MEXICO: Mexican authorities on Thursday claimed they had found 35 people held hostage in the north-eastern state of San Luis Potosi.
They said that the captives were found in a desert in the region of Matehuala, where they had been reported missing. Authorities claimed that armed men were guarding the group in five vans.
State spokesman Miguel Angel Gallegos told a nearby television station that the abductors fled in two of the vans and left the victims as security personnel arrived. There is “a fair chance” that some of those who left in the vans included individuals who were still missing.
The gang appeared to be migrants, according to preliminary information, the public security ministry reported. According to Gallegos, some of them who were saved were identified as migrants who were on the move for employment. They claim to be migrants; they are not tourists or bystanders, he continued.
State authorities did not confirm Gallegos’ claim that the kidnappers requested a ransom for the missing people. The tourists were kidnapped on federal highway 57, the principal thoroughfare connecting Mexico’s central and northern states.
Initial reports from local media and certain officials indicated that 23 individuals were missing.
