In a video circulating on social networks, a group of migrants, mostly Nicaraguan, can be seen walking along a highway in Mexico. The citizens assure that a criminal cartel had kidnapped them since Sunday, December 4, but they managed to escape.
“Here we go more than 450 people who were kidnapped, they had taken our phones, money. They will take all the money from us (…) But because of their carelessness, we —criminals— managed to get out, thank God”, narrates one of the people in the group.
“Take a picture of us so that our families can look at us, here we go, we are free, record so that they kill us,” people exclaimed nervously and at the same time relieved, including children.
According to the information, all these people are walking from Durango to Juárez, one of the most dangerous border cities in Mexico. According to the citizens, the objective is to reach the United States.
They estimate more than a thousand migrants kidnapped in Mexico
Opposition member and former politician Ivania Álvarez reported that in more than a week complaints have been received from Nicaraguans who have been extorted and kidnapped on their way through Mexico at checkpoints located in transit between Mexico City and Juárez. “This is the route that migrants are currently taking to avoid going through the Rio Grande,” said Álvarez.
He added that more than seven buses disappeared with the passengers on board in the aforementioned highway sections. “At this time a group of migrants managed to escape from the warehouses where they were being held hostage,” she said.
Related news: They rescue 186 Nicaraguans who were kidnapped in Durango, Mexico
“The migrants send us the video so that we can help denounce the Nicaraguan media, since here in Mexico there is little we can do to make this situation visible,” said the exiled opponent in the Aztec country, who also stressed that believes that More than a thousand Nicaraguans are missing since seven buses in which they were traveling disappeared. The vehicles belonged to the company named “Futura”.
Recently, the Migration’s national institute de México reported that on December 5, 253 migrants who “were kidnapped at a home in the municipality of Ciudad Lerdo” in the Mexican state of Durango were rescued.
Of the total number of foreigners rescued, 186 are Nicaraguan, 23 Ecuadorians, 15 Cubans, 11 from Venezuela, 18 Guatemalans, four Mexicans and two Colombians.
Two Peruvian migrants, one Haitian and one from the Dominican Republic were also rescued. In its communication, the INM did not detail the conditions in which the migrants find themselves.
Many of the citizens who have decided to leave their country have faced hostile situations such as extortion, kidnapping by criminal cartels in Mexico, or have drowned in the Rio Grande.
