Oaxaca: Gunmen have kidnapped at least 60 undocumented migrants, including children, who were aboard a freight train in Mexico trying to get to the United States, a shelter director said.
A priest, Alejandro Solalinde, who heads the Brothers Hostel of Camino, in Oaxaca state, said that a dozen gunmen on Friday seized the migrants trying to make it towards the US border.
"At least 60 or 80 people, if not more, were kidnapped" from the freight train with about 250 migrants in southeastern Mexico, Solalinde said.
Prosecutors in Veracruz and Oaxaca state did not immediately comment on the case.
The train, which left the Oaxaca city of Ixtepec for the eastern state of Veracruz, was stopped by the gunmen after about four hours, according to Solalinde, who saw several Central Americans at his hostel on that day.
"Before arriving at the Medias Aguas station in Veracruz, the driver stopped the train when the tracks were blocked by three trucks with armed men" who seized the migrants, Solalinde said.
In August 2010, a total of 72 undocumented Central and South American migrants were kidnapped and killed in Tamaulipas, north of Veracruz en route to the US border, a crime the government has attributed to the Los Zetas drug gang.
Bureau Report
First Published: Monday, June 27, 2011, 08:04