Camilo is only 4 years old, but he endures with disarming strength the intense pain caused by a recent tumor in his neck. The protrusion continues to grow, as does his parents Alex and Daniela’s concern.
In December 2022, this Colombian family arrived in Canada to apply for refugee status after a journey full of dangers. She has been forced to do business as far north as the continent with criminal groups increasingly active at borders and in human trafficking, Enquête recently revealed.
The lives of these migrants, whose names we have changed to ensure their protection, were never easy, even before their journey. Violence has never stopped knocking on their door.
The beginning of the odyssey
Alex and Daniela were born in Buenaventura, a Colombian city on the Pacific coast that is home to the country’s largest seaport. Once considered a center of tourist development, it is now the center of a war for control of cocaine routes that is raging in this Afro-Colombian region.
Daniela and Alex were not yet together when he had to go into hiding in Chile, threatened by a criminal organization. A few months later, it was Daniela’s turn to find refuge there, also threatened by bandits. When she arrived in Chile, she met Alex and started a family with him. From this union came Camilo and his little sister Amara.
Everything was going well until Colombian criminals arrived in Chile. One day, after his day at work, Alex went out for coffee with friends. Members of a Colombian gang arrived and caused a violent confrontation. Alex was severely beaten and lost an eye. The family had to flee again for their safety.
After seeing reports of the mass arrival of migrants via Roxham Road in July, she decided to travel to Canada.
Listen to Alex and Daniela talk about their journey and the horrors that come with it:
The family talks about their journey from Chile to Canada.
Photo: Portal / JOSE LUIS GONZALEZ
Corruption and secret codes
Following the advice of other migrants and friends who were already here or still in the United States, Alex, Daniela and their children flew to Cancun. Once in Mexico, they boarded a bus to head north to the American border.
At that time they got caught up in the cartel spiral and had to deal with corruption in the police. Alex and Daniela remember having to pay police officers $100 (C$137) at road checkpoints to avoid being sent back to the starting point. They were intercepted six times and had to pay three times.
However, the family only has limited resources. When it came time for her to choose a coyote (smuggler) to cross the border, she chose a smuggler who charged less than the others: US$250 (C$340) per person.
Today Alex regrets this decision, which turned out to be the worst and the cause of our unhappiness.
When he arrived with Daniela and his children in the state of Sonora, near the American border, police officers boarded the bus. Everything seems very official: the uniform, the badges, even the cars in which they arrived. They asked us for our passports and did a migration check, Daniela remembers.
According to Alex, many people, especially Indians and Arabs, then gave the police a number, a code name and some money, which allowed them to continue their journey.
Since they had no code name, Alex, Daniela, little Camilo and his sister Amara had to leave the bus along with other migrants from Haiti, Cuba, Venezuela and Colombia.
“They forced us to get into vans to take us to a lonely house,” says Alex. Only then did they reveal their true identities and say, “We are from the Sinaloa Cartel.” They are now our hostages. If you don’t pay US$2,000 (CAD2,740) per person, you won’t get anywhere.
“We don’t know yet what we will do with those who don’t find the money,” they added as a threat.
They told us that from now on migrants would have to have a secret code from the smuggler to cross, Alex remembers. And they told us that they had already killed coyotes that didn’t follow the new rules. Apparently her smuggler hadn’t paid anything.
Enquête has also heard what they say and was able to confirm it with migrants who are now in Canada. Mexican experts actually confirm that cartels are managing the clandestine passage of migrants at the border.
From nightmare to hell
All of the people held captive by the Sinaloa cartel in the lonely house had to contact their families via video and ask for financial help. When confirmation of the money transfer arrived, the criminals escorted the hostages to collect the money.
Alex and Daniela failed to collect the amount of money the bandits demanded. One of the criminals then offered to use little Camilo as a bargaining chip: if the child stayed with him, they could survive and continue their journey to Canada.
One of the criminals said to us: “I’ll let you go on, but I’ll keep your boy. With me he can grow up and become a very good shot, even a great killer,” Alex, Camilo’s father, told us. by Amara.
But the couple refused. Afterwards, the criminal leader’s wife, who wanted a son, fell under the spell of little Camilo, a mixed-race child with long, curly hair, big black eyes and a beautiful smile.
The woman said to us, “Leave the boy to me and go with your daughter and the money you have.”
The family did not want to accept this second offer. Daniela had to pay dearly for this decision: the criminals decided to sexually abuse her several times. “My life hasn’t been the same since the kidnapping,” Daniela admits sadly.
Daniela and Alex wanted to die when this sexual abuse happened. However, they had to protect and save their two children at all costs.
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Migrants on their way to the USA. (archive photo)
Photo: Portal / DANIEL BECERRIL
Instances of rape are common in the stories of migrants kidnapped by cartels, especially when these people cannot afford to pay the amounts demanded in exchange for their freedom. A tragedy that remains unpunished because it is impossible to find those responsible.
Finally, after a few days, the traffickers’ big boss decided to take the $3,500 (CAD $4,800) they had looted from families in Colombia and Chile as payment and smuggle the migrants into the United States. -United States.
Just before crossing, the criminals asked them to take a video. Alex remembers that one by one all the migrants had to say: Thanks to the Sinaloa Cartel for the help.
An uncertain future
Camilo doesn’t talk much today; He needs speech therapy and his mother is convinced he needs to be evaluated to see if he has any psychological aftereffects.
They are small, my two children. Maybe they’ll forget all this when they grow up. I ask myself questions. I don’t even know if what we went through was worth it… But I can’t let go; I have to keep going for my children.
Camilo is only 4 years old. After surviving the feared Sinaloa Cartel, the little boy must fight every day against the illness and pain caused by his neck tumor.
Furthermore, he has to live in fear because he doesn’t know if he can stay in Canada.
In collaboration with Romain Schué