513 individuals crammed into Mexico semi-truck

Mexican authorities recently stumbled across two semi-trucks packed with 513 illegal immigrants, bound for the American border. Law enforcement in the Mexican state of Chiapas found the trucks at a security checkpoint using x-ray equipment. They found a ton of people packed together in extreme conditions, like sardines.

Finding human smugglers close to Guatemalan border before they enter

A small human smuggling operation was found by Mexican authorities. They found it near the Guatemalan and Mexican edge in the Chiapas state. MSNBC reports that there were two semi-trucks found, with X-ray equipment, with hundreds of people packed in them while driving through checkpoints near Tuxtla Gutierrez, Chiapas. Between the two trucks there were 513 people who were hungry, dehydrated and holding on for dear life to the cargo ropes that had been strung between the walls for them to keep themselves upright.

Immigrants not all from the same place

Those in the trucks were from different nations, not just one. Much of the people were from Guatemala; however, some were not. There were 6 from Nepal, one from japan, 1 from china, 12 from India, 47 from El Salvador and 32 that had come from Ecuador. There were 32 females and 4 children and the rest were male. The Mexican authorities are responsible for the humans being transferred while four smugglers tried to escape and were arrested, CNN states. The trucks only had air holes drilled into the top of the trailers, and the Chiapas lawyer general says the smugglers demanded $7,000 per person. The trucks were en route to Puebla, where the people would be transferred to different trucks headed for the U.S.. In January, a truck containing 219 migrants was discovered in the same region.

Using Mexico to get to the United States

To be able to the get the United States, several illegal immigrants will go to Mexico. According to Mexican cops, a find like this has not happened in a long time. BBC states that it was a fairly large find. Coyotes, or coyotaje, are what the human smugglers are known as. They get illegal immigrants across the edge for a payment. If there is an injury or abuse, migrants cannot do anything over it. According to the Christian Science Monitor, there were 72 migrants killed by the Zetas drug cartel in August last year while between April and September last year, 10,000 were kidnapped.

Information from

MSNBC

msnbc.msn.com/id/43073023/ns/world_news-americas/?GT1=43001

CNN

edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/americas/05/17/mexico.migrants/index.html

BBC

bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-13434589

Christian Science Monitor

csmonitor.com/World/Americas/Latin-America-Monitor/2011/0518/More-than-500-migrants-found-crammed-in-trailers-in-Mexico