Members of the Mexican National Guard last Saturday rescued 57 migrants from Cuba, Guatemala, El Salvador and the Dominican Republic, who had been kidnapped by an armed group in the municipality of Jiménez, state of Chihuahua.
The kidnappers extorted the travelers and stripped them of their belongings, and then locked them in an abandoned mansion, near an embankment, less than 100 kilometers from the border with the United States.
In accordance with a statement from the National Guard, the rescue was possible thanks to an anonymous complaint, which offered the location of the property. Once released, the migrants reported that “armed persons stripped them of their passports, cell phones and under threats demanded information from their relatives in the United States and their countries of origin to ask them for money.”
In the group were nine minors, who were taken with their parents to the lodgings of the System for the Integral Development of the Family (DIF), in the city of Delicias. The rest of the group was handed over to Immigration in order to carry out “the corresponding steps to receive consular assistance, define their legal situation and, where appropriate, grant assisted return,” the statement details.
In the group were nine minors, who were taken with their parents to the accommodations of the System for the Integral Development of the Family (DIF), in the city of Delicias
The Mexican authorities were unable to arrest the kidnappers, but they seized several firearms stored in the house, a smoke grenade, chargers of various calibers, tactical vests, ballistic plates, devices known as tire punches and cartridge belts, in addition to four vehicles.
The migrant route through the state of Chihuahua, in particular the section from Ciudad Juárez to the US city of El Paso, Texas, is characterized by violence and extortion of travelers. Last May, the Cuban Barbara Rodriguez and her son Sadiel Gonzalez they were kidnapped while crossing that route, and had to pay $30,000 before being released.
Rodríguez said that their cell phones were taken from them and they were forced to call their relatives to obtain the money they demanded. To his son, he detailed, they kneeled him and pointed a gun at him. “Seeing that they could kill my son… They pointed a gun at me here (at my neck)… If I didn’t say what they asked me, they killed my son,” the woman said.
The Juárez cartel and the Jalisco Nueva Generación cartel operate in the state of Chihuahua, the latter under the command of Nemesio Oserguera Cervantes, The Menchofor whom the US State Department is offering $10 million.
Last year, the spokeswoman for the Attorney General of the state of Chihuahua, Sahira Yasmin Castro, said that given the number of kidnapping cases, the US and Mexico were working on “tracking tasks” for these cartels. However, the situation remains unresolved.
The transit of Cuban migrants through Mexico has experienced an unprecedented increase. From October 1, 2021 to August 3, 2022, 177,848 Cubans arrived in the United States, according to figures provided by the Customs and Border Protection Office.
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