Train Enforces Stowaway Ban, Stranding Central American Migrants in Mexico Paulina Villegas - The New York Times
go to original May 11, 2014

For close to two decades, thousands of Central American migrants have lost their dreams, limbs and lives trying to illegally cross Mexican territory. Mexico represents a great challenge for those whose only goal is to reach the northern border hoping to incorporate themselves into the United States. Their Calvary begins in the state of Chiapas, the moment they step on Mexican soil. (Pedro Ultreras)

MEXICO CITY - Hundreds of Central American migrants trying to make their way to the United States have been stranded in Mexico in recent weeks after the freight-train line they ride - labeled the Beast - began enforcing a ban on stowaways, migrant advocates say.

The migrants, often desperate to leave poverty and crime in their home countries, brave riding atop the train cars, activists say, and are prey to criminals who have been accused of rape, robbery and murder.

Many of the migrants have ended up in already crowded shelters, which have reported populations now swelling beyond capacity with men, women and children.

Migrant activists say that once the migrants are stranded, they face a difficult decision of whether to return home or try the journey north by foot or car, leaving them vulnerable to criminal gangs and corrupt police along the way.

Crew members of the railroad, which is featured in books and documentaries about the migration north, normally turn a blind eye to migrants scrambling to stow away on the trains.

But after the southern Mexico state of Veracruz filed a lawsuit last month accusing the railroad of complicity in the violence on the trains, the train operators began banning the stowaways, migrant advocates said.

Read the rest at The New York Times

Photo: Miguel Sierra/European Pressphoto Agency

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