1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:07,040 Hundreds of thousands of migrants from Central America enter Mexico every year hoping to 2 00:00:07,040 --> 00:00:09,160 reach the United States. 3 00:00:09,160 --> 00:00:17,800 It's a dangerous journey fueled only by the desperate dream of a better life. 4 00:00:17,800 --> 00:00:23,680 Next to the railroad tracks, 200 kilometers deep inside Mexico, a group of young Hondurans 5 00:00:23,680 --> 00:00:24,680 wait. 6 00:00:25,480 --> 00:00:30,160 They are waiting to board La Bestia, the beast as they call the freight train that travels 7 00:00:30,160 --> 00:00:36,200 north toward the border with the United States. 8 00:00:36,200 --> 00:00:40,680 Penniless and tired, many have been traveling for weeks. 9 00:00:40,680 --> 00:00:42,240 Why? 10 00:00:42,240 --> 00:00:49,120 Because it's a dream of us Hondurans to reach the United States. 11 00:00:49,120 --> 00:00:54,520 These migrants are just a few of the more than 200,000 from every country in Central 12 00:00:54,520 --> 00:01:01,800 America who make the journey north by entering illegally into Mexico. 13 00:01:01,800 --> 00:01:07,160 This is a story about the dangers that migrants here, like millions of others around the world, 14 00:01:07,160 --> 00:01:15,760 face as they try to cross borders to make a better life for themselves and their families. 15 00:01:15,760 --> 00:01:22,120 Here in Mexico alone, they face 4,000 kilometers of checkpoints, patrols, criminals, and other 16 00:01:22,120 --> 00:01:24,760 dangers that await them. 17 00:01:24,760 --> 00:01:28,760 All this before they ever reach their final destination. 18 00:01:28,760 --> 00:01:32,360 Careful, guys. 19 00:01:32,360 --> 00:01:38,600 In avoiding the police, you might fall into the hands of unscrupulous people, especially 20 00:01:38,600 --> 00:01:41,040 you women, but men too. 21 00:01:41,040 --> 00:01:46,160 We've had men who have been cut up, men who have been kidnapped. 22 00:01:46,160 --> 00:01:54,240 Maria Esther Rosales runs a safe house for migrants near Mexico's southern border. 23 00:01:54,240 --> 00:01:58,760 The violations to their human rights have increased tremendously. 24 00:01:58,760 --> 00:02:06,600 What we try to do here is to help them travel through Mexico in a dignified way. 25 00:02:06,760 --> 00:02:11,920 Protecting migrants as they travel is extremely difficult. 26 00:02:11,920 --> 00:02:20,640 These poor people are exposed to anyone robbing them, and if they try to resist, they get 27 00:02:20,640 --> 00:02:23,640 beat up. 28 00:02:23,640 --> 00:02:32,200 We've seen groups traveling with young women where they capture them all and rape the women. 29 00:02:32,200 --> 00:02:37,440 They hold the men with machetes to their necks while they rape the women in front 30 00:02:37,440 --> 00:02:42,440 of them. 31 00:02:42,440 --> 00:02:47,640 While most of the migrants are men, women like Sandra, a 20-year-old mother of three 32 00:02:47,640 --> 00:02:51,080 from Honduras, are the most vulnerable. 33 00:02:51,080 --> 00:02:55,640 She left her three children at home with her mother nearly a month ago and set out to the 34 00:02:55,640 --> 00:03:01,160 United States to make money for an operation for her badly burned baby daughter. 35 00:03:01,160 --> 00:03:05,400 But little she had was taken from her. 36 00:03:05,400 --> 00:03:06,400 I was robbed. 37 00:03:06,400 --> 00:03:11,480 I was assaulted, and they took all my documents. 38 00:03:11,480 --> 00:03:15,000 Sandra knows that her passage is anything but easy. 39 00:03:15,000 --> 00:03:20,880 This isn't the first time that she has tried to reach the U.S. border. 40 00:03:20,880 --> 00:03:24,120 I got as far as a place they call Pisanco. 41 00:03:24,120 --> 00:03:32,400 There the immigration got me, and they deported me all the way back. 42 00:03:32,400 --> 00:03:37,400 Because I have this dream to help my three daughters, here I am, risking my life all 43 00:03:37,400 --> 00:03:40,560 over again. 44 00:03:40,560 --> 00:03:47,400 At dusk, Sandra will join with other young migrants to cross into Mexico. 45 00:03:47,400 --> 00:03:52,640 But there are many young women who end up forever at Mexico's doorstep, stuck in Guatemalan 46 00:03:52,640 --> 00:04:01,240 villages along the coast, awaiting passage from traffickers or in dusty border towns 47 00:04:01,240 --> 00:04:05,960 filled with crime and prostitution. 48 00:04:05,960 --> 00:04:13,200 This Salvadoran woman searches frantically for her 17-year-old daughter. 49 00:04:13,200 --> 00:04:18,280 It's been eight days that they've kidnapped her, that they keep her from communicating 50 00:04:18,280 --> 00:04:21,360 with me. 51 00:04:21,360 --> 00:04:27,680 She's a minor, and they can put her to work in a bar, and they can prostitute her. 52 00:04:27,680 --> 00:04:32,960 So right now is the time to do something for her. 53 00:04:32,960 --> 00:04:35,360 Young girls fall easily into the trap. 54 00:04:35,360 --> 00:04:43,680 16-year-old Lorena is now working as a prostitute in a border town bar. 55 00:04:43,680 --> 00:04:44,680 The customers come here. 56 00:04:44,680 --> 00:04:48,960 They are Mexicans, Guatemalans. 57 00:04:48,960 --> 00:04:56,080 One time, I was hit in my face, and they rushed my head against the wall three times. 58 00:04:56,080 --> 00:05:00,240 Lorena migrated here from the highlands of Guatemala. 59 00:05:00,240 --> 00:05:06,560 Since her father died recently, she uses the $200 a month she earns as a sex worker to 60 00:05:06,560 --> 00:05:14,320 support her mother and six siblings, while also keeping in school. 61 00:05:14,600 --> 00:05:20,480 Because she's underage and working in a bar, she spends half of her time in hiding. 62 00:05:20,480 --> 00:05:23,040 Because I'm still a minor, I keep to the back mostly. 63 00:05:23,040 --> 00:05:25,400 I don't go out much. 64 00:05:25,400 --> 00:05:31,320 While Lorena is stuck working in this border town bar, Sandra is determined to get on the 65 00:05:31,320 --> 00:05:34,080 road toward her dream. 66 00:05:34,080 --> 00:05:38,520 Sandra plans to cross the river where she was to hop on the freight train La Bestia 67 00:05:38,520 --> 00:05:41,760 and head north. 68 00:05:41,760 --> 00:05:46,160 But fate has played a cruel joke on her. 69 00:05:46,160 --> 00:05:51,560 The train no longer runs on these tracks because of last season's hurricanes. 70 00:05:51,560 --> 00:06:01,360 It's now a two-week walk away, past a dozen of these checkpoints. 71 00:06:01,360 --> 00:06:10,200 Undaunted, Sandra says she will do whatever it takes to get to where La Bestia does run. 72 00:06:10,600 --> 00:06:13,320 Train, I tell you, it's dangerous. 73 00:06:13,320 --> 00:06:14,320 It frightens me. 74 00:06:14,320 --> 00:06:19,400 When I have to catch it, I pray to all the saints in the sky, and I ask God to please 75 00:06:19,400 --> 00:06:22,680 help me. 76 00:06:22,680 --> 00:06:30,960 And so for now, Sandra will join so many others who, whether on foot, by boat, or by train, 77 00:06:30,960 --> 00:06:38,600 continue on their dangerous journey with little more than their faith in a better life.