HomeNewsBriefMexico Migrant Kidnappings on the Rise?
BRIEF

Mexico Migrant Kidnappings on the Rise?

KIDNAPPING / 14 SEP 2016 BY MIKE LASUSA EN

Migration activists in Mexico are warning about a growth in the number of kidnappings of migrants by crime groups, and they blame the government's policies for exacerbating the situation.

Tomás González, a priest who runs a migrant shelter in the state of Tabasco, recently told La Opinión that he had encountered several groups of migrants in the past few months who claimed that they had been kidnapped and forced to pay a ransom in order to secure their release.

"What we are seeing is again the neglect of the authorities on the issue of abduction of migrants," González said.

According to Rubén Figueroa, an activist with the Mesoamerican Migrant Movement (Movimiento Migrante Mesoamericano - M3), the government is not simply ignoring the problem; it is contributing to it.

"The new routes derived from the operations of the National Migration Institute (Instituto Nacional de Migración -- INM) aimed at stopping migrants cause them to transit through zones controlled by organized crime," putting them at risk for extortion, Figueroa said.

Figueroa added that it is "impossible" to determine the true scope of the kidnapping problem, because government statistics do not distinguish between operations that free kidnapping victims and those that result in detentions of undocumented migrants.

Nevertheless, there appears to be broad agreement that migrant kidnapping is a major issue. For instance, the Honduran consul in the Mexican state of Veracruz, Raúl Otoniel, told La Opinion that kidnapping "is one of the principal problems of migration right now."

InSight Crime Analysis

Despite the problems with obtaining accurate data, there are a number of reasons to believe anecdotal reports like those cited above represent a larger trend. For one, the official data that is available suggests a huge increase in migrant kidnappings in recent years, which is likely related to the growing number of migrants transiting Mexico as they flee crime and violence in Central America.

Echoing the point made by M3's Figueroa, journalists and other researchers have also found that Mexico's immigration crackdown has done little to stem the flow of migrants while forcing them to use dangerous routes often controlled by criminal groups. This has put migrants at heightened risk for nearly every conceivable form of exploitation and abuse including murder, rape, extortion -- and, of course, kidnapping.

SEE ALSO: InSight Crime Investigation of Violence against Migrants

And even migrants who reach the United States are not necessarily safe from criminal actors. In one case that recently saw a human smuggler sentenced to three terms of life in prison, the defendant admitted to holding undocumented migrants hostage in stash houses in Texas.

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

BARRIO 18 / 26 JUL 2022

Almost four months into a nationwide crackdown, El Salvador's government has failed to disarm its notorious street gangs.

COCAINE / 18 AUG 2023

The sentencing of notorious Colombian drug trafficker Chupeta marks the end of a lucrative and bloody career.

CANADA / 13 DEC 2021

The story of the Mexican cartels and their influence abroad has mostly focused on the United States. But a number…

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Contributes Expertise Across the Board 

22 SEP 2023

This week InSight Crime investigators Sara García and María Fernanda Ramírez led a discussion of the challenges posed by Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s “Total Peace” plan within urban contexts. The…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Cited in New Colombia Drug Policy Plan

15 SEP 2023

InSight Crime’s work on emerging coca cultivation in Honduras, Guatemala, and Venezuela was cited in the Colombian government’s…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Discusses Honduran Women's Prison Investigation

8 SEP 2023

Investigators Victoria Dittmar and María Fernanda Ramírez discussed InSight Crime’s recent investigation of a massacre in Honduras’ only women’s prison in a Twitter Spaces event on…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Trafficking Investigation Published in Leading Mexican Newspaper

1 SEP 2023

Leading Mexican media outlet El Universal featured our most recent investigation, “The Geography of Human Trafficking on the US-Mexico Border,” on the front page of its August 30…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Coverage of Ecuador Leads International Debate

25 AUG 2023

This week, Jeremy McDermott, co-director of InSight Crime, was interviewed by La Sexta, a Spanish television channel, about the situation of extreme violence and insecurity in Ecuador…