They call it the "corridor of death". At one end is poverty. At the other the American dream. And in between there are drug gangs, killer temperatures for a three-day walk across the desert and hostile border guards.
But each day, hundreds of people arrive in Sasabe from across Mexico and Central America, hoping to reach the US and in many cases ready to carry a backsack full of marijuana with them.
Clandestine immigration and drug trafficking play major economic roles in the towns of Sasabe and Altar in Sonore state, on the Mexico-US border.
The US non-governmental group, Humane Borders, estimates that the Sasabe valley is the main point for illegal entry along the 3,000km US-Mexico border, because the Arizona desert is the least patrolled border sector.
But crossing the border involves a three day walk, with summer temperatures soaring past 50oC and the trekkers risk dehydration. Border patrols are also waiting.
Shops in Sasabe sell creams for muscle pains, special jackets, flashlights for nighttime walking, and black paint to mask out anything that might shine and give away the wouldbe illegal migrants.
Across the border, the waves of illegal immigrants have sparked a fierce political debate that has divided US President George W. Bush's ruling Republican Party.
There are an estimated 11.5 million undocumented workers in the US and hundreds of thousands have taken part in demonstrations against a bill that has passed through the House of Representatives and would make illegal entry a crime.
The Mexican authorities are also unable to cope with the march to the frontier.
"You need the federal police here. They are too few for the number of migrants and the amount of drugs," said a member of Beta, a group created by the Mexican government to aid migrants.
Altar, 100km west of Sasabe, is dubbed the "ante room" of illegal immigration, explained Prisciliano Peraza, a priest, who calculated that there was a "floating population" of about 7,000 wouldbe migrants.
Sasabe, with some 3,000 permanent residents, resembles a shanty town lost in the middle of the desert. The migrants often take shelter in wooden shacks and tents while they wait their chance.
Drug gangs lurk seeking to recruit human "mules" to carry consignments across the border.
"Groups of 15 `mules' from the Sasabe zone cross the frontier, each with 20kg of marijuana on their backs," said Jose Antonio Rivera of the Commission to Aid Migrants in Sonora.
"Young people are recruited here, in the cities and villages of Sonora. They deposit the cargo in the US, then they hand themselves in to the US Border Patrol, which takes them back to Mexico." Rivera said.
"They earn US$1,000-US$1,500 for each trip," he said.
Mexican authorities say that they are overwhelmed by the smugglers.
According to aid groups, more than 3,000 people cross the border each day.
The "coyotes," who guide the mules across the border, rob newly-arrived recruits, many of whom are illiterate and terrified peasants.
"They are afraid because the `coyotes' say that if you speak to someone, the police could stop you even if you are Mexican," said Julio Castro, an inhabitant of Altar.
"Then they rob them at gunpoint and steal their money," Rivera said.
But for the mules and immigrants alike the lure of money or a better life in the US is enough to spur them across the desert.
Carrying as many bottles of water as they can, they set off hoping they will live to collect their salaries or find work to start the American dream.
By 2027, Denmark would relocate its foreign convicts to a prison in Kosovo under a 200-million-euro (US$228.6 million) agreement that has raised concerns among non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and residents, but which could serve as a model for the rest of the EU. The agreement, reached in 2022 and ratified by Kosovar lawmakers last year, provides for the reception of up to 300 foreign prisoners sentenced in Denmark. They must not have been convicted of terrorism or war crimes, or have a mental condition or terminal disease. Once their sentence is completed in Kosovan, they would be deported to their home country. In
Brazil, the world’s largest Roman Catholic country, saw its Catholic population decline further in 2022, while evangelical Christians and those with no religion continued to rise, census data released on Friday by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) showed. The census indicated that Brazil had 100.2 million Roman Catholics in 2022, accounting for 56.7 percent of the population, down from 65.1 percent or 105.4 million recorded in the 2010 census. Meanwhile, the share of evangelical Christians rose to 26.9 percent last year, up from 21.6 percent in 2010, adding 12 million followers to reach 47.4 million — the highest figure
LOST CONTACT: The mission carried payloads from Japan, the US and Taiwan’s National Central University, including a deep space radiation probe, ispace said Japanese company ispace said its uncrewed moon lander likely crashed onto the moon’s surface during its lunar touchdown attempt yesterday, marking another failure two years after its unsuccessful inaugural mission. Tokyo-based ispace had hoped to join US firms Intuitive Machines and Firefly Aerospace as companies that have accomplished commercial landings amid a global race for the moon, which includes state-run missions from China and India. A successful mission would have made ispace the first company outside the US to achieve a moon landing. Resilience, ispace’s second lunar lander, could not decelerate fast enough as it approached the moon, and the company has
‘THE RED LINE’: Colombian President Gustavo Petro promised a thorough probe into the attack on the senator, who had announced his presidential bid in March Colombian Senator Miguel Uribe Turbay, a possible candidate in the country’s presidential election next year, was shot and wounded at a campaign rally in Bogota on Saturday, authorities said. His conservative Democratic Center party released a statement calling it “an unacceptable act of violence.” The attack took place in a park in the Fontibon neighborhood when armed assailants shot him from behind, said the right-wing Democratic Center, which was the party of former Colombian president Alvaro Uribe. The men are not related. Images circulating on social media showed Uribe Turbay, 39, covered in blood being held by several people. The Santa Fe Foundation
RSS