The fear of organized crime among migrants at the Mexico-US border
Ciudad Juárez, Mexico.
Migrants who have managed to reach the Rio Grande, the border between Mexico’s Ciudad Juárez and El Paso, Texas, say they fear organized crime after the massacre of 9 people this week, which, according to authorities, could have been perpetrated by drug traffickers.
The migrants who arrive in this area told EFE of their fear because, they noted, they have been victims of attacks. Ayarí Zedeño, a migrant from Venezuela who traveled to Ciudad Juárez with her family, said that even being next to the United States they have been attacked.
“We were already lying down and a group of those people (criminals) arrived with ropes (ropes) and we managed to run. (They said) that they were coming to take all the people because we couldn’t be here. That is what we fear the most, not so much the immigration (authorities),” he said.
The fear is growing because just this week the authorities found 9 naked bodies lying north of Chihuahua, at kilometer 37 of the highway to Ciudad Juárez, a road heavily traveled on foot by migrants. The crime was attributed to human trafficking gangs.
Zedeño said that there is a lot of distrust in what the Mexican authorities do once they secure the migrants, which is why they stay away and do not ask for help.
“They also say that the same Mexican immigration (authority) has grabbed some and handed them over to those people,” the Venezuelan woman said worriedly.
He stated that the migrant policy that Mexico has adopted, of persecuting people in mobility conditions, has forced them to expose themselves to many dangers, among which is being exposed to organized crime.
“We have been there for almost a week and we have had a bad time because we are sleeping in the mountains, we have killed snakes, we have already gone to the wall but they took us out. The Army took us out because (the National Institute of) Immigration was not there, they wanted to hit the child’s father with the child on top of them, they treated us badly, they wanted to tear up our documents,” the woman said.
Gilberto Loya Chávez, Secretary of Public Security of the State of Chihuahua, assured that the control that criminal groups seek over human trafficking is so serious that more than half of the homicides that occur in Juárez are related to this crime. In addition, he did not rule out the presence of the Venezuelan criminal group ‘Tren de Aragua’, which would be generating the fight over migrant trafficking in the region.
Julio Okendo, another migrant from Venezuela, told EFE that among the dangers that the route implies, organized crime is the greatest.
He added that Mexico has been the most difficult part of the route since they do not sell them bus tickets, which implies a lot of suffering and entire days walking at the expense of the criminals.
“Always fleeing from Migration, running into the bush, that is where I say, the danger of the migrant is increasing more, by making them walk into the bush, the jungle is where one is in greater danger,” he said.
At some point Okendo also managed to enter the United States but due to the lack of presence of US immigration authorities, the Texas National Guard forced them to return to the shore of the Rio Grande.
“Many sacrifices, a lot of risk to life, a lot of money spent, with all that money we spent on those walks we would have already arrived here and the United States already knows if it will deport us or receive us,” said the Venezuelan. EFE