By Cassandra Garrison and Bernat Parera
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – After five days trudging through the jungle dividing Colombia and Panama, the 30-something Venezuelan mother believed her family had made it through the worst part of their dangerous trip.
They had been warned of thieves and heard of fellow migrants slipping and falling along this treacherous route, some unable to continue and left to die in the mountainous rainforest. Her husband and her young daughter were by her side as they traveled with a group that walked toward a set of boats that mark the end of the perilous Darien Crossing.
Suddenly, about 15 armed men sprang from the Panamanian forest, surrounded them, and separated the women from the rest of the group. They were ordered to remove their clothes and then men took turns raping them, she said.
At first she fought back. But as they beat her, she gave up.
“When the second one came, I just…(left my body). I felt it would be better to dissociate,” she said, pausing to take deep breaths.
The mother, who requested anonymity, is one of more than 700 victims of extreme violence to pass through Doctors Without Borders’ Comprehensive Care Center (CAI) in Mexico City and recount her story.
One of the few facilities of its kind, the center offers psychological assessment and care for migrants who have endured unthinkable acts of violence in their home countries or while traveling, including rape, kidnapping and torture.
Doctors may encounter migrants in need of this support elsewhere along the routes in Mexico and move them to the capital. There, staff scramble to treat patients who are in desperate need of treatment.
“These effects in many cases are lifelong,” said Ramon Marquez, the coordinator at CAI.
“Many times these people do not have a period of six months to start a complete therapeutic plan. We are receiving cases where the person intends to move very quickly to a border point or has obtained their asylum appointment in the United States, Marquez added. “We have to try to stabilize them as much as possible.”
TREATMENT NEEDED
CAI provides primary health care to address the physical wounds of violence and works with specialized hospitals for trauma, mobility, and neurological issues. Family members are also often included in treatment plans, especially children who have suffered the trauma of witnessing extreme violence.
There is little data on violence against migrants as the crimes rarely get reported, but doctors say they have seen a rise in recent years of victims suffering what they describe as “extreme violence”, including rape, violent kidnapping, and brutal physical violence.
The center helps patients with accommodation, meals, immigration documents and safety and protection mechanisms – knowing it will be difficult for them to focus on therapy if these needs are not met.
The center is trying to develop remote and hybrid care to allow patients to continue treatment even after they leave to prepare to cross the border or find work.
Some analysts and advocates fear that harder-line migration policies under a new Trump presidency could exacerbate the situation, even if the total number of people making the journey decreases.
Migrants who spend more time in Mexico as they try to reach the U.S. are exposed to violence in parts of the country dominated by organized crime.
A trans man from Venezuela who is undergoing psychological treatment at CAI still has pain in his leg from spending two days with his feet and hands bound and tied inside a construction site in the northern city of Monterrey. After answering an online ad about work at a restaurant, he was kidnapped by people he thought he was meeting for the job.
“A man very calmly told me, ‘Look, we’re not going to leave you for dead … We’re just going to take some things.’ What I thought was that they were going to take my organs,” he said, asking for anonymity for fear of retribution. He managed to escape and ran until he could find a taxi.
“My intention was to work, not to get killed,” he said.
FEELING ‘HELPLESS’
The Mexican coalition of human rights groups REDODEM said that the intensity of violence against migrants has worsened in the last few years.
“These types of situations of violence have us quite worried because they have increased a lot,” said Sara Lopez, REDODEM’s data chief. “Many people are entering (the shelters) with visible signs of violence on their bodies, particularly on the faces, arms, necks. It is very shocking.”
The rise in cases is linked to more women and children along migratory routes, as they are often more vulnerable to extreme violence especially if they are traveling alone, according to Marquez.
Data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection shows that encounters with migrants traveling within a family unit at the southern border in fiscal year 2024 were up 73% compared to a year earlier.
“This puts us in a new and complex situation where many times the mother herself is the patient, but at the same time she is the caregiver and she is the one who must provide food, economic resources and a safe space,” Marquez said.
The Venezuelan mother who endured sexual violence in the Darien Gap is still trying to control her panic attacks.
“I tried for a long time to convince myself that this wasn’t happening to me,” she said.
She said she doesn’t know if she will ever be able to have a conversation with her husband about the incident, even though they both know what happened that day. “I know that he felt helpless.”
(Reporting by Cassandra Garrison and Bernat Parera)
