The Path
In early 2024, Venezuelan Cesar Atencio and his Colombian partner Lina Arias set out with their two children in search of the American dream. Fleeing political repression and economic collapse, they crossed the deadly Darién Gap, where Cesar carried their infant through days of rain, hunger, and exhaustion. From there, they traveled across Central America—through Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, and Guatemala—before finally reaching Mexico, following the same route now taken by hundreds of thousands each year.
Their journey is part of a broader crisis. Over the past decade, millions from Venezuela, Colombia, Haiti, and Central America have fled poverty, violence, and political turmoil. The path is long and punishing: weeks in the jungle, endless bus rides, extortion at checkpoints, and perilous rides atop freight trains. For many, it remains the only hope for survival.
Yet under the Trump administration’s renewed immigration policies—canceling asylum programs, tightening borders, and outsourcing enforcement to Mexico—the flow has sharply declined. Thousands of families are now stranded across Central America and Mexico, unable to return yet barred from advancing.
Mexico offered little refuge for Cesar and Lina. In Tapachula, they were detained and extorted; in Mexico City, they survived by selling candy on the streets. Twice, authorities forced them back, erasing weeks of progress. Their darkest ordeal came in the Chihuahuan Desert, when armed men posing as police kidnapped them. For 25 days they endured captivity, forced labor, and threats until relatives raised a $1,000 ransom.
Freed but traumatized, they reached Ciudad Juárez, where they remain confined to a migrant shelter near the U.S. wall. Cesar now works as a delivery rider while Lina still dreams of asylum—perhaps in the U.S., Spain, or Canada. With the help of human rights advocates, they recently married in a civil registry—a rare moment of dignity amid uncertainty.
Their story is not unique. It reflects the resilience, vulnerability, and fragile hope of thousands of migrant families—the human cost of a journey that continues to define the Americas.
Cesar Atencio and Lina Arias, with their sons Ángel and Simón, rest on a bunk bed in a migrant shelter in Ciudad Juárez after surviving a 25-day kidnapping in the Chihuahuan desert.
A weary César Atencio carries his six-month-old son, Simón, while navigating the treacherous Darién Gap in Colombia.
Lina Arias bathes her six-month-old son, Simón, in a river after trekking for several hours through the Darién Gap, navigating muddy terrain and river crossings.
Cesar Atencio and Lina Arias cry and pray during an evangelical worship service while holding their sons, Simon and Angel, in a church in Torreón, Mexico.
The muddy terrain in the Darien jungle along the hill leading to the border with Panama.
Cesar Atencio, his family, and a group of migrants rush along the railway tracks near San Francisco del Rincón, Mexico, as a freight train stops. They travel atop these trains, known as La Bestia, on their journey north.
Cesar Atencio embraces Lina Isabel Arias aboard a freight train departing from Torreón toward Chihuahua.
Cesar Atencio braces against the extreme cold as he travels aboard a freight train toward Chihuahua.
One-year-old Simon Atencio Arias cries out in distress, struggling against the biting cold as he travels in a freight train carriage toward Chihuahua.
Cesar Atencio drapes a blanket over Lina Arias and their sons, trying to keep them warm.
Venezuelan and Colombian migrants travel aboard a freight train heading toward Chihuahua, including Cesar Atencio, Lina Arias, and their sons, Angel and Simon.
Cesar Atencio looks through the border fence dividing Ciudad Juarez from El Paso.
Cesar Atencio shares a quiet moment with his wife, Lina Arias, at a migrant shelter in Ciudad Juárez.
Angel, 5, rests inside a migrant shelter in Ciudad Juarez.
Cesar Atencio and Lina Isabel Arias kiss after being declared married at the civil registry in Ciudad Juarez.
Cesar Atencio and Lina Isabel Arias, along with their sons Angel and Simon, return to a migrant shelter in Ciudad Juarez after a visit to a nearby playground.