Migrant activist Hugo Castro remained at a hospital outside Mexico City on Wednesday, receiving treatment for injuries suffered after he mysteriously went missing last week.

Castro, a member of the San Diego-based group Border Angels, was recovering at a Red Cross Hospital in the municipality of Naucalpan where Dr. Gerardo Vargas, the medical director, said in a telephone interview that Castro had arrived with brain swelling, multiple bruises all over his body and a fracture in his left foot.

Castro’s case has drawn widespread attention on both sides of the border. Mexico’s health minister, José Ramón Narro Robles, has ordered Castro’s transfer to a government-run hospital on Thursday, Vargas said, but he was unsure of exactly which hospital.

Vargas declined to discuss the possible causes of Castro’s injuries, saying it was not his role to do so.


Meanwhile in San Diego, Border Angels leader Enrique Morones said “we’re working to get him transported from Mexico City to San Diego” so Castro can receive medical care in a U.S. hospital.

Morones said he remained uncertain as to the reasons for Castro’s disappearance. Castro had been traveling in central Mexico to meet up with the Refugee Caravan, a group aiming to highlight the plight of Central Americans seeking asylum in the United States.

Authorities found Castro on Tuesday in the municipality of Tlanepantla outside Mexico City. An anonymous tip led them to his location on Avenida San Rafael, according the Mexican Attorney General’s Office.

The statement said that authorities opened an investigation into the incident, which involved Castro’s “illegal deprivation of liberty.”


But aside from stating that Castro had suffered “various blows” and was taken to a nearby hospital for medical care, the agency’s news bulletin on Tuesday offered no details as to what might have happened.

“I don’t know what caused his injuries — whether he got hit by a car, he got assaulted, he was kidnapped or whatever,” Morones said.

Castro, a 45-year-old U.S. citizen who lives in Tijuana, in recent months has been working to support shelters in the city who help Haitian migrants.

A search for his whereabouts came after Castro pleaded for help on Thursday through a Facebook live posting that showed him on the side of a highway outside Mexico City. Castro said he was being followed by people who wanted harm him, and that taxis and buses wouldn’t accept his dollars.


On Friday, Castro apparently made a call to his partner, Gaba Cortes, from a phone lent by a taxi driver in Mexico City. Castro was gone by the time she called back and the driver said Castro had boarded a bus, Morones said.

A poster from the Attorney General’s Office stated that Castro had last been spotted near the Aquiles Serdan metro stop in Mexico City on Saturday.

Cortes, who is the mother of Castro’s child, has been at his side since he was found. On Tuesday, Castro also received a visit from Wilner Metelus, a Haitian activist based in Mexico City.

Castro “could not move his body,” Metelus said, and could barely talk, but recognized him.


Methelus is calling for the Mexican government to release security videos that would show Castro’s transit through Mexico, and could shed light as to what happened.

“Hugo is a great human being,” Metelus said. “We’re going to wait to talk to him, and find out what happened to have him injured this way.”

sandra.dibble@sduniontribune.com

@sandradibble


UPDATES:

8:30 p.m.: This story has been updated with additional details about his medical condition.