Young and attractive migrants are disappearing in an area of the Arizona desert, their families have denounced the rescue group Chaplains of the Desert, which has counted at least a dozen in recent months and fears that they have fallen into a network of human trafficking .
"Only this week we have just received the report of two other cases, with these we already have 12," Óscar Andrade, director of the humanitarian organization, told Efe. He stressed that the most alarming thing is that they all follow the same pattern: young, physically attractive women who disappeared in the same region of the Arizona desert.
The relatives have told Andrade that the "coyotes" told them that they left the woman in the desert because she could no longer continue, but later they changed the version arguing that the most likely thing is that the Border Patrol arrested them.
For years Chaplains of the Desert have worked in the search for the disappeared. They go out into the desert to look for them based on the coordinates or signals that the human traffickers have given to the families.
Andrade indicated that this year the number of people reported missing has increased considerably compared to 2021. "We have been receiving up to 20 reports per week," he said. In some cases the group has been successful in finding the migrants, providing first aid, and in others they have only found lifeless bodies. However, in the specific case of these women, they have not found any trace of them.
"We contact both the Border Patrol and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Office (ICE) to see if there is a woman with the physical characteristics, just in case the person changed their name, but nothing," Andrade lamented.
One of the disappeared is Lizet Jazmín Baryas, a 23-year-old Salvadoran immigrant who has not been heard from since last May after a second attempt to cross the Arizona desert. She was trying to meet with her husband, Carlos Alexander Arias, who is still waiting for her in the United States.
"She tried to cross once, but they arrested her and deported her, then she spoke to me and told me she would try again. From then on I didn't hear from her," Arias told Efe. The last thing he received from her was a photograph of her in camouflage gear ready to cross the desert.
"The smuggler told me that a Border Patrol helicopter discovered them, that they all ran, that they never saw her again. However, now the coyote doesn't even answer my phone," said the immigrant who lives in Chicago.
The young woman had paid $14,000 to the traffickers to take her to the United States. "My biggest fear is that she is in the hands of the mafia, that they are prostituting her, that she has fallen into a white-trafficking network," Arias said. These fears are not unfounded, as Andrade claims that in his role as chaplain he has spoken to various coyotes to try to get clues as to what might be going on or how to find these young women.
"These coyotes have told me that young girls, especially from countries like Venezuela, Brazil are 'big business' for human traffickers or that simply if one of the 'bosses' likes one of the girls, they keep them. ", he indicated.
Andrade stated that they have even doubted that these young women really crossed the border and that perhaps they disappeared in Mexico. In the case of Arias's wife, he assures that the traffickers sent him a photo of the young woman, but it was a montage. They demanded $6,000 to give her information about her whereabouts, assuring that the young woman was in the hands of a criminal group.
"Her family paid the money, however they only lied to us, now they are again contacting her mother in El Salvador, but they do not give any real proof that she is alive," Arias said.
For his part, Daniel Hernández, spokesman for the Tucson Sector Border Patrol, told Efe that every time they receive notice of a missing person, they send resources to start their search. "Unfortunately immigrants are just 'merchandise' for human traffickers, we know that their hearts are not tempted to abandon them to their fate," said Hernández. There are reports of women who have been raped by the coyote while being transported.
In the midst of the current migratory wave, both Chaplains of the Desert and the Border Patrol urge migrants not to risk their lives in the hands of coyotes. Andrade warns women to try to stay in constant contact with family members and to call 911 if they are in danger, but advises them to try to present their asylum cases at ports of entry.
