Dangerous Journeys North Our World

It is 533. It is time for Our World. What is happening is that people

are emerging all over the place. Deraa fall guy is coming from the

track behind us. -- there Aref. People have crossed from Guatemala.

Now, the drugs cartels are making this journey perilous. The messages,

I don't mess with us or we will mess with you. It is a very violent

fashion. The cartel's target Every year, 300,000 Central

Americans have risked their lives Santa Alan are in the tropical

north of Guatemala is a well-known stop off. -- Santa Elena. They

arrived. When we meet Johnny and Miguel, they have not eaten for

three days. They were travelling to the United States when they were

kidnapped by the Zetas, the bloodiest cartel. They were so

badly shaken, they decided to turn back and are on their way home to

What happened to the other six people that were taken with you

Mexican cartels are moving south into neighbouring Guatemala. Drugs

have been flown in and out using landing strips deep in the jungle.

The Zetas began operating here in 2008 in alliance with local

organised crime. They now want to control these roads and there are

fears they want to target migrants as well. Organised crime is a story

that is constantly covered by local media. Investigative journalists

have followed the cartel's move to Guatemala. It is about business.

Aside from making a profit from trafficking and drugs, they can

also make profit from extorting migrants or kidnapping them. They

are going to do it. If they manage to control complete sections of the

territory near the border under Guatemala's side, we will see a

situation where migrants are being charged for crossing. Either they

are migrants or traffickers. Santa Elena, the journey takes them

west to the Mexican border. Locals told us that some of these huge

ranchers have just appeared in the last few years, are funded by drug

money. A pick-up truck of soldiers escorts us off the dirt track road

to one of these writers, the scene of a massacre that happened in May.

It is one of the most violent incidents that Guatemala has seen

in decades. The 27 farm workers who were murdered here we tortured and

decapitated. Two survivors said a large group of men arrived in a

four-wheel drive at night, looking for the owner. He was not there, so

their workers were killed. It was allegedly for an unpaid debt.

Written in the blood of one of the victims, the message is addressed

to the ranch owner and reeds, I am going to find you and I am going to

lead you like this. This is a spooky place, with the sounds of

the birds. The bodies were found behind me. What happened here was

targeted, extreme and very bloody violence. But the fear is that this

will not be a one-off. With the Zetas wanting to take control of

the territory and everything that moves through it - the guns, the

people and the drugs. The Zetas have changed the name of the game

here because they don't have any territory. They don't have it in

Mexico and they don't have it here and the only way they can concur

this territory for themselves is through violence. Then -- the

message is don't mess with us or we will mess with you, in a very

violent wave. After the massacre, the government moved swiftly,

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 65 seconds

Do you feel as though you are in The state's resources are limited.

The colonel will not say how many more soldiers have been drafted

into the region since the massacre. Her 10 is a large area, a third of

the whole of Guatemala. -- Peten. Perfect organised groups to meld

El Naranjo is a typical border town. Contraband moves in an act.

Migrants pass through daily. Some of them travel independently.

Others arrive in groups and pay thousands of dollars to traffickers

to organise their entire journey into the United States. From El

Naranjo, they travel by boat for four powers into Mexico. -- four

hours. Early morning, the birds are already on the move and the boat

owners begin the wait for We meet them for breakfast. Both

were unemployed back Road and they are convinced they will find work

in the United States. But so far, You have left behind a wife and a

baby cries back what did your wife say when you said you wanted to

make this journey to the United You both talked about the risks

that you run making this journey. Neither have mentioned the Zetas,

the Mexican cartel that is taking migrants. Are you worried about

The river runs from Guatemala ride it to Mexico across the border. It

is part of the traditional route that thousands of American migrants

take every deer in their bid to get to the US. You can cross from this

part into Mexico by road but the risk of getting stopped by the

authorities there is very high. So, they have decided to take a chance

by boat. They try to organise their crossing. Other boats leave but

they don't get a place on board. It becomes apparent that we are the

problem and we are told there is no way of them getting a bride until

we leave town. -- are getting a bride. We head off and think,

perhaps we will meet them again in Mexico. We enter Mexico. There are

no restrictions on Central Americans travelling here. But once

they arrive in Mexico, they are more vulnerable and can be deported.

The majority of migrants head for a Mexican town around 60 kilometres

from the border with Guatemala. From there, the migrants catch

transport up to the border with the US. One monk regularly drives there

to visit migrants waiting for the train. There is no fixed schedule

so people have to camp out, sometimes for days. He is a mite --

a magnet for migrants. The people are emerging from all over the

place. There are four guys over there. Four guys coming down the

track behind us. And the mud is giving them directions on how to

get there without hurting themselves. It is swamped here.

Here they come. Four of them. Are you friends? These are all of his

friends that have arrived. That is These are the railway tracks that

run through the town. The monk has brought us here to meet some of the

people camping out. Since we have been here, there is people have

come out of the pushers from across the swamp. This man has taken seven

days to get here. They have been waiting for three days. They take

it in turns to sleep to make sure they do not miss the train. They

say they are most worried about the physical danger they face getting

on a moving train. As he leaves, Brother Tomas warns the men of the

dangers they face. He tells them that Mexico is especially dangerous

for them and organised crime and groups will kidnap and kill. --

crime groups. He takes us to win the Tories kidnap spot where more

central Americans are waiting for a train. This is where migrants are

often a knowingly befriended by cartel members. Then, they are

ambushed and rounded up. -- He regularly makes complaints

against agents from the National Institute of migration. The body

responsible for looking after and supporting illegal migrants from

Mexico. He gives us this footage of a recent incidents. This migration

agent is chasing a woman. He has a machete. As people look on, she was

forced to jump in the river. She was rescued by a local boat man.

The agency told us this agent has since been sacked but so far, he

has not been charged with any offence. Earlier in the year, it

was reported that 200 agents had lost their jobs as a result of

abuse. 40 were accused of serious crime. The government has responded

to the catalogue of complaints against Migration agents with the

new law. It reform to the aged and the colonises the act of entering

Mexico without papers. -- decriminalise this the Act. But

those who live here are vulnerable, too. The shops are open and

business goes on but people are nervous here. Few venture out after

dark because of a fear of organised crime. Groups recruit thousands of

Central Americans who come and go across the borders. A local

businessman born here has suffered greatly as a result of the movement

He says the men who took his son were from Honduras. Some of them

were captured, young men in their 20s, who progressed from people

trafficking to kidnapping and then But he is sympathetic to migrants

on their way to the US. He is a volunteer with the Red Cross. An

organisation working with those who pass through. He visits to see if

the two men we left have arrived. They could have made the journey in

one day. Brother Thomas tells me there is no word. But he will take

with the migration agents to see if they have been picked up. -- he

will check. Perhaps they decided not to wait for the train and took

a different route. Or maybe they have been kidnapped. This was the

fate of nearly 11,500 migrants in just six months last year. But many

of those can tell you the journey It is an act of desperation.

fact they are willing to put themselves through that situation.

You see, for example, groups of women in their 40s going by

themselves with no traffickers, nobody. It is a desperation that

they are willing to put themselves Days later, there is still no news

of the two. A train pulls into the It could take these people weeks to

get to the US. That is if they make it at all. Through to rain

dominated by the cartels. They are prey to corrupt officials. --