The Beast: Riding the Rails and Dodging Narcos on the Migrant Trail

by Óscar Martínez

a common trap: “They recruit an indigenous girl from her land, tell her that she’ll be a waitress, and then sell her as a prostitute. They tear up her papers and assure her that if she escapes, or if she doesn’t obey, they’ll contact her family and show them a picture of her sitting on a man’s lap at the bar. They tell her that her whole village will know that she’s not a waitress, but a prostitute. Now ask that girl if she’s willing to go home. Of course not.” “Have you also come across girls who’ve been kidnapped and forced into prostitution?” “They’ve mostly been coming voluntarily. I’ve heard stories of girls that have been sold, but once they see where they’ll be working, they decide to stay put. They tell me they like the money.” But here we’re confronted again by the tricks of trafficking. The subtle wording that makes trafficking not sound exactly like trafficking; the suggestion that it’s the girls’ decision if they want to stay. Blackmail camouflaged as proposals. In the end, it seems it’s nobody’s fault. Things are as they are. How they’ve always been. The girls themselves are used to suffering: they “choose” to suffer, they “choose” to be treated like market goods.