Across Mexico: Chasing an impossible dream

Latin American migrants risk life and limb to reach the US border in search of the American dream. Every year more than a million men and women from countries like El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua attempt to cross the river that forms a border between Guatemala and Mexico. Their immediate aim is to enter Mexico illegally, but they have another destination in mind - the US. Once in Mexico, they must cross the entire Mexican coast in order to reach the border with Texas. It is a journey of about 4,000km and one that begins at the Arriaga train station. The freight trains are the only means of transport for these migrants. Thousands take them every day - each trying to find his or her own spot on the roofs or the axles between the coaches. But it is a dangerous journey towards what some call "the impossible dream" and only 40 per cent of all those who attempt it make it to the US border. With no way of knowing where the trains are heading, some make the mistake of climbing aboard trains heading in the wrong direction - towards the Guatemalan border. Others are caught by police who regularly stop the trains in the middle of the countryside and round up all those hitching a ride. But for some, the dangers prove far greater. One Mexican shopkeeper explains: "I've seen lots of accidents ... people who fall off the train and die because the train runs them over. People who get their legs cut off too."