Northern Mexico
Northern Mexico has been identified as one of the most dangerous parts of the migrant route. One of the main reasons for this part of the journey is highly unsafe is because the states of Coahuila, Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas are territories control by two of the most active Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs) in Mexico: the Gulf Cartel and the Zetas. This part of the route has been split into two sections: the Zeta Zone and the Gulf Cartel Zone. The former comprises the cities visited in state of Coahuila –Saltillo and Piedras Negras,- the city of Monterrey in the state of Nuevo Leon, and the city of Nuevo Laredo in the state of Tamaulipas. The Gulf Cartel Zone is based on the visits to the cities of Reynosa and Matamoros in the state of Tamaulipas.
Migrants’ final destination is one of the three border cities in Tamaulipas – Nuevo Laredo, Reynosa or Matamoros, or the city of Piedras Negras. They either arrive to these cities following the route from Coahuila and Nuevo Leon or they arrive after crossing Veracruz. Another important source of migrants at the border are the deportations from the United States. Some experts expressed there is an increase in border crossings through the Coahuila border, as migrants find these border cities less dangerous than the cities in Tamaulipas.
Several experts agreed in the fact that TCOs do not engage in human trafficking as much as they do in their primary criminal activity, drug trafficking. However, they do agree on the fact that human trafficking for compelled labor for criminal activities exists. However, experts in the northern states expressed their concern in the involvement of TCOs in the trafficking of women for sexual exploitation. Officials in Mexico City disagree on the involvement of TCOs in human trafficking for sexual exploitation.
Gulf Cartel
In recent years, transnational criminal organizations have fought over cities in the northern state of Tamaulipas. The Gulf Cartel currently controls the border cities of Matamoros and Reynosa. Both cities have suffered high levels of violence since the Mexican government launched an offensive to capture Gulf Cartel leaders in these cities. One of the consequences of the government’s operations was that the cartel broke into smaller factions, each contending for vacant leadership positions. One of the sources of revenue for the Gulf Cartel is migrant smuggling. In both cities, occurrences of human trafficking for compelled criminal activities have been reported. Unofficial sources indicate that forced recruitment of migrants and locals is widespread.
Gulf Cartel Territory
Both the Zetas and the Gulf Cartel have their roots in the border city of Matamoros. The Gulf Cartel originally dominated Tamaulipas, but since 2010 it disputes the state with the Zetas. The city of Matamoros has witness significant clashes between the two groups. The city, known as the “The Great Door of Mexico,” is extremely important geographically. For decades, the Gulf Cartel held the monopoly of drug trafficking in Tamaulipas, turning Matamoros into a central location for its criminal enterprises. The strategic location of Matamoros is an important asset for the Gulf Cartel, but over the years their monopoly over Tamaulipas has eroded. The 2010 conflict between the Gulf Cartel and the Zetas extensively impacted the city’s society and economy, as well as the state’s general stability
Field Research
The last state we visited was Tamaulipas. Located in northeast Mexico and across the border from Texas, this state is one of the most violent places in the country. Due to the state’s high levels of violence, we had to maintain constant contact with numerous individuals in order to safeguard our personal wellbeing while conducting our research in the state. In northern Mexico, we visited Matamoros and Reynosa, both of which are under unofficial control of the Gulf Cartel. The two cities experience a high influx of migrants. However, unlike cities in southern and central Mexico where migrants only come from the south, Matamoros and Reynosa also experience an influx from migrants coming from the north. The United States deports a significant amount of migrants to Matamoros and Reynosa on a daily basis.
Matamoros is a hotspot for human trafficking in the form of forced labor for criminal activities. The Gulf Cartel coerces migrants to commit crimes on its behalf, including drug trafficking and assassinations. While they wait for their smugglers to transport them across the border, migrants become extremely vulnerable to criminals in Matamoros and Reynosa.
Migrants following the eastern migration route arrive to Matamoros from either Veracruz or Saltillo. According to a migrant we interviewed in Saltillo, organized criminal groups have kidnapped migrants travelling by bus from Saltillo and forced them to join their ranks. According to him, these migrants are kidnapped and held captive once they reach the city of Matamoros. Organized crime members also move some migrants further south in the state to San Fernando or Ciudad Victoria. It is believed that the Gulf Cartel controls the recruitment of migrants in Matamoros.
Gulf Cartel members target migrants in different parts of the city. Locals we interviewed pointed at the bus station and the migrant shelter as places where criminals recurrently recruit migrants. Local experts are concerned with the wellbeing of migrants. They mentioned multiple occasions when cartel members kidnapped migrants from the shelter. Criminals wait for migrants at the bus station and demand them to provide a passcode in order to be allowed in the city. Nevertheless, even migrants who know the passcode are often forced to pay the criminals for the right to be in Matamoros. Local experts told us that kidnappings for ransom are a common occurrence in Matamoros.
Although forced recruitment is allegedly occurring in Matamoros, some experts informed us that it is difficult to discern between those who are forced to join and those who join voluntarily. One of the crimes that cartels force migrants to perform is drug smuggling. Some of the migrants we interviewed in Matamoros told us that cartel members forced them to carry backpacks with drugs into the United States. Experts also noted that criminals use migrants as lookouts, drivers, and even assassins. Local experts and human rights activists told us that while migrant women are often raped or sexually assaulted, they are not aware of cartels systematically kidnapping women for sexual servitude.
In Reynosa, organized crime is closely linked with human trafficking. Experts told us that migrants in Reynosa were unmolested while they waited to cross into the United States with the assistance of migrant smugglers. Nowadays, however, organized crime in Reynosa kidnaps, extorts, and force migrants to commit crimes. Extortion, ransom payment, and compelled labor for criminal activities usually take place in cartel’s safe houses. Migration experts and advocates reported that TCOs have now complete control over the illegal migration moving north.
Reynosa is a primary crossing point for migrants heading to the United States. This city’s support infrastructure for deported migrants is not as efficient as the one in Matamoros. Migrant rights advocates in Reynosa told us that they are concerned with the welfare of migrants arriving in the city. Migrants in Reynosa are extremely vulnerable. Local migration analysts told us that organized crime in the city is connected to sexual exploitation, labor exploitation, and forced prostitution. Organized crime members have used kidnappings, extortion, and human trafficking to force migrants to join their ranks.
A migrant we interviewed told us that organized crime members forced him to smuggle a group of migrants into the United States. He told us he had to swim across the Rio Grande pulling on a rope tied to a raft carrying a group of people. When we asked him if he considered running away from his captors, he replied that the criminals threatened to kill the people on the raft if he tried to escape.
Local activists reported that migrant women are often victims of sexual servitude in activities including pornography and prostitution in Reynosa’s red light district known as “Boys’ Town.” The cartel also uses migrant women as forced domestic servants in their safe houses. Children and unaccompanied minors are particularly vulnerable, as well as the LGBT community, for human trafficking.
Zetas
Northeastern Mexico is plagued with transnational criminal organizations. While the Gulf Cartel controls most of the state of Tamaulipas, the Zetas are mostly present in the state of Nuevo Leon and Coahuila as well as in a few, but highly important, cities in Tamaulipas. The cities of Nuevo Laredo in Tamaulipas, Monterrey in Nuevo Leon, and Piedras Negras in Coahuila are key locations in the migrant route where the Zetas have significant control. Our fieldwork research in these cities identified changes in the Zetas’ modus operandi. In recent years, the cartel has favored maintaining a seemingly low profile instead of having a conspicuous presence in the cities it controls. Nevertheless, it still operates at full force. Interested in expanding their revenue sources, the Zetas have expanded to the cities of Monterrey and Piedras Negras, where they dispute control with the Gulf Cartel.
Zeta Territory
After the Zetas severed its ties with the Gulf Cartel in 2010, they began a violent effort to expand its presence nation-wide. The Zetas successfully established themselves in key cities in northern Mexico, where they exert significant influence over local societies and municipal governments. As a result of Zetas’ operations, the cities of Nuevo Laredo, Monterrey, and Piedras Negras have suffered high levels of violence. In these cities, the Zetas used threats and violence to shut down civil society and to curb freedom of the press.
The city of Nuevo Laredo is home of the Zetas. During the peak of cartel violence in Tamaulipas, infighting among different Zetas cells contending over the cartel’s supremacy chastised the city. In 2012, violence in Nuevo Laredo reached unprecedented levels. Despite violence within its own ranks, the Zetas have established a monopoly on power, extortion, drug trafficking, prostitution, and kidnapping in the city. In recent years, infighting and violence rates have decreased.
Field Research
The city of Nuevo Laredo is important because of its strategic location. It connects Mexican and American highways, enabling the transit of people and goods between the two countries. Despite Nuevo Laredo being controlled by the Zetas, migrants in Monterrey we interviewed deemed it to be safer for them than any other border city in Tamaulipas. In recent years, violence has been less conspicuous. Once one of the city’s hallmarks, public displays of mutilated bodies and violent threats are no longer a regular occurrence in Nuevo Laredo. Nevertheless, local experts still report that convoys of Zetas vehicles and Zetas infiltration of unused buildings are still common in the city.
Recently, the Zetas have increased their interest on migrant smuggling as a revenue source. But their connection with smuggling is confined to charging migrant smugglers with safe passage fees. The Zetas control the Mexican side of the Rio Grande River, and they demand fees for every migrant crossing the border. Although official reports list drowning as the cause of death of people found dead in the river, experts and migrants assert that many of those bodies belong to migrants who were killed by the Zetas for not paying their fees. A local expert on migration described one migrant smuggling system put in place by the Zetas. The Zetas charge people, known as “panteras,” with the responsibility of collecting fees from smugglers and then paying the cartel. Each “pantera” is in charge of a group of smugglers, known as “coyotes.” The “coyotes” are the ones who get to move migrants across the border. They are usually young men and migrants themselves who were forced by the cartel to work as smugglers. In one of our interviews, we were told of an incident in which criminals invaded a local shelter and kidnapped two young migrants. Our source told us that the two men were suspected “coyotes” whose “pantera” did not pay the cartel on time. The whereabouts of the two men have since been unknown. Execution is the usual penalty for nonpayment.
As the Zetas have kept a mostly low-profile in the city and violence levels have decreased, local experts told us that they do not know if the cartel has been coercing migrants to join their ranks. However, they deem it possible that migrants may be working as lookouts or carrying out kidnappings and extortions for the Zetas. Circa 2010, the Zetas used to recruit migrants. In an interview with a shelter staff member, he told us that he and two colleagues were driving in Nuevo Laredo one time when they were ambushed by criminals. They were forced out of the vehicle and were brutally assaulted. The assault only ended when one of the victims identified one of his attackers as a migrant who stayed at the shelter a few months prior to the incident.
In Coahuila, we visited the cities of Saltillo, Torreon, and Piedras Negras. Each of these cities is important for migrants for distinct reasons. Saltillo and Torreon are triage cities, where migrants choose whether to move east to Monterrey or to go north to Piedras Negras. Piedras Negras is important due to its location. It is the last Mexican city that migrants reach before crossing into the United States. Migrants in Coahuila are not yet safe from danger. The Zetas control most of Coahuila and human traffickers operate in the state, particularly Saltillo. We interviewed government officials and migration activists who told us that the Zetas are no longer publically committing violence as they used to in 2009 to 2012, but they are still present and operating in Coahuila.
We were told that identifying human trafficking in Coahuila is difficult because potential victims are constantly moving to other states or out of the country. We were informed that there has not been any official report of human traffickers forcing migrants into sexual servitude in the state. Nevertheless, there seems to be evidence that criminals move human trafficking victims from the state to trafficking hotspots elsewhere. In our interviews, we were told that between 2010 and 2012, the peak years of the drug wars in Coahuila, cartels forced migrants to join their ranks. According to experts monitoring violence levels and cartel activity in the state, there is currently no conflict in Coahuila propelling cartels to recruit migrants. When violence was at its highest in Coahuila, the Zetas kidnapped, extorted, and forced migrants to perform domestic, sexual, and criminal activities. According to local experts, currently the Zetas restrict their involvement with migrants to only kidnappings and extortion.