MEXICO: Mexico reflects on the first anniversary of one of its worst massacres that saw the notorious Zetas cartel gun down 72 migrants in a ranch.

Record ID: 303922

  • Title: MEXICO: Mexico reflects on the first anniversary of one of its worst massacres that saw the notorious Zetas cartel gun down 72 migrants in a ranch.
  • Date: 24th August 2011
  • Summary: IXTEPEC, OAXACA, MEXICO (FILE) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF PROTEST FOR MIGRANTS RIGHTS CIUDAD DE MEXICO, MEXICO (FILE) (REUTERS) TRAIN MOVING ON TRACKS VARIOUS OF MIGRANT JUMPING ON AND CLIMBING MOVING TRAIN IXTEPEC, OAXACA, MEXICO (FILE) (REUTERS) MORE OF MIGRANTS RIGHTS PROTESTS FAMILY OF VICTIMS CONSOLING EACH OTHER
  • Embargoed: 8th September 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Mexico, Mexico
  • Country: Mexico
  • Topics: Conflict
  • Reuters ID: LVAL2SFGYDMK7BK0JXW5N89Q8UY
  • Story Text: Migrant activists gathered in Mexico on Tuesday (August 23) as the country commemorates one year since marines discovered the bodies of 58 men and 14 women, thought to be migrant workers, dumped in a remote ranch near the U.S. border.
    In the biggest single discovery of its kind in Mexico's increasingly bloody drug war so far, activists lamented that the plight of undocumented migrants has not improved since the gruesome find that shocked the country.
    "The conditions that produced (the) San Fernando (massacre) prevail. On the contrary, there are new factors that we have not encountered before such as organised crime and federal authorities and governments of all levels suffer from xenophobia. It is nothing more than the result of a negative political campaign against migrants by the federal government," said priest and head of a migrants shelter 'Hermanos del Camino'.
    With little state protection, Mexico's undocumented migrants are an easy target for drug gangs seeking to hold them to ransom and local police officers keen to take what little possessions they carry.
    "They ask for a visa and ask for a salary that they don't earn so they enter Mexico informally. Since they enter Mexico informally with money to pay for their transport, food and sometimes for the coyote, they are assaulted for their own money because the police know they (migrants) can't go to authorities because they are illegal. This has not changed at all," said Senator and President of the Commission for Foreign Relations, Yeidckol Polevnsky.
    Last August, 72 mostly Central American migrants were lined up and executed on an isolated ranch in the northern state of Tamaulipas, the main battleground between the Zetas and their erstwhile employers, the Gulf Cartel.
    One of the massacre's two survivors said a drug cartel killed the group for refusing to join their ranks, a familiar tale for undocumented migrants who are often forced to transport drugs across the U.S. border.
    In the past couple of years, Mexico's relentless drug violence has fueled insecurity fears for migrants. The feared Zetas cartel has raised the stakes for illegals crossing the country and created another security headache for President Felipe Calderon's government, which has spent millions of dollars embroiled in a brutal war against trafficking.
    At least 11,333 migrants were kidnapped in Mexico between April and September last year, many in large groups, a study by the National Human Rights Commission showed. In 9 percent of cases, corrupt police or immigration officials were involved.
    Earlier this month, Central American migrants and family members embarked on an ambitious national protest to call attention to abuses migrants face in their perilous trek to the United States. Called "Step by Step Towards Peace" activists are following the human migration routes where thousands of cases of murder, kidnapping and rape were reported to authorities.
    Countless Latin American migrants journey some 1,900 miles (3,000 km) through Mexico to find better-paying U.S. jobs, traveling by car, truck, or foot, some clinging to the top of cargo trains or hiding in secret compartments built into tractor trailers.
    Some migrants pay as much as $10,000 to smugglers who promise to get them into the United States. Many others see their journeys end in robbery, assault or arrest.
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