Venezuelans who have crossed the deadly Darien jungle say they are clear about the worst part of the road to the United States: Mexico. Crossing the country is a nightmare for hundreds of thousands of migrants who face corruption from authorities and violence from cartels all the way to the northern border. There are more than 3,000 kilometers between Tapachula and Ciudad Juárez, one of the last stops before the leap to the North American dream. Some migrants who have a travel permit and the necessary money travel part of the journey by bus. The rest leave, flee, ride the beast. Despite their danger, freight trains have become an effective way to cross the country. This week, Grupo México shut down more than 60 trains to prevent migrants from boarding – a wake-up call to the government, which continues to turn a blind eye to this refugee crisis.
It was an unprecedented decision. Ferromex, the company owned by billionaire Germán Larrea, Mexico’s second richest man, decided on Tuesday to stop operating 60 convoys as more than 4,000 migrants gathered there, ready to risk their lives to reach the wagons climb. The company reported that 1,500 people were in the train cars and on the Torreón premises in Coahuila; another thousand in San Francisco de los Romo (Aguascalientes); 800 in Irapuato (Guanajuato) and more than 1,000 in the cargo gondolas of Ciudad Juárez (Chihuahua).
Migrants wait for a northbound train in Huehuetoca (state of Mexico). Eduardo Verdugo (AP)
“Given the significant increase in the concentration of migrants in different regions of the country and the significant threat that the use of freight trains for transportation poses to their integrity, Ferromex has temporarily suspended 60 trains, equivalent to the capacity of 1,800 trucks, on the routes in the country stopped in the north of the country, in the regions affected by this social and humanitarian problem,” the company stated in writing. This after two dead migrants and four other injured people were recorded in the past few days. Freight trains have left a trail of death and mutilation in Mexico for years.
The consequences of the measure were not long in coming and some analysts estimated the company’s daily losses at 40 million pesos. In addition to the collapse of goods going to the United States. “It is the first time in such a short time that so many people are trying to get into the tankers and gondolas. It is an unprecedented situation,” Grupo México sources told EL PAÍS.
Given the urgency, the National Migration Institute (Inami) came forward and suggested that the company “integrate more federal immigration officers on the train route,” while at the same time “calling on the Ferromex company to increase its private security guards for incoming people.” the crew.” The agency estimated 3,000 people “who irregularly boarded the train to reach Mexico’s northern border” in September alone.
Late Wednesday, Ferromex announced that after consulting with the government, it would “restore rail services only on routes where high-risk conditions do not exist,” but did not specify which ones or how many. In addition to implementing “continuous monitoring of the presence of migrants”: “risk conditions are assessed hour by hour.”
A Venezuelan migrant in Ramos Arizpe (Coahuila), on September 20.DANIEL BECERRIL (Portal)
Many human rights organizations reacted to the suspension of the trains. The Documentation Network of Migrant Defense Organizations (Redodem) pointed out: “Instead of being a protective measure, it will exacerbate other risks and may even create new problems for the safety of people related to human mobility.” Stopping the operation of railway lines , is not a solution.” The humanitarian organization explained that “migrants travel by train, with all the risks that entails, because the Mexican authorities leave them no other choice.” And he gave an example of how migrants are denied ticket sales, illegal requirements are imposed or they are charged more than the cost of the ticket.
“Bus terminals have even been closed, as recently happened in Arriaga, Chiapas,” says Redodem, “and even more, in collusion with authorities and criminal groups, there are checkpoints along the routes where people are taken away, extorted and even extorted.” “The Immigration authorities tear up their humanitarian visitor cards or other identification documents to often detain them and take them to immigration stations.”
Mexico has a dark history of massacres of migrants. From the 72 in San Fernando in Tamaulipas in 2017 to the 19 shootings and burnings in Camargo in 2021 or the last fire in March of this year at the immigration detention center that ended the lives of 40 people because no one opened the door to them. The fence and they were locked up. Given this humanitarian emergency and the Mexican government’s inaction during its six-year mandate, organizations insist on the urgent need for solutions. Among other things, they demand that the National Migration Institute issue humanitarian visas to migrants so that they can buy tickets and travel safely through the country, or that the Ministry of Communications and Transport monitor and sanction transport companies that refuse to sell tickets to migrants or the introduction of illegal requirements and fees.
For now, the National Migration Institute has only pointed out that “deterrence and rescue are the central points of its actions together with Ferromex, so that migrants do not risk their lives.”
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