MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexican security services have freed five Venezuelans kidnapped over the weekend by gunmen, local authorities said on Tuesday, as they searched for another 26 people snatched from a bus traveling to the border city of Matamoros.
The bus was intercepted on Saturday on the Reynosa-Matamoros route in the northern state of Tamaulipas, with 31 of the 36 people on board kidnapped, a spokesman at the state’s security office who requested anonymity told Reuters.
The spokesman did not give details on the five on board who were not kidnapped or the motive of the crime. Kidnappers often demand ransoms from their victims’ families.
Members of Mexico’s National Guard freed the five Venezuelans after their kidnappers fled the vehicle in which they were transporting the migrants, the state’s security body said in a statement.
The Venezuelans told the authorities they were part of the group kidnapped over the weekend. Officials have said they are still investigating the crime.
Fleeing poverty and violence in their countries, a record number of migrants traveled across Central America and Mexico in 2023 aiming to reach the United States. Thousands illegally cross the Rio Grande river in this quest every year.
Last year, Reuters documented a pattern of kidnapping – and in some cases sexual assault – of migrants and asylum seekers in the Reynosa area by the region’s most powerful drug cartels.
The border state of Tamaulipas has faced serious security challenges as various organized crime groups battle for control of trafficking routes for drugs and migrants.
(Reporting by Diego Ore; Editing by Valentine Hilaire, Drazen Jorgic and Richard Chang)
