Authorities search for 31 migrants kidnapped in northern Mexico

By Laura Gottesdiener and Diego Oré

MONTERREY, Mexico (Reuters) -Mexican security officials are searching for 31 migrants who were kidnapped over the weekend by armed gunmen as they traveled by bus to the border through the northern state of Tamaulipas, authorities said on Tuesday.

The bus, operated by the commercial bus company Senda, departed from the industrial city of Monterrey destined for Matamoros, across from Brownsville, Texas.

However, it was intercepted on the highway in the municipality of Reynosa by criminals in five cars, Jorge Cuellar, the spokesman at the state's security office told Reuters.

At 7:26 p.m., the driver called 911 saying that 31 passengers of different nationalities had been kidnapped by the armed men, Cuellar said, declining to give details about their identities as the case was still under investigation.

Authorities said members of Mexico's National Guard freed five Venezuelans, including two minors, on Monday in Reynosa, after they were kidnapped while traveling from Monterrey to Matamoros.

Cuellar said they were not part of the 31 taken over the weekend. Authorities had previously told Reuters that the five were part of the first group.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Tuesday that authorities are searching for migrants kidnapped on Saturday and hoped to provide more information on Wednesday.

Asylum seekers and human rights activists have for months been warning of an escalating kidnapping crisis in the Tamaulipas border region, especially in Reynosa, where various powerful criminal groups jockey for power.

In September, Reuters documented a pattern of kidnapping - and in some cases sexual assault - of migrants and asylum seekers in the Reynosa area by the region's most powerful drug cartels.

Father Francisco Gallardo, head of the Casa de Migrante en Matamoros, said that the migrant shelter has been receiving groups of migrants who said they were kidnapped for ransom, often for hundreds or even thousands of dollars.

"If they don't pay, they are never released," he said.

The mass kidnapping of 31 migrants came despite Mexican authorities beefing up security along the highways in Tamaulipas during the Christmas and New Year holidays, when thousands of Mexicans living in the United States return to visit family in Mexico.

A record number of migrants traveled across Central America and Mexico in 2023 aiming to reach the United States, fleeing poverty, violence, climate change, and conflict.

Thousands traverse the border state of Tamaulipas each month, despite the region's long-running security risks, as various organized crime groups battle for control of the lucrative drug and migrant trafficking routes.

Social media groups for migrants are awash in posts asking for advice about how to travel safely to Matamoros. Many migrants warn others not to travel by highway and urge them to fly.

That was what Carlos Ponce, 23, from Honduras, hoped to do after he secured an appointment on a U.S. government application that allowed him to present himself at the port of entry in Matamoros on December 31 to enter the United States.

But the flights were too expensive, so he traveled by bus - on the same company Senda - on Dec. 24 from Monterrey to Matamoros.

He said that outside Reynosa, the bus was stopped and he and migrants were ordered off the bus and were extorted for some $175 a piece.

Reuters could not independently corroborate his account.

A few days later, Ponce saw the news of the 31 kidnapped.

"I was shocked," he said. "Maybe, if we hadn't paid that money, the same thing could have happened to us."

(Reporting by Laura Gottesdiener in Monterrey and Diego Ore in Mexico City; Editing by Valentine Hilaire, Drazen Jorgic, Richard Chang and Michael Perry)