidnapping they’ve registered in months. The shelter also documented a mass kidnapping in December near the town of Chahuites, Oaxaca. Alejandro Solalinde, the priest who founded the shelter organized a caravan in January to call attention to the dangers migrants face on their trek through Mexico.

Organized crime groups who control the flow of drug through Mexico started kidnapping migrants for ransom a few years ago. Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission estimates at least 20 thousand migrants are kidnapped within Mexico each year.

The 513 migrants found crammed into the trailers of two 18-wheelers Tuesday came from Central and South America, the Caribbean, and Asia. State police discovered the migrants via an X-ray machine at a checkpoint near the state capital of Chiapas. According to statements made to police, each migrant was to pay 7 thousand dollars upon arrival in the United States.

State police turned over the migrants to immigration authorities who are processing deportation orders.

Thousands of undocumented migrants enter Mexico every week in an attempt to reach the United States, often travelling in dangerous and denigrating conditions. Allegations of corrupt officials are common along the migrant trail. In recent years, organized criminals have muscled into migration routes – setting up smuggling rings, kidnapping for ransom, and trafficking victims into prostitution and forced labor.

Had the migrants discovered yesterday made it all the way to the United States, the smuggling ring would have been owed more than 3.5 million dollars in fees.

Transcript of an audio report produced for January 7, 2011 broadcast of Free Speech Radio News

Around 30 Mexican human rights defenders and dozens of Central American migrants planned to board the train known as “The Beast” in the town of Arriaga, Chiapas as part of a caravan to call public attention to the dangers migrants face in southern Mexico. Their destination is Chahuites – a town located across the Oaxaca state line – which has become the scene of a number of crimes targeting migrants who use the train system to move north.

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A group kidnapping of more than 40 migrants last month once again put Chahuites in the national spotlight. Migrants arriving at a migrant shelter in Ixtepec, Oaxaca reported that in the early hours of December 16th, they encountered two groups of armed men along the way.

This man, who made it to the Ixtepec shelter the day after the attack, described the incident in video testimony:

WITNESS: “The train left Arriaga around 8pm. Shortly afterwards, we passed a bridge where immigration agents had set up a check point. Almost everyone scattered. Immigration grabbed some while others escaped and were able to get back on the train. Later, about 20 minutes before reaching a town, the train stopped. I saw how about a dozen guys came running out from a stable. I thought they were coyotes coming to look for customers. But no, they were thieves. They started shooting, people started crying and screaming. Another guy got hit with a machete.

More than 40 people remain missing from the December 16th incident. The armed men who attacked the train are suspected to have ties to the Zetas drug cartel, a criminal organization that has turned kidnapping into a multi-million dollar industry.

Father Alejandro Solalinde, a Catholic priest who runs the migrant shelter in Ixtepec, helped to organize today’s caravan.

(Father Solalinde speaks, reporter translates)

He says the caravan aims not only to make visible the dangers and risks migrants face along the way, but also to encourage the citizenry to seek ways to reverse the situation. The priest says he wants to see the area’s migration route transform from a “humanitarian tragedy” zone to a place of peace and respect for migrants’ rights.

Among the members of the caravan en route to Chahuites is Elvira Arellano – who has continued her immigration rights activism in Mexico after her high-profile deportation from the United States a few years ago.

At deadline the train, which was scheduled to leave Arriage this morning, had not arrived. Caravan members said they would continue to Chahuites on foot.

Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission – or CNDH – documented more than 200 group kidnappings of migrants in 2010 with an average of 50 migrants kidnapped each day. The riskiest routes are in the states of Chiapas, Oaxaca, and Tamaulipas.

Protest Graffitti - Oaxaca City - Sept. 2010

Across Mexico today, celebrations to mark the 100 year anniversary of the start of the Mexican Revolution. Amongst other things, the revolution was considered a victory for the country’s rural poor, who won land rights away from the wealthy elite.

While Mexico today is preoccupied with with the bloody Drug War in the country’s north, small farmers are facing a new fight over land rights in the south.

[dewplayer:http://www.southnotes.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/twtw_MexRevCen.mp3]

[Chants from Oaxaca City march for Copala]

Women march through the streets of Oaxaca City to call attention to the situation in the farming village of San Juan Copala.

Most of these women fled the town this summer during a violent paramilitary offensive that killed about 20 residents.

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