‘La Bestia’: A song created by CBP is a radio hit in Central America

A song created by U.S. Customs and Border Protection to warn migrants about the dangers of coming to the United States has become a radio hit in Central America.

The hit song is called “La Bestia.” It is named after Mexican freight trains that Central Americans ride on as they make their way to the U.S. border. Many die falling off the trains, while others face the constant threat of robbery, kidnapping and rape.

The Daily Beast reported Saturday that the song is a favorite among radio listeners in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. The song is currently being played by 21 radio stations in those three countries.

“They call her the Beast from the South, this wretched train of death,” sings Eddie Ganz, who provides the vocals for the song. “With the devil in the boiler, whistles, roars, twists and turns.”

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The song also paints a gruesome picture of the circumstances migrants face when they ride on the freight trains. It says migrants hang on the railcars “of this iron beast” and they “go as cattle to the slaughterhouse, taking hell’s route within a clout of pain.”

Listen to the full song here: “La Bestia”

The song is part of a $1 million media campaign dubbed “Dangers Awareness Campaign” that CBP launched earlier this month to discourage unaccompanied minors and families from making the treacherous journey to the U.S. from Central America. The campaign also includes billboards and public service announcements that will run in Spanish on radio and television stations in El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, as well as U.S. cities with large Central American populations.

The campaign comes as an unprecedented number of unaccompanied minors from Central America are coming to the U.S. More than 57,500 unaccompanied minors have been apprehended at the southern border since October, according to CBP.

Why is “La Bestia” so popular?

One of the main reasons why the song “La Bestia” is so popular is because it is aired with no disclaimer about who is sponsoring it.

CBP sends radio stations two versions of the song: the full version and another one that’s less than a minute long with a brief public service announcement at the end. Neither version mentions that CBP is behind all this because doing so “would immediately decrease its effectiveness,” The Daily Best reported.

“It’s more important to us that the message be delivered,” Laurel Smith, director of communications and outreach for CBP, told The Daily Beast. “We want to make sure the audience is listening.”

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Mexican-born creative director Rodolfo Hernandez of the Washington, D.C.-based advertising agency Elevation wrote the lyrics and sought the help of New York City musician Carlo Nicolau to compose the song. Hernandez told The Daily Beast the song is relevant to what migrants from Central America face as they travel to the U.S.

“I really think that putting music to this message makes it very powerful, because people listen to the radio in their towns and their villages,” he told The Daily Beast. “The songs don’t accuse anyone of wrongdoing, there are no heroes or villains in these stories. They are just letting people know that their lives are in danger.”

This is not the first time Hernandez creates songs for CBP. He has written songs for other CBP campaigns, including the “No Mas Cruces” campaign launched in Mexico in 2004 to warn about the dangers of crossing the Sonoran desert. For that campaign, he created five songs that aired in radio stations throughout Mexico and neither made it known that Border Patrol was the lead sponsor.

The effort paid off. In 2005, then-Border Patrol spokesperson Wendi Lee told the Associated Press that the songs contributed to the drop in people who died while trying to cross the border through the Sonoran desert. She noted crossing deaths went from a record high of 492 in 2005 to 390 in 2008.

Now, CBP officials are hoping Hernandez’s “La Bestia” will also pay off. They hope it’ll help stem the flow of unaccompanied minors from Central America who are crossing the southern border to come to the U.S.

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