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    The Beast: Riding the Rails and Dodging Narcos on the Migrant Trail
    The Beast: Riding the Rails and Dodging Narcos on the Migrant Trail
    The Beast: Riding the Rails and Dodging Narcos on the Migrant Trail
    Audiobook10 hours

    The Beast: Riding the Rails and Dodging Narcos on the Migrant Trail

    Written by Oscar Martinez, Francisco Goldman, Daniela Maria Ugaz and John Washington

    Narrated by Timothy Andrés Pabon

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    One day a few years ago, 300 migrants were kidnapped between the remote desert towns of Altar, Mexico, and Sasabe, Arizona. A local priest got 120 released, many with broken ankles and other marks of abuse, but the rest vanished. Oscar Martinez, a young writer from El Salvador, was in Altar soon after the abduction, and his account of the migrant disappearances is only one of the harrowing stories he garnered from two years spent traveling up and down the migrant trail from Central America and across the US border. More than a quarter of a million Central Americans make this increasingly dangerous journey each year, and each year as many as 20,000 of them are kidnapped.

    Martinez writes in powerful, unforgettable prose about clinging to the tops of freight trains; finding respite, work and hardship in shelters and brothels; and riding shotgun with the border patrol. The Beast is the first book to shed light on the harsh new reality of the migrant trail in the age of the narcotraficantes.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateJun 10, 2020
    ISBN9781705219829

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    Reviews for The Beast

    4.5/5

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    • 4/5
      I would give this five stars, but it is a somewhat outdated book regarding the migrant trails. If you are looking for something more contemporary about the post-covid era, this isn't it. However, it does give a good sketch of what goes on within Mexico for many migrants.
    • 5/5
      Border patrol is there for drug enforcement first. The Narcos control the sale of drugs, weapons and turf crossed by the migrants, who risk losing arms, legs and heads if they fall off of a train they are clinging to. Most of the women will be raped and robbing and kidnapping are also part of growing list of perils to come to the US. After having read this and listened to it along with Paul Theroux's recent book On The Plain of Snakes my feeling is the Latin American and US governments should erradicate the Narcos using the military. If they arent somehow involved or complicit why does the mayhem continue? I have the dim view that the US sends guns there and hopes everyone kills one another so the land can be appropriated. It doesnt seem much different than how the English treated the Irish or how the world powers fight proxy wars in the Middle East for resources. Peace brings prosperity for everyone, but when a few evil, selfish people manipulate the world is doomed.