04/26/11— Mexican Federal Police rescued 51 migrant hostages who were found on Monday inside a house in Reynosa, a city in the state of Tamaulipas that borders McAllen, Texas. Of the migrants, 27 are Mexican, 14 are Guatemalan, 2 are Hondurans, 2 are Salvadorans, and 6 are Chinese. The Mexican public security ministry has not released any information that would infer that there have been arrests made of suspects involved the kidnappings.
Reynosa is also only about 90 miles from the town of San Fernando, where an estimated 177 bodies were discovered in mass graves last week and where 73 bodies were found last year. It was suspected that most of the victims were Central American migrants and that the violence was done by the Zetas. Tamaulipas, and specifically Reynosa, is a heavily trafficked area by migrants. “Reynosa is one of the key border crossing points used by immigrants trying to reach the US,” states BBC News.
In addition to being a migration route, CNN International states that the state of Tamaulipas is cursed by bloody battles between the rival drug cartels- the Zetas and the Gulf Cartel. As a border state to the U.S., it sees high levels violence because the cartels are fighting for routes where they can easily smuggle drugs across the border.
Sources:
Unknown. “Mexican police free 51 workers taken hostage.” BBC News. April 26, 2011.
AFP. “Police free 51 kidnapped in Mexico.” AFP. April 26, 2011.
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