The resolution of the case of the kidnapped migrants in Tamaulipas, who in the end were 32 and not 31, has generated many doubts, which point to the narrative deployed by the Government, and also to the decisions of the group of captors, linked in one way or another way to the Gulf Cartel. The presidential spokesperson and the Secretary of the Interior reported the “rescue” of the migrants this Wednesday, a consequence, they said, of the efforts of the state and federal security apparatus. But the rumors began immediately. There was no such rescue, their captors had released them in the parking lot of a shopping center, in the municipality of Río Bravo, between Reynosa and Matamoros. This Thursday, the president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, recognized that, indeed, it was a liberation.
The Government continues to reveal details in dribs and drabs. This Friday, the Secretary of Federal Security, Rosa Icela Rodríguez, pointed out that, in some cases, the families of those kidnapped, 26 Venezuelans and six Hondurans, paid ransoms. Rodríguez has indicated that the migrants “were intercepted by five vans, which left five passengers. Then the driver made a call for help and resumed the march to Matamoros with the five migrants. The Police caught up with him at the Nuevo Progreso booth.” The official added that then the rest “were taken to a dirt road for 20 minutes and put into an old truck. They took them to a farm with a warehouse and took their belongings, took photographs of them, and the next morning they began to ask their relatives for money.”
The outcome of the kidnapping challenges the State itself, from the local to the federal level, including the state level, and questions the governance of the northeastern border, immersed in an endless battle between criminal groups. In recent months, complaints from activists and religious people about the kidnapping of migrants in the area have been constant. Furthermore, the clashes on the highway that connects the infamous municipality of San Fernando with the border, Reynosa and Matamoros, have not given residents and travelers any respite. Right there, in July, criminals attacked with bullets the van in which the Secretary of the State Government, Héctor Villegas, who was previously municipal president of Río Bravo, was traveling.
The explanation that pressure from the security forces would have forced the kidnappers to surrender seems logical. Given life on the northeastern border, the apparent tranquility with which criminals make and break, the reality could have been, however, somewhat more complex. Several details fuel this idea. First, there are no arrests for the kidnapping. And second, there are similar precedents in which the case was resolved without detainees, when it was installed a couple of days in a row on the agenda of the national press.
The most obvious is the kidnapping of four North American citizens in March 2023, in Matamoros, the city to which the kidnapped migrants were headed this January, after crossing into the United States, where they apparently had an appointment with immigration authorities. The case of the Americans was very public, mainly due to the videos of their abduction, carried out in broad daylight, after the criminal group responsible attacked them with bullets. Two of the four died from gunshots, but the criminals took their bodies, which appeared with the survivors four days later, in a booth on the outskirts of the city, a place that the authorities had already visited days before.
The appearance of the Americans occurred, as now, at the will of the kidnappers who, as revealed in April Washington Post, They targeted the four Americans “in retaliation for an alleged hit-and-run incident.” Now the situation has been different. López Obrador has reported that the kidnapping of the 32 had an extortion purpose, that is, that the captors planned to demand money from the families of the kidnapped in exchange for their release. Despite this, the criminal group decided to release them. It is not yet known if they were paid anything before doing so or if they were released due to pressure from the authorities. Or even more so, if there was some kind of negotiation in between.
The parallel is deeper and transcends the voluntary release of the captives and the region in which both events occurred, whose criminality is managed, with varying degrees of institutional support, by the Gulf Cartel. In the case of March of last year, the criminal group went further in its surrender and handed over the alleged perpetrators of the murder of two of the four Americans and the kidnapping of the other two. One morning, five men appeared tied up next to a plaza in Matamoros. In addition, the Gulf Cartel placed a message next to them, asking for forgiveness for the event.
The absence of fatalities in the case of the 32 released migrants invites us to think about a different ending. López Obrador has said that the authorities of the State of Tamaulipas are investigating the matter, a common statement in medium and high profile situations. Despite this, it is difficult for anything to happen. It could be that tomorrow or the day after, a group of tied men will appear in a plaza in Río Bravo, along with a message, as in the case of the Americans. Whether that happens or not, it is difficult for the truth to end up being revealed.
Meanwhile, the official version prevails, the only one available. López Obrador pointed out this Thursday that the kidnappers released the migrants due to “a series of factors”, among them, the most important, the pressure from the security forces. “They had them in one place and, since there was a significant deployment and there was a lot of Government, they decided to let them free,” he said. “And it's good that they returned safely. Yesterday, when I spoke with the governor, he told me that the first thing he did was send doctors by ambulance,” he added, referring to Américo Villarreal. “They had them in one place and took them to another place, to the parking lot of a shopping center and they have already been rescued and they are testifying and we are happy, very happy,” he concluded.
López Obrador has shown his annoyance at the story of the release. “How much publicity there is about the unfortunate kidnapping of migrants,” he said, ironically, considering that all concern about the case actually points to the political struggle. Constant these years, the proximity of the elections in Mexico accentuates the battle for the narrative of the country's situation, regardless of the issue at hand. For the Government, all criticism moves away from objective arguments and points to political calculations, including electoral ones. The president has criticized that for the opposition, in which he places opposing parties, but also newspapers, reporters and activists, the kidnapping of migrants is the same as the consequences of Hurricane Otis, in Acapulco, or the shortage of supplies. of medications. The point is to hit.
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