Deep in the scorching Sonora desert, between the border town municipalities of Altar and Sásabe, lies a desolate checkpoint for those who are trekking their way across the border called ‘La Ladrillera’ (House of bricks).
Little has been written about this phantasmagoric abode, some articles and specialty books about immigration have dedicated ‘La Ladrillera’ a few sentences, mostly of horrors and the gang violence that Mexican and Central American immigrants face when they reach this destination.
‘La Ladrillera’was an old settlement where red adobe partitions were fabricated. Today is more of an abandoned building site with some half-finished settlements that the local mafias use to retain men, women, and children on their way to the United States so they can shake them down for any money or profitable goods that they might be carrying. Many hundreds if not thousands of immigrant travelers have lived there many days of fear and anguish.
The zone is disputed by the Cartel of Sinaloa, local human traffickers and corrupt cops that are paid to look the other way when the ‘coyotes’ or ‘polleros’ operate. In the area, one can also find ‘bajadores’, who are nothing more but armed assailants that go after the ‘polleros’ so they can kidnap the immigrants and later extort their families.
Daniel Ojeda, a journalist for Vice took it upon himself to investigate this place further and took some very disturbing and at the same time moving pictures of the area, that can really humble a person who feels empathy for the wrangling pilgrimage that our brothers south of the border must endure in order to find better opportunities in life.
Some of the most troubling pictures show abandoned pieces of clothing and children toys left behind by the hapless hordes of travelers, many of whom succumb under the unforgiving heat to become another sad statistic of this mostly unattended humanitarian crisis that from 2009 through 2012 buried 2,269 people in its barren sands. More up to date statistics are unavailable due to the increased number of disappearances in the country involving immigrants who leave their houses only to be never known of again.
“Here the mobsters are the most dangerous. They live of the people and if you’re not carrying money they will beat you and will not let you go through,” says Armando Santos in an interview on the ‘Migratory Processes Of Western Mexico’ book by Adriana Gonzalez Arias, Olga Aikin Araluce, Raúl Gerardo Acosta García, Rafael Alonso Hernández López, Esperanza Martínez Ortiz, Olivia Teresa Ruiz Marrujo, Heriberto Vega Villaseñor, and Ofelia Woo Morales. “In 2004 Sásabe was an easier crossing route, you didn’t have to pay the mafia a quote, this started in 2007 and it has greatly increased the ‘pollero’ costs. Now the dangers of crossing the border are enormous because the area is full of armed groups that demand you separate pays.”
On other pictures, Ojeda was able to capture bullet-ridden road signs, indications of past gunfights between the violent gangs that run amock this area, we can also see police officers trying to track down the ‘polleros’ who have eyes everywhere and are always one step ahead of the authorities, and if they’re not, they will just buy them or intimidate them out of the picture, many times through violence.
All pictures are credited to Daniel Ojeda*
Article inspired by VICE // Inside a Terrifying Stop for Migrants Heading to the US