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According to the report of the Mexican Federation of Public Human Rights Organizations (FMOPDH), at least 2,000 migrants are missing in Mexican territory.
The FMOPDH report was released amidst a new spike of migrants in Mexico: in March, there was an all-time record of more than 172,000 migrants, including almost 19,000 minors. The situation has been aggravated by both the current health emergency and the economic crisis across Central America.
Though the Mexican government puts forward statements about guaranteeing human rights across the country, migrants see a different story: one of thousands of deportation, massive kidnappings, and massacres like such as the one in Camargo in Tamaulipas last January, where 19 migrants, mostly of Guatemalan origin, lost their lives. According toAs per a recent investigation by Animal Político, violations against migrants held in detention centers are kept secret. This finding obfuscates the humanitarian facade put forward by Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) and shows how AMLO’s government is no different than previous ones.
Along both the northern and southern Mexican borders, human rights violations against migrants have begun to take the media spotlight. These stories highlight the scale of the humanitarian crisis for which the Central American, Mexican, and American governments, with their permanent anti-migrant policies, all share blame.
AMLO’s recent proposal to extend the social program “Sembrando Vida” (Sowing Life) is simply a band-aid that won’t end the hunger and misery that plague the vast majority of Central American countries. The program includes granting temporary visas for registered migrants without including any political or social rights for workers.
The agroforestry plan, with a planned budget of merely 29 million pesos per year, not only relegates the vast majority of Mexican peasants and Central American migrants to poverty, but also envisions an entire model of exploitation providing under a salary of under 5 thousand pesos ($251) per month, an insufficient amount to cover a family’s monthly expenses.
Far from offering a real solution to guarantee the rights of thousands of migrants in Mexico, the deployment of more than 8,000 National Guard troops on the borders further puts migrants at risk, as they take more dangerous routes and are subject to more danger and violence.
Originally published in La Izquierda Diario.
Translated by M. K. Kumar
