Mexico rescues 32 migrants kidnapped near US border

Mexican officials said they had found 32 Latin American migrants who were kidnapped near the southern US border over the weekend, as record numbers of people make treacherous journeys to try to reach the US.

The migrants from Latin American countries such as Venezuela and Ecuador had been on a coach from Monterrey to Matamoros, which borders Texas, when they were detained on Saturday, public security minister Rosa Icela Rodriguez said on Wednesday. They were forced off the coach by armed masked men and into five vans, she said.

“These kinds of events happened to one or two, three migrants, but this number in this area is atypical,” Rodriguez said.

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said on Thursday that the 32 rescued migrants included a 1-year-old girl. A photo posted by the president’s spokesman showed the migrants sat on a row of chairs, with the child carrying a Winnie the Pooh bear.