Southern Mexico
Chiapas
The city of Tapachula, in the Mexican state of Chiapas, is one of the most important cities along the migrant route. It is the first Mexican city where Central American migrants en route to the United States stop once they enter Mexico. It is located about 23 miles from the city of Ciudad Hidalgo, which is directly across the border from the Guatemalan city of Tecún Umán. Before Hurricane Stan inflicted major structural damage to Mexico’s southern railroad system in 2005, it was easier for migrants to transit from Tapachula to Arriaga, Chiapas. Since 2008, the city of Tapachula has attracted more migrants, especially Guatemalan women. The increased concentration of migrants has facilitated migrant exploitation and human trafficking in the city.
Interviews with different migration activists and human rights activists shed light on the dynamics of labor and sexual exploitation occurring in the city. Central American female migrants are the main victims of trafficking. Tapachula’s downtown plaza is locally known as an area where migrants gather and offer their labor for money. Locals often offer migrant women domestic and waitress jobs. In the plaza, well-dressed men are usually present; experts claim that these men recruit women to exploitative places, usually bars.
Local bars, known as botaneros, are the city’s most notorious hubs of migrant labor. Concentrated in downtown and mostly frequented by men, these bars are one of the main sources of employment for Central American women in Tapachula. The employment conditions are dire and abusive, and bar owners allow customers to treat waitresses as they please, as long as they pay a certain fee. A Guatemalan migrant who worked at several botaneros said that bar owners would force waitresses to go out with clients who paid the bar. She also said that waitresses would be pressured by the owner, or by the person in charge of the bar that night, to have as many drinks as possible with customers.
Another form of exploitation present in the downtown plaza is labor exploitation of minors. In multiple occasions, we witnessed children selling candy on the streets. Experts said these minors are called “canguritos.” Some experts believe these children are being “rented” by their parents to people who exploit minors for financial gain. Other experts believe these children are Central American migrants who reside in a local shelter. According to them, these children are exploited during the day and return to the shelter at night
Experts and migrants identified local business owners as human traffickers. Presumably, TCOs are not present in the state of Chiapas. Migration experts, human right activists and law enforcement reported no organized crime activity since 2006.
During our stay in Tapachula, we visited a female incarceration facility and interviewed women charged with human trafficking. The age range of these women surprised us; they were either young adults or elderly women. Most of them were from Guatemala, were illiterate, and had low socioeconomic backgrounds. Experts in Tapachula reported that bar owners and managers knew in advance if authorities would raid their establishments. Prior to raids, bar owners would assign management responsibilities to low level employees, often migrant women, and leave before police officers appeared. Authorities usually charge the person responsible for the bar at the time of the raid with human trafficking charges. We assess that the people charged with human trafficking offenses we interviewed were likely victims instead of perpetrators. The women we interviewed in the prison reported abuses at the time of their arrest, widespread legal rights violations, and poor medical attention.
Tabasco
Tapachula, Chiapas, and Tenosique, Tabasco are the first cities in Mexico where migrants stop. Tapachula is located near Mexico’s southwestern border with Guatemala. Tenosique is located about 38 miles northwest from the Guatemalan border. In 1998, Hurricane Mitch destroyed train tracks in Tenosique, severely affecting the transit of migrant who relied on trains to move in Mexico. In 2005, Tapachula’s train station was closed. In 2008, Mexico and Guatemala inaugurated a highway connecting Guatemala to Tabasco. Migrants transiting through Tenosique follow the train tracks to Palenque, Chiapas; Coatzacoalcos and Medias Aguas, Veracruz. Tenosique is also an area of interest in regards to organized crime. The Zetas once operated there with significant control over the drug, smuggling, and migrant routes.
Unlike Tapachula, Tenosique is not a destination city. The local residents are also known to be unwelcoming to migrants. Hostility towards migrants increased noticeably after the establishment of the migrant shelter in the city. The migrant routes near Tabasco have been heavily used by common criminals who rob, assault, rape, and murder migrants. Due to a lack of security along Mexico’s southern border, migrants are an easy target to abuse by Central American and Mexican gangs, kidnappers, and corrupt government officials.
Migrants are not likely to report abuse to law enforcement agents. Since Mexico implemented the Frontera Sur Plan, authorities have increased their efforts to detect and deport undocumented migrants. Government officials have focused on stopping migrants from boarding trains. Hondurans migrants were reported as more likely to board trains than other migrants.
A migration analyst in Tenosique said that migration patterns in the city have changed. In the past, most Guatemalans transiting through Tenosique reported that their goal was to reach the United States. Currently, 90% of Guatemalans reported Campeche or Quintana Roo as their destination. They usually seek employment in the construction and the service industry. Many Guatemalans migrate to Cancun, Chetumal, and Playa del Carmen. Reports of possible trafficking of Guatemalan minors for commercial sex industry in Cancun, Quintana Roo were also discussed. Honduran migrants tend to reside in migrant shelters for longer periods than other migrants. They hope to obtain asylum in Mexico.
Tenosique was locally known as the first leg of the migrant route to be under the control of the Zetas. From 2009 to 2012, several kidnappings and violent crimes took place in the city. The Zetas controlled the migrant routes in order safeguard their control over the drug routes in the region. In 2009, they started demanding fees, extorting, and kidnapping migrants to increase their revenue. Government officials and analysts claimed that the Zetas still operate in the city, but not at the level that they did in 2009-2012. Although experts did not reach a consensus on whether the Zetas still operate in Tenosique, it is evident that other criminal groups are still present in the city.
We have not found evidence that Tabasco is a hub for trafficking in persons. There is some evidence of labor exploitation in the agricultural sector, but we found little evidence of organized human trafficking rings. Although we found hints of trafficking taking place in the city, there were no actual police cases of trafficking. Extortion, kidnapping, assault, robbery and sexual assault are much more common occurrences. Sexual abuse and robbery are the most common crimes targeting women and children. No organized trafficking rings were identified in Tenosique. With the exception of areas near the border, it does not seem that organized crime is significantly present in the city.
Oaxaca
During our fieldwork, we visited two cities in the state of Oaxaca. Due to a history of local pro-migrant activism, the state has been known among experts for the good quality of its migrant shelters. The first city we visited was Chahuites, located on the border of Oaxaca with Chiapas. In Chahuites, the La Bestia train comes to a full halt, allowing migrants to disembark and rest in the local migrant shelter. The other city we visited was Ixtepec. It was in this city that migrant rights activist Father Alejandro Solalinde started his journey to bring attention to the human rights violations that migrants experience in Mexico’s migration routes.
In most cities along the migrant route, migrants reported that law enforcement agents and criminals often abused and robbed them. The cities of Ixtepec and Chahuites present contrasting scenarios. In Chahuites and in most cities in Oaxaca, migrants report being regularly mistreated and abused. However, thanks in large part to migrant rights activism in the city, Ixtepec municipal authorities have provided migrants with a safer space than the ones they usually encounter across the country.
The number of abuse complaints filled by migrants has increased yearly in Ixtepec. This trend is attributed to the work of the local migrant shelter, Hermanos en El Camino, which encourages migrants to contact the authorities and file complaints. The complaints are not restricted to abuses and crimes that occurred in Ixtepec or Oaxaca. Regarding human trafficking, experts told us that no cases of human trafficking for criminal activities have been reported yet. There were no reports on the presence of TCOs in the city of Ixtepec or Chahuites. Crimes against migrants were attributed to local criminal groups. In some instances, the perpetrators were local landowners extorting migrants transiting through Ixtepec.
Our research indicates that Oaxaca experiences a high incidence of labor exploitative activities. Although human trafficking often incur in labor exploitation, human trafficking, by definition, must involve the element of deceit and fraud. Experts agreed that migrants in Ixtepec work under terrible conditions and are unfairly paid, when they are paid. Employers in the construction, service, and agriculture industries routinely offer employment to migrants. Instead of merely transiting through Ixtepec, many migrants have recently decided to settle in the city. Most of them are waiting on pending cases of abuse that could result in the legalization of their stay in Mexico. Some human rights organizations have offered free legal services and helped migrants receive compensations.
In Ixtepec, we were only informed of one case involving human trafficking. The case involved a couple who arrived at the migrant shelter in Ixtepec and offered waitress jobs in a nearby city to migrants. One female migrant accepted the offer. She later returned to the shelter and took an underage migrant with her. Staff of the shelter provided the underage female minor with contact numbers in case she ran into a situation where she felt endangered. The girl contacted the shelter after she had been a victim of sexual exploitation.
Quintana Roo
While we visited Tenosique, Tabasco, many Guatemalan migrants we interviewed told us that their final destination was not the United States, but the city of Cancun. In Cancun, our interviewees did not reach an agreement on whether migrants stayed in city permanently and whether their stay was voluntary.
Experts mentioned the neighboring Mexican states of Chiapas, Tabasco, and Oaxaca as places of origin of many Mexican migrants residing in Cancun, particularly those working in the construction industry. Although they did not identify the incidence of labor trafficking in the city, our interviewees expressed their concern over labor exploitation in Cancun. Mexican migration from neighboring states was considered to be temporal rather than permanent. Experts pointed at the hotel industry in Cancun as the main environment where labor exploitation occurs. Some experts reported that the workforce from Mexican neighboring states may be declining while Central American labor rises. The attributed reason was that Mexican migrants started to demand better pay.
When discussing the possibility of human trafficking for sexual exploitation taking place in the city, experts were divided. Since prostitution is one of Cancun’s biggest business, it is difficult to discern who is voluntarily working in the sex industry from those who are coerced. Government officials reported raiding several clubs, spas, and massage parlors. The raids did not lead to arrests or closure of venues. Authorities found no evidence that these business, where only women were reported to be working, were not breaking any laws. No minors were found working at these places and the women were mostly of Mexicans. Everyone had legal papers to work in those places. When authorities asked the women if they were coerced into prostitution, they denied, and some even expressed discontent over being interrupted at work.
However, most interviews reported a growing concern over the existence of sexual exploitation of minors in Cancun. Sexual exploitation of minors of all nationalities is believed to occur in the city. Law enforcement agencies have not identified any human trafficking network operating in the city yet. Experts believe that because employment in the sex industry is not permanent, trafficking cells are very small and disappear after a while. Recent efforts to investigate possible human trafficking cases in Cancun have faced serious complications. Authorities reported that keeping investigations moving forward is difficult due to the lack of trained personnel as well as confusion over Quintana Roo’s state anti-human trafficking legislation, which has several of its articles currently contested. A law enforcement official reported that any possible human trafficking investigation has to be transferred to federal agency, such as FEVIMTRA or SEIDO, depending on whether or not organized crime is involved.
Activists and civil organizations dedicated to bringing human traffickers to justice have expressed concern that female victims are afraid to file complaints. In our interviews, non-government individuals said that the state government has threatened people who wanted to report on Cancun’s violence. Law enforcement agents harassed the staff of the city’s only shelter for human trafficking female victims, leading to its closure. Currently, there is no shelter for migrants in the city.
Cancun’s civil organizations recurrently promote safe sex campaigns in neighborhoods known for prostitutions. The employee of a local civil organization told us that during one of these campaigns he interacted with girls believed to be human trafficking victims. He informed local authorities, but they did not take any action.
Prostitution is a common activity in Cancun and its surrounding areas. In our interviews in metropolitan Cancun, multiple interviewees told us that finding a prostitute was as easy as hailing a cab. Taxi drivers in Cancun are known for informing their passengers where to find prostitutes and brothels. We collected the card picture above from a taxi car in Cancun. Possibly because we are females, taxi drivers in Cancun did not ask us if we wanted to visit brothels. Nevertheless, we spotted an abundance of spas and massage parlors around the city.