Last week, this space wrote about the fate of 72 migrant workers from Central and South America whose bodies were found in a remote farmhouse in northeastern Mexico, not far from the U.S. border.  The victims were apparently attempting to cross into the U.S. for work when they ran afoul of a drug gang that attempted to extort money from the group, and then murdered them in cold blood.

We asked the questions: who were these people, and how did they end up dead on the floor of a farmhouse far from their homes and families?

The New York Times has now provided at least some of the answers, in an admirable and detailed account that draws heavily upon the comments of the victims’ loved ones.  It is heart-wrenching reading, but a necessary reminder that there is in this world, amid splendor and plenty, a vast underclass of people who are desperately seeking out a better life, and because of their desperation, they are vulnerable to cruel exploitation — and worse.

Mexico’s National Commission for Human Rights said in a report last year that 9,758 migrants were abducted from September 2008 to February 2009. Guatemala said that last year 27,222 of its citizens were deported from the United States and 28,800 from Mexico; Honduras estimates more than 500 of its people leave for the north every day. That’s a snapshot in one corner of the world, of the flow of men, women and children along a lengthy and largely invisible network that seems to exist outside the law, outside society, and outside human compassion.

The story of these migrants is now at the stage when the appropriate government agencies are vowing to address the situation, order up more law enforcement, and renew their commitment to honoring the human rights of even those who are not citizens of their countries. The Mexican government, in light of the massacre, has promised a new strategy to protect migrants, including better coordination among state and federal agencies to dismantle kidnapping gangs and disrupt their finances.

But, paraphrasing actor George Clooney at this week’s Emmy Awards, the proof of progress will be whether — or at all — in three, four or five years time, people on the move in the hopes of a better life actually can reach their destination, alive.