What Killed 72 Migrants Near the U.S. Border?

In a horrific scene this week, Mexican authorities have found 72 dead bodies near the U.S.-Mexico border. They suspect the migrants may have been victims of human trafficking, being smuggled over the border into the U.S. and then forced to sell drugs. But what on earth could kill 72 people, and why?

Mexican police are working to identify the bodies, but have already identified men from Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Brazil, making the crime an international one. So far police suspect that the men were recruited by organized crime to become drug mules, bringing drugs into the U.S. and then selling them. But why were these 72 men massacred before making it into the U.S.? Most likely, because they refused to smuggle drugs, resisted their captors, and fought back. And for that, they paid with their lives.

The problem of organized crime syndicates kidnapping and trafficking would-be immigrants as drug mules is not new. Drug gangs often patrol the corridors migrants use to travel through Central America and Mexico, eventually heading for the U.S. The gangs know migrants make easier targets, away from family and friends, and so look for travelers to kidnap for ransom or traffic into the drug trade. Migrants already face significant natural dangers, but now the very human threat of human trafficking is growing.

But despite the widespread kidnapping and trafficking of migrants in Mexico, human rights groups claim the Mexican government is doing little to investigate or prevent these sorts of tragedies. The National Human Rights Commission estimates that nearly 20,000 migrants are kidnapped in Mexico every year. They claim the government is in collusion with the drug cartels, and thus turns the other way when they force migrants into becoming drug mules. They have devoted few resources to fighting human trafficking by organized crime, finding missing persons, or protecting migrants from violence and exploitation.

And that means even more migrants looking for a better like will end up like the 72 found this week, returning home in body bags.

Photo credit: Wonderlane