Kidnappings and extortion on the migrant route to the United States

"My nan, help me, they are going to kill me. Help me, I am kidnapped. Pay, nan, what they ask you…". The caller hung up. It was Wilson, Rosita's brother, kidnapped by migrant traffickers

Border Patrol agents guard a group of undocumented immigrants. U.S. Department of Homeland Security

Crossing the Border is a series of reports by Latin American journalists who arrived in McAllen, Texas, and received training and support from the Border Center to carry out their reports. On this occasion, Mihaela Ionela Badin, from Ecuador, presents the testimony of relatives of migrants kidnapped by human trafficking gangs in Mexico.

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By Mihaela Ionela Badin, reporting from McAllen, Texas

"My ñaña, help me; they are going to kill me. Help me, I am kidnapped. Pay, ñaña, what they ask of you..." The caller hung up. For a second, Rosita thought it was a bad joke. However, then a video arrived on his cell phone that showed a chilling scene: his brother kneeling, with his hands tied and his face bloody, receiving kicks from several masked individuals.

Rosita had emigrated to the United States five years ago. Although she was still undocumented, she was the one who supported the family in Gualaceo: her sick parents, two sisters with disabilities, and Wilson, the youngest brother. She paid for Wilson's trip to the United States: $15,000 well-worked cleaning houses in Manhattan. He saved dollar after dollar so that his brother could be more support for his family: “My children and my parents need medicine, and it is increasingly expensive. “I told Wilson to come because we can win more between us.”

In search of a better future, many Ecuadorians embark on a journey that, far from being the promise of a dignified life, becomes a journey full of unimaginable dangers. Irregular migration from Ecuador to the United States is a deadly odyssey, on many occasions, an experience marked by kidnappings, extortions, and acts of violence that not only the migrants but also their families, who face additional threats and coercion from the other side of the continent.