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Criminal Groups in Mexico Are Kidnapping Central American Migrants, Activists Say

Posted June 8, 2010 by Leslie Josephs
Categories: Federal Immigration Policy

Already one of the most vulnerable groups in Mexico, thousands of undocumented Central American migrants are kidnapped each year, sometimes by criminal organizations or drug gangs, human rights researchers say.

The tens of thousands of Central Americans who try to reach the United States through Mexico have suffered sexual violence, human-trafficking rings, and other crimes.

“Generalized corruption” in the Mexican government’s National Migration Institute and “ the collusion of its members with those in organized crime” has allowed this to happen, according to the Belén Posada del Migrante, a Catholic Church-funded shelter in Satillo, capital of border state Coahuila de Zaragoza.

Alberto Xicoténcatl, the shelter’s director, told Honduras’ main newspaper La Prensa that of the 10,000 migrants they received last year – mostly Central Americans – “there isn’t one who hasn’t suffered or witnessed a kidnapping in Mexico.”

According to Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission, between September 2008 and February 2009, 9,758 migrants were kidnapped or deprived of their freedom in cases that have largely gone unpunished. Sixty-seven percent of the victims were Honduran, 18 percent from El Salvador, 13 percent from Guatemala, and the rest from Peru, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Chile.

More than 400 of the victims said their captors were “Los Zetas,” one of Mexico’s main drug cartels, while others lacked information or said they were kidnapped by criminal gangs. Los Zetas were founded by elite army personnel who had once acted as a paramilitary organization that gave protection to the powerful Gulf Cartel, but in recent months broke off to form their own trafficking ring and are now warring with the Gulf organization.

Xicoténcatl said the number of kidnapping victims could be much higher, because she believes fewer are escaping or set free, and that that Los Zetas control an important immigration route, where a train passes from Central America into Mexico.

While officials and activists on both sides of Mexico’s porous southern border have clamored for Washington to quickly establish immigration reform, Central American countries are trying to stem the abuses within Mexico.

Last month, Guatemala and El Salvador announced they would set up consulates in the coastal Veracruz state, specifically to attend to migrants. The Veracruz state government also said it would set up a special prosecutor’s office to investigate and prosecute crimes against migrants, which go largely unpunished.

Tags : amnesty international, central american migrants, human trafficking, mexico

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