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Who are the owners of the “beast”? July 23, 2014 in Rail, Passenger, Latest News Leave a comment

Big U.S. companies, Mexican magnates, members and former officials in Washington, have interests in companies operating load of Mexican railroads generally known as The Beast, according to public records consulted by Univision.

The two big companies that manage the service in Mexico deny that their trains are part of the Beast, or consider allegations of what happens on board their cars is a matter for which the government must respond.

But witnesses and experts argue that employees of these operators are part of the chain of abuses that undocumented workers are victims and that responsibility should be shared. One of the undocumented told Univision that her journey in The Beast, “the workers themselves wanted money train. What if they gave them money we could lose. “Another colleague says gave all they had, five Mexican pesos. “Half a dollar or so,” asked the reporter, “or half dollar, quarter dollar,” said the migrant.

The undocumented use mainly railroads Kansas City Southern and Ferromex from central Mexico, in an unexpected route begins south in a more modest railway company, Ferrocarriles Chiapas Mayab Company. Kansas City Southern

The Kansas City Southern Mexico (KCSM) is the subsidiary of Kansas City Southern (KCS), a private company listed on the Nasdaq stock market in the United States, and operates rail lines from downtown and south of the country, as well as what Panama Canal along with passenger and freight trains linking the two oceans. In Mexico covers routes between the north and center of the country, and tap the ports of Lázaro Cárdenas, Tampico and Veracruz. According to documents from Nasdaq, the largest shareholder of the railroad company is T. Rowe Price Associates, a giant investment fund with interests in Bank of America and General Electric.

Among the members of the board of Kansas City Southern, based in Kansas City, Missouri, the former secretary of U.S. Transportation Rodney E. Slater and former U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Antonio Garza found.

Slater, who held the federal office during the Clinton administration, from 1997 to 2001, is a partner in the lobbying firm Patton Boggs LLP in Washington.

Garza was ambassador to Mexico from 2002 to 2009.’s Son of Mexican immigrants, he was married to the heiress of the brewing empire Corona, and is now part of White & Case, one of the firms largest law in the United States, with offices in Mexico. According to documents reviewed by Univision, KCS corporate bylaws require members of the board of the company's shares have not be employees of the company.

According to Maplight organization in the last record of the company, which dates from 2012, appear as minority shareholders of KCS Rep. Jack Reed and Republican Kenny Marchant, who has opposed the emergency package presented by President Obama congress to unaccompanied children. Univision Investiga consulted with the company's subsidiary in Mexico what measures the company has taken its employees in connection with allegations of abuse with immigrants. Doniele Carlson, spokesman for the firm said that KCSM has “minimal” problems with immigrants in their trains.

“We have a well trained and coordinated security has successfully prevented this kind of thing,” said Carlson. “KCSM has not had to deal with issues of employee misconduct and other Mexican railroads,” he added.

However, in March this year, the governor of Veracruz, Javier Duarte de Ochoa, filed a complaint with the Attorney General’s Office (PGR) against companies Kansas City Southern de Mexico and Ferrosur for his “alleged responsibility for wrongful act or omission and human rights violations against migrants “according to an official statement from the government.

A series of reports prepared by Univision correspondent Peter Ultreras on the plight of undocumented immigrants in The Beast, shows that the problem of KCSM trains is not insignificant. “I personally got to see small groups of five, ten, twenty four or Central Americans in northern Mexico on freight trains Southern Company Kansas migrants,” said Ultreras. According to the reporter, migrants use KCSM trains on routes to San Luis Potosi and Saltillo Coahuila, and from there to Piedras Negras or Monterrey.

The priest Alejandro Solalinde, director of shelter Hermanos del Camino Ixtepec, is perhaps the most knowledgeable person the plight of migrants. For years he has given refuge to hundreds of them on their way to the United States on the back of The Beast. “It is a fact that drivers have been linked to criminal acts against migrants” Solalinde said. “They have become part of kidnappings and all that. But the responsibility is not theirs alone, they are part of a mafia where posters, workers, government officials and even police forces’ are.

Ferromex and Ferrosur trains Ferrocarriles Mexicanos (Ferromex) consortium also ply the map of the country, bringing in more than 14,000 motor cars, agricultural products and often migrants. In 2011 Mexico Infrastructure and Transport (ITM), the company that controls Ferromex, Ferrosur SA acquired de C.V.

The consortium includes capital entrepreneur Germán Larrea, President of Grupo Mexico, known as El Rey del Cobre as the owner of the third producer of this metal in the world. Carlos Slim, through financial group Inbursa, also influences Ferromex.

A spokesman for Ferromex asked about the position of the company before the crisis of the migrants and complaints of abuse by some of its employees, responded: “All these issues are the responsibility of the National Immigration Institute who is responsible for policy immigration country. The company has no opinion. “Several experts consulted by Univision agree that the responsibility is shared. “I believe that these companies and their owners, in some cases as multibillionarios Carlos Slim, have a responsibility to train operators and their companions are not part of the mob that threatens to that migrants,” says journalist Sonia Nazario, who has written extensively on the subject and received a Pulitzer Prize for “Enrique's Journey,” which tells the story of a Honduran boy on the back of the Beast.

One of the wildest stretches of the Beast is south of Mexico. Its management was awarded to the company Ferrocarriles Chiapas Mayab. The company has not begun to operate the train, told Univision as a spokesperson for it.

The ownership structure of the company is the subject of litigation in federal court in Miami. Two members of the general manager and shareholder of the company Topete Pedro Vargas sued alleging that used a credit earned by them to purchase train concession without your permission. The engineering firm ICA was also sued. The Defendants contend that the complaint is based on false facts.