Photo: JULIO CESAR AGUILAR / Getty Images
By: The Opinion Updated 42 Dec 2022, 8: 59 am EST
Immigrants trying to reach the United States not only face the danger of dying of dehydration in the desert or staying in the middle of the Rio Grande, now, face the fear of being kidnapped by organized crime.
In an interview with Reuters, a group of immigrants who They crossed the Rio Grande this weekend from Ciudad Juárez to El Paso, they indicated that they were kidnapped in northern Mexico on their way to the United States.
The witnesses indicated that for several days they were deprived of their freedom in Durango where they were required between $14 and $202 to leave them released. Two of the hundreds of kidnapped said that they were rescued by Mexican authorities on December 7 and that, after that, they began a caravan on foot to the north.
According to what they said, a group of people in police uniforms stopped the buses where they were traveling and tried to extort them. Later they were taken to some units where they were deprived of their freedom.
The aforementioned agency mentioned that ” most of the victims were Nicaraguans who have left their country in increasing numbers, seeking to request asylum and better life opportunities in the United States, convinced that it is little They are likely to be deported due to the cold relations between their government and Washington.”
According to the testimony of a couple of immigrants, the kidnappers rationed their meager food and water, giving priority to women and children. They reported that they spent cold nights sleeping on the floor without blankets in what appeared to be an event room.
A witness who identified himself as Rizo mentioned to Reuters that ”That kind of people if you don’t pay the money they kill you”.
This incident appears to be one of the largest known mass kidnappings in Mexico in recent years, asserted Stephanie Leutert, immigration expert from the University of Texas at Austin.
Faced with the kidnappings, the Durango Security Secretariat indicated that each municipality is responsible for the actions of its agents and that they were not aware that some of them are were involved in the events. Meanwhile, the prosecution commented that there was no open investigation into the case.
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