Armed men kidnapped 32 migrants in Mexico for extortion, president says

FILE PHOTO: Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador speaks during his daily press conference, in Acapulco, Mexico December 20, 2023. REUTERS/Daniel Becerril/File Photo

MONTERREY, Mexico (Reuters) -The armed men who kidnapped 32 migrants in northern Mexico over the weekend aimed to extort money from them and their families in the United States, Mexico's president said on Thursday, one day after the migrants were released from captivity.

He said that the migrants, who were found on Wednesday, were abandoned by their kidnappers in a parking lot in a commercial center in the northern Mexican city of Reynosa in the state of Tamaulipas.