Diego Cevallos

MEXICO CITY, Oct 28 2005 (IPS) — Central American migrants crossing into southern Mexico on their way to the United States not only face predatory youth gangs and corrupt police, but have now found themselves stranded by this month’s hurricanes, which wiped out stretches of roads and the railway.

But the migrants, who are hesitant to turn to shelters out of fear of deportation, refuse to give up in their attempt to make it to the United States, and many are now seeking to continue on their way through remote jungle areas where they run the risk of getting lost or being bitten by snakes or other wild animals.

In the wake of the passage of hurricanes Wilma and Stan through Central America and Mexico earlier this month, the authorities have reported a drop in the influx of immigrants along the main border crossing points from Guatemala to southern Mexico.

The highways and railroads linking the two countries were seriously damaged by the heavy rains, and repairs could take years.

“Due to the effects of Stan, the migration flows seem to have slowed, but what has occurred above all is that there are tremendous problems in the traditional crossing points,” Catholic priest Florencio Rigoni, head of the Migrants House in Tapachula, in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, told IPS.

“Migration is shifting towards less heavily monitored jungle areas.These people, who are the poorest of the poor, the truly down-and-out, are tired of facing so many difficulties in Mexico,” said Rigoni.

The Migrants House is run by the Scalabrinian missionaries, who operate similar shelters in several towns along the U.S.-Mexico border, providing hot meals, showers, a place to sleep, and medical and psychological assistance for migrants.

Mexico, through which tens of thousands of migrants from South America, Central America, and to a lesser extent Asia and the Middle East, pass every year in their attempt to make it into the United States, shares a 1,149-km border with Guatemala and Belize.

The governmental National Migration Institute estimates that the total number of migrants arrested and deported along Mexico’s southern border could reach 250,000 this year, 35,000 more than in 2004. There are no statistics on how many are killed or sent back home with serious injuries – often from falling off the top of a train car – but activists put the number in the hundreds.

The area around Tapachula has long been the main crossing point for migrants. Life is cheap and human rights have little value there, according to Rigoni – whose viewpoint is backed up by a large body of research as well as numerous personal accounts.

“There are many vultures in uniforms (police) here who blackmail and steal from the migrants,” said the priest.

Also operating in the area are child sexual exploitation and adult prostitution networks, while youth gangs, known in Central America as “maras”, prey on the vulnerable migrants, who frequently fall victim to robbery, rape and murder.

It is hell on earth, say Central American migrants, who pay huge sums to “coyotes” or people smugglers to take them into the United States.

The situation is “dramatic,” said the chairman of the governmental Human Rights Commission of Mexico, José Luis Soberanes.

The government of Vicente Fox insists that it is working to guarantee the rights of migrants, but it has failed to curb the number of complaints of human rights abuses of all kinds along the southern border.

Activists and opposition politicians accuse government officials of double standards, because they loudly protest the treatment received by Mexicans in the United States, but do little when it comes to the rights of Central American migrants in Mexico.

The damages caused by this month’s hurricanes exacerbated the difficult conditions faced by migrants. Many have been stranded in southern Mexico, and out of fear of deportation have largely stayed away from the government-run shelters for storm refugees.

“We ourselves have had to help provide assistance to Mexicans left homeless by the storms, and we have explained to the migrants that this is our duty,” said Rigoni.

Many Central Americans have been sleeping in doorways, under trees or in abandoned train cars, while others have hiked to more remote areas to try to continue on their way to the United States along unguarded routes, where they face the risk of getting lost or being attacked by criminals or even wild animals.

Most of the highways between southern and central Mexico were damaged by the storms, and the railroad, which for years has been the main means of transport used by migrants, who brave the hazardous ride on the top of train cars, is not running and according to authorities will not be repaired for some time.