MEXICO CITY, July 23 (Xinhua) -- Federal police have rescued 150 Central and South American migrants being smuggled in a tractor trailer in Mexico's eastern Veracruz state, the authorities said on Tuesday.
The migrants were discovered after authorities stopped the vehicle for a traffic violation and heard screams coming from inside the trailer, the Ministry of Security and Citizen Protection said in a statement.
Of the migrants, 73 are from Guatemala, 45 from Honduras, 26 from El Salvador and six from Ecuador. There are 66 minors among them.
The migrants said they had been trapped in the trailer for several days with no food or water.
Authorities in Mexico regularly combat such smuggling operations taking undocumented migrants towards the U.S. border.
Mexico's Foreign Affairs Minister Marcelo Ebrard on Monday acknowledged the risks migrants take to reach the United States.
Ebrard said smugglers carry migrants locked up in trailers to cross the whole country and leave them there for hours.
"They (migrants) can asphyxiate," said Ebrard, "and that's why the highest priority has been to fight these people (smugglers)."
Mexico stepped up security at its southern border in June to stem the influx of migrants, reducing the number of asylum seekers at the U.S. border by 36 percent, according to officials.
