San Luis Río Colorado (Mexico), May 5 (EFE).- At least 10 migrants from Colombia were kidnapped in the state of Sonora, northwestern Mexico, when they were about to cross into Arizona, United States, reported this Friday a organization that provides legal advice to migrants.
The kidnapping of the Colombians occurred on the Sonoyta-San Luis Río Colorado highway, in Sonora, on May 2, when they were traveling to the United States to request asylum.
After her disappearance, security and ministerial agencies from Sonora began a search operation in the region, on the border with the United States, after the Colombian Consulate and the organization 1800migrante.com denounced the kidnapping.
According to the NGO, in a message on social networks, the kidnapping occurred on May 2 at 11:00 local time, when the victims were traveling in a commercial passenger bus, on the Sonoyta-San Luis Río Colorado highway that runs parallel to the International line and after the bus crossed a Mexican Army checkpoint.
“They got off after a military checkpoint before entering San Luis Río Colorado. My father and the rest of my family, 10 in total, told us that the bus was full of foreigners,” denounced Christian Cortés, son of one of the kidnapped.
He added that the person who was guiding them to the border told him that “the mafia had taken them off the bus.”
According to Cortés, the kidnapped family fled Bogotá because they were victims of criminal acts and threats against their integrity by a criminal group of people from Venezuela who call themselves “El tren de Aragua” and who allegedly operate with impunity in the Colombian capital. .
Meanwhile, the Sonora state government, through the State Security Board, confirmed the search operation.
“Based on a request from the Colombian Consulate in Mexico, the Sonora Security Bureau is carrying out operations to locate 10 Colombian people, after relatives lost contact in the vicinity of San Luis Río Colorado, from where they planned to cross into the United States. ”, pointed out the Security Bureau in a message on social networks.
The victims were identified as Esteban M., 18 years old; Omar R. and Steven S., 28; Claudia M., 45; Rosalba M., 49; William M., 52; Carlos V., 52; Sandra C., 53; Oswaldo P., 55, and Edgar P., 50.
The relative of the victims said that he reported the incident at different telephone numbers of the Colombian Consulate in New York, and when he did not receive any answers, he tried to contact the Mexican authorities directly.
He said that he called the National Guard, the Mexican 911, the Beta group, for the protection of migrants, and the Sonoyta Police, who asked him to contact the early attention center, “but nobody wanted to help,” causing further despair. in the family.
Just last week, the authorities of Sonora and the Government of Mexico found 63 migrants in the same region, 43 of them from Ecuador.
Traveling massively on passenger buses is one of the ways migrants use to cross Mexico to the United States, for which they pay thousands of dollars to human traffickers.
The United States, which is usually the final destination for migrants crossing Mexico, announced a new policy earlier this year in which it promised to welcome 30,000 migrants a month from Nicaragua, Cuba, Venezuela or Haiti, but with the warning that he will deport the rest who arrive by land to Mexico.
