In the first days of the year, Mexico, the last transit country on the migrants' path to the United States, has recorded a massive caravan in the south and the kidnapping of 32 migrants in the north, showing that The dramatic crisis has no prospects of improving in 2024.
Although the migrants kidnapped near Matamoros, in the northern state of Tamaulipas, were released this Wednesday after being held since Saturday, there have been no arrests, which shows the difficulty of Mexican authorities in controlling the power of human trafficking organizations in the border region.
“They were not rescued, they were left free. Yes, it was a series of factors, first what I am telling you, that all the authorities intervened early, that the authority is very good, the governor of Tamaulipas (Américo Villarreal),” acknowledged the Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador. , this Thursday in his morning conference.
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López Obrador clarified that the investigation continues and stressed that the motive for the crime was to extort the migrants' relatives, most of whom were Venezuelans, although there were also Colombians and Hondurans.
“There were 31 and a one-year-old girl, and their statements are already being taken. It seems that not (there were Mexicans), that they released the Mexicans, and it was for the collection, for extortion, of relatives in the United States.”, he detailed.
A caravan of more than 6,000 migrants advances from the southern border of Mexico.
The authorities learned of the incident on December 30, when armed men wearing balaclavas intercepted a bus with 36 passengers that was going from the northern city of Monterrey to Matamoros, on the border with Brownsville (Texas), according to the Secretary of Security, Rosa Icela, on Wednesday. Rodriguez.
'We do not trust Immigration'
For its part, the first migratory caravan of the year dissolved this Tuesday after having advanced some 105 kilometers and surrendering to agents of the National Migration Institute (INM) in the municipality of Mapastepec, state of Chiapas (southern border of Mexico), but The migratory flow does not stop and is at historic highs.
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One of the migrants from Honduras, William Adalí Romeo Pérez, accepted the proposal of the Mexican officials because they will carry out the formal process, however, he rejected that they are surrendering to the immigration authorities.
“I'm going for my family, that's why I do it, but here no one is giving themselves up, I'm going with my son, my wife and two girls, we don't trust in Immigration but in God, the children are already tired and we can't keep walking anymore,” He told EFE.
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The caravan of thousands of migrants, of more than 20 nationalities, left Mexico's southern border on Christmas Eve as the largest in 2023.
Last year, historic numbers of people seeking to enter the United States were recorded at the border with Mexico, where the US Customs and Border Protection Office (CBP) confirmed last week the arrival of more than 2.2 million migrants from January to November.
Caravan of migrants advancing towards the border with the United States.
City of Juárez prepares for a new wave
In Ciudad Juárez, one of the epicenters of the migration drama between Mexico and the United States, Ismael Martínez, director of the Pan de Vida soup kitchen and shelter, explained to EFE that a week and a half ago they had 130 migrants and now they only have 28 because in the United States “they are processing them very quickly.”
But he considered that The caravans coming from the south and the new Texas laws will once again generate a funnel in cities like Juárez.
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Texas Governor Gregg Abbott signed a law last month that will allow the state to detain migrants and expel them, as well as imprison repeat offenders and human traffickers.
“With the law that the governor of Texas is going to put in place it is going to become more complicated because, apart from the fact that they are not going to let them in, if they try to enter they will be returned and even sent to jail,” said Martínez.
EFE
31 migrants kidnapped in northern Mexico, near the US
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