21/09/30 12:15:09.62 GvuBtalq.net
Denis had borrowed money from his co-workers, friends from an amateur soccer league in Nashville, and relatives in North Carolina. In total he was able to raise $4,000. But when he spoke to the kidnappers, they insisted that he must pay the full fee if he wanted to see his family members alive.
That day the kidnappers called back and put his brother on the phone: “Brother, if you can’t do it, it's OK, leave me here and they can tear me to pieces," David said. "If you can’t get the money, leave me here and God will take charge of me."
Denis said it was like a goodbye. "He knew that I was exhausted here, that I didn’t have any money, because everything I had they had already taken."
Another family gets a threat, this time on video
Another migrant identified as Daniel left Honduras in February, heading north with 15 other relatives, crossing Guatemala and arriving in Tabasco, in southern Mexico. In the capital, Villahermosa, the coyote took them to a hostel where they had to wait eight days to obtain a Mexican humanitarian visa so that they could continue traveling around the country.
But on the third day at the hostel, the administrator told them that the coyote had left without paying her or the group that collects the fee for them to traverse in the area. Two hours later, three vans with armed men arrived and took them from the hostel to a warehouse, where there were at least 100 more migrants, according to Daniel’s calculations.