For Balderrama… dedicated to the memory of the five Central American minors killed in custody of the US Border Patrol. Oscar Martínez, and his almost two-year-old daughter Valeria, not only died trying to cross the Rio Grande and fleeing El Salvador ... They were also killed by their country of origin, which only had poverty and violence to offer ... and indifference in Mexico and, especially, racism and xenophobia of the United States government ...

… The idea of a world of rights and guarantees for all individuals is a fiction. One of the drastic expressions of this is the lacerating reality of thousands of migrants fleeing their homes to be able to preserve life (and have the hope of a less pressing and distressing present)….

Another teenage Central American died a few weeks ago while he was being held at Texas Border Patrol facilities. With this event, there are already five minor migrants who have died in recent months, since the resurgence and hardening of the speeches and migration policies of the border authorities of the current US government. These deaths, but also the alarming and illegal separation of thousands of families last year, are another reminder that, when Central American migrants are arrested in the southeastern United States (USA), they systematically and constantly suffer acts of violence.

Despite the legal frameworks (at the international level and within the USA) that ensure the interest of people to a dignified and safe life (regardless of their immigration status and nationality / citizenship), the human rights of migrants are not respected, and they are systematically denied access to the request for the right of asylum. These Central Americans are confined in detention centers (in very precarious conditions of existence) and exposed to various abuses. This is the result of the US government's emphasis on prioritizing an unfounded and racist vision that criminalizes migrants and prefers to opt for a myopic and xenophobic reading of national security and closed borders.

However, as various journalistic and academic investigations have shown, the vast majority of Central American migrants are not criminals or aggressors. They are individuals who only seek to survive and have the longing for a life with the indispensable. These are populations of thousands of people in highly vulnerable situations in their countries of origin. These Central Americans are forced to migrate in non-voluntary manner and for reasons beyond their control.

The structural contexts that expel these people from their countries are diverse. Poverty, unemployment, lack of opportunities and work are some of the most frequent causes. But there are also various processes of violence related to organized crime and transnational gangs operating in the region. Historically, these expulsion frameworks (economic precariousness and violence) are related to US intervention and control policies over Central America in recent decades. The US government played a key role in supporting the neoliberal model in the region (with the consequent increase in inequality and the impoverishment of a large part of the population), as well as sustaining and defending undemocratic regimes (contrary to the interests of the majority); and, finally, the deportation, years ago, of the criminal groups that were the antecedents of the gang networks that now control Central America.