The Secretary of the Interior, Luisa María Alcalde, reported this Wednesday on the rescue of the 31 migrants kidnapped on December 30 in Tamaulipas. Without giving further details, Mayor has published a message on her Twitter account – now X -, in which she reported the outcome. “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.”
The kidnapping of the migrants has put the focus once again on the migrant route of the Gulf of Mexico, the route of terror, witness of the greatest atrocities committed against migrants in the country, such as the San Fernando massacres, in 2010 and 2011. On the afternoon of Saturday, December 30, an armed group aboard five vans intercepted the bus in which they were traveling. The criminals took most of them, leaving only five free, in addition to the drivers, who alerted the authorities. This Wednesday, the Secretary of Federal Security, Rosa Icela Rodríguez, had indicated that among those kidnapped there were “Venezuelan, Ecuadorian, Honduran, Colombian and Mexican” citizens.
Little is known about what happened to the 31, lost on a complicated border, left under the protection of criminal groups that see business opportunities and merchandise in migrants. In addition to their journey, the place where they were held captive, the reason for the kidnapping is unknown – why 31 were kidnapped, but not the other five – and the routes their captors used in their escape are unknown. “It must be said that this type of event occurred with one, two or three migrants, but this number in that area is atypical. It is not an issue that is occurring frequently,” Rodríguez assured this Wednesday.
The official explained that in these days “several actions have been carried out, including monitoring the phones to locate the people who participated and find those responsible for this crime.” “Also the analysis of the videos that were left on the bus and the monitoring of the routes where the migrants were transported. Likewise, tracking and searching is underway with the use of canine binomials in various places,” she added. Rodríguez has not explained whether the rescue of five Venezuelan migrants on Monday in the same area is related to the case of the 31.
The dynamics of crime in the region show the use of a myriad of routes that leave the highway that connects Monterrey with the border, starting from municipalities such as General Bravo or Doctor Coss. The destinations are multiple. Many go to Matamoros, others to Reynosa and some more to Nuevo Laredo. The municipalities that lie between these cities, all close to the Rio Grande, are also among the preferences of the mafias, always involved in the migrant journey, through agreements or the use of brute force, for those who try to arrive on their own.
This is the case, for example, of the group of migrants murdered in January 2021 in Camargo, between Reynosa and Nuevo Laredo. The migrants were traveling with their guides, the traffickers who took them to the other side of the river, when state police attacked them with bullets. They all died, there were 19. Beyond the motives of the police officers, the reconstruction of the migrant journey during the trial last year, which ended with 12 agents convicted, showed the path they had followed: San Luis Potosí, Monterrey and the highway to Reynosa, by General Bravo, before taking one of the many gaps that cross the border between Nuevo León and Tamaulipas, to the border.
San Luis Potosí and its northern municipalities also appear as a red dot on the map of mafia action. In May, criminal groups kidnapped fifty migrants on the so-called route of terror, near Matehuala, a logistical hub for criminal groups, always protected by institutional power: the mayor of Matehuala has been detained since November for improper exercise of the public service, in the midst of a scandal over a series of audios in which he appears, supposedly, negotiating with criminal groups in the area.
The mass kidnapping of migrants, like the case of Matehuala or the one now in Tamaulipas, is not exceptional, despite Secretary Rodríguez's statements. In Matehuala itself, authorities rescued 123 in November, abandoned in the bed of a trailer, on the road. The migrants warned of their situation by shouting from inside the vehicle, which attracted the attention of travelers passing through the area. The same thing happens in Tamaulipas. In 2019, for example, an armed group took 22 migrants from a bus that was traveling on the highway between San Fernando and Reynosa.
In any case, the issue transcends the adjective, the number of migrants kidnapped on each occasion. Whether they are mass kidnappings or not avoids facing a reality, the seriousness of the situation on the Gulf migrant route, one of the busiest in the country. Businessmen, religious people and human rights defenders point out that violence against the migrant population is common on the route, kidnappings are a daily issue. In statements to the newspaper Milenio, Francisco Gallardo López, from the Diocese of Matamoros, points out that in the last month there have been many cases and that, on average, the mafias take between 10 and 15 migrants a day.
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