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

by Óscar Martínez

In recent years, public concern has begun to close down some of the bars that prostitute Central American women and girls against their will. Since 2007, when a new law was passed in Mexico against human trafficking, various civil organizations have increased pressure against the bars, making “trafficking,” especially trafficking women, a much more publicized issue.1 Modern people trafficking, it turns out, is not the image many expect—a scar-faced man tending a cage of women. It’s a complex system of everyday lies and coercion that happens just behind our backs. For this very reason, for its open secretiveness, it’s important to look closely into the shadows, to speak with the victims of trafficking, with the women themselves. The three women still laughing in the back of Calipso have offered their testimonies.