freight and illegal migrant train, Ixtepec, Mexico

Intending migrants in Ixtepec in southern Mexico ride atop a train headed toward the Mexican-U.S. border.  But like all aspects of the illegal migrant scene - involving hundreds of thousands of Hispanics from Mexico and further south annually - Mexican criminal gangs move in and take control.

"The result is a rolling gauntlet of rapes, kidnappings, homicides and maimings aboard Mexico’s freight rail system, the backbone of the $1 billion-plus-a-day trade partnership between the United States and Mexico."

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