Narco Kidnapped Laborers From Chiapas; They Were Mistaken For Migrants And A Ransom Was Demanded.

Mica for cartelinsider.com

A group of 20 farm workers originally from Chiapas were kidnapped by armed civilians who mistook them for migrants while they were on their way to work in the municipality of Zaragoza, Veracruz.

Interviewed by local media, one of the kidnapped men narrated how early Tuesday morning while driving on the Cosoleacaque-La Tinaja highway, a group intercepted the trucks they were traveling in and took them to an uninhabited area of the municipality.

There they were told that they had to pay a “fee” in order to continue their journey towards the northern border; the drivers of the trucks, who thought they were “coyotes”, were also required to pay in order to “traffic migrants” through the region.

The kidnapping of the 20 laborers from Chiapas lasted several hours until they were able to identify themselves as workers who are employed every year in the pineapple and lemon fields of the region. Only then were they released.

Hours later and after filing a report with the Secretary of Public Security, police in Veracruz managed to identify one of the kidnappers, a man who was driving a taxi and is believed to be a member of one of the criminal groups that control extortion and protection money in the area.

Until August of last year, civil organizations accounted for a total of 1,801 missing migrants among the more than 110,000 people in the same condition in Mexico.

The majority of the missing migrants come from Honduras (347), Guatemala (307), Colombia (169), El Salvador (147), and Nicaragua (76), along the various routes they use to reach the border with the United States, which are controlled by criminal groups to transport drugs and commit crimes such as kidnappings and extortions.

The Veracruz Route crossing through Chiapas and Tabasco until reaching Tamaulipas is one of the most dangerous for migrants, who face major challenges such as language barriers, lack of food and shelter. They are constantly at risk of experiencing violations, robberies, kidnappings, forced recruitment and assassinations at the hands of drug cartels.

“Although the most dangerous points are near the border with the United States, such as the Tamaulipas-Chihuahua corridor and the road from San Fernando to Matamoros, other points such as the Chauites (Taxaca) route, Tehuacán (Puebla) and Coatzacoalcos (Veracruz) are considered high-risk for migrants.”

Despite being a region historically controlled by the Gulf Cartel (CDG), other organizations have managed to penetrate Veracruz and compete for control of the territory for drug trafficking heading to the east coast of the United States.

Since the presence of Los Zetas -former armed branch of the CDG-, Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), Northeast Cartel, and United Cartels are some of the groups with the largest presence in the state; although other smaller groups like El Grupo Sombra, Cartel of the Century, Los Ántrax, and La Banda del Bucanas are also vying for control of the area.

Until the year 2022, a study by the Drug Policy Program at the Center for Research and Teaching in Economics (CIDE) found that out of the 150 criminal gangs in the country, 13 had a presence in Veracruz.

Among the most frequent crimes are robbery of transporters, extortion on roads and in businesses, and the kidnapping of migrants and charging of fees to “polleros” who use the Veracruz route to take thousands of migrants to the border with the United States every year.

The latest discovery of migrants transported under inhumane conditions through the roads of Veracruz was registered during the morning of January 9th when personnel from the National Institute of Migration (INM) rescued 182 people who were being transported in a passenger bus from Guatemala and Ecuador.

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Mica

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