( CNN ) -- The trek for those traveling through northern Mexico remains dangerous : police rescued 73 people who were being held hostage in the border city of Reynosa . The victims had been kidnapped from buses or bus terminals , and about half were Central Americans , police said . It is likely , though police did not say , that a majority of the victims were migrants on their way north to the United States . Read more : The new Mexico , beyond stereotypes . Some of the kidnap victims were held for as long as four months , Mexico 's National Security Commission said in a statement . Federal police on patrol Monday in Reynosa followed a car after its occupants tried to avoid them , the commission said . When the two men in the car pulled up to a house , so did the police . The police approached the house `` from where they could hear cries for help , '' the commission said . Inside the house , police found 73 hostages : 37 Mexicans , 19 Hondurans , 14 Guatemalans , and three Salvadorans , it said . Six minors were among those rescued , the commission said . The Latino footprint in America : 500 years strong . The victims told police that some had been held between four days and four months . The alleged kidnappers made phone calls to the victims ' families , demanding ransom payments in exchange for their release , the commission said . Some of the people rescued said they were assaulted or raped , it said . Police arrested the two men in the car who arrived at the house , and a third man who they allege worked as a lookout . Authorities have discovered at least three mass kidnapping operations in and around Reynosa this year . In July , Mexican authorities rescued 81 migrants they said were held captive in Reynosa . And in June , authorities said that in a small town nearby they rescued 165 migrants who were kidnapped as they tried to cross into the United States . The dangers are not limited to the north of the country . In July , authorities in southern state of Chiapas rescued 94 migrants who were crammed into the back of a hauling truck in `` subhuman conditions . '' They showed symptoms of asphyxiation and serious lesions on their hands and feet when they were rescued .
They rescue 73 people from a village in northern Colombia . About half of the victims are Native American . They had been snatched from trains or bus stations .