Over the past year, kidnappings against Mexicans and foreigners traveling by bus have multiplied in Tamaulipas, with Reynosa being a critical point.
In a lawsuit for negligence against the Mexican company Omnibus Express before the District Court of Hidalgo County, Texas, two Americans expose the defenselessness to which passengers are exposed and the apparent complicity of the bus operators.
Concepción Valadez Montoya and Francisco F. Montoya detail in the complaint that on May 29 they were kidnapped at gunpoint on an Omnibus Express bus in Reynosa, while they were traveling from McAllen to Monterrey. In the accusation, of which EL NORTE has a copy, the victims point out that the company knew that its passengers were being beaten, robbed and kidnapped for ransom, but did not warn of the risks.
“Defendants (Omnibus) knew of the hidden danger and refused to inform customers, as did plaintiffs, about the hidden danger,” the lawsuit filed Sept. 3 states.
“They knew that the danger existed while they were travelling on their buses and had a duty to warn, but they did not.” The plaintiffs accuse that the buses do not have measures such as cameras, video surveillance and communication to ask the police for help to prevent kidnappings. Nor are kidnappings reported to the authorities after they are committed. In this context, the victims warn about the behaviour of the bus operators. “They freely opened the bus door,” they detail, “they did not try to stop the aggressors, they did nothing to help the bus passengers and they did not inform the police that their passengers had been kidnapped at gunpoint and held for ransom.” With the lawsuit, which does not specify amounts, the victims are asking for a sentence to be issued to compensate the economic damages they suffered due to their deprivation of liberty and the legal costs. Days after this kidnapping, on June 14, the United States Consulate General in Matamoros issued an unprecedented alert to its citizens warning of bus kidnappings in Reynosa, an alarm that remains in effect. However, the Security Spokesperson of Morena Governor Américo Villarreal, headed by Jorge Cuéllar, then indicated that there were no reports of bus kidnappings in that area. Kidnappings against bus passengers have been a crime that has plagued Tamaulipas at least since 2009, when the drug war broke out, but in recent years the reports had decreased. However, in the last 12 months there has been an increase in reports of these kidnappings, mainly against migrants, which EL NORTE revealed last December. In a case that shocked the country and abroad, 32 migrants, mainly Venezuelans, were taken off their bus and kidnapped, until the multiple kidnappings became public knowledge and they were released by the criminals after ransom payments were made.
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