Mexico army frees 61 kidnap victims in Coahuila

[Omaha Steve]

Source: BBC

The Mexican army says it has rescued 61 men who were being held prisoner by a drugs gang near the border with the US.

The captives were found in a house guarded by three suspected kidnappers in the town of Piedras Negras in Coahuila state.

They said they had been abducted from various parts of Mexico and forced to work for organised crime.

Mexico's drugs cartels are frequently accused of kidnapping and of exploiting migrants trying to cross the US border.

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-15329489

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[bloomington-lib]

1. I hear about the slowdown of immigrants being from tougher laws and less work

but I wonder how much of the border violence plays a part.

[expatriate2mex]

2. It plays a big part. We live in mexico state and are making a trip to the us

in a couple of weeks and all of our friends amd relatives are begging us to either not go or fly. They are ALL mexicans (as is everyone where we live, no extranjeros) and refrain from going far north.

In addition the narcos stop busses, take a lot of people off, and not all are going to the border to cross, so it's not just those going to cross that are being grabbed and forced to work for them. There have been bodies found of people killed from the busses, they assume refused to work for them.

Narcos HAVE taken over illegal immigration though and people crossing will almost certainly have to deal with them, that is cutting down on numbers of people crossing. Most that cross have family or friends there that tell them what to expect or not to go. Telling women to take birth control pills in case they are raped is common and has been for years, it has gotten much worse in the last few though since the narcos have taken it over.

I used a long winded way to get to this: you make an EXCELLENT point and the narcos controling it plays the BIGGEST part.

There will be those that don't believe that, but you can get it in the areas of high "illegals" in the us (like we are going to on a visit), where people talk about not visiting home or a family member not chancing it. Not to mention the same sentiment here. Some get tired of not seeing their family in mexico and just pack up and chance it, not wanting to chance going back. So, you have really hit the nail on the head.