Tapachula is the largest city in the southern state of Chiapas and the second most populated after Tuxtla Gutiérrez.
This area is known for its tropical vegetation with varied ecosystems and for its high migrant population.
In recent years, it has been involved in the massive influx and prolonged detention of migrants, a phenomenon that has reshaped the local economy and generated a broad economic dependency that encompasses entrepreneurs, informal vendors, taxi drivers, hotel and hostel owners, restaurateurs, public officials, and shelter managers.
With the arrival of people from Central America seeking to regularize their status with the National Migration Institute (INM) or the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance (COMAR), Tapachula has become a major detention and transit point.
This has caused the formal and informal economy to experience income from multiple sectors, all of which depend directly on the presence of migrants. Migrants consume goods and services, rent rooms, use transportation, and generate constant demand.
However, this dynamic is limited, because where there are people, money circulates, and when this economic flow increases, mafias emerge interested in appropriating these resources.
Drug trafficking in everyday life
During the day, the shelters remain almost empty, as many migrants go out to work, carry out procedures, or simply seek respite from the enclosed spaces. At night, these places fill up again, and migrants gather in the main rooms, chatting, watching television, or trying to mitigate the heat, which can reach up to 38 degrees Celsius in this region.
Seeing a new opportunity, criminal structures emerged to exploit the vulnerabilities of migrants and the surrounding economy. However, those who maintain the highest positions of leadership are the lowest rungs of this criminal network.
According to information published by InsightCrime, a foundation that studies national security threats in Latin America, among the individuals involved in this network is “Poison,” who guards the bathrooms at one of the largest and most important shelters in Tapachula.
His nightly routine at the shelter involves keeping the bathrooms clean and preventing them from being used for activities unrelated to their intended purpose, such as drug use or sexual encounters, making him a key player in the micro-dynamics of the crime.
One night in February, a group of Hondurans approached Poison, discreetly handed him a small roll of bills, and asked him to get them drugs. The transaction is carried out naturally: Poison accepts the money, leaves the shelter, and returns 20 minutes later with two small plastic bags containing a white powder, identified as cocaine.
The scene unfolds with its own codes. Before handing over the drugs, “Poison” decides to consume first. “I’ll go first. I got the rifón,” he says before entering the bathroom. As he leaves, he smiles, satisfied. The day of taking care of the bathrooms is exhausting, and Poison admits he needs more than coffee to stay awake.
“I’m more into marijuana, but you can’t smoke it here because it smells too much. That’s why you have to get something more discreet,” he explains to InsightCrime, highlighting the adaptation of consumption habits to the restrictions of the surrounding area.
Drug sales around the shelter are controlled by a small cell of the Barrio 18 group, made up of Honduran, Salvadoran, and some Mexican migrants. This organization, although limited in power, exerts significant influence on daily life there.
The shelter manager and longtime residents agree that Barrio 18 acts as an internal control mechanism.
“If there’s a problem with some crazy person who comes from Honduras or El Salvador and has been in the gang there, the boss calls them and quickly puts them at bay,” says “Poison,” describing the role of these groups as guarantors of order within the migrant community.
Source: infobae
