14 migrants, kidnapped from Central America, are rescued in Mexico
Latest Update: Wednesday31/10/2012October, 2012, 12:16 AM Doha Time
14 migrants, kidnapped from Central America, are rescued in Mexico
By Tracy Wilkinson/Los Angeles Times
As a group of mothers from Honduras, Guatemala and other countries travels across Mexico in search of missing relatives, the Mexican navy on Monday announced that it had freed 14 Central Americans kidnapped by suspected drug traffickers.
Thousands of migrants from Central America go missing every year as they attempt to reach the US through Mexico. They are often kidnapped by Mexican gangsters, held for ransom, forced to work for cartels or on marijuana farms, or killed. Many turn up in hidden mass graves.
Naval marines acting on what they described as an anonymous tip over the weekend discovered 14 migrants being held against their will in a shack in the town of Altamira, in the violent border state of Tamaulipas. The state has been the scene of several massacres of Central American and Mexican migrants.
The rescued men and women looked for the most part young and skinny, judging by a video released by the navy. They told authorities they had been kidnapped in different places in Tamaulipas and were from Central America, the navy said. The navy did not offer a breakdown of nationalities and said their “migratory status” would be corroborated. They stand a good chance of being deported.
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