Mexico, DF. Alirio Luis Quiroz left Tegucigalpa (Honduras) on August 6, 2007 to the United States (USA): "When he left the house, he said he would work to help us"1. The last time Maximina Giron Maria spoke with her son was on August 14, 2008. After this call, a friend of her husband who lives in the USA said he had seen his son in the news saying that he was beaten and had been taken off the train.

Maximiliana, who is part of a Mother's caravan for missing migrants, arrived in the capital on Monday, November 7 and will spend more than a week on its route through Mexico. Sigo tus Huellas con la Esperanza de Encontrarte is made up of 33 mothers and relatives from Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador and the United States. They follow the migrants' path through the Gulf of Mexico searching for their missing relatives in transit. The caravan is being organized by Pastoral de Movilidad Humana, el Movimiento Migrante Mesoamericano and the Asociación Red de Comités de Migrantes y Familiares de Honduras (COMIFAH).

The aim of the march is to report and visibilize the treatment to which migrants are subjected in the country. Disappearance and kidnapping have been claimed as the principal risks faced by migrants trying to reach the United States. Amnesty International, which provides accompaniment to the caravan, has repeatedly denounced the lack of data to verify the extent of the problem. "The only figures available are those compiled by the National Migration Institute (INM, in Spanish) on the number of migrants arrested and returned to their home country."2 According to the latest data presented by the INM, from January to September, 2011 48.316 people were returned by the Mexican authorities3. Over 95% come from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua.

The National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) states in its Special Report on the kidnapping of migrants in Mexico, 11.333 migrants were kidnapped between April and September 2010. And that "this figure shows that government efforts have not been sufficient"4. The mothers and relatives of missing migrants met yesterday with government officials to follow up the demands already made last year: the establishment of a database, monitoring of cases of disappearances and sanctions on officials involved in extortion. However, the authorities have not fulfilled their commitments5.

After the caravan passed through Tenosique, Tabasco, on October 30 it went through the states of Veracruz, Tamaulipas, Coahuila, San Luis Potosi and Queretaro, finally arriving at the nation's capital. Especially touching were the events held in San Fernando, Tamaulipas, where 72 migrants were killed on August 23, 2010. 14 of them have not yet been identified6.

On Wednesday, November 9 the caravan will head back to Veracruz pass through the southern states of Mexico and finally cross the border from Mexico into Guatemala. The mothers of missing migrants, passing by the State of Oaxaca, will stop off at Ixtepec City on Thursday. There is a Migrants shelter run by Father Alejandro Solalinde, member of the Pastoral, who also met the caravan in Mexico City.

Threatened by the defense of migrants

Rubén Figueroa, one of the coordinators of the caravan and Mesoamerican Migrant Movement member, reiterated the risks faced by human rights defenders working on migrants. During one of the events in Mexico City, he explained to PBI the feeling of defenselessness experienced both by migrants and those who work to defend their rights. Rubén also works in one of the shelters of the Pastoral located in Tenosique, Tabasco. The shelter is located very close to the border with Guatemala, and it is one of the starting points for transit migrants in Mexico. Rubén describes this as a "hot spot" and claims that there is "little attention to areas where there is greater risk, as in the case of Tenosique."

On September 9, 2011, Fray Tomás Gonzalez, founder of the Human Rights Center Usumacinta (UHRC) and part of the migrant shelter The 72, in Tenosique, was threatened in relation to his work as defender. Fray Thomas received a telephone call at his parish and the caller said, "something is going to happen to you"7. A week later both Fray Tomás and Ruben Figueroa were stopped by members of the army and required to register their truck. They refused because there was no legal justification. Two state police vans arrived on the scene and Ruben was slapped by one of the agents. Soldiers and police did not leave until the arrival of CNDH staff8.

PBI Mexico has provided accompaniment to Father Alejandro Solalinde Guerra since 2010.