Local migrant rights activist missing in Mexico found alive

American migrant-rights activist Hugo Castro pleaded for help on a Facebook Live post last week.

“I need help. I have very little money. They don’t want to accept dollars. I’m being threatened by a criminal group,” Castro said in the post.

The San Diego based Border Angels volunteer was in central Mexico on his way to join a caravan of Central American immigrants.

“I’m on the road past Puebla. If someone could come for me,” Castro said in the post.

On Thursday, stranded on the road, Castro made the final Facebook Live post saying a criminal group was closing in on him. Then he disappeared.

“I was threatened. They want to kill me,” Castro said on the post.

Imperial Valley human rights activist John Hernandez said Mexican criminal groups target activists because they’re a threat to their exploitation business.

“The sad part is that it’s not the first time that it’s happened. And I seriously don’t believe in my heart that it’s the last time that it will happen. It will happen. It will continue to happen,” Hernandez said.

Castro’s family, friends, and the U.S. Consulate in Mexico desperately searched for him for several days.

“There was pressure from people on both sides of the border to take proper action, not only the Mexican authorities but also the united states authorities, because he is a U.S. citizen,” Hernandez said.

The pressure somehow worked, Hernandez explained.

“So, we got word this afternoon from his wife that he was found, that he was found alive,” Hernandez said.