Puerto Vallarta (PVDN) – A routine trip that turns into a tragedy: it has been the case for a series of US citizens who crossed the border to Mexico for various reasons and end up missing, who to date has not been located.
The kidnapping of Latavia McGee, Shaeed Woodard, Zindell Brown, and Erick James Williams has resonated with the relatives of other victims from the United States who are still missing in Mexico, who have shown their anger at the lack of response from the authorities of both countries.
A large part of the disappearances has to do with the presence of organized crime on the northern border, mainly in Matamoros, where the Gulf Cartel has shown its power. Here are some of the cases.
With the plan in mind to sell clothes in a street market in Montemorelos -a city located in the northeast of Mexico-, three women have been missing for a couple of weeks. They are sisters Marina and Maritza Ríos, 47 and 48 years old, both originally from Texas, and Alicia Cervantes Sáenz, 53.
The three disappeared after they left Nuevo León, at dawn on February 25. Their trip was made aboard a Chevrolet Silverado truck with Texas license plates. When they were in the municipality of China they deviated from the road and chose to take the road to Méndez, Tamaulipas. Since then, the women have lost contact with their families.
Roel Bermea, local police chief of Peñitas – a Texas city where the sisters resided – announced that the relatives of the victims have maintained contact with Mexican authorities, who are investigating their disappearance. However, their whereabouts are unknown so far.
An appointment to treat an eye infection led Perla Ercia to travel to Mexico with Blasa Guadalupe Palomo and her daughter of the same name. The three women traveled from South Texas to Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas on March 3, 2021, the last time they were seen alive.
Despite the fact that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) claimed to work to find the whereabouts of the victims, so far they have not been located. There has been no report on the 2014 model Toyota Corolla truck in which they were traveling.
One year after, the US authorities have not offered a reward to locate Blasa, 38, “Lupita”, 18, and Perla, 38, who is also the mother of a baby who would now be about two years old. It is presumed that the Northeast Cartel – one of the groups facing the Gulf Cartel – would be behind these events.
In June 2020, Joseph Rosa moved with his father Thomas Rosa Jr. from Florida to McAllen, Texas, and from there they crossed the border to Reynosa, Tamaulipas. The reason for his trip was to get a tattoo at a place called Chato’s Tatoo, located on Zaragoza street in the downtown area.
Local reports have indicated that a group of armed subjects intercepted them at that place, while they were walking on the public highway, according to the testimony of a flower vendor who witnessed how the young man was kidnapped along with his father, just two weeks away from turning 18.
A party with some friends was the last piece of information known about Erick Carrillo. On May 31, 2019, the young man from the United States agreed to meet some acquaintances on the Malecón in Playas de Tijuana, Baja California, to have a night of fun.
The latest images of Erick Carrillo are from a security camera that caught him leaving a nightclub called Karma, located in the El Dorado neighborhood. From that moment, the citizen from Los Angeles, California, disappeared without a trace. A few days later, the authorities located his passport and his family began a search that continues more than three years after his disappearance.
Eddy Carrillo Lepe, Erick’s father, created the search collective “We are all Erick Carillo” together with family and friends. Despite the fact that they have toured the corners of the border city and have located nearly 650 corpses, they have no reports on their son.
With the intention of visiting some relatives of his father, Roberto Franco Jr. undertook a trip with his friend Juan Francisco Hernández Rivera from Houston to Monterrey, Nuevo León. Although it was not the first time that Roberto had traveled to Mexico, it would be the last time that he would cross the border.
The disappearance of both young people was reported on July 29, 2017, while they were traveling from Matamoros, Tamaulipas, to Agualeguas, Nuevo León. After a few days, Lisa Torres -Roberto’s mother- said she received a phone call from a member of the Gulf Cartel, identified as Miguel Treviño Morales, alias Z-40.
The bloodthirsty drug trafficker allegedly demanded that she pay Torres a certain amount of money to free her son. However, the FBI ignored the call, as there was no evidence that said capo had Roberto deprived of his liberty. For this reason, they ruled out taking the case as a kidnapping, which had an impact on the search efforts.
Given the lack of results, Lisa Torres has shown her intentions to protest at the White House, since the Mexican authorities have not given her the necessary help to locate her son, she commented in an interview for Telemundo.
Disappearances in Mexico
From 1964 to 2023, there are around 112,186 missing and unlocated people in Mexico, according to official figures from the Government of Mexico. The state of Jalisco is where the highest number of victims is concentrated, with 15,037, followed by Tamaulipas, with 12,604.
Of the total number of cases, at least 617 US citizens disappeared in Mexico -of which between 530 and 550 remain unlocated-, as well as 468 Hondurans, 388 Guatemalans, 204 Colombians, 159 Salvadorans, 118 Nicaraguans, 106 Cubans, 81 Venezuelans, 41 Peruvians, and 38 Canadians, according to data from the National Commission for the Search of Persons (CNB).
Puerto Vallarta (PVDN) - Of the total number of missing people in Mexico, at least 617 US citizens disappeared in Mexico in recent years -of which . . .
