In addition, he denounced that the kidnappers “subject migrants to physical and emotional abuse to take their money or that of their families or friends.”
The Diocese of Matamoros has witnessed dramatic cases of violence against migrants in recent years, among them the tragic case of the 72 murdered in the municipality of San Fernando, in 2010. On that occasion, the drug trafficking cartel known as “the Zetas” murdered 58 men and 14 women, mainly Central and South Americans, who were crossing Mexico on their way to the United States.
The president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, assured in Press conference on January 3 that his government managed to “considerably reduce the crime of kidnappings in the country,” but acknowledged that cases are still being recorded in the states of San Luis Potosí, Nuevo León, Coahuila, “and especially in Tamaulipas.”