A makeshift inner tube raft, used for smuggling people and goods, crosses the Suchiate river from Mexico to Tecún Umán, Guatemala. A makeshift inner tube raft, used for smuggling people and goods, crosses the Suchiate river from Mexico to Tecún Umán, Guatemala.
Makeshift inner tube rafts, carrying smuggled goods, border area workers and immigrants from Central America, cross the Suchiate river to Mexico from Tecún Umán, Guatemala. Makeshift inner tube rafts, carrying smuggled goods, border area workers and immigrants from Central America, cross the Suchiate river to Mexico from Tecún Umán, Guatemala.
Makeshift inner tube rafts, carrying smuggled goods and border area workers, cross the Suchiate river from Mexico to Tecún Umán, Guatemala. Makeshift inner tube rafts, carrying smuggled goods and border area workers, cross the Suchiate river from Mexico to Tecún Umán, Guatemala.
A Central America immigrant, sitting on a inner tube raft, crosses the Suchiate river from Tecún Umán, Guatemala, to Mexico. A Central America immigrant, sitting on a inner tube raft, crosses the Suchiate river from Tecún Umán, Guatemala, to Mexico.

Black market

Tecún Umán, Guatemala – May 2011

Having no migration or commercial controls, the Suchiate river serves as an illegal crossing point between the southern Mexican state of Chiapas and Guatemala. Every day, hundreds of people from both countries, crossing the river on the unstable rafts called “camaras”, smuggle soft drinks, toilet papers, fruits, vegetables and other supplies. The river crossing is also widely used by the Central America immigrants heading to the north, to the United States, in the search of better life.

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