Mass kidnappings of migrants latest cash cow for Mexico drug gangs
The trek across Mexico has long been dangerous for the hundreds of thousands of undocumented migrants, mostly Central Americans, who try their luck each year, risking robbery, death from fast-moving freight trains or dehydration.
But in the past couple of years, the feared Zetas cartel has raised the stakes and created another security headache for president Felipe Calderon’s government, which has spent millions of dollars embroiled in a brutal drug war.
“I was kidnapped for three days,” said 21-year-old Wilson from Honduras, waiting in the shade to jump the next speeding train in La Patrona in the Gulf state of Veracruz, one of the most dangerous points on the more than 3,000km journey from southern Mexico to the US border.
Known as “the beast”, the massive cargo train is mounted by hundreds of illegal migrants every day who cling to the sides and roof on the ride north, then risk capture by gangs who know they are unlikely to go to the police for help.
“It was dark, they pulled us off the train with automatic weapons and locked us in small rooms. They beat us and asked for the numbers of relatives [in the US]. Otherwise they said you had to work for [the gang] or they kill you,” Wilson said.
Last August, 72 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 the Zetas killed the group for refusing to join their ranks.
Abducted migrants are often forced to transport drugs across the US border.
Mexican police dug up 72 more bodies in mass graves last week in the same area but are still determining if they are foreigners.
At least 11,333 migrants were kidnapped in Mexico between April and September last year, a study by the National Human Rights Commission showed. In 9% of cases, corrupt police or immigration officials were involved.
The Zetas are named time and again in the Commission’s testimonies, which detail brutal beatings and multiple rapes.
A group of female volunteers in La Patrona, who give donated food to migrants on the trains, told of women who take birth control shots before leaving to avoid pregnancy if raped.
“There are victims who say they were held for over a month and they saw between 15 and 20 kidnapped migrants coming in and out of the safe house every day,” said Fernando Batista, a Commission official. “It’s a tragic business.”
Tragic but lucrative, according to the Commission database, which showed extortion fees over the six months totalled more than $500,000 (€346,000) — ranging from $200 to $85,000 in more than 100 cases. The unreported figure may be much higher.
Originally a group of army deserters, the Zetas have morphed into a broad crime syndicate after splitting from the Gulf cartel, and are now fighting Mexico’s other major drug gangs for control of smuggling routes to the United States.
They make money not just from drug trafficking but also oil theft, extortion and now kidnapping of migrants in bulk.
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