Another kidnapping victim said that federal authorities prohibited him from talking about his case so he would not be further endangered. In a Jan. 27 interview, however, he said he could not shake the nightmare of his experience. At times, especially at night, he said feels like he is still being held captive and cries
He survived, he said, but other people who were kidnapped along with him were either killed or had disappeared.
Guillermo Alonso Meneses, a researcher at the respected think tank Colegio de la Frontera Norte, called it a tragedy not to have reliable information about these crimes. He said authorities do not provide this information because immigrants do not report them.
"It's a phenomenon that's poorly understood," he said.
Immigrants have been the victims of extortion, rape and abduction for three decades, the researcher said, but a new phase began eight years ago, when systematic kidnappings became an industry, the result of the growth of organized crime.
As late as the 1990s immigrants still carried cash with them to pay off smugglers, but they were robbed in the desert, he said. So immigrants began cutting a deal with the smugglers, agreeing that their families would pay them once the immigrants reached the United States.
That's when new criminal groups began kidnapping the immigrants and demanding that their families pay a ransom.
According to the national Commission of Human Rights, the kidnapping and extortion of immigrants is $50 million annual business.
In its last report on the subject, issued in 2009, the agency said that about 20,000 Mexicans and Central Americans are kidnapped each year in Mexico, but noted that the figure is only an estimate because the true extent of this crime was hard to know.
For its part, the federal Department of Public Security, in a report issued last year, acknowledged that kidnappings of immigrants are underreported because of so few victims contact authorities. However, police efforts to combat this crime at all levels are based on these low numbers.
According to the report, federal authorities documented 141 cases of immigrants who were kidnapped from January 2008 to April of 2010. Of these cases, 36 people were detained, 33 faced judicial proceedings and two were sentenced.
From January 2009 to April 2010, the Mexican army and federal police carried out 17 operations in Baja California and four other states in southern Mexico in which 515 immigrants were freed and 57 people were detained, according to the report.
William Becerra does not need a federal report to understand the scope of the problem. As deputy director of Casa del Migrante in Tijuana, which has housed homeless migrants for 24 years, he's familiar with the crimes they endure.
He said the immigrants have developed a war mentality, living by their instincts to survive, and hoping against hope for a better life. The authorities, meanwhile, do little or nothing to help them, he added.
He does not keep track of the cases he hears about daily from the immigrants, who tell of being beaten, robbed and kidnapped.
"The criminals have threatened and tortured many immigrants to keep them from going to the police. The migrants describe people who are well-armed and well-organized," Becerra said. "That's why they prefer to keep silent."
omar.millan@sandiegored.com
