“Women don’t just flee poverty or gunfire back home; on the route we must stay vigilant against the shadows. Every night in an open field or at an isolated bus stop is Russian roulette where your body is the target.”
Pioneering investigations conducted by Casa Nicolás alongside the Institute for Women in Migration (IMUMI) document what thousands of women suffer in silence: up to six out of ten women experience physical, psychological, or sexual abuse during their transit through Mexican territory.
The Trap of False Promises
Mariela, 29, a rural schoolteacher from western Honduras, describes how an informal driver in San Luis Potosí offered to transport her toward the border for a modest fare. Sensing danger when the vehicle turned down an isolated dirt track toward an empty warehouse and the occupants made predatory remarks, she leaped from the car when it slowed at a populated intersection, fleeing into an open pharmacy.
“I was trembling uncontrollably. I knew if I hadn’t jumped at that very second, I would have ended up trapped in a trafficking ring from which I’d never emerge alive. Pharmacy staff dialed the police, but the officers only demanded my immigration papers. Fortunately, a nurse intervened and connected me with the civil society shelter network,” Mariela recalls.
Sanctuary Built on Compassion and Security
Mariela was escorted to a secure women’s residential area within the shelter, receiving immediate trauma counseling and legal representation from human rights attorneys.
“Standing by the window in the morning, watching the clear sky, breathing without panic, knowing the doors are locked and good people are watching over you—that is priceless. Shelters are not roadside motels; they are lifelines for women the world too often ignores.”
— Mariela, 29, survivor of trail violence
Mariela’s testimony underscores the urgent imperative of funding and safeguarding civil society shelters throughout Nuevo León and across Mexico, whose watchful care routinely prevents courage from ending in silent tragedy.
