Senior Reporter: Franc Contreras
Associate: Citlali Saenz
One of the many legacies of the civil conflicts of the 1980's in Central America has been an increased flow of migrants north from those once war- ravaged lands. Now it's the region's sagging economies and the area's heavy dependence on money from the United States that keeps the flow coming. Migrants who make the journey north from Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Guatemala often face many obstacles. Those who make the journey illegally often risk robbery, rape, even murder at the hands of vicious gangs that patrol the Mexican border... and an increased official presence at the "other border" between Mexico and Guatemala has done little to stem the tide of what some call the "kamikazes of poverty." In this segment of our series "Despues de las Guerras: Central America after the wars" Franc Contreras looks at the extreme risks many Central Americans take for the promise of better life in "el Norte."
For more information about the issues raised in the segment La Otra Frontera: The Other Border, see the following books and articles.
(Note: this is not intended as a complete list. Check back for more recommendations.)
Dellios, Hugh: "Seeking the train of death," Chicago Tribune, March 12, 2004.
Quinones, Sam: "Emigration brings dollars home but leaves Mexican town behind," San Francisco Chronicle, February 9, 2004.
"Mexico's immigration problem," The Economist, January 29, 2004.
Grayson, George: "Mexico's Forgotten Southern Border: Does Mexico practice at home what it preaches abroad?" Center for Immigration Studies, July 2002.
Grayson, George: "Mexico Alert: Mexico's Southern Flank: A Crime-ridden "Third U.S. Border," Center for Strategic and Immigration Studies, December 22, 2003
Produced by GraciasVida Media Center, the independent journalism resource for Latin America.
For more information, contact:
Producer Maria Martin
email: graciasvida.media@gmail.com
or telephone: 415.670.9717
Funded by
and the Fund for Investigative Journalism.
© Maria Martin
Photo at top left © Donna DeCesare www.donnadecesare.com