Castro was found Tuesday in Tlalnepantla, Mexico, in critical condition from injuries suffered after he went missing for five days.
“While thankfully he is not another statistic in a country where thousands disappear each year, he is far from safe,” wrote Noemi Castro about her brother Hugo, who broadcast a 20-minute chilling plea for help from his cellphone via Facebook Live on April 13.
Castro’s sister continued, “PLEASE DO NOT ALLOW THIS TERRIBLE ACT OF VIOLENCE TO SILENCE HUGO’S VOICE OR DICTATE HIS RECOVERY.”
Noemi Castro is seeking money to obtain “secure paramedic transportation back to the United States as soon as possible” because of his “precarious medical condition and very real possibility that his life remains in danger,” she wrote on the GoFundMe page.
Castro, 45, is volunteer coordinator for Border Angels’ SOS Migrant program who has taken food to 32 shelters north of the border and fought for migrant rights of people from central and people deported from the United States.
Castro reportedly left April 9 from his home in Tijuana, bound for Tapachula, Chiapas, where he would meet up with the caravan of the “Viacrucis del Migrante” on their way to that area near the Guatemalan border.
“U.S. Embassy does not provide financial assistance for medical transport, which in this case is a breathtakingly high amount, Noemi Castro wrote. The GoFundMe’s goal to “Evacuate and Heal Hugo” reached $13,495 of $25,000 goal.
Noemi Castro wrote that her brother suffered severe injuries and remains in critical condition.
“We are unable to release further information at this time, as we believe his life is still at risk and ask that the public refrain from speculation.
“As Hugo’s family, we thank you deeply for supporting a man who saves the lives of those he has never met, asking nothing in return,” she concluded in the message from Mexicali, California.
Earlier this week, Mexico’s Attorney General Office said in a press release that Castro was found in Tlalnepantla, a city north of Mexico City.
Castro’s partner, Gabriela, has been with him since he was found Tuesday.
The Mexican Attorney General’s office reported earlier this week that the Public Ministry of the Federation initiated an investigation for the crime of “illegal deprivation of liberty.”
Enrique Morones, founder of the immigrant rights group Border Angels, told KPBS that Castro had received death threats in recent months while helping Haitian and Central American migrants in Tijuana.
