The impact of drug cartels on migrant journeys from Mexico

The influx of migrants across the southern US border has become a critical factor in the US presidential election. But what is little known is the role of drug cartels in making a dangerous journey across Mexico even more perilous. With its strip clubs, taco stands and buzzing motorbikes, San Luis Rio Colorado is typical of Mexican border communities. In a migrant shelter, a stone’s throw from the towering, rust-red fence that separates the town from the US state of Arizona, Eduardo rests on a shady patio. On one wall, there’s a large wooden cross. And it’s here that Eduardo began to process – and recover from – his terrifying ordeal in Mexico. Eduardo, who is in his 50s, used to run a fast-food restaurant in Ecuador. But organised crime has tightened its grip in his former, mostly peaceful, South American home. “As business people we were extorted,” he says. Eduardo was threatened with death if he didn’t pay a ‘tax’ to the gang. “What could we do? To save our lives we had to leave.” Eduardo never wanted to migrate, but he was frightened and decided to head to the US to ask for asylum. His story is typical of thousands of people from many parts of the world fleeing violence and seeking a new life in the US. After a record number of arrivals at the end of 2023, Democratic President Joe Biden proposed stricter immigration measures which include shutting the border when it’s overwhelmed. His opponent Republican Donald Trump says he will introduce mass deportations if elected in November. What has stayed mostly under the radar in the debate about mass migration to the US is the role of Mexico’s deadly drug trafficking organisations. Eduardo began his journey by flying from the Ecuadorean capital Quito to Mexico City. Then he boarded a bus north to Sonoyta on the US border, a journey of more than 30 hours. The passengers were a mix of migrants and Mexicans. But what Eduardo didn’t appreciate was that his trip would take him across terrain controlled by some of Mexico’s most violent drug cartels and their associates – malevolent forces that dominate the business of migration… (text shortened for length)