Anarchy along Mexico’s southern border crossings

A boatman hauls an inner-tube raft and two men on the Suchiate River near Talisman, Mexico. The riverbank with the buildings is the Guatemalan side; the official border crossing is on a bridge just a few yards away.  (Richard Fausset / Los Angeles Times)

Passengers from Guatemala disembark from a makeshift raft that has just brought them across the Suchiate River and into Mexico, thus avoiding the customs station on the bridge in the background, in Ciudad Hidalgo. In general, some travelers who cross the Suchiate on the rafts will visit Mexico for a day of shopping, and some will seek work in Mexico, while some will begin the treacherous trek north toward the United States.  (Richard Fausset / Los Angeles Times)

A group of horsemen make their way across the Suchiate River, which divides western Guatemala from the Mexican state of Chiapas. The crossing, located in the town of Tuxtla Chico, Mexico, is one of the many places along the 700-plus-mile southern Mexican border where residents may cross undetected by border officials. After crossing, the horsemen would pick up sacks of corn and fertilizer, and return to Guatemala, avoiding the payment of cross-border taxes.  (Richard Fausset / Los Angeles Times)

A porter hauls a bag of goods up the bank of the Suchiate River in Talisman, Mexico, after wading across the river, which separates western Guatemala from the Mexican state of Chiapas. The porters at Talisman ford the fast-moving river, keeping a near-constant flow of goods from one country to another while avoiding the official border crossing just a few yards away.  (Richard Fausset / Los Angeles Times)

Luis Martinez, left, 33, and his friend Paulo Dominguez, 28, both of Honduras, wait in front of the Tapachula, Mexico, migrant shelter. The men had recently crossed the Suchiate River separating Mexico and Guatemala on a makeshift raft and were hoping to head north to the United States on “The Beast,” the notorious freight train where many Central American migrants have been extorted, robbed and killed. The men said they didn’t have enough money to buy bus tickets all the way to the U.S.-Mexico border, and were prepared to risk it.  (Richard Fausset / Los Angeles Times)

The bulletin board at the migrant shelter in Tapachula, Mexico, warns of the men who are known to prey on those making the trip north to the U.S. A newspaper clipping describes the slaying of two Central American immigrants on the train tracks.  (Richard Fausset / Los Angeles Times)

A bicyclist leaves the Guatemalan city of Tecun Uman for the border crossing at Ciudad Hidalgo, Mexico. In the dusty Mexican border town, unmonitored goods and travelers float across the wide Suchiate River ¿ the boundary between Guatemala and the Mexican state of Chiapas ¿ on a flotilla of inner-tube rafts. They cross all day long, in plain sight of Mexican authorities stationed a few yards upriver.   (Richard Fausset / Los Angeles Times)