La Bestia

[Plane]

http://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/central-american-migrants-and-la-bestia-route-dangers-and-government-responses

http://www.migrationpolicy.org  Has a lot of good information.

As many as half a million Central American immigrants annually hop aboard freight trains colloquially known as “La Bestia,” or the beast, on their journey to the United States. The cargo trains, which run along multiple lines, carry products north for export. As there are no passenger railcars, migrants must ride atop the moving trains, facing physical dangers that range from amputation to death if they fall or are pushed. Beyond the dangers of the trains themselves, Central American migrants are subject to extortion and violence at the hands of the gangs and organized-crime groups that control the routes north.

In the past, Central Americans encountered little opposition from public authorities when crossing into Mexico and boarding a freight train. The response changed in July 2014 when the Mexican government announced measures to prevent migrants from climbing aboard the trains—including increased border patrols and road checkpoints—and the railroads ordered an increase in the speed of the trains.

This article will examine the journey aboard La Bestia, the dangers faced by migrants transiting through........................................................................

[Xavier_Onassis]

I recall my father, who worked for the Texas Pacific and DRG  (Denver and Rio Grand Western) and traveled all over the country, sometimes using employee passes and sometimes hopping boxcars back in the '20's.  He toured the country from Jacksonville to Bangor, NYC to Seattle, Seattle to San Diego and back to Dallas, and eventually ended up in Kansas City in 1925. He took a Missouri Pacific freight from Ft Worth. They paid him ten dollars and gave him a free ride to keep a boxcar full of cattle content, playing his ukelele and singing to them.

I have also seen the film called La Bestia, which describes the ride from the Usumacinta to the Rio Grande atop a boxcar, and it is far worse than anything my father told me.
The main danger was the railroad "bulls" rentacops with nightsticks. But he knew how to avoid them, because some hobo told him the secrets of how to do this. One trick involved using a wooden fake lock to make it appear that an empty boxcar was loaded and sealed. after changing the paper manifesto.

It is probably a good thing for the US that the Mexicans are trying to stop the flow of people on La Bestia. Mexico is a lot wealthier a country than Guatemala, Honduras or Salvador, and safer as well.

[Plane]

  My Father was a child in the twenties . He told me that once he counted eighty Hobos on one passing train, this would be eighty visible , there could have been more.