At the U.S.-Mexico border, desperate migrants have sights set on Canada

The gruesome, sobering video is played back on a cellphone for those sitting nearby. Once seen, it is impossible to forget.

Onscreen, a crocodile is drifting along a river in the Panamanian jungle with a half-eaten human leg hanging out of its mouth, a lifeless foot perched just above the giant reptile's droopy eyes.

It was shown to CBC News by Venezuelan migrant Nelson Ramirez, as he and his wife, Yescee Urbina, wait for guidance on finding food and shelter at a migrant aid office in Juarez, Mexico. Their remaining worldly possessions sit at their feet — two small, scuffed knapsacks of clothing.

Nelson shows the video so the world can understand the degree of desperation held by so many migrants fleeing strife in Central and South America. Migrants who will risk even crocodile-infested waters to escape their home countries and find a better life farther north.

"I really felt that at any moment that could happen to me," said Urbina, as she stared again at that video. "We were terrified."

Like so many such migrants now massing at the U.S.-Mexico border, their immediate goal is to find a way into the United States. But the couple's long-term target, as with countless others who've made it to Juarez, is Canada.

Why Canada? Entry into the U.S., be it legally or otherwise, remains extremely complicated and word has spread among migrants in Juarez that Canada is likely a significantly better landing spot.

If they can get there.

Ramirez, who worked in sales in Venezuela, and Urbina, who was a criminal lawyer, paid smugglers $5,000 US to transit them to Juarez — partly on the roof of a boxcar and partly on foot through those jungles of Panama.

The couple also showed photos of the decaying bodies of other migrants who'd died along that route in earlier treks north, their remains left behind.

"Some were children," said Ramirez, sighing.

The two have no idea how they will now get any farther north — but they remain hopeful. They know they cannot go back to Venezuela, fearing for their lives because they oppose the current Venezuelan government.

"I was physically threatened," Ramirez told CBC News. "Because I belonged to the wrong party."

"What would we tell the people of Canada?" he added. "We fled our country because we had to. Please give us a chance in Canada."