"The problem starts when they get on that damned train," cringes Rosa Nelly Santos of the Committee of Family Members of Migrants in El Progreso (Comité de Familias de Migrantes en El Progreso or COFAMIPRO).

José Luis Hernandez nods his head in agreement, and with resignation says, "A person doesn't react until it happens to them.  If someone were to warn me today that I could lose one finger, just one finger, I would not leave."

Much has been written about El Tren de la Muerte or the train of death, as the migrants call the trains that make their way north to Mexico's northern border.  Feature films, documentaries, novels and essays recount the horrors suffered by thousands of persons who have died or lost limbs on its tracks. 

Four years after his accident, 23-year-old José Luis sits at home reproaching that fateful decision that led him to leave his country in search of work and a brighter future in the United States.

He recalls falling off a cargo train in Chihuahua, Mexico and waking up in hospital minus a leg, an arm and four fingers of his other hand.

"It is sad because my goal was to help my family to improve our home, to buy a car, to live better," José Luis explains.  "I left with this dream, but instead of helping my family I have returned as a burden to them.  I can cry and cry over what I have lost, but no matter how much I cry, I cannot grow a new arm or a new hand, therefore I must carry on. I pray to God for His help and the strength to go on."

He emphasizes that just in his small hometown of El Progreso, in northern Honduras, there are 26 young men and two women who were also mutilated after jumping on and off trains during the long and dangerous migration route north to the US-Mexico border.

Rosa Nelly Santos and Edita Maldonado are the two-woman team called COFAMIPRO.  They make their way each morning to their tiny office in the center of town and open their door and mobile phones to hundreds of desperate family members who have not heard from their loved ones in days, weeks, months, and sometimes years.

COFAMIPRO has 550 cases of persons who were reported missing by family members. Although some have been closed with a happy ending, 344 persons are still missing and feared dead.

The two women are on the phone constantly with their contacts in Guatemala, Mexico and the US, trying to track down missing Honduran migrants.  They host a one-hour radio show each Sunday for family members to call in and send messages to their missing loved ones.

Rosa Nelly says, "Most migrants stop in Mexico for a time on their way to the US and take on odd jobs to raise money for the rest of the trip.  Some women are lucky enough to find jobs in bars and restaurants; others are kidnapped and sold to brothels.  Many of our migrants are in Mexico caught in that insidious spider web."

But hundreds of thousands of Honduran migrants have reached their final destination.  Unofficial estimates indicate there could be up to one million Hondurans currently in the United States.  The US Census Bureau, 2007 American Community Survey reports 430,504 Hondurans living in the United States; this number includes all persons born in Honduras regardless of their immigration status.

Is the economic downturn going to slow down COFAMIPRO's work?

Rosa Nelly states confidently, "The crisis is not going to stop Hondurans from going to the US  And do you know why? Because the maquilas (assembly plants) are closing, which is the only thing keeping our young from migrating north.  And many other businesses, like supermarkets, are cutting their staff."

"'I'm out of here', that's the first thing out of their mouths.  Most of the young women I speak to say they are determined to leave, although they know their heads may roll or they may be kidnapped and sold into sexual slavery,"  Rosa Nelly adds.

José Luis is determined to put an end to the suffering of Honduras' youth. "I want to go on television to tell the young people of my country not to go.  It needs to stop, it cannot go on this way.  Other people will end up in my condition and end up with the same or worst life here."

"I never should have left," José Luis continues.  "The things that one sees out there are frightening: women are raped, people fall from the train and die. These things happen every day but people do not realize, perhaps because the corpses are not sent home, they are burnt.  But it affected me deeply to see those horrible things," he ends with a deep sigh.