Around 500,000 immigrants, mostly from Central America, attempt to cross Mexico to reach the United States each year. In July 2014, with pressure and support from the United States, México announced what has become known as the “Southern Border Plan:” Plan Frontera Sur. This program aims to prevent Central American migrants from reaching the U.S. border by cracking down on the traditional routes north through Mexico and militarizing southern Mexico. What was once a perilous two-week journey atop freight trains is now a months-long odyssey by foot zigzagging through México, where migrants have to dodge gangs, cartels, Mexican immigration, and corrupt police. Once they arrive at the US-Mexico border, they must cross the deadly Arizona desert where dehydration, more criminals, border patrol and flesh-eating vultures awaits them.

TAKE A TOUR THROUGH VIDEO:

  1. Journey shorts [VIDEO] coming soon – ten seconds to one minute video shorts with testimonies from migrants
  2. Making Coffee at the tracks [VIDEO-short] coming soon
  3. From beer can to flower [VIDEO-short] coming soon
  4. Back at the scene of the crime in Chahuites [Video-short] coming soon
  5. Los Balseros de Tecun Uman: Crossing the Mexico-Guatemala border [Video] coming soon.

EXPERTS INTERVIEWS

  1. Interview with Ruben Figueroa from the Moviemiento Mesoamericano about the extortions and kidnappings that migrants face in the route. – Coming soon.
  2. Interview with Fray Tomas, activist and director of La 72 migrant shelter in Tenosique, about the role of smugglers and Coyotes in the migrant trail. – Coming soon.
  3. Interview with Anthropologist Jason De Leon about ethnographic work in the migrant trail. Coming soon.

Take a tour of Border South through the organizations doing work in the field: