Federal Highway 57 in Mexico, where 49 migrants – now rescued – and two bus drivers – who are still missing – were kidnapped this week, is one of the main roads in the north of the country, but among truckers it is known as the "terror route", because of its high danger.
Just a month earlier, criminal groups operating in the area kidnapped more than 120 migrants traveling along Highway 57. According to experts and carriers consulted by Noticias Telemundo, insecurity has become a phenomenon that prevails on that route.
"We have this road that goes from Matehuala [San Luis Potosí] to Saltillo [Coahuila]. It comes out of San Luis Potosí and goes into Nuevo León and specifically in the piece that corresponds to the municipality of Matehuala, there have been many kidnappings similar to the one we had of the 49 migrants, "said Dr. José Andrés Sumano, a researcher at the Colegio de la Frontera Norte, specialized in migration.
Detour to the community of Los Medina on Highway 57 in Nuevo León, Mexico, where the bus carrying the 49 migrants and two drivers kidnapped in northern Mexico was abandoned.
The expert indicated that there are criminal gangs operating in the area and are dedicated to the theft of cargo trucks and the kidnapping of migrants to extort them.
"These criminal gangs know that many migrants cross that highway and that they seek to reach the border by the fastest route from Central America to the United States, which is through Matehuala and then to Tamaulipas, to the cities of Laredo, Reinosa and Matamoros," Sumano said.
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The researcher also said authorities should provide more protection for those traveling this route. "We are not talking about a road with little traffic, a rural road (...)," he said. "It's an important road and it should be protected."
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"Before they robbed us, now they kill us"
But the phenomenon of insecurity in that area affects more vulnerable groups such as undocumented migrants, also reaching businessmen and "ordinary citizens," José Luis López Hernández, delegate in San Luis Potosí of the National Commission of Transporters (Conatram), told Noticias Telemundo.
"Why do we tell him the route of terror? Because of the events that have been happening. This is a stretch where there have been kidnappings of people, not only of migrants, but of ordinary citizens traveling on the highway," Lopez, who has worked as a transporter in that region of north-central Mexico for 40 years, said by phone.
The criminals "catch up with drivers in trucks or vans and lock them up to force them off the road," then take them out of their vehicle by pointing "long guns" at them, Lopez said. While criminals unload merchandise from trucks, drivers typically remain kidnapped. But sometimes their luck is worse, he said.
"Sometimes [drivers] have lost their lives. Before they just robbed us, now they kill us," said López, who also denounced that he has been a victim of criminals: "I had 18 trucks. I have only five trucks left. Everyone else has stolen them from me."
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According to the calculations of López, who receives reports from hundreds of drivers and owners of vehicles affiliated with Conatram in the Potosi region, there are on average between one and two thefts of cargo trucks each day. This reality, he complains, is not reflected in the statistics.
"Officially there is no number, nobody gives it to us. Before, when the Federal Police existed [1999-2018] the authorities made monthly reports of how many robberies there had been, how many accidents. Now that no longer exists, we don't even have meetings with the National Guard," lamented the transport leader.
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The National Guard is the federal security body created by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador at the beginning of his government in 2018 with some members of the former Federal Police and thousands of military police, which has been branded by critics of the measure as a maneuver to militarize public security.
That new force announced it would send more agents to patrol Highway 57 following the kidnapping of dozens of migrants in April. However, carriers like López say that their presence on the road is still almost nil.
Noticias Telemundo emailed a request for comment to the National Guard but did not get an immediate response.
The search for two drivers continues
Mexican authorities said Thursday that they have already located the 49 migrants who were traveling on a bus when they were intercepted by criminal groups on the border of the states of San Luis Potosí and Nuevo León, but that they are still looking for the two bus operators.
The Secretary of National Defense, General Luis Cresencio Sandoval, said Thursday at a press conference from the National Palace in Mexico City that the priority is to find the carriers: "That is why we have maintained the operation," he said.
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The Mexican government deployed hundreds of agents with vehicles and a military helicopter to search for the migrants, who had been kidnapped on Monday when the truck in which they were traveling stopped to load gasoline north of Matehuala, San Luis Potosi.
News of the kidnapping broke Tuesday, when nine migrants traveling in the truck managed to escape their captors and alerted authorities that they had kidnapped their companions. The vehicle was found abandoned and without passengers in the community of Los Medina, in Nuevo León.
The next day another six individuals were found walking along the road and on Thursday morning with the help of their testimonies the authorities managed to locate the remaining 34 migrants in several safe houses, Sandoval explained.
Initially, Nuevo Leon authorities reported that 50 migrants were traveling aboard the bus, but the general said Thursday that there were 49 people in total, not counting the two drivers.
"All were transferred to the delegation of the National Institute of Migration (INM) in San Luis Potosí. These migrants, the 49 migrants, are 23 men, 15 women, six boys and five girls," Sandoval said. "The nationalities are seven from Venezuela, 19 from Honduras, two from Brazil, one from Cuba, 14 from Haiti and six from El Salvador," he added.