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Celaya (Mexico) (AFP) – It happened this Thursday in the state of San Luis Potosí (northeast). Among the people would be a group that was reported missing since last Tuesday, the government reported.
“So far, 35 people have been located (…) Preliminarily, it is noted that the rescued civilians are migrants,” the federal Security Secretariat said in a statement.
The captives were located in a desert area in the Matehuala region, the same one where the disappearance had been reported, and they were guarded by armed men aboard five trucks, the San Luis Potosi Security Secretary reported.
The captors fled when they noticed the arrival of the security forces and abandoned the people and the vehicles, detailed the state spokesman, Miguel Ángel Gallegos, to the Milenio television channel.
Gallegos had previously reported that the disappeared were presumably tourists, who left Guanajuato (center) for the city of Saltillo (state of Coahuila, north), but the transport company had no information on how many they were or their identity because the trucks They had been hired by a third party.
However, the message changed, with the new information it is known that among those rescued “there are Mexicans” and some in the group identified themselves as migrants, who were traveling to Saltillo to work. “They say that they are migrants, they are not tourists, they were not walkers,” Gallegos said.
The spokesperson had reported earlier that, according to Guanajuato authorities, one of the drivers had contacted the transport company saying that alleged captors were requesting ransom for the disappeared, but this information was not confirmed by San Luis Potosi authorities.
The disappearance of the travelers occurred on federal highway 57, a main route for those traveling from the central states of Mexico to northern entities such as Coahuila.
Gallegos clarified that the disappearance of the Guanajuato group has nothing to do with the case of another truck that was also reported missing in the early hours of Tuesday, coming from the central State of Mexico and where 16 people were traveling.
This group, which was also going to Saltillo, was located the same Tuesday with all the people “safe and sound,” according to the state government.
