The kamikazes of poverty

摘要

At the Jesus el Buen Pastor refuge in the centre of Tapachula, a city on Mexico's border with Guatemala, the door is opened by Hector, a Honduran in a wheelchair. He lost both his legs trying to jump a freight train bound for central Mexico, the first stage of what was meant to be the long journey north to the beckoning opportunities of the United States. Like Hector, many others fall on to the track in the scramble to get any sort of toehold on the daily train. It is the"end of their American dream", says Olga Sanchez Martinez, the director of the refuge, crowded with 25 amputees. Those who survive face a tough (but free) two-week journey north.