Kidnapped migrants found 'safe and sound' in Mexico

By Jorge Antonio Rocha

MEXICO CITY(AA) - Authorities in the northeastern Mexican state of Tamaulipas said Wednesday that they found 32 migrants who were violently abducted in late December.

Interior Minister Luisa Alcalde wrote on X that authorities located the migrants in an operation involving police, the army and the National Guard.

"Governor Américo Villareal has just informed us that the 31 migrants kidnapped in Tamaulipas were rescued safe and sound. Thanks to the State authorities, the National Guard, and the Armed Forces," wrote Alcalde.

Preliminary reports said masked armed men took the migrants Dec. 30 but the state's Department of Security said an infant was not initially reported in the abduction.

Top security chief Rosa Icela Rodriguez said armed men “wearing ski masks” boarded a commercial bus traveling northeast toward Tamaulipas.

She said at a news conference Wednesday that the armed men took 31 out of the 36 passengers off the bus. The migrants were then reportedly forced to board five pick-up trucks.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador lamented the massive kidnapping. He attributed the abduction to criminal groups looking to extort the migrants' relatives and said Mexico's northern strip is a focal point of insecurity for migrants and asylum seekers.

​​​​​​​Foreign Minister Alicia Barcena said Mexico is collaborating with the governments of the migrants’ countries of origin.

The migrants were mainly from Venezuela, although some from Colombia and Central America were also reported, according to Lopez Obrador.