Central American immigrants move north through Mexico via freight trains.
While Mexicans are justifiably outraged over a new law in Arizona that criminalizes illegal immigrants, this might be a good time to recall that they themselves aren’t too great at treating unwanted guests with decency and respect. Amnesty International recently released a hair-raising report on the gauntlet of rape, theft, and abuse that immigrants from Central America have to endure in Mexico on their way to the US of A. Here’s one incident from the 48-page report:
On 1 March 2008, a Salvadoran couple, Marta and Juan (not their real names), were passing near the INM post at Huixtla on the Tapachula-Arriaga road, Chiapas state. Three uniformed municipal policemen stopped them and stole their money. Then, three armed men arrived and took Marta away. One of the policemen told her husband to disappear, but he scoured the area looking for his wife until the following day, when he made his way to the shelter run by Father Solalinde in Ciudad Ixtepec, Oaxaca state. He filed a complaint with the PGJE in Tapachula. Father Solalinde told Amnesty International that later, when Marta was located in El Salvador, she confirmed that the armed men had blindfolded her and forced her to walk for a day before repeatedly raping her. After five days in captivity, Marta woke alone. Traumatized, she made her own way back to El Salvador, reluctant to pursue a criminal complaint against the perpetrators. The Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants raised the case with the Mexican government which offered to provide Marta with a visa to file a complaint, but she refused to return to Mexico. To Amnesty International’s knowledge, no further efforts were made to identify the perpetrators.
It’s estimated that six out of 10 migrant women passing through Mexico are sexually abused. Many other migrants are kidnapped or killed by criminal gangs, often with the complicity of the local police and municipal authorities. And pretty much none of the perpetrators are ever brought to justice: Illegal immigrants are afraid to go to the authorities because they themselves are breaking the law, making them sitting ducks for criminals.
Which, by the way, will be one of the nastier side-effects of the Arizona law.
This is not to say that two wrongs make a right, but that maybe Mexican civil society (which sounds like it does great work on this issue, by the way) could use the Arizona controversy as a teachable moment to whip up a little empathy and understanding for the plight of the migrant on Mexican soil.
(Original image courtesy wetape)
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One Comment
I’m glad you’ve noted that Mexico, unlike the U.S., is taking this seriously. Being in Mexico without documentation is a regulatory offense, not a crime. One can be fined (from ten to one hundred salarios minimos) which could be a hardship for some migrants (the salario minimo in Mexico being much higher than that in the Central American countries), but there is a problem with rogue coppers and others (and of course, we think most of our coppers are rogues) taking advantage of people’s ignorance of the law.