Mexico rescues more than 750 migrants, many of them minors, in less than 24 hours

Mexico's Migration Institute (INM) announced that they were able to release 756 migrants as a result of several operations carried out in the last 24 hours. On the one hand, they managed to rescue 491 migrants (275 children) who were being held against their will in a town in Puebla. In addition, they conducted two operations in Oaxaca and managed to arrest four Mexican nationals who were transporting 265 people "in overcrowded conditions and at serious risk to their lives."

Four Mexican nationals detained

Last Saturday, federal agents from the INM detected two Torton-type vehicles in the Oaxacan capital. "Upon conducting the corresponding review, we found the foreigners who could not prove their legal stay in the national territory, among whom were 191 families, 26 unaccompanied minors and 48 single adults," according to the agency's press release.

Both vehicles were stopped and detained in two different locations. The first was detected in the vicinity of the Atoyac River. Two people with Mexican citizenship were transporting 118 foreign nationals without legal documentation crammed into the truck without food or water. Hours later, agents stopped a second truck for inspection and found 147 migrants who could not prove their legal status in Mexico traveling in unsanitary and unsafe conditions. Two Mexican nationals were taken into custody.

Most of those held in Puebla were women and children

Just 24 hours earlier, the INM announced that 491 people were rescued in Puebla. The migrants were located in a fenced compound in the municipality of Yehualtepec, in the southeast of Puebla. The INM's investigative and monitoring work in the area was key to the discovery of the enclave, located on the Tehuacán federal highway in the San Gabriel Tetzoyocán neighborhood.

Of the 491 migrants, 485 were from Guatemala, while the remaining six were from Honduras. There were 275 minors, most of whom were traveling with family members, although 52 of them were traveling alone. The majority of the detainees were women (151 and 116 girls) compared to 59 men and 159 boys. All were taken to official facilities to receive medical attention. There, they were provided with food and water.

The authorities confirmed that the people who were released planned to cross the border to the US but did not provide information on how long they had been held or whether any arrests were made during their rescue. However, it is a common practice among human smugglers and cartels to keep migrants hidden in such places until they can prepare buses or trucks to organize the border crossing.