by KURT BERSON
If not for the testimony of 18-year-old Ecuadorian migrant Freddy Lala, who narrowly escaped death at the hands of professional kidnappers, the August 26 massacre of 72 migrants may have remained out of the eye of the mainstream media and chalked up as another example of the violent turf war fought by Mexico’s organized crime syndicates. However, the events point to another serious and common issue in Mexico, the chronic human rights violations of migrant workers as they pass through the country in transit to the United States. Every year, according to Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission (CNDH), around 20,000 migrants are kidnapped, and thousands more are subjected to sexual assault, robberies, extortion, murder, beatings, and humiliation from gangs, cartels, and government authorities before they reach the United States.