1 of 1 In August, migrants climbed over a barbed wire fence after crossing the Rio Grande from Mexico into the US Photo: Suzanne Cordeiro/AFP In August, migrants climbed over a barbed wire fence after crossing the Rio Grande from Mexico into the US Photo: Suzanne Cordeiro/AFP
At least 31 migrants traveling by bus in northern Mexico to a town on the border with the United States were kidnapped by gunmen on Saturday (30), local authorities reported on Tuesday (2).
“We received a report from the driver of a Grupo Senda bus who told us that it was intercepted by five vehicles driven by armed men and that “31 of the 36” passengers were taken away, Jorge Cuéllar, security spokesman, told Milenio television from the border state of Tamaulipas.
Cuéllar added that those kidnapped were “foreigners.” Later, the President of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, said on the social network X (Twitter) that four of the abductees were from his country.
“The Colombian embassy in Mexico is coordinating the rescue with the Mexican state,” he said.
The bus started in Monterrey in the neighboring state of Nuevo León and was destined for the border city of Matamoros in Tamaulipas, where migrants are trying to enter the United States. They were intercepted while they were near the community of Reynosa, another border town.
The five passengers who were not picked up were Mexican nationals and were escorted to Matamoros along with the drivers, the official continued.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said the search for migrants began the same Saturday. “The investigation is already underway,” he said.
Cuéllar said there was “already progress” in the investigation. “We cannot provide incomplete information as it could harm the investigation,” he added.
The most dangerous migration route
According to a report released in September by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the USMexico border was the “most dangerous land migration route in the world” in 2022, with 686 people dead or missing.
Migration to the United States reached record levels last year. According to the American Border Patrol, 2.4 million migrant entries were recorded across the U.S. southern border between October 2022 and September 2023.
Last Wednesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Mexico City to meet with the Mexican president on migration.
López Obrador wrote on social media following the meeting
With a border of more than 3,000 km with the United States, Mexico is a transit and residence country for irregular foreign migrants who come into conflict with restrictive American migration policies.
Foreign migrants crossing Mexico from south to north come mainly from the three violence and povertystricken Central American countries (Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador), the Caribbean (Haiti, Cuba) and Venezuela.
Thousands of them are blocked at the border with the United States in cities such as Tijuana, Ciudad Juárez and Matamoros.
Around 40 migrants, mostly Venezuelans, died in a fire at a detention center run by the National Migration Institute (INM) in Ciudad Juárez in March last year.
Migrants crossing Mexico are also victims of traffic accidents that occurred in Chiapas in December 2021, when 55 of them died after the overcrowded vehicle in which they were traveling illegally overturned.
In addition, they suffer violence from “coyotes” (human traffickers) and from the authorities themselves.
In August 2010, 72 migrants from various countries were murdered by the extinct Los Zeta cartel in San Fernando, Tamaulipas. Another 17 Central Americans were shot and burned on January 21, 2021 in Camargo, in the same state, a crime for which twelve police officers were found guilty.