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.
