| Dear Supporter,
Earlier this month, over forty mothers of disappeared Central American migrants embarked on a caravan across Mexico in search of their missing sons and daughters. Although this is the ninth year that many of the Honduran, Guatemalan, Nicaraguan and Salvadoran mothers have made this journey, their calls to Mexican authorities haven’t changed – help us find our loved ones and take real steps to protect and defend migrants in transit.
As these mothers know, migrants in transit through Mexico are extremely vulnerable to violence at the hands of organized crime, sometimes in collusion with corrupt officials, who brutally target and exploit countless of the over 150,000 Central Americans who travel through Mexico each year en route to the U.S. border. In particular, the kidnapping and extortion of migrants are one of the most lucrative—and brutal—practices by organized crime in Mexico and are pervasive along the migratory route.
Five years ago, advocates at migrant shelters in Mexico began documenting first- hand accounts from survivors of these horrific kidnappings. What may have first appeared as sporadic accounts were soon identified as signs of a humanitarian crisis. A collection of these testimonies were published by the Centro Prodh and Casa del Migrante Saltillo in the Cuaderno sobre Secuestro de Migrantes.
English translations of these first-hand accounts are included in LAWGEF’s new report on the human rights crisis facing migrants in transit through Mexico, Perilous Journey: Kidnapping and Violence against Migrants in Transit through Mexico. Below an excerpt of one migrant’s testimony: 
Although it is difficult to read the accounts of the barbaric treatment that many migrants endured,
these testimonies help us to grasp the profound human impact of this crisis and confirm the experiences recounted by kidnapped migrants elsewhere. From these stories, we get a more complete picture of the depth of this humanitarian crisis that has destroyed the dignity and safety of thousands of victims and traumatized families and communities across the region.
To download Perilous Journey: Kidnapping and Violence against Migrants in Transit through Mexico, click here.
To order a copy of this report, click here.
We look forward to working with you in 2014!
Best,
Jenny and Ruth
The Mexico Team
 
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