Every night you can hear it coming, all along Mexico's pacific coastline, you can tell that it's nearby because of the high pitched noise that foretells it's coming. "El Diablo" starts its descent to hell in Mexico City until it reaches Mexicali, Baja California.

Central American immigrants have begun calling it "El Diablo", the new train they have been boarding to get to the United States: It's the immigrants new route, that runs all along the pacific coastline train tracks and has began to become popular due to the increase in violence in border cities like Tamaulipas.

Previously the route that had to be taken for Central Americans that wanted to cross to the United States to get work, was to first board "The Beast" in southern Mexico; However the train now has a hefty cost. Up to 10,000 pesos per person is the toll that the "Mareros", central american gangs, have imposed on immigrants.

This is why Central Americans coming from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala prefer paying a bus toll all the way to Mexico City where they've begun to board the "Ferromex" company train.

This train goes through cities like Nayarit, Mazatlan, Nogales and Mexicali where the immigrants are extorted by law enforcement agencies, abused and even recruited by drug cartels that operate in Northern Mexico; However most of them assure that this route is safer than the one that "The beast" runs through.

Victor Sosa, a 39 year old man from El Salvador, says he got to Mexicali, Baja California. Just a Couple of Months ago. He did it boarding the freight train known as "El Diablo", he boarded in Mexico city, and it took him nearly a month to arrive.

"That train is devil, because it goes through hell itself... it goes through the extreme heats that permeate the city of Mazatlan but afterwards it goes down to hell, it goes into the city of Nogales, Sonora where I saw people die of dehydration due to the extreme heats" he says as he's standing on the Mexicali train tracks.

Edgar Fuente is another Central American immigrant, he comes from Guatemala, and travels accompanied by his wife Emilia. Their goal is to reach Los Angeles, California where they have family that can get them work in gardening.

They too arrived on the Ferromex train all the way to Baja California. Edgar tells that getting on is a horrible experience, that it travels more than a thousand kilometers of desert from Navajoa all the way to San Luis Rio Colorado in Sonora.

"They call it "El Diablo" because you run out of water, you start to get heatstroke, and when you touch your tongue you don't even feel saliva anymore. The sand sticks to your eyes, you want to get off the train, but you can't. you look for water just to get some moisture because even the wind drowns you" he tells recalls his experience on the train.

The organization Angels Without Borders, calculate at least 50 central american immigrants arrive daily in that freight train all the way from southern Mexico to Baja California. The arrive in really bad shape, burns on their arms and feet since they travel on top of the train they get burned with the metal and the extreme desert temperatures.

Hugo Castro, Member of Angels without borders, says that for immigrants without money, their only option to get to the border is that train, but even worse it is also the way back home. Immigrants who have been deported try to board it every day at 6pm in the capitals train station.

Luis from Salvador, explains that it took him 20 hours to go through the Sonora desert on board the train, and he says there is no other option but to put up with it "To me I think it's more dangerous to get on this train because it travels much faster".

Jorge Mena Garcia, Federal police commissioner in Mexicali informed that every day they patrol to avoid immigrants going back to central America and Southern Mexico on that train, and there have been cases where people fall and get mutilated, "It's for their own safety, because the heat in the desert is unforgiving and they don't even carry a single bottle of water, and a dehydrated person falls off the train or loses an arm or a leg".

The route "El Diablo" takes travels approximately 2,619 Kilometers, and according to the activist Hugo Castro, it's becoming more popular attracting more immigrants who are seeking to cross over to the United States, to Baja California

Laura.Sanchez@sandiegored.com

Daniel Aguilar