Latin American Victims of the 'Beast' Finally Start Getting Rights in Mexico Jasmine Garsd - Fusion
go to original April 24, 2014

April 08, 2014, Basilica de Guadalupe, Mexico City, Mexico. Wilfredo, a member of the Association for Returned Disabled Migrants, walks away from Basilica de Guadalupe in Mexico City. Wilfredo lost his leg to the freight train known as "The Beast," in Veracruz. Since then he has lost his job, wife and feels stigmatized in Honduras. (Encarni Pindado)

Sometimes Wilfredo Filiu Garay wakes up in the middle of the night with an itch on his left foot. He gets angry when he tries to scratch and finds nothing.

... Wilfredo is one of of 373 people on record that had limbs amputated while riding La Bestia between 2003 and 2011, according to statistics compiled by the Mexican government.

A group representing injured Honduran migrants says the number is higher. According to the Association of Returned Migrants With Disabilities, an organization to which Wilfredo now belongs, there are about 450 amputee migrants in Honduras alone.

A few weeks ago, 15 of those hundreds of amputees embarked on a second voyage from Central America to Mexico. This time it was different. They weren’t mounted on the back of a massive train. They came on a bus, and they came with visas. They wanted to talk to Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto about the their situation and the plight of Central American migrants in Mexico.

... Once in Mexico City, Wilfredo and his groups were invited to tell their stories to a representative from the government committee on migration and a federal deputy. There had been rumors that the president would indeed be meeting with the migrants.

... the men waited for almost a week in Mexico City before deciding to return to Honduras. They never met the president, but they left with the promise from the Mexican government that in the future, all migrants who have suffered mutilations on the train, and their families, will be eligible for visas to stay in Mexico.

Read the rest at Fusion

We invite you to add your charity or supporting organizations' news stories and coming events to PVAngels so we can share them with the world. Do it now!