Mexican rights body assists CentAm migrants kidnapped in Oaxaca

Published December 27, 2010

Mexico City – Representatives of the National Human Rights Commission, or CNDH, Mexico's equivalent of an ombudsman's office, are providing assistance to the Central American migrants kidnapped last week in the southern state of Oaxaca, officials said.

"The CNDH is helping the migrants who were involved in the incidents that occurred on the Ixtepec-Matias Romero stretch, Oaxaca," the commission said in a statement released Sunday night.

Nine illegal immigrants traveling on a freight train were kidnapped Wednesday in the southern state by gunmen, who killed one of the Central Americans, officials said.

Three of the migrants were released and the other five are missing.

The three migrants set free by the gunmen are at the National Migration Institute office and provided statements to investigators, state officials said.

"On the instructions of the president of the CNDH, Raul Plascencia Villanueva, adjunct representatives met with the migrants," the commission said.

"Both the National Migration Institute and the Government Secretariat have been advised of said case," the commission said.

CNDH representatives are advising the Central Americans and making them aware of their rights, as well as verifying that authorities are doing their jobs properly, the commission said.

Defending the human rights of migrants and ensuring that they are not subjected to abuse, such as robberies, extortion, labor exploitation, sexual abuse, trafficking and kidnapping, is the responsibility of everyone in Mexican society, the CNDH said.

The commission said it was committed to working with shelters and organizations that assist migrants from Mexico and other countries.

Hogar de la Misericordia migrants' shelter director the Rev. Heyman Vazquez Medina told Mexican media over the weekend about last week's kidnapping.

The nine migrants were abducted by gunmen who pulled them off a train carrying about 170 Central Americans on the Ixtepec-Matias Romero line on the way to Veracruz state, the priest said.

Tomas Ferman Villatoro, a Salvadoran who was traveling with his nephew on the train, was killed by the gunmen, the shelter director said.

Two suspects have been arrested in connection with the killing and kidnapping, Oaxaca state officials said.

Mexican federal officials have launched investigations of the disappearance of about 50 Central Americans on Dec. 16 in the same area due to pressure from the governments of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.

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