Lying in a refuge for migrants in southern Mexico, a Honduran man recovers from losing his right foot under the wheels of the “Train of Death,” along with his dreams of the US.
“It’s really painful when I remember what happened. A federal police officer pushed me and I fell under the train. The wheel cut my foot off. That’s it. Now I don’t want to go to the United States for that damned American dream,” Jose Paz said.
Paz is one of the tens of thousands of illegal migrants who each year board the Train of Death, also known as The Beast — a slow freight ride at irregular hours that is part of a long, risky journey to a possible escape from poverty.
The train starts in Arriaga, in Chiapas State, southern Mexico, and travels north to the states of Oaxaca and Veracruz with its cargo of corn, cement and undocumented passengers on the roof.
The 31-year-old man, who has light skin and a thin beard, bitterly remembers the moment he fell off the moving train, pushed by “that police officer,” in Veracruz State, almost at the end of his train journey, although still several thousand kilometers from the US border.
Paz, originally from San Pedro Sula, Honduras, arrived in Mexico in July and did odd jobs, like washing cars, as he prepared for his trip north.
After his accident, he sought asylum in the “Jesus the Good Pastor” refuge in Tapachula, Chiapas.
Paz has spent the past two months there, along with other undocumented migrants, all of whom were injured or mutilated during the train journey.
During the trip of between 12 and 15 hours, sometimes longer, migrants are constantly at risk: from falling asleep and falling off to being raided by security forces or criminals who capture migrants for ransoms or to “resell” as slaves, often to drug gangs.
Salvadoran Luis Gerardo Santos, 28, had a shorter journey, but just as dramatic: He lost a leg trying to climb onto a carriage in Chiapas.
“I wasn’t holding on very well and I slipped. The wheel crushed part of my leg,” said Santos, who still plans to try to reach the US to catch up with his girlfriend.
“I have a daughter in the United States and I want to be near her again,” he said, explaining how he was deported in 2005, after living in the US for two years.
“I lost what I lost for wanting to go to the United States, but I’m not afraid. I’ll try again,” he said, sobbing.
Other mutilated migrants hide inside the refuge, declining to speak.
“They keep their pain for themselves,” said Carla Caravantes, a worker at the refuge, which currently houses around 20 people.
Nearby lies a detention center managed by Mexican migration officials, known as the 21st Century Station, which has strict security similar to that of a prison.
Men and women of various nationalities are picked up throughout Chiapas and brought there before being deported.
“I don’t want to be here. I’d prefer them to send me home, as long as they get me out of here,” said Colombian Rene Paramo, detained a week ago in Ciudad Hidalgo, on the Mexico-Guatemala border.
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