Migrants' dreams of a better life gone awry

Marítza Ortiz will never forget the image of her sister climbing on the bus that day. She set out, like millions before her, for the United States in hopes of trading the poverty of her Honduras home for the American Dream.

On a sweltering day last week, Ms. Ortiz was showing a 12-year-old photograph of her sister on the dusty streets of Tecun Uman, a Guatemalan border town hundreds of miles from home.

Speaking to everyone from market vendors to prostitutes, she hoped someone might recognize her sister, though she was only 17 in the photo, and offer clues to her whereabouts.

"If we knew she had died, we'd know we'd never see her again, and we'd have to accept it. But not knowing whether she is alive or dead and living with that uncertainty is what's so hard," says Ortiz, her eyes flooding with tears.

Each year, thousands of Central Americans attempt the same clandestine journey, and hundreds perish en route. Oftentimes, their unidentified bodies turn up along the way, and countless others simply lose contact with their anguishing families.

Because their journeys are unsanctioned, there are no records that would help government authorities track them down. But now, Ortiz and a group of Honduran families are taking the detective work into their own hands.

The Association of Relatives of Missing Migrants was formed in Progreso, Honduras, in 1999. The first of its kind in the region, the association now has 250 members representing 284 missing migrants, almost all from Progreso, a town of roughly 140,000 people.

The group's principal goal is to raise awareness about the plight of migrants, which they do through their weekly radio broadcast, "Without Borders." They hold press conferences, carry photos to marches and demonstrations, and lobby their government.

Last week, a group of association members set out on the trail north in search of their relatives - a considerable investment for most of them, who live on $1 a day. They hoped to learn more about the routes their family members may have taken and find traces of them, or others on their roster, along the way. Their trip took them through Tecun Uman, Guatemala, to Ciudad Hidalgo, and Tapachula, Mexico.

According to the Rev. Mauro Verzeletti, director of the Guatemala City Migrant House, a network of migrant safe houses in Central America and Mexico, some 600 migrants perished en route to the US last year.

Many were never identified. In the past month, more than 30 migrants were killed in boat accidents while trying to cross the Guatemala-Mexico border.

"Migrants used to take well-known routes that were not so dangerous. But US pressure to enact stricter migration controls has forced coyotes to take migrants on more and more dangerous routes to get to the US," says Mr. Verzeletti. Just this week, US Attorney General John Ashcroft called on governments in Latin America to tighten their borders even more in the wake of Sept. 11.

Page: 1 | 2