Fabienne Venet

Fabienne Venet is tackling the problem of Central Americans being extorted and abused as they go through Mexico on their way to the US by forming a smart network of organizations to change the fundamental problem of a lack of human right’s protections for the immigrants in transit.

Fabienne began her work helping to defend immigrants from Central America trying to reach the US by winning the right to visit detention centers. But the more she worked with them, the more she realized that the extortion and kidnappings of these immigrants was only part of a deeper, more systemic problem regarding a lack of respect for human rights in Mexico.

Through her citizen organization (CO), the Institute for Migration Research and Outreach (INEDIM), Fabienne has become a catalyst and convener of a broad network of COs and key government officials who share a common vision to overcome the lack of institutional respect for human rights in Mexico; especially among the military, police, and in its health and education systems. By strengthening human rights laws in Mexico and by pushing for changed institutional behaviors in these key organizations, Fabienne will also reduce the dramatic human right’s abuses perpetrated against Central American immigrants.

The discovery in 2011 of 72 Central American’s bodies in a mass grave in northern Mexico finally began to shine a light on the abuses to which Central Americans have been subjected as they travel through Mexico toward the US. More than 200,000 Central Americans per year flee the worst crime and murder rates in the world and its depressing poverty levels, to try to reach the US by traveling by train and bus through Mexico.

Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission estimated that in 2011, 20,000 had been kidnapped, primarily by Mexican drug cartels, with some being extorted for ransom by their families, some forced to work as slave labor in cartel factories, and hundreds killed and buried in unmarked graves. The Mexican government holds 85,000 Central American immigrants in the largest detention centers in Latin America. In many cases proven in courts, immigration agents, police, and military officers were the ones “selling” these immigrants to drug cartels.

Federal policies only aim to manage and control immigrants rather than address their human rights. Greater society lacks a rights-based culture based in respect and the exercise of fundamental human rights; leading to discrimination that is exacerbated among the migrant community. For example, migrants are not allowed to attend school or receive treatment at government hospitals and clinics. Additionally, they do not have the right to file formal complaints against mistreatment and abuse, the right to a public defender or access to support from their consular offices. Undocumented immigrants in the US have access to all of these support services while immigrants from Central America to Mexico have none.

Furthermore, the restrictive and criminalizing nature of migration policies on both borders based on the securitization and use of force has helped to foster a culture of discrimination that creates increased threats against migrants and makes them even more vulnerable. With increased border controls, migrants will take increased risks, turning to trafficking networks controlled more than ever by organized crime; that will kidnap and kill migrants with a sense of impunity.

Immigrants are further marginalized and lack basic components for societal integration, such as knowing their rights as immigrants. Without such knowledge, immigrants become even more susceptible to abuse and economic disparity. With this, the majority of migrants are prevented from accessing their rights, i.e. no record exists of Central American migrants who die in Mexico because they are in mass graves. Thus, Central American migrants in Mexico are one of the most vulnerable communities among the general population.



The factors which cause people to flee their home country are complicated and related to safety and economic factors in Central America and the US. For example, the economic boom in the US led to increasing migration from Mexico and Central America. The financial crisis in 2008 led one million Mexicans in the US to return to Mexico, but since 2008, immigration from Central America has nearly doubled, as soaring homicide rates and the explosion of organized gangs offset the diminished economic prospects in the US. At a time when cross-border collaboration and studies could identify these emerging trends and propose flexible solutions, the topic which dominates all US-Mexico-Central America groups is controlling immigration, i.e. dealing with the symptoms rather than the causes of the problems.

Fabienne founded INEDIM in 2008 to build on her twenty years of experience in the field of human rights for immigrants in Mexico. She saw an urgent need for an organization to act as a bridge-builder between a myriad of groups focused on their own small piece of this larger issue. For example, migration groups focused on individual cases of abuse; human rights groups on broad issues of human rights, but not involved in immigration cases; and academic studies of migration showing new insights into emerging migration trends, but having no impact on government or CO programs.

Fabienne’s strategy uses INEDIM as a catalyst, convener, and coordinator of disparate efforts to improve human rights and conditions for immigrants in transit through Mexico. This broad group and INEDIM have a common vision: change Mexico’s laws regarding the rights of immigrants and ensure that these laws are effectively implemented so that the safety and living condition of immigrants are dramatically improved. Next, build a regulatory framework to articulate rights and correlate migration issues with fundamental rights, working multisectorally, and proposing integral public policies to demand and cultivate a human rights culture. Then, create new regional meetings and programs among the US, Mexico, and Central America to change the focus from controlling immigration to real efforts to understand the underlying causes of immigration and to agree to effective programs to cope with the ebb and flow of immigration.

In 2009 Mexico passed a law on immigration that commits Mexico to policies consistent with the US and other countries; but implementation has met with considerable institutional resistance. To support the various public policy efforts aimed at more effective implementation of the law, INEDIM generates the respected research and analysis for public policy decision-makers at regional and national levels. INEDIM also provides the needed information through organizing events that encourage and facilitate cross-sector dialogue, and maintains a virtual platform for scholars to showcase their work--INEDIM “translates” their work, making it more accessible to the public and COs.

INEDIM also targets the Mexican public by releasing information to media outlets, organizing press conferences, and a newsletter, to change public perception of Central American immigrants. Additionally, INEDIM organizes refresher seminars on immigration law that are available to the public, particularly immigrants, about how to access the national legal system and increase access to basic rights.

Fabienne’s strategy to create a new region-wide effort of governments and COs is based on two new realities. (i) Mexico has realized that being a close ally of the US over the past twelve years did not yielded the expected positive results; so the new administration in Mexico is making every effort to rebuild relations with Central American countries, which were very close, to the extent that for more than twenty years, Mexico was considered such close ally of Central America they were legitimate spokespersons for Central American interests. (ii) The prospect of immigration reform in the US may hold great promise for the 12 million immigrants in the US, but may have negative consequences for Mexico and Central America. This has provided a new urgency to start region-wide dialogue.

INEDIM has facilitated the first Work Groups between governments and COs from US, Mexico, and Central America for the first time in nearly fifteen years. Fabienne works with nearly all authorities in the Central American migration sector, connecting countries of destination and origin. This huge group agreed to create commonly measured Safety Indicators for immigrants as they move through Central America into Mexico and to the US, These safety measures will be led by INEDIM.

Fabienne has trained government officials in El Salvador to design and manage a temporary work system that account for human rights and is complementary with Mexico. She has also trained officials of all Central American consulates located at Mexico’s southeast border with Central America about new migration laws. INEDIM also helps to train regional governments about how to carry out federal laws to address their local immigrant populations. Through this approach, INEDIM educates regional governments about their specific, local immigration needs and shows them legal ways to assist, transforming immigration into a local issue, rather than a federal issue, in areas such as providing immigrants access to Mexican schools and the health system, as stipulated in the 2009 law.

Fabienne wants migration to be in a human right’s subject, “migration by choice and not necessity.” She seeks a regional approach to provide local solutions for each context. Fabienne wants to promote dialogue between actors related to migration: officials from different state and municipal agencies, COs, migrants, academics, the private sector, and consulates.

Fabienne was born and raised in France. From a young age, she questioned the conservative sociopolitical environment she was born into, and was drawn to study sociology in France. On a research trip in Mexico City, Fabienne decided to stay and complete her master’s degree in anthropology.

Fabienne worked at the Documentation Center of the Mexican Academy of Human Rights. There, she was exposed to the human rights abuses that occur against immigrants. Most disturbingly, Fabienne could not help but see the difference in the way she was treated as a European immigrant and the discrimination that Central American immigrants endured.

Convinced that her life’s mission was to improve the living conditions and human rights of refugees and migrants, Fabienne founded Sin Fronteras (Without Borders) in 1996 to provide legal and social services to migrants and refugees. Fabienne realized that being from France and extremely knowledgeable about immigration issues in Mexico, she could have excellent conversations with government personnel and COs who found it difficult to talk with each other. Sin Fronteras was soon considered a crucial player in the immigration field.

After twelve years, Fabienne left the organization to a new generation of leadership and founded INEDIM with a hope to change the system in which immigrants’ operate. Fabienne has spent her life advocating for the human rights of immigrants, like herself, and intends to change the way government’s process and integrate immigrants. Her many years in the sector have made her an authority and equipped her with a profound understanding of Central American migration.