Gunmen snatch migrants from Mexican hotel

A police patrol car is parked outside the Sol y Luna hotel after gunmen stormed the hotel and kidnapped some 20 foreigners. (Reuters)

• Those kidnapped were mostly Haitians and Venezuelans

MEXICO CITY: Gunmen on Tuesday abducted around 20 migrants, mostly Haitians and Venezuelans, from a hotel in central Mexico, authorities said.
“A search was immediately launched to find out what happened and to locate the whereabouts of these people,” the prosecutor’s office in the state of San Luis Potosi said.
Armed men traveling in three vehicles arrived at the hotel in the city of Matehuala in the early morning and took the men and women, it said in a statement.
Migrants fleeing violence and poverty in their countries risk exploitation at the hands of criminal gangs while crossing Mexico on the way to the US border.
Mexico has seen increased arrivals of migrants since US President Joe Biden took up residence in the White House with a promise of a more humane approach.
Mexican security forces have recently broken up several migrant caravans heading north, prompting accusations of excessive use of force.