Mexican authorities have rescued 31 migrants, including women and children, who were kidnapped over the weekend in the northern Mexican state of Tamaulipas, officials announced on Wednesday.
Presidential spokesperson Jesus Ramirez confirmed the rescue on social media platform X, formerly Twitter.
“They are already in the hands of the authorities and are undergoing the appropriate medical examinations,” he added, along with a photo that showed men, women and children, including one holding a stuffed animal.
The migrants were “safe and sound,” Mexican Interior Minister Luisa Alcalde wrote on X, citing information from the state’s governor.
Gunmen snatched the migrants on Saturday from a bus on a highway in the municipality of Reynosa, close to Mexico’s border with the United States. The bus was destined for Matamoros, across from Brownsville, Texas.
Mexican Security Minister Rosa Icela Rodriguez said earlier on Wednesday that the kidnapped migrants were from Venezuela, Ecuador, Colombia, Honduras and Mexico.
Honduran Foreign Minister Enrique Reina later posted on X that there were six Hondurans among the group, including three teenage girls, whose statements were being taken by Mexican authorities.
Colombia’s consulate in Mexico City said four Colombian nationals were also part of the group.
Asylum seekers and human rights activists have for months been warning of an escalating kidnapping crisis in the Tamaulipas border region, especially in Reynosa.
