If not for the testimony of 18-year-old Ecuadorian migrant Freddy Lala, the August 26 massacre of 72 migrants in Tamaulipas 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 or abused by gangs, cartels, and government authorities before they reach the United States. This dramatic increase in abuses, however, was predicted in 2001 when Mexico began to take a hard-line stance against immigration on its southern border.